Culture Unit
Key Vocabulary
Artifact
• Material or physical aspects of a culture
that are representative of that culture;
made items
• Examples: chopsticks, blue-jeans, the
automobile, round hats, Santa Claus,
Christmas Tree, statues/monuments,
mummies, flags, pyramids
Sociofact
• The way in which a culture organizes
itself; the social structures of a culture that
dictate social behavior
• Examples: families, tribes, states,
others??: schools, government structure,
church group, neighborhood, sports
teams, social classes, gang, corporations
Mentifact
• the ideas, values, and beliefs of a culture
• Examples: religion, language, others???
Lifestyle choices, traditions/practices
cultural complex
• The combination of artifacts, mentifacts,
and sociofacts that are used to define a
culture.
7 elements of culture vs. cultural
complex
• Customs and
traditions
• Arts and
entertainment
• Religion
• Language
• Economic systems
• Government
• Social organizations
 Artifact
 Sociofact
 Mentifact
Identify each of the following pictures as artifact, sociofact
or mentifact - briefly explain your reasons.
It is possible for elements of the pictures to represent a
combination of categories.
1.
3.
2. Catholic School Uniform
4.
Core-Domain-Sphere Model
Sphere
Domain
Core
Core-Domain-Sphere Model
• Core: has all characteristics of culture, almost
100% adherence to characteristics (often the
hearth of the culture)
• Domain: A little distance from the core – has
dominant cultural characteristics, but they are
not exclusive to this area
• Sphere: Attributes of culture are present, but not
dominant.
• Outliers: strong examples of cultural
phenomena show up far from the core and not
connected to the sphere or domain
Example of Core-Domain-Sphere:
Baseball