Unit 3

Cultural Patterns and Processes: the one-page sheet

3.1 Introduction to Culture

Culture is what a group learns and shares: practices, beliefs, objects and behaviors passed from one generation to the next. Culture traits include food, architecture and land use. Folk culture is small-group and slow to change; popular culture is widespread and fast-changing. Ethnocentrism judges another culture by your own standards, while cultural relativism seeks to understand it on its own terms, the habit geographers use.

Culture is the shared practices, beliefs, objects and behaviors that a group learns and passes on. Each separate part, such as a food, a greeting or a house style, is a culture trait.
Folk culture belongs to a small, close group, is taught by family and community, and changes slowly. Popular culture is shared by large, mixed groups through media and business, and changes quickly.
Ethnocentrism judges another culture by the standards of your own. Cultural relativism tries to understand a practice by the standards of the culture it belongs to.
Culture traits show up on the land: in food, in buildings such as the adobe homes of Taos Pueblo, and in land use, such as where pigs are raised in Indonesia.

those shared ways are its culture, made of many culture traits culture is passed on by teaching, not inherited at birth they may judge it by their own standards (ethnocentrism) or try to understand it on its own terms (cultural relativism) they can explain why a trait makes sense in its place instead of ranking cultures

culture: The shared practices, beliefs, objects and behaviors that a group of people learns and passes on to the next generation.
culture trait: One single part of a culture, such as a food, a greeting, a style of house, a holiday or a way of using land.
cultural relativism: Trying to understand a practice by the standards of the culture it belongs to, before judging it.
ethnocentrism: Judging another culture by the standards of your own culture, often seeing your own as the right or best way.
folk culture: Culture kept by a small, close group, often rural, taught by family and community, and slow to change. Plain dress and barn raisings among the Amish are examples.
popular culture: Culture shared by large, mixed groups of people in many places, spread by media and business, and quick to change, such as hit songs, chain restaurants and fashion.

3.2 Cultural Landscapes

The cultural landscape is the human imprint on the land: buildings, fields, signs and places of worship. Landscapes build up in layers as each group leaves marks the next one reuses, which is sequent occupance. Architecture can be traditional (local styles and materials) or postmodern (mixed styles from about the 1970s on). Ethnicity, gender and Indigenous ways of life all shape space, from ethnic neighborhoods such as Little Saigon to the hogans of the Navajo Nation.

The cultural landscape is the land as people have changed it: fields, buildings, signs, roads and places of worship laid over the physical landscape.
Sequent occupance is the idea that each group that occupies a place leaves marks that later groups keep, change or reuse, so a landscape has layers, as at St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis.
Traditional architecture follows a long-standing local style and local materials (an adobe home, a Navajo hogan). Postmodern architecture, from about the 1970s on, mixes styles on purpose and looks similar in many cities.
Ethnicity is identity with a group that shares ancestry and traditions. An ethnic neighborhood is an area where one ethnic group is concentrated, visible in its signs, shops and places of worship.

it adds buildings, farms, signs and places of worship: its cultural landscape they reuse, change or replace those marks, so the landscape builds up in layers (sequent occupance) an ethnic neighborhood forms, with signs, shops and temples that serve the group who uses which spaces changes, and the built landscape follows

cultural landscape: The land as people have changed it: buildings, fields, roads, signs and places of worship laid over the physical landscape.
traditional architecture: Buildings made in a long-standing local style, usually with local materials, such as adobe homes in New Mexico or thatched cottages in Ireland.
sequent occupance: The idea that each group that lives in a place leaves marks on the landscape that later groups keep, change or reuse, so the landscape has layers.
postmodern architecture: A building style from about the 1970s on that mixes older and newer styles on purpose, often with playful shapes; it looks similar in cities around the world.
ethnic neighborhood: An area within a city or town where many people of one ethnic group live, often marked by their language on signs, their shops and their places of worship.
ethnicity: Identity with a group of people who share ancestry, history and cultural traditions. It is cultural, not biological.

3.3 Cultural Patterns

Language, religion and ethnicity are not spread evenly: they form regional patterns that you describe by naming where, what and how much. People shape their places through placemaking, which builds a sense of place. Cultural traits act as centripetal forces when they pull people together and centrifugal forces when they push them apart, and the same trait can do both at different scales, as Dutch and French do in Belgium.

