...Cultural region is a region delineated by the aggregation of a common culture such as religion or language. Culture is the sum of beliefs and social form. There are three types of regions: Formal, functional and vernacular. Culture in and of itself can be regionalized or spread throughout a country or the whole world. Later in this paper diffusion will be discussed and how it plays a part in the spread of culture. The cultural region, which contains the common traits of its constituents, will expand and reform based on factors such as physical geography, economic factors, material resources, or shifts in customary beliefs. A formal region is an area within which everyone has one or more common distinctive characteristics, such as language or economic activity. Ethnicity in a certain part of a city is an example. A functional region is an area centralized around a focal point. Radio stations are examples of functional regions. A vernacular region is a perceptional region that emerges from people's informal sense of a place. An example might be the perception of the Japanese people being smarter than the rest of the world.
An important issue to remember is the overlap of these regions and the resulting conflicts that are possible. An example is the struggle between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland. The residents of Ireland have much more in common culturally than different. Yet the religious issue remains the most prevalent in Irish news today. This is a large-scale example. This conflict can be exemplified in a much smaller scale. A local school board may try to resolve student, teacher and parental issues; however the division in beliefs can cause much struggle and strife. The reality is that the people have much more in common than not. This region contains a culture of students, parents and teachers, likely bound by a geographic districting. The Irish region contains a culture bordered by different religious beliefs that has evolved into geographic borders.
Another area to be discussed around cultural landscape is cultural diffusion. Diffusion is the manner in which a culture spreads. The starting point where an innovation originates is the hearth. There are two ways in which culture spreads: relocation and expansion. Relocation diffusion is the process by which a member of a local culture moves to another geographic area for any reason, including the notion of spreading his or her culture. An example of relocation diffusion is the second most common language used in the United States. Currently English is the most common language with Spanish a close second. Hispanic migration is occurring all over the country and world. With this migration goes the Spanish language. Hispanics are not moving because they want to make Spanish a part of the primary culture. They move for economic, political or social reasons. As a result, cultural diffusion occurs.
Expansion diffusion is the spread of a cultural feature by means of the subcategories hierarchical, contagious, and stimulus diffusion...

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