Cultures, Environments, and Regions

Culture Culture closely identified with anthropology –Has many definitions –An all-encompassing term Identifies tangible lifestyle of a people and prevailing values and beliefs –Examples of definitions?? –Culture consists of components

Components of Culture Culture region: –Area within which a particular culture system prevails Culture trait: –A single attribute of a culture Culture complex: –Discrete combination of culture traits

Components of Culture Culture system: –Culture complexes grouped together because they have culture traits in common Geographic regions: –Term preferred by many geographers instead of culture region Culture realm: –Most highly generalized regionalization of culture and geography

Cultural Geographies: Past and Present Colonization and Europeanization (and Americanization?) of the world have obliterated much of the world's earlier cultural geography Two Maps: –Indigenous North American cultures –“Modern” cultures in Africa

Cultural Homogenization???

Cultural Geographies: Past and Present The world is made up of constantly changing, often overlapping mix of traditional and modern regions

The Cultural Landscape A distinctive cultural environment Composite of artificial features –Carl Sauer’s definition includes all identifiably human- induced changes in the natural landscape Sequent occupance –Cultural imprints of successive societies on a place, contributing to the cultural landscape Can the whole of a cultural landscape be represented on a map?? Map: U.S. CBD vs. Japanese city

Cultural Hearths Sources of civilization First large clusters of human population Progress in farming techniques Exploitation of local resources Complex society = less subsistence time New ideas, innovations, and ideologies spread

Cultural Hearths

Cultural Diffusion The spreading of culture Independent invention Expansion diffusion Relocation diffusion

Expansion Diffusion Three “types” of ED: 1.Contagious diffusion: nearly all adjacent individuals are affected 2.Hierarchical diffusion: main channel of diffusion lies through some segment of those susceptible or adopting what is being diffused (leapfrog) 3.Stimulus diffusion: ideas may not be adopted but may result in local experimentation –Hamburger sales in India

Spatial flows of A)Expansion diffusion B)Hierarchical diffusion

Relocation Diffusion Acculturation: less technologically-advanced culture is modified by contact with a technologically-superior culture Transculturation: cultural “borrowing” when different cultures of (about) equal complexity and technology come into close contact Assimilation: adoption of cultural elements so complete that the two cultures become one

Migrant diffusion An innovation loses usage at its source but is adopted farther away Forces that work against the diffusion process: –Time-distance decay –Cultural barriers

Cultural Perception Perceptual Regions –Based on our knowledge about regions and cultures –Sometimes difficult to put a culture region on a map –Example: The Mid-Atlantic

Cultural Perception Perceptual regions in the United States –Regional identity example: “The South”

Perceptual Region: Texas

Cultural Environments Complex relationships Societies modify their natural environments from slight to severe No society can completely escape the forces of nature –Ivan: before and after

Grenada, West Indies Ravaged by Hurricane Ivan September 2004

Climate Monsoon-ish climate Wet & Dry Seasons

Wet Season…Dry Season

Climate Hurricane belt: Grenada is just on the cusp (~12 degrees N) Ivan…

Ivan from above… 12 o N

Hurricane Ivan…Before & After

Hurricane Ivan…Devastation

Environmental Determinism Human behavior is strongly affected by and even controlled or determined by the environment that prevails Not new: Aristotle Believed by many until the middle of the twentieth century –Ellsworth Huntington

Environmental Determinism Some geographers recognized exceptions to the environmentalists’ hypotheses S.F. Markham wrote a book based on climatic changes and their effects on cultural development Now agreed (mostly) to be defunct

Possibilism Natural environment limits choice –Depend on the people’s needs and technology As a culture rises in affluence, influence of environment declines

Other Cultural Environments Political Ecology –Studies the environmental consequences of specific political-economic policies Changeable weather seems to influence significant numbers of people Human will is powerful…

Resources Dr. Sallie Marston, Univ. of Arizona –Video: Semiotics of Landscape –PowerPoint: Marston-LandscapeSemiotics

Discussion Question #1 A few years ago, several people in a small village near a large East Asian city got the flu. Within days, hundreds of people in the city came down with the same flu, and it spread to the surrounding countryside. Meanwhile, the Asian Flu appeared in cities around the globe (London, NYC, San Francisco, Moscow). –What processes were at work in China and worldwide spreading this malady? Do the processes differ? –If you were unable to get immunized, how would you use your knowledge of geography to best protect yourself (and family)?

Discussion Question #2 Our Perceptual Regions… –Draw a map of North America Draw in the international border(s) Divide your map into regions and label them –Why did you define the borders and regions as you did? –What underlies our different perceptions?