INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN GEOGRAPHY Unit 1

What Is Human Geography? The study of How people make places How we organize space and society How we interact with each other in places and across space How we make sense of others and ourselves in our locality, region, and world

Globalization A set of processes that are: -increasing interactions -deepening relationships -heightening interdependence without regard to country borders. A set of outcomes that are: -unevenly distributed -varying across scales -differently manifested throughout the world.

What Are Geographic Questions? The spatial arrangement of places and phenomena (human and physical) – How are things organized on Earth? – How do they appear on the landscape? – Where? Why? So what? No place “untouched by human hands” or activity Human organization of communities, nations, networks Establishment of political, economic, religious, cultural systems

Geography is a Science of Inquiry What is Cholera? Using maps to solve the Cholera Deaths Turn to page 21

Spatial Distribution Spatial distribution and pattern Processes that create and sustain a distribution Map of Cholera Victims in London’s Soho District in 1854 Patterns of victim’s homes and water pump locations key to the source of the disease

Five Themes of Geography Place Location Human-environment interaction Movement Region

Place Sense of place: Infusing a place with meaning and emotion Perception of place: Belief or understanding of what a place is like, often based on books, movies, stories, or pictures

Place Names Toponyms reflect the local culture –Phoenix –Maricopa –Chandler –Apache Junction

Cultural Landscape The visible human imprint, the material character of a place Religion and cremation practices spread with Hindu migrants from India to Kenya

Sequent Occupance Layers of imprints in a cultural landscape reflecting years of differing human activity Apartments in Mumbai, India Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: African, Arab, German, British, Indian “layers.” Apartments replaced earlier single- family houses

Sequent Occupance Layers of imprints in a cultural landscape that reflect years of differing human activity. Athens, Greece ancient Agora surrounded by modern buildings

Site: Lower Manhattan Island Fig. 1-6: Site of lower Manhattan Island, New York City. There have been many changes to the area over the last 200 years.

Situation: Singapore Fig. 1-7: Singapore is situated at a key location for international trade.

Where Pennsylvanian students prefer to live Where Californian students prefer to live Perception of Place

Location Absolute location –Precise location using a coordinate system –Latitude and longitude most common –Measured by geographic positioning systems (GPS) Relative location –Location in relation to something else –Changes over time with changing circumstances

Why Do Geographers Use Maps, and What Do Maps Tell Us? Reference Maps -Show locations of places and geographic features -Absolute locations What are reference maps used for? Thematic Maps -Tell a story about the degree of an attribute, the pattern of its distribution, or its movement. -Relative locations What are thematic maps used for?

Reference Map

Thematic Map

Kuby Thematic Mapping of Ethnic Distribution bcs/Books?action=resource&bcsId=5267&i temId= &resourceId=18408

Mental Maps Maps we carry in our minds of places we have been and places we have heard of Activity Spaces The places we travel to routinely in our rounds of daily activity

Remote Sensing and GIS Satellite imagePhotograph Hurricane Katrina, 2005: Area of impact and destruction

Geographic Information System (GIS) Computer hardware and software that permit storage and analysis of layers of spatial data

GPS

Why Are Geographers Concerned with Scale and Connectedness? Scale: Territorial extent of something Varying scales of observations –Local –Regional –National –Global

Scale

The Power of Scale Influence of processes operating at different scales Context of a phenomenon in what is happening at different scales Political use of scale to change who is involved or how an issue is perceived

Regions Formal region: Defined by a common characteristic, whether physical or cultural, present throughout e.g., German-speaking region of Europe Functional region: Defined by a set of social, political, or economic activities or interactions e.g., an urban area, city and suburbs

World Regions

Regions Perceptual Region: ideas in our minds, based on accumulated knowledge of places and regions, that define an area of “sameness” or “connectedness.” e.g. the South the Mid-Atlantic the Middle East

Regions Perceptual Region: Ideas in our minds, based on accumulated knowledge of places and regions, that define an area of “sameness” or “connectedness”

Culture The whole tangible lifestyle of peoples, but also their prevailing values and beliefs Cultural trait: A single attribute of a culture Cultural complex: A combination of traits Cultural hearth: Area where a culture began and from which it spreads Independent invention: A culture trait that began in several places

The meanings of regions are often contested. In Montgomery, Alabama, streets named after Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Civil Rights leader Rosa Parks intersect. Photo credit: Jonathan Leib

Movement Spatial interaction: The interconnectedness between places, depending upon Distance Accessibility Connectivity Elizabeth J. Leppman

Diffusion: the process of dissemination, the spread of an idea or innovation from its hearth to other areas. What slows/prevents diffusion? - time-distance decay - cultural barriers

Diffusion terms Innovators –The few people who initially know about a product or idea Adopters –Those who ‘adopt’ the product or idea after learning about it – could be few or many Laggards –Those who may never adopt the innovation

Barriers to diffusion Physical barriers in nature: –rivers, oceans, lakes, and mountain ranges. Cultural: –religious beliefs. –language impedes the easy flow of ideas and fads from the United States and English-speaking Canada to French Canadians in Québec. Political boundary can impede or slow down the dissemination of disease. Economic factors – –people in certain places cannot afford to purchase a new commodity or technological innovation.

