7 Elements of Culture
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7.
Language
Religion
Social Organization
History
Art
Government
Economy
Language
• Key element in culture’s development
– People pass on cultural values, traditions, communicate
information and experiences
• World languages are organized into language
families
– Large group of languages having similar roots
• Seemingly diverse languages may belong to same family
• Ex: English, Spanish, Russian – Indo-European language family
Religion
• Religion allows people to
find a sense of identity
– Beliefs vary significantly
around the world and can
be a source of conflict
– Influences daily life
– Religious symbols and
stories shape cultural
expressions such as
painting, architecture, and
music.
Social Organization
• Social system develops so
culture works together to
meet basic needs
– Family is the most
important group
– Most cultures are made of
social classes too
– Often cultures include
people who belong to
different ethnic groups
Government
• Governments of the world share certain
features
– Each maintain order, provide protection, and
supply services
• Gov’t is organized by levels of power and by
type of authority
– Levels = National, regional, local
– Type = autocracy, oligarchy, democracy
Economies
• When examining cultures, geographers look at
economic activities
– Study how natural resources are used to meet human
needs
– Analyze the ways in which people produce, obtain, use,
and sell goods and services
• Three types of economies
– Traditional – habit and custom determine rules of activity
– Mixed – gov’t supports and regulates free enterprise
through decisions that affect the marketplace
– Command – Gov’t owns or directs the means of
production (land, labor, capital) and controls the
distribution of goods
Culture Regions
• To organize the understanding of cultural development,
geographers divide the world into culture regions
– Includes countries that have certain traits in common
• May share similar economic systems, forms of gov’t, social groups, histories,
religions, art, etc.
Culture Hearths of the World
What is a Cultural Hearth?
• a site of innovation from which basic ideas,
materials, and technology diffuse to many cultures.
• a "heartland", a foundation of a major culture.
• source area
Why are these considered cultural hearths?
- religion
- use of iron tools and weapons
-highly organized social structures
- development of agriculture started and
spread from these areas.
Positive Role of Environment
Created
in a region that agriculture is possible
Irrigation and drainage possible
Forced people to work together / form
communities
Rivers supplied basics for existence
Food, water
Sanitation
Shelter
Negative Role of Environment
Problems
with living near a river valley
Destroyed by frequent floods that
ravaged entire cities
Restrained political development
(Sumer was a geographical maze)
Communication amongst the various
isolated cities was very difficult
MESOPOTAMIA
Fertile crescent
Land between 2 rivers – Tigris
& Euphrates
Development of systematic agriculture
Sumer – cuneiform writing, complex irrigation
Wheeled carts/vehicles
Potter’s wheel and Ox drawn plows
NILE RIVER VALLEY
Tip of Fertile crescent
Complex Government and
social structure
System of irrigation
Flat roofed homes
Early writing - Hieroglyphics
365 day calendar
Mathematics – numbering system
Including fractions
Monuments – pyramids, etc.
Courts and justice system
Present Day Pakistan
INDUS RIVER VALLEY
Mohenjo Daro & Harrappa caste system
Careful city planners - earliest
known sewer systems, cities in
grid-like pattern, windowless
walls facing the street
Earliest system of weights and
measures
HUANG HE & CHANG JIANG (YANGTZE)RIVER VALLEY
Control rivers with dikes and dredging
Present day China
First written records
Silk Manufacturing/Dyes
Wood used as building
material
MESOAMERICA
Mayans -Advancements in math and astronomy (spring/fall
equinoxes, etc.)
Incas -Terraced farming
Aztecs - Medicine – herbal remedies
Olmec – art –
jewelry, pottery, etc.