| Term | Definition |
| Acculturation | The process of adopting the cultural traits or social patterns of another group. |
| Assimilation | The process by which a person or persons acquire the social and psychological traits of a group: eg.
“Waves of immigrants have been assimilated into the American culture.” "Westernization" |
| Cultural adaptation | The adjustment of culture due to new technology, surroundings, beliefs, materials, language, leadership, etc. |
| Cultural core/periphery pattern | based on the notion that as one culture expands in prosperity, it must engulf regions nearby to ensure ongoing cultural success. The area of high cultural growth becomes known as the core, and the neighboring area is the periphery |
| Cultural ecology | the study of the relationship between a given society and its natural environment, including technological, political, or economic aspects, to determine the relationship between the influences of society on the environment. |
| Cultural identity | The cultural background and distinct behaviour an individual tends to be associated with and identified by. A mixture of history, social habits, cultural values and spiritual belief. |
| Cultural landscape | A geographic area of cultural and natural resources that is associated with a historic event, activity, person, or group of people. They can be works of art, texts or narratives of cultures, and expressions of regional identity. |
| Cultural realm | an area with its own distinct culture(language, religion, food, clothes etc.). For instance, Japan has its own unique culture and not really influenced by other cultures around the world but United States is mixture of various cultures. |
| Culture | A group of people that have customary beliefs, distinct traits and traditions |
| Culture region - Formal—core, periphery | An area where the opoulation shares one or more common characteristic. Ex. Language |
| Culture region - Functional—node | an area organized around a node or focal point,classified by patterns of spatial interaction or spatial organization,
ex.Hockey, the functional region for the Vancouver Canucks would Vancouver and surrounding area
ex.2 Newpaper (Vancouver Sun) |
| Culture region - Vernacular (perceptual)—regional self-awareness | a region that people believe exists as a part of their cultural identity,emerges from a person's informal sense of place (subjective)
ex.The South of the US has a different perception than the rest of the states due to history of slave labor |
| Diffusion types - Expansion (three types) | a spread from one place to another that has a snowballing effect: -Hierarchical: spread from persons of authority or power -Contagious: rapid and widespread diffusion -Stimulus: spread of a principal,although the characteristic itself fails to diffuse |
| Diffusion types - Relocation | Spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another
i.e.)AIDs, cultures such as the Amish etc. |
| Innovation adoption | the adoption of an innovation (technology, or new ways and ideas) to adapt to surroundings |
| Maladaptive diffusion | a diffusion of an adaption that has turned harmful as time passes |
| Adaptive strategies | Describes a society's system of economic production. For example, hunters in the Arctic will focus on hunting for food rather than growing it due the harsh climatic conditions |
| Anglo-American landscape | -Influences from Britain caused certain styles of housing
-British Architecture in America |
| Architectural form | The difference in architectural preference, mainly housing, based on social, economic, cultural and environmental factors. |
| Built environment | The effect of large (citywide) and small (personal) scale human activity and infrastructure on the surrounding area of space. |
| Folk culture | Culture traditionally practised by a small group of people in rural communities isolated from other groups. |
| Folk food | Food that is traditionally eaten by the common people of a region. Food that is distinct to a specific group (influence by Folk Culture) |
| Folk house | A house that is traditionally dwelled by the common people of a region. A house that reflected folk cultural life style. |
| Folk songs | songs belonging to the folk music of a group of people or area, has many versions which vary from region to region. Usually passed down from generation to generation not for $. |
| Folklore | The traditional beliefs, customs and ways of a group. Many of these would have been Oral traditions passed down informally over time within a group. Ex. The traditional stories that hold morals for the people to follow,in Irish culture the pagan stories. |
| Material culture | Popular Culture: The material Importance of items such as money and nice cloths and a house.
Folk Culture: The building tools, and other material artifacts that have specific meanings to a specific Culture. Ex. The turban and knife for the Sikh people. |
| Non material culture | The non material aspects of any culture, these are its beliefs, customs, philosophy, Rules, patterns and ways of communication. |
| Popular culture | found in large, heterogeneous societies that share certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics. |
| Survey systems | it is a method used in the United States to survey and identify land parcels, particularly for rural land, and wild or undeveloped land. Its basic units of area are the township and section |
| Traditional architecture | A good reflection of cultural heritage, current fashion, functional needs, and the impact on the environment. |
| Creole | a number of distinct ethnic groups in various countries; mix of culture |
| Dialect | A variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers-each area has their own dialect |
| Indo-European Languages | The Indo-European languages, a branch of the language tree- comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects,including most of the major languages of Europe, South Asia, Southwest Asia, and much of Central Asia |
| Isogloss | a boundary that separates different regions that speak different languages |
| Language | a system of communication through the use of speech, collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning. |
| Language family | collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history |
| Language group | A Language group is a grouping of languages that share the same branch and followed a similar path in recent history. |
| Lingua franca | Any language widely used beyond the population of its native speakers. Becomes lingua franca primarily by being used for international commerce, but can be accepted in other cultural exchanges, especially diplomacy. |
| Linguistic diversity | |
| Monolingual/Multilingual | Monolingual is the ability to speak only one language.
Multilingual means you are able to speak two or more languages. |
| Official Language | An official language is one that is officially recognized by the government of the corresponding nation based on the importance and population who speak the language(s). For example; the official languages of Canada are English and French |
| Pidgin | simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. Pidgins are not the native language of any speech community, but are instead learned as second languages. |
| Toponymy | The study of place names, their origins, meanings and use. |
| Trade Language | A language, especially a pidgin, used by speakers of different native languages for communication in commercial trade. |