Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes — Identity and Belief Systems

Language Family

A collection of languages related through a shared ancestral language that existed long before recorded history.

Language Branch

A collection of languages within a family related through a common ancestor several thousand years ago.

Language Group

Languages within a branch showing similar grammar and vocabulary, originating in the recent past.

Dialect

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

Isogloss

A boundary line on a map that marks the limit of an area where a specific linguistic feature is prevalent.

Lingua Franca

A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages.

Pidgin Language

A simplified form of speech with limited vocabulary and grammar, used for communication between speakers of two different languages.

Creole Language

A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language, becoming a mother tongue.

Universalizing Religions

Religions that attempt to appeal to all people, regardless of location or culture.

Ethnic Religions

Religions that appeal primarily to one group of people living in one place.

Conversion (in religion)

The act of changing one's religious beliefs, often associated with universalizing religions.

Christianity

Largest universalizing religion, with its hearth in the West Bank and history of diffusion through hierarchical and relocation methods.

Islam

Second largest universalizing religion, with its hearth in Mecca/Medina, diffusing via contagious methods.

Buddhism

Universalizing religion with a hearth in Northern India/Nepal, which diffused via missionaries and trade routes.

Hinduism

Largest ethnic religion, with its hearth in the Indus River Valley, concentrated mainly in India and Nepal.

Judaism

An ethnic religion with a hearth in the Eastern Mediterranean, widely scattered due to the Diaspora.

Centripetal Forces

Forces that unify people and enhance support for a state.

Centrifugal Forces

Forces that divide a state.

Balkanization

The process by which a state breaks down through conflicts among its ethnicities.

Ethnic Cleansing

A purposeful policy designed to remove by violent means, a civilian population of another ethnic or religious group.

Acculturation

When an ethnic group adopts enough of the host society's ways to function economically and socially, but retains their own cultural distinctions.

Assimilation

The complete loss of unique cultural traits as a group blends indistinguishably into the dominant culture.

Syncretism

The blending of traits from two different cultures to form a new trait.

Official Language

A language that is designated by law as the language of a nation; the USA does not have one at the federal level.

Language Diffusion

The spread of language and its characteristics from one location to others.

Cultural Diffusion

The spreading of cultural beliefs and social activities from one group to another.

Ethnicity

Identity with a group of people who share the cultural traditions of a particular homeland or hearth.

Nation-State

A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality.