1. REGION

2. REGION Tuesday, August 30, 2011 Objective: Homework:
Describe the different types of regions
Describe aspects of culture
Homework:
Outline Chapter 1 – due Friday, Sept. 2nd

3. What is a region? An area with a concentration of features
An area that shares similar characteristics

4. Culture All the features of a society’s way of life
Music, literature, art
Dress, food, religion, architecture
System of government, laws, education
Prevailing values and beliefs
Daily living routines and habits
Learned behaviors – not biologically inherited, not innate or instinctual

5. Culture Cultural Trait Cultural Complex
A single attribute of a culture
Not necessarily confined to a single culture
Ex: Catholic Trait
Irish
Mexican
Cultural Complex
A culture’s unique combination of traits
No 2 cultures are the same
Aka:
Cultural Landscape

6. Cultural Landscape
A distinctive combination of cultural and physical features
Language and religion
Beliefs and traditions
Economic features: industry & agriculture
Political practices
Physical features: climate, vegetation

7. Cultural Complexes Irish Catholic – St. Patrick Corned Beef & Cabbage
Irish Dance
Celtic
Fair skin/red/dark hair
Whisky

8. Irish Cultural Complex

9. Cultural Complex Mexican Catholic – Our Lady of Guadalupe
Taco, burrito, peppers
Tequila
Dark skin/hair/eyes
Spanish

10. Mexican Cultural Complex

11. Regional Cultural Landscapes
Each region has its own distinctive landscape
The people, their activities & environment are similar
They differ in some ways to those in other regions

12. Human-environment interaction: :cultural ecology
Environmental Determinism
Hypothesized by Ancient Greeks
Pioneered by German geographers (Alexander von Rumboldt & Carl Ritter – early 19th century)
Natural factors control the development of human characteristics (physical, cultural, social and even emotional)

13. Human-environment interaction: :cultural ecology
Critiques of Environmental Determinism
Arose in the early 20th Century
Concept is too simple (people are more than products of their environment; they are also influenced by government & laws)
Similar natural settings do not produce the same cultural practices or behaviors
Concept adds to ethnocentric understanding of socio-cultural differences

14. Cultural Ecology – rejections of Environmental Determinism
Possibilism
People use creativity how to respond to the conditions or constraints of a particular natural environment
Some environmental features impact culture and behavior, but it is NOT the sole factor
Humans as Modifiers of the Earth
Carl Sauer (1889 – 1975)
Human activities shape the landscape more than the environment shapes humans – cultural landscapes.
The Earth as dynamic, integrated System

15. Types of Regions
Several neighboring countries that share important features
Latin America
Many localities with in a country
The Gulf States

16. Formal Region Homogeneity in one or more criteria
Have a shared trait
Either cultural of physical
EX: Appalachia
Criteria: counties with Appalachian Mountains

17. Formal Region
An area inhabited by people who have one or more cultural traits in common
Language
Religion
Economy

18. Regions of Catholics

19. Border Zones Areas where different regions melt together
Culture changes continually throughout an area
Formal Regions have “fuzzy” borders
Cultures often overlap and mix
Baptist South overlaps with the Catholic Southwest

20. Religious Border Zones

21. Core Periphery Pattern
Center area where the defining traits of a region are purest
An outer, periphery area where the traits are not as strong

22. Mormons – Core Periphery

23. Functional Regions
France
European Union

24. Functional Region Area organized to work together as a unit
Has clearly defined borders - mostly
Political – a state/country
Social – school district
Economic – the European Union

25. Afghanistan Ethnic Groups
Functional Regions -not necessarily culturally homogenous
Ethnic & cultural lines do not always coincide with political borders (turmoil)
Can they work as a functional region???

26. Major Ethnic Groups

27. Nodes
The central point from which a functional region is coordinated and directed.
Capital city

28. Functional Region Some do not have clearly defined borders
TV Station reception areas
Newspaper circulation area
Node – publishing facility
Boundaries – delivery area, readership area?? What about internet access to newspapers?

29. Functional Region – TV Markets

30. Perceptual Region Intellectual construct No consensus on exact borders
New England
The Mid-Atlantic
The Mid-West
The Southwest
The Middle East

31. Where is the Mid-Atlantic?

32. Where is the Mid-West?

33. What is the Southwest?

34. Where is the Middle East?

35. The New Middle East Pre 9/11 – stops at Iran
Post 9/11 – includes Pakistan & Afghanistan

36. Vernacular Region Perceived to exist by its inhabitants
Lack sharp borders
No formal organization, like functional regions
No cultural homogeneity, like formal regions
No two elements of culture cover EXACTLY the same area

37. Perceptual v. Vernacular
What other people think about the region
Where other people think the region is located
Vernacular
What the residents think about the region
Where the residents think the region is
Poll people and ask, “What region do you live in?”
Use phone book and look at business place-names & ads

38. Is Maryland in the South?
YES NO

39. Vernacular Regions of the South