Unit 3 Culture

Quick Refresher

Cultural Geography

• Transformation of the land• Ways in which humans interact with the

environment (HEI)• Cultural landscape (Carl Sauer) – the

modification of the natural landscape by human activities

• Cultural ecology – studies the relationship between the natural environment and culture

Theories Explaining HEI• Environmental determinism – physical environment actively shapes

culture, so that human responses almost completely molded by the environment

• Possibilism – recognize the importance of physical environment, BUT believe that cultural heritage is at least as important as physical one; people are primary architects of culture

• Environmental perception – importance of human perception on the environment, rather than actual character of the land; culture shapes over views of hazards and disasters (ex. Floods from gods or natural disaster – build alter or dam?)

• Cultural determinism – human culture as ultimately more important than physical environment in shaping actions; view human culture as the molder of the physical environment (ex. “take back the earth” encourages action to reverse global warming, pollution, destruction of forests, etc)

• Political ecology – government of a region affects the environment in that region, which in turns affect the choices (ex. Zoning laws regulate possibilities for buildings in certain areas)

Folk and Popular Culture

• Folk is limited, smaller area, homogeneous groups, spread mostly through relocation diffusion – slow to change

• Popular is mass culture that diffuse rapidly, within a heterogeneous group, spread though expansion diffusion – quick to change – threatening local or regional distinctiveness and causing cultural homogeneity, or cultural sameness (ex. Starbucks reducing the diversity of local coffee shops throughout the country)

• Cultural imperialism – invasion of a culture into another culture with the intent of dominating the invaded culture politically, economically, and/or socially; diffusion of popular culture can lead to cultural conflict as people protest the arrival of a type of popular culture into its region; cultural nationalism is the resistance by a group against cultural imperialism and cultural convergence (ex. Nationalists attacking McDonald’s as a symbol of American cultural imperialism)

• Maladaptive diffusion – adoption of a diffusing trait that is impractical for a region or culture; popular culture does not necessarily reflect its original environment (?) / point of invention (Ex. Wearing jeans in warm climates when jeans invented more as winter clothing or rise in use of cars on island nations where expensive and impractical)

Early Cultural Hearths

• Southwest Asia (Middle East / Fertile Crescent), North Africa, South Asia, and East Asia near great river systems

• Later in South/Central America and even later in West Africa

Cultural Hearths

Diffusion • Carl Sauer / Torsten Hagerstrand• 2 categories – relocation and expansion• Expansion divided into contagious, hierarchical, and

stimulus; time-distance decay – the influence of cultural traits weakens as time and distance increase

• Relocation is caused from ideas being spread by movement to new location

• Migrant diffusion – specific type of relocation diffusion when spread is slow enough that they weaken in the area of origin by the time they reach the other areas (ex. – spread of smallpox in Native American population as immunities had been built up in Europe)

Concepts of Culture• Material culture – concrete human creations

called artifacts • Non-material culture – abstract concepts of

values, beliefs, and behaviors – Values – culturally defined standards that guide

the way people determine guidelines for moral living

– Beliefs – specific statements that people have; based on values

– Behaviors – actions that people take; based on values/beliefs

– Norms – rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior• Mores – serious expectations / backed up by laws• Folkways - unofficial expectations; etiquette

Culture trait Culture complex Culture system Culture region (football all rules/gear for football game American athleticism American sporting events)

Cultural Diffusion • Independent inventions – developments that

can be traced to a specific civilization (ex. democratic process – independent invention of Ancient Greece)

• Acculturation – the less dominant culture adopts some of the traits of the more influential one (taking on American sounding name); usually leads to some form of accommodation by dominant culture too (adding Spanish to some American signs)

• Transculturation – a more equal exchange of cultural traits

• Ethnocentrism – practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture; some makes you patriotic, but too much can lead to atrocities (holocaust)

• Cultural relativism – practice of evaluating a culture by its own standards

• Syncretism – process of fusion of old and new (diffused idea to new group – adaptation – reformulation)

Language• Key to the world of culture• Systematic way of communicating ideas and

feelings through the use of signs, gestures, marks, or vocal sounds.

• Ensures cultural transmission, the process by which one generation passes culture to the next

• Linguistic geography – study of speech areas and their local variations by mapping word choices, pronunciations, or grammatical constructions.

Language

ONLY 10 languages spoken by at least 100 million people

Language Hearths

Most commonly spoken have diffused from their origins through TRADE, CONQUESTS, AGRICULTURAL migrations.

Language• Bilingualism / Multilingualism • Long term contact with less skilled people can

result in pidgin language – simplified version of the dominator’s language

• IF pidgin lang. becomes part of culture and is written down or becomes the main language, it is a creole language (mixture) (Ex. Haiti – pidgin French Haitian Creole)