Cultural Geography

Using Location, Place, Human-Environment Interaction, Movement and

Region to analyze the people that live there.

Culture • Culture is represented/displayed through: customs, language, and

material artifacts

• Artifact (“ars/artem” = skill): any object created by humans • Culture travels from generation to generation, rarely with explicit

instructions

• Culture is artificial (man-made) • Is a jungle, culture? Is a garden?

• Culture evolves and transforms, and is transformative• You make culture, and culture makes you – there is no outside of culture. Is

there?• New trends replace old. Lack of sharing and intrest eliminates some cultures.

Ethnic Group

Ethnic Group

•A group sharing a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or the like. Ethnicity is a social construct: not biological.

Examples?

• Pushtuns (Afghanistan and Pakistan)• Punjabi (Pakistan and India)

Push and Pull Factors

Push Factors

• The push factor involves a force which acts to drive people away from a place

• EX: Crime, Unemployment, Property Value Decrease, Drought, War, Flood, Hurricanes, Overcrowding, religious persecution…

• Can you think of more?

Pull Factors

• Definition: the pull factor is what draws people to a new location.

• EX: Better Education; Job; Healthcare; Family; No War; Better Economy; Religious Tolerance; Resources: Land, Oil, Forest, Precious Metals, Water

• Can you think of any others?

Innovation

Innovation

• Definition: the introduction of something new

• EX: Can you think of examples of Innovation?

Assimilation, Acculturation, and Diffusion

Assimilation

• Definition: The process whereby a minority group gradually adopts the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture.

• Examples?

Acculturation

• Definition: 1. cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture; also : a merging of cultures as a result of prolonged contact

• Definition 2: the process by which a human being acquires the culture of a particular society from infancy

Acculturation Continued

• How is acculturation different from assimilation?

• Examples?

Diffusion

• Definition: the spreading out of culture, culture traits, or a cultural pattern from a central point.

• How is Diffusion different from Acculturation or Assimilation?

• Examples?

Urban

• Definitions:• 1. Of, relating to, or located in a

city.• 2. Characteristic of the city or city

life.• Examples?

Rural• 1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the

country or country life• 2. living in or accustomed to the country• 3. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications /

Agriculture) of, relating to, or associated with farming Compare urban

Rural

• What might be cultural differences in an Urban vs a Rural environment? • Think about food, clothing,

hobbies, time.

Carrying Capacity and Population Density

Carrying Capacity

• the maximum, equilibrium number of organisms of a particular species that can be supported indefinitely in a given environment.

• What physical place factors affect Carrying Capacity?

Population Density

• the number of people living per unit of an area (e.g. per square mile); the number of people relative to the space occupied by them• How does Carrying Capacity affect

Population Density?

Metropolitan Area

Metropolitan Area

• A metropolitan area is a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing. Consists of Urban and Suburban.