Comprehensive Guide to Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes

Culture

The sum total of knowledge, attitudes, and habitual behavior patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a society.

Artifacts

Visible, physical objects created by a culture, such as houses, clothing, tools, and artwork.

Mentifacts

Ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge of a culture, including language and religious beliefs.

Sociofacts

Institutions and links between individuals and groups that unite a culture, including family structure and political institutions.

Habit

A repetitive act performed by an individual.

Custom

A repetitive act performed by a group, becoming characteristic of that group.

Ethnocentrism

Judging another culture based on the standards and values of one’s own culture, often implying superiority.

Cultural Relativism

Evaluating a culture by its own standards rather than judging it from the perspective of one's own culture.

Cultural Landscape

Forms superimposed on the physical environment by the activities of man, representing the built environment.

Sequent Occupance

The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.

Centripetal Forces

Forces that unite a group of people, such as a shared language or common religion.

Centrifugal Forces

Forces that divide a group of people, like linguistic diversity or religious conflict.

Cultural Diffusion

The spread of an idea, innovation, or cultural trait from its place of origin to other areas.

Relocation Diffusion

The spread of a feature through the physical movement of people.

Contagious Diffusion

Rapid, widespread diffusion of a feature throughout a population.

Hierarchical Diffusion

The spread of an idea from persons of authority to other persons or places.

Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion

The spread of a trait from a lower class or non-authority group upwards to positions of power.

Stimulus Diffusion

The spread of an underlying principle while rejecting a specific characteristic.

Time-Space Compression

The phenomenon that reduces the time it takes for culture to diffuse due to modern technology.

Acculturation

An immigrant group adopts the values of the dominant group but retains major elements of their own culture.

Assimilation

An ethnic group can no longer be distinguished from the receiving group; complete integration occurs.

Syncretism

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

Multiculturalism

The coexistence of several distinct cultural or ethnic groups within a society.

Distance Decay

The likelihood of diffusion decreases as distance increases.

Folk Culture

Local/indigenous cultures characterized by small, homogeneous groups.

Pop Culture

Cultures that are large and heterogeneous, often commercially driven.