Download Ch_2 Cultural Geography

Human Geography
Chapter 2
setting the stage…
• Reviewing the meaning, components,
structure of culture
• Processes of cultural change, diffusion,
divergence
• Dynamic processes
culture (social science definition)
• Specialized behavioral patterns,
understandings, adaptations, and social
systems that summarize a group of
people’s learned way of life
culture is…..
• Learned, not biological
• Transmitted within a society to next
generations by imitation, tradition,
instruction
culture provides….
• a “general framework”
• each individual learns & adheres to
general rules
• also to specific sub-groups:
– age, sex, status, occupation, nationality
• Subcultures co-exist
– Masculine / feminine
– Rural / rural
– Different ethnicities
• Joined by common traditions,
behaviors, loyalties, beliefs
– Christmas
– Church attendance on Sunday
culture is dynamic….
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External influences
Cultural exchange
Generational
Technology
Environmental
– HIV/AIDS
– Global warming
cultural variables.. micromacro
• 1. Cultural traits – most elementary
– Expression of culture, the smallest
distinctions
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Behavior
Object
Beliefs
Attitudes
– these “building blocks” = a culture complex
culture complex
• Individual cultural traits that are
functionally interrelated
– Masai of Kenya – cultural
traits centered on cattle
– American football – sports
culture
culture region
• Portion of the Earth’s surface occupied
by populations sharing recognizable
distinctive cultural characteristics
– Political organizations/boundaries
– Religions
– Economy type
cultural realm
• A set of cultural regions showing related
cultural complexes and landscapes
– Large region that has assumed
fundamental uniformity in its cultural
characteristics and showing significant
differences from surrounding realms
culture realms
globalization
• Interconnection of all parts of world
• International scale of social, cultural, political,
economic processes
• Homogenization of cultures
– Integrated economies
– Standardization
• Persistent regional descriptions
– Adaptations to accommodate cultural preferences
interaction of people and
environment…..
• Cultural ecology – study of the
relationship between a culture group
and the natural environment it occupies
– Arid regions versus humid regions
– Indian acorn culture
environmental
determinism…??
• The belief that the physical environment
alone determines how humans are, their
actions, their thoughts
• Environment alone cannot account for
cultural variations
– Environment places certain limitations on human
use of land
– Not absolute due to technology, ideologies
• Indian acorn culture versus Inca civilization
possibilism
• Viewpoint that people, not environments are
the dynamic forces that cause cultural
development
• Noting world’s population location:
– Evidence of nature of limits of environment
– Majority of people located in regions with certain
characteristics
• Mild climates, supply of fresh water, fertile soil, mineral
resources
ecumene: Major areas of permanent
inhabitation
• Continental margins (coastal regions)
– 2/3’s of total human population live within 300
miles of the ocean
• Low-lying fertile delta lands (along rivers)
where DON’T humans live
(without supporting technology) ???
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Rocky coasts
Cold regions
Areas with infertile soils
Mountains / deserts
Tropical lowlands, swampy land,
forested disease-infected river valleys
nonecumene: Major regions in the world
• The “hollow continent” - South America
• The “empty quarter” – Arabian
Peninsula
• The Amazon Basin
• The Sahara Desert
• Antarctica / Arctic / Siberia
population distribution
• 90 % of all people live north of the Equator
• 2/3 of this total are in the mid-latitudes of 20 –
60 degrees north (most temperate)
• More than ½ the world population lives on
only 5% of the earth’s land
• 2/3 live on 10%
• 9/10 on less than 20%
6.2+ billion humans –
The largest concentrations (Five major regions)
• East Asia – Japan,
China, Taiwan,
South Korea
– Largest – both in
area and numbers
– 25% of world
population
• South Asia – India,
Bangladesh,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka
– Second largest
– 21% of world
population
human concentrations
• Europe – southern,
western, eastern
through the Ukraine
– 13% of the world
population
• Northeastern
United States and
Southeastern
Canada
– Smallest
concentration
human impact on the
environment
• Geography examines:
– human reactions to environment
– human impacts on environment
• Cultural landscape
– the earth’s surface as modified by human action
– physical record of a culture
• House types
• Transportation networks
• Size & distribution of settlement
human actions… deliberate & accidental
• Vegetation
– Altered, replaced, denuded
• Animal species
– Extinctions, marginalized
• Fertile regions transformed
– unproductive, polluted, degraded
