Terms that appear in Dr. Heatwole's article
are written in plain text.
Terms that appear in Dr. Jervis's article are
Terms that appear in both articles are in
anthropology - The study of the
similarities and differences of the world's people.
barrier effects - Physical, economic, cultural,
and political obstacles that inhibit the spread of culture
(e.g., language, religion, race/ethnicity, or even historic
events). See also physical barrier effects and
social barrier effects.
civilization - Generally understood as a more advanced form of
organized life; civilizations usually have more complex forms
of social, political, military, and religious life. Writing
and the use of metals are also features of many
contacts - Outside
influences that stimulate cultural change. The Silk Road
brought silk to the West and Buddhism
to China in the East.
cultural change - A shift that may
occur within a culture, usually as a result of outside
communities - Groups that have a number of cultural
traits in common. Most countries include a mosaic of many
components - Attributes that
vary from culture to culture, including religion, language,
architecture, cuisine, technology, music, dance, sports,
medicine, dress, gender roles, laws, education, government,
agriculture, economy, grooming, values, work ethic,
etiquette, courtship, recreation, and gestures.
cultural diffusion -
The spread of a culture and/or an individual trait, and the
factors that account for such a spread.
cultural dissonance - Elements of discord or lack of agreement within a
cultural ecology - The interactions between a
culture and its physical environment.
cultural geography - A branch of geography that
focuses on cultural traits, the impact
of material and nonmaterial human culture on the environment,
and the human organization of space.
interaction - The
interconnectedness of various cultural components.
cultural landscape - The natural landscape as modified by human
activities and bearing the imprint of a culture group or
society including buildings, shrines, signage, sports and
recreational facilities, economic and agricultural
structures, transportation systems, etc.
cultural practices - Ways of life that are unique to the inhabitants
of a particular area.
stereotype - The misrepresentation of a culture that
often involves a particular people's clothing, food, and/or
shelter, and most often rests on the notion that certain
people live pretty much as did their distant ancestors (e.g.,
the Inuits are portrayed dressed in animal skins, carrying
spears, and living in igloos with dog sleds parked outside;
in reality, modern Inuits live much like other North
cultural traits -
Distinguishing features of a culture such as language, dress, religion, values, and an emphasis on
family; these traits are shared throughout that culture.
culture - The
total way of life held in common by a group of people,
including technology, traditions, language, and social roles.
It is learned and handed-down from one generation to the next
by non biological means. It includes the patterns of human
behavior (i.e. ideas, beliefs, values, artifacts, and ways of
making a living) which any society transmits to succeeding
generations to meet its fundamental needs.
culture areas -
Regions with shared cultural traits (e.g., sub-Saharan
culture hearth - An area where a distinctive
set of cultural traits develops, such as the Fertile Crescent
and the Nile River Valley.
culture region - A portion of the Earth's
surface that has one or more common cultural elements.
diversity - Understanding and respecting others and oneself
including the similarities and differences in language,
gender, socioeconomic class, religion, and other human
characteristics and traits.
environment - The
overall setting, including natural elements and elements created
by humans, in which a world community exists.
ethnic change - A situation in which one
cultural community is expanding or contracting in opposition
to another, often leading to an atmosphere of tension and
conflict between communities.
ethnic groups - A collection of people distinguished, by others or
themselves, primarily on the basis of cultural or nationality
The academic subject that describes and explains the
distribution of phenomena that characterize our planet's
surface in terms of both physical and human features or
global diversity - The existence of thousands of cultures having
similarities and differences in language, socioeconomic
class, religion, and other human traits.
human geography - The study of the
distribution of human
populations, their cultures, their activities and behaviors,
and their relationship with and impact on the physical
landscapes they occupy.
language - A symbolic form of communication-perhaps the most
important feature of a culture.
The permanent (or relatively permanent) relocation of an
individual or group to a new, usually distant, place of
residence and employment.
multicultural - Many cultures coexisting in a similar time and
"nature or nurture" -
Whether it is our inherited genetic predisposition ("nature")
or what we learn as we grow up ("nurture") that predominantly
shapes us and our differences as individuals.
effects - Characteristics of the natural (physical)
environment that inhibit the spread of culture.
physical geography - The study of the structures,
processes, distributions, and changes through time of the
natural phenomena of the Earth's surface that are significant
to human life (e.g., oceans, deserts, mountain ranges, dense
forests, and climates).
race - Features (e.g., skin, hair, and eye color) that
are genetic (inherited) and shared by a large group of
people. Social scientists now doubt whether race is a useful
rural - Having to do with the countryside; rustic; away from
cities and suburbs.
communities - As communication
and transportation technology has improved, the ability of
groups of people to interact quickly across time and space
has made distance across the globe and between communities
effects - Characteristics that differentiate human
groups and potentially limit interaction between them, thus
inhibiting the spread of culture (e.g., language, religion,
race and ethnicity, and a history of conflict between
specific cultural communities).
social institutions - A set of organized beliefs, rules, and practices
that establishes how a society will attempt to meet basic
Having to do with a district, town, village, etc. on the
outskirts of a city.
symbolic meanings - Words or other communicative things such as
gestures or pictures that stand for something else.
Having to do with cities, or characteristic of cities.
westernization - The process in which non-Western societies acquire Western culture traits, which are adopted in varying
degrees of thoroughness.
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of New York | The State Education Department
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www.nysed.gov | 2006