1. Chapter 1: Basic Concepts
The Cultural Landscape:
An Introduction to Human Geography

2. Defining Geography Word coined by Eratosthenes Geo = Earth
Graphia = writing
Geography thus means “earth writing”

3. Contemporary Geography
Geographers ask where and why
Location and distribution are important terms
Geographers are concerned with the tension between globalization and local diversity
A division: physical geography and human geography

4. Geography’s Vocabulary
Place: unique location or position on Earth
Region: combination of cultural/ physical features
Scale: portion of the Earth compare to the whole
Space: gap between two objects
Connections: relationship btw people/objects

5. Maps Two purposes As reference tools As communications tools
To find locations, to find one’s way
As communications tools
To show the distribution of human and physical features

6. Early Map Making Above: oldest map (Turkey) 7th century BC
Below: Babylon (Iraq) 6th Century BC
Figure 1-2

7. Maps: Scale Types of map scale Projection
Ratio or fraction: numerical ration btw distances on Earth’s surface 1:100
Written: written word form of ratio
Graphic: bar line to show distance
Projection
Distortion: 4 types
Shape: appears more elongated
Distance: distance, more or less
Relative size: altered size
Direction: distorted

8. Map Scale
1) Washington State 1:10,000,000 (1 in = 10,000,000 inches or 158 miles)
2) Western Washington 1:1,000,000
3) Seattle 1:100,000
4) Downtown Seattle 1:10,000
As the area covered gets smaller, the maps get more detailed. 1 in represents smaller distances
Figure 1-4

9. 2 Types of Uninterrupted Maps
Robinson Map: shape distortion/ more ocean
Mercator Map: accurate shape/ distorted poles

10. U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785 Township and range system
Township = 6 sq. miles on each side
North–south lines = principal meridians
East–west lines = base lines
Township: T1 (distance north or south on a particular baseline
Range: R1 (distance east or west on a particular meridian line
Sections: each township is divided into 36 sections, each of which is 1 mile by 1 mile.

11. Township and Range System
TL: north-south lines = meridian lines (red lines). East-west lines = base lines (green lines).
TR: West 6x6 miles/ East 6x6 (then divided into 36 1x1 mile subsections
BL: scale of 1:24,000 or 1 inch = 24,000 inches (2,000 ft)
Figure 1-5

12. Contemporary Tools Geographic Information Science (GIScience)
Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
Remote sensing
Geographic information systems (GIS) fig 1-7
Figure 1-7

13. Figure 1-8 https://developers.google.com/maps/
A Mash-up
Figure

14. How Do Geographers Describe Where Things Are?
END of Key Issue 1
How Do Geographers Describe Where Things Are?

15. Why is Each Point on Earth Unique? pg13 - 28
Key Issue 2
Why is Each Point on Earth Unique? pg

16. Place: Unique Location of a Feature
Location: 4 ways to identify
Place names
Toponym:
Site: the physical characteristics of a place
Situation: location of a place relative to other places (helps locate a location)
Mathematical location:

17. Place: Mathematical Location
Location of any place can be described precisely by a numbering system
Meridians (lines of longitude) 74W
Prime meridian (Greenwich, England)
Parallels (lines of latitude) 41N
The equator

18. The Cultural Landscape
A unique combination of social relationships and physical processes
Each region = a distinctive landscape
People/Culture = the most important agents of change to Earth’s surface

19. Types of Regions
Region can apply to any area larger than a point but smaller than the planet.
Regional Studies: approach to geography that emphasizes the relationship among social and physical phenomena in a particular study.

20. Types of Regions Formal (uniform) regions
Example: Florida or Red vs Blue state.
Functional (nodal or focal point) regions
Example: the circulation area of a newspaper
Vernacular (cultural) regions rather than a scientific model
Example: the American South

21. Vernacular Region by Mental Mapping
American South
Middle East
South America
Miami
Florida State University
Hawaii
Weston

22. Spatial Association
Spatial distribution of a region can be constructed to encompass an area of widely varying scale.
i.e. – cancer rates vary according to cultural, economic, and environmental factors

23. Culture
Origin from the Latin cultus, meaning “to care for”. Body of customary beliefs, material traits, and social forms that distinguish a group.
Two aspects:
What people care about
Beliefs, values, and customs
Three identifying factors of culture derive from: Language, Religion, & Ethnicity.
What people take care of
Earning a living; obtaining food, clothing, and shelter -

24. Cultural Ecology
The geographic study of human–environment relationships
Two perspectives:
Environmental determinism:
Possibilism
Modern geographers generally reject environmental determinism in favor of possibilism because humans have the ability to adjust to their environment/ resources
Determined by a group’s values
Crop selection determine by environment
Vegetarian vs Non-vegetarian
Cremation versus burial

25. Physical Processes determined by human activity/ 4 types
Climate: Tropics, Dry, Warm, Cold, Polar
Vegetation: Forest, Savanna, Grassland Desert
Soil: 12,000 soil types
Landforms: flat to mountainous

26. Modifying the Environment
Examples
The Netherlands
Polders: creating land by drainage
The Florida Everglades
Not so sensitive environmental modification/ unintended environmental/social consequences
Figure 1-21

27. Why Is Each Point on Earth Unique? Pg 13 - 28
Key Issue 2
Why Is Each Point on Earth Unique? Pg

28. Scale Globalization Economic globalization Cultural globalization
Transnational corporations
Cultural globalization
A global culture?

29. Space: Distribution of Features
Distribution—three features
Density
Arithmetic
Physiological
Agricultural
Concentration
Pattern

30. Space–Time Compression
Figure 1-29

31. Spatial Interaction Transportation networks
Electronic communications and the “death” of geography?
Distance decay
Figure 1-30

32. Diffusion
The process by which a characteristic spreads across space and over time
Hearth = source area for innovations
Two types of diffusion
Relocation
Expansion
Three types: hierarchical, contagious, stimulus

33. Relocation Diffusion: Example
Figure 1-31

34. The End.
Up next: Population