Cultural Patterns and Processes

Culture is the shared experience, traits, and activities of a group of people who have a common heritage.

1. Art
2. Architecture
3. Language
4. Music
5. Film and Television
6. Food
7. Clothing
8. Social Interaction
9. Religion
10. Folklore
11. Land Use

The definition and interpretation of cultures is complicated and confusing, but fortunately, people can see the cultural landscape in the form of signs and symbols, which can be imprinted on the several components mentioned below.

Major language families list:

• Indo-European (2.9 billion people)
• Sino-Tibetan (1.3 billion people)
• Niger-Congo (435 million people)
• Afro-Asiatic (375 million people)
• Austronesian (346 million people, from Southeastern Asia, Oceania, and Hawaii)
• Dravidian (230 million people, from on and around the Indian subcontinent)
• Altaic (165 million people, from Eastern Europe through Central and Eastern Asia)
• Japanese (123 million people)
• Tai-Kadai (81 million people)

Like language, music is a form of nonmaterial culture that has geographic roots and regional variation. The styles and origin of different types of music intertwine with each other.

Folk and Popular Music

Folk music originated from some specific culture or region and incorporates instruments unique to that region or have orchestrations that are specific to that culture. The lyrics often reflect cultural stories or religious traditions.

Pop music added electronic instrumentation in folk music, and drowning out local folk music traditions from radio and other media, which performs an acculturation which folk music traditions are accepting the influence of popular music.

Bluegrass and Contemporary Music Styles

American folk music and contemporary popularized country music came from Scots-Irish, German and African cultures. In Appalachia area, a type of folk music called Bluegrass, which originated in Kentucky and use fiddle and banjo as lead instruments, went popular from Mississippi, to the Maritime provinces.

American contemporary music styles like country music in Southern states and rock n roll were influenced by Bluegrass heavily. The major difference is that country music tended to use the guitar as lead instrument.

Food is a meterial form of culture that varies regionally and is rooted in a number of geographic ways.

Continental cuisine refers to the formal food traditions that emerged from mainland Europe in the 1800s. It is embodied in haute cuisine, which means "high cooking" in French, where traditionally, a main meat course is served with a flour-, cream, or wine-based sauce and side dishes of vegetables and potatoes.

Nouvelle cuisine is the contemporary form of the continental styles mainly from France, Spain, and ItalyThe lighter, fresh fare of California-style cuisine has become very popular worldwide. These have been popularized by celebrity chefs such as the Austrian-born Californian, Wolfgang Puck, who utilizes a number of Mediterranean agriculture products such as avocados, artichokes, olives, and citrus fruits in his dishes.

Folk Food, are the original base of all those forms. Sushi is a simple but artistic form of folk food from Japan. The Moroccan Hummus folk food tradition utilizes a number of regional ingredients from the Mediterranean and North Africa.

Land survey techniques can also reveal something about the cultural landscape. How property is utilized, shared, or divided can say something about culture through its imprint on the landscape.

Cultural farming practices range from swidden, or a "slash and burn" style of agriculture seen in forest regions, to highly technological large-scale farming seen in the First World. Traditional practices seen in the Third World are quickly disappearing in favor of modern, mechanized farming.

Religions also referred to as belief system, are as numerous as languages. Categorically, religions can be characterized by their expanse. Universalizing religions accept followers from all ethnictries worldwide; as opposed to ethnic religions, which are confined to members of a specific culture group. All organized religions have one or more books of scripture, said to be written of divine origin. They also have formal doctrines that govern religious practice, worship, and ethical behavior in society.

To categorize traditions of worship systems, there are three major classes from old to new:

• Animist Tradition: Various ethnic, tribal, and other forms of nature worship
• Hindu-Buddhist Tradition: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism
• Abrahamic Tradition: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Each of these religions has similar scriptural descriptions of the Earth's genesis and the story of Abraham as a morality tale of respect for the will of God or Allah. Each is a monotheistic belief, system with a singular supreme being. There can also be sub-deities such as saints, angels, and archangels. Significance is placed upon prophecy that predicts the coming or return of a mesianic figure that defeats the forces of a satanic evil for souls of followers.

The term nation is used loosely in normal conversation. However, cultural geographers and political geographers have a specific definition for the term. A nation, in its most basic definition, is a population represented by a singular culture. Another term for nation would be a culture group. What defines a nation is a common identity, which is a complex mix of genetic heritage and political allegiance embodied in the term ethnicity. Ethnic groups often claim a single identifiable lineage or heritage, which all members tend to identify with as a common social bond.

Ethnicity and race are two commonly confused cultural identifiers. Whereas ethnicity represents the national or cultural heritage of an individual, race refers to the physical characteristics of a common genetic heritage. The concept of race was developed by physical anthropologists in the 1800s. Researchers categorized racial groups based on a number of variables including skin color, bone structure, and the shape of the hair shafts (straight, wavy, or curly). These categories were widely believed to be evidence of a biological hierarchy among humans and provided so-called "scientific" support for racist policies and agendas (such as eugenics).

Oppression and discrimination based on race was popularly opposed and legally deregulated in many countries during the latter part of the 20th century. In the contemporary era, it would seem that racism is less of a barrier to success. The 2008 and 2012 elections of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States was a visible sign of progress. Still, disparities in treatment and outcomes in the U.S. court and medical systems (to name just a few examples), provide evidence that structural racism persists into the 21st century.

The world is covered with several overlapping culture regions that create multiple layers on the local to global scale. In the case of culture regions, the homogeneous characteristic can be one or more components of culture, such as language. Likewise, the cultural concept of nation or ethnicity can also represent the culture region. In these cases where ethnicity defines the culture region, look for a multitude of cultural components with which ro define a number of homogeneous characteristics as a complex of factors.

One of the ghints that sets apart cultural regionsfrom other types of regions is their border characteristics. Cultural regions tend to have what are called fuzzy borders. They are referred to as fuzzy because it's hard to tell where one cultural region ends and another begins. In addition, the transition from one cultural region to another is not easily measured, as compared to the way you can measure the transition between one bioregion to another. The fact is that cultural regions overlap in an irregular manner.

The culture hearth is based on the idea that every culture has a localized area where it originated or has its main population center. Contemporary culture hearths exist in today's world. Human geographers also discuss the concept of ancient culture hearths, which developed ideas and technologies that still exist today. The most common of these technologies is the domestication of staple food crops.

Long-term cultural changes can be seen in all of the world's populated regions. One way this is observed is through the concept of sequent occupance. That is, for single place or region, different dominant cultures replace each other over time. To visualize this, think of layers of culture building up on top of each other, much like layers of sediment building up a geologic stratigraphy, When we examine the cultural landscape of a place, we often see remnants of previous cultural influences.

Acculturation -- the process of adapting to a new culture while still keeping some of one's original culture. A good example is when European immigrants came to America in the early part of 20th century.

Assimilation is a complete change in the identity of a minority culture group as it becomes part of the majority culture group. A clear example occurred when the U.S. government adopted a "forced assimilation" policy for the indigenous population. They were forced to move to reservations where they were taught in government-run schools. The people were made to learn English and give up their native tongue.

Trade. Interconnectedness increases along popular trade routes. Renaissance Italy, for example, rediscovered many of its own great ancient works by trading with the Arabic world.

Colonialism.

1. AP Human Geography Prep
2. World Religions Map, PBS Learning Media, https://kamu.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/sj14-soc-religmap/world-religions-map/
3. Our World In Data, Global Food Explorer, https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/global-food
4. Holy Sites In Jerusalem,  https://tamu.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=2691a377539c4cabaf51d19705aa9f52