Cultural Concepts
A group’s shared beliefs, traditions, and customs that define their way of life.
Culture
A collection of languages related through a common ancestor.
Language family
A religion that attempts to appeal to all people globally.
Universalizing religion
Spread of ideas through the movement of people.
Relocation diffusion
A neighborhood where people of the same ethnicity cluster.
Ethnic enclave
Culture practiced by small, isolated, homogeneous groups.
Folk culture
The world’s largest language family by number of speakers.
Indo-European
A religion tied to a specific ethnic group and region.
Ethnic religion/Folk Religion
Rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature across a population.
Expansion diffusion
Reduction in cultural differences due to globalization.
Cultural homogenization
Culture that is widespread, heterogeneous, and rapidly changing.
Popular culture
A language used for trade between people who speak different languages.
Lingua franca
Hearth of Christianity.
Eastern Mediterranean / Israel-Palestine
Diffusion from larger or influential places to smaller ones.
Hierarchical diffusion
The idea that communication and transportation improvements shrink distances.
Time–space compression
The visible imprint of human activity on the environment.
Cultural landscape
A language no longer spoken in daily life.
Extinct language
Religion based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama.
Buddhism
Diffusion where ideas spread outward but remain strong at their origin.
Contagious diffusion
When a minority culture is forced to adopt the dominant culture.
Assimilation
The blending of cultural traits into a new form.
Creolization / Syncretism
Study of place-names reflecting culture and history.
Toponyms
A boundary separating branches or denominations of the same religion.
Intrafaith boundary
Local cultures adapting global ideas into something new.
Glocalization/Stimulus Diffusion
The region where a cultural trait originates.
Cultural hearth