AP Human Geography Unit 3 Cheatsheet: Cultural Patterns and Processes

Culture = shared practices, technologies, attitudes, and behaviors transmitted by a society.

Cultural traits: food preferences, architecture, land use, clothing, religion, language.

Two contrasting attitudes toward cultural difference:

• Cultural relativism: evaluate practices within their own context; avoid judgment
• Ethnocentrism: judge other cultures by your own culture's standards; assumes your culture is superior

Cultural landscape = physical features + agricultural/industrial practices + religious & linguistic characteristics + evidence of sequent occupancy + traditional & postmodern architecture + land-use patterns.

What shapes landscape use:

• Attitudes toward ethnicity and gender
• Role of women in workforce
• Ethnic neighborhoods and segregation
• Indigenous communities and land claims

Centripetal forces = pull people together; strengthen unity and identity.

• Shared language, religion, ethnicity
• Common history or national pride
• Unified government or economy

Centrifugal forces = push people apart; create division and fragmentation.

• Language, ethnicity, or religious differences
• Regional inequality or resentment
• Competing identities or political movements