CONCLUSION
As we have seen and will continue to see, the interests of human geographers are diverse. It might seem to you, confronted by the various themes, subject matter, viewpoints, and methodologies described in this chapter, that geographers run off in all directions, lacking unity of purpose. What does a geographer who studies architecture have in common with a colleague who studies the political and cultural causes of environmental degradation? What interests do an environmental perceptionist and a student of diffusion share? Why do scholars with such apparently different interests belong in the same academic discipline? Why are they all geographers?
The answer is that regardless of the particular topic the human geographer studies, he or she necessarily touches on several or all of the five themes we have discussed. The themes are closely related segments of a whole. Spatial patterns in culture, as revealed by maps of regions, are reflected in and expressed through the cultural landscape, require an ecological interpretation, are the result of mobility, and are inextricably linked with globalization.
As an example of how the various themes of human geography overlap and intertwine, let’s look at one element of architecture that most North Americans will be familiar with: the ranch-style, single-family house (Figure 1.20). This house type is defined by its one-story height and its linear form. Ranch houses may be found throughout much of the United States and to a lesser extent in Canada, though they are rare in other countries. They are obviously part of the cultural landscape, and their spatial distribution constitutes a formal region that can be mapped.
Geographers who study such houses also need to employ the other themes of human geography to gain a complete understanding. They can use the concept of diffusion to learn when and by what routes this building style emerged and diffused, and what barriers hindered its diffusion. In this particular case, geographers would be led back to the early years of the twentieth century, when the first suburban houses were built outside of urban centers. In this case, land was relatively inexpensive, allowing for a house type that occupied a wide expanse of space. What’s more, they would learn that a dominant design motif in the United States in the early twentieth century was based on the notion that buildings should fit in with their natural surroundings instead of dominate them. As a result, low-slung housing styles like the ranch house were particularly popular. Further, the geographer would need an ecological interpretation of the ranch house. What materials were required to build such a house? Did the style vary across the different climatic and ecological regions in which such houses were built? Finally, the human geographer would want to know how the use of ranch houses was related to globalization. Did economic changes in the world raise the standard of living, leading people to accept ranch houses? Did changes in technology lead to more elaborate houses? Why did it become the quintessential house type in post-World War II America, featured in many of the popular TV shows of the time? Do these humble structures possess a symbolism related to traditional American values and virtues? Thus, the geographer interested in housing is firmly bound by the total fabric of human geography, unable to segregate a particular topic such as ranch houses from the geographical whole. Region, cultural landscape, nature-culture relationships, mobility, and globalization are interwoven.
In this manner, the human geographer passes from one theme to another, demonstrating the holistic nature of the discipline. In no small measure, it is this holism—this broad, multithematic approach—that distinguishes the human geographer from other students of culture. We believe that, by the end of the course, you will have gained a new perspective on the Earth as the home of humankind.
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GEOGRAPHY @ WORK
Matt Rosenberg
Geography Expert for About.com
Education:
BA Geography—University of California, Davis
MA Geography—California State University, Northridge
Q. Why did you major in geography and decide to pursue a career in the field?
A. I “stumbled” into the field after taking a course on urban and economic geography my freshman year in college and loving it. I like that geography is a wide-ranging discipline that requires students to be well versed in a variety of topics; ultimately the study produces well-rounded individuals (which I think employers especially appreciate).
Q. Please describe your job.
A. I think of myself as a “geographical research library.” I distill research, offer guidance, and answer questions related to all aspects of the geography field. I also serve as editor-in-chief for the About.com Geography site and write a regular blog featured on the site.
Q. What types of people contact you via the web site?
A. I get a lot of high school and college students from around the world that pose questions based on their studies. I also hear from plenty of “armchair geographers” who ask a variety of questions, such as “Which countries are not competing in the Olympic games?” “What is the newest nation in the world?” and “Why are there climate extremes in the world?”
Q. What advice do you have for college students considering a career in geography?
A. I think it is very important to do one (or more) internships while in college to help you figure out what area of geography you want to work within. When I was in college, I interned at a city planning department and a GIS department, which helped me decide what I wanted to do in the field.
