Social Studies Mr. Boyes - MRMS What is Culture? Social Studies Mr. Boyes - MRMS

1) Culture Culture is the shared beliefs, traditions and or language of a group of people. Culture can be seen in any combination of the following: Oral traditions, art, dance, music, literature, architecture, and religion

2) Cultural Diffusion 2) Culture is the movement of things such as plants, animals, goods, and ideas between cultures. Think of food coloring into water.

The Spread of New Technologies (cont.) Even more recently, scientists and engineers developed cellular (mobile) phones. These have spread rapidly even to less developed nations, which lack enough telephone cables for landline telephones. In just a few years, cellular phones have spread from America, Japan, and Europe to every region of the world.

The Spread of New Ideas Contacts between different cultures can also lead to important exchanges of ideas. Religious beliefs, political ideas (like democracy) and other ideas often spread from one culture to another. The great world religions all spread from their places of origin to neighboring areas. Islam, for example, arose on the Arabian Peninsula. Arab peoples then brought Islam to the rest of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain. Later, Islam spread to parts of South and Southeast Asia.

The Spread of Cultural Traits Even such elements of culture as clothing fashions, art styles, ways of cooking food, and music can spread from one region to another. Walk down the streets of any American city and you might find Italian and Chinese restaurants or women wearing shoes based on styles from Europe.

3) World languages World languages are spoken in many countries and by millions of people. Examples include Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, English, Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Japanese, and German.

4) World Religions World religions are beliefs important to millions of people in many countries. The largest religions include Christianity (all variations), Islam (all variations), Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism

Geography of Religion Click here to watch animated map.

6) Social Structure Social structure is the organization of different groups in a society or culture and how the groups interact with one another. An example is the Patricians and Plebeians of ancient Rome.