Culture and Cultural Change Geography 107

culture: the body of customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits constituting a distinct complex of tradition of a racial, religious, or social group cultural landscape: visible evidence of our tastes, values, aspirations, and fears innovation: introduction of new ideas, objects, or technologies that generally originate within the culture group. Traditional and low technology societies generally not as innovative as modern, urban ones. cultural lag: when a social group is slow to adopt innovations and to adapt to changing circumstances. Generally leads to a competitive disadvantage with competing regional peoples. example: African droughts associated with ice ages stimulated hunting technology changes in our modern human ancestors. diffusion: the process by which an idea or innovation is transmitted across geographic space relocation diffusion occurs via carriers who relocate expansion diffusion spreads to areas neighboring the source through contact and exchange of information.

absorbing barrier: something that halts diffusion hierarchical diffusion: ideas leapfrog from one influential person to another, or from one urban center to another, bypassing rural areas examples: new modes of dress, hairstyles, language stimulus diffusion: where a specific trait is rejected, but the underlying idea is accepted example of Siberian Chukchi domesticating reindeer, but only after observing horses and cattle domesticated by peoples south of them distance decay: the declining intensity of any activity, process, or function with increasing distance from its point of origin absorbing barrier: something that halts diffusion permeable barrier: a barrier that allows part of the innovation to diffuse through but acts to weaken and retard the continued spread sigmoidal adoption acculturation: the process of adopting some aspect of another culture

Forces in cultural development: Endogenous factors: elements of the specific local environment or of local cultural history (site, region specific) Exogenous factors: the influence of elements of other places/regions (situation) Which of the above two were most significant 5,000-10,000 years ago? Which has become increasingly more significant in more recent times? Through trade, global communication, and transportation, the balance has shifted to exog. factors, away from engog. factors.