Exploring Culture Diversity: Definitions & Diffusion Patterns

1. Unit 3: Culture Part 1 Mr. Zonnefeld & Mr. Rist Tuesday, November 28, 2017

2. Activity: What is culture? • In your notebook, write the alphabet down the page. Then brainstorm aspects of culture that start with each letter. See how many you can list in five minutes. • For example: • A is for ?? • B is for ?? • C is for ??

3. Culture is… • learned collective human behavior; you are not born with a culture, you are born into it. Cultural Geographyis… • the study of spatial variations among cultural groups and how they function in society.

4. Cultural diffusion is… • the spread of learned ideas, innovations, and attitudes from one place to another over time. • Each cultural element originates in one or more places and then spreads; the origin of these elements is called a hearth

5. Expansion Diffusion (review) Ideas spread throughout a population from area to area. • Ideas stay strong in their original area (hearth) and continue to spread

6. Expansion Diffusion (review) • Subtypes: • Hierarchical diffusion: ideas leapfrog from one node to another temporarily bypassing some EXAMPLE: expensive medicines to cure diseases • Contagious diffusion: wavelike, like a disease EXAMPLE: spread of Islam • Stimulus diffusion: specific trait rejected, but idea accepted EXAMPLE: hamburgers in India are made of vegetable products

7. Relocation diffusion (review) • Relocation diffusion occurs when individuals migrate to a new location and bring new ideas or practices with them • Religion is prime example. So is henna.

8. Elements of Relocation Diffusion (review) • Acculturation – when the less dominant culture adopts cultural ideas of the dominant culture • Assimilation – when the adoption of a cultural element is so complete that the 2 cultures become indistinguishable • Transculturation – 2 equally dominant cultures exchange cultural ideas

9. Relocation Diffusion (review) • Migrant Diffusion • When ideas spread, but don’t take hold for any significant amount of time • Time-Distance Decay (think of the movie GGTOU) • Time and distance delay or stop the diffusion process

10. Folk Culture, Popular Culture, & Cultural Landscapes Part 1 Mr. Zonnefeld & Mr. Rist Tuesday, November 28, 2017

11. Culture is a group of belief systems, norms, & values practiced by a group of people. A group of people who share common beliefs can be recognized as a culture in two ways: • the people call themselves a culture • 2. other people label people as a culture.

12. Folk culture is small, incorporates a homogeneous population, is typically rural, and is cohesive in cultural traits. Popular cultureis large, incorporates heterogeneous populations is typically urban, and changes quickly.

13. A folk culture is a group of people in a particular place who see themselves as a community, who share experiences, customs, traits, and work to preserve those traits to differentiate themselves from others. People of folk cultures rely primarily on religion to maintain their belief systems. By isolating themselves in rural areas, it makes it easier to keep external influences away from their culture.

14. The material culture of a group of people includes the things they construct, such as art, houses, clothing, sports, dance, and foods. Think of material culture as the things you can see, touch, taste, feel, and hear.

15. Nonmaterial culture are beliefs, traditions, practices, and values of a group of people. Aspects of nonmaterial culture include dialects of languages, religions, and views on education, roles of women, etc.

16. Unlike folk culture, popular culture can change in a matter of days or hours. Pop culture is practiced by a heterogeneous group of people; people across identities and across the world. Like folk culture, pop culture includes music, dance, clothing, food preference, and religious values. The main paths of diffusion of pop culture are the transportation, marketing and communication networks that interlink vast parts of the world.

17. Example: may go to a store like Wal-Mart and see Amish dressed in distinctive folk clothing in the midst of pop culture. Geographers have considered whether folk and pop culture are on opposite sides of the spectrum, but they don’t actually see folk and popular cultures as being opposites. Example: traditions like painting henna on one’s hands is carried from centuries-old customs of folk cultures to the global pop culture.

18. How do folk cultures disappear? Assimilation: the process by which people lose their cultural traits as they come in contact with another society or cultural group.

19. Additional assimilation example

20. How are folk cultures sustained? Through customs Customa practice that a group of people routinely follows. Examples: eating, drinking, dancing, sports, etc. To sustain a folk culture, people must retain their customs.

21. Cultural appropriation: process by which other cultures adopt customs and knowledge and use them for their own benefit. Cultural appropriation is a major concern for folk cultures because aspects of cultural knowledge are being used by people outside the folk culture and used to accumulate wealth without knowing anything about the original folk culture.

22. Some local cultures live in tightly-knit ethnicneighborhoods. For example the Italian Americans in New York City. Having their own ethnic neighborhoods, members of local cultures can set themselves apart from others and practice their customs. Schools, houses of worship, grocery stores, etc. all support the desires of the local culture.