Nature and Perspectives

AP Human Geography Review PowerPoint 1 of 8

Carl Sauer- Possiblism, cultural landscape UC Berkeley - focus on how people have transformed the

natural landscape into a cultural landscape

Five Themes of Geography

In 1986 the Geography Education National implementation Project (GENIP) added two themes to three of Pattison’s “traditions”

-location: position; situation of people and things

-human/environmental interaction: reciprocal relationship b/w humans & env.

-region: area on Earth’s surface marked by a degree of homogeneity (uniformity) of some phenomenon

-place: uniqueness of a location (or similarity of two or more locales); phenomena within an area

-movement: mobility of people, goods and ideas; phenomena between areas

Theme #1: Location Ways to indicate location (position):   1)  Maps: best way to show location and demonstrate insights gained through spatial

analysis. 2)  Place-name: a name given to a portion of the Earth’s surface (“Miami”).  3)  Site: physical characteristics of a place; climate, water sources, topography, soil,

vegetation, latitude, and elevation   4)  Situation: the external locational attributes of a place; its relative location or regional

position with reference to other nonlocal places. 5)  Absolute location: latitude and longitude (parallels and meridians), mathematical

measurements mainly useful in determining exact distances and direction (maps).   6)  Relative location: location of a place relative to other places (situation), valuable way to

indicate location for two reasons:      a)  Finding an unfamiliar place - by comparing its location with a familiar one (“Miami – 35 miles northwest of Cincinnati”).    b)  Centrality, understanding its importance (Chicago – hub of sea & air transportation, close to four other states;  Singapore – accessible to other countries in Southeast Asia).

7)  Distribution: arrangement of something across Earth’s surface.    a)  Density – frequency with which something occurs in an area.  Arithmetic density – total number of objects (people) in an area.  Physiologic density – number of people per unit area of agriculturally productive land.    b)  Concentration – extent of a feature’s spread over an area.  Clustered – relatively close.  Dispersed – relatively far apart.    c)  Pattern – geometric arrangement of objects.

Theme #2: Human/Environmental Interaction

1)  Cultural landscape – 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.”

2)  Cultural ecology - the multiple interactions and relationships between a culture and the natural environment.

3)  Environmental Determinism – human behavior, individually and collectively, is strongly affected by, and even controlled or determined by the environment

4)  Possibilism – the natural environment merely serves to limit the range of choices available to a culture

5)  Environmental Modification – positive and negative environmental alterations

Theme #3: Region 1)  Distinctive characteristics:  a)  area: defined spatial extent b)  location: lie somewhere on Earth’s surface c)  boundaries: sometimes evident on the ground, often based on

specifically chosen criteria d)  other: cultural (language, religion), economic (agriculture,

industry), physical (climate, vegetation) 2)  Three types of regions: a)  Formal – (a.k.a. uniform, homogeneous), visible and measurable

homogeneity (link to scale and detail) b)  Functional – product of interactions, and movement of various

kinds, usually characterized by a core and hinterland (e.g. a city and its surrounding suburbs)

c)  Perceptual – (a.k.a. vernacular), primarily in the minds of people (e.g. Sunbelt)

3)  Regions can be seen in a hierarchy (vertical order, scale), (e.g. Ft. Lauderdale – Broward County – Florida – Southeastern US …)

Theme 4: Place Culture – people’s lifestyles, values, beliefs, and traits 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) Components of culture: 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 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

Theme 5: Movement   Culture Hearths – 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 a)  Expansion diffusion – an innovation, or ideology develops in a source area and remains

strong there while also spreading outward  Contagious diffusion – nearly all adjacent individuals are affected (e.g. spread of Islam,

disease)  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)  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  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) Acculturation – when a culture is substantially changed through interaction with another culture  Transculturation – a near equal exchange between culture complexes Forces that work against diffusion: Time-distance decay – the longer and farther it has to go, the less likely it will get there Cultural barriers – prevailing attitudes or taboos 

Anthropogenic Human induced change on the natural

environment is ANTHROPOGENIC

EVERY PLACE IS UNIQUE!!

Location Position Description

Site Physical characteristics Attributes

Situation Relative location Comparisons Significance of location

Place Names Location description – toponym Physical features U.S. Geological Survey

Absolute Location-Position on Earth’s surface using the coordinate system of longitude (that runs from North to South Pole) and latitude (that runs parallel to the equator). 

Relative Location or Situation

The relative location or situation of Ballantyne is south of the city of Charlotte.

