Cultural Diffusion Connections
This type of diffusion best explains why K-pop spreads fastest in countries with strong online fan networks and then later reaches places with weaker digital access.
What is hierarchal diffusion?
Efforts by Indigenous communities to preserve their languages often include teaching them in schools and creating digital archives—showing how language connects to this broader cultural goal.
What is maintaining cultural identity?
The diffusion of Islam across North Africa followed existing trade routes, showing the interplay between religion and this geographic factor.
What is spatial interaction?
The popularity of McDonald’s in countries worldwide alters local diets, serving as evidence of this process where global forces reshape local cultures.
What is culture convergence?
Ethnic enclaves in cities often persist due to migrants’ desire to preserve identity while adjusting to a new society, illustrating these two processes occurring simultaneously.
What are assimilation and acculturation?
When Mexican food becomes “Tex-Mex” in the U.S., this process explains how culture adapts to new environments.
What is stimulus diffusion?
The success of English as a global lingua franca is closely tied to these two diffusion processes working together historically.
➡️ (What are colonialism and globalization?)
What are colonialism and globalization?
The fact that Christianity and Islam actively seek converts contrasts with religions like Judaism because they are classified as this type.
What are universalizing religions?
Japan adopting baseball, then creating its own style of play and fan traditions, shows this balance between global and local cultures.
The spatial segregation seen in apartheid-era South Africa reflected political power embedded in this geographic concept.
What are ethnic segregation/ ethnic geography?
The blending of West African rhythms with European instruments in the Caribbean demonstrates this broader cultural process.
What is syncretism?
The spread of English technology terms into languages like French and Spanish shows how dominant languages reshape others through this type of cultural interaction.
What is linguistic influence/language convergence?
The layout of European cities—where cathedrals anchor central plazas and major streets—shows how religion historically shaped this visible geographic expression of culture.
What is cultural landscape?
Traditional dress becoming primarily ceremonial due to Western influence illustrates this shift from folk to this type of culture.
What is popular culture?
National symbols, shared language, and common traditions all help unify a country, acting as these forces that bind people together.
What are centripetal forces?
The rapid diffusion of TikTok dances shows how digital networks challenge the idea that cultural influence fades with distance. Name the idea.
What is distance decay?
French road signs in Québec illustrate how language becomes a political tool to maintain this cultural concept.
What is sense of place/cultural identity
Conflict around religious sites like Jerusalem emerges partly because multiple groups attach meaning to the same location—reflecting this geographic idea.
What is sacred space?
The use of the same architectural style for large chain stores across multiple countries demonstrates this APHG concept.
What is uniform landscape?
Acceptable: Placelessness
The forced migration of ethnic groups during conflicts illustrates how ethnicity interacts with this broader human geographic concept.
What is population movement/forced migration?
When foreign tourists visiting Japan return home wanting to recreate Japanese tea ceremony aesthetics, they are engaging in this type of diffusion.
The spatial clustering of Basque speakers despite surrounding Romance languages demonstrates this concept of cultural persistence.
What is linguistic isolation/language isolation?
The distribution of Buddhism in East and Southeast Asia demonstrates that a religion can spread widely even without this factor typically found in universalizing faiths.
What is organized mission activity/ a central authority?
Countries limiting foreign media and promoting local TV, music, and films do so to protect this aspect of their culture from global influence.
What is cultural identity/ cultural sovereignty?
The process in urban neighborhoods where successive ethnic groups move in and occupy the same area over time, leaving traces of earlier groups in the cultural landscape.
What is sequential occupation?