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Human Geography
Ch. 4
The Elements of Culture
 Defining Culture
 The total of knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors
shared by and passed on by the members of a specific
group.
 Includes all products of human work and thought
 Technically it is a blueprint for how people should
behave if they want to fit in with the group.
 It ties people together
 Separates people from other groups
 Culture involves the following:
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Food
Shelter
Religion
Relationships to family and others
Language
Education
Security/protection
Political and social organization
Creative expression - arts
 A society is a group that shares a geographic region,
a sense of identify, and a culture.
 Ethnic groups
 Refers to a group that shares a language, customs, and
a common heritage.
 Their identities as a separate group of people within
the region where they live.
 Culture Change and Exchange
 Innovation
 Taking existing technology and resources and creating
something new to meet a need.
 Examples – baskets, clay pots
 Could happen on purpose or by accident
 Example – cooking meat
 Diffusion
 The spread of ideas, inventions, or patterns of behaviors
 In today’s time this happens rapidly
 Cultural hearths are the beginning sites of ideas,
materials, and technology that diffuse to other cultures.
 Acculturation
 Societal changes because it accepts or adopts an
innovation
 Example – wearing jeans instead of traditional garments
 Can have a positive or negative effect depending on
how the change comes
 If forced, consequences would be negative
 Individuals/groups accept the change, positive outcomes
 Language
 One of the most important aspects of culture
 Allows communication
 Language and Identity
 Helps establish a cultural identify, unity among people
 Can lead to nationalism
 A strong feeling of pride in one’s nation
 Can divide people
 If multiple languages are spoken but one is favored this can
lead to conflict
 Canadian – English and French in Quebec – French is the
dominant language
 Language Families
 3,000-6,500 languages are spoken in the world today
 Dialects are versions of a language.
 Reflects changes in speech patterns related to class,
region, or other cultural changes
 Example – US – Northern vs. Southern
 Language Diffusion
 Follow trade routes
 Can be invented
 Blended languages develop to aid communication among
groups speaking several languages
 Examples – Louisiana, presence of French, African, and
North American peoples resulted in Creole.
 Migration
 People carry language with them when they sometimes
take hold in that region.
 Religion
 Consists of a belief in a supernatural power or powers
that are regarded as the creators and maintainers of
the universe.
 Three types
 Monotheistic – belief in one god
 Polytheistic – belief many gods
 Animistic – belief in divine forces of nature.
 Spread through diffusion and conversion
 Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism actively seek to
convert people
 Major religions
 Judaism – Jewish
 Christianity
 Roman Catholic (Catholic)
 Protestantism
 Examples – Baptist, Methodist, Calvinism, etc…
 Eastern Orthodox
 Islam
 Followers are called Muslims
 Types – Sunni and Shia
 Hinduism
 Reincarnation
 Buddhism
 Other Asian Religions
 Confucianism
 Taoism
 Shintoism
 Creative Cultural Expressions
 Performing arts – music, dance, theater, and film
 Visual arts – architecture, painting, sculpture, textiles
 Oral and written literature – poems, folk tales, stories
Population Geography
 There are 7 billion people in the world.
 To understand population growth geographers
calculate several different statistics
 Birthrate – the number of live births per thousand
population.
 Fertility rate – shows the average number of children
a woman of childbearing years would have in her
lifetime.
 Mortality rate or death rate – the number of deaths
per thousand people
 Infant mortality rate – shows the number of deaths
among infants under age one per thousand live births.
 In the 1800s it was 200-300
 21st Century has seen improved health conditions and
nutrition so the rate is lower.
 Population pyramids are another way to analyze
populations
 Graphic device that shows gender and age distribution
of a population.
 Shows trends in countries
 Wide bases have large % of young people and those
countries have a rapidly growing population.
 Population Distribution
 The 7 billion people on the planet are not evenly
distributed.
 Some places not suitable for living
 90% of the world’s population lives in the Northern
Hemisphere.
 Lightly populated regions are in polar, mountainous,
or desert regions.
 Half the world’s population lives in rural areas.
 People are moving into the city at a rapid rate.
 Urban areas include megacities
 Cities with populations of 10 million or more
 Tokyo – 35 million
 Struggle with overcrowding, large demand for water,
sanitation issues
 Migration on a large scale alters the distribution of
people
 Push-pull factors contribute to these migrations
 Push factors cause people to leave their homeland
 Environmental, political
 Pull factors draw or attract people to an area
 Economics, climate
 Population Density
 Used to understand how heavily populated an area is.
 Average number of people who live in a measurable
area, like a sq. mile
 Reached by dividing the number of inhabitants in an
area by the total amount of land they occupy.
