Transcript Introduction to Human Geography

Test Prep Tuesdays!
Get out your composition
notebook!
Test Prep Review #1
As a reminder, your AP exam will be divided
into Multiple Choice and Free Response. You
will have 75 minutes to complete the Free
Response section of the test. Throughout the
year we will practice how to respond to
Constructed Response questions.
TEST PREP #1
Copy below in your composition book, take notes
as we talk about each:
General Characteristics of Constructed Response
1. Multiple Parts (A,B,C,etc)
2. Graphic Prompt
3. Begin With a Statement
4. Limited Command Terms
5. Scaffolded
INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN
GEOGRAPHY
Chapter 1
KEY POINT: Why is Each Point on Earth Unique?
PLACE & REGION
Place
Sense of place: Infusing a
place with meaning and
emotion
Perception of place: Belief
or understanding of
what a place is like,
often based on books,
movies, stories, or
pictures
Perception
of Place
Where Pennsylvanian
students prefer to live
Where Californian
students prefer to live
Location
• Absolute location
– Precise location using a coordinate system
– Latitude and longitude most common
– Measured by geographic positioning systems
(GPS)
• Relative location
– Location in relation to something else
– Changes over time with changing
circumstances
Location Continued
• Geographers describe a feature’s place on
Earth by identifying its location, the position
that something occupies on Earth’s surface.
• There is 3 ways to consider location:
1. Place Name
2. Site
3. Situation
Place Names
• A Toponym is the name given to a place on
Earth.
• Can be named after:
– Person (can have no connection to the
community) Ex. James Brown Blvd.
– Religion (St. Luis, Missouri)
• Can Identify:
– The origin of its settlers. (Ex. Place names
with British origins in North America and
Australia)
Site
• Site is defined as the physical character of a
place.
– Ex. Water source, climate, topography, soil,
vegetation, latitude, elevation.
• Physical features give each place distinctive
character.
• Humans can modify characteristics.
– Ex. An area growing and modifying over time.
i.e. Grovetown, GA
Situation
• Is defined as the location of a place relative
to other places.
• 2 Reasons why situation is valuable:
1. Finding an unfamiliar place.
2. Understanding the importance of a place.
Site
Situation
Situation
• Ex 1: It’s down past the courthouse on
Walton Way, after the third traffic light“
• Ex 2: Helps us understand the importance
of a location. Locations are important
because they are accessible to other places.
– Istanbul is a center for trading and distribution
of good between Europe & Asia. Istanbul is
situated along the Bosporus strait. Which
connected the Mediterranean and Black
Seas.(important for ships)
Regions
Formal region: Defined by a common characteristic,
whether physical or cultural, present throughout
e.g., German-speaking region of Europe
Functional region: Defined by a set of social,
political, or economic activities or interactions
e.g., an urban area, city and suburbs
Regions
Perceptual Region: Ideas in our minds, based on
accumulated knowledge of places and regions,
that define an area of “sameness” or
“connectedness”
Culture
• The whole tangible lifestyle of peoples, but also
their prevailing values and beliefs
• Cultural trait: A single attribute of a culture
• Cultural complex: A combination of traits
• Cultural hearth: Area where a culture began and
from which it spreads
• Independent invention: A culture trait that began
in several places
Diffusion or Cultural Diffusion
• The process of the spread of an idea or innovation
from its hearth to other areas
• Factors that slow or prevent diffusion
– Time-distance decay – the declining level in
acceptance of an idea or innovation with
increasing time & distance from its point of
origin
– Cultural barriers – Prevailing (existing) cultural
attitude rendering certain ideas unnacceptable
or unadoptable in that culture
Types of Diffusion
• Expansion diffusion: Idea
or innovation spreading
outward from the hearth
– Contagious: Spreads to
next available person – by
contact from person to
person
– Hierarchical: Spreads to
most linked people or
places first
– Stimulus: Promotes local
experiment or change – a
cultural adaptation is
created
Contagious Diffusion
Contagious Diffusion
Hierarchical Diffusion
Stimulus Diffusion
Stimulus Diffusion
Stimulus Diffusion
Types of Diffusion
• Relocation diffusion:
Paris, France
Movement of individuals who carry
an idea or innovation with them to
a new, perhaps distant locale
Kenya
: H .J. de Blij
: A. B. Murphy
Types of Diffusion
• Relocation diffusion: Movement of individuals who
carry an idea or innovation with them to a new, perhaps
distant locale
Kenya
: H .J. de Blij
: A. B. Murphy
What Are Geographic Concepts, and
How Are They Used in Answering
Geographic Questions?
• Ways of seeing the world spatially that
geographers use in answering research questions
• Old approaches to human-environment questions
– Environmental determinism (has been rejected by
almost all geographers)
– Possibilism (less accepted today)
• New approaches to human-environment questions
– Cultural ecology
– Political ecology