The Elements of Culture:

By Rodeline Belizaire

Adapted from McDougal Little Power Presentations

Faces of the World http://youtu.be/z6RLHKRs9D8

What is Culture?

Culture is the system of beliefs, values, and assumptions about life that guide behavior and are shared by a group of people. It includes customs, language, and material artifacts that are shared and passed down from generation to generation.

Key Characteristics of Culture

Language: Enables people within a culture to communicate, reflects

all aspects of culture. Helps establish cultural identity and unity. Can also divide people and cause conflict.

Religion: Belief in supernatural power Monotheistic – belief in one god. Polytheistic – belief in may gods. Animistic, or traditional - belief in divine forces of nature.

Culture Change and Exchange Happens in three ways

• Innovation - creating something new with existing resources.

Diffusion – the spreading of ideas, inventions, patterns of behavior.

Acculturation—society changes because it accepts innovation

Creative Cultural Expressions

All cultures express themselves creatively through:The performing arts - music, dance,

theater, film.Architecture - painting, sculpture,

textiles are forms of visual arts.Oral and written literature - such as

poems, folk tales, stories.

1. Despite the different in cultures found in our class, what are some things that we all have in common?

2. What elements of American Culture unite us? what element divide us?

3. Explain how specific elements of your culture has shaped the way you see yourself and the world around you?

“100% American”“100% American” what images, thoughts, or feeling come to mind when you read, see, or hear this phrase?

“100% American” Vocabulary1. Gauls – historic name used for the people of modern day

France, Luxembourg, and Belgium by the ancient Romans2. Asiatic steppes – Eurasian temperate grassland3. India – Subcontinent – South Asia4. Near East – ancient –Middle East5. Asia Minor – Middle East6. Antilles – the Caribbean 7. Persia - Modern day Iran8. Semites – Jewish sect9. Hebrew - Jew10. Indo-European11. Deity – a god12. Abyssinian – east African ( Ethiopian)13. Guttenberg Printing Press – invented by the German, Johannes

Guttenberg.

Many Cultures – One world