Summary
Highlights
Culture is defined as shared practices, technologies, attitudes, and behaviors passed down by a society. It can be understood through the 'cultural iceberg' analogy: visible traits (language, clothing, behavior) are above the water, while less observable values and thought patterns are below. Cultural traits include food preferences, architecture, and land use, each reflecting a society's unique values. Attitudes towards cultural differences include cultural relativism (embracing other cultures by their own standards) and ethnocentrism (judging other cultures by one's own standards, often leading to xenophobia).
Cultural landscapes are physical environments modified to reflect human culture. These are shaped by five categories: agricultural and industrial practices (e.g., terraced rice paddies, row houses), religion (sacred spaces like churches, mosques, temples), linguistic characteristics (bilingual signs in ethnic enclaves), sequent occupance (cultural imprints left by successive groups, like the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount), and traditional vs. post-modern architecture (traditional uses local materials and needs, while post-modern emphasizes form and cultural expression).
A culture's identity affects how people occupy and perceive space. Ethnicity, gender attitudes, ethnic neighborhoods, and indigenous communities are key influences. Placemaking involves physically altering a space, while 'sense of place' refers to the meanings people attach to those spaces. Language, religion, and ethnicity contribute to a people's sense of place. These factors can act as centripetal forces (binding people together) or centrifugal forces (driving them apart).
Cultural diffusion is the process of cultural traits spreading from one place to another, originating from a cultural hearth. Relocation diffusion occurs as people migrate, carrying their cultural traits with them (e.g., Catholicism in Latin America due to European imperialism). Expansion diffusion involves the trait spreading while the people remain in the hearth and has three subtypes: contagious diffusion (rapid spread to adjacent populations, like slang), hierarchical diffusion (top-down spread from powerful entities to less powerful ones, like hip-hop), and stimulus diffusion (an original trait inspires a new, related innovation, like McDonald's Maharaja Mac).
Historical causes of diffusion include colonialism and imperialism. The first wave of European imperialism diffused languages like English in North America and Spanish in Central America, and led to the forced migration of enslaved Africans who brought their own cultural traits. The second wave, the Scramble for Africa, also diffused European languages and customs. Trade, such as the Silk Roads, facilitated the exchange of ideas and religions. These interactions can lead to new cultural traits like lingua franca (a common language for communication, like English) and creolization (combining languages to form a new one, like Afrikaans). Contemporary causes include globalization, increased urbanization, and the influence of media, technology, politics, and economics. Globalization, accelerated by digital technology, allows rapid spread of cultural ideas like K-pop. Urbanization concentrates diverse populations, fostering cultural exchange and the creation of new trends.
Cultural diffusion results in two major effects: cultural convergence and cultural divergence. Cultural convergence is when cultures become more similar due to interaction, often accelerated by time-space compression (reduced time and space between places due to improved transportation). This can lead to the loss of indigenous languages as a lingua franca gains prominence. Cultural divergence occurs when cultures, despite interaction, choose to maintain their distinct traditions, often by rejecting new technologies or ideas, as seen with the Amish community.
Languages are categorized into families (largest grouping, sharing an ancestral language, e.g., Indo-European), branches (languages developed from the same family but with distinct grammars, e.g., Romance, Germanic), and individual languages/dialects. Religion also diffuses from cultural hearths. Universalizing religions (e.g., Christianity, Islam, Buddhism) appeal to diverse cultures and spread easily through relocation and expansion diffusion. Ethnic religions (e.g., Hinduism, Judaism) are closely tied to specific ethnic groups and regions, making them less prone to widespread diffusion, typically spreading through relocation.
Cultural encounters have four main outcomes: acculturation (adopting some traits of another culture while maintaining one's own), assimilation (fully adopting another culture, which can be forced or voluntary), syncretism (blending two or more cultural traits to create a new one, e.g., African religions with Christianity), and multiculturalism (different cultural groups coexist and maintain their distinct identities).