Cultural Patterns and Processes

1. Cultural Patterns and Processes

4. MMMMM… the McArabia • Three falafel balls, made from ground chickpeas and fava beans, fried in canola oil and served on Iraqi pita bread with tahini and chopped salad.

5. Or maybe…POUTINE! • french fries, layered with cheese curds and smothered beneath brown gravy. Cheese curds are the solid parts of sour milk.

6. How about authentic Hawaiian food? • Spam is so popular in Hawaii it has been dubbed "The Hawaiian Steak," so it is no surprise that McDonald's put the meat in their Deluxe Breakfast. Eggs, rice, hashbrowns, spam and toast.

7. Ole! Gazpacho

8. Cultural geography • The study of people’s lifestyles, their creations, and their relationships to the earth and the supernatural

9. Key questions • How do geographers define culture? • How do geographers look at spatial and place aspects of culture in the form of language, religion, race, ethnicity, and gender? • How are cultural patterns represented at different scales, from local to global? • How do cultural traits move through space and time? • What are key aspects to the geography of language and religion? • How does culture shape human-environment relationships? • How is culture expressed in landscapes, and how do different landscapes reflect different cultural identities?

10. Basics of Culture • Material components of Culture Vs. Nonmaterial components of Culture • Cultural geography • Looks at how and why culture is expressed in different ways in different places • Cultural Landscape-CARL SAUER • The built environment • The physical implications of human culture

11. Sequent occupance • The succession of cultures leaving their mark in a shared space or territory • Ex. Romans, Saxons, Vikings, and others who conquered England over a 3000 year period • CULTURAL ECOLOGY • Human-environment interaction

12. Human-environment interactions • Environmental determinism • Environment determines all • Possibilism • Environment sets limits • And CULTURAL DETERMINISM • Environment does not set limits…WE set the restrictions on ourselves

13. The Jigsaw of Culture • Cultural traits • A single attribute of a culture • Ex. Bowing to show respect • Cultural Complex • The combination of all culture traits creates a unique set of traits • Like a recipe • Ex. All the things Americans do makes us American… no other culture has THAT unique combination

14. Cont… • Culture systems • When complexes share traits the complexes can merge • Ex. People in N. Germany has a different accent but they combine with the rest of Germany to form the German cultural system

15. Cultural Regions and Realms • Cultural regions • Drawn around people with similarities in their cultural systems • Regional Identity • Emotional attachment to the group of people and places associated with a particular culture region • Leads to… • Perceptual Regions (vernacular regions) • Defined by peoples emotions and feelings about an area rather than objective regions

16. Cultural Realm • Merging together of culture regions

18. Cultural Diffusion • The spread of people’s culture across space • Spatial diffusions • The spread of any phenomenon across space • Ex. Disease • Two types… expansion and relocation

19. Expansion Diffusion • The cultural component spreads outward to new places while remaining strong in the home hearth • Ex. Islam spreading from Saudi Arabian hearth

20. Different types • Stimulus diffusion • Idea spreads but the original idea has changed • Contagious diffusion • Occurs when numerous places or people near the point of origin become adopters (or INFECTED) • Ex. Disease or a restaurant spreading out • Hierarchical diffusion • Spreads from a place or person of power or high susceptibility to another in a leveled pattern • Ex. Hip hop music starts at the cities first and spreads down to the lower towns • Ex. Knowledge of 9/11 plot… US gov. to media to general public

21. Relocation diffusion • Involves the actual movement of the original adopters from their hearth to a new place • Ex. Movement of Russian capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow • Ex. HIV/AIDS spread by movement • Migrant diffusion • Innovation spreads but only lasts a brief time • Ex. The flu

22. Mixie Mixie • They can be combined • Ex. The flu • Ex. HIV/AIDS

23. Culture • Cultural Convergence • The process of two cultures blending and becoming more alike • Acculturation • A weaker culture adopts a more dominant culture’s traits • May lead to… • Assimilation • Complete erase of the weaker culture

24. Transculturation • Occurs when two cultures of just about equal power or influence meet and exchange ideas without domination