Site: The physical characteristics of a place, what is found at the location and why it is significant

Figure 1.5.1

Absolute vs. Relative Distance

Absolute distance: Exact measurement of the physical space between two places. 

Relative distance: Approximate measurement of the physical space between two places. 

Regions: Unique Areas

Combination of Features Functional, Formal, Vernacular Region

Uniqueness of characteristics Combinations

Cultural Landscape Language and religion Economic features Physical features

Figure 1.5.3

Formal Region Uniform and homogeneous

Common characteristics Pattern explanation and identification Impact of diversity and minorities

Figure 1.6.2

Functional Region

Nodal region Focal or central

point Regional

domination Boundaries and

limits Service areas

Impact of technology

Figure 1.6.1

Vernacular/Perceptual Region

Place or perceptual region

Informal Transcends

geographic measurement

Figure 1.6.3

Cultural Trait vs. Cultural Complex Cultural trait: a single element of normal

practice in a culture (e.g., wearing a turban) Culture complex: a combination of related

cultural traits (e.g., prevailing modes of dress; nationalism)

Agricultural Revolutions: First Agricultural Revolution/Neolithic

Revolution - The domestication of plants and animals around 12,000 BC

Second Agricultural Revolution -- improved methods of cultivation, harvesting, and storage of farm produce stemming from the Industrial Revolution

Third Agricultural Revolution/ Green Revolution- international effort that was planned to eliminate hunger by improving crop performance. Development of genetically engineered crops (GE) or genetically modified organisms (GMOs) It began in the 1960s when a combination of technologies was made available to Mexico and countries in Asia in an effort to improve the diets of people in those regions.

Agricultural Hearths

Ancient culture hearth: Fertile Crescent, Indus Valley, Chang & Yellow River Valley (China), Nile River Valley and Delta, Meso-America (origin of farming developed during the First Agricultural Revolution beginning around 12,000 years ago).

-Modern culture hearth: Europe, North America, Japan (origin and focus of the Industrial Revolution beginning in the early 1800s after the onset of the Second Agricultural Revolution).

Cultural landscape (built environment): Fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group.  This is the essence of how humans interact with nature. 

Sequent occupance: The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.  This is an important concept in geography because it symbolizes how humans interact with their surroundings. 

Types of Diffusion Cultural diffusion: The process of spread of a feature or trend from one

place to another over time.  Relocation diffusion: The spread of an idea through physical movement of

people from one place to another. Ex: spread of AIDS from New York, California, & Florida. 

Migrant diffusion: dies in its hearth by the time it spreads outward to other areas: best example: flu

Expansion diffusion: The spread of a feature from one place to another in a snowballing process…

-Hierarchical diffusion: The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places (Ex: hip-hop/rap music) 

-Contagious diffusion: The rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population. (Ex: ideas placed on the internet) 

-Stimulus diffusion: the spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse. (Ex: PC & Apple competition) 

Acculturation vs. Transculturation

Acculturation:  Process of adopting only certain customs that will be to their advantage

Transculturation: A near equal exchange of culture traits or customs  

Assimilation:  Process of less dominant cultures losing their culture to a more dominant culture

Environmental Determinism vs. Possibilism Environmental determinism: A 19th- and early 20th-

century approach to the study of geography that argued that the general laws sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences.  Geography was therefore the study o f how the physical environment caused human activities (e.g., Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs, and Steel)

Possibilism-  The physical environment may limit some human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to their environment.  

Cultural Ecology:  The geographic study of the multiple interactions of human-environmental relationships  

Holocene epoch: current interglaciation period (sustained warming phase between glaciations during an ice age), extending from around 12,000 years ago to the present (some scientists speculate that since humans influence the Earth as no species was able to before, we have recently entered the Anthropocene epoch).

Contemporary Mapping ToolsGIS- Graphic Information Systems Layers GIS technology Computers and complex maps Geographic Information

System Precision geocoding Data storage and relationships Analysis Display

Global Positioning System (GPS): satellite-based system for determining the absolute location of places.

Remote Sensing

Remote sensing: method of collecting data or information through the use of instruments (e.g., satellites) that are physically distant from the area or object of study.

Qualitative data: described in terms of its quality (that is, informal or relative characteristics such as culture, language, religion, …).

Quantitative data: precisely describes data using numbers and measures (population, political, economic, …).

