1. The Nature of Cultural Geography
Chapter 1
The Human Matrix

2. 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?

3. Introduction Humans are by nature geographers
Possess awareness of and curiosity about the distinctive character of places
Can think territorially or spatially
Each place on Earth is unique
Places possess an emotional quality and significance that contribute to our identity as unique human beings
Geographers, over the centuries, generated a number of concepts and ideas that literally changed the world

4. 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

5. 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 Europe’s Dark Ages

6. 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

7. 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 the spatial functioning of society.

8. Cultural geography
Focuses on cultural phenomena that may vary or remain constant from place to place
Explains how humans function spatially

12. 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 other disciplines making it difficult to define

13. No easy explanations for cultural phenomena
Many complex causal forces
Wheat cultivations (next slide)
Cultural geography seeks explanations of diverse casual factors

15. 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

16. Formal culture region

17. 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.

18. Kerala, India
Boys and girls do not mingle but observe each other from a distance.
Unchaperoned dating is rare and marriages are typically arranged.
These are learned, collective human behaviors.

19. 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.

20. Complex multiculture regions

21. Territorial extents of a culture region depend on what defining traits are used.

22. Formal culture regions
Many different formal regions can be created
Depends on traits
Geographer’s intuition

23. Boundaries Formal culture regions must have boundaries
rarely sharp because cultures overlap and mix
Culture regions reveal a core where all defining traits are present
Farther from core regional characteristics weaken and disappear
Formal regions display core/periphery pattern
Human world is chaotic

24. Functional culture region

25. Minneapolis, Minnesota
This mobile post-office is the node of a functional 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.

26. Functional culture region
The scene is in the city’s CBD where individual buildings are nodes of activities linked to other buildings and places.
Note the skywalk which facilitates interaction between structures.

27. 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

28. Farm as a formal culture region
all land owned and leased, farmstead is node, borders marked by fences, hedges

29. 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

31. Vernacular culture regions
A region perceived to exist by its inhabitants, has widespread acceptance and uses a special regional name.

32. 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 people’s sense of belonging and regional self -consciousness

33. Vernacular culture region

34. Vernacular culture region
Not unique to North America
Northern Territory = “Outback Australia”
Transcends state lines
Japanese ties
Heavy duty bumper and “roo bars” to deflect wildlife

35. 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

36. 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 Hägerstrand

37. Cultural diffusion

38. Expansion diffusion
Ideas spread throughout a population from area 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, but idea accepted

39. Relocation diffusion
Relocation diffusion occurs when individuals migrate to a new location carrying new ideas or practices with them
Religion is prime example

40. 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.

41. 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.

42. Diffusion

43. Guangzhou (Canton), China
PRC recently opened it’s doors to foreign investment and a number of cities have been designated as Special Economic Zones.
An absorbing barrier has become permeable.
Sincle coastal cities were the first to allow foreign instrusions, these have highest influx of joint-venture projects.

44. Diffusion
Proctor and Gamble has designed soaps and detergents for China’s specific water conditions.
Just as P&G diffused from North America to China, other manufacturers will diffuse into other parts of China.

45. Diffusion
As more cities are opened China’s urban economies will become increasingly internationalized and each city will function as a key center of diffusion to places lower on the social-economic hierarchy.
How does time-distance decay play a role here?

46. Stages of innovation acceptance
First – acceptance takes place at a slow steady rate.
Second – raid growth in acceptance and the trait spreads rapidly
fashion or dance fad
neighborhood effect
Third – slower growth and acceptance of innovation

47. Neighborhood effect

48. Hägerstrand

49. Hägerstrand
Hägerstrand’s 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

50. Susceptibility to an innovation
More crucial when world communications are 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

51. Cultural ecology
Ecology is two-way relationship between an organism and its physical environment
Cultural ecology is the study of the cause-and-effect interplay between cultures and the physical environment
Ecosystem entails a functioning ecological system where biological and cultural Homo sapiens live and interact with the physical environment.

52. 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

53. Cultural ecology
The physical environment plays a powerful role in the cultural landscape of this remote region of Pakistan’s northern frontier.
The Muslim, Pathan have an adaptive strategy of harnessing local resources for their needs.

54. Bahrain, Pakistan
The settlement hugs the valley walls and the river is harnessed to provide water power for turning grinding stones (primarily corn) in the foreground structure.
Since limited wood supply precludes its widespread use, houses are constructed of dry-mortared stones and many have sod roofs

55. Cultural ecology
Four schools of thought developed by geographers on cultural ecology
Environmental determinism
Possibilism
Environmental perception
Humans as modifiers of the earth

56. Environmental determinism
Developed during the first quarter of the 20th century.
Physical environment provided a dominant force in 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

57. 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 and fishers
Overestimated the role of environment

58. Possibilism Took the place of determinism in the 1920s
Cultural heritage at least as important as physical environment in affecting human behavior
Believe people are the primary architects of culture

59. Possibilism Chongqing and San Francisco Similar environment
Street patterns
SF has smaller population but larger area
Culture

60. Possibilism
Physical environment offers numerous ways for a culture to develop.
People make culture trait choices from the possibilities offered by their environment to satisfy their needs.
High technology societies are less influenced by physical environment.
Geographer Jim Norwin warns control over environment may be an illusion because of possible future climatic changes.

