Culture APHuG

Definition of Culture Shared patterns of learned behavior, attitudes, and knowledge.

Shared Patterns Things part of the culture are believed or practiced by a lot of people Pattern implies that we find an element of a culture repeated over & over again in different placements Toothpaste is part of our culture because we use it, but if only you use ketchup it’s not part of the culture

Culture is a learned behavior This means its not genetic or related to race. Culture Trait A single component of culture Do not need to be unique to one culture Some are shared, some are unique French speakingfrance & canada & west africa

Culture Region An area that shares a large number of culture traits. What examples can you think of?

Culture Realm Larger groupings of culture regions What examples you can think of?

Culture Complex Cultural Traits are often related Common practice in the US is to give employees Sundays off. Christianity is the majority religion in the US Could these cultural traits be related? A culture complex is a bundle of traits that have something in common

Automobiles

What might be another culture complex of the U.S.? In a small group come up with a culture complex in the U.S. and provide examples

Cultural Convergence Two or more cultures that share culture traits So much so that aspects of the cultures are similar What are some aspects of other cultures do we have as part of ours?

Components of Culture

1. Artifacts Material objects Procedures for using those objects An Artifact What are some artifacts that our culture produces?

Do you recognize any of these objects?

2. Sociofacts How people in a culture are expected to interact with each other How social institutions are structured These are called sociofacts

3. Mentifacts Ideas, beliefs, values and knowledge of a culture. Individual traits are mentifacts (ideal, democracy) Individual mindset v. loyalty to group

All 3 subsystems of cultures can be related

Cultural Diffusion

Diffusion What do you remember about Diffusion?

Cultural Diffusion begins at a hearth

Reverse Hierarchical Diffusion Where a particular innovation begins in places that are distinctly not centers and then over time begins to make its way up conventional hierarchies. Can you think of any trend, idea, etc. that started in non-centers?

Historical Cultural Hearths

Mesopotamia Contributed Writing Math Astronomy Architecture Legal codes (Code of Hammurabi)

The Americas Incas, Aztecs

West Africa

Nile River

Greco-Roman

Indus Valley

North China