6th grade Social Studies Chapter 3 Cultures of the US & Canada Culture Traits 6th grade Social Studies Chapter 3 Cultures of the US & Canada

What is Culture? Culture is the study of ideas, art, and the way of life for groups of people. Culture is developed by different groups of people meeting and combining and changing their best qualities and customs to fit in a new environment. Culture is divided into 10 traits. These 10 traits are what make different cultures unique from one another. Culture falls under Place in the 5 Themes of Geography.

1. Values Values are the things that people hold close to their hearts. Examples: Family, pets, education, religion

2. Beliefs Beliefs are the things you feel and effect how you believe you should live. Example: Believe you should be a good person, believe that everyone should live in harmony, believe that war is wrong, etc.

3. Religion Religion is what many base their values and beliefs on. Examples: there are 5 main religions in the world Buddhism Christianity Hinduism Islam Judaism

4. ART Art includes your music, holidays, dance, traditions, and special things that make you unique. Examples: Fat Tuesday for Polish (Pączki Day) Cinco de Mayo for Mexican Thanksgiving for Americans Christmas for Christians Ramadan for Muslims Kwanzaa for African Americans

5. Clothing Clothing helps to represent culture Example: kilts for Scottish, Abaya for Arabic Sari for India Cowboy hat for Texans

6. Food Food helps to make holidays and events special Examples: Irish potatoes and corn beef on St. Patrick’s day,

7. Government Government is the system that runs the country. Examples: monarchy –ruled by a king or queen Communism-ruled by one person for the good of the people Dictatorship- ruled by one person with force of the military Representative- a democracy or constitutional monarchy, where government is elected by the people

8. Economics This is the type of jobs people have and the currency (money) they use. Examples: most people in Japan are farmers and use the Yen

9. Language Because of the development of language it helped to start the development of culture. This is the type of language typically spoken in a particular culture. Examples: Poland-Slavic Italy-Italian Iran-Arabic

10. Family Life This is who you live with…everyone’s will be a bit different. Traditional examples: Nuclear Family: Mom, Dad, and Brothers/Sisters Extended Family: Uncles, Aunts, Grandparents, and everyone else

What causes culture to change? The meeting of other cultures Economic or government factors Changes in the environment Cultural Diffusion: when a culture takes parts of another culture and makes them their own. This helps to spread ideas, technology, and many other things from group to group.