landscapes
Moa –
New Zealand
17th century
fire - perhaps the first great
tool
• Fire control by hunter-gather groups
– Grasslands = herds of grazing animals
– Chase out game
– Protect themselves at night from animals
• Fire control today –
– Some land reverting to forest
– Also natural fires (lightening strikes) allowed to
burn
• Provides opportunity for more diversity
looking at roots of culture
• Earlier humans were
more impacted by
physical
environment
11,000 years ago retreat of massive
glaciers
• Ice melted –
(end of Paleolithic
period)
released
moisture
– Expanding
• Vegetation & animals
• Spreading populations
3 waves of development
following retreat of glaciers
• Basic hunter & gather groups
• Development of agriculture/animal
husbandry
• Urbanization/industrialization
Paleolithic period – to 11,000 BC
• Hunter & gather groups
• Retreating glaciers
• Spreading & isolation = cultural
divergence
hunter & gather groups
• Small, scattered groups, pre-agricultural
– Dependent on natural food sources
– Primitive stone tools & weapons
– Population estimate: 5 to 10 million
– Spread to all continents except Antarctica
human migration
carrying capacity
• Hunter & gather groups =large
territories for small numbers
• Relative isolation = cultural divergence
• Some contact = trading, socializing,
spouse selection
• Groups of about 20 to 40 individuals
expansion & spread
• New innovations
– Encountering new environmental
problems, materials, resources
• Accelerated differentiation
– Spreading increased cultural contrasts
– New environments = cultural change
• New tools, words, lifestyles
hunter & gather lifestyle
• Hunting & foraging process
– Not so demanding of time and energy
• Estimates for Bushmen: survival requires a 2½
day workweek
– Time available
• Development of tools, art, language, religion,
trade, permanent settlements, social
stratifications
impacts on environment
• Increasing populations
– Depleted the large herds
– Herds were migrating northward
– Need for new food bases
• Plant & animal domestication
Mesolithic period – 11,000 to 5,000 BC
• Moving into the Agricultural Revolution
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Transition from food collecting to food production –
Transition to sedentary lifestyle
Plant & animal domestication
Profound changes in tools, tasks, social
complexities
– Foods remained regional
agricultural origins….
• Spanning 1,000s of years
– Nile floodplain – 18,500 years ago
– Americas (Mexico) – 5,000 years ago
• Helter-skelter fashion
• Females considered primary players
– Development of crop production
– Innovators of technology
– Perhaps evolved out of plant gathering & nurturing
domestication – 40° N to 40°
S
migration of first farmers
• 10,000 years ago
• Out of the Middle
East
• Spread rate = 5/8ths
mile per year
Neolithic period – 8,000 to 5,000 BC
• Agricultural Revolution – into full swing
• Cultural hearths/civilizations
• Technological & social innovations
– Plow
– Irrigation
– Draft animals
civilizations – economies based on
agriculture
• Surplus of food
• Expanding populations
• Innovations:
– Spinning, weaving
– Potter wheel, brick making, construction
– Mining, smelting, casing metals
cultural hearths
development of civilizations…
beginning around
5,000 BC
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1. Agriculture
2. Government
3. Religion
4. Specialization
beginnings of urbanization
• Cultural hearths varied
– Rural, urban, sea-faring, commerce based
• Development of stratified societies
– Artisans, warriors/armies, merchants,
scholars, priests, administrators
– Astronomy, mathematics, calendar
cultural change….
• In constant state of change
– Can be dramatic, or less pronounced periods
– Can be large or small
• No phones to cell phones….. less than one century
• Subsistence agriculture to agro-business industry
• 3 ways of change
1. innovation
• Introduction of new ideas, practices, or
objects; usually, an alteration of custom
or culture that originates within the
social group itself
• For example an invention:
– Material: bow & arrow, gun, steam engine
– Non-material: Christianity, capitalism
how does innovation
happen???
• Characteristically pre-modern, traditional
societies are not innovative
– Equilibrium, so no motivation
– Always resistance to change
• Usually innovation occurs under pressure,
stress
– Today gas is $3.00 +
– Food pressures
2. diffusion
• Process by which an idea/innovation is
transmitted from one individual/group to
another across space
• 2 processes
– Relocation - migration
– Expansion - spread of
information/innovation
diffusion processes
• Relocation diffusion:
– The innovation or idea is physically
carried to new areas by migrating
individuals or populations
• Expansion diffusion:
– Contagious
– Hierarchical
– Stimulus
3. acculturation
• Adoption of cultural traits, “borrowing”
– Religion, technology
• Through force
– War, subjugation
• Absorption
– Most extreme
– Extinction of culture can occur