Global Culture4.2

3.1 define “culture”, “cultural regions”, and “cultural diffusion”

People who invented ways to irrigate land developed the world’s earliest civilizations. Irrigation projects, settled agricultural communities, and thriving urban centers are the common factors in the world’s earliest civilizations. Among the earliest was Sumer, in the area of Southwest Asia between the Tigris (TYE-griss) and Euphrates (yoo-frey-teez) Rivers. The Sumerians invented a calendar, a system of writing, the plow, the potter’s wheel, wheeled carts, and sailboats.

Elements of Culture

•Language One unifying element of culture is language.•The world’s languages are organized into language families, large groups of languages having similar roots.

• Religion In many cultures religious beliefs influence certain aspects of daily life.

• Throughout history religious symbols and stories have shaped the arts and architecture.

• Religious differences have been the root of conflicts in many countries.

• Social Groups Cultures have social systems that include families, social classes, and ethnic groups.

• Government Despite differences, governments of the world share certain features, such as maintaining internal order, providing for defense, and supplying public services.

• Economic Activities Geographers study economics to see how people in different cultures produce, obtain, use, and sell goods and services.

• Culture Regions A culture region generally includes different countries that share certain characteristics–economic systems, languages, forms of government, or social groups.

• The Agricultural Revolution About 10,000 years ago when the climate grew warmer, early nomadic peoples began to grow food rather than hunting and gathering it.

• Cultural Hearths The world’s first civilizations arose in the areas of present-day Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, China, and Mexico.

• They are known as culture hearths because their ideas and practices spread to surrounding areas.

Cultural Change3.2 identify major cultural regions of the world and significant countries or states and population centres within each region

• Specialization and Civilization As farmers began to supply food surpluses, some people could give up farming and earn their livings from other activities, like shipbuilding or metalworking.

• The production of goods for trade led to increased wealth.

• Cultural Contacts Through trade and travel, people in different civilizations made contacts with one another that promoted cultural change.

• Aspects of migrants’ cultures often blended with those of native populations.

• Industrial and Information Revolutions In the 1700s and 1800s, people began inventing ways to mass-produce goods.

• During the Industrial Revolution, millions of people left their farms to live in cities and work in factories.

• The Information Revolution occurred in the late 1900s as computers made it possible to store huge amounts of information and to send it all over the world instantly.