Cultures and Societies
5 Themes of Geography!
Place: “What is it like when you get
there?”
Culture
Culture
• The word culture is used to describe not just
how you greet people but also
– ideas,
– skills,
– arts,
– and tools that are different in each of the world’s
many human societies.
United States
• What are some ways in which the culture in
the United States is different from other
cultures?
Human Societies
• Human society is an organized group of
people identified by its
– customs,
– traditions,
– and way of life.
Share time!
• Does your family have any customs or
traditions?
Characteristics of Culture
• People are not born with knowledge of their
culture.
• They learn it by living in a family and growing
up as a member of a society.
• The process of learning culture is called
enculturation.
Enculturation
• Through enculturation people in a society
learn to speak the same:
– Language
– Wear the same kind of clothing
– Prepare the same kind of food
– Share the same values
Enculturation
• Makes it possible for each person in a society
to have a relationship (or connection) to the
other people in the same cultural group.
A society’s culture is made up of:
• Culture traits (or characteristics).
– 1. material
• Objects (clothes, buildings, artworks, machines)
• Easily seen when you visit a new place
– 2. nonmaterial
• Practices and beliefs such as:
–
–
–
–
Customs
Ceremonies
Spoken language
Religion
Material:
Nonmaterial: Religon
Nonmaterial culture traits
• Can be expressed through material culture.
– Paintings (material) that show a culture’s idea of
beauty (nonmaterial).
– Literature (material) that is about a family
member’s role (nonmaterial).
• The 45,000-plus Bunun live in Taiwan's central mountains at
altitudes higher than any other people.
• They are best known for their millet and ear-shooting ceremonies,
but even more so for their beautiful polyharmonic choral singing.
• Bunun men and women posing in their village.
http://www.formosatribal.com
A group of related cultural traits make
• A cultural pattern:
– Can include both material and nonmaterial
– Example: langue patterns include both written
language (material) and spoken language
(nonmaterial)
Review:
• What are some traits that define the culture
of a society?
5 Themes of Geography:
• Movement!
– “People and Ideas get around!”
Cultures Change…
• Some countries include many cultural groups
with very different cultures. (like the U.S.)
• Some countries have only one major culture
(like Japan).
Why do some countries have cultures
that change and others don’t?
Cultural Borrowing
• No society is so isolated that it never has
contact in some way with others.
• When societies interact, they sometimes take
culture traits from one another and use them
as their own.
Cultural Borrowing
• As a result of cultural borrowing, only about
10 percent of a society’s culture traits are its
very own. _______ percent is borrowed.
• Examples:
– Clothing
– Music
– Sports
What are some effects of cultural
borrowing?
• What are some effects of cultural borrowing?
• Why do you think cultures might borrow traits
from one another?
Cultures spread
• When one society borrows a culture trait from
another society, this spread of culture is called
• Cultural diffusion!
• What do you think helps spread ideas the
most?
Cultural Diffusion
• In Latin word "diffundere" means "to spread
out“.
Technology helps move ideas…
Bell placing the first New York to
Chicago telephone call in 1892.
“People and ideas get around!”
• Migration is another factor of cultural
diffusion.
• What is migration?
“People and ideas get around!”
• When people of one culture move to another
culture, they may find that another culture is
more common there.
• Newcomers may give up their traditional ways
and become part of the main culture.
• Can you think of any examples?
Assimilation
• Assimilation: when the culture traits of the
newcomers become similar to those of the
people in their new country.
Acculturation
• When two societies have contact with one
another for a long time, the exchange of
culture traits is called acculturation.
• What is the dominant language in Brazil?
Religion, like language, also spreads
Review:
• What factors contribute to cultural diffusion?
1. Communication technology
2. Migration
3. Conquest
How do the languages spoken in
North and South America an
example of acculturation?
Country or Region
Colonial Ruler
Language Spoken
United States
Britain
English
Canada
Britain and France
English, French
Mexico
Spain
Spanish
Discussion:
• How does the cultural diversity affect the
culture of the United States?
Venn Diagram
• What are some customs or traditions that
originated in America?
• What are borrowed?
National Cultures
• As a result of migration (people moving) and
cultural diffusion (cultures spreading), some
countries include a wide variety of ethnic
groups.
• An ethnic group is a group of people who
have the same culture and share a way of life.
National Cultures
• Having different ethnic groups within the
same country is known as cultural diversity.
• Diversity means “the condition of being
different or varied”.
Cultural Diversity
• Although some people within a country may
be divided into ethnic groups, they are united
through their shared national culture.
• Like societies, a national culture has its own
culture trains, both material and nonmaterial.
National Culture traits:
•
•
•
•
Flag (material or nonmaterial?)
National Anthem (material or nonmaterial?)
Pledge of Allegiance (material or nonmaterial?)
National Holidays (material or nonmaterial?)
A country’s heritage
• Ways of life
• Customs
• Beliefs that come from the past and continue
today
• National holidays celebrate:
– Independence
– Founders and leaders
Review:
• A country’s culture traits and heritage are
learned through the process of enculturation.
• What is enculturation again?
• They are passed on to newcomers in the
country though the process of assimilation.
• What is assimilation again?
Question:
• How does a national culture help
unite people in a country?