1. Ptolemy’s First World Map, circa A.D. 150
Cultural Geography
Ptolemy’s First World Map, circa A.D. 150

2. Michael Reed Office: Natural Sciences (NS) 209
Phone:
Web Page:
B.A. History, Brown University, 1992
Geography Coursework, Cabrillo College, 1995
M.A. Geography, SDSU, 1999
Associate Professor of Geography, Glendale CC,
Instructor of Geography, El Camino CC, 2005-present.
27 jobs at last count, including tour guide, gondolier, waiter, newspaper reporter, N.Y.C. fashion executive, McDonald’s kitchen crew, stereo salesman, shoe salesman, receptionist, and many others.

3. My Teaching Philosophy
I try to teach this class the same as I would anywhere else. Community colleges should not be second rate.
You are responsible for your own education, particularly now that you are in college. I am a guide, a helper, if you will. College is what you make of it.
I consider my responsibilities to include fairness, honesty, and compassion. Most of all, I think it is my job to earnestly attempt to make geography interesting and fun, without making it frivolous.
I promise this: if you take this class seriously, you will learn a great deal about the world.

4. What is Geography?
Geography is a representation of the whole known world together with the phenomena which are contained therein.
Ptolemy, Geographia 2nd Century A.D.
Geography is the science of place. Its vision is grand, its view panoramic. It sweeps the surface of the Earth, charting the physical, organic and cultural terrain, their areal differentiation, and their ecological dynamics with humankind. Its foremost tool is the map.
Leonard Krishtalka, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 20th Century A.D.
Organized knowledge of the earth as the world of people.
Dave Balogh

5. What is Geography?
Geography is the study of what is where and why it’s there.
Mike Reed

6. Five “Key Themes” of Geography
1. Location – specific location, where?
2. Place – unique properties of a place
3. Movement – diffusion, communications
4. Region – an area’s uniform characteristics
5. Human-Earth Relationships – human interaction with an environment

7. Okay, but what exactly is it?
Well, it’s a way of thinking about intellectual problems, both natural and societal, which emphasizes the importance of spatial relationships between culture and the environment. Take any social or environmental question or problem and ask yourself whether there is a spatial aspect to its answer. Chances are that space and place play a role in the explanation of that issue.
Mike Reed, Making It Up As I Go
For example:
Why are so many plant and animal species becoming extinct at the end of the twentieth century?
Why do there always seem to be been so many wars in Africa?
How did human beings come to be in North America if they evolved in Africa? Why are the largest animals still alive in Africa but not in Europe or North America, even though people came later to those regions?
Why is corn such an important part of a traditional Mexican diet?
Why are some beers known as India Pale Ales?

8. Divisions of Geography
Physical Geography Human Geography
Rocks and Minerals Population
Landforms Settlements
Soils Economic Activities
Animals Transportation
Plants Recreational Activities
Water Religion
Atmosphere Political Systems
Rivers and Other Water Bodies Social Traditions
Environment Human Migration
Climate and Weather Agricultural Systems
Geography is a bridge between the natural and social sciences. Geography is a holistic or synthesizing science.

9. Figure 1. 7: Selected subfields of geography
Figure 1.7: Selected subfields of geography. This diagram identifies the main subject-matter areas within human geography and physical geography and links them with the most closely related disciplines in the social sciences and the physical sciences.

10. The Geography of Breakfast
Take a minute to write down all of the food and drink you ate before coming to class today.

11. Breakfast Foods Food Place of Origin Current Production
coffee Ethiopia Tropics
oranges South Asia, India US, Mediterranean
pork China, South Asia Worldwide
wheat Near East US, Russia, Argentina
tea China Asia
oats Near East Temperate Climates
pepper South America S. America, Worldwide

12. COFFEE Top Ten Coffee Growing Countries (Yellow)
First domesticated in Ethiopia, coffee has come to be a major export crop for colonial countries and continues to provide much of the export income in these less developed countries. In Uganda, 70-80% of export revenue is generated by coffee. Many issues are raised by the continuation of such colonial economics.

13. Fieldwork: Geographers as Modern Explorers and Observers

14. China, 2004

15. Costa Rica

16. Navajo Guide, Monument Valley, 1997

17. Shanghai, China 2004

18. Rarotonga, Cook Islands, 2002

19. Cinque Terra, Italia, 2001

20. Mt. San Jacinto State Park, Idylwild, CA, 2001

21. Baja, 1996

22. Honolua Bay, Maui, Hawaiian Islands, 2003

23. Physical Geography Student, Zion National Park, Utah, 2002

24. Rocky Mountain National Park, 2003

25. Milford Sound, New Zealand 2002

26. Joshua Tree, 2004

27. Taos, New Mexico, 2003

28. Sugar Cane Field, Maui, Hawaiian Islands, 2003

29. Cadiz Dunes, Mojave Desert, 2002

30. Franz Joseph Glacier, New Zealand, 2002

31. Introduction to Cultural Geography
Definition of Cultural Geography
History of the Discipline
Fundamental Concepts

32. What is CULTURE? What are its elements? How is it transferred?
Language
Religion
Food
Clothing
Art
Music
Rituals and Customs
How is it transferred?
Parents to Children
Schooling
Television, Films, Radio, and Internet

