Culture Patterns and Processes

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Culture Patterns and Processes

• Chapter 5

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Culture

• Def2
• A shared set of meanings that is lived through
  the material symbolic practices of everyday
  life
• Could be values, beliefs, ideas, and practices

• 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

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Concepts of Culture

• Cultural geography
• Definition
• Study of peoples lifestyles, their creations,
  and their relationships to the Earth
• Looks at why and how culture is expressed in
  different ways and different places
• Involves
• Material components of culture
• Tangible artifacts
• Clothing, architecture
• Non-material components of culture
• Thoughts/ ideas
• Religion, laws

• Cultural Landscape
• built landscape
• Physical imprint a culture makes on the
  environment
• Buildings, artwork, music
• Carl Sauer
• 20th century geographer
• Culture leaves imprint
• Cultural Ecology
• 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

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Cultural Ecology

• England
• Called Historical Geography
• Defined as geography in the past
• 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

• France
• Called genre de vie
• 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

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Natural vs. Cultural landscape
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Human-Environment Interaction

• Environmental Determinism
• Theory that human behavior is controlled (or
  determined) by physical environment
• Ex ideal climates cause more productive citizens
• Egypt vs. Siberia
• Possibilism
• Counterargument to environment determinism
• Argues the natural environment places limits on
  the set of choices available to a people
• People, not the environment, propel human
  development

• Cultural Determinism
• Theory that the environment places no
  restrictions on humans whatsoever
• Only restrictions are the ones humans create
  themselves
• 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

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Layers of a Culture

• Culture Traits
• Def
• A single attribute of a culture
• Ex bowing to show respect
• Not always unique to one group
• Culture Complex
• 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
• When many culture complexes share particular
  traits, those traits can merge into culture
  systems
• Ex Germany

• Culture Regions
• Def
• 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
• Ex The South
• Culture Realms
• Def
• 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

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Culture regions Religion
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Cultural Diffusion

• Cultural/Spatial Diffusion
• Peoples material and non-material creations
  spread across time and space, moving to new
  places and being carries through generations.

• Cultural diffusion
• Spread of peoples cultural across space
• Spatial diffusion
• Spread of any phenomenon (such as a disease)
  across space
• Two categories of diffusion
• Expansion
• relocation

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Cultural Diffusion

• Expansion Diffusion
• Def
• Cultural component spreads outward to new places
  while remaining strong in the hearth
• Forms of Expansion Diffusion
• Stimulus
• Idea diffuses from hearth but original idea is
  changed
• Iced tea vs Sweet tea
• Hierarchical
• 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

• Relocation Diffusion
• Def
• Involves actual movement of the original adapters
  from their hearth to a new place
• People do the moving not the innovation
• Migrant diffusion
• 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

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Culture Hearths

• Definition
• Areas where innovations in culture began, such as
  where agriculture, government, and urbanization
  originated
• Sources of human civilization
• 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

Ancient Hearth 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
Nile River Valley 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
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Torsten Hagerstrand

• Theorized that innovations of all kinds tend to
  diffuse from their hearths in stages
• 1st stage
• Gain acceptance in place of origin
• Early adopters
• innovators
• 2nd stage
• Begin to spread rapidly outward from region
• 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

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Cultural Convergence and Divergence

• Cultural Convergence
• Definition
• Occurs when two cultures adopt each others
  traits and become more alike
• Cultural Divergence
• Definition
• Occurs when two cultures become increasingly
  different
• Often one group moves away from the territory of
  other

• Acculturation
• Occurs when two cultures come into contact with
  one another and the weaker of the two adopts
  traits from the more dominant culture
• Assimilation
• Sometimes acculturation leads to assimilation
• 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

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Acculturation Assimilation

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• BMHAWK 3
• BMHAWK 4