2. How are local cultures sustained?Local cultures are sustained in many ways even as much of it fades over time and more is created. Local culture is mainly sustained to traditions and customs. A custom is a practice by a group of people that routinely follow. Like a custom could be any thing from always going having big 4th of July parties to certain Christmas traditions. I also think a big thing that helps sustain cultures is families and churches. Those are the huge things that help me keep my local culture. Like my church has so many traditions and things and really keep us all together but also lets certain things in from popular culture but not to much in my Greek orthodox church.

3. How is popular culture diffused?

Popular culture is diffused every where, in every town, high school, church, groups, everywhere. They all have there own stars and idol are from there area and that they get from the media, TV, internet and so on. The country and even the world all know Kobe and Shaq. You see popular in music, dance, clothing, food, religious practices and aesthetic values. These all are all way it gets diffuse and shown. Popular culture diffuses by transportation, marketing, and communication networks. The newest hottest thing in Paris can be seen in America in a matter of days.

4. How can local and popular culture be seen in the cultural landscape?

Local and popular cultures can be seen all over, by an area’s cultural landscape. In big cities there are tons of skyscrapers and large airports. In these area’s and all around the world you can see popular culture like McDonalds, block busters, Dunking donuts, and many other popular American places. But then you can see how the building look there shapes and colors it may be a McDonalds but its not styled the way one in America is. Also you can tell a lot by the types of religious buildings if they have a lot of church synagogues you can tell a lot about the people and there local culture. Then for example if you go to a place like Arizona every thing is tan and has a southwest look to it but then if you go to the east coast there will be a much different look.

5. What is Identity, and how are identities constructed.

Identity is really who you are and how you see yourself. Maybe Geographer Gillian Rose defined it as “how we make sense of ourselves” many people look at you and think the see your identity through the clothes you wear, car you drive, house, memberships, and even jewelry. But we also make our identities through our connection, emotion, and experiences. Our own personal identities are constantly changing and becoming different. We can also try and constructed our identities by Identifying against, which is to define other to find who we are. Another base for construction is Race which is a constructed identity. One last way you can construct an identity is on the identity scale and where you fall in locally, regionally, nationally. Because what community you’re a part of and what part of the country you line can also help you constructed identity.

6. How do laces affect our Identity, and how can we see identities in places.

Places Affect our identity very much because it’s where we re and where we come from. You tend to live like, look like, and talk like the people that you live around. Just like we develop a sense of place where we belong and as it changes we change. But there’s also our ethnicity because the place were at or identities in a certain place come from homeland. The book gives an example of how in the one there are all Americans except for one group of Swiss who weep there former identities and the same thing is in Norfolk with the Greek community who hold a Greek festival every year which I am a proud part of. That’s how you see identities places.

7. How do power relationships subjugate certain groups of people.

Power relationships have been subjugating groups of people for ever and luckily in America we’ve come so far from just white men voting to everyone having the same rights as every one but it still exists all over the world sadly. The biggest group of people that are still being subjugated in the world are definitely women. From sub-Saharan Africa where women do much of the work and have little right to women in India who have no say in many decisions in there life. But also who ever has power or runs the government makes the rules and there is still much separation and loss of rights especially in country where like in Iraq the Kurdish people had been held down for so many years until American came in .

8. What are languages, and what role do languages play in cultures.

Languages are the different ways for communication, A more in-depth definition of language would be language is a set of sounds, and symbols that are used for communication, Different people, countries, and regions have different languages. Languages are how we communicate of course many people know more than one so we can work, deal, and trade together as a whole. The role language plays in our culture is the greatest of them all. It’s as the book said the corner stone for culture. That’s why mainly countries make there language the official language in there country and during colonization they forced the inhabitance to learn there language. So slowly they lost so much of there culture to the settlers.

9. Why are languages distributed the way they are?

Languages in many ways are like species because they’re related to some and other are not. So on the global scale languages into language families because they all have a shared origin. Then they break language families into subfamilies where the likenesses are more definite and origins are much more recent. They do distribute this way because it is the easies and best may to do it.

10. How do languages diffuse?

Languages diffuse as they spread across the world. The first characteristics of language diffusion was 2000 years ago when empires like the Romans conquered vast areas and it became important for many of the people they conquered to learn there language. But many places with high illiteracy stuck to there native language. Then late in the middle ages Gutenberg printing press was created which lead to an increase of literacy, knowledge and made it easier to spread language. Then over the past 500 years with colonization languages such as Spanish, English, and French have became the super powers. Now you can see with the internet the sky is the limits.

11. What role does language play in making places?

Language play’s a huge role in making places because places are made by there name. There are ten basic types of place names are descriptive, associated, commemorative, commendatory, incidents, possession, folk, manufactured, mistakes, and shift names. When languages diffuse through migration there names do to. For example many names of places in Europe have been brought to America by all the migration with name shifts like New York. If you look at Brazil many places come from Portuguese places and that are official languages.

12. What is religion and what role does it play in our culture?

Religion is a set of beliefs and things you do based on what way is best for you to live your life in my definition. Robert studdard and Carolyn in the book define it as “a set of beliefs and practices that attempts to order life in terms of culturally perceived ultimate priorities. Religion plays a huge role in culture. I t is one of the basis for culture along with language. You can see it in cultural landscapes with religious buildings, statues, and other symbol like crosses and churches. Religion has guide lines for how your culture is run how you perceive things and how you live your life. If it says that if you’re good you’ll receive this than you’ll see many people of that religion trying to be good.

13. Where did the three major religions of the world originate, and how do religions diffuse.

Well first before any monotheistic religion which mean one god came around there where polytheistic this meant more than one god and animistic which is the worships of inanimate objects. The major religions of today came from eastern Mediterranean for Judaism which was where Christianity and the Middle East where Islam later came from. The Indus river valley for Hinduism and hang he river valley for Chinese philosophies. But there are many different ways these religions have diffused some through war and conquering with Islam and missionaries and spreading the word with others. Then still there was Diaspora like for Judaism and of course just being born into a religion and changing beliefs.

14. How is religion seen in the cultural landscape?

Religion can be seen all over the cultural landscape. It can be seen from the house of worship like churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques. To the every day building and cemetery that are full of religious symbols. Also many religions have pilgrimages to scared places. For Christians there’s the Vatican, Jews there’s the Wailing Wall, and Muslim the dome of the rock. Many other religions have scared sites and all over you can see evidence in signs symbols and people and every where of that religion. There are also monuments and other things representing religion in certain areas.

15. What role does religion play in political conflicts?

Religion goes back in political conflicts as far as ever recorded. The holy wars, crusades, violence in the Middle East all are type of religion playing in on political conflicts. There are two main types of religious boundaries that go along with conflict theirs interfaith boundaries which are boundaries of two different faiths while intrafaith boundaries are in the same faith just there divisions like Protestants and Catholics. There have been many religious conflicts and religion has been at the heart or season for them. Certain countries get in stay out or ignore for religious reasons all the time. America tries to support any country that is being treated unfairly but is really supports Israel so much because of the strong Jewish presence in America. The same is for many countries in the Middle East but in the opposite ways many times religion tries to stop and make conflicts better.