"Cultural diffusion" is an AP Human Geography term (Unit 3, Cultural Patterns and Processes) and a middle-school social-studies one, searched eighty thousand times a month in the United States, almost always with the same two needs: what it means and which type an example is. The definition takes a sentence. The types are where the marks are, because the exam gives an example and asks which kind of diffusion it shows, and because three of the four kinds are subtypes of one. This page gives the definition, the types with the one-question test that separates them, thirty examples sorted by type, the barriers, and the vocabulary. The printable has the types, the examples and practice questions on two pages.
Download the cultural diffusion sheet (PDF) (the definition, the four types with the test question, 30 examples sorted by type, the barriers, the vocabulary, and twelve practice questions with answers; two pages, free).
The definition
Cultural diffusion is the spread of cultural traits from the place where they originated, the hearth, to other places and peoples. A cultural trait is anything a group learns and shares: a language, a religion, a food, a style of dress, a technology, a sport, a custom, a word, an idea. Diffusion happens through trade, migration, conquest, missionaries, media and, now, the internet, and it has been happening since the first farmers in Mesopotamia; what has changed is the speed.
The opposite of diffusion is isolation, and the usual result of diffusion is cultural change at the receiving end: adoption (the trait is taken up as is), adaptation (it is changed to fit), or syncretism (two cultures' traits blend into something new, like Vodou, Tex-Mex food, or Anglo-Indian English).
The types
| Type | How the trait spreads | The test question | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relocation diffusion | people move and carry the trait with them; it may fade at the hearth | Did people have to migrate for it to spread? | Spanish to the Americas; Chinese food to every city with a Chinatown; the Amish to Pennsylvania; Islam to Indonesia with traders; Hinduism to Bali |
| Expansion diffusion | the trait spreads outward to new people while staying strong at the hearth | Did it spread without the original people moving? | (the three kinds below) |
| • Contagious | person to person, in every direction, like a disease | Did it spread to whoever was nearby, regardless of rank? | a viral video; a TikTok dance; the early spread of Islam through Arabia; a new slang word in a school; a wave in a stadium; the COVID-19 pandemic itself |
| • Hierarchical | from the top down: from important people, big cities or the elite to smaller places and ordinary people | Did it start with the powerful or the biggest cities? | fashion from Paris, Milan and New York; hip-hop from New York and Los Angeles to other cities; Christianity after Emperor Constantine adopted it; a new iPhone, first in capital cities; government policies |
| • Stimulus | the idea spreads but the specific trait is changed to suit the new place | Did a new version appear that keeps the idea but changes the form? | McDonald's with no beef in India; the Cherokee syllabary inspired by English writing; Japanese kana from Chinese characters; the Xerox mouse-and-windows idea in the Mac and Windows; American football from rugby |
Two refinements the AP exam uses:
- Reverse hierarchical diffusion goes from small places to big ones: Walmart began in small-town Arkansas and spread to cities last; country music; TikTok trends that start in small accounts.
- Time-distance decay: the further from the hearth in space and time, the weaker the trait, which is why older diffusion fades with distance and modern diffusion (the internet) barely does.
Most real examples mix types: English reached India by relocation (the British came) and then spread within India hierarchically (government, universities, cities first) and contagiously (daily use). The exam wants the best single label for the stage it describes.
Thirty examples, sorted
| Trait | Hearth | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farming | the Fertile Crescent, about 10,000 BC | expansion (contagious) and relocation | spread into Europe at about 1 km a year |
| Writing | Mesopotamia and Egypt, about 3200 BC | stimulus elsewhere | the idea reached other peoples who made their own scripts |
| Arabic numerals (0 to 9) | India, by about 500 AD | hierarchical through scholars | via Arab mathematicians to Europe (Fibonacci, 1202) |
| Chess | India (chaturanga), about 600 AD | contagious along trade routes | Persia, the Arab world, then Europe |
| Buddhism | northern India, 5th century BC | relocation (missionaries) and contagious along the Silk Road | China, Korea, Japan, South-East Asia; faded in India |
| Christianity | Roman Palestine | contagious, then hierarchical after Constantine (312 AD) | relocation to the Americas with colonists |
| Islam | Mecca, 7th century | contagious in Arabia, relocation with traders to Indonesia and East Africa | Indonesia is the largest Muslim country, reached by trade not conquest |
| Paper, gunpowder, the compass, printing | China | hierarchical and contagious westward along the Silk Road | each took centuries to reach Europe |
| Coffee | Ethiopia, then Yemen | contagious through the Ottoman Empire to Europe | the first London coffee house opened in 1652 |
| Tea | China | hierarchical (the Portuguese and British courts) then contagious | became the British national drink in the 1700s |
| Potatoes, tomatoes, maize, chocolate, tobacco | the Americas | relocation (the Columbian Exchange, after 1492) | Italian food without the tomato and Irish food without the potato did not exist before 1500 |
| Horses, wheat, cattle, smallpox | Europe and Asia | relocation (the Columbian Exchange the other way) | smallpox killed most of the Americas' native population |
| The Spanish language | Spain | relocation (colonists) | now 20 countries; the hearth remains |
| English | England | relocation (settlers), then hierarchical (empire, business, the internet) | the world's lingua franca |
| Cricket | England | relocation (the British Empire) | India, Pakistan, Australia, the West Indies; never caught on in the US |
| Football (soccer) | England, 1863 rules | contagious through sailors, workers and schools | the world's game within 50 years |