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DOING GEOGRAPHY
DOING GEOGRAPHY
Space, Place, and Knowing Your Way Around
We started this chapter by saying that most of us are born geographers, with a sense of curiosity about the places and spaces around us. Think, for example, of the place you call home. You are probably familiar enough with its streets and buildings and greenspaces, and with the people who inhabit these spaces, to make connections among them—you know how to “read” the place. There are many other places, however, where this is not the case. Most of you have had the experience of going somewhere new, where it is difficult to find your way around, literally and metaphorically. Many of you, for example, are attending a college or university far from home, whereas others have experienced the disorienting feeling of moving from one home to another, whether across town or across continents. How did you find your way? How did the “strange” space become a familiar place?
This activity requires you to draw on your own experiences to understand two fundamental concepts in human geography: space and place. Geographers tend to use the term space in a much more abstract way than place—as a term that describes a two-dimensional location on a map. Place, however, is a less dry term, one used to describe a location that has meaning. Your college campus, for example, may have been simply an abstract space located on a map when you applied to the school, yet now it is a place because you have filled it with your own meanings. Here are the four steps in your activity.
Steps to Understanding Space, Place, and Knowing Your Way Around
Step 1:
Draw on your own experiences by picking one particular space that has become a place for you.
Step 2:
Identify what you knew about the space beforehand and how you knew this (e.g., perhaps you looked up the place in an atlas or saw it in a movie).
Step 3:
In narrative form, describe the process whereby that space became a place for you.
Step 4:
Identify the ways in which you learned how to “read” this place. In other words, how did you learn to see this particular location as a three-dimensional, meaningful place that is different from what you knew of it as a “space”?
Use your experiences to answer the following questions:
■Do you have to live in a place to really “know” it?
■Do you have to experience a space for it to become a place?
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SEEING GEOGRAPHY
SEEING GEOGRAPHY
Navigational stick chart of the Marshall Islands
Why is it difficult for most of us to interpret this image as a map?
A stick chart used by Micronesian mariners to navigate the Marshall Islands in Micronesia.
(Courtesy of Roderick Neumann.)
As the title indicates, this is a stick chart traditionally used by Micronesian mariners to navigate the Marshall Islands in the North Pacific Ocean. Like all maps, it is a two-dimensional rendering of three-dimensional space. In other words, it is an attempt to represent surface features and location on a flat plane. All cultures devise certain symbols that allow for these representations to be understood. On United States Geological Survey (USGS) maps, for example, a standardized set of symbols represent such things as roads, rivers, and cities. Similarly, this map is filled with symbols that represent such features as wave patterns (bent sticks), ocean currents (straight sticks), and islands (the cowry shells).
As we’ve learned throughout this chapter, different cultures create and experience landscapes differently. Here, we can see that different cultures also represent their landscapes differently. This image is part of a long tradition of Micronesian peoples’ representations that reflect their particular culture and their views of the seascapes and landscapes they occupy. In general, these representations demonstrate that there is no universal system for finding one’s way across the Earth’s surface. Unlike Western sailors who navigated using the relative positions of celestial bodies, Micronesian sailors navigated by sensing the movement of the ocean’s surface. Hence, these charts do not represent standardized measurements such as degrees of longitude and latitude or miles and kilometers. Instead, they use patterns of ocean swells and currents to help navigators position themselves on the Earth’s surface.
To most Western eyes, then, this image does not look like a map because we neither recognize the symbols that Micronesian mariners used to translate three-dimensional spaces into two dimensions, nor think of maps as meaningful in and of themselves. Most likely, Western maps would have looked very odd to Micronesian eyes. One of the goals of studying human geography, as we will see throughout this book, is to appreciate this diversity of relationships between peoples and the places they inhabit, shape, and represent.
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Chapter 1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES REEXAMINED
Chapter 1
LEARNING OBJECTIVES REEXAMINED
1.1
Identify and define different types of regions.
What are the three types of regions recognized by geographers?
1.2
Define mobility and name five types of diffusion.
Name five types of diffusion. How are these types of diffusion different from and related to each other?
1.3
Describe globalization and explain its importance to cultural geography.
