CULTURE PATTERNS AND
PROCESSES
Chapter 5
Culture


Culture is a complex
concept
Def #1
A
particular way of life,
such as a set of skilled
activities, values, &
meanings surrounding a
particular type of practice

Def#2
A
shared set of meanings
that is lived through the
material & symbolic
practices of everyday life
 Could
be values, beliefs,
ideas, and practices
Concepts of Culture

Cultural geography
 Definition:



Study of people’s lifestyles, their
creations, and their relationships
to the Earth




Non-material components
of culture
 Thoughts/ ideas
 Religion, laws
“built landscape”
Physical imprint a culture makes
on the environment

Looks at why and how culture is
expressed in different ways and
different places
Involves:
 Material components of
culture
 Tangible artifacts
 Clothing, architecture
Cultural Landscape

Carl Sauer



20th century geographer
Culture leaves “imprint”
Cultural Ecology


Buildings, artwork, music
Study of human-environment
interaction and its results
Sequent Occupancy

Theory that a place can be
occupied by different groups of
people, and each group leaves its
imprint on the place from which
the next group learns

Ex. England
Cultural Ecology

England

Called Historical Geography



France

Defined as “geography in the
past”
Called “genre de vie”

H.C. Darby

Implemented his historical
approach to cultural geo and
landscape by developing a
geography based on the
Domesday Book.

Used data to reconstruct the
political, social, and economic
forces that shaped past
landscapes


Def: a functionally organized
way of life that is seen to be
characteristic of a particular
cultural group
Centered on livelihood
practices of groups that were
seen to shape physical, social,
and psychological bonds.
Vidal de la Blanche

Emphasized need to study
small, homogeneous areas to
uncover relationship between
people and their surroundings
Natural vs. Cultural landscape
Human-Environment Interaction

Environmental Determinism

Theory that human behavior is
controlled (or determined) by
physical environment


Counterargument to environment
determinism
Argues the natural environment
places limits on the set of choices
available to a people


Theory that the environment
places no restrictions on
humans whatsoever

Only restrictions are the ones
humans create themselves
Egypt vs. Siberia
Possibilism

Cultural Determinism
Ex: ideal climates cause more
productive citizens



People, not the environment,
propel human development

Political Ecology

Attempts to answer why human
cultures interact with
environments the way they do

Government of a region affects
the environment in that region
which affects choices available
to people

Ex: zoning laws
Layers of a Culture

Culture Traits

Def:


A single attribute of a culture
Ex: bowing to show respect
Not always unique to one group

Def:


Combination of all culture traits
creates a unique set of traits
No two cultures in the world have the
same culture complexes
Culture Systems

Def:

Culture Complex


Culture Regions




Def:





Ex: Germany
Ex: The South
Culture Realms

Def:

When many culture complexes share
particular traits, those traits can
merge into culture systems
Region that includes places and
peoples with similarities in their
culture systems
People in culture region often share
a sense of common culture and
regional identity
Boundaries defined by perceptions
and opinions
Formed through the fusing together
of culture regions that share enough
in common to be merged together

ex:



Anglo-American realm
Latin American realm
Sino- Japanese realm
Culture regions: Religion
Cultural Diffusion

Cultural/Spatial Diffusion
 People’s
material and nonmaterial creations spread
across time and space,
moving to new places and
being carries through
generations.
 Cultural
diffusion:
 Spread
of people’s cultural
across space
 Spatial
diffusion:
 Spread
of any phenomenon
(such as a disease) across
space
 Two
categories of diffusion:
 Expansion
 relocation
Cultural Diffusion

Expansion Diffusion

Def:



Relocation Diffusion

Cultural component spreads outward
to new places while remaining strong
in the hearth

Forms of Expansion Diffusion



Idea diffuses from hearth but
original idea is changed
 Iced tea vs Sweet tea
Idea spreads from a place or
person of power
 Hip-hop moving from large
cities to other larger cities to
smaller cities to suburbs/ rural
areas
Contagious

Numerous places or people near
the point of origin become adopters
 Ex: Tuberculosis
Involves actual movement of the
original adapters from their hearth
to a new place
People do the “moving” not the
innovation
Migrant diffusion

Hierarchical



Stimulus

Def:
Innovation spreads and lasts only a
brief time in the newly adopted
place


Ex: Band Concert
Mix of Patterns

Many diffusing phenomenon
spread through mix of patterns

Ex: HIV/ AIDS
Culture Hearths

Definition:

Areas where innovations in
culture began, such as
where agriculture,
government, and
urbanization originated

Direction of Diffusion of
Civilization from Ancient
Hearth
Andean America
Eastward t/out S. America
Mesoamerica
Eastern/Western N. America
West Africa
T/out Africa
Sources of human civilization Nile River Valley


Ancient Hearth
Ancient culture hearths
believed to have
developed in places with
the capacity for innovation
 Near sources of
water/ arable land
Not all innovations required
interaction

Independent innovation
T/out Africa and S.W. Asia
Mesopotamia
T/out S.W. Asia, Europe,
Central and East Asia, W.
Africa
Indus River Valley
T/out S.W., Central, East Asia
Ganges River
Valley
T/out South, SE, and SW Asia
Huang River Valley
T/out East and SE Asia
Torsten Hagerstrand

Theorized that innovations of
all kinds tend to diffuse from
their hearths in stages

1st stage:

Gain acceptance in place of
origin


2nd stage

Begin to spread rapidly outward
from region


Early adopters
 “innovators”
Majority adopters
3rd stage

Slowing and reaching maximum
dispersal and saturation

Late adopters
 “Laggards”

Research led to seeing that
diffusion followed an S-curve
pattern

Example: Cell phone diffusion
Cultural Convergence and Divergence

Cultural Convergence

Definition:




Definition:

Acculturation
Occurs when two cultures adopt
each other’s traits and become
more alike
Cultural Divergence


Assimilation

Occurs when two cultures become
increasingly different

Occurs when two cultures come
into contact with one another
and the “weaker” of the two
adopts traits from the more
dominant culture
Sometimes acculturation leads
to assimilation

Often one group moves away
from the territory of other

When the original traits of the
weaker culture are completely
replaced by more dominant
culture
Transculturation

When two cultures of just
about equal power meet and
exchange ideas
Acculturation



NH
BMHAWK #3
BMHAWK #4
Assimilation