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1. Anglo America

• Language: English• Religion: Protestant (Christian)

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2. Latin America

• Language: Spanish• Religion: Catholicism

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3. Western Europe

• Language: Indo-European– Germanic: • German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian

– Romance: • Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian

• Religion: – Germanic: Protestant– Romance: Catholic

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4. Eastern Europe

• Language: Slavic• Religion: Orthodox Christianity

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5. East Asia

• Language family: Sino-Tibetan• Religion: Ethnic Religions

(Confucianism/Taoism); Buddhism

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6. SE Asia

• Language: SE Asian Family– Sino-Tibetan, Austronesian, Austro-Asiatic

• Religion: Buddhism/Islam

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7. South Asia

• Language: Indic• Religion: Hindu/Islam

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8. Middle East

• Language: Arabic• Religion: Islam

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9. Sub-Saharan Africa

• Language: Niger-Congo• Religion: Animism/Christianity

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10. South Pacific/Oceania

• Language: English• Religion: Protestant

What is Culture?• Is it biological? Or is it learned?• Customary beliefs (Mentifacts)• Social Forms (Mentifacts)• Material Traits (Material culture/Artifacts)Material Culture/Artifacts• Buildings• Tools• Clothing• Art/Music• Food

Mentifacts• Language• Religion• Ethnicity• Values• Beliefs

Thoughts on Culture

• Environmental Determinism: Shaped by the environment– Similar environments = similar cultures

• Possibilism: people can adjust to environment– Creates many possibilities for culture

• Cultural/Environmental Perception: culture shaped by perception of environment– Shaped by the teachings of culture

• Cultural Determinism: Culture > Environment– Humans determine the scope of the environment

Differences between Folk & Popular Culture

Folk• Small groups• Isolated• Homogenous• Rural areas

• Hearth: usually unknown• Diffusion: slow

Popular• Large groups• Connected (share common

habits...)• Heterogeneous (...despite

differences in personal characteristics)

• Urban areas

• Hearth: MDCs• Diffusion: rapid

Ideograms Phonetics• Characters represent ideas • Characters represent

sounds– Alphabet

• Ours comes from the Roman alphabet, which derives from the Greek alphabet

Written Language

Language Classification

1. Language Families2. Language Branches3. Language Groups

4. Languages5. Dialects6. Accents

Language Families• Languages that are related through a

common ancestor before recorded history

• Indo-European language family

Language Branches

• The groups of languages that share a common ancestor (language family)

• Indo-European Family– 8 Branches

Language Groups

• Collection of languages from a common origin in the relatively recent past

• Germanic Language Branch– Northern Germanic– Western Germanic

Language, Dialect, Accent

• Language is understood among a certain group of people

• Dialect: regional– Vocabulary– Spelling– Pronunciation

• Accent: sub regional/local

Indo-European

• Indo-European language family theorized to originate with “Proto-Indo-European” or “Nostratic” superfamilies– Only a theory– Nostratic theory: combines with Afro-Asiatic (Arabic),

Dravidian, Uralic, Altaic• Diffusion

1. Nomadic Warrior (Kurgan) Theory: Nomadic herders, originated in Russia/Kazakhstan, conquered much of Europe

2. Sedentary Farmer (Renfrew) Hypothesis: Originated in Turkey, spread with agricultural technology

Germanic Romance• Western Germanic

– English– German– Dutch

• Northern Germanic– Danish– Icelandic– Norwegian– Swedish

• Portuguese• Spanish• French• Italian

Western European Branches

Balto-Slavic Indo-Iranian• Eastern Slavic

– Russian– Ukrainian

• Western/Southern Slavic– Polish– Czech– Slovak

• Indic– Hindi (official language of

India)• 438 languages in India

• Iranian

Other Branches

East Asian Languages

• China– Family: Sino-Tibetan– Branch: Sinitic– Languages:• Mandarin (3/4)• Cantonese (Yue)

• Japan– Family: Japanese

Austronesian Austro-Asiatic• Indonesia

– Javanese (2/3)– Tagalog

• Vietnam– Uses the Roman alphabet

“SE Asian” Language Family

Middle East Languages

• Arabic – Afro-Asiatic Family (Semitic branch)

• Farsi – Indo-European Family (Indo-Iranian branch)

• Hebrew – Afro-Asiatic Family (Semitic branch)

African Languages

• 95% of Sub-Saharan Africa speak languages of the Niger-Congo language family

• Most African languages lack a literary tradition