Foundations of Culture
What is the difference between material culture and nonmaterial culture?
Material culture = physical objects created by a culture (buildings, clothing, food).
Nonmaterial culture = beliefs, values, language, traditions, norms.
How does a long-lot settlement pattern influence land use and community interaction?
Narrow lots stretch back from a river or road, maximizing access to transportation and water and creating linear communities.
How do race, ethnicity, and nationality differ in the way we categorize human identity?
Race = perceived biological traits (skin color).
Ethnicity = shared cultural traits (language, ancestry, traditions).
Nationality = legal or political identity tied to a state.
How do centripetal and centrifugal forces shape the unity or fragmentation of a society? Provide one example of each.
Centripetal forces unite a country (shared language, national holidays).
Centrifugal forces divide a country (ethnic conflict, regional inequality).
How can multiculturalism strengthen a society while also creating potential challenges? Support with specific geographic examples.
Benefits: cultural diversity, innovation, economic connections.
Challenges: ethnic tension, political disagreements, segregation if not effectively integrated.
Example: Canada (successes) or France (challenges).
How does a sense of place shape how people feel about a specific location?
The emotional or meaningful connection people attach to a location based on experiences, memories, or cultural significance.
Describe placelessness and identify one feature of the built environment that can contribute to it.
When places lose their unique character and look similar everywhere.
Example features: chain stores, identical suburbs, franchise architecture.
Explain the difference between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. Why does it matter in geographic analysis?
Ethnocentrism: judging another culture by your own standards.
Cultural relativism: understanding a culture based on its own values.
Matters because it affects how geographers interpret behavior without bias.
Explain the difference between absorbing barriers and permeable barriers to diffusion, with a real-world example.
Absorbing barrier: completely stops diffusion (North Korea blocking many media/tech flows).
Permeable barrier: slows or modifies diffusion (China allowing some Western apps but with restrictions).
Explain how toponyms can reveal political power, cultural change, or historical conflict in a region. Provide one renamed place and its significance.
Place names reflect cultural or political control.
Example: Bombay → Mumbai to reflect local Marathi identity; colonial → Indigenous renaming.
What is a dialect, and how is it different from a full language?
A dialect is a regional variation of a language with unique pronunciation, vocabulary, or grammar.
A language is a larger, structured communication system understood by many dialect groups.
Provide an example of sequent occupance and explain what cultural layers are present.
Rome: Ancient Roman buildings → medieval Christian churches → modern Italian government buildings.
Each group leaves cultural layers on the same landscape.
Describe how a pidgin can become a creole over time.
A pidgin forms for basic communication between groups.
When children grow up learning it as a first language and stabilize its grammar, it becomes a creole.
How does assimilation differ from acculturation, and what geographic conditions often accelerate assimilation?
Acculturation: adopting SOME cultural traits of another group.
Assimilation: losing original culture and fully blending into dominant culture.
Accelerated by urbanization, intermarriage, schooling, government pressure.
How do secular and orthodox forms of the same religion create different cultural landscapes?
Secular areas: fewer religious structures, more commercial or civic buildings.
Orthodox areas: strict architectural traditions, visible religious symbols, dress codes, or land-use rules.
What makes a religion monotheistic versus polytheistic?
Monotheistic religions believe in one god (Christianity, Islam).
Polytheistic religions believe in many gods (Hinduism, Shinto).
How can a sacred place shape the cultural landscape of a region?
Sacred sites often include temples, shrines, pilgrimage routes, or restrictions on land use (e.g., Jerusalem’s Old City; Mecca; Varanasi).
What makes an ethnic religion different from a universalizing religion?
Ethnic religions = tied to a place/people; rarely seek converts (Hinduism, Judaism).
Universalizing religions = seek converts everywhere (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism).
Explain glocalization and describe how a global company might adapt its products to a local culture.
Global companies adjusting products to fit local culture.
Example: McDonald’s offering the McAloo Tikki in India.
Describe transculturation and explain how it differs from simple diffusion. Give an example involving language, food, or religion.
Transculturation: two cultures influence each other equally and create something new.
Diffusion is usually one-way.
Example: Tex-Mex food combining Mexican and U.S. Southwest traditions.
Explain what a language family is and name an example.
A language family is a group of languages descended from a common ancestral language (Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan).
Explain what a language family is and name an example.
When people shape public spaces to express culture or identity.
Example: murals celebrating local ethnic communities, Indigenous placemaking in parks, or cultural festivals shaping neighborhood identity.
Provide an example of syncretism in a cultural or religious practice and explain how it developed.
Caribbean Vodou blends West African spiritual traditions with Catholic saints.
Example explains merging elements from multiple cultures.
Describe the relationship between a cultural hearth and the diffusion of a language group, religion, or food tradition.
A cultural hearth is an origin point.
Example: Indo-European languages diffusing from the Steppe hearth, or hip-hop originating in the Bronx and spreading globally.
How might placemaking, subculture, and popular culture interact to create new hybrid cultural spaces in urban areas? Use at least one specific city or region.
Urban neighborhoods often mix global pop culture (streetwear, music) with local subculture identity (Chinatown, Little Havana, hip-hop districts).
This creates hybrid cultural zones such as anime districts in LA, K-towns, or food fusion markets.