the nature of cultural geography
TRANSCRIPT
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The Nature of Cultural
Geography
Chapter 1
The Human Matrix
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Discussion
Pair up into dyads
Discuss these two questions for 10
minutes, five minutes each
What does culture mean to you?
Would you identify yourself as belonging to a
cultural group? Why or why not?
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Introduction
Humans are by nature geographers
Possess awareness of and curiosity about thedistinctive character of places
Can think territorially or spatially Each place on Earth is unique
Places possess an emotional quality andsignificance that contribute to our identity as
unique human beings
Geographers, over the centuries, generated anumber of concepts and ideas that literallychanged the world
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Seven Cultural Geographical Idea
That Changed the World
Maps
Human adaptation to habitat
Human transformation of the earth
Sense of place
Spatial organization and interdependence
Central place theory
Megalopolis
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Geography as an academic
discipline
Natural human geographical curiosity and
need for identity
First arose among the ancient Greeks,
Romans, Mesopotamians, and
Phoenicians
Arab empire expanded geography during
Europes Dark Ages
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Geography as an academic
discipline
Center of learning shifted to Europe during
the Renaissance period
Modern scientific study of geography
arose in Germany
Analytical geography began in the 1800s
asking what, where, and why
Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Ritter
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What is cultural geography?
The meaning of culture
For this course defined as learned collective
human behavior, as opposed to instinctive, or
inborn behavior
Learned traits
Cultural geography: the study of spatial
variations among cultural groups and thespatial functioning of society.
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Cultural geography
Focuses on cultural phenomena that may
vary or remain constant from place to
place
Explains how humans function spatially
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What is cultural geography?
Physical geography brings spatial and
ecological perspectives
Bridges the social and earth sciences
Seeks a integrative view of humankind in
its physical environment
Appears less focused than most otherdisciplines making it difficult to define
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No easy explanations for cultural
phenomena
Many complex causal forces
Wheat cultivations (next slide)
Cultural geography seeks explanations ofdiverse casual factors
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Themes in cultural geography
Culture region: a geographical unit based
on human traits
Maps are an essential tool for describing
and revealing regions
Major types of culture regions
Formal
Functional
Vernacular
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Formal culture region
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Kerala, India
A formal culture region can be defined in
this picture by ethnicity, dress and social
custom.
While people do not generally reveal their
bodies in public, at the end of the day they
dress up to go to the beach and watch the
sunset.
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Kerala, India
Boys and girls do notmingle but observeeach other from adistance.
Unchaperoned datingis rare and marriagesare typically arranged.
These are learned,collective humanbehaviors.
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Formal culture region
An area inhabited by people who have one
or more cultural traits in common.
More commonly multiple related traits
No two cultural traits have the same
distribution.
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Complex multiculture regions
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Territorial extents of a
culture region depend
on what defining traits
are used.
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Formal culture regions
Many different formal regions can be created
Depends on traits
Geographers intuition
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Boundaries
Formal culture regions must haveboundaries
rarely sharp because cultures overlap and mix
Culture regions reveal a core where alldefining traits are present
Farther from core regional characteristicsweaken and disappear
Formal regions display core/periphery pattern
Human world is chaotic
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Functional culture region
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Minneapolis, Minnesota
This mobile post-office is the node of afunctional region.
People come to the node at specific times
during the week to deposit their mail. This vehicle is one of several linked to a
particular post office which is part of of a
larger network of post offices. Each post office is a node in its own mail
delivery region.
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Functional culture region
The scene is in the
citys CBD where
individual buildings
are nodes of activitieslinked to other
buildings and places.
Note the skywalk
which facilitatesinteraction between
structures.
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Functional culture regions
An area organized to function politically,
socially, or economically
Examples: city, independent state, church
diocese, a trade area
Have nodes or central points from which
functions are coordinated and directed.
Many functional regions have clearly
defined borders
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Farm as a formal culture region
all land owned and leased, farmstead is
node, borders marked by fences, hedges
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Functional culture region
States in the United States and Canadian
provinces
Not all functional areas have clearly
defined borders: newspapers, sales area
Fans of UT vs TAMU
Generally functional culture regions do not
coincide spatially with formal culture
regions
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Vernacular culture regions
A region perceived to exist by its
inhabitants, has widespread acceptance
and uses a special regional name.
