What is culture What elements make up a

What is culture? What elements make up a culture? Why do cultures change?

Culture is 1. All the features of a society’s way of life.

Culture is 2. Learned and passed down from generation to generation. Think: Santa Claus

Culture 3. Includes all of a society’s shared values, beliefs, institutions, and technologies. Think: US Flag, Freedom of Speech

Culture. . . 4. Gives roles to individuals and establishes relationships within groups in a society. Think: School relationships

Cultural Traits • Activities and behaviors that people repeatedly practice. • They can vary Think: eating US: fork, knife, spoon China: chopsticks Malaysia: fingers/hands

Culture Traits, cont. • Change through time Think: clothing styles in the USA from colonial period to today

How do cultures change? • Assimilation • Innovation • Diffusion • Acculturation

Assimilation 1. When one culture group adapts to the attitudes, belief systems and ways of life of another culture. Usually, a weaker culture is absorbed by a more dominant culture. Think: Native Americans

Innovation 2. New ideas that are accepted into a culture. Think: Horse v. cars, etc.

Diffusion 3. The spread of an innovation or other culture trait into another culture region, which then adopts that element into its own culture. Think: Hip Hop or Rap Music

Diffusion, cont. • The spread can be gradual. Think: Country music from Nashville, TN

Diffusion, cont. • Or the spread can happen when people move from a region and carry the innovation with them. Think: Christianity from Europe

Acculturation 4. When one culture changes a great deal through its meeting with another culture. Usually a two-way process in which each culture changes the other. Think: USA fast food and the growth of ethnic foods.