Language, religion and ethnicity form regional patterns: Dutch in northern Belgium and French in the south; a mostly Muslim north and mostly Christian south in Nigeria. Describe a pattern by naming where, what and how much.
Placemaking is people shaping a place to express who they are, such as the murals of Pilsen in Chicago. It builds a sense of place: the meaning a place holds for people.
A centripetal force pulls people together (a shared language, a national holiday). A centrifugal force pushes them apart (two languages in separate regions, a religious divide).
Name the scale: one trait can be centripetal inside a region and centrifugal for the country, as the Catalan language is in Spain.

a regional pattern of culture forms that you can map placemaking gives the area a strong sense of place it pulls people together: a centripetal force it can unite that region but pull it away from the country: a centrifugal force

placemaking: People shaping a place, with murals, festivals, signs or buildings, to express who they are and build a shared sense of place.
centripetal force: Anything that pulls the people of a place together and unites them, such as a shared language, a national holiday or a shared religion.
centrifugal force: Anything that pushes the people of a place apart and divides them, such as two languages in separate regions or a deep religious divide.

3.4 Types of Diffusion

Diffusion is the spread of a trait from its hearth. In relocation diffusion people move and take the trait along. In expansion diffusion the trait spreads while it stays strong at home: contagiously to nearby people and places, hierarchically from large or powerful places to smaller ones (or the reverse), or as stimulus diffusion when the idea spreads but changes. Real cases often mix types, and distance decay and time-space compression shape how far and how fast a trait spreads.

Diffusion is the spread of a trait from its hearth, the place where it began.
Relocation diffusion: people move and carry the trait, as Irish migrants brought Saint Patrick's Day parades to Boston. Expansion diffusion: the trait spreads outward and stays strong at home.
Expansion comes in three kinds. Contagious: person to person, place to nearby place. Hierarchical: from big or powerful places to smaller ones (or in reverse, as Walmart did). Stimulus: the idea spreads but is changed, as with Sequoyah's syllabary.
Real spread mixes kinds: a trait can jump between big cities (hierarchical) and then ripple outward from each (contagious). Name each stage separately.

it can spread outward to other places: diffusion the trait moves with them: relocation diffusion that is expansion diffusion, by contact (contagious), down a ladder of size or power (hierarchical), or as an idea that changes (stimulus) contact falls, so contagious diffusion weakens far away, unless fast links shrink distance

diffusion: The spread of a culture trait, idea or invention from one place to other places over time.
hearth: The place where a culture trait, idea or invention began, and from which it spread.
relocation diffusion: Spread of a trait when people who hold it move to a new place and take it with them.
expansion diffusion: Spread of a trait outward from its hearth while it stays strong where it began. It has three kinds: contagious, hierarchical and stimulus.
contagious diffusion: Expansion diffusion from person to person and from place to nearby place, like a ripple, regardless of size or power.
hierarchical diffusion: Expansion diffusion from larger or more powerful places or people to smaller or less powerful ones, skipping places in between. Reverse hierarchical diffusion runs from small places up to large ones.
stimulus diffusion: Expansion diffusion in which an idea spreads but people change it to fit their own culture, so the trait takes a new form.

3.5 Historical Causes of Diffusion

Long before the internet, trade, colonialism and imperialism moved culture across the world. Trade routes spread goods, words and skills; colonial powers spread their languages, religions and sports to the places they ruled, which is why Portuguese is spoken in Brazil and cricket is played in India. Where cultures met, new forms appeared: a lingua franca let different groups communicate, pidgins grew for trade and work, and creolization blended cultures into new languages and foods, such as Haitian Creole and Louisiana gumbo.

Trade spread culture long before modern times: papermaking traveled west from China along the Silk Roads, and Indian Ocean trade gave Swahili many Arabic words.
Colonialism is ruling another place directly, often with settlers. Imperialism is extending power and influence over other places by force, money or culture. Both spread languages, religions and sports, such as Portuguese in Brazil and cricket in India.
A lingua franca is a shared language between groups with different home languages (Swahili in East African markets, English for international flights).
A pidgin is a simple mixed language no one speaks from birth. Creolization is cultures mixing into a new form; when children learn a pidgin as their first language, it becomes a creole, such as Haitian Creole.

goods, words, foods and beliefs spread between distant ports and markets their languages, religions and laws spread to the places they rule they use a lingua franca or make a pidgin, a simple mixed language it becomes a creole, and cultures blending into new forms is called creolization

imperialism: A country extending its power and influence over other places by force, money or culture, whether or not it rules them directly.
creolization: The mixing of different cultures in one place into a new local form, such as a new language, food or music.
pidgin: A simple mixed language that grows when groups with no shared language must trade or work together. No one speaks it as a first language; if children do, it becomes a creole.
lingua franca: A language that people with different home languages use to communicate with each other, often for trade or work.