2 Types of Diffusion 1- Expansion Diffusion: an idea or innovation that spreads outward from the hearth *There are 3 forms of expansion Diffusion: Contagious – spreads adjacently/everywhere Hierarchical – spreads to most linked people or places first. Stimulus – idea promotes a local experiment or change in the way people do things.

Contagious diffusion –Places near the origin are affected first

Hierarchical diffusion --- A phenomenon begins in one place (often a large urban center), and then moves to another large center, and another, until it moves to smaller centers. Hierarchical effects occur when phenomena spread first to major cities, then to intermediate-size places, and later to small towns and rural areas (Figure 3.3b).

Stimulus Diffusion Because Hindus believe cows are holy, cows often roam the streets in villages and towns. The McDonalds restaurants in India feature veggie burgers.

2- Relocation diffusion People move to a new area and take their language, religion, and other cultural items with them. The items being diffused leave the original areas behind as they move to new areas. Example: African-Americans who moved from the rural South to the urban North during the mid-20th century brought blues music to Chicago.

Types of Diffusion Relocation diffusion : Movement of individuals who carry an idea or innovation with them to a new, perhaps distant locale : A. B. Murphy : H.J. de Blij Kenya Paris, France

Examples of Diffusion Religions Food Cultural trends - Music Plants/Animals/Insects Diseases

Worldwide, there are 1.4 billion followers of Islam There are between 5 – 7 million Muslims in the United States Diffusion of Islam 630 – 1600 AD

Starbucks.. They're everywhere

Diffusion or (in this case) Fusion of Food In China, the chief food flavor used is soy In India, the principal flavoring is curry Both spices spread or ‘migrated’ As a result, Thai food, influenced by both China and India, is a blend of both cuisines, yet uniquely Thai

Music, clothing and fads New clothing and music fads spread quickly among major world cities such as New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tokyo. Only later do they filter down the urban hierarchy,

Plants, Animals & Insects Arizona is a case study= ‘introduction of alien plant species’ due to migration of people from all over US to Arizona Kudzu – from Japan West Nile Virus Africanized Killer Bees

Kudzu Roots are jointed & often branch every two or four feet and can form separate, independent plants as the root joints die. It's one of the fastest growing plants around, with the ability to expand as much as sixty feet in one season. And, it’s very difficult to control. It has taken over some areas of the US, such as Louisiana and Mississippi Kudzu resembles soybeans or cowpeas. Its roots can reach a depth of eight feet and have a circumference of over three inches.

West Nile Virus

Distribution of West Nile Virus: Humans, Birds, & Mosquitos, 2001

West Nile Virus Cases in Arizona

Africanized (Killer) Bees

Diffusion of Africanized Bees after their arrival to Brazil, South America

Africanized Bees travel through Mexico throughout the 1990s

Killer Bees in the United States

Where did AIDS come from & how did it get here? 2 strains from east and west Africa were identified in the early 1980s Similar to strain of SIV (found in wild monkey populations) Earliest documented case was a man in Kinshasa, Congo, 1959 Researchers believe over time SIV evolved into HIV through a process called ‘zoonosis’ (perhaps by butchering monkeys)

The Path of AIDS… From origins in Africa, the virus diffused to other parts of the world as infected people (unknowingly) migrated out, or travelers to Africa contracted the virus and carried it home… Haiti in the Caribbean – with African cultural heritage and connections was one of the first countries in the western hemisphere where AIDS was found

Patient Zero HIV in the US is believed to have originated from a flight attendant who vacationed in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince In 1981, the sexual contacts of 40 men revealed that 8 had had direct contact with Patient Zero, and many others indirectly

Diffusion of AIDS Access to AIDS drugs differs in the developed world vs the developing world AIDS has become a worldwide pandemic

AIDS in the US & Sub-Saharan Africa In the US –Homosexual males & intravenous drug users were among those most commonly affected –Now, AIDS cuts across all sociological boundaries (age, gender, sexual orientation, race…) In sub-Saharan Africa –HIV/AIDS primarily affects young women (4 times as high as the rate for men) For women, AIDS progresses faster, and they die sooner –This greatly alters African society

Diffusion The process of the spread of an idea or innovation from its hearth to other areas Factors that slow or prevent diffusion –Time-distance decay –Cultural barriers

What Are Geographic Concepts, and How Are They Used in Answering Geographic Questions? Ways of seeing the world spatially that geographers use in answering research questions Old approaches to human-environment questions – Environmental determinism (has been rejected by almost all geographers) – Possibilism (less accepted today) New approaches to human-environment questions – Cultural ecology – Political ecology