61. Environmental perception
Each person’s or cultural group’s mental images of the physical environment are shaped by knowledge, ignorance, experience, values, and emotions
Environmental perceptionists declare-choices people make will depend more on how they perceive the land’s character than its actual character
People make decisions based on distortion of reality with regard to their surrounding physical environment

62. Environmental perception
Geomancy—a traditional system of land-use planning dictating that certain environmental settings, perceived by the sages as auspicious, should be chosen as the sites for houses, villages, temples, and graves (feng-shui)
an East Asian world view and art
affected the location and morphology of urban places in countries such as China and Korea
diffused (look up feng-shui on internet)

63. Natural hazards Human’s 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 people’s 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

64. Natural hazards
In virtually all cultures, people knowingly inhabit hazard zones
Especially floodplains, exposed coastal sites, drought-prone regions, and active volcanic areas
More Americans than ever live in hurricane- and earthquake-prone areas of the United States

65. Monserrat

66. Missouri River

67. Hazard Perception
Levees failed to prevent the Mississippi and Missouri rivers from flooding.
Floods are natural occurrences and contrary to the perception of some, human made devices are directed toward control rather than prevention.
When the water recedes and tons of muck and debris are removed, will the farmer move back and start over?

68. Natural hazards
Migrants tend to imagine new homelands as being more similar to their old homelands than is actually the case
Human’s perceptions of natural resources
Hunting and gathering cultures
Agricultural groups
Industrial societies

69. 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

70. Humans as modifiers of the earth
Human modification varies from one culture to another
Geographers seek alternative, less destructive modes of environmental modification
Humans of the Judeo-Christian tradition tend to regard environmental modification as divinely approved
Other more cautious groups take care not to offend the forces of nature

71. Environmental modification

72. Queensland, Australia
Rainforest north of Cairns, signs demonstrate conflicting perceptions of a particular resource.
Thousands of acres of Australian rainforest destroyed yearly.

73. Cultural integration
Cultures are complex wholes rather than series of unrelated traits
Cultures form integrated systems in which parts fit together causally
All cultural aspects are functionally interdependent on one another
Changing one element requires accommodating change in others
To understand one facet of culture, geographers must study the variations in other facets and how they are causally interrelated and integrated

74. 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 alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and other products, thereby influencing both diet and shopping patterns

75. Cultural integration
If improperly used can lead the geographer to cultural determinism such as:
physical environment is inconsequential as an influence on culture
culture offers all the answers for spatial variations
nature is passive while people and culture are the active forces

76. 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

77. Models

78. Model of Latin American city

79. Humanistic geography
Celebrates the uniqueness of each region and place
Place is the key word connoting the humanistic view
Topophilia—word coined by Yi-Fu Tuan, literally meaning “love of place”
Has witnessed a resurgence in recent decades
Social-science approach has declined in popularity

80. Humanistic geography Anne Buttimer
Seek to explain unique phenomena—place and region-rather than universal spatial laws
Most doubt that laws of spatial behavior even exist
Believe in a far more chaotic world than scientists could tolerate
Reject the use of mathematics—feel human beliefs and values cannot be measured

81. Who is right?
Debate between scientists and humanists in cultural geography
Necessary and healthy
Both ask different questions about place and space
Geography is the bridging discipline, joining the sciences and humanities
Postmodernism

82. Cultural landscape
The visible, material landscape that cultural groups create in inhabiting the Earth
Cultures shape landscapes out of the raw materials provided by the Earth
Each landscape uniquely reflects the culture that created it
Much can be learned about a culture by carefully observing its created landscape

83. Cultural landscape
Some geographers regard landscape study as geography’s central interest
Reflects the most basic strivings of humankind
Shelter
Food
Clothing
Contains evidence about the origin, spread, and development of cultures

84. 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 architectural form 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

85. Cultural landscape
How architecture reflects past and present values 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

86. Cultural landscape

87. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Now capital; prior to 1997 administrative center for British colony of Malaya.
During 20s an 30s Art Deco architecture popular.
Built in 1928, originally “wet market” for mean, poultry and fish were rendered and sold.

88. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Renewed, it now contains a shopping bazaar selling local handicraft products, souveniers and food.
Heritage revealed through architecture and sign.
Only traditional cart suggests truth.

89. Cultural landscape Humanistic view of cultural landscape
Content to study the cultural landscape for its aesthetic value
Obtain subjective messages that help describe the essence of place
Geographer Tarja Keisteri distinguishes the factual, concrete, physical, functioning landscape from the experimental, perceived, symbolic, aesthetic landscape
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

90. Cultural landscape
Most geographical studies have focused on three principal aspects of landscape
Settlement forms—Describe the spatial arrangement of buildings, roads, and other features people construct while inhabiting an area
Land-division patterns—reveal 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

91. Cultural landscape Architecture
North America’s different building styles
Regional and cultural differences

92. Conclusion Five themes of geography are interwoven Culture region
Cultural diffusion
Cultural ecology
Cultural integration
Cultural landscape

93. Folk and popular architecture reflect culture
Toronto
near Ottawa