BR: T1D12 When you think of culture, what comes to mind? What about a specific culture? Food? Language? Clothing? Music? Customs? ¿Cómo se llama?

World Geography Ch. 3.2 Global Cultures Culture refers to the many shared characteristics that define a group of people.

What is Culture? In one phrase, culture is the way of life of a group of people who share similar beliefs and customs. We can better understand another culture by looking at some elements: What language(s) do they speak? Alt LINK What religion(s) do they follow? What smaller groups make up their society? Latin America Examples The study of culture also involves more simple things, like daily lives and habits, their history and traditions, as well as the art that they share and create. As you can imagine, culture is studied not just by geographers, but also archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and others!

Culture Aspects: Society There are many different aspects, or parts of culture. An important part of society is what we call social groups. These are different groups in society that interact with each other. Being a student makes you part of that social group. So does being old, or young, or male or female, etc. All these groups have rules, or expectations, many unspoken. And people within groups also have status, or positions of power / influence. In all cultures, the family is the most basic unit of society, and helps teach us these groups, rules, etc. We all belong to ethnic groups as well. These groups share a common language, history, religion, physical traits, etc. We have many such ethnic groups here in the U.S., and we are changing too! VID

Other Factors: As mentioned before, language is a very powerful unifying force for a culture. There are over 2000 languages, not including dialects, spoken in the world today. A dialect is a local form of a language, with unique pronunciation and words as well. Examples VID, LINK Religion, or beliefs that help explain basic questions about the meaning of life, unify many cultures as well. There are 100s of religions worldwide, but the five major religions are Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. VID

Other Culture Factors: History is a key part of culture. Many cultures have oral traditions, or stories based on the past of that culture. These stories help people develop pride, respect and unity for their own culture. Holidays are an important way to keep that history vibrant as well. Example VID Daily life of course is also affected by culture. What and how you eat, for example, is a reflection of your culture. Do you use a fork, chopsticks, or bread to eat your food? The clothes you wear? Breakfast of the world VID Art is another thing that is affected by culture, such as music, painting, sculpture, dance, literature, etc. There are many different styles and types, each often unique to one place: VID, VID

Government & Economy: When people live together, they have to have rules to keep everyone happy. Governments fill this need, keeping everyone together with the least amount of conflict. There are many different government types around the world. VID Main ones: Democracy: People are (in)directly involved in decisions If people have representatives to do this, it is known as an indirect / representative democracy, or a republic Oligarchy: Small group holds the power Autocracy: One person is in charge. Monarchy: A hereditary leader is in charge. Dictatorship: The leader rules by force, and regular peoples’ rights are limited. Economy relates to how people earn a living. People create, sell, trade, etc. using the resources around them. If a country or culture’s economy is doing well, you can usually see it in the quality of life of its people.

Class Activity: For the remainder of class, you’ll be working on the following: Get together in groups of 2-3, and create a poster (using the butcher paper provided) based on research of one of the following World Religions: Christianity*, Islam*, Hinduism*, Buddhism*, Judaism*, Sikhism, Bahaism, Confucianism, Jainism, Shintoism, etc. You can choose another, or a subdivision of a larger one, as long as it has at least 1 million believers. The most influential ones are marked with an asterisk, and we’ll need a poster for sure on each of those. See the instructions for further details, requirements, etc. You will be presenting these next time in class! (T1D13)

HW: Reminder: Choose one of the following: Option A: Do some research on one of the three main ideas discussed today options (Population Growth, Where People Live, Population Movement, etc.), and then create a story that tells us more about your chosen topic (for instance, for Pop. Movement, the reasons for a person’s migration, difficulties faced, etc. Option B & C: Do some research, then create a slideshow presentation or a Poster on one of the topic options (Population Growth, Where People Live, Population Movement, etc.), showing us what you learned and the importance of understanding it better. For all of these options, see the class handouts: (Remainder Due: Tuesday, Sept. 26 aka T1D15)