Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes (part a) Molly Meinhart, Kathleen Connelly, and Claire Babey

Vocab Culture: the total knowledge, attitudes, and habitual behavior patterns shared by society members Language: a set of sounds, combination of sounds, and symbols that are used for communication Ex: English, Spanish, French Official language: in multilingual countries the language selected, to promote internal cohesion; usually the language used in courts and in government, usually selected by the educated and politically powerful elite Ex: English Standard language: the variant of a language that a country’s political and intellectual elite seek to promote as the norm for use in schools, government, the media, and other aspects of a public life Ex: English

Vocab Language family: group of languages with a shared but fairly distant origin Germanic languages: languages that reflect the expansion of people out of Northern Europe to the west and south English, German, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish Romance languages: languages that lie in the areas that were once controlled by the Roman Empire French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Portuguese Slavic Languages: languages that developed as Slavic people migrated from a base in present-day Ukraine close to 2000 years ago Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian

Vocab Global language: the language used most commonly around the world; defined on the basis of either the number of speakers of the language, or the prevalence of use in commerce and trade Extinct language: a language without any native speakers Lingua franca: a “common language” or a language used among speakers of different languages for the purposes of trade and commerce Pidgin language: when parts of two or more languages are combined in a simplified structure and vocabulary Creole language: a language that began as a pidgin language but was later adopted as the mother tongue by a people in place of the mother tongue

Vocab Sound shift: slight changes in a word across languages within a sub-family or through a language family Dialects: local or regional characteristics of a language Dialect chain: a set of contiguous dialects in which the dialects nearest to each other at any place or in the chain are most closely related Isogloss: a geographic boundary that within a particular linguistic feature occurs

Vocab Language divergence: a process in which new languages are formed when a language breaks into dialects due to a lack of spatial interaction among speakers of the language and continued isolation eventually causing the division of the language into discrete new languages Language convergence: the collapsing of two languages into one resulting from the consistent spatial interaction of the peoples with different languages Monolingual states: countries in which only one language is spoken Multilingual states: countries in which more than one language is spoken Toponym: a place name

Language Diffusion Hypothesis Several Major theories hypothesize how, why, and where language diffused over time One commonality among the theories is a focus on Europe because one, it is clear that the language diffused into Europe over time; and two, a significant body of historical research and archaeology focuses on the early peopling of Europe – Conquest Theory – Agricultural Theory – Dispersal Hypothesis

Conquest Theory States that early speakers of Proto-Indo-European spread from east to west on horseback, overpowering earlier inhabitants and beginning the diffusion and differentiation of Indo-European tongues The sound shifts in the derivative languages represent a long period of divergence in languages as one moves west through Europe

Agricultural Theory Proposes that Proto-Indo-European diffused westward through Europe with the diffusion of agriculture Luca Cavalli-Sforza and Albert Ammerman proposed that for every generation (25 years) the agricultural frontier moved approximately 11 miles. This means farmers would have completely penetrated the European frontier in about 1500 years, which is close to what the archaeological record suggests. Some non-farming societies held out and their language did not change

Dispersal Hypothesis The Indo-European languages that arose from Proto-Indo-European were first carried eastward into Southwest Asia, next around the Caspian Sea, and then across the Russian-Ukrainian plains and on into the Balkans

Neolocalism The idea of reinvigorating or reviving a local culture in a new place German Heritage Festival being held in Louisville in order to keep the German heritage alive Little Sweden, USA

Cultural Diffusion Three types of culture: – Folk culture – Pop culture – Local culture Two types of diffusion: – Expansion diffusion – Relocation diffusion

Folk Culture Affects a small group of people Affects a homogenous population Typically located in rural areas Held together by culture traits – Ex. Amish

Pop Culture Practiced by a relatively large population and affects people with different identities and goes across the world Typically urban Changes frequently Affects a heterogeneous population Can change in a matter of hours – Ex. Silly bandz, twerking

Local Culture A group of people in a particular area that see themselves as a collective or a community They share experiences, customs, or traits and work to preserve them in order to distinguish themselves from others They are constantly defining and redefining themselves Local culture affects places by: establishing neighborhoods, building churches/ community centers, and expressing material and non- material culture artifacts – Ex. Purp me bands

Expansion Diffusion When the idea or culture trait spreads outward from the hearth – Hierarchical diffusion- a form of expansion diffusion; it is when the cultural trait spreads to the most linked people or places first (pop culture always spreads through hierarchical diffusion) – Contagious diffusion- a form of expansion diffusion; it is when the cultural trait spreads adjacently to the surrounding places – Stimulus diffusion- a form of expansion diffusion; it is when a culture trait promotes a local experiment or change in the way people do things

Relocation Diffusion The movement of individuals that carry a culture trait with them to another place

Material vs. Non- material culture Material culture: The art, housing, clothing, sports, dances, foods, and other similar items constructed or created by a group of people (direct reflections of the non- material culture) Non-material culture: The beliefs, practices, ethics, and values of a group of people

Cultural Appropriation vs. Custom Adoption Cultural Appropriation: The process by which cultures adopt customs and knowledge from other cultures and use them for their own benefit – Local cultures normally don’t like cultural appropriation because they want to keep their cultural practices private Medicine Custom Adoption: The adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another Native American tribes teaching young generations their languages and practices

Bibliography J., De Blij Harm, Alexander B. Murphy, and Erin Hogan. Fouberg. Human Geography: People, Place, and Culture. New York: J. Wiley, Print.

Jeopardy Rules Must phrase answer as a question Must answer within 1 minute of the question being asked Must be called on… No shouting out answers You gain points for correct answers and lose points from incorrect answers Winning team gets candy patterns-and-processes6 patterns-and-processes6