Unit 7 Vocabulary

Buddhism

Religion founded in the sixth century BCE and characterized by the belief that enlightenment would come through knowledge, especially self-knowledge; elimination of greed, craving, and desire; complete honesty; and never hurting another person or animal. Buddhism splintered from Hinduism as a reaction to the strict social hierarchy maintained by Hinduism.

Shintoism

Religion located in Japan and related to Buddhism. Shintoism focuses particularly on nature and ancestor worship

ethnic religion

Religion that is identified with a particular ethnic or tribal group and that does not seek new converts. Ex: Judiasm

sense of place

State of mind derived through the infusion of a place with meaning and emotion by remembering important events that occurred in that place or by labeling a place with a certian character. Ex: Paris- Eiffel tower

mutual intelligibility

The ability of two people to understand each other when speaking. Ex: Lingua Franca

distance decay

The decrease in importance and eventual disappearance of a phenomenon with increasing distance from its origin; the farther away one group is from another, the less likely the two groups are to interact.

custom

The frequent repetition of an act, to the extent that it becomes characteristic of the group of people performing the act. Ex: head wrap

global language

The language used most commonly around the world; defined on the basis of either the number of speakers of the language, or prevalence of use in commerce and trade Ex. English next to Chinese

material culture

The physical manifestations of human activities; includes tools, campsites, art, and structures. The most durable aspects of culture (can hold) Ex: Mosques

cultural appropriation

The process by which cultures adopt customs and knowledge from other cultures and use them for their own benefit Ex: how to farm or grow certain type of plant

glocalization

The process by which people in a local place mediate and alter regional, national, and global processes Ex: Ipod

commodification

The process through which something is given monetary value. Occurs when a when a good or idea that was previously not regarded as an item to be bought and sold is turned into something that has a particular price and that can be traded in a market economy. Ex: Bottled Water

hierarchical diffusion

The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places Ex: commonly in Fashion

queer theory

Theory defined by geographers Glen Elder, Lawrence Knopp, and Heidi Nast that highlights the contextual nature of opposition to the heteronormative and focuses on the political engagement of "queers" with the heteronormative.

dialects

When the speech of two groups or two persons both speaking the same language exhibits very marked differences, the groups or persons are said to speak different dialects. Ex: Southern dialect: What ya'll fixin' to do tonight?

Diaspora

a dispersion of people from their homeland to new land Ex: Zionism

local culture

a group of people in a particular place who see themselves as a collective or a community, who share experiences, customs, and traits, and who work to preserve those traits and customs in order to claim uniqueness and to distinguish themselves from others. Ex: Chicago dyes the river green on St. Patrick's Day

Creole languages

a language that began as a pidgin language but was later adopted as the mother tongue by a people in place of the mother tongue Ex: Tok Pisin

Protestant

a member of a Christian church founded on the principles of the Reformation.

place

a particular space with physical and human meaning Ex: Paris

race

a socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important

religion

a system of beliefs and practices that attempts to order life in terms of culturally perceived ultimate priorities Ex: Christianity

time-space compression

a term associated with the work of David Harvey that refers to the social and psychological effects of living in a world in which time-space convergence has rapidly reached a high level of intensity

secularism

an indifference to religion and a belief that religion should be excluded from civic affairs and public education Ex: Secular music

identifying against

constructing an identity by first defining the "other" and then defining ourselves as "not the other"

dynamic

countries characterized by energy or effective action; vigorously active or forceful; changing

monolingual states

countries or states that only speak one language Ex: Australia, France, and Japan

space

defined by Doreen Massey and Pat Jess as "social relations stretched out."

placelessness

defined by the geographer Edward Relph as the loss of uniqueness of place in the cultural landscape so that one place looks like the next Ex: common scene of McDonald's and Lowes

isogloss

geographic boundary within which a particular linguistic feature occurs, but such a boundary is a rarely simple line Ex: 'Pop' and 'soda' in midwest; 'coke' in south

nonmaterial culture

ideas, knowledge and beliefs that influence people's behavior (can't hold) Ex: Eastern European Orthodox churches

authenticity

in the context of local cultures or customs, the accuracy with which the single sterotypical or typecast image or experience conveys an otherwise dynamic and complex local culture or its customs

monotheistic & polytheistic religions

monotheistic religions believe in one god; whereas, polytheistic believe in numerous gods Ex: Christianity/ Shinto

succession

process by which new immagrants to a city move to and dominate or take over areas or neighborhoods occupied by older immagrant groups Ex: peurto ricans inveaded jewish groups

religious extremism

religious fundamentalism carried to the point of violence Ex: Protests and marches

religious fundamentalism

religious movement whose objectives are to return to the foundations of the faith and to influence state policy Ex: create flyers (aware the people)

Feng Shui

rules in Chinese philosophy that govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to patterns of yin and yang and the flow of energy (qi)

multilingual states

states that speak more than one language Ex: Belgium and South Africa

animistic religion

the beleif that inanimate objects, such as hills, trees, rocks, rivers, and other elements of natural landscape, possess souls and can help or hinder human efforts on Earth Ex: Mormonism

culture

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next Ex: Spanish Culture

global-local continuum

the notion that what happens at the global scale has a direct effect on what happens at the local scale, and vice versa.

