AP Human Geography Notebook.docx
Language - Kannada
Religion - Hinduism
Ethnicity - Indian
House - Normal
Clothes - Normal
Food - no meat, Indian food
Taboo - sex before marriage
Cultural Iceberg - bottom part of iceberg is things we can’t see but they make a difference.
Material Culture - things we can see about a culture
Non-Material Culture - things we can't see with culture, but become apparent as you unfold the fabrics of different cultures.
Above the tip of the iceberg (visible material culture) | Below the water (invisible non-material culture) | |
Food | Communication Styles and Rules: | |
Flags | Facial Expressions/Body Language | |
Fashion | Gestures/Personal Space | |
Festivals | Eye Contact | |
Holidays | Handling Emotion | |
Music | Notions of Beauty | |
Games | Notions of Cleanliness | |
Performances | Notions of Manners | |
Dances | Concepts of Self, Time, Fairness | |
Arts and Crafts | Gender Roles | |
Literature | Attitudes toward Elders, Animals, Sin, Death, Work, Authority | |
Language | Approaches to Religion, Courtship, Marriage, Raising Children |
Culture - is comprised of shared practices, technologies, attitudes, and behaviors
Culture is also learned behavior, not biological.
Age, sex, and status determine how much we absorb (culture.
Multiple cultures can share cultural traits.
The combination of multiple cultural traits is called a cultural complex.
Cultural systems are societies with multiple cultures working together, often entailing a multiethnic society.
Culture regions reveal themselves when cultural systems are plotted, showing a pattern.
Cultural realms are the broadest grouping, and their geographical region can go as large as an entire continent.
The built environment is all of the man-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, which can be large stadiums to small houses. Thus, the cultural landscape, or the earth surface as modified by human action, is an important part of cultural analysis.
Cultural landscapes are just a combination of various cultural aspects.
Symbols, space and style, and naming convention all hint towards tradition and culture.
Syncretism - fusion of old and new
Stimulous diffusion is actually INNOVATION 🫨
A major cause of diffusion is colonialism, imperialism, and early trade.
Because of today’s time-space compression and accessibility, culture diffuses the fastest.
Lingua Franca - common tongue - english
Acculturation - a cultural group undergoes major change due to influence of a more dominant culture. Adoption of characteristics. Can change both groups.
Multiculturalism is the melting pot theory.
Assimilation - is where the original culture is lost, like with natives.
Ethnocentrism - aka cultural relativism, is the close-minded conclusion that their culture is superior