What is Culture I What is culture II

What is Culture? I) What is culture? II) 1) Culture: It is a way of life of a group of people who share similar beliefs and customs. It includes all features of a societies way of life. III) IV) V) VII) VIII) IX) X) A) Culture includes: - Language - Religion - Food - Government - Clothing - Architecture - Family Life

What is Culture? I) What is culture? (Con’t) II) B) Culture is learned by being passed on from generation to generation through: - Teaching - Example - Imitation III) IV) V)

What is Culture? II) Cultural Traits 1) Cultural Traits- are activities or behaviors repeatedly practiced by people in a given culture. A) Some cultural traits are very similar around the world, such as learning how to read and doing math (although different cultures use different alphabets or symbols).

What is Culture? II) Cultural Traits (Con’t) B) Many cultural traits, however, vary from place to place. For example: - A child in the U. S. learns to eat with a fork and knife. - A child in China learns to eat with chopsticks. - A child in Malaysia learns to eat with their fingers. ***Each of these learned cultural traits is considered the best method in its own culture. Can you think of any learned cultural traits?

What is Culture? II) Cultural Traits (Con’t) C) Cultural Traits can change over time. For example, changes can occur in clothing style. - Do you think your parents wore the same clothes as you when they were younger? - Another example of changes in cultural traits is transportation. People once rode horse carts to get to where they were going, now we have sports cars, sport utility vehicles, trains, planes, etc.

What is Culture? III) Cultural Regions A) Cultural Regions- areas that have many shared cultural traits.

What is Culture? IV) Cultural Change 1) Cultural traits can change over time, new cultural traits are added as older traits fade from memory. 2) 2 concepts are important in understanding how cultures change over time: A) Innovation- people are constantly thinking of new ways to do things, and only those ideas which are valuable and useful are accepted into a culture. - Example of innovation is transportation.

What is Culture? IV) Cultural Change (Con’t) B) Diffusion- the 2 nd way cultures can change, this happens when a cultural trait spreads from one culture into another cultural region. - Example: the internet, video games and baseball

What is Culture? IV) Cultural Change (Con’t) 3) Acculturation- This is what occurs when 1 culture changes a great deal through its meeting with another culture. Example: Fast food restaurants like Mc. Donald’s have changed the way people eat around the world.

What is Culture? V) Assimilation 1) Assimilation- The process by which groups of differing ethnic groups change their traditions to be more similar to the dominant culture in an area. 2) America has many different ethnic groups which represent different cultures. 3) Ethnic groups- a population that shares a common cultural background. 4) These ethnic groups slowly assimilate into the American culture.