What role does globalization play in the shaping of cultures, economies, and societies?
1.4
Define the different models of nature-culture relations.
Name three models of nature-culture relations. In your opinion, which of these models provides the clearest explanation of the relationships between people and the physical environment? Why?
1.5
Explain the concept of cultural landscape.
How are peoples’ interactions with nature expressed in the landscape?
KEY TERMS
Match each of the terms on the left with its definition on the right. Click on the term first and then click on the matching definition. As you match them correctly they will move to the bottom of the activity.
Question
absorbing barrier border zones circulation contagious diffusion core-periphery cultural ecology cultural landscape cultural practices culture diffusion dispersed ecofeminism environmental determinism environmental perception expansion diffusion formal region functional region geography globalization Great Migration hierarchical diffusion human geography independent invention interdependence internal migration | The visible human imprint on the land. The spread of innovations within an area in a snowballing process, so that the total number of knowers or users becomes greater and the area of occurrence grows. The study of the relationships between people and the places and spaces in which they live. A concept based on the tendency of both formal and functional culture regions to consist of a core or node, in which defining traits are purest or functions are headquartered, and a periphery that is tributary and displays fewer of the defining traits. A doctrine proposing that women are inherently better environmental preservationists than men because the traditional roles of women involved creating and nurturing life, whereas the traditional roles of men too often necessitated death and destruction. A type of settlement form in which people live relatively distant from each other. A type of expansion diffusion in which cultural innovation spreads by person-to-person contact, moving wavelike through an area and population without regard to social status. The belief that cultures are directly or indirectly shaped by the physical environment. The binding together of all the lands and peoples of the world into an integrated system driven by capitalistic free markets, in which cultural diffusion is rapid, independent states are weakened, and cultural homogenization is encouraged. A barrier that completely halts diffusion of innovations and blocks the spread of cultural elements. A cultural area that functions as a unit politically, socially, or economically. A total way of life held in common by a group of people, including such learned features as speech, ideology, behavior, livelihood, technology, and government; or the local, customary way of doing things—a way of life; a never-changing process in which a group is actively engaged; a dynamic mix of symbols, beliefs, speech, and practices. Human migration that occurs within the borders of a country. A cultural innovation that is developed in two or more locations by individuals or groups working independently. The movement of people, ideas, or things from one location outward toward other locations. The twentieth-century movement of 6 million African Americans from the rural southern states to the cities of the midwestern and northeastern states. A term that implies an ongoing set of movements of people, ideas, or things that have no particular center or periphery. The areas where different regions meet and sometimes overlap. The study of spatial patterns and of differences and similarities from one place to another in environment and culture. The social activities and interactions—ranging from religious rituals to food preferences to clothing—that collectively distinguish group identity. A type of expansion diffusion in which innovations spread from one important person to another or from one urban center to another, temporarily bypassing other persons or rural areas. The belief that culture depends more on what people perceive the environment to be than on the actual character of the environment; perception, in turn, is colored by the teachings of culture. Relations between regions or countries of mutual, but not necessarily equal, dependence. A cultural region inhabited by people who have one or more cultural traits in common. Broadly defined, the study of the relationships between the physical environment and culture; narrowly (and more commonly) defined, the study of culture as an adaptive system that facilitates human adaptation to nature and environmental change. |
Match each of the terms on the left with its definition on the right. Click on the term first and then click on the matching definition. As you match them correctly they will move to the bottom of the activity.
