CONTEMPORARY
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
CULTURE, GLOBALIZATION, LANDSCAPE
MONA DOMOSH
RODERICK P. NEUMANN
PATRICIA L. PRICE
C. 2015 W.H. FREEMAN & CO.
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
A CULTURAL APPROACH
WHAT IS HUMAN GEOGRAPHY?
Human geography:
The study of the relationships between people and
the places and spaces in which they live.
• A cultural approach to human geography implies
emphasis on meanings, values, attitudes, and
beliefs that different groups of people lend to and
derive from places and spaces.
WHAT IS CULTURE?
Culture:
A total way of life held in common by a group of
people, including learned features (e.g., speech,
ideology, behavior, livelihood, technology, and
government).
or
The local, customary way of doing things—a way of
life; an ever-changing process in which a group is
actively engaged; a dynamic mix of symbols, beliefs,
speech, and practices.
FIGURE 1.1 Two traditional houses of worship. Geographers seek to learn how and
why cultures differ, or are similar, from one place to another. Often the differences
and similarities have a visual expression. In what ways are these two structures—one a
Catholic church in Honduras and the other a Buddhist temple in Laos—alike and
different? (Left: Jon Arnold Images Ltd/Alamy; Right: Bruno Morandi/The Image
Bank/Getty Images.)
CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE
• Culture is not static – it changes over time.
• Culture does not always govern its members.
• Culture is a process.
• Individuals can and do change cultural practices.
• Cultures are never internally homogeneous.
WHAT CAUSES CULTURAL DIVERSITY?
• Geographers consider a wide array of factors that
cause cultural diversity…
• Some are related to the physical environment:
includes terrain, climate, natural vegetation, wildlife,
variations in soil, and the pattern of land and water.
• Many complex and interconnected forces are at
work on cultural phenomena.
HOW TO UNDERSTAND
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
• Some geographers use spatial models to explain human
behavior.
Space:
Connotes the objective, quantitative, theoretical, modelbased, economics-oriented type of geography that seeks
to understand spatial systems and networks through
application of the principles of social science.
Model:
An abstraction, an imaginary situation, proposed by
geographers to simulate laboratory conditions so they can
isolate certain causal forces for detailed study.
FIGURE 1.3 A generalized model of the Latin
American city. Urban structure differs from
one culture to another, and in many ways
the cities of Latin America are distinctive,
sharing much in common with one another.
Geographers Ernst Griffin and Larry Ford
developed the model diagrammed here to
help describe and explain the processes at
work shaping the cities of Latin America.
In what ways would this model not be
applicable to cities in the United States and
Canada? (After Griffin and Ford, 1980,
p. 406.)
HOW TO UNDERSTAND
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
• Other geographers seek to understand the
uniqueness of each region and place – a more
humanistic view of geography.
Place:
Connotes the subjective, idiographic, humanistic,
culturally oriented type of geography that seeks to
understand the unique character of individual
regions and places, rejecting the principles of
science as flawed and unknowingly biased.
POWER AND IDEOLOGY
• Cultures are rarely, if ever, homogeneous.
• Certain groups of people have more power in
society, and their beliefs and ways of life dominate
and are considered the norm.
• Other groups with less power may participate in
alternative cultures.
• Divisions often based on gender, economic class,
racial categories, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.
THEMES IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
1.1 REGION
WHAT IS A REGION?
Region:
A geographical unit based on characteristics and
functions of culture.
Geographers recognize three types of regions:
❖ Formal
❖ Functional
❖ Vernacular
FORMAL REGIONS
Formal region:
A cultural region inhabited by people who have one
or more cultural traits in common.
• Arabic speech and wheat cultivation represent
concept of formal region at its simplest level –
based on a single cultural trait.
• More commonly, formal regions depend on multiple
related traits.
THE SUBJECTIVITY OF
FORMAL CULTURE REGIONS
• No two cultural traits have the same distribution.
• Territorial extent of a culture region depends on
what and how many defining traits are used.
• How the geographer chooses to define the region
depends on the specific purpose of research or
teaching that the region is designed to serve.
BORDERS OF FORMAL REGIONS
• Because cultures overlap and mix, boundaries are
rarely sharp…
• We find border zones rather than lines.
• Formal regions reveal a center or core where
defining traits are all present.
• Moving away from the central core, characteristics
weaken and disappear – core-periphery pattern.
FUNCTIONAL REGIONS
Functional region:
A cultural area that functions as a unit politically,
socially, or economically.
• Functional regions have nodes (central points
where functions are coordinated and directed).
• Many (but not all) functional regions have clearly
defined borders.
• Functional regions generally do not coincide
spatially with formal regions.
FIGURE 1.5 Aerial view of Denver. This image clearly illustrates the node of a
functional region—here, the dense cluster of commercial buildings—that
coordinates activities throughout the area surrounding it. Can you identify
the border of this functional region? Why or why not? (Jim Wark/Airphoto.)
VERNACULAR REGIONS
Vernacular region:
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”).
• Some based on physical environmental features,
and others on economic, political, or historical
characteristics.
• Generally lack sharp borders, vary in scale, and
people may claim residence in more than one.
FIGURE 1.7 The Redneck Riviera. The coastline of Florida’s panhandle region
is popularly known in Florida and beyond as the Redneck Riviera, though
local city governments in the region prefer to call it the Emerald Coast. Can
you think of other regions in the United States, or elsewhere, that have such
popular designations? (Nik Wheeler/Corbis.)
1.2 MOBILITY
WHAT IS MOBILITY?
• Important in geography is the understanding of
how and why different cultural elements move
through space and locate in particular settings.
Mobility:
The relative ability of people, ideas, or things to move
freely through space.
Diffusion:
The movement of people, ideas, or things from one
location outward toward other locations.
FIGURE 1.8 Types of cultural diffusion. These diagrams are merely suggestive;
in reality, spatial diffusion is far more complex. In hierarchical diffusion,
different scales can be used, so that, for example, the category “very
important person” could be replaced by “large city.” In terms of the spread
of disease, which type of diffusion do you think is most common?
FIGURE 1.9 Diffusion of influenza infections during the H1N1 pandemic of
2009. The influenza outbreak started in Mexico City. Global air travel
facilitated hierarchical diffusion to international airports around the world.
From those points, the virus spread within countries through contagious
diffusion. How might a country contain the spread of influenza?
TIME–DISTANCE DECAY
• Diffusion becomes weaker as a cultural innovation
moves away from point of origin.
• Mass media, Internet, and cell phones have greatly
accelerated diffusion, diminishing impact of
time–distance decay.
• Barriers can retard diffusion:
❖ Absorbing barriers completely halt diffusion, allowing no
further progress.
❖ Permeable barriers permit some aspects of an innovation to
diffuse through it, but weaken and retard continued spread.
TYPES OF MIGRATIONS
Migrations:
Large-scale movements of people between different
regions of the world.
International migration:
Migration across country borders.
Stepwise migration:
Migration conducted in a series of stages.
TYPES OF MIGRATIONS
Return migration:
Migrants returning to place of origin after long-term
residency elsewhere.
Seasonal migration:
Migrants move according to seasonal changes in
weather.
Transnational migration:
Movement of groups of people who maintain ties to
their homelands after they have migrated.
FIGURE 1.10 Demonstrations in Hamburg, Germany, against the deportation
of immigrants. Many migrant worker groups are fighting to maintain the
rights of transnational migrants who would like to be able to move freely
between their home countries and those that currently provide work for
them. Do you think transnational migrants should be able to move without
restriction between their home countries and where they work? Why or why
not? (Vario Images GmbH & Co. KG/Alamy.)
1.3 GLOBALIZATION
WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION?
Globalization:
Processes of economic, political, and social
integration that operate on a global scale and have
collectively created ties that make a difference to
lives around the planet.
• Created from faster and more reliable
transportation, almost-instantaneous
communication, and the creation of digital sources
of information and media.
WHEN DID GLOBALIZATION BEGIN?
• Globalization is a rather recent phenomenon, dating
from the late 20th century. BUT…
• Different countries and different parts of the world have
long been linked.
Interdependence:
Relations between regions or countries of mutual, but not
necessarily equal, dependence (e.g., global colonial
empires).
DOES GLOBALIZATION LEAD TO
CULTURAL HOMOGENIZATION?
• Increasingly linked and interdependent economic,
political, and cultural networks might lead different
groups of people to become more and more alike.
BUT…
• New global encounters have enabled increasing
recognition of differences between groups of people.
Uneven development:
Tendency for industry to develop a core-periphery
pattern, enriching industrialized countries of the core and
impoverishing less industrialized periphery.
FIGURE 1.11 World map of the Human Development Index, 2012. The Human
Development Index (HDI) includes life expectancy, adult literacy, educational
participation, and gross domestic product (GDP). These statistics are brought
together to create a measure of development that is more balanced than one
based only on economic growth. The United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), in its Human Development Reports, calculates the HDI yearly. In what
countries or regions does the HDI measure surprise you? Why? (Source: Human
Development Report, 2012. Accessed at http://hdr.undp.org.)
1.4 NATURE–CULTURE
WHAT IS NATURE–CULTURE?
• Helps investigate how groups of people interact
with Earth’s biophysical environment and examine
how the culture, politics, and economies of those
groups affect their ecological situation and
resource use.
• Human geographers view the relationship between
people and nature as a two-way interaction.
CULTURAL ECOLOGY
Cultural ecology:
The study of the relationships between the physical
environment and culture; or the study of culture as an
adaptive system that facilitates human adaptation to
nature and environmental change.
• Geographers use nature–culture to refer to complex
interactions among variables and to reflect that
studies of local human–environment relations need
to include political, economic, and social forces
operating on national and global scales.
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISM
Environmental determinism:
The belief that cultures are directly or indirectly
shaped by the physical environment.
• Popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Overemphasizes the role of environment in human
affairs.
• Physical environment is only one of many forces
affecting human culture and is never the sole
determinant of behavior and beliefs.
POSSIBILISM
Possibilism:
Humans, rather than the physical environment, are
the primary active force; any environment offers a
number of different possible ways for a culture to
develop; choices among these possibilities are
guided by cultural heritage.
• The higher the technological level of a culture, the
greater the number of possibilities and the weaker
the influences of the physical environment.
FIGURE 1.12 Chongqing (Chungking) and San Francisco. Both these cities are among the
largest in their respective countries. Both developed on elongated, hilly sites flanked on all but
one side by water, and both were connected in the twentieth century by bridges leading to
adjacent land across the water. In certain other respects, too—such as the use of tunnels for
arterial roads—the cities are similar. Note, however, the contrast in street patterns. In
Chongqing, the streets were laid out to accommodate the rugged terrain, but in San
Francisco, relatively little deviation from a gridiron pattern was permitted. Note, too, that
although San Francisco has a much smaller population than Chongqing, it covers a far larger
area. What do these contrasts suggest about the relative merits of environmental determinism
and possibilism? About the role of culture?
ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION
Environmental perception:
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.
Natural hazard:
An inherent danger present in a given habitat, such
as floods, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, or
earthquakes; often perceived differently by different
peoples.
FIGURE 1.13 Japan’s 2011 “triple disaster.” On March 11, a very strong 9.0 magnitude
earthquake occurred undersea off the Pacific Coast of Japan. This initiated the first part
of the disaster. Shock waves traveled through the Earth’s crust and caused widespread
structural damage (left). The accompanying seafloor displacement generated a
tsunami that swept away entire communities. All that remained of the coastal town of
Minamisnriku was rubble (center). The tsunami also triggered the third part of the
disaster: a meltdown and radiation release at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
(right). The power plant was not designed to withstand a tsunami or the flooding that
damaged the reactors. Given that Japan has a well-known history of earthquakes and
tsunamis, would you classify this “triple disaster” as natural or human-made? (The Asahi
Shimbury/Getty Images; AFP/Getty Images; Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images.)
EXPRESSIONS OF
ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION
• Nature is a culturally derived concept that has
different meanings to different peoples.
• Organic view of nature—People are part of nature;
elements of the natural environment are believed
to be animated by various types of spirits.
• Mechanistic view of nature—Humans are separate
from and hold dominion over nature; nature is
system governed by external forces that can be
rendered into natural laws and understood and
controlled by humans.
HUMANS AS MODIFIERS
OF THE EARTH
• Human-as-modifier school of thought is the opposite
of environmental determinism.
• Determinists proclaim that nature molds
humankind…
• Possibilists believe that nature presents possibilities
for people…
• Geographers who emphasize the human impact on
the land assert that humans mold nature.
FIGURE 1.14 Human modification of the Earth includes severe soil erosion.
This erosion could have been caused by road building or poor farming
methods. The scene is in the Amazon Basin of Brazil. How can we adopt less
destructive ways of modifying the land? (Michael Nichols/National
Geographic.)
GENDER AND MODIFICATION
OF THE EARTH
• Gender differences can play a role in the human
modification of the Earth.
Ecofeminism:
A doctrine proposing that women are inherently
better environmental preservationists than men
because of their traditional roles of creating and
nurturing life, whereas the traditional roles of men too
often necessitated death and destruction.
1.5 CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
WHAT IS THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE?
Cultural landscape:
The visible human imprint on the land.
• Landscape mirrors a culture’s needs, values, and
attitudes toward the Earth.
• The human geographer can learn much about a
group of people by carefully observing and
studying the landscape.
FIGURE 1.15 Terraced cultural landscape of an irrigated rice district in
Indonesia. In such areas, the artificial landscape made by people
overwhelms nature and forms a human mosaic on the land. Why is rice
cultivated in such hilly areas in Asia, whereas in the United States rice
farming is confined to flat plains? (Nacivet/Photographer’s Choice/Getty
Images.)
WHY IS CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
IMPORTANT?
• Visually reflects most basic strivings of humankind:
shelter, food, and clothing.
• Reveals people’s attitudes toward the modification of
the Earth.
• Contains valuable evidence about the origin, spread,
and development of cultures; usually preserves various
archaic forms.
• Conveys revealing messages about present-day
inhabitants and cultures.
SYMBOLIC LANDSCAPES
• Cultural landscapes offer “texts” that geographers
read to discover dominant ideas and prevailing
practices within a culture as well as less dominant
and alternative forms within it.
Symbolic landscapes:
Landscapes that express the values, beliefs, and
meanings of a particular culture.
FIGURE 1.18 Yokohama at dusk. This skyline is a powerful symbol of the
economic importance of the world’s largest city, Tokyo-Yokohama. What
landscape form best symbolizes your town or city? (Jose Fuste
Raga/Corbis.)
FIGURE 1.20 American ranch house. The horizontally expansive ranch is a
common house form in the United States and Canada. Can you think of
other countries where ranch houses are also common?
(iStockphoto/Thinkstock/Getty Images.)
ASPECTS OF CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
• Geographical studies focus on three principal
aspects of landscape:
❖ Settlement forms
❖ Land-division patterns
❖ Architectural styles
SETTLEMENT FORMS
Settlement forms:
The spatial arrangement of buildings, roads, towns,
and other features that people construct while
inhabiting an area.
Nucleation:
A relatively dense settlement form.
Dispersed:
A type of settlement form in which people live
relatively distant from each other.
LAND-DIVISION PATTERNS
Land-division patterns:
Refers to the spatial patterns of different land uses.
• Land-division patterns vary a great deal from place
to place and culture to culture.
• Land is divided and sub-divided in different ways for
various economic, residential, and political uses.
FIGURE 1.21 The town of Westmoreland in the Imperial Valley of California. It’s
difficult to find a more regularized, geometric land pattern than this. Why do
you think much of the American West was divided into these rectangles?
(Jim Wark/Airphoto.)
ARCHITECTURAL STYLES
• Geographers look at the exterior materials and
decoration, as well as the layout and design of the
interiors.
• Styles vary both through time, as cultures change,
and across space.
• Examining architectural style is often useful when
trying to date a particular landscape element or to
understand particular values and beliefs that
cultures may hold.
FIGURE 1.22 Architecture as a reflection of culture. This log house (left), near
Ottawa in Canada, is a folk dwelling and stands in sharp contrast to the
professional architecture of the Toronto skyline (right). What conclusion might
a perceptive person from another culture reach (considering the “virtues” of
height, durability, and centrality) about the ideology of the culture that
produced the Toronto landscape? (Left: Courtesy of Terry G. JordanBychkov; Right: Michael Mahovitch/Radius Images/Getty Images.)
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