assimilation

the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another

caste system

the strict social segregation of people-specifically in india's hindu society-on the basis of ancestry and occupation Ex: untouchables

conquest theory

the theory that early Proto-Indo-European speakers spread westward on horseback, overpowering earlier inhabitants and beginning the diffusion and differentiation of Indo-European tounges

standard language

the variant of a language that a country's political and intellectual elite seek to promote as the norm for use in schools, government, the media, and other aspects of public life Ex for America: English

cultural landscape

the visible imprint of human activity and culture on the landscape Ex: agriculture and industry

Renfrew hypothesis

three areas in and near the first agricultural hearth (fertile cresent), gave rise to three language families: Indo-European, Arabic Languages, and mid-eastern languages

language divergence

when a language breaks into dialects due to a lack of spatial interaction among speakers of a language, and continued isolation causes new languages to be formed.

Hinduism

An eastern religion which evolved from an ancient Aryan religion in which followers strive to free their soul from reincarnation until the soul is finally freed. This religion is practiced primarily in India.

indigenous religions

Belief systems and philosophies practiced and traditionally passed from generation to generation among peoples within an indigenous tribe or group Ex: Native

Shamanism

Community faith in traditional societies in which people follow their shaman - a religious leader, teacher, healer, and visionary. At times, an especially strong shaman might attract a regional following. However, most shamans remain local figures.

folk culture

Cultural traits such as dress modes, dwellings, traditions, and institutions of usually small, traditional communities. Ex: head wraps

popular culture

Culture found in a large, heterogeneous society that shares certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics Ex: rap music

pidgin language

A form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca, used for communications among speakers of two different languages. Ex: the creole language Tok Pisin (sounds like Talk Pidgin)

pilgrimage

A journey to a place considered sacred for religious purposes. Ex: Zionism

lingua franca

A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages Ex: English

extinct language

A language that was once used by people in daily activities but is no longer used. Ex: like ancient tribe languages

Christianity

A monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior.

Confucianism

A philosophy that adheres to the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. It shows the way to ensure a stable government and an orderly society in the present world and stresses a moral code of conduct.

Islam

A religion based on the teachings of the prophet Mohammed which stresses belief in one god (Allah), Paradise and Hell, and a body of law written in the Quran. Followers are called Muslims.

universalizing religion

A religion that attempts to appeal to all people, not just those living in a particular location. Ex: Christianity

Judaism

A religion with a belief in one god. It originated with Abraham and the Hebrew people. Yahweh was responsible for the world and everything within it. They preserved their early history in the Old Testament.

language

A system of communication through the use of speech, a collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning. Ex: Hawaiian

Zionism

A worldwide movement, originating in the 19th century that sought to establish and develop a Jewish nation in Palestine. Since 1948, its function has been to support the state of Israel.

residential segregation

Defined by Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton as "the degree to which two or more groups live separately from one another, in different parts of the urban environment."

barrioization

Defined by geographer James Curtis as the dramatic increase in Hispanic population in a given neighborhood; referring to barrio, the Spanish word for neighborhood.

language families

Group of languages with a shared but fairly distant origin Ex: Romance

dispersal hypothesis

Hypothesis which holds that the Indo-European languages that arose from Proto-Indo-European were first carried eastward into Southwest Asia, next around the Caspian Sea, and then across the Russian-Ukrainian plains and onto the Balkans.

ethnicity

Identity with a group of people that share distinct physical and mental traits as a product of common heredity and cultural traditions.

official language

In multilingual countries the language selected, often by the educated and politically powerful elite, to promote internal cohesion; usually the language of the courts and government Ex: Australia

dowry deaths

In the context of arranged marriages in India, disputes over the price to be paid by the family of the bride to the father of the groom have, in some extreme cases, led to the death of a bride. Ex: if the wives parents dont pay enough money

Slavic languages

Languages that developed as Slavic people migrated from a base in present-day Ukraine close to 2000 years ago. Ex: Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian

Romance languages

Languages that lie in the areas that were once controlled by the Roman Empire but were not subsequently overwhelmed. Ex: French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Portuguese

Germanic languages

Languages that reflect the expansion of peoples out of Northern Europe to the west and south. Ex: English, German, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish

Proto-Indo-European

Linguistic hypothesis proposing the existence of an ancestral Indo-European language that is the hearth of the ancient latin, greek, and sanskrit languages which hearth would link modern languages from scandinavia to north africa and from north america through parts of asia to australia

toponym

Place names given to certain features on the land such as settlements, terrain features, and streams Ex: San Fransico

ethnic cleansing

Process in which more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create an ethnically homogeneous region Ex: Nazis killed the Jewish people

Taoism

Religion believed to have been founded by Lao-Tsu and based upon his book entitled "Tao-te-ching," or "Book of the Way." Lao-Tsu focused on the proper form op political rule and on the oneness of humanity and nature.