Culture Patterns and Processes

1. Culture Patterns and Processes Chapter 5

2. 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

3. Concepts of Culture • Cultural geography • Definition: • Study of people’s 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

4. 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

5. Natural vs. Cultural landscape

6. 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

7. 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

8. Culture regions: Religion

10. Cultural Diffusion • Cultural/Spatial Diffusion • People’s material and non-material 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

12. 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

14. 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

16. 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

18. Cultural Convergence and Divergence • Cultural Convergence • Definition: • Occurs when two cultures adopt each other’s 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

19. Acculturation Assimilation • NH • BMHAWK #3 • BMHAWK #4