What is Culture?

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What is Culture?
Peoples Lifestyles
Their Creations/Inventions
Their relationship to Earth
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• Material Culture is tangible artifacts that can
  be physically left behind, such as clothing or
  architecture
• Non-material Culture is thoughts and ideas of a
  people, such as religion and laws

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• Habit- A repetitive act that a particular
  individual performs
• Custom-A repetitive act of a group, performed to
  the extent that it becomes characteristic of the
  group.
• Relocation Diffusion- The spread of a
  characteristic through migration.
• Taboo-A restriction on behavior imposed by social
  custom.

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Carl Sauer

• Wherever a human culture exists, a cultural
  landscape exists as that cultures unique
  fingerprint on their space on Earth

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Sequent Occupancy

• The 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 leaves

Romans 43
Saxons 453
How did these invaders change Great Britain?
Vikings 793
Normans 1066
Tudors 1484
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Does the Earth make humans take the actions they
do?
Houston
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Environmental Determinism vs. Possibilism

• Theory that argues that human behavior is
  controlled (determined) by the physical
  environment

• Theory that argues that the natural environment
  places limits on the set of choices
  (possibilities) available to people.

Vegas Baby!
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Cultural Determinism

• The theory that the environment places no limits
  or restrictions on humans whatsoever
• The only restriction is self created
• Golf course in the desert?
• Pipe in the water
• Use grass seeds which require less watering

The Pearl, Qatar
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Political Ecology

• Government of a region affects the environment in
  that region, which in turn affects the choices
  available to people
• Ex) Zoning Laws

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Cultural Diffusion vs.
Spatial Diffusion

• The spread of any phenomenon across space
• Disease
• Drugs

• The spread of peoples culture across space

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Types of Expansion Diffusion

• The cultural component spreads outward to new
  places while remaining strong in the hearth, or
  place of origin
• Stimulus Expansion- occurs when the original idea
  diffuses from its hearth outward, but the
  original idea is changed by new adapters
• Iced Tea diffused south, but southerners made it
  sweet tea

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Expansion Diffusion continued

• Hierarchical Expansion- occurs when the concept
  spreads from one place/person of power to another
  leveled pattern
• Hip Hop diffused from a few large inner cities to
  other large inner cities to smaller inner cities
  to suburbia to rural areas

• Contagious Expansion- occurs when numerous people
  or places near the point of origin become
  adopters
• Spread of disease
• Relocation Diffusion- involves the movement of
  original adopters from their hearth (point of
  origin)
• Spread of disease

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Soccer

• An example of hierarchical diffusion of Pop
  Culture.
• In the late 20th Century, the worlds most
  popular sport.
• Began in 1800s as a folk culture
• The Dutch were the first continental Europeans to
  play soccer in 1870s.
• The British diffused the game throughout their
  empire.
• Soccer was further diffused by radio and
  television.

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Torsten Hagerstrands Diffusion S- Curve
Rate of adoption slows and those who havent
bought finally buy a cell phone
Late adopters (laggards)
Majority adopters
People learned, prices fell, those susceptible
became adopters
Only those who could afford them
Early adopters (innovators)
Ex) Cell Phones
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Cultural Convergence, Acculturation and Cultural
Divergence

• Cultural Convergence- occurs when two cultures
  adopt each others traits and become more alike
• Acculturation- occurs when two cultures come into
  contact with one another and the less dominant
  culture adopts the traits of the more dominant
  culture (assimilation)

• Cultural Divergence- occurs when two cultures
  become increasingly different, often when one
  group moves away from the territory of one
  culture group

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Ethnicity

• Core component in cultural identity
• Shared culture traits
• Language, religion, nationality
• Territory is often an underlying trait
• Not biological but rather chosen
• Ethnocentrism- is one groups use of its cultural
  identity as a superior standard by which to
  judge others (often causes discrimination)

