Human Geo Unit 3

• culture


  Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people.
• culture trait


  A single element of normal practice in a culture, such as the wearing of a turban.
• cultural relativism


  Not judging a culture but trying to understand it on its own terms
• ethnocentrism


  Evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards of one's own culture
• Acculturation


  The process of adopting customs of other cultures, usually without losing their culture
• Assimilation


  The process of less dominant cultures losing their culture to a more dominant culture
• Syncretism


  A blending of various cultures into another cultural practice
• Cultural landscape


  The visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape
• Folk Culture


  Culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous, rural group living in relative isolation from other groups.
• Popular Culture


  Cultural traits such as dress, diet, and music that identify and are part of today's changeable, urban-based, media-influenced societies
• Cultural Complex


  The group of traits that define a particular culture.
• Cultural hearth


  Heartland, source area, innovation center; place of origin of a major culture.
• Taboo


  A restriction on behavior imposed by social custom.
• linguistic


  Pertaining to language
• sequent occupance


  The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape
• traditional architecture


  Traditional building styles of different cultures, religions, and places
• Postmodern Architecture


  Blends historical foundations with modern touches
• Placelessness


  The loss of uniqueness of place in the cultural landscape so that one place looks like the next
• ethnicity


  Identity with a group of people that share distinct physical and mental traits as a product of common heredity and cultural traditions.
• Ethnic enclave


  An area within a city containing members of the same ethnic background
• indigenous community


  People who are the original inhabitants of a country
• sense of place


  Feelings evoked by people as a result of certain experiences and memories associated with a particular place.
• Placemaking


  The process of creating a comfortable personal environment that reflects the values, experiences, and tastes of the people
• centripetal force


  An attitude that tends to unify people and enhance support for a state
• centrifugal force


  A force that divides people and countries
• Colonialism


  Attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory by directly implanting settlments
• Imperialism


  Attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory from another country
• small-scale process


  Cultural practice or activity conducted in a small region
• large-scale process


  Cultural practice or activity conducted in a large region
• urbanization


  Movement of people from rural areas to cities
• globalization


  Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope.
• Time-space convergence


  The idea that distance between some places is actually shrinking as technology enables more rapid communication and increased interaction among those places
• cultural convergence


  The tendency for cultures to become more alike as they increasingly share technology, transportation, and communication increases
• cultural divergence


  The tendency for cultures to become more different as time passes
• Nostratic Hypothesis


  A hypothetical language family that is thought to have given rise to the Eurasian languages
• official language


  The language adopted for use by the government for the conduct of business and publication of documents.
• language family


  A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history.
• language branch


  A smaller collection of languages that are similar to one another, but have split from the families
• language group


  Set of languages with a relatively recent common origin and many similar characteristics that have split from the branches
• language dialect


  A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.