3.6 Contemporary Causes of Diffusion

Globalization links places through trade, travel, media and the internet, so traits now spread farther and faster than ever. Media, technology, politics, economics and social ties all carry culture, and growing cities mix people of many groups. The result is cultural convergence, as places share brands, media and English, and cultural divergence, as groups protect or revive their own culture. Indigenous languages are threatened when young people switch to dominant languages, yet laws, schools and new media can help them recover, as te reo Māori has in New Zealand.

Globalization is the growing connection of places through trade, travel, media and the internet. It spreads culture through media, technology, politics, economics and social ties.
Cultural convergence: places grow more alike, with the same chain stores in Dubai and Toronto and English used for business and much of the internet.
Cultural divergence: places grow or stay different, as when France requires French songs on its radio (a 1994 law) or families revive te reo Māori.
Culture is made by people, so it changes. Growing cities mix people of many groups and spread popular culture, while video calls let migrants keep their culture from home.

traits spread farther and faster than ever (time-space compression) places grow more alike: cultural convergence small and Indigenous languages lose speakers and are threatened places stay or become more distinct: cultural divergence

globalization: The growing connection of places around the world through trade, travel, media and the internet, so goods, money, people and ideas move faster and farther.
cultural convergence: Places and cultures growing more alike as they share the same products, media, styles and languages.
cultural divergence: Places and cultures growing or staying different, often because a group protects or revives its own language and customs.

3.7 Diffusion of Religion and Language

Languages and religions spread from hearths, and maps, charts and place names show their paths. Languages belong to families of related languages, such as Indo-European, split into branches, languages and dialects. AP® Human Geography classes Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Sikhism as universalizing religions, which spread by expansion and relocation, and Hinduism and Judaism as ethnic religions, which mostly stay near the hearth or spread by relocation. Religion figures come with a source and a year: Pew Research Center, 2025 report on 2020 data.

A language family is a group of languages that grew from one ancient ancestor. Indo-European is the largest by speakers and includes branches such as Germanic (English), Romance (Spanish) and Indo-Iranian (Hindi).
A dialect is a regional version of one language, such as the Spanish of Mexico City and of Madrid. A toponym is a place name, and names such as Santa Fe record who settled a place.
AP® Human Geography classes Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Sikhism as universalizing religions: they seek followers anywhere and spread by expansion and relocation.
It classes Hinduism and Judaism as ethnic religions: tied to one people and place, they mostly stay near the hearth or spread by relocation. These are AP® Human Geography labels; followers may not use them.

it can spread outward by expansion or travel with migrants by relocation their speech split into branches and languages that form one language family it spreads by expansion and relocation, far from its hearth it mostly stays near its hearth, or spreads by relocation when followers move

language family: A group of languages that grew from one ancient ancestor language. Indo-European, which includes English, Spanish and Hindi, is one.
dialect: A regional version of one language, with its own words, pronunciation or grammar, that speakers of other versions can still mostly understand.
toponym: A place name. Toponyms often record who named or settled a place, such as the Spanish names of Santa Fe and Los Angeles.
universalizing religion: A religion that seeks followers from any place or group and spreads widely. AP® Human Geography classes Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Sikhism this way.
ethnic religion: A religion tied to one people and their homeland, which mostly stays near its hearth or spreads when followers migrate. AP® Human Geography classes Hinduism and Judaism this way.

3.8 Effects of Diffusion

When diffusion brings cultures together, four results are common. In acculturation a group adds new traits and keeps its own. In assimilation its own traits fade away, by choice or by force. In syncretism traits blend into a new form, as in the Day of the Dead. In multiculturalism groups live side by side, each keeping its culture. Telling them apart comes down to one question: what happened to the original culture?

Acculturation: a group adopts some traits of another culture and keeps its own.
Assimilation: a group takes on another culture so fully that its own traits fade away. It can be chosen, or forced by policy.
Syncretism: traits from two cultures blend into a new form, such as the Day of the Dead in Mexico or Santería in Cuba.
Multiculturalism: many cultures live side by side in one society and each keeps its own traits, as in Toronto under Canada's 1971 policy.

people adopt, keep, lose or blend traits that is acculturation, as with a newcomer who learns English but keeps her home language that is assimilation, sometimes chosen and sometimes forced, as in Canada's residential schools the result is syncretism (the Day of the Dead) or multiculturalism (Toronto)

acculturation: When a group adopts some traits of another culture while keeping its own culture.
assimilation: When a group takes on another culture so fully that its own traits fade away. It may be chosen or forced.
syncretism: The blending of traits from two or more cultures into a new form, such as a festival or religion that neither culture had before.
multiculturalism: Many cultures living side by side in one society, each keeping its own traits; also a policy that supports this.