The Study of Human

Geography
What is Culture?
• The beliefs and
actions that
define a group of
people’s way of
life
 Culture
1. Customs / Beliefs
2. Language
3. Religion
4. Technology
5. Institutions / Government
 Customs / Beliefs
(Lead to Traditions)

Reflect the values of a society

 Family Structure
Parents may live with just their children.
Other places parents, children, and extended family
live together.
Gender Roles: Changing Gender Traditional Roles
• Roles Roles: • Many countries
specifically • Women in in the world
assigned to men America have maintain
and women. seen many traditional roles
changes for women.
 Language
• Needed to communicate
 Religion
• Set of beliefs about the meaning of
life and the supernatural

• Customs and practices deal with those

beliefs
 Major Religions

Judaism
Christianity
Islam
Hinduism
Buddhism

Animism
Sikhism
 Technology
• Urban vs. Rural

• Modern vs. Traditional

Rural
Urban
Modern Technology
Traditional Technology
 Institutions / Governments
• Institution –take care of social needs

• Government –protect from outsiders

and regulate behavior
Schools
Hospital
Military
 Cultural Hearth
Point of origin of a cultural trait
Cultural Hearth
Cultural Convergence
The contact and interaction of one
culture with another
Spain introduces Roman
Catholicism into Mexico
 Mexican American culture introduces
Roman Catholicism to the Southwest US
Spreading European Languages
Cultural Divergence
restriction of a culture from outside
influences
Cultural Divergence
Cultural Divergence
Cultural Divergence
 Cultural Diffusion
(also known as spatial diffusion)
a cultural element is transmitted across
some distance from one group or
individual to another
Spread of Christianity from
Europe to America
Spanish introducing horses to
America
Movies made in America going
to the rest of the world
Buddhism spreading into China
Islam spreading into Indonesia
Spreading European Languages