Sample List of Characteristics of People in a Culture Region
1. Population factors – description, distributions, density, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age,
rates of birth, death and natural increase, gross national product
2. Family structure, marriage customs and other folkways (e.g., eating utensils, food and eating
customs, clothing styles, gestures, art, music, drama, recreational activities and games)
3. Languages – human communication and its imprint on places alphabets, names of places and
features in the landscape original and colonial languages; literature including folklore
4. Educational institutions: schools, universities, curriculum, knowledge, technical skills
5. Governmental organization, laws and institutions, military, government buildings, museums,
history, important events such as colonial periods, revolutions
6. Holiday and customs
7. Religion – human belief systems and their imprints on places beliefs, customs, places of
worship, shrines
8. Settlement patterns – rural, urban and suburban
9. Economic activities – how people make a living (agriculture, industry, forestry, fishing,
providing services), technology, systems of land and property ownership, and the imprint of the
economic system on the landscape: terrace farming, highways and rail networks, and the like
10. Cultural diffusion: Those culture traits that have originated outside the region but are now
acculturated (a part of this region’s culture).