Transcript Introduction to Human Geography

Introduction to
Human
Geography
What is Human Geography?
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The study of how
people make
places, how we
organize space and
society, how we
interact with each
other in places and
across space, and
how we make sense
of others and
ourselves in our
locality, region, and
world
Key Geographic Skills
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How to use and think about maps
and spatial data sets
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How to understand and interpret
the implications of associations
among phenomena in places
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How to recognize and interpret at
different scales the relationships
among patterns and processes
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How to define regions and evaluate
the regionalization process
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How to characterize and analyze
changing interconnections among
places
Spatial distribution
 What
processes
create and sustain
the pattern of a
distribution?
5 Themes of Geography
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Location
 Position on Earth’s surface
Human/Environmental Interaction
 Cultural ecology - relations
between cultures and
environment
Regions
 Areas of unique characteristics,
ways of organizing people
geographically
Place
 Associations among phenomena
in an area
Movement
 Interconnections between areas
Location
 Place-name
A
name given to a portion of the Earth’s surface
(“Miami”)
 Site
 Physical characteristics of a place; climate, water
sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and
elevation
 Absolute location
 Latitude and longitude (parallels and meridians),
mathematical measurements mainly useful in
determining exact distances and direction (maps)
 Relative location
 Location of a place relative to other places (situation)
Human/Environmental
Interactions
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Cultural landscape
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Environmental Determinism
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human behavior, individually and collectively, is strongly
affected by, and even controlled or determined by the
environment
Possibilism
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includes all human-induced changes that involve the
surface and the biosphere. Carl Sauer: “… the forms
superimposed on the physical landscape by the
activities of man.”
the natural environment merely serves to limit the range
of choices available to a culture
Environmental Modification
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positive and negative environmental alterations
Regions
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Distinctive characteristics
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area: defined spatial extent
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location: lie somewhere on Earth’s surface
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boundaries: sometimes evident on the ground, often based on specifically
chosen criteria
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other: cultural (language, religion), economic (agriculture, industry), physical
(climate, vegetation)
Three types of regions:
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Formal – (a.k.a. uniform, homogeneous), visible and measurable homogeneity
(link to scale and detail)
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Functional – product of interactions, and movement of various kinds, usually
characterized by a core and hinterland (e.g. a city and its surrounding suburbs)
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Perceptual – (a.k.a. vernacular), primarily in the minds of people (e.g. Sunbelt)
Regions can be seen in a hierarchy (vertical order, scale), (e.g. Ft. Lauderdale –
Broward County – Florida – Southeastern US …)
Regions
 Perceptual
Region
 Ideas in our minds, based on
accumulated knowledge of places and
regions, that define an area of
“sameness” or “connectedness”
Place
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Culture – people’s lifestyles, values, beliefs, and traits
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Components of culture:
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What people care about: language, religion, ethnicity
What people take care of: 1) daily necessities of survival (food, clothing, shelter) and 2) leisure activities
(artistic expressions, recreation)
Cultural institutions: political institutions (a country, its laws and rights)
Culture region – the area within which a particular culture system prevails (dress, building styles, farms and
fields, material manifestations,…)
Culture trait – a single attribute of culture
Culture complex – a discrete combination of traits
Culture system – grouping of certain complexes, may be based on ethnicity, language, religion,…
Culture realm – an assemblage of culture (or geographic) regions, the most highly generalized
regionalization of culture and geography (e.g. sub-Saharan Africa)
Physical Processes – environmental processes, which explain the distribution of human activities
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Climate – long-term average weather condition at a particular location. Vladimir Koppen’s five main
climate regions (expresses humans’ limited tolerance for extreme temperature and precipitation levels)
Vegetation – plant life.
Soil – the material that forms Earth’s surface, in the thin interface between the air and the rocks. Erosion
and the depletion of nutrients are two basic problems concerning the destruction of the soil.
Landforms – Earth’s surface features (geomorphology), limited population near poles and at high
altitudes
Perception of Place
Movement
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Culture Hearths
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sources of civilization from which an idea, innovation, or ideology originates (e.g. Mesopotamia, Nile
Valley), viewed in the context of time as well as space
Cultural diffusion – spread of an innovation, or ideology from its source area to another culture
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Expansion diffusion – an innovation, or ideology develops in a source area and remains strong there while
also spreading outward
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Contagious diffusion – nearly all adjacent individuals are affected (e.g. spread of Islam, disease)
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Hierarchical diffusion – the main channel of diffusion some segment of those who are susceptible to
(or adopting) what is being diffused (e.g. spread of AIDS, use of fax machines)
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Stimulus diffusion – spread of an underlying principle (e.g. idea of industrialization)
Relocation diffusion – spread of an innovation, or ideology through physical movement of individuals
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Migrant diffusion – when an innovation originates somewhere and enjoys strong-but brief-adoption,
loses strength at origin by the time it reaches another area (e.g. mild pandemics)
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Acculturation – when a culture is substantially changed through interaction with another culture
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Transculturation – a near equal exchange between culture complexes
Forces that work against diffusion:
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Time-distance decay – the longer and farther it has to go, the less likely it will get there
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Cultural barriers – prevailing attitudes or taboos
Two Types of Maps:
Reference Maps
- Show locations of
places and
geographic features
- Absolute locations
Thematic Maps
- Tell a story about the
degree of an
attribute, the pattern
of its distribution, or
its movement.
- Relative locations
What are reference
maps used for?
What are thematic
maps used for?
Reference Map
Thematic Map
Daily Travel
Mental Maps:
maps we carry in our
minds of places we
have been and
places we have
heard of.
Can see: terra
incognita,
landmarks, paths,
and accessibility
Activity Spaces:
the places we
travel to routinely in
our rounds of daily
activity.
How are activity
spaces and mental
maps related?
Practical Application
 Geographic
Information
System
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A collection of
computer
hardware and
software that
permits storage
and analysis of
layers of spatial
data
Practical Application
 Remote
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Sensing
A method of
collecting data by
instruments that
are physically
distant from the
area of study
Place, Space, and Scale
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Place:
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Space:
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Place identity – shaped by physical and cultural forces,
associations among phenomena in a given area
Spatial relationships between people, places, and the
environment
Scale:
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Truth is scale dependent, phenomena you study at one
scale (e.g. local) may well be influenced by
developments at other scales (e.g. regional, national, or
global)
Scale
Scale is the territorial extent of something.
The observations we make and the context
we see vary across scales, such as:
- local
- regional
- national
- global
Globalization
A set of processes
that are:
 increasing
interactions
 deepening
relationships
 heightening
interdependence
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without regard to
country borders.
A set of outcomes
that are:
 unevenly
distributed
 varying across
scales
 differently
manifested
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throughout the
world.
Knowledge Issues?
Yes, of course.
Knowledge Issues
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Are the findings of the natural sciences as reliable
as those of the human sciences? What is the
meaning of “a scientific law” in each area?
To what extent do maps reflect reality?
Do regions have boundaries?
To what extent might it be true that geography
combines the methods of human and natural
sciences?
Some geographical topics, such as climate
change, are controversial. How does the scientific
method attempt to address them? Are such topics
always within the scope of the scientific method?
Knowledge Issues
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What scientific or social factors might influence the study of
a complex phenomenon such as global warming?
Often in geography a model of reality is created. What
does this mean? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of creating a geographic model? In what
areas of geography are models most common?
Arguably, while some aspects of geography can be
measured, others cannot. Is this the case? What is it about
a quality that means it cannot be quantified?
If humans are individual and unique, does this mean that
there can be no reliable laws in human geography?
Many geographers and others value diversity in human
affairs. Is globalization therefore a bad thing?