CULTURE NOTES

Culture definition: feature’s of a group of people’s way of life, passed down through generations by teachings, examples and imitation. (you will become your parents)

How do cultures develop? 10 % innovation 90 % diffusion

Examples from USA innovation

Examples from USA diffusion

Culture Hearth:

Center of learning and innovation that diffuses to other regions

How do cultures spread?

Culture moves with people (migration) and trade.

The spice trade.

The Silk Road

When people move, they take their language, religion, foods, clothing with them.

Elements of Culture (what makes up a culture)

Assimilation: joining or fitting in with a larger culture. (German descendants in the USA.)

Acculturation: a culture accepting an innovation or diffusion from another culture.

Ethnocentrism: judging other cultures by the rules of your culture.

Are you an ethnocentric?

Languages

World’s most understood language

World’s largest single language

Dialects –a regional way to speak a language

New Englanders drop the “r” from many words.

I will park my “caw” in front to the “baw.”

Southern examples?

Lingua franca – a non-native language many educated people understand. English in India.

Underrepresented groups/populations – general term that refers often refers to “minorities” and women that have historically not been represented in a cultural and political sense.

Women in the U.S. Senate

French ban on the hijab in schools

Cultural convergence

Contact between two cultures – similar to acculuration – how cultures borrow from each other and change over time.

cutural convergance is growing cultural unity.

Example: people around the world read a lot of the same books watch a lot of the same movies and

Cultural divergence: Cultures growing more apart generally due to outside influences.

French and English in Quebec, Canada

Immigrants not learning the native language

Christianity is the largest, Islam is the fastest growing.

Monotheism

Belief in a single deity(God)

ChristianityJudaismIslam

Polytheism

Belief in two or more deities (gods)

Branches of Christianity

Protestant

Catholic

Orthodox

Hearth of Judaism and Christianity - Israel

The holy city of Islam is?

The holy city for Jews and Christians and a holy city for Muslims is?

Jerusalem

Mecca

Western Wall

Dome of the Rock

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Sacred writings

Quran

Torah

Hearth of Judaism - Israel

Branches of Islam: Sunni (85%) and Shiite (Shia) (15%)

The hearth and the holy city of Islam, Mecca, Saudi Arabia

The Hajj or pilgrimage all Muslims are supposed to make to Mecca at least once in their lives.

The country with the largest Muslim population in the world is?

Indonesia

Buddhism Founded by Siddhartha Gautama in India

Believe in the “Eightfold Path” and “Four Noble Truths” in order to build a more harmonious world.

Hinduism has no single founder. It is considered the oldest continuous religion, possibly dating back 5,000 years.

Hindu holy man

fate

Karma is the reward for living a proper life in your previous live.

Hindu’s believe in death and rebirth, or, reincarnation.

Brahmans

Kshatriyas

Vaisyas

Sudras

Showing theoriginal castelevels in the pyramidshape symbolizes “status”from highest to lowest, but also representsthe the portion of the populationfitting into each level.

Untouchables are NOT a part of the caste system.

Largest %of population

A person is bornand will die inthe same caste

Most Hindus in the world live in India with some 800 million people

Punjab in India is the hearth of the Sikh faith.

Golden Dome in Amritsar

Tens of thousands of Sikhs have migrated to Europe and North America

Traditional, or Animist, religions are found all around the world, but primarily in LDC’s today.

The Columbian Exchange left behind the primary language of Spanish as well as the Catholic religion.

And early “globalization”

When the Spanish arrived there were ~30 million natives

•80%-90% decimated by European diseases like smallpox and measles.

Both positive and negative results.

disease wiped out many Native Americans in Latin America

new animals and foods changed ways of life

The native Indian tribes were forced to work on European plantations. Between brutal work, disease, and mistreatment, most Caribbean Indians died.

To solve this labor problem, the Europeans brought African slaves over to work on the plantations. On many of the islands today, the majority of the population is of African descent.

A lasting legacy of the Columbian Exchange is found in the ethnic diversity found in Latin America.