 Many not be evenly distributed across a land
 Certain areas may be densely (have a lot) populated
while others are quite thin.
 Example – US
 Changes over time.
Political Geography
 Nations of the World
 A state is an independent unit that occupies a specific
territory and has full control of its internal and external
affairs.
 Often “country” is used in place of state
 A nation refers to a group of people with a common culture
living in a territory and having a strong sense of unity.
 Types of Governments
 Democracy – citizens hold all of the power.
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Example - US
 Monarchy – ruling family headed by a king or queen hold
political power and may/may not share
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United Kingdom (Great Britain)
 Types of Governments continued
 Dictatorship – An individual or group holds complete
political power.
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Example – North Korea
 Communism – Government and economic system nearly
all political power and means of production are held by the
government in the name of all the people.
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Example – Cuba
 Geographic Characteristics of Nations
 Size
 Shape
 Relative Location
 Size
 Contributes to the power of a country because of
resources and people
 Shape
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Compact, long, fragmented
Can impact how easily it can be governed
Movement of goods
Relationship with neighboring countries.
 Location
 Landlocked (surrounded by other land and no direct
outlet to the sea) countries must build connections
with other countries to get goods in and out of
country.
 Access to ports and trade around the world
 Protection and security
 National boundaries
 These set limits of the territory controlled by a state.
 States/Nations can collect taxes, set laws, etc… within
borders.
 State/nations are protective of their borders.
 Types
 Natural boundaries
 Based on physical features of the land, like rivers, lakes, or
mountains.
 Artificial boundaries
 Fixed line generally following latitude or longitude lines.
 Regional Political Systems
 Countries are often divided into smaller units to make
governing more efficient.
 Most common smaller unites are cities, towns, villages
 Smaller political units can combine to form larger
units like counties provinces, or states.
 Countries may join with each other to form
international political, military or economic units
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United Nations (UN)
NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization
European Union (EU)
OAS – Organization of American States
Urban Geography
 Much of the population lives in cities.
 Cities are centers of business and culture
 Urban Areas
 Develops around a central city
 May include suburbs – units touching the borders of the
central city or other suburbs that touch the city.
 Within commuting distance of the city
 Mostly residential
 Central city, suburbs and outside areas are called
metropolitan areas.
 Urbanization
 The dramatic rise in the number of cities and the
changes in lifestyle that result
 City Locations
 Common Characteristics
 Allow for good transportation
 Easy access to natural resources
 Land Use Patterns
 Basic land use patterns found in all cities
 Residential - housing
 Industrial – goods manufacturing
 Commercial – private business and retail
 The core of a city is almost always based on
commercial activity
 Central business district (CBD)
 The Functions of Cities
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Shopping
Entertainment
Government services
Educational and cultural activities
 Libraries and museums
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Manufacturing
Wholesale (Warehouses)
Residential
Recreation
Religious
Social
Mass transit systems
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Bus
Subways
Trains
Interstates/Highways
Economic Geography
 Economy consists of the production and exchange
of goods and services among a group of people
 Operate on local, regional, national, or global level
 Types of economic systems – The way people produce
and exchange goods and services.
 Traditional – barter system
 Command – production of goods and services is
determined by a central government which owns the
means of production (land, capital, labor)
 Production does not reflect consumer demand
 Market – Production of goods and services is
determined by the demand from consumers.
 Mixed – combination of command and market
economies provides goods and services goods and
services so that all people will benefit.
 Economic Activities
 Farming – Subsistence; market oriented
 Industries
 Levels of Economic Activity
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Primary – gathering raw materials
Secondary – manufacturing
Tertiary – business or professional purpose
Quaternary – provide information, management, and
research services
 The Economics of Natural Resources
 Natural resources – materials on or in the earth that
have economic value.
 Abundant but are not distributed equally around the
world.
 3 types of natural resources
 Renewable – resources that can be replaced
 Non-renewable – Can’t be replaced
 Inexhaustible energy sources - used for producing
power
 Example – Sun, wind, etc…
 Economic support systems
 Infrastructure consists of the basic support systems
needed to keep an economy going
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Power
Communications
Transportation
Water
Sanitation
Education system
 The more sophisticated the infrastructure the more
developed a country is
 Measuring Economic Development
 Per Capita Income – the average amount of money
earned by each person in a political unit.
 GNP (gross national product) – the total value of all
goods and services produced by a country over a year
or some other specified time period.
 GDP (gross domestic product) – the total value of all
goods and services produced within a country in a
given period of time.
 Development levels
 Developing nations
 Low GDP
 No industries
 Struggle to provide people items to meet basic needs
 Developed nations
 High per capita income
 Varied economies
 Nations in transition (Middle income countries)
 Development level is between developing and developed
 They have some of both