Chapter 4

Question 1

What is an artifact?

Answer 1

Any item, made by humans, that represents a material aspect of culture

Artifacts provide insight into the cultural practices and beliefs of a society.

Question 2

Define built environment.

Answer 2

The man-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from personal shelter to neighborhoods to the large-scale civic surroundings.

Question 3

What does cultural convergence refer to?

Answer 3

The contact and interaction of one culture to another.

Question 4

What is cultural/environmental perception?

Answer 4

The concept that people of different cultures will observe and interpret their environment differently.

Question 5

Define cultural landscape.

Answer 5

Modifications to the environment by humans, including the built environment and agricultural systems, that reflect aspects of their culture.

Question 6

What is a cultural realm?

Answer 6

The entire region throughout which a culture prevails.

Question 7

List criteria that may define cultural realms.

Answer 7

• Religion
• Language
• Diet
• Customs
• Economic development

Question 8

What is a cultural hearth?

Answer 8

Locations on earth’s surface where specific cultures first arose.

Question 9

Define cultural trait.

Answer 9

The specific customs that are part of the everyday life of a particular culture.

Question 10

What is a cultural region?

Answer 10

A region defined by similar culture traits and cultural landscape features.

Question 11

What is a custom?

Answer 11

Practices followed by the people of a particular cultural group.

Question 12

Define folk culture.

Answer 12

Culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous, rural group living in relative isolation from other groups.

Question 13

What is food attraction?

Answer 13

Reasons certain cultures/regions eat certain types of food.

Question 14

What is a habit?

Answer 14

A repetitive act that a particular individual performs.

Question 15

What is material culture?

Answer 15

The physical manifestations of human activities, including tools, campsites, art, and structures.

Question 16

Define popular culture.

Answer 16

Dynamic culture based in large, heterogeneous societies permitting considerable individualism, innovation, and change.

Question 17

What is possibilism?

Answer 17

The theory that the physical environment may set limits on human actions, but people can adapt to the physical environment.

Question 18

What is a taboo?

Answer 18

A restriction on a behavior imposed by a social custom.

Question 19

Define placelessness.

Answer 19

Loss of a distinct local feature in favor of standardized landscapes.

Question 20

What is relocation diffusion?

Answer 20

Sequential diffusion process in which items are transmitted by their carrier agents as they relocate.

Question 21

Define acculturation.

Answer 21

When one group of people adopts the culture traits of another culture.

Question 22

What is cultural assimilation?

Answer 22

The process whereby a minority group gradually adopts the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture.

Question 23

What is commodification?

Answer 23

The process through which something is given monetary value.

Question 24

Define cultural appropriation.

Answer 24

The adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture, often viewed negatively.

Question 25

What is cultural adaptation?

Answer 25

New people adapt to the culture of the previously existing people.

Question 26

What is immaterial culture?

Answer 26

The beliefs, practices, aesthetics, and values of a group of people.

Question 27

What is archetectural structure?

Answer 27

The style of a particular culture or society's buildings.

Question 28

What are mentifacts?

Answer 28

Ideas, beliefs, and knowledge that comprise the ideological subsystem of culture.

Question 29

Define sociofacts.

Answer 29

Expected and accepted patterns of interpersonal relations within a group of people.

Question 30

What is a charter group?

Answer 30

The first ethnic group to establish cultural norms in an area.

Question 31

Define cultural imperialism.

Answer 31

Dominance of one culture over another, historically a result of colonization.

Question 32

What is culture?

Answer 32

The ideas, practices, and material objects associated with a particular group of people.

Question 33

What is a diaspora?

Answer 33

Experiences of people from a common ethnic background living in different regions.

Question 34

Define diffusion.

Answer 34

Process by which an idea or innovation is transmitted from one individual or group across space.

Question 35

What is hierarchical diffusion?

Answer 35

An idea or innovation spreads by passing first among the most connected places or people.

Question 36

What is environmentalism determinism?

Answer 36

How cultural traits are formed and controlled by environmental conditions.

Question 37

Define ethnic cleansing.

Answer 37

Effort to rid a country or region of everyone of a particular ethnicity.

Question 38

What is genocide?

Answer 38

Premeditated effort to kill everyone from a particular ethnic group.

Question 39

Define ethnic enclave.

Answer 39

A relatively small area occupied by a distinct culture or ethnicity.

Question 40

What are ethnic islands?

Answer 40

Small rural areas settled by a single ethnic group.

Question 41

What are ethnic neighborhoods?

Answer 41

Concentrations of people from the same ethnicity in certain pockets of the city.

Question 42

Define ethnicity.

Answer 42

A group of people who share a common identity, involving social and cultural identity.

Question 43

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 43

The tendency to evaluate other cultures against the standards of one's own.