1. Section 1: The Study of Human Geography
Culture

2. Main Idea and Essential Questions
Main Idea: The study of human geography focuses on a number of population topics, as well as many cultural topics.
Essential Questions:
What are some of the elements of culture?
How do cultures change?

3. Culture and Geography What is Geography?
The study of where people, places, and things are located and how they relate to each other?
The only way to seriously study geography is to study and observe the differences between groups of people and their effects on the earth!
How do we do this?
Observing the different beliefs and customs that shape societies around the world.

4. Culture and Geography Culture
The beliefs and actions that define a group of people’s way of life.

5. Two Kinds of Culture Material Culture
Everything that is tangible and is important to the makeup and practices of life by a group of people
Food
Clothing
Architecture
Arts and Crafts
Technology

6. Two Kinds of Culture Non-Material Culture
Everything that is intangible and important to the makeup and practices of life by a group of people
Religion
Language
Spiritual Beliefs
Behavioral Patterns
Political and Economic Systems
Education
Gender Roles

7. Culture
Culture usually changes very slowly over a long period of time!
Fast changes in culture are most of the time extreme, violent, and revolutionary!
Most of the time culture is passed down generationally.

8. Culture Cultural patterns vary from country to country.
Larger differences can be noticed when looking at whole regions.
Some differences can also be found inside of individual countries.
Ethnic Groups – a group that shares a language, customs, and common heritage.

9. Culture Change and Exchange
Innovation
Creating something new with existing resources
Example: weaving baskets from straw to solve a storage problem

10. Culture Change and Exchange
Diffusion
Spread of ideas, innovations, patters of behavior
Cultural Convergence: when the skills, ideas, arts, and habits of one culture come into contact with another and blend.
Cultural Divergence: the restriction of a certain culture from outside influences.

11. Culture Change and Exchange
Cultural Hearth
Site of original cultural innovation; beginning place of diffusion
Example: Western government and farming practices originated in the Middle East

12. Elements of Culture
There are seven major elements of culture that human geographers study
Language
Religion
Creative Expression
Social Organization
Customs and Traditions
Government Systems
Economic Systems
Section 2

13. Elements of Culture: Customs and Traditions
Customs and Traditions are the written and unwritten rules of behavior for a society!
Customs – a traditional and widely accepted way of behaving; not usually written down; no formal punishment system for people who misbehave
Laws – system of formally accepted rules that govern a society; usually written down; have formal punishments for people who break any of them

14. Elements of Culture: Language
Why is Language Important?
It is the main building block of culture. Without language, cultures could not form. It is the most basic means of communication between humans.
All cultures have a spoken language.
There are an estimated 3000 – languages spoken.

15. Elements of Culture: Language
Language can both unite people and divide them.
People with the same language tend to stick together.
Speakers of different languages in a region may come into conflict if one group feels favored over the other.
Each language can have several different dialects or “versions”

16. Elements of Culture: Religion
Why is religion important to culture?
It answers the most basic questions about the meaning of life.
Supports values that groups of people feel are important.

17. Elements of Culture: Religion
Because different societies support different beliefs, customs, and values, religion often causes conflict between peoples
Types of Religion
Monotheism – One god
Polytheism – Multiple gods/goddesses
Animism – Nature worship

18. Elements of Culture: Creative Expression
All cultures express themselves creatively!
Music is the most common creative expression found throughout the world.
Creative Expression mainly refers to the arts and literature
Visual Arts – architecture, painting, textiles, sculpture
Preforming Arts – music, dance, theater, and film
Oral and Written Arts: poetry, story telling, novels

19. Elements of Culture: Creative Expression
Creative Expression is the element that is connected to geography the most!
Artworks usually have traits or expressions of the artists surrounding environment worked into them.

20. Elements of Culture: Social Organization
Every culture creates a social structure by organizing its members into smaller units insure that basic needs are met.
The most important unit of social organization is family
Through family, culture is learned and traditions passed down.

21. Elements of Culture: Social Organization
Most societies have social classes which rank people in order of status depending on what is important to the culture (money, job type, education, ancestry, etc.)
Discrimination is a common theme in social organization.
Usually occurs to religious and racial minorities as well as to women