Transcript Unit One - smallworldbigthoughts-eub-geo

Unit One
Geography: Its Nature
and Perspectives
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.
“Geography”
• Concerned with place and location – two
inherently important parts of everyday life.
– APHG – invites you to see your world through
the lens of the geographer (enlarge your
vision to encompass other places and
locations and consider them in new ways).
– Geographers – are not merely able to name all
the rivers, lakes, cities, and countries of the
world. - Geographers are much more
interested in understanding how those places
shape and are shaped by people, and what
their location means in the past, present and
future.
What is Geography?
Geography is the study of what is
where and why it’s there.
Mike Reed
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.. Take any social, environmental, or physical
question or problem and ask yourself whether there is a spatial
aspect to it. Chances are that space and place play a role in the
explanation and distribution of that question.
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?
Why is corn such an important part of a traditional Mexican diet?
Why are some beers known as India Pale Ales?
Divisions of Geography
• Physical Geography
•
Rocks and Minerals
•
Landforms
•
Soils
• Animals
•
Plants
•
Water
• Atmosphere
•
Rivers and Other Water Bodies
•
Environment
•
Climate and Weather
Human Geography
Population
Settlements
Economic Activities
Transportation
Recreational Activities
Religion
Political Systems
Social Traditions
Human Migration
Agricultural Systems
• Geography is a bridge between the natural and social sciences.
Geography is a holistic or synthesizing science.
The Five Themes of Geography
Place
Human features
Physical features
Region united by similar physical conditions
Region
United by common cultural traits
People adapt to the environment
Interaction
People change the environment
Absolute location (latitude and longitude)
Location
Relative location (in relation to another place)
Travel from place to place
Movement
Exchange of goods and ideas
Key Concepts
• Geography as a field of study –
– Location – the position of something on earth’s
surface.
– Space – the physical gap or distance between
two objects.
– Scale – the relationship between the size of an
object or distance between objects on a map and
the size of the actual object of distance on earth’s
surface.
– Place – a specific point on earth with human and
physical characteristics that distinguish it from
other points.
Key Concepts Con’t
• Pattern – the arrangement of objects on
the earth’s surface in relationship to one
another.
• Regionalization – the organization of
earth’s surface into distinct areas that are
viewed as different from other areas.
• Globalization – the expansion, political,
and cultural activities to the point that they
reach and have impact on many areas of
the world.
• All of these concepts help you understand
the importance of spatial organization –
the location of places, people, and events,
and the connections among places and
landscapes (the overall appearance of an
area that is shaped by both human and
natural influences).
• “Why of Where” - Critical explanations
for why spatial pattern occurs. Sometimes
geographers ask questions about how
particular human patterns came about, so
that specific places become distinct from
all others.
Human Geography vs. Physical
Geography
• Human Geography – focuses on people – where are
they? How are they are alike and different? How do
they interact? How do they change the natural
landscapes, and how do they use them? Because
other fields of study – such as history, sociology,
economics, and political science – also deal with
human behavior, human geography often overlaps
and interacts with these disciplines.
• Physical Geography – focuses on the natural
environment itself. Example: Physical Geographers
might study mountains, glaciers, coastlines, climates,
soils, plants, and animals.
• Of course, neither human nor physical geography
could exist without the other because the two fields
inevitably intersect and interact, making them
inextricably bound to one another.
The Geography of Breakfast
•
a geographic thinking demonstration
Take a minute to write down everything ate for breakfast or lunch today.
COFFEE
 Top Ten Coffee Growing Countries
CHOCOLATE
Chocolate was “discovered” for Europe by Christopher Columbus,
but it’s commercial possibilities were recognized by Hernan Cortez
who was served a drink made from cocoa beans by Moctezuma,
leader of the Aztecs (whom he later executed). The cacao tree, like
coffee, grows only in the tropics. Today it is grown primarily for
export to the U.S. and Europe.
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
Americas, Asia
What is CULTURE?
What are its elements?
How is it transferred?
How has the meaning of
the word changed over
time?
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.
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
Key Concepts
• REGIONS
–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
Vernacular Regions
•
•
Where is AIDs?
Where do we find hunger?
•
Where are American
•
Where are cows produced?
blacks?
Diffusion
• Relocation
• Hierarchical
• Contagious
• Stimulus
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
Space
• Latitude and Longitude - a
reference system designed to
provide “absolute” location (as
opposed to relative locations).
• Parallels of Latitude
• Meridians of Longitude
Place and Sense of Place
• Every place is unique. Imagine where you
lived as a child. What made that special?
