Culture is man-made, and each culture has a collection of created objects that can be studied and compared. People from different geographical regions have created cultures that are shaped by particular environmental challenges and resources. To survive, people have had to adapt to the ecology of the regions in which they live. Furthermore, the objects they created were products of the environment and were limited by the resources that were available. These objects, called objective elements, are the focus of this assignment.

Using the Internet, research and select three cultural groups from three different and distinct geographical areas and climates. To accomplish this task, find a city or town in the region you are looking. Usually, that city or town will have either a chamber of commerce page or town pages describing what you will need to know for this assignment, such as population demographics and cultural and community events, as well as restaurant types. It will take some searching, but you should be able to locate much of the information through these sources. Your task is to compare the groups using three objective elements. Determine how the specific environments shaped the creation of the elements. Choose three objective elements from the following list:

• Culturally specific foods

• Cultural or community events

• Transportation

• Music

• Physical artistic creations

For this assignment, complete the following table. Each cell should describe the objective element. In addition, explain how the specific environment shaped the formation of that element.

In a 2- to 3-page Microsoft Word document, include the following:

• The completed comparison table of objective elements

• A brief essay explaining what you learned from this assignment and including answers to the following questions:

• What did you learn about the impact of environment on culture?

• Did the three cultural groups successfully adapt to their environments?

• How much did the three different cultural groups alter the environment for survival?