Contemporary Mapping Tools: Mash-Up: When you take one geographical element and superimpose or put it side by side with another

Figure 1.4.3

Creating a Projection: 2 Steps

Mercator Projection- Landmasses near the North and South Poles look bigger. (Greenland & Antarctica)

The Robinson Projection – attempt to balance projection errors. Nothing is perfectly accurate but errors are reduced and it is pleasing to the eye. ADV: reserves accurate compass direction, conformal map-shows shapes pretty much the way they appear on the globeDIS: artificially increases the size of landscapes to make industrialized developed countries appear to account for a greater percentage of the total geographical area than they really do, land masses are larger in size at high latitudes near the North and South Poles

The Peters Projection (“Gall-Peters”)- accurate sizes of all of the world’s landmasses. It shows just how large the landmasses near the equator (where the poorest countries are located) actually are! More fairly shows the third world countries. Countries shapes are distorted, but area is accurate

Fuller Projection- Maintains the accurate size and shape of landmasses. Rearranges direction so the cardinal directions no longer have any meaning

Azimuthal Projection – as if you put a flat piece of paper on top of a globe (planar)

Map Projections

Map projections: any 3-dimensional object (Earth) will project some distortion onto any 2-dimensional object (map)

Azimuthal: directions from a central point are preserved; usually these projections also have radial symmetry

Mercator: straight meridians and parallels that intersect at right angles, used for marine navigation

Peters: equal-area cylindrical, areas of equal size on the globe are also equally sized on the map

Robinson: distorts shape, area, scale, and distance in an attempt to balance the errors of projection properties

Fuller: using the surface of a polyhedron, it is unfolded to a net in many different ways and flattened to form a two-dimensional map which retains most of the globe’s relative proportional integrity

Types of Maps

Types of maps: -dot: one dot represents a certain number of phenomena (e.g., population) -thematic: made to reflect a particular theme about a geographic area (e.g.,

geographic, topographic, political, …) -choropleth: thematic map in which areas are shaded or patterned in

proportion to the measurement of the statistical variable being displayed (e.g., population density)

-reference: generalized map type designed to show general spatial properties of features (e.g., world maps, road maps, atlas maps)

-proportional symbol: type of thematic map in which the areas of symbols are varied in proportion to the value of an attribute (e.g., city population)

-preference: map demonstrating progressively more desirable options -cartogram: map in which some thematic mapping variable is substituted

for land area (e.g., GDP)

Dot Map

Thematic Map

Choropleth Map

Reference Map

Proportional Symbol Map

Preference Map

Cartogram

Map Terms

parallel: line of latitude (Equator, Tropic of Cancer & Capricorn, Arctic & Antarctic Circles)

 meridian: line of longitude (Prime Meridian, International Date Line)

TODALSIG: (Title, Orientation, Date, Author, Legend, Scale, Index, Grid) acronym for assessing the validity and reliability of any map

Scale: representation of a real-world phenomenon at a certain level of reduction or generalization; represented as a fraction (large scale = large detail, small area; small scale = small detain, large area)

Properties of Distribution Density –

measurement Number of objects Land area

Concentration Clustering Dispersal

Pattern Irregular Linear Rectangular Grid

Connections Between Places Spatial interaction Characteristics spread through

diffusion

Figure 1.9.3

Spatial Interaction Places connected through a

network Distance decay Space-time compression

Promotes change Cultural interaction Economic influences

Electronic communications Magnifies change Knowledge transfer

Figure 1.9.1

Diffusion

Characteristic spreads across space and time

Hearth - locations and nodes Relocation diffusion – physical

movement Expansion diffusion

Hierarchical Contagious Stimulus

Figure 1.9.2

Geographic Consequences of Change Globalization and cultural

diversity Modern communications pulls

toward cultural and economic interaction

People look for expression of unique cultural traditions and economy

Tension between globalization and local diversity

Geographers search for changes in uniqueness of place, location, distinctive culture and physical features

Geographers look for why different places have similar features using three basic concepts: Scale: studying a part of the whole Space: the physical gap or interval

between objects Connections: relationships among

people, objects and time

Chapter SummaryDevelopment

“Earth” and “to

write” Early geography

assisted in exploration and discovery

Scientific geography

Map – fundamental tool

Similarities Globalization – places

and regions can display similar economic and cultural features

Geographers document

Distribution – density, concentration, and pattern

Diffusion – spread of features

Communication

Every place on Earth is unique and can be determined by site, situation, and name

Every area and region is unique because of a combination of unique features

Uniqueness

Chapter Resources

Gender and Space Father, mother, and children are different and use

space, time, travel and work differently. Time Zones

24 standard (mapped) time zones related to Greenwich, UK (0º longitude). Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). One hour for each 15 degrees,

Internet www.aag.org www.amergeog.org www.nationalgeographic