– Sensory
– Architecture
– Symbolic
• Humanistic Geography - values the
individual perspective.
• Place and Placelessness (Relph, 1978)
What kinds of
cultural values are
reflected in each of
these American
houses?
Gated community?
The Cultural Landscape
• The result of the natural
environment and all of the changes
to it as a result of a particular
culture. (Carl Sauer)
– Environmental Determinism:
environment is primary determinant of
culture.
– Possibilism: humans are primary
determinant of culture.
N.Y.C.
Environmentally Determined?
What about Bali,
Indonesia?
Where are we? What values are reflected
in each? What relation to physical
environment?
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
Key Concepts:
Core-Periphery
Key Concepts:
Core-Periphery
• Core
– 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
Globalization
• The increasing
interconnectedness of
different parts of the
world through common
processes of
economic, political, and
cultural change. The
economic, cultural, and
environmental effects
of globalization are
highly contested.
Panama, 1997
Maps and Spatial Data
• All geographers are very interested in the way places
and things are arranged and organized on the
surface of the earth. This common bond – the
spatial perspective – means that they notice
patterns of both natural and human environments,
distributions of people, and locations of all kinds of
objects. Words can describe space, and so some
geographical data may be communicated through
written and spoken language; however, the map is a
powerful geographical tool that is almost as old as
geography itself.
Absolute and Relative Location
• Absolute Location – Maps provide the exact
location of a place on a mathematical grid of
the earth divided by two sets of imaginary
arcs: meridians and parallels. A meridian is
an arc drawn between the North and South
Poles that measures longitude, a numbering
system that calculates distance east and west
of the prime meridian.
• The prime meridian is located at the observatory in
Greenwich, England at 0 degrees. The meridian at the
opposite side of the globe is 180 degrees, and all
meridians placed in between are designated as either
“east” or “west” of the prime meridian. A parallel is a
circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator,
an imaginary circle that lies exactly half way between
the North and South poles. Parallels measure
latitude, or distance north and south of the equator.
The equator is 0 degrees latitude, the North Pole 90
degrees north latitude, and the South Pole is 90
degrees south latitude. So any absolute location of a
place on the surface of Earth may be described in
terms of longitude and latitude.
• Relative Location – All places on earth
also have relative locations – spots
relative to other human and physical
features on the landscape. In other words,
where does the country of Chile lie relative
to Brazil? Or Argentina? Where does the
Caspian Sea lie in relation to the Black
Sea? Or the Mediterranean Sea? Relative
location is important to think about
because it defines a place in terms of how
central or isolated it is in relation to other
places.
Time Zones
• The earth is divided into 360 Degrees of
longitude (180 d. west of the prime
meridian and 180 d. east).
– International agreement – lines of longitude
are spaced 15 d. apart in both directions
from Greenwich, England.
• Uniform time – 12 p.m. – noon is meant to be
where the sun is high in the sky everywhere in
the world. 12 a.m. midnight – night everywhere.
• System was set up in the late 19th century to
accommodate internal railroad travel.
International Date Line
• One consequence of the organization of the
world into time zones is that somewhere on
the globe the date has to change. This
occurs at 180 d. longitude, also called the
International Date Line that divides the
world from pole to pole through the Pacific
Ocean. If a traveler crosses the line headed
from Asia to America, he sets the clock back
24 hours; likewise, a traveler crossing the line
headed from America to Asia will set the clock
ahead 24 hours.
Uses of Maps
• Geographers use maps in two basic ways– Reference material – Maps are efficient tools
for storing information. Once a map is drawn it
may be pulled out to help find relative locations
of places. Maps show roads or waterways that
connect places, and they have been used for
centuries by travelers. For example 16th
century European explorers use maps to help
them cross the Atlantic Ocean, just as 21st
century Americans use maps to visit vacation
destinations.
–Communications / education –
Maps may be used to explain
spatial perspectives to others.
These maps are often thematic
because they are designed to
explain a type of geographic
information. Examples are maps
that show soil types, relative
elevations, economic prosperity
levels, and spatial arrangements of
racial and ethnic groups.
Map Projections
• An important problem with communicating
information through maps is that the only
accurate representation of earth is a
globe. When spatial information is
presented on a flat piece of paper, a
cartographer immediately faces the issue
of distortion caused by trying to represent
a three-dimensional object (like the earth)
on a two dimensional surface (a flat map).
Different methods have been devised to
increase accuracy, but it is impossible to
avoid some type of distortion.
The Mercator Projection
The Robinson Projection
The Peters Projection
Scale
• Size of the unite studied