25. S-Curve of Diffusion

26. Cultural hearth • Where innovations in a culture begin • INDEPENDENT INNOVATION • Originate without knowledge of similar innovations • Ex. Agricultural innovation in E. Asia and Mesopotamia

27. Religion

28. Religion • A set of beliefs and activities that are created to help human celebrate and understand their place in the world • Can be MONOTHEISTIC or POLYTHEISTIC • Universalizing Religions • Universal appeal • Ethnic Religions • Attempt to appeal to only one group

30. Universalizing Religions • Branches => Denominations => sects

31. Buddhism • World’s 1st universalizing religion • Founded in India near INDO-GANGETIC Hearth (Indus/Ganges rivers) • Founded by Prince Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) who was born in 644 BCE • Diffusion: Spread throughout India then China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Mongolia, and SE Asia along Silk Road • 350 million worldwide • Branches: Theraveda and Mahayana

32. Branches • Theravada • Monastic (monks and nuns) • 55% • Mahayana • Find salvation through meditation and prayer • Lamaism (in Tibet) • Combines monatiscism with local dieties and demons • The Dalai Lama is a proponent • China has tried to suppress this branch including EXILE of the Dalai Lama • Zen • In Japan

33. Cultural landscape of Buddhism • Pagoda • Derived from ancient burial mound shapes • Bodhi tree • Many pilgrimages

34. Christianity • 600 years after Buddhism • Offshoot of Judaism • Originated in Semitic Hearth (Israel) • Monotheistic • Holy book: the Bible

35. Cont… Diffusion • Largest number of adherents (2 billion) • Spread out especially through the Roman Empire • Nearly 90% in the W. Hemisphere are Christian

36. Cont… Branches • Roman Catholic • Largest (830 million) • Hierarchical • Protestant • Broken into denominations • Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, and Lutheran • 503 million • Eastern Orthodox • Formed during the Great Schism of 1054 • 14 separate churches • Largest is Russian Orthodox • 192 million (roots in Constantinople

37. Cont… Cultural landscape • Roman Catholic • Protestant Church • Eastern Orthodox

38. Islam • 600 CE • 1.2 billion worldwide • Muhammad • Diffused Globally from Saudi Arabia • Mecca and Medina • Monotheistic • Holy Book: Koran/Quran • Two Branches: Sunni and Shiite

39. Cont… Branches • Sunni • 85% • Shiite • 15% • Believe that only descendants Muhammad should be head of Islam • Iraq and Iran

40. Cultural Landscape • The Mosque

41. Cont… Misc… • 5 pillars • Pilgrimage to Mecca (holiest site) • Third holy site is Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem

42. Sikkhism • 22 million • Syncretic religion • Blend of Hindu and Islam • Mainly in Punjab Region of India • Monotheistic • Holy book: Guru Granth Sahib

43. Ethnic Religion • Hinduism • Mainly in India • 900 million adherents • Predates Buddhism • Cultural landscape features Caste System • Judaism • Jewish diaspora • Holy book: Torah • Shintoism • Taoism • Shaminism • Any religion that follows a religious leader/healer/truth knower • Animism-belief that objects like trees, mountains, rivers have spirits in them

44. Secularism and Theocracy • Secularism • Movement away from religion • Theocracy • Government run by religion • Ex. Former Taliban run Afghanistan • Ex. Iran

45. Religion and Conflict • Interfaith boundaries • China- Tibetan Buddhism and Atheism • Nigeria- Islam and Christianity • India- Hinduism and Sikkhism • India and Pakistan-Hinduism and Islam • Palestine- Judaism and Islam • Intrafaith boundaries • Iraq- Sunni and Shiite • USA- Christianity • N. Ireland- Protestants and Roman Catholics

46. Language

47. Language • Language Divergence • Language replacement • Language extinction • Reverse reconstruction

48. Language Hearths

49. Theories on hearth of Proto Indo European language • Conquest theory • Agricultural theory

50. Monolingual and Multilingual • Can be centripetal or cetrifugal • Ex. Belgium • Dutch and French • Canada • French and English