1. Culture is defined as the way of life of a society, including language, food, religion, music, government, clothing, economy, family life, etc.
2. Key aspects of culture include world religions, world languages, ethnic groups, innovation, and diffusion. Innovation involves creating something new using existing technology and resources, while diffusion is the spread of ideas.
3. Acculturation occurs when a society changes due to accepting or adopting an innovation from another culture.
1. Human Geography People and Places Chapter 4 Section 1 The Elements of Culture “ As the soil, however rich it may be, cannot be productive without cultivation, so the mind without culture can never produce good fruit.” – Seneca, Roman philosopher
2. Vocabulary Using the following terms, students can define “culture” “ Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.” Jawaharlal Nehru diffusion dialect society religion innovation ethnicity cultural hearth acculturation culture
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7. World Religions “ Matters of religion should never be matters of controversy. We neither argue with a lover about his taste, not condemn him, if we are just, for knowing so human a passion.” – George Santayana
8. World Languages “ Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.” Goethe
9. Spanglish "There are many people out there that speak English, Spanish and Spanglish . It is a language that, to this day, academics [distrust], that politicians only recently have begun to take it more into consideration. But poets, novelists and essayists have realized that it is the key to the soul of a large portion of the population."
13. MexAmerica Foods Inc. is a family owned and operated company The Southwest used to have only a handful of Spanish-language radio stations. Today, no major city in United States without a Spanish station. Broadcast and cable television bring full-time Spanish programming as far north as San Francisco, just as it brings English television as far south as Mexico City. Univision has grown to be the largest Spanish-language media outlet in the U.S. Telemundo is its chief rival.
14. Cultural Hearth A site of innovation from which basic ideas, materials and technology diffuse to many cultures
15. Tinseltown Marlon Brando, one of Hollywood’s icons, died recently leaving an estate of $21 million in disarray The icons of Hollywood are watched and imitated worldwide.
