1. 6th grade Social Studies Chapter 3 Cultures of the US & Canada
Culture Traits
6th grade Social Studies
Chapter 3
Cultures of the US & Canada

2. 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 ten traits. These ten traits are what make different cultures unique from one another.
Culture falls under Place in the Five Themes of Geography.

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

4. 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.

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

6. 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 Trees for Christians
Fasting Ramadan for Muslims
Celebrating Kwanzaa for African Americans
Lighting a Menorah for Jewish people

7. 5. Clothing Clothing helps to represent culture
Example: kilts for Scottish men,
Abaya for Arabic women
Sari for women from India
Cowboy hats for Texans
foustanella skirt for Greek men

8. 6. Food Food helps to make holidays and events special Examples:
Corn beef on St. Patrick’s Day
Pirogue for Polish Christmas

9. 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

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

11. 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
Canada-French/English

12. 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

13. 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.