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Vernacular culture region
Generally lack sharp borders
Can be based on many different things
physical environment
economic, political, historical aspects
often created by publicity campaigns
Grows out of a peoples sense of
belonging and regional self -
consciousness
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Vernacular culture region
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Vernacular culture region
Not unique to NorthAmerica
Northern Territory =Outback Australia
Transcends statelines
Japanese ties
Heavy duty bumperand roo bars todeflect wildlife
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Differences
How do vernacular culture regions differ
from formal and functional regions
Often lack the organization necessary for
funtional regions
Unlike formal regions, they frequently do not
display cultural homogeneity
Many are rooted in the popular or folk culture
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Cultural diffusion
Spatial spread of learned ideas,
innovations, and attitudes.
Each cultural element originates in one or
more places and then spreads.
Some spread widely, others remain
confined to an area of origin.
100 Percent American
Torsten Hgerstrand
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Cultural diffusion
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Expansion diffusion
Ideas spread throughout a population fromarea to area.
Creates a snowballing effect
Subtypes: Hierarchical diffusion: ideas leapfrog from one
node to another temporarily bypassing some
Contagious diffusion: wavelike, like disease Stimulus diffusion: specific trait rejected, butidea accepted
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Relocation diffusion
Relocation diffusion occurs when
individuals migrate to a new location
carrying new ideas or practices with them
Religion is prime example
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Time-distance decay factor
Ripples on a pond.
Acceptance of an innovation is strongest
where it originated.
Acceptance weakens as it is diffused
farther away.
Acceptance also weakens over time.
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Barriers to diffusion
Absorbing barriers completely halt
diffusion: Afghanistan.
More commonly barriers are permeable,
allowing part of the innovation wave to
diffuse, but acting to weaken and retard
the continued spread.
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Diffusion
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Guangzhou (Canton), China
PRC recently opened its doors to foreigninvestment and a number of cities havebeen designated as Special Economic
Zones. An absorbing barrier has become
permeable.
Sincle coastal cities were the first to allowforeign instrusions, these have highestinflux of joint-venture projects.
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Diffusion
Proctor and Gamblehas designed soapsand detergents forChinas specific water
conditions. Just as P&G diffused
from North America toChina, other
manufacturers willdiffuse into otherparts of China.
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Diffusion
As more cities are opened Chinas urban
economies will become increasingly
internationalized and each city will function
as a key center of diffusion to places loweron the social-economic hierarchy.
How does time-distance decay play a role
here?
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Stages of innovation acceptance
Firstacceptance takes place at a slow
steady rate.
Secondraid growth in acceptance and
the trait spreads rapidly
fashion or dance fad
neighborhood effect
Thirdslower growth and acceptance of
innovation
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Neighborhood effect
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Hgerstrand
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Hgerstrand
Hgerstrands explanation of the
core/periphery spatial arrangement of
diffusion resembles pattern in culture
regions others say too narrow and mechanical
assumes all innovations are beneficial
throughout geographical space nondiffusion more prevalent than diffusion,
but not accounted for
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Susceptibility to an innovation
More crucial when world communicationsare rapid and pervasive
Friction of distance is almost meaningless
Must evaluate and explain on a region-by-region basis
Inhabitants of two regions will not respond
identically to an innovation Geographers seek to understand spatial
variation in receptiveness
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Cultural ecology
Ecology is two-way relationship betweenan organism and its physical environment
Cultural ecology is the study of the cause-
and-effect interplay between cultures andthe physical environment
Ecosystem entails a functioning ecologicalsystem where biological and culturalHomo sapienslive and interact with thephysical environment.
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Cultural ecology
Culture is the human method of meeting
physical environmental challenges.
adaptive system
assumes plant and animal adaptations are relevant facilitates long-term, successful, nongenetic human
adaptation to nature and environmental change
adaptive strategy that provides necessities of life:
food, clothing, shelter, defense No two cultures employ the same strategy, evenin
within the same physical environment
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Cultural ecology
The physical environment
plays a powerful role in
the cultural landscape of
this remote region of
Pakistans northernfrontier.
The Muslim, Pathan have
an adaptive strategy of
harnessing localresources for their needs.
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Bahrain, Pakistan
The settlement hugs thevalley walls and the riveris harnessed to providewater power for turninggrinding stones (primarilycorn) in the foregroundstructure.
