Cultural Geography
Chapter 2: Roots and Meaning of Culture
Human Geography- studies how human society is regionally different and the manner in
which these societies perceive, use and alter their landscapes. General themes:
Traits of culture- learned behaviors, attitudes and group beliefs
Systems of production- livelihood, production, spatial origination and
administration
Basic Observations:
1. Societies have a limited number of identifying
cultural characteristics
2. Human spatial behavior has common patterns and
processes
3. Variation are rooted in the distribution, numbers and
movement of people
Culture-
specialized behavior patterns, understandings, beliefs and social systems that
summarize a people's learned way of life.
Evidence- buildings, farming patterns, religion,
language, political and economic systems. (web
of behavior and attitudes)
Component of a Culture
Behavioral patterns, social
structure, environmental/social perspectives and knowledge of technologies
US
Subcultures- masculine/feminine, majority/minority,
ethnic, gay/straight, urban/rural etc.
•
Culture
Traits-
units of learned behavior (language, objects, tools, sports, beliefs, etc.),
basic building blocks or culture
http://www.tesarta.com/www/resources/library/culturetraits.html
McLuhan,
•
Culture
Complex-
functionally inter-related cultural traits (US and the automobile)
•
Culture
Region- areal extent of traits and complexes
•
Culture Realm- groups of regions create
a distinct landscape
Great cultural web site:
http://www.geog.okstate.edu/users/lightfoot/lfoot.htm
•
Globalization- mobility of people,
goods, money and ideas (distinction of cultural realms is blurred as regions
are becoming more connected.)
Cultural Ecology- study of relationship between a culture group and
its natural environment
Environments
as Controls
Environmental Determinism- belief that the physical
environment shapes humans, their actions and thoughts (relative to technology,
cost, national goals and links to the world
Possibilism- people, not the
environment, are the dynamic forces of cultural development.
Environmental impact- inversely related to
economic development
Perception of environmental opportunity- increases directly with
economic/cultural development
Human Impacts
–
Cultural Landscape- surface if earth as modified by humans
Fire- first great tool of
humans
Removes unwanted trees
Cleared grasses and old
crops
Provided grazing lands
Forests quickly regrow in grasslands if no fire
Humans have had great impact since the Pleistocene
Overkill
Early humans destroyed environments as well as animal
species
Roots of Culture
•
Paleolithic
Age-
period at end of ice age, where regional variations develop within human
society- 11,000 years ago, cultural traits, trade and permanent settlement are
firmly established (diversification among societies)
•
Hunter-Gatherers- pre-agricultural people,
dependent upon readily available plants/animals. Tool use greatly extended the range of humans
Seeds of Change
Cultural
divergence-
differences in cultural development in different realms
Carrying Capacity- # of people supportable within an
area given the available technologies
•
Agricultural
Origins and Spread- no agreement whether plants or animals domesticated first.
Domestication- Mexicans- first true farmers (5,000 years
ago)
Role of females- primary
food-gathering role, knowledge of nutritive plants, crop production
Woman were major innovators
in agricultural crop production, food preparation and clothing
Innovations- baskets,
clothing, poison, dye, medicine, recreational drugs (grain
for beer before bread)
Domestication- origin areas
of species (hearths):
Agricultural Society-
created sedentary residences, labor specializations, religious structures
(fertility/harvest rites)- regional contrasts grow
Neolithic Innovations (New Stone Age)- advanced sets of tools to
deal with expanding sedentary populations- spinning/weaving plant/animal
fibers, pottery, brick-making, mining and metals
•
Stratified society- labor and role specialization
•
Long-distance trading connections
•
Humans move from adopting and shaping to creating
•
Governments enforce laws, protect private property
•
Religions become formalized
Culture
Hearths- Centers of innovation and
invention with key cultural traits- cradle of civilizations
Early Culture Hearths- Figure 2.15 (page 49)
Writing- 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia/Egypt
Multilinear Evolution- common characteristics of widely separated
cultures
Cultural Convergence- result of multilinear evolution
The
Structure of Culture
Ideological
Subsystem-
consists of ideas, beliefs and knowledge of a culture
·
Mentifacts (legend, theology,
mythology, etc.)
Technological
Subsystem-
material objects and the means of their use
·
Artifacts (tools, etc to feed, clothes, shelter, transport, defend and
amuse)
Sociological
Subsystem-
patterns of interpersonal relations
•
Sociofacts- (group functions
concerning economics, politics, military, religion, kinship, etc.)
Nothing in a culture stands totally alone
Cultural integration: the interlocking nature of all aspects of a culture
Innovation:
cultural change initiated within the social group itself.
Cultural Lag:
Resistance to useful innovation
Spatial diffusion the process by which ideas or innovations are transmitted between
groups across space.
Diffusion-
process by which an idea or innovation is transmitted from one culture across
space.
Relocation diffusion- people move and take their culture with them
Expansion diffusion (contagious and hierarchical diffusion): spread of an idea from place
to place.
Stimulus diffusion: implies imitative response to a new idea by a receptive population not
able to fully adopt the specific trait itself.
Acculturation is exhibited when a culture group adopts characteristics of another,
dominant group.
Diffusion
can be accelerated and facilitated by improvements in transportation and communication
and by the intermixing of peoples and cultures. It can be limited and inhibited
by diffusion barriers that may be
physical or cultural in nature
Diffusion
Barriers:
friction of distance, time-distance decay
Barriers: mountains, oceans,
cultural obstacles
Syncretism: Fusion of old and new