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Ethnic Groups

• Usually spatially divided
• Ghetto- a region in which an ethnic minority is
  forced to live by economic, legal or governmental
  pressures
• Ethnic Enclave- is a place in which an ethnic
  minority is concentrated, sometimes in a ghetto,
  barrio, homeland, favelas

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Ethnic Cleansing

• Process in which a racial or ethnic group
  attempts to expel from a territory another racial
  or ethnic group
• Genocide- the killing of racial or ethnic group
  by another racial or ethnic group
• Slobodan Milosevic, the Serb leader led a
  genocide campaign against Albanians living in
  Kosovo, a region in Serbia

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Race

• Refers to a classification system of humans based
  on skin color and other physical characteristics
• Race is biological and not chosen

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Folk Culture

• Material culture traditionally practiced
  primarily by small, homogeneous (same) groups
  living in isolated rural areas

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The Amish

• Example of Relocation Diffusion.
• Distinctive clothing, farming, and religious
  practices.
• Shun mechanical and electrical power.
• Travel by horse and buggy and continue to use
  hand tools for farming.
• Number only about 70,000 in US.
• Visible on the landscape in at least 17 states.

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Amish Settlements
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Popular Culture

• Is practiced by large, heterogeneous (different)
  societies that share habits despite differences
  in personal characteristics, and most frequently
  originate in MDCs
• Physical objects, resources, and spaces that
  people use to define their culture.

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• Pop culture is becoming more dominant,
  threatening the survival of folk cultures

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Origin of Folk and Popular Cultures

• Folk culture originates from anonymous sources,
  at unknown dates, through unidentified
  originators.
• Popular culture is most often a product of the
  economies of MDCs
• popular music
• fast food

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Folk vs. Pop

• Isolated groups
• Spreads through relocation diffusion, original
  group moves and brings traits with them
• Not been exposed to pop culture or they chose not
  to adopt traits

• Mass culture that diffuses rapidly
• Spreads through expansion diffusion across space
  and varied cultures
• Starbucks- reducing the diversity of local coffee
  shops throughout the country

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Folk Music vs. Country Music

• Composed anonymously and transmitted orally
• Is transmitted from one location to another.
• More slowly
• At a smaller scale
• Through relocation
  diffusion
• Tell story or convey information about
• daily activities
• life-cycle events
• mysterious events

• Folk customs may have multiple origins.
• Follows the process of hierarchical diffusion
  from hearths or nodes of innovation.
• Hollywood (movies)
• Madison Avenue (advertising)
• Geographer George Carney identified 4 major
  hearths of country music
• southern Appalachia
• Central Tennessee and Kentucky
• the Ozark and Ouachita uplands
• north-central Texas

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Popular Music vs. Hip Hop

• Written by specific individuals for the purpose
  of being sold to a large number of people.
• Originated around 1900
• Diffusion of American popular music worldwide
  began during World War II

• Originated in New York in late 1970s.
• A return to a very local form of music
  expression.
• Diffused rapidly around the world through
  globalization

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Isolation Promotes Cultural Diversity
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Food Diversity

• Although food customs are inevitably affected by
  the availability of products, food consumed in
  neighboring cultural groups often reflect
  distinctive traditions

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Example of food adaptation is Soybeans

• Excellent source of protein.
• Widely grown in Asia.
• Fuel for cooking is scarce
• Bean Sprouts (germinated seeds).
• Soy Sauce (fermented soybeans)
• Bean Curd (steamed soybeans).

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Example of Food Taboos

• Abipone Indians of Paraguay eat jaguars and bulls
  to make themselves strong.
• The mandrake was thought to enhance lovemaking in
  Mediterranean climates.
• The Ainus in Japan thought that otters would
  make one forgetful.
• Europeans first thought potatoes caused typhoid
  and tuberculosis

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Insects as Food

• Americans avoid eating insects, despite their
  nutritional value.
• In Thailand, giant water bugs are deep fried as
  snack foods.
• Americans consume insects in most foods including
  canned mushrooms and tomato paste.