| Words | Definitions |
| acculturation | the adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another |
| animism | most prevalent in Africa and the Americas, doctrine in which the world is seen as being infused with spiritual and even supernatural powers |
| artifact | any item that represents a material aspect of culture |
| Buddhism | system of belief that seeks to explain ultimate realities for all people-such as the nature of suffering and the path toward self realization |
| caste system | system in India that gives every Indian a particular place in the social hierarchy from birth. Individuals may improve the position they inherit in the caste system in their next life through their actions, or karma. |
| Christianity | the world's most widespread religion. Christianity is a monotheistic, universal religion that uses missionaries to expand it's members world wide. The three major categories of Christianity are Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox |
| creole | a pidgin language that evolves to the point at which it becomes the primary language of the people who speak it |
| cultural complex | the group of traits that defines a particular culture |
| cultural extinction | obliteration of an entire culture by war, disease, acculturation, or a combination of the three |
| cultural geography | the subfield of human geography that looks at how culture spreads over time |
| cultural hearth | locations on earth's surface where specific cultures first arose |
| cultural trait | the specific customs that are part of the everyday life of a particular culture, such as language, religion, ethnicity, social institutions , and aspects of popular culture |
| culture | a total way of life held in common by a group of people, including learned features such as language, ideology, behavior, technology, and government |
| denomination | a particular religious group, usually associated with differing Protestant belief systems |
| dialect | geographically distinct versions of a single language that vary somewhat from the parent form |
| diaspora | people who come from a common ethic background but who live in different belief systems |
| ecumene | the proportion of the earth inhabited by humans |
| environmental determinism | a doctrine that claims that cultural traits are formed and controlled by environmental conditions |
| ethnic cleansing | the systematic attempt to remove all people for a particular ethnicity from a country or region either by forced migration or genocide |
| ethnic neighborhood | an area within a city containing members of the same ethnic background |
| ethnic religion | religion that is identified with a particular ethic or tribal group and that does not seek new converts |
| ethnicity | refers to a group of people who share a common identity |
| evangelical religions | religion in which an effort is made to spread a particular belief system |
| folk culture | refers to a constellation of cultural practices that form sights, smells, sounds, and rituals of everyday existence in the traditional societies in which they developed |
| fundamentalism | the strict adherence to a particular doctrine |
| genocide | a a premeditated effort to kill everyone from a particular ethnic group |
| ghetto | a segregated ethnic area within a city |
| global religion | religion in which members are numerous and widespread and their doctrines might appeal to different people from any region of the globe |
| hinduism | a cohesive and unique society, most prevalent in India, that integrates spiritual beliefs with daily practices and official institutions such as the caste system |
| Indo-European Family | language family including he Germanic and Romance languages that is spoken by about 50% if the world's population |
| Islam | a monotheistic religion based on the belief that there is one God, Allah, and the Muhammad was Allah's prophet. Islam is based in the ancient city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Muhammad |
| Judaism | the 1st major monotheistic religion. It is based on a sense of ethnic identity, and its adherents tends to form tight-knit communities, wherever they live |
| language extinction | this occurs when a language is no longer in use by any living people. Thousands of languages have become extinct over the eons since languages first developed, but the process of language extinction has accelerated greatly during the past 300 years |
| language family | a collection of may languages, all which came from the same origin tongue long ago, that have since evolved different characteristics |
| language group | a set of languages with relatively recent common origin and many similar characteristics |
| lingua franca | an extremely simple language that combines aspects of two or more other, more-complex languages usually used for quick efficient communication |
| literacy | the ability to read and write |
| local religion | religions that are spiritually bound t particular regions |
| minority | a racial or ethnic group smaller than and differing from the majority race or ethnicity in a particular area or region |
| missionary | a person of a particular faith that travels in order to recruit new members into the faith represented |
| monotheism | the worship of only one god |
| multicultural | having to do with may cultures |
| official language | language in which all government business occurs in a country |
| pidgin | language that may develop when two groups of people with different languages meet. The pidgin has some characteristics of each language |
| pilgrimage | a journey to a place of religious importance |
| polytheism | the worship of more than one god |
| pop culture (or popular culture) | dynamic culture based in large, heterogeneous societies permitting considerable individualism, innovation, and change; having a money-based economy, division of labor into professions, secular institutions of control, and weak interpersonal ties |
| race | a group of human being distinguished by physical trains, blood types, genetic code patterns or genetically inherited characteristics |
| romance languages | any languages derived from latin including Italian, Spanish, French, and Romanian |
| shaman | the single person who takes on the roles of priest, counselor, and physician and acts as a conduit to the supernatural world in a shamanist culture |
| Sino-Tibetan family | language area that spreads through most of Southeast Asia and China and is comprised of Chinese, Burmese, Tibetan, Japanese, and Korean |
| syncretic | traditions that are borrow from both the past and present |
| toponym | place names given to certain features on the land such as settlements, terrain features, and streams |
| tradition | a cohesive collection of customs within a cultural group |
| universalizing religion | religion that seeks to unite people from all over the globe |
