Definition of Culture • Culture is a group’s way of life, including the shared system of social meanings, values, and relations that is transmitted between generations. • Culture can be seen as “learned behavior.”
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Definition of Culture
• Culture is a group’s way of life, including the shared system of social meanings, values, and relations that is transmitted between generations.
• Culture can be seen as “learned behavior.”
Cultural Geography is concerned with…
• …how place affects culture.
• …how culture affects place.
• …the distributions of culture
groups and reasons for those distributions.
Culture Traits
• …are single elements of normal practice in culture.
• …include beliefs, institutions, language, and technology.
A culture complex is a group of interrelated
culture traits related to one aspect of a culture or
society.
A Culture Region• …is an area that shares common culture
traits.
A Culture Realm…• …is a group of culture regions that share a
common culture system.
Cultural landscape refers to the distinct imprint of a culture on the
land. .
Each group of inhabitants leaves their distinctive imprint on the landscape in a
process of “sequent occupance.”
Sequent occupance--imprint of communism in Germany.
Indian imprint on New Mexico landscape
Spanish influence in New Mexico
TerritorialInfluence In New Mexico
A culture hearth is a region where cultural traits such as
religion and agriculture develop.
Cultural Diffusion
• …is the process of spreading an idea or an innovation from one area to another
Expansion Diffusion…
• …occurs where contact causes cultural traits to be adopted (often through conquest or trade).
Expansion diffusion example:
• The Spanish converted the Indians of Middle America to Roman Catholicism in the 16th and 17th Centuries.
Expansion diffusion example:• McDonald’s restaurants can be found in
many locations around the world.
Relocation Diffusion…
• …is a result of migration.
Relocation diffusion example
• German migrants to Fredericksburg, Texas brought their culture with them.
Relocation diffusion example
• It is common to find mosques in many American communities today.
Stimulus diffusion occurs when a specific trait is rejected, but the
underlying idea is accepted.
Siberians rejected cattle herding, but adopted reindeer herding instead.
Acculturation
• …is the process by which a culture is substantially changed through interaction with another more powerful culture.
Transculturation occurs when strong cultures interact with each other and each
acts as both a source and adopter.
Some things inhibit diffusion
Time-Distance decay
Cultural restraints
Perceptual regions exist in our imaginations.
What is “the South?” Where is it?
Percent who say each state is Southern
“All in all.”
Where kudzu grows
Acres of cotton cultivation
Lynchings--1900-1930
Support for third-party or unpopular major-party presidential candidates
Concentrations of poor, rural black Southerners
Housing units without complete plumbing
Illiteracy rates
Active dentists per 1000 residents
High burglary rates
Members of Baptist Churches
Birthplaces of country music notables
States mentioned in country music lyrics
Ratio of homicides to suicides
No state law against sex discrimination in 1972
Low percentage of white women employed in traditionally white male
occupations in 1985
Colleges and universities that publish sports magazines
Chapters of the Kappa Alpha Order in 1988
“Dixie” listings as percentage of “American” listings in telephone directories ca. 1975
Average scores on”Index of Southern
Preference”
“Southern Living” readers as a percentage of white population
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