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Chapter 1: Basic Concepts
The Cultural Landscape:
An Introduction to Human Geography
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Chapter 1: Basic Concepts
Geography != memorization
Where are
things?
Why are they
were they are?
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Big Mac Attack: Case Study
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Interactions
between
people and
their
environment
The Scientific
Study of the
Earth’s
Surface
A study of
spatial and
locational
variation
Geography
Is Descriptive
A study of
spatial
patterns
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Defining Geography
• Word coined by Eratosthenes
• Geo = Earth
• Graphia = writing
• Geography thus means “earth writing”
• Geography is the study of where things are found on the Earth’s
Surface and the reasons for the location.
• All geography is focused on two questions:
•
•
1)
2)
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What is the above a picture of? Why might it have been built
the way that it was?
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In this night picture of the earth, why are some areas brighter
than others? How has it changed over the last 200 years?
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The Geographers Hall of Fame
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Aristotle (384 BCE – 322 BCE)
I was the first person to
demonstrate that the Earth was
spherical.
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Eratosthenes (3rd Century BCE)
I accurately calculated the
circumference of the earth
using geometry and was the
first known person to use the
word geography.
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A reconstruction of Eratosthenes Map
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Claudius Ptolemy (CE 90 – CE 168)
I tried to one up Eratosthenes but
was off by just a wee bit – 9,000
miles. Still, I wrote a great book
called Geography and designed the
forerunner to longitude and latitude
lines.
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One of Ptolemy’s Maps
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Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani al-Sabti
Al Idrisi (1099–1165)
I’m an Arab geographer who
worked for the King of Sicily to
create an accurate representation
of the world.
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Al Idrisi’s Map
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Abraham Ortelius (1527 – 1598)
I designed the first
modern atlas: Theatre of
the World.
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Ortelius’ Map
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For Your Consideration:
How did the maps change between Eratosthenes and
Ortelius? Why?
Why might maps be different today?
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Contemporary Geography
• Geographers ask where and why
• Location and distribution are important terms
• Geographers are concerned with the tension between
globalization and local diversity
• A division:
• physical geography
• human geography
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Two Geographic Features
• Culture
• Economy
• Chapters 2-7 focus primarily on Culture
• Chapters 9-14 focus primarily on Economics
• Chapter 8 is dedicated to Politics
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Human Geography
Physical Geography
What characteristics of this image would a human geographer
notice? As a physical geographer?
What characteristics of this image would a human geographer
notice? As a physical geographer?
Human Geographers ask these questions:
Geographers also work in these fields:
Geography’s Vocabulary
•
•
•
•
•
Place
Region
Scale
Space
Connections
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Some tools of Geography
Reference Maps
Thematic Maps
GIS
Mental Maps
GPS
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Cartograms
Remote Sensing
Maps
• Two purposes
• As reference tools
• To find locations, to find one’s way
• As communications tools
• To show the distribution of human and physical features
• Helps focus the why/how something IS the way it is.
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“Cartography is the
science of making maps.”
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Early Map Making
Figure 1-2
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Maps: Scale
• Types of map scale
• Ratio or fraction
• Written
• Graphic
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1:24,000
Ratio or
Fraction
1/100
Map
Scale
Graphic
Scale
Written
scale
0|----------------|100km
1 inch equals one mile
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Maps: Projection
• Distortion
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•
•
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Shape
Distance
Relative size
Direction
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Figure 1-4
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U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785
• Township and range system
• Township = 6 sq. miles on each side
• North–south lines = principal meridians
• East–west lines = base lines
• Range
• Sections
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Township and Range System
Figure 1-5
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Contemporary Tools
• Geographic Information Science
(GIScience)
• Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
• Remote sensing
• Geographic information systems
(GIS)
Figure 1-7
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A Mash-up
Figure 1-8
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Key Issue 2
WHY IS EACH POINT ON EARTH
UNIQUE?
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Place: Unique Location of a Feature
• Location
• Place names
• Toponym
• Site
• Situation
• Mathematical location
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Place: Mathematical Location
• Location of any place can be described precisely by meridians
and parallels
• Meridians (lines of longitude)
• Prime meridian
• Parallels (lines of latitude)
• The equator
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The Cultural Landscape
• A unique combination of social relationships and physical
processes
• Each region = a distinctive landscape
• People = the most important agents of change to Earth’s
surface
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Types of Regions
• Formal (uniform) regions
• Example: Montana
• Functional (nodal) regions
• Example: the circulation area of a newspaper
• Vernacular (cultural) regions
• Example: the American South
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Culture
• Origin from the Latin cultus, meaning “to care for”
• Two aspects:
• What people care about
• Beliefs, values, and customs
• What people take care of
• Earning a living; obtaining food, clothing, and shelter
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Cultural Ecology
• The geographic study of human–environment relationships
• Two perspectives:
• Environmental determinism
• Possibilism
• Modern geographers generally reject environmental determinism in
favor of possibilism
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Physical Processes
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•
•
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Climate
Vegetation
Soil
Landforms
• These four processes are important for understanding human
activities
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Modifying the Environment
• Examples
• The Netherlands
• Polders
• The Florida Everglades
Figure 1-21
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Scale
• Globalization
• Economic globalization
• Transnational corporations
• Cultural globalization
• A global culture?
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Space: Distribution of Features
• Distribution—three features
• Density
• Arithmetic
• Physiological
• Agricultural
• Concentration
• Pattern
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Space–Time Compression
Figure 1-29
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Spatial Interaction
• Transportation networks
• Electronic communications and the “death” of
geography?
• Distance decay
Figure 1-30
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Diffusion
• The process by which a characteristic spreads across space and
over time
• Hearth = source area for innovations
• Two types of diffusion
• Relocation
• Expansion
• Three types: hierarchical, contagious, stimulus
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Relocation Diffusion: Example
Figure 1-31
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The End.
Up next: Population
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