CULTURE
Culture (from L: cultus - to care for)
- body of customary beliefs, social forms & material traits that together constitute a
group of people’s distinct tradition (i.e. values, material artifacts, political institutions)
- the way of life of a group of people; consists of their beliefs, institutions &
technologies
Cultural Trait - single element of normal practice in a culture
Three Most Important Cultural Traits
1) language
2) religion
3) ethnicity - identity w/ a group of people that share distinct physical & mental traits as a
product of common heredity & cultural traditions
Cultural Realm - major world area having sufficient distinctiveness to be perceived as set
apart from other realms in terms of cultural characteristics
Acculturation - traits flow from the stronger to weaker culture
Transculturation - traits flow both ways; both cultures are sources & adopters; occurs when
the culture complexes are nearly equal in strength & complexity
When Cultural Convergence Occurs
- regional differences will be eliminated & cultural fusion will occur
or
- cultural Balkanization results
Syncretism - development of a new form of culture trait by the fusion of 2 or more distinct
parental elements
LANGUAGE
Language & religion are the cornerstones of culture, they have regional expression (political
boundaries aside)
Language - means of communicating ideas or feelings by means of a conventionalized
of signs, gestures, marks, or articulate vocal sounds
system
There are bet. 2000 to 4000 languages spoken in the world today (over 1000 are in Africa)
12 are spoken by at least 100 million people, native & nonnative,
(English, Mandarin, Hindustani*, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese,
Malay-Indonesian, French, German & Japanese)
Lingua Franca - any of various auxiliary languages used as common tongues among people
of an area where several languages are spoken; i.e. language used for trade
ex: Greek, Latin, Aramaic (Near East & Egypt from 5th C. BC to 4th C AD),
Arabic (after 7th C), Swahili, English
RELIGION
Religion - personal or institutionalized system of worship & of faith in the sacred & divine
- belief system & a set of practices that recognize the existence of a power higher
than humans
Organization of Religion
1) Tribal - special forms of ethnic religions distinguished by their small size, their unique
identity with localized culture groups not yet fully absorbed into modern society, &
their close ties to nature
2) Communal - ex: Amish, Quakers, Druids, Jim Jones, Heaven’s Gate
3) Universalizing - most major religions, attempt to appeal to all people, not just those living
in a particular location; tend to be expansionary; (ex: Christianity - ~2 billion, Islam - 1.3
billion, Buddhism - 400 million);
4) Ethnic - concentrated spatial distribution (unless adherents are dispersed); principles are
based on the physical characteristics of the location in which its adherents are
concentrated (ex: Hinduism – 850 million, Judaism – 18 million)