33. What is CULTURE?
Culture is learned behavior that is passed on by imitation, instruction, and example.
Culture is almost entirely relative. Proper behavior shifts from culture to culture.
U.S. current problems: 1) little shared culture; 2) no one is teaching culture.
For example: sex education - Home? School?
Note: experiencing another culture is useful for gaining perspective on your own.
Harshest punishment in history?: banishment in “primitive” cultures.

34. Geographic Importance of Culture
Geographers study culture because it leaves dramatic imprints on the earth, both physical and cultural.
Language: a crystal ball into culture.
Religion: strongest determinant of ethics.
Nationalism and Borders
Material Culture: tools, clothes, toys, etc.
Architecture: Suburban garages vs. earlier porches
Religion: affects societal choices; creates sacred space

35. The Cultural Landscape
The result of the natural environment and all of the changes to it as a result of a particular culture. In other words, it is cultures imprint on the land. (Carl Sauer)
Environmental Determinism: environment is primary determinant of culture.
Possibilism: humans are primary determinant of culture, within limits set by the environment.

36. Environmentally Determined?
N.Y.C.
Environmentally Determined?

37. What about Bali,
Indonesia?

39. Active Figure 1.2: A small-scale map of the world regions of this text.

42. Key Concepts: Space
Latitude and Longitude - a reference system designed to provide “absolute” location (as opposed to relative locations). A system used to designate space.
Parallels of Latitude
Meridians of Longitude

44. The Geographic Grid
Latitude - angular measurement of distance north or south of the Equator.
Range: degrees N or S
1o latitude = approx. 69 miles (25,000 mi. /360o).

45. The Geographic Grid
Longitude - the angular measurement of distance east or west of the Prime Meridian.
Maximum value reached at International Date Line o
Range: 0o - 180o E or W

46. Key Concepts: Tobler’s 1st Law of Geography
All things are related. However, all other things being equal, those things that are closest together are more related.
Related Concepts:
Distance Decay / Friction of Distance
Spatial Interaction
Movement

49. Figure 1.4b: This is an isarithmic map designed to show the approximate distribution of global population. By comparing 1.4a and 1.4b, you can see the different visual messages sent by different maps.

50. Key Concepts REGION – an area defined by shared characteristic
3 Types of Culture Regions
Formal - all members share a characteristic
Functional - defined by a node of activity and distance decay from center
Vernacular - perception of cultural identity

51. Overlapping Formal and Functional Regions

52. Vernacular Regions

53. Diffusion The spread of people, customs, phenomenon, objects, or ideas.
Four Types:
Relocation
Hierarchical
Contagious
Stimulus
Use these terms to explain the spread of:
Diseases
Popular Music
Democratic Revolutions
Religious Practices

54. Sense of Place
Every place is unique. Imagine where you lived as a child. Where is home?
Why and how do places take on meaning for human individuals?
Sensory
Architecture
Symbolic
Why is each place unique?
Key works: Place and Placelessness - Relph, 1978
Topophilia - Tuan, Yi-Fu

55. Sense of Place
Bourbon Street
Groveland, CA

56. What kinds of cultural values are reflected in each of these American houses?
Gated community?

57. Where are we. What values are reflected in each
Where are we? What values are reflected in each? What relation to physical environment?

58. Timber House, Switzerland
Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey
Yurt on Mongolian Steppe
Suburban Home, Chicago

59. Human-Environment Interaction (Cultural Ecology)
Successful cultures are those that adapt well to their environments. (Chaco Canyon, North Africa, Fertile Crescent, Easter Island)
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
Easter Island, Polynesia

60. Key Concepts: Core-Periphery
U.S., Europe, Japan, Australia
Wealthy
Powerful
Controls Media and Finance
Technologically advanced
Periphery
Less Developed
Poor
Dependent upon Core countries for:
Education
Technology
Media
Military Equipment

61. Key Concepts: Core-Periphery

62. Geography and Politics
Ties to Military
Role in Colonization
Role in Imperialism
Role in Cold War
Ethnocentrism
Masculinism
Foreign - 4) Situated in an abnormal or improper place. 5) Not natural: alien.
The American Heritage Dictionary

63. Globalization
The increasing interconnectedness of different parts of the world through common processes of economic, political, and cultural change. Economic globalization is happening fastest.
Panama, 1997

64. End of Slides