Question
international migration land-division patterns mechanistic view of nature migrations mobility model natural hazard nature-culture node nucleation organic view of nature permeable barrier physical environment place possibilism region relocation diffusion return migration seasonal migration settlement forms space stepwise migration stimulus diffusion symbolic landscapes time-distance decay transnational migration uneven development vernacular region World Heritage Sites | The decrease in acceptance of a cultural innovation with increasing time and distance from its origin. The view that humans are part of, not separate from, nature and that the habitat possesses a soul and is filled with nature-spirits. A (culture) region perceived to exist by its inhabitants, based in the collective spatial perception of the population at large, and bearing a generally accepted name or nickname (such as 'Dixie'). The tendency for industry to develop in a core-periphery pattern, enriching the industrialized countries of the core and impoverishing the less industrialized periphery. This term is also used to describe urban patterns in which suburban areas are enriched while the inner city is impoverished. A term used to connote the subjective, humanistic, and culturally oriented notion of a specific location. An abstraction, an imaginary situation, proposed by geographers to simulate laboratory conditions so that they can isolate certain causal forces for detailed study. A central point in a functional culture region where functions are coordinated and directed. A term used to connote the objective, quantitative, theoretical, model-based, economics-oriented type of geography that seeks to understand spatial systems and networks through application of the principles of social science. The large-scale movements of people between different regions of the world. A type of expansion diffusion in which a specific trait fails to spread but the underlying idea or concept is accepted. A school of thought based on the belief that humans, rather than the physical environment, are the primary active force; that any environment offers a number of different possible ways for a culture to develop; and that the choices among these possibilities are guided by cultural heritage. The spread of an innovation or other element of culture that occurs with the bodily relocation (migration) of the individual or group responsible for the innovation. A barrier that permits some aspects of an innovation to diffuse through it but weakens and retards continued spread; an innovation can be modified in passing through a permeable barrier. The view that humans are separate from nature and hold dominion over it and that the habitat is an integrated mechanism governed by external forces that the human mind can understand and manipulate. A type of ethnic diffusion that involves the voluntary movement of a group of migrants back to their ancestral or native country or homeland. A grouping of like places or the functional union of places to form a spatial unit. The relative ability of people, ideas, or things to move freely through space. A term that refers to the complex relationships between people and the physical environment, including how culture, politics, and economies affect peopleâs ecological situation and resource use. Human migration across country borders. Landscapes that express the values, beliefs, and meanings of a particular culture. Places (e.g., buildings, cities, forests, lakes, deserts, archeological ruins) that the UNâs International Heritage Programme judges to possess outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humanity. See reference for "migration" - The large-scale movements of people between different regions of the world. Usually associated with crop harvest periods, migrants move according to seasonal changes in weather. All aspects of the natural physical surroundings, such as climate, terrain, soils, vegetation, and wildlife. The spatial arrangement of buildings, roads, towns, and other features that people construct while inhabiting an area. A relatively dense settlement form. The movements of groups of people who maintain ties to their homelands after they have migrated. An inherent danger present in a given habitat, such as floods, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, or earthquakes; often perceived differently by different peoples. A term that refers to the spatial patterns of different land uses. |
Geography on the Internet
You can learn more about the discipline of geography and the subdiscipline of human geography on the Internet at the following web sites:
American Geographical Society
America’s oldest geographical organization, with a long and distinguished record; publisher of the Geographical Review.
Association of American Geographers
The leading organization of professional geographers in the United States. This site contains information about the discipline, the association, and its activities, including annual and regional meetings.
National Geographic Society
An organization that has, for more than a century, served to popularize geography with active programs of publishing and television presentations prepared for the public.
Royal Geographic Society/Institute of British Geographers
Explore the activities of these allied British organizations, whose collective history goes back to the Age of Exploration and Discovery in the 1800s…and don’t forget to visit the Contemporary Human Geography LaunchPad at: http://www.macmillanhighered.com/launchpad/DomoshCHG1e.
Sources
Anderson, Kay, and Fay Gale. 1999. Cultural Geographies. Melbourne: Pearson Education.
Blaut, James M. 1977. “Two Views of Diffusion.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 67: 343-349.
Foster, Jeremy. 2008. Washed with Sun: Landscape and the Making of White South Africa. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press.
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Gould, Peter. 1993. The Slow Plague: A Geography of the AIDS Pandemic. Cambridge, U.K.: Blackwell.
Griffin, Ernst, and Larry Ford. 1980. “A Model of Latin American City Structure.” Geographical Review 70: 397-422.
Hägerstrand, Torsten. 1967. Innovation Diffusion as a Spatial Process. Allan Pred (trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Johnston, R. J., Peter Taylor, and Michael Watts (eds.). 2002. Geographies of Global Change: Remapping the World. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lewis, Peirce. 1983. “Learning from Looking: Geographic and Other Writing About the American Cultural Landscape.” American Quarterly 35: 242-261.
