Cultural Terms
A single aspect of a given culture or society
What is a Cultural trait?
A force that brings people together and unifies a neighborhood, society, or country
What is Centripetal force?
Barriers that completely halt diffusion
What are Absorbing barriers?
The names given to places
What are Toponyms?
Occurs when an ethnic or immigrant group blends in with the host culture and loses many culturally distinctive traits
What is Assimilation?
Historically defined by the physical characteristics of a group, especially skin color
What is Race?
Less influenced or controlled by religion
What is secular?
The motivating impulse to control greater amounts of territory
What is Imperialism?
A way of pronouncing words
What is an accent?
Religion that emphasizes purity of faith and is generally not open to blending with elements of other belief systems
What is a Orthodox religion?
A people of common ancestry and cultural tradition; characterized by a strong feeling of group identity
What is an Ethnic group?
A force that threatens the cohesion of a neighborhood, society, or country
What is Centrifugal force?
Barriers that slow diffusion, but still allow some partial or weakened diffusion
What are Permeable barriers?
A group of related languages that share a common ancestry
What is a Language family?
Religion that combines elements of two or more different belief systems
What is a Syncretic religion?
A set of policies that promote the active participation and inclusion of minority groups in national histories, national politics, and cultural institutions with the goal of embracing difference within society
What is Multiculturalism?
Efforts to use and design public places to better serve the needs of residents and to foster a stronger community
What is Placemaking?
The act of forcefully controlling a foreign territory
What is Colonialism?
A focused geographic area where important innovations are born and from which they spread
What is a Culture hearth?
Occurs when an ethnic or immigrant group adopts enough of the ways of the host society to be able to function economically and socially
What is Acculturation?
An approach to understanding other cultures that seeks to understand individuals and cultures from a wider perspective of cultural logic
What is Cultural relativism?
The process whereby religion becomes a less dominant force in everyday life than it was in the past
What is Secularization?
The systematic killing of members of a racial, ethnic, or linguistic group
What is Genocide?
A regional variation of a language that is understood by people who speak other variations of that language
What is a Dialect?
The notion that people adopt elements of other cultures as well as contribute elements of their own culture, thereby transforming both cultures
What is Transculturation?