Since limited wood supplyprecludes its widespread
use, houses areconstructed of dry-mortared stones andmany have sod roofs
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Cultural ecology
Four schools of thought developed by
geographers on cultural ecology
Environmental determinism
Possibilism
Environmental perception
Humans as modifiers of the earth
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Environmental determinism
Developed during the first quarter of the 20thcentury.
Physical environment provided a dominant forcein shaping cultures
Humans were clay to be molded by nature Believed mountain people, because they lived in
rugged terrain were: Backward
Conservative Unimaginative
Freedom loving
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Environmental determinism
Believed desert dwellers were: Likely to believe in one god
Lived under the rule of tyrants
Temperate climates produced: Inventiveness
Industriousness
Democracy
Coastlands with fjords produced navigators andfishers
Overestimated the role of environment
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Possibilism
Took the place of determinism in the
1920s
Cultural heritage at least as important as
physical environment in affecting humanbehavior
Believe people are the primary architects
of culture
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Possibilism
Chongqing and San
Francisco
Similar environment
Street patterns SF has smaller
population but larger
area
Culture
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Possibilism
Physical environment offers numerous ways fora culture to develop.
People make culture trait choices from thepossibilities offered by their environment tosatisfy their needs.
High technology societies are less influenced byphysical environment.
Geographer Jim Norwin warns control overenvironment may be an illusion because ofpossible future climatic changes.
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Environmental perception
Each persons or cultural groups mental imagesof the physical environment are shaped byknowledge, ignorance, experience, values, andemotions
Environmental perceptionists declare-choicespeople make will depend more on how theyperceive the lands character than its actualcharacter
People make decisions based on distortion ofreality with regard to their surrounding physicalenvironment
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Environmental perception
Geomancya traditional system of land-use planning dictating that certainenvironmental settings, perceived by the
sages as auspicious, should be chosen asthe sites for houses, villages, temples, andgraves (feng-shui)
an East Asian world view and art
affected the location and morphology of urbanplaces in countries such as China and Korea
diffused (look up feng-shui on internet)
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Natural hazards
Humans perceptions of natural hazards
Flooding, hurricanes, volcanic eruption, earthquakes,
insect infestations, and droughts
Some cultures consider them as unavoidable acts of
the gods sent down as punishments because of the
peoples shortcomings
During times of natural disasters, some cultures feel
the government should take care of them
Western cultures feel technology should be able to
solve the problems created by natural hazards
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Natural hazards
In virtually all cultures, people knowingly
inhabit hazard zones
Especially floodplains, exposed coastal sites,
drought-prone regions, and active volcanicareas
More Americans than ever live in hurricane-
and earthquake-prone areas of the United
States
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Monserrat - 1996
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Missouri River
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Hazard Perception
Levees failed to prevent the Mississippiand Missouri rivers from flooding.
Floods are natural occurrences and
contrary to the perception of some, humanmade devices are directed toward controlrather than prevention.
When the water recedes and tons of muckand debris are removed, will the farmermove back and start over?
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Natural hazards
Migrants tend to imagine new homelands
as being more similar to their old
homelands than is actually the case
Humans perceptions of natural resources
Hunting and gathering cultures
Agricultural groups
Industrial societies
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Humans as modifiers of the earth
Another facet of cultural ecology
In a sense, the opposite of environmental
determinism
George Perkins Marsh
Example of soil erosion around Athens in
ancient times
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Humans as modifiers of the earth
Human modification varies from oneculture to another
Geographers seek alternative, less
destructive modes of environmentalmodification
Humans of the Judeo-Christian tradition tendto regard environmental modification as
divinely approved Other more cautious groups take care not to
offend the forces of nature
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Environmental modification
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Queensland, Australia
Rainforest north ofCairns, signs
demonstrate
conflicting
perceptions of a
particular resource.
Thousands of acres
of Australianrainforest destroyed
yearly.
