CNS World Studies 2014-15

Unit 3 Vocabulary Cultural Geography

Cultural Geography
Acculturation: process in which members of one cultural group adopt the
beliefs and behaviors of another group. (Chinese immigrant moves to the
United States and begins to dress like Americans and forgets their
traditions.)
Artifacts: objects made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or
historical interest. (gold or silver artifacts)
Assimilation: the process by which a person or persons acquire the social
and psychological characteristics of a group. (Immigrants are often
assimilated into American culture.)
Cultural adaptation: adjusting a translations based on the cultural
environments of the target language. (American advertisers may try to
appeal to potential customers patriotism using the American flag in their
ads)
Cultural core/periphery pattern: the core-periphery idea that the core
houses main economic power of region and the outlying region or
periphery houses lesser economic ties. (Buddhism came from India)
Cultural ecology: study of human adaptations to social and physical
environments. (Adobe-style housing with the southwest and native
americans)
Cultural identity: identity of a group, culture or an individual, influenced by
ones belonging to a group or culture. (self-perception of nationality,
ethnicity, religion, social class)
Cultural landscape: geographical area, including both cultural and natural
resources and the wildlife or domestic animals therein, associated with a
historic event, activity, or person or exhibiting other cultural values.
(National parks)
Cultural realm: the entire region throughout which a culture prevails.
Criteria that may be chosen to define cultural realms include religion,
language, diet, customs, or economic development. (Anglo-American, Latin
America, Islamic, European, Slavic)
Culture: the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual
achievement regarded collectively (Popular culture)
Culture region: area inhabited by people who have one or more cultural
traits in common, such as language, religion, or system of livelihood. Area
that is relatively homogeneous with regard to one or more cultural traits.
(The far west, the midlands, left coast, yankeedom in the United States)
Innovators: a person who introduces new methods, ideas, or products
(Apple iphone users who wait in line to buy the new phone)
Majority adopters: first sizable segment of a population to adopt innovative
technology. (Apple iphone users who buy the new phone after it is
released)
Laggards: a person who makes slower progress and tries new methods a
while after they are introduced. (People who buy iphone 4, when the
iphone 6 is released)

CNS World Studies 2014-15

Unit 3 Vocabulary Cultural Geography

Mentifacts: term coined by Sir Julian Sorell Huxley, used to describe how
cultural traits, such as beliefs, values, and ideas, take on a life of their own
spanning over generations. (Native American stories that are passed
through generations)
Sequent Occupance: notion that successful societies leave their cultural
imprints on a place each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.
(Europeans gave America a lot of the traditions that they continue today.)
Sociofact: describes the way sociological beliefs become ingrained in a
culture throughout generations, ultimately becoming a fact rather than
opinion or interpretation for members of that culture.
Folk & Popular Culture
Built environment: material, spatial, and cultural product of human labor
that combines physical elements and energy in forms for living, working
and playing. (highways, parking lots)
Folk culture: culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogenous, rural
group living in relative isolation from other groups.
Folk food: food that is traditionally made by the common people of a region
and forms part of their culture.
Folk house: houses that reflect cultural heritage, current fashion, functional
needs, and the impact of the environment. The form of each house is
related in part to environmental as well as social conditions.
Folk songs: composed anonymously and transmitted orally. Song derived
from events in daily life that are familiar to the majority of the people;
songs that tell a story or convey information about daily activities such as
farming, life cycle events, or mysterious events.
Folklore: unwritten lore (stories, proverbs, riddles, songs) of a culture.
Material culture: objects, resources, spaces of natural or cultural
significance.
Nonmaterial culture: abstract or intangible human creations of society that
influence peoples behavior. Does not include physical objects or artifacts.
Placelessness: landscapes that have no special relationship to the places in
which they are located they could be anywhere.
Popular culture: culture based on the tastes of ordinary people rather than
an educated elite. Cultural activities that aim to meet the general masses
of people.

Geography of Religion
Polytheism: the belief and worship of more than one god. vs. Monotheism:
the doctrine or belief that there is only one god.
Universalizing: religion that attempts to operate on a global scale and to
appeal to all people wherever they reside. vs. Ethnic Religions: religion that
primarily attracts one group of people living in one place.

