A society shares a system of speaking and writing that it uses to pass on stories, laws, and instructions from one generation to the next. Which element of culture is this?

In one society, families, schools, religious groups, and courts are organized groups that shape how people behave and pass on customs. Together, these organized groups are which element of culture?

A style of cooking, a musical instrument, or a building design moves from one society to another and is taken up there. What is this movement of cultural traits called?

For centuries, camel caravans crossed the Sahara carrying salt and gold between North Africa and West Africa. Which religion spread south with the traders and took hold in West African cities such as Timbuktu?

In a cold northern region, houses are built with steep, sharply pointed roofs so that heavy snow slides off instead of piling up. The architecture here was shaped mainly by what?

In one society, elders recite long poems from memory at community gatherings, and years later those poems are written down and collected in books. These poems are an example of which element of culture?

In one society, drumming patterns performed at weddings and harvest festivals are taught by parents to their children and have been played for generations. These patterns are an example of which element of culture?

A society builds stone temples with carved columns standing on a raised platform. These buildings are evidence of which element of culture?

Families move from one country to another and open restaurants serving the dishes of their home region. Neighbors begin cooking those dishes too. This food tradition spread mainly through what?

Teachers in one society debate questions about how people should live together and what makes a life good. Their answers are recorded and studied for centuries. Which element of culture is this?

Two neighboring coastal societies speak different languages, but the two languages share many similar words for boats, nets, and fish. What is the most likely explanation for the shared words?

In several regions, communities built large gathering places with wide domes, tall towers, and verses inscribed along the walls. Which element of culture most shaped the design of these buildings?

Which case shows a musical style spreading from one society to another?

A society's culture includes the objects it makes, but not the ideas and beliefs its people hold.

Spanish is spoken across much of Latin America today. How did the language first spread there, beginning in the 1500s?

Archaeologists dig up an ancient village and find clay pots carefully painted with scenes of people hunting deer. Besides showing that the people made pottery, what do the painted scenes best show?

In one society, families eat special dishes on holidays, children bow to greet their elders, and brides wear red at weddings. These shared ways of doing things are which element of culture?

Along the Silk Roads, merchants moved silk, spices, and glassware between East Asia and the Mediterranean over many centuries. Besides these goods, what else traveled with the merchants?

A society lives in a dry region with very few trees but with thick clay along a riverbank, and it builds its houses out of mud brick. The architecture here was shaped mainly by what?

In social studies, what does the term cultural trait mean?