Cultural Characterisitcs

We took notes on the PowerPoint today in class. Here are my notes:
Cultural Characteristics:
- part of your everyday life
- ideas and themes which group will teach to all members
-these characteristics can also link and divide a region
Examples:
1. language
2. religion
3. ethnic heritage
Language:
-Brazilians speak Portuguese
- Canada is a bilingual nation
-bilingual means speaking 2 languages
-French and English are Canada's official languages
-USA doesn't have an official language
-Switzerland has 4 official languages (German, French, Italian, and Romansh), but there is very little conflict between these groups
- English is considered a "bridge" language
Ethnic Heritage:
- In Yugoslavia, many ethnic groups (Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Albanians) compromised one country
-when strong leadership died out, different groups fought a very bloody civil war and now they all have separate countries (Slovenia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, and Macedonia)
- in the countries of Rwanda and Burundi Africa live the Tutsis and the Hutus
- the Tutsis are sometimes dominant in Burundi, they persecute the Hutus
-the Hutus dominate in Rwanda, they persecute the Tutsis
-this led to almost constant war between the groups
-during the 100-day period from April-July 1994, 500,000-1,000,000 Tutsis (70% of them) were killed by the Hutu majority
-this was called the Rwandan Genocide
-In Burundi, 3% is Muslim. 91% is Christian
-The U.S and Switzerland peacefully merged multiple ethnic groups in their countries
-Korea and Japan have primarily one ethnic group
-Religion can be both a unifying and disunifying force
- the 4 biggest religions are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism