1. What is culture
A people’s way of life, their behavior, their shared understandings about themselves and the world
Regions  an area of a common characteristics
Aspects of culture are some of the best features we can use to define regions

2. CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
Each culture has a cultural landscape that develops from the modifications which they have made on their environment to meet specific needs, technology, and lifestyle.
What are the defining characteristics of Towson’ cultural landscape

3. Regions Used to identify and organize areas of the world
Area characterized by similarity or cohesiveness that sets it apart from other regions.

4. Geographic Defining of a Region
Use of cultural traits to define a cultural region
REGIONAL IDENTITY = Key component
the inhabitants of the region are aware of the commonalities in the region and its difference from other regions

5. Common Characteristic
(1) Geographic Proximity = North America

6. Common Characteristic
(2)Dominant Crop = Corn Belt

7. Common Characteristic
(3) Prevailing Livelihood = Manufacturing (Rust) Belt

8. Common Characteristic
(4) Common History = South

9. Common Characteristic
(5) Common Set of Trading Partners = European Union

10. Regions = Mental Construct
Conceptualizing a region is a method for geographers to impose order on the messy complexities of the real world
An attempt to make sense out of geographic chaos

11. Three levels of Regional Influence
(1) core – the centralized zone of concentration, or the most pure area that posses all of the cultural traits used to define the region

12. Three levels of Regional Influence
(2) domain – the area in which the particular culture is dominant but less intense

13. Three levels of Regional Influence
(3) sphere – the zone of outer influence where people with the culture traits in question can even be a minority within another culture region.

14. Two things to remember
(1) One culture’s core can lie with another culture’s sphere

15. Two things to remember
(2) transitions between core, domain, and sphere can be gradual and abrupt

16. Syncretism
New cultural traits emerge as a cultural hybrid of two distinct parent traits

17. Various Different Classifications
Formal Region
Functional (Nodal) Region
Perceptual (Vernacular) Region

18. Formal Region
Common human characteristic (language, religion, level of economic development) OR
The Definition of a Formal Region Can be affected by Scale

19. Formal Region
Common physical attribute such as climate, landform, or vegetation
The Definition of a Formal Region Can be affected by Scale

20. Formal Region
DAIRY BELT – single human characteristic

21. Formal Region
Latin America – common location and colonial heritage to Spain or Portugal
Multiple Traits

22. Functional (Nodal) Regions
Product of interactions of the people and movement of various kinds
Spatial system… defined by the limits of that system
Function through political, social, and economic interaction

23. Functional (Nodal) Regions
There is a center or node around which ideas are organized
Newspaper circulation area
Television reception area
Department Store Clientele
Technology Breaking Down Functional Regions

24. MEGALOPOLIS
Coalescence of metropolitan areas into a continuous network of urban development
Blurs the line between functional and formal regions

25. MEGALOPOLIS Both functional and formal
Declining influence of geographic proximity

26. Perceptual Region
Intellectual constructs designed to help us understand the nature and distribution of phenomena in human geography
Issue of debate amongst geographers

27. Perceptual Region Based on people’s feelings or beliefs about the area
Subjective in nature
Nine Nations of North America

28. Perceptual Region
Place that people believe exist due to a common cultural identity
People think of the South
Environmental, cultural, and economic features quite distinct from the rest of the country
Economically – high agricultural production and lower graduation rates
Cultural – conservative, Church – going, rural
Environment – more rain in the winter than summer

29. Vernacular Regions
One type of perceptual region which is identified by the local residents… not the perception of outsiders
Vernacular = traits of the common folk (speech, architecture, dress, food, etc.)

30. Regionalization in Globalized World
Many expressions of regional uniqueness are reactions to the homogenized consumer oriented placeless characteristics of a global economy