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Cultural integration
Cultures are complex wholes rather than seriesof unrelated traits
Cultures form integrated systems in which partsfit together causally
All cultural aspects are functionallyinterdependent on one another Changing one element requires accommodating
change in others
To understand one facet of culture, geographers muststudy the variations in other facets and how they arecausally interrelated and integrated
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Cultural integration
The influence of religious beliefs
Voting behavior
Diet and shopping patterns
Type of employment and social standing Hinduism segregates people into social classes
(castes), and specifies what forms of livelihood are
appropriate for each
Mormon faith forbids consumption of alcoholicbeverages, tobacco, and other products, thereby
influencing both diet and shopping patterns
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Cultural integration
If improperly used can lead the
geographer to cultural determinism such
as:
physical environment is inconsequential as aninfluence on culture
culture offers all the answers for spatial
variations nature is passive while people and culture are
the active forces
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Cultural integration
Social science
Those who view cultural geography as a
social science apply the scientific method to
the study of people Devise theories that cut across cultural lines
to govern all of humankind
Believe economic causal forces more
powerful in explaining human spatial behavior
than any others
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Models
f
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Model of Latin American city
H i i h
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Humanistic geography
Celebrates the uniqueness of each region andplace
Place is the key word connoting the humanistic view
Topophilia
word coined by Yi-Fu Tuan, literallymeaning love of place
Has witnessed a resurgence in recent decades
Social-science approach has declined in
popularity
H i ti h
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Humanistic geography
Anne Buttimer
Seek to explain unique phenomenaplace and
region-rather than universal spatial laws
Most doubt that laws of spatial behavior evenexist
Believe in a far more chaotic world than
scientists could tolerate
Reject the use of mathematicsfeel human
beliefs and values cannot be measured
Wh i i ht?
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Who is right?
Debate between scientists and humanistsin cultural geography
Necessary and healthy
Both ask different questions about place andspace
Geography is the bridging discipline,
joining the sciences and humanities Postmodernism
C lt l l d
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Cultural landscape
The visible, material landscape thatcultural groups create in inhabiting theEarth
Cultures shape landscapes out of the rawmaterials provided by the Earth
Each landscape uniquely reflects theculture that created it
Much can be learned about a culture bycarefully observing its created landscape
C lt l l d
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Cultural landscape
Some geographers regard landscapestudy as geographys central interest
Reflects the most basic strivings of
humankind Shelter
Food
Clothing
Contains evidence about the origin,spread, and development of cultures
C lt l l d
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Cultural landscape
Accumulation of human artifacts, old and new Can reveal much about a past forgotten by
present inhabitants
Landscapes also reveal messages about
present-day inhabitants and cultures Reflect tastes, values, aspirations, and fears in
tangible form
Spatial organization of settlements and architecturalform of structures can be interpreted as expression of
values and beliefs of the people Can serve as a means to study nonmaterial aspects
of culture
C lt l l d
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Cultural landscape
How architecture reflects past and presentvalues of landscape
Example of centrally located, tall structures
built of steel, brick, or stone Example of medieval European cathedrals
and churches that dominated the landscape
Cultural landscape
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Cultural landscape
K l L M l i
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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Now capital; prior to 1997administrative center for
British colony of Malaya.
During 20s an 30s Art
Deco architecturepopular.
Built in 1928, originally
wet market for mean,
poultry and fish wererendered and sold.
K l L M l i
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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Renewed, it nowcontains a shoppingbazaar selling localhandicraft products,
souveniers and food. Heritage revealed
through architectureand sign.
Only traditional cartsuggests truth.
C lt l l d
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Cultural landscape
Humanistic view of cultural landscape Content to study the cultural landscape for its
aesthetic value
Obtain subjective messages that help describe theessence of place
Geographer Tarja Keisteri distinguishes the factual,concrete, physical, functioning landscape from theexperimental, perceived, symbolic, aestheticlandscape
Distinction between scholarly analysis and subjective
artistic interpretation are often blurred Provides people with landmarks and reassures
people they are not rootless without identity or place
C lt l l d
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Cultural landscape
Most geographical studies have focused onthree principal aspects of landscape
Settlement formsDescribe the spatial arrangement
of buildings, roads, and other features people
construct while inhabiting an area
Land-division patternsreveal the way people divide
the land for economic and social uses
Example of land division of small and large farms
Example of urban housing and street patterns
C lt ral landscape
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Cultural landscape
Architecture
North Americas different building styles
Regional and cultural differences
Conclusion
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Conclusion
Five themes of geography are interwoven
Culture region
Cultural diffusion
Cultural ecology
Cultural integration
Cultural landscape
Folk and popular architecture
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p p
reflect culture