Norwine, Jim, and Thomas D. Anderson. 1980. Geography as Human Ecology? Lanham, Md.: University Press of America.
Ormrod, Richard K. 1990. “Local Context and Innovation Diffusion in a Well-Connected World.” Economic Geography 66: 109-122.
Relph, Edward. 1981. Rational Landscapes and Humanistic Geography. New York: Barnes & Noble.
Sparke, Matthew. 2013. Introducing Globalization: Ties, Tensions, and Uneven Integration. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.
Staudt, Amanda, Nancy Huddleston, and Sandi Rudenstein. 2006. Understanding and Responding to Climate Change, a Report Prepared by the National Research Council based on National Academies Reports. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Science.
Tuan, Yi-Fu. 1974. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Warren, Karen J. (ed.). 1997. Ecofeminism: Women, Culture, Nature. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Ten Recommended Books on a Cultural Approach to Human Geography
(For additional suggested readings, see the Contemporary Human Geography LaunchPad at: http://www.macmillanhighered.com/launchpad/DomoshCHG1e.)
Anderson, Kay, Mona Domosh, Steve Pile, and Nigel Thrift (eds.). 2003. Handbook of Cultural Geography. London: SAGE. An edited collection of essays that push the boundaries of cultural geography into such sub-disciplines as economic, social, and political geography.
Blunt, Alison, Pyrs Gruffudd, Jon May, Miles Ogborn, and David Pinder (eds.). 2003. Cultural Geography in Practice. London: Arnold. An edited collection of essays that take a very practical view of what it means to actually conduct research in the field of cultural geography.
Cosgrove, Denis. 1998. Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. The landmark study that outlines the relationships between the idea of landscape and social and class formation in such places as Italy, England, and the United States.
Cosgrove, Denis, and Stephen Daniels (eds.). 1990. The Iconography of Landscape: Essays on the Symbolic Representation, Design and Use of Past Environments. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. An important collection of essays that lay the foundation for an ideological reading of landscape.
Foote, Kenneth E., Peter J. Hugill, Kent Mathewson, and Jonathan M. Smith (eds.). 1994. Re-Reading Cultural Geography. Austin: University of Texas Press. A beautifully compiled representative collection of some of the best works in American cultural geography at the end of the twentieth century, and a useful companion to the book edited by Wagner and Mikesell.
Mitchell, Don. 1999. Cultural Geography: A Critical Introduction. New York: Blackwell. An introductory text on cultural geography that emphasizes the material and political elements of the discipline.
Oakes, Timothy, and Patricia Price (eds.). 2008. The Cultural Geography Reader. New York: Routledge. A set of landmark statements on cultural geography introduced by the editors’ explanatory and contextualizing essays.
Radcliffe, Sarah (ed.). 2006. Culture and Development in a Globalizing World: Geographies, Actors, and Paradigms. London: Routledge. A series of essays that provide case studies from around the world showing the various ways in which culture and economic development are integrally related.
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Tuan, Yi-Fu. 1974. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. A Chineseborn geographer’s innovative and imaginative look at people’s attachment to place, a central concern of the cultural approach to human geography.
Wagner, Philip L., and Marvin W. Mikesell (eds.). 1962. Readings in Cultural Geography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. A classic collection, edited by two distinguished Berkeley-trained cultural geographers, presenting the subdiscipline as it existed in the mid-twentieth century and developing the device of five themes.
Journals in Human Geography
Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Volume 1 was published in 1911. The leading scholarly journal of American geographers.
Cultural Geographies (formerly known as Ecumene). Volume I was published in 1994.
Geographical Review. Published by the American Geographical Society. Volume 1 was published in 1916.
Journal of Cultural Geography. Published semiannually by the Department of Geography, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma. Volume 1 was published in 1980.
Progress in Human Geography. A quarterly journal providing critical appraisal of developments and trends in the discipline. Volume 1 was published in 1977.
Social and Cultural Geography. Volume 1 was published in 2000 by Routledge, Taylor, & Francis in Great Britain.