Environmental context can inuence culture. Cross-cultural research seems to show that factors such as a group’s wealth, population density and the climate all shape culture. Using the two imaginary but realistic contexts below, create a prole (short description) of the deep cultures of the societies that evolved in each of these contexts.

Context 1: this culture evolved in an environmental context with high population density, harsh climate, few resources and isolation from outside inuence because the area is surrounded by near impassable mountain ranges.

Context 2: this culture evolved in an environmental context with low population density, mild climate, many resources and constant contact with other cultures due to the area’s central position on steppe land covering thousands of square kilometres.

What characteristics of each of these two cultures would enable people to meet basic needs of survival, coordinate socially to achieve a viable existence, transmit social behaviour, pursue happiness and well-being and derive meaning from life?

The dierent solutions to these challenges should be a prole of two distinct cultures.

To add to your ideas on environmental context and challenges in dierent cultures, investigate this further reading:

● Cultural DNA: The Psychology of Globalization by Gurnek Bains, published by Wiley, New Jersey, USA

● The Culture Map: Decoding How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures by Erin Meyer, published by Public Aairs, New York, USA