Answers to Thinking Geographically Questions

Figure 1.1: Both mark off sacred space from its surroundings; both are built in traditional styles; both are carefully maintained. The external symbols are different, as are the architectural styles.

Figure 1.2: A major force would be climate: sufficient water (but not too much) and warm temperatures for wheat growing, plus flat land for fields. Another important force is dietary preference.

Figure 1.3: The gun is obviously a piece of introduced technology. The dogs’ harnesses also appear to be made from materials brought from elsewhere.

Figure 1.4: Most cultures are separated by a transition zone where characteristics of one culture gradually replace those of the neighboring one, rather than a sharp dividing line.

Figure 1.5: Identification of the border is difficult at best. In the background there appears to be rural farmland, but even that is dependent on the city core—the node—for important services like banking, medical care, legal services, stores, and (because Denver is a state capital) government.

Figure 1.6: A major divide is still the former East Germany, which is poorer, has major pollution problems, and even has slightly different speech patterns from the western part of the country. Although the religious configuration is more complex, after movements of population in the late twentieth century, religion still instills different worldviews and concepts of right and wrong behavior. Differences in landholding laws can be extremely persistent and require special accommodation.

Figure 1.7: Silicon Valley and the Lower Rio Grande in Texas are examples. You may know of other examples from your local area.

Figure 1.8: The American West, Siberia, and the African bush are vernacular regions that are imagined by most people to be wild, remote, hostile environments. They loosely correspond to climate zones but have formally undefined boundaries.

Figure 1.9: Answers will vary, but people who live outside the Riviera define the region by its extreme affluence and “society life,” while people who live or vacation there may characterize it more by its desirable climate and amenities than by its affluence.

Figure 1.10: Centers of power, such as government, financial institutions, and cultural institutions, are frequently located in large cities, where individual leaders often live.

Figure 1.11: Answers will vary, but it is likely that Facebook usage will continue to spread and may eventually decline as new social networking forms (and sites) develop and the novelty of Facebook diminishes.

Figure 1.12: Your answers will vary depending on your acquaintance with world regions. The Middle East, especially Turkey; Middle and South America; and China and Southeast Asia may seem surprisingly high.

Figure 1.13: American and European cities probably do not display as many African influences because Americans and Europeans are generally less interested in adopting cultural trends and ideas from Africa than Africans are in copying trends from the United States or Europe. The United States and Europe have longstanding worldwide reputations for being on the vanguard of new ideas and offering affluent lifestyles.

Figure 1.14: Both cities, as they grew, had to face the challenge of connections to a hinterland across considerable bodies of water. However, internally, Chongqing allowed the street pattern to follow the lay of the land because the leaders felt no compulsion to do otherwise. (In flatter areas, Chinese cities were carefully laid out in a square.) San Francisco shows the imposition of the modern grid pattern from the initial Spanish settlement and the public land survey. In this way, leaders faced certain needs but had the possibility of solving the problems in different ways.

Figure 1.15: Answers will vary, but it is likely that people surviving the 2011 Japanese disaster will feel more fearful and wary of the physical environmental forces that could affect their region in the future. They may also become less trusting of technology’s ability to protect them against such events.

Figure 1.16: Erosion can be controlled by allowing trees and grass to continue to grow, because they hold the soil in place. Also, clear-cutting promotes erosion, so forests that are more selectively cut can be a controlling factor. Roads can be engineered to keep soil in place and follow contours.

Figure 1.17: In the United States and Canada, the outskirts (the light yellow, labeled 5) tend to house the wealthy and middle-class residents in suburbs. Slums tend to be in the center of town, just outside the central business district. North American cities have less self-built housing.

Figure 1.18: In Asia the pressure of population has led to turning steep slopes into farmland by terracing them (which also helps to control the flow of water). In the United States, there is sufficient farmland (and a smaller population dependent upon it), so there is less pressure for additional farmland created this way. The mainstream American diet is also based on wheat, rather than rice, as the staple grain, so that the market demands less rice production.

Figure 1.19: Answers will vary, but you may find such clues in (1) the architectural styles of houses in a particular region (e.g., wood-frame cabin-style houses in the American Midwest or ranch-style adobe houses in the American Southwest) or (2) the types of ethnic restaurants in a particular region (e.g., Mexican restaurants in the American Southwest, Cuban restaurants in Miami).

Figure 1.20: Answers will vary, depending on landmarks in your home city. Among the possibilities are the hills and major bridges of San Francisco, the skyscrapers of New York, the historic buildings of Boston, and the adobe (and its replication) of Santa Fe.

Figure 1.21: Such houses, often called bungalows or villas, are common in Australia and New Zealand, and they have also been widely built in Great Britain.

Figure 1.22: The Public Land Survey (Township and Range Survey) was devised to make the legal description, and thus the subdivision and sale of, land in the West easy to attract settlers. Americans regarded “taming the wilderness” as a manifest destiny and responsibility. Because cadastral (land-ownership) patterns are so durable, the result has been a landscape of rectangular parcels and fields.

Figure 1.23: Toronto’s highest buildings are centrally located, and they are built of durable materials (reinforced concrete and structural steel). The highest buildings are commercial structures, not buildings for religious purposes, indicating that the most important activity is economic. Even residences (high-rise apartment buildings) are tall.