| Baseball | United States | hierarchical (US military and business) | Japan, Korea, Cuba, the Dominican Republic |
| Jeans | San Francisco, 1873 | hierarchical (Hollywood, then youth culture) | worldwide by the 1960s |
| Jazz | New Orleans | hierarchical (Chicago, New York, then the world by radio and records) | |
| Hip-hop | the Bronx, New York, 1970s | hierarchical (to Los Angeles and other cities), then contagious | now a local form in every country |
| Pizza | Naples | relocation (Italian migrants to New York) then stimulus (deep-dish, Hawaiian, tikka pizza) | |
| Sushi | Japan | hierarchical (Los Angeles and New York restaurants) then stimulus (the California roll) | |
| Yoga | India | relocation (teachers to the West) then stimulus (hot yoga, yoga classes as exercise) | |
| McDonald's | San Bernardino, California | hierarchical (big cities first) and stimulus (the McAloo Tikki in India, the Teriyaki burger in Japan) | the stimulus example on every exam |
| The Cherokee syllabary | Sequoyah, 1821 | stimulus | he borrowed the idea of writing from English, not the letters |
| Christmas trees | Germany | hierarchical (Prince Albert at the British court, 1840s) then contagious | |
| Halloween | Ireland and Scotland | relocation (Irish migrants to the US) then hierarchical back to Europe through American media | |
| K-pop | South Korea | contagious online, hierarchical through media | global since about 2012 |
| Anime, karaoke, emoji, Pokémon | Japan | hierarchical through media and technology companies | emoji began on Japanese phones in 1999 |
| A viral TikTok dance | one account | contagious | the purest modern example; the hearth is often a single teenager |
Barriers to diffusion
Diffusion is slowed or stopped by:
- Physical barriers: oceans, deserts, mountains, which is why Australia's culture developed in isolation and why the Sahara separated North and sub-Saharan Africa.
- Language: a trait spreads faster within a language than across one.
- Religion and custom: beef in India, alcohol in Saudi Arabia, pork in Israel; some traits are refused.
- Politics: China's Great Firewall, North Korea's closed borders, Japan's sakoku isolation (1639 to 1853), trade bans and censorship.
- Distance and time: before modern transport and media, time-distance decay meant most diffusion was slow and local.
The internet removed distance and time from the equation, which is why contagious diffusion is now the dominant form and why a trait can reach a billion people in a week.
The vocabulary AP Human Geography tests
| Term | Means |
|---|---|
| hearth | the origin point of a trait or culture |
| diffusion | the spread of a trait from its hearth |
| relocation diffusion | spread by migration of the people who carry the trait |
| expansion diffusion | spread outward while staying at the hearth |
| contagious diffusion | expansion person to person in all directions |
| hierarchical diffusion | expansion from the top (the powerful, the big cities) down |
| reverse hierarchical diffusion | expansion from small places to large |
| stimulus diffusion | the idea spreads but the trait is changed |
| time-distance decay | the trait weakens with distance from the hearth and time since |
| acculturation | a group adopts traits of a dominant culture while keeping some of its own |
| assimilation | a group loses its own traits and becomes like the dominant culture |
| syncretism | two cultures' traits blend into a new one |
| cultural convergence | cultures become more alike through diffusion (globalisation) |
| cultural divergence | cultures become more different (isolation, deliberate resistance) |
Where it sits in school
Cultural diffusion is AP Human Geography Unit 3 (the types are a certain multiple-choice question and a regular free-response part), grade 6 and 7 world history and social studies in the United States (the Silk Road, the Columbian Exchange), Year 8 and 9 humanities in Australia, Key Stage 3 geography and history in England, and CBSE Class 7 and 8 social science (Our Pasts: trade routes and the spread of religions). The marks are lost on the three kinds of expansion diffusion: the test is to ask who spread it (anyone nearby, the powerful, or someone who changed it).
Practice: twelve questions
Name the type of diffusion.
- A new slang word spreads through a high school in a week.
- Italian immigrants open pizzerias in New York.
- A fashion first seen on a Paris runway appears in department stores worldwide a year later.
- Hinduism is practised in Bali, carried by Indian traders centuries ago.
- KFC in China sells congee and egg tarts.
- The Olympic Games, revived in Athens in 1896, are now hosted by cities on every continent.
- Walmart spread from small towns in Arkansas to big cities last.
- Buddhism is strong in Japan but a small minority faith in India, where it began.
- Smartphones reached capital cities first, then towns, then villages.
- A TikTok sound is used in ten million videos in a month.
- The Cherokee invent a writing system after seeing English books.
- Sikh communities in Canada keep their faith, language and food after migrating from Punjab.
Answers: 1) contagious. 2) relocation. 3) hierarchical. 4) relocation. 5) stimulus. 6) hierarchical (through national committees and big cities). 7) reverse hierarchical. 8) relocation and expansion away from the hearth, with decline at the hearth. 9) hierarchical. 10) contagious. 11) stimulus. 12) relocation.
Download the cultural diffusion sheet (PDF)
Where to get help
A 1-on-1 online class for AP Human Geography and middle-school social studies, US after-school hours: the types of diffusion with the test question drilled on real exam stems, the free-response questions written to the rubric, and the vocabulary learned through examples rather than lists. The recording and notes after every class, the same tutor every week, US$10 to $13 an hour. The subjects page lists the courses; the free 30-minute first class is a real lesson, usually on the homework the student brings.
Questions parents ask
1What is cultural diffusion?
2What are the types of cultural diffusion?
3What is an example of stimulus diffusion?
4What is the difference between relocation and expansion diffusion?
5What is a cultural hearth?
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