1. Intro to Culture Notes Elements of Culture
A culture can be understood by looking at its language, religion, daily life, diet, history, art, government, technology, and economy.
Cultures may include people in different ethnic groups, which are groups of people who share a common language, history, or place of origin.
Geographers divide Earth into culture regions, which are areas with certain traits in common, such as similar economic systems or forms of government.

2. Intro to Culture Notes Cultural Change
Cultures are constantly changing through new ideas, lifestyles, inventions, and through spatial interactions such as trade and migration.
The spread of culture is called diffusion. When people move into a new culture and begin to behave like that culture, it is called cultural assimilation. You can say they are assimilating into the new culture by dressing, eating, and participating in daily activities like “normal, everyday people.”
The world's first civilizations arose in culture hearths that emerged from farming settlements.
Surplus food allowed early civilizations to focus on long- distance trade, leading to the development of complex social systems
Today technology has increased cultural contact and promoted cultural change as ideas spread throughout the world.

3. Intro to Culture Notes Globalization
Globalization is process of making something worldwide in scope. It makes the world more uniform and more similar. Globalization creates similar preferences and habits.
Globalization is best studied in two parts:
Globalization of economy – the world is more interdependent now than ever before. The countries of the world work together in international trade; companies can and do operate in hundreds of countries. For example, the shirt you are wearing is likely to be made of cotton grown in Kazakhstan, assembled in Vietnam, and purchased from Baybrook Mall in Webster, Texas.
Globalization of culture – cultural ideas are universally known and accepted all over the world. Music, food, and clothing are ways that people all over the world connect. For example, McDonald’s can be found in over 100 countries where customers are wearing blue jeans, drinking coke, and listening to music on their Iphone.

4. Each picture is of a different world city. Can you name the four cities?

5. Toronto, Canada
San Francisco, USA
Hong Kong, SAR (China)
Singapore, Singapore

6. Russian McDonalds