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