Components of Culture Culture region: Area within which a culture system prevails Culture trait: A single attribute of a culture Culture complex: - combo of culture traits

Singing about cultural traits to improve development:

Japanese Culture Traits

Ecuadorian cultural traits Cuy: Guinea Pig, a delicacy Dress, bartering pigs for goods in the local market ©Valerie Morgan Mervine

Money is a culture trait: It is a nationalistic source of pride

Food as a cultural trait: Peter Menzelhttp://

The Material World

Food from around the world: Peter Menzell Web cast and a week’s worth of food for a family in Kuwait ory.php?storyId= Menzelhttp://

Components of Culture Culture system: – Culture complexes grouped together because they have culture traits in common Geographic regions: – Term preferred by many geographers instead of culture region Culture realm: – Most highly generalized regionalization of culture and geography

Culture System

The Cultural Landscape A distinctive cultural environment Composite of artificial features – Carl Sauer’s definition includes all identifiably human-induced changes in the natural landscape Sequent occupance – Cultural imprints of successive societies on a place, contributing to the cultural landscape

Sequent Occupance: Inca, other indigenous groups, (33) then Spanish. Presidential palace built on top of Inca stones used for foundation. Old City, Quito Spanish had Catholic cathedrals built, indigenous groups put in sign of sun, etc. important symbols to them. Cuenca, Ecuador

Cultural Landscape: Landscape of the dead Sacred space: Cemetery in Ecuador ©Valerie Morgan Mervine

Cultural Landscape Ancient statues at Jarkhot, Nepal

Norway and Nepal Landscapes

Canadian Cultural Landscapes

Cultural Hearths Sources of civilization First large clusters of human population Progress in farming techniques Exploitation of local resources Complex society = less subsistence time New ideas, innovations, and ideologies spread

Cultural Diffusion The spreading of culture Independent invention Expansion diffusion Relocation diffusion

Relocation Diffusion Acculturation: less technologically-advanced culture is modified by contact with a technologically-superior culture Transculturation: cultural “borrowing” when different cultures of (about) equal complexity and technology come into close contact Assimilation: adoption of cultural elements so complete that the two cultures become one

Transculturation: Cultural borrowing, Baseball diffuses

Relocation Diffusion but also transculturation! Girl Scouts are very popular in Japan too! Can you find the American girl? ©Valerie Morgan Mervine

Resources De Blij, Harm, J. (2007). Human Geography People, Place and Culture. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Domosh, Mona, Neumann, Roderic, Price, Patricia, & Jordan-Bychkov, The Human Mosaic, A Cultural Approach to Human Geography. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company. Fellman, Jerome, D., Getis, Arthur, & Getis, Judith, Human Geography, Landscapes of Human Activities. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Pulsipher, Lydia Mihelic and Alex M. and Pulsipher, World Regional Geography, Global Patterns, Local Lives. W.H. Freeman and Company New York. Rubenstein, James M. (2008). An introduction to human geography The cultural landscape. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.