Unit 3 Cultural Patterns and Processes

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Unit 3Cultural Patterns and Processes
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Cultural Landscape

• If you have ever studied the earths surface from
  an airplane thousands of feet in the air, you
  have observed the cultural landscape the
  modification of the natural landscape by human
  activities.

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Midwestern U.S.
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Big Cities
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Culture the complex mix of values, beliefs,
behaviors, and material objects that together
form a people way of life. Important
terminology follows

• Non-material Culture consists of abstract
  concepts of values, beliefs and behaviors.
• Values are culturally defined standards that
  guide the way people assess desirability,
  goodness, and beauty, and that serve as
  guidelines for moral living.

Red Sonia Leslie Hovvels of Welsh died
because of infection related to nose piercings.
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• Egyptian body piercings reflected status and love
  of beauty.
• Romans were practical piercers. Signified
  Strength and Virility.
• Aztecs, Mayans and some American Indians
  practiced Tongue Piercing as religious ritual.
• Modern Day Mostly limited to the ears until
  recently. Hippies of the 1960s traveled to
  India and brought back the concept of nose rings.
  The concept of body piercing has continued to
  gain in popularity throughout the 80s, 90s and
  today.

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• Beliefs specific statements that people hold to
  be true almost always based on values.
• Behaviors Actions that people take generally
  based on values and beliefs as reflected in norms
  the rules and expectations by which a society
  guides the behavior of its members.

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Material Culture wide range concrete human
creations.

• Artifacts reflect the values, beliefs, and
  behaviors or a culture.
• From an airplane you can readily see material
  culture as it relates to the environment.
• Roads
• Houses
• Buildings,
• Car
• Farm equipment
• Airport runways
• Look beyond the objects Why does a person build
  a house? Why are the houses arranged in the
  patterns that you see? What purpose do
  checkerboards serve, and where do the roads lead?
  The answers to these questions lie in the values,
  beliefs, and behaviors (non-material culture)
  that humans use to guide the creation and
  maintenance of their artifacts (material culture)

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Culture Regions Traits and Complexes

• Separating culture into non-material and material
  types helps you begin to study its complexities.
• Culture Region is an area marked by culture that
  distinguishes it from other regions
  non-material culture, such as clothing and
  building style, reflect the values, beliefs, and
  behaviors of the people that live in the region.

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Culture Trait

• A single attribute of a culture is called a
  Culture Trait and a culture region consists of
  countless numbers of traits.
• Ex A trait may be wearing colorful clothing with
  the groups own skillful weave and design.
  Another culture trait may be the building of
  roads and bridges across mountain ranges. Yet
  another trait may be the construction of
  buildings without mortar and another the
  terracing of land for crop growth. Put all these
  and thousands of others together, and you may
  study the culture region that survives today
  around the Andes Mountains in South America.

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• Culture traits are not necessarily confined to a
  single culture. For example, people in many
  cultures use brushes to clean their teeth and to
  make their hair more attractive, and they usually
  use different kinds of brushes for the two types
  of activities. However, the trait combines with
  others in a distinctive way, so that a culture
  complex is formed. A culture complex consists of
  common values, beliefs, behaviors, and artifacts
  that make a group in an area distinct from
  others.

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China Many Culture Complexes

• Modern City of Xian combines religions and
  beliefs, such as Buddhism, Islam and Confucianism
  in a way that makes it identifiable as a separate
  culture complex. However, particular traits such
  as following Confucian principles, are shared by
  other complexes around them. Any area with
  strong cultural ties that bind its people
  together forms a Culture System a group of
  interconnected culture complexes.
• On the map, a culture region can represent an
  entire culture region can represent an entire
  culture system that intertwines with its
  locational and environmental circumstances to
  form a geographic region.

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• Cultural Hearths are the areas where
  civilizations first began that radiated the
  ideas, innovations and ideologies that culturally
  transformed the world.
• Early Cultural Hearths developed in Southwest
  Asia, North Africa, South Asia, and East Asia in
  the valleys and basin of great river systems.
• Cultural Hearths developed much later in Central
  and South America, and their geography shaped
  cultural development not around river valleys,
  but around mountain ranges and central highlands.
  

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• Another Cultural Hearth with its own culture
  complex developed centuries later in West Africa,
  very much influenced by earlier hearths along the
  Nile River in Northeast Africa.
• Another unique cultural hearth developed in the
  islands of the Aegean Sea, where the inhabitants
  were jointed by easy water access among islands
  and mainland.
• From their centers, the hearths grew until they
  came into contact with one another, although
  their ability to travel to and contact other
  cultural hearths was limited by their levels of
  technology and distance. Cultural hearths have
  shifted greatly over time. For example, the
  Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th
  century moved cultural hearths to Europe and
  North America, with modern shifts in the 21st
  century continuing to occur.

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Cultural Hearths
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Cultural Diffusion

• The early cultural hearths were centers for
  innovation and invention, and their non-material
  and material culture spread to areas around them
  through a process called cultural diffusion.
• Over time, as cultural hearths have shifted,
  cultural diffusion has spread culture traits to
  most parts of the globe.
• This long and complicated spread of culture often
  makes it difficult to trace the origin, spread,
  and timing of a particular trait.

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How do I understand Diffusion?
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Acculturation

• Acculturation when smaller/weaker groups take
  on traits of the larger/dominant culture. Can be
  2-way process e.g. Aztecs acculturated into
  Spanish culture, but some Aztec traits remained
  and became Spanish culture.

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Assimilation

• Assimilation the adoption of cultural elements
  can be so complete that two cultures become
  indistinguishable e.g. jeans being worn here
  in the Czech Republic

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BARRIERS TO DIFFUSION

• TIME and DISTANCE DECAY farther from the source
  the more time it takes, the less likely
  innovation adopted
• CULTURAL BARRIERS some practices, ideas,
  innovations are not acceptable/adoptable in a
  particular culture e.g. pork, alcohol,
  contraceptives
• PHYSICAL BARRIERS physical barriers on the
  surface may prohibit/inhibit adoption

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Distance Decay Graph

• Learn to think about distance decay in a
  spatial context
• Think of distance decay in terms of an x and
  y axis

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Two Types of Diffusion

• Expansion
• Relocation

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Expansion Diffusion

• EXPANSION DIFFUSION
• Spread of an innovation/idea through a population
  in an area in such a way that the of those
  influenced grows continuously larger, resulting
  in an expanding area of dissemination.
• (de Blij/Murphy 7th ed., page R-20)

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Expansion Diffusion

• This occurs when an idea or trait spreads from
  one place to another.

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Kinds of Expansion Diffusion

• Hierarchical Diffusion spread of an idea
  through an established structure usually from
  people or areas of power down to other people or
  areas

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Examples of Hierarchical Diffusion

• AIDS is typically viewed as hierarchical because
  if its historically distinctive URBAN to URBAN
  diffusion pattern
• Blackberries have diffused hierarchically.
  Blackberries, though becoming cheaper, are too
  expensive for most consumers to buy therefore
  diffusing hierarchically.

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Expansion Diffusion

• Contagious Diffusion spread of an
  idea/trait/concept through a group of people or
  an area equally without regard to social class,
  economic position or position of power.

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Diagram of Contagious Diffusion Human Geography,
deBlij Murphy, 7th ed. Page 28

• A is a diagram of contagious diffusion. Notice
  virtually all adopt.
• B is a diagram of hierarchical diffusion.
  Notice the leapfrogging over some areas.

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Expansion Diffusion

• Stimulus Diffusion the spread of an underlying
  principle even though the characteristic itself
  does not spread.
• OR
• Stimulus Diffusion - involves the transfer of an
  underlying concept or idea, without the specific
  accompanying traits due to some cultural or other
  barrier to the movement of the idea

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An example of Stimulus Diffusion

• McDonalds spread to India however, Indian
  Hindus do not eat beef. Indian McDonalds serve
  veggie burgers, which is culturally acceptable.
  The idea (McDonalds burgers) was acceptable, but
  not in its original form hence stimulus
  diffusion.

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RELOCATION DIFFUSION

• Sequential diffusion process in which the items
  being diffused are transmitted by their carrier
  agents as they evacuate the old areas and
  relocate to new ones. The most common form of
  relocation diffusion involves the spreading of
  innovations by a migrating population.
• (de Blij/Murphy 7th ed., page R-26)
• This occurs when the people migrate and take
  their cultural attributes with them.

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Relocation and Expansion In Review Human
Geography, Fellmann, Getis Getis, 8th ed. Page
55

• A is relocation diffusion as the person goes.
• B is expansion diffusion as the idea/trait
  moves or transports.

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AIDS and Relocation Diffusion

• Some authors suggest AIDS diffuses through
  relocation diffusion. This is true by the fact
  that the diffusers take the disease with them.
  However, AIDS is not contracted by everyone in
  its path. More importantly, the pattern of AIDS
  diffusion is more classically hierarchical (and
  therefore expansion).

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Migrant Diffusion (a form of Relocation Diffusion)

• Migrant Diffusion is when an innovation
  originates and enjoys strong, but brief, adoption
  there. The innovation may travel long distances
  ( be thriving), but could be faded out back at
  the point of origination e.g. influenza in
  China will reach the U.S., but the epidemic could
  be over in China by the time it takes hold in the
  U.S.

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One more lookWal-Mart as both contagious and
reverse hierarchical diffusion WHY? Human
Geography, Fellmann, Getis Getis, 8th Ed. Page
57
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How about another example of reverse hierarchical
diffusion?

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Random Thoughts on Diffusion

• Expansion Diffusion
• Contagious
• Does not need have a specific pre-existing
  structure for transmission
• disease contagion is a prime example
• Dont forget the orange scent spreading around
  the room
• Hierarchical
• requires a pre-established structure to channel
  the flow ie 'chain of command' or network of
  power
• Relocation Diffusion
• Movement of people and things
• Europeans moved to the Americas and brought their
  culture with them

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