CNS World Studies 2014-15

Unit 3 Vocabulary Cultural Geography

Animism: the belief in a supernatural power that organizes and animates

the material universe. The belief that natural objects have souls that may
exist apart from their material bodies.
Hinduism: main religion of India which includes the worship of many gods
and the belief that after you die you return to life in a different form.
Buddhism: path of practice and spiritual development leading to insight
into true nature of reality. Practices like meditation.
Judaism: the religion developed among the ancient Hebrews that stresses
belief in god and faithfulness to the laws of the Torah. Religion of the
Jewish people.
Christianity: the religion derived from Jesus Christ, based on the Bible as
sacred scripture. (Roman Catholic, Eastern, Protestant)
Islam: the religious faith of Muslims, based on the words and religious
system founded by the prophet Muhamad and taught by the Quran, the
basic principle of which is absolute submission to the unique and personal
god, Allah.
Eastern Religions Confucianism: system of philosophical and ethical
teachings founded by Confucius., Taoism: a Chinese philosophy based on
the writings of Lao-tzu advocating humility and religious piety., Shinto:
Japanese religion dating from the early 8th century and incorporating the
worship of ancestors and nature spirits and a belief in sacred power in both
animate and inanimate things.
Freedom of Religion: right to practice whatever religion one chooses. vs.
Separation of Church & State: government must maintain an attitude of
neutrality toward religion.
Theocracy: system of government in which priests rule in the name of God,
or a god.
Societal impacts of religion:
Church attendance is the most important predictor of marital
stability and happiness
Strength of a family unit is intertwined with practice of religion.
Religion belief and practice contribute to formation of moral criteria
judgement.
Regular practice of religion encourages beneficial effects on mental
health
Religious practices generally inoculates individuals against a host of
social problems drugs, alcohol, and suicide.
Syncretism: amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different
religions, cultures or schools of thought.
Secularization: historical process in which religion loses social and cultural
significance. To make secular, to separate from religious or spiritual
connection or influences.
Fundamentalism: a form or religion that upholds belief in strict, literal
interpretation of scripture.
Landscapes of the dead: certain areas where people have commonly been
buried. ( Cemetery for Christianity and Islam)

CNS World Studies 2014-15

Unit 3 Vocabulary Cultural Geography

Sharia law: moral code and religious law of a prophetic religion. (Identified
with Islam)
Fatwa: ruling on a point of Islamic law given by a recognized authority.
Madrasa: college for Islamic instruction.
Geography of Language
Language: method of human communication, spoken or written, consisting
of the use of words in a structure and conventional way.
Language divisions families (group of languages related through descent
from a common ancestor), branches (newer, less commonly spoken
languages that has an older parent language), groups (group of
languages), dialects (regional or social variety of a language distinguished
by pronunciation, grammar, vocab), accents (mode of pronunciation)
Worlds leading languages, total numbers and distribution
10 French, 129 million
9 Malay-Indonesian, 159 million
8 Portuguese, 191 million
7 - Bengali, 211 million
6 Arabic, 246 million
5 Russian, 277 million
4 Spanish, 392 million
3 - Hindu, 497 million
2 English, 508 million
1 Mandarin, 1 billion +
Endangered: language that is at risk of falling out of use as its speakers die
out or shift to speaking another language. Extinct Languages: no more
native speakers
Ideograms
Indo-European languages: widespread family of languages, comprising
those spoken most in Europe and in parts of the world colonized by
Europeans.
Sino-Tibetan: family of more than 400 languages spoken in East Asia,
Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia.
Afro-Asiatic: family of languages widely distributed over southwestern Asia
and northern Afric.
Development of English
Polyglot states: person having a speaking, reading, or writing knowledge of
several languages.
Ethnolinguistic group: field of linguistics which studies the relationship
between language and culture and the way different ethnic groups
perceive the world.
Pidgin: grammatically simplified form of a language, used for
communication between people not sharing a common language.
Creole: mother tongue formed from the contact of two languages through
an earlier pidgin stage.

CNS World Studies 2014-15

Unit 3 Vocabulary Cultural Geography

Social: variety of language associated with a social group such as

socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, age group etc. vs. vernacular
dialects: native language or native dialect of a specific population.
Isolated language: language that has no known linguistic affiliation with
any other language.
Toponym: place name
Isogloss: line on a dialect map marking the boundary between linguistic
features.
Lingua franca: a language that is adopted as a common language between
speakers whose native languages are different.
Geography of Ethnicity
Acculturation (above)
Apartheid: a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds
of race.
Assimilation (above)
Barrio: district of a town in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries
Balkanization: used to describe the process of fragmentation or division of
a region or state into smaller regions or states that are often hostile or
non-cooperative with one another.
Cultural shatterbelt: area where diverse languages are spoken.
Ethnic cleansing: the mass expulsion and killing of one ethnic group or
religious group in an area by another ethnic or religious group in that area.
Ethnic conflict: a war between ethnic groups, often as a result of ethnic
nationalism.
Ethnic enclave: a neighborhood, district, or suburb which retains some
cultural distinction from a larger, surrounding area.
Ethnic group: people of the same race or nationality who share a
distinctive culture.
Ethnic homeland: a place of origin for a certain ethnicity.
Ethnic landscape: various ethnic groups that make up a population.
Ethnic neighborhood:
Ethnocentrism: belief in superiority of one's own ethnic group
Ghetto: a poor densely populated city district occupied by a minority
ethnic group linked together by economic hardship and social restrictions.
Multi-ethnic state: has people belonging to more than one ethnic group.
Multi-national state: sovereign state which is viewed as comprising two or
more nations.
Nationality: status of belonging to a particular nation.
Nationalism: patriotic feeling, principle, or efforts.
Plural society: a society combining ethnic contrasts.
Race: the categorization of humans into populations or ancestral groups on
the basis of various sets of heritable characteristics.
Segregation Index

CNS World Studies 2014-15

Unit 3 Vocabulary Cultural Geography

Social distance: the perceived or desired degree of remoteness between a

member of one social group and the members of another, as evidenced in
the level of intimacy tolerated between them.