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III. Concepts of Culture
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AP teachers will find that standard human geography textbooks usually discuss culture in two or three chapters, often in the beginning of the book as a chapter that deals with the nature and various types of geography. The major concepts of human geography -- culture, cultural landscapes, culture traits, and cultural diffusion -- are typically discussed in that chapter. In addition, some books have up to five separate chapters on various cultural topics of interest to geography.
Concepts of Culture
There are many definitions of culture. The simplest is that culture is a set of learned behaviors or shared meanings that affect people's daily lives. They can include values, beliefs, ideas about gender and sexuality, or religion. Basically, every issue that is of interest to humankind falls under culture in some form or another.
To read the narrative and see further sections under each listed heading, please see "More," below.
Traits and Complexes
Geographers usually follow the lead of anthropologists and talk about culture in terms of culture traits and culture complexes.
Diffusion
Diffusion is the spread of cultural elements over space and through time.
Acculturation
An important discussion concerns how the culture of indigenous populations changes or is influenced by expanding industrialization.
Cultural Regions and Realms
For many years, geography's major contribution to the study of culture was the concept or analysis of cultural regions.
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