BELLRINGER READ AND ANALYZE: page 83 “Types of Government” What is the difference between a direct democracy and a representative democracy?

Chapter 3: The World’s People Section 1: Understanding Culture I. What Is Culture? A. Culture is the way of life of a group of people who share similar beliefs and customs. B. When studying culture, geographers look at eight traits - social groups, language, religion, daily life, history, arts, government, and the economy.

C. Among social groups, geographers study rich, poor, and middle class people. They may look at age or gender. They may study different ethnic groups, or people who share a common language, history, religion, and some physical characteristics.

D. Among people who speak the same language, one may hear a local form of a language, or dialect, that differs from the main language.

E. In many cultures, religion helps people answer basic questions about life’s meaning. Religious beliefs vary greatly around the world and have resulted in conflicts and struggles based on religious differences. F. Daily life varies in different cultures. For example, the types of foods that people eat and the way they build their homes may vary.

G. History shapes how people view the world G. History shapes how people view the world. Many cultures celebrate holidays that honor their heroes and heroines. A culture is influenced by how it remembers its successes and how it remembers its disasters and defeats. H. Culture is expressed through art, including painting, sculpture, architecture, dance, music, theater, and literature. Insight into a culture can be gained by studying what its people think is beautiful and important.

I. Types of government can reflect a country’s culture I. Types of government can reflect a country’s culture. A democracy is a form of limited government in which power rests with the people of a nation. In a representative democracy, such as the United States, citizens elect representatives. Some governments are led by individuals. In a dictatorship, dictators control and rule as they wish. In a monarchy, kings and queens inherit the power to rule.

J. In studying how the people of a culture earn a living, geographers study the culture’s economic system. This “system” sets rules for how people decide what goods and services to produce and how they are exchanged.

II. Cultural Change A. The process of spreading new knowledge and skills to other cultures is called cultural diffusion. This happens as a result of trade, the movement of people, war, television, the Internet, and so on.

B. As people learned to grow food, they tended to stay in one place and build settlements. This produced highly developed cultures, or civilizations. C. In the 1700s and 1800s, some countries began to industrialize and built factories to make goods, leading to the Industrial Revolution.

D. More recently, the widespread use of computer technology has led to the Information Revolution. People around the world can instantaneously send and receive information. E. Geographers group the world’s countries into culture regions that have traits, or cultural characteristics, in common.

EXIT STRATEGY SMART board Work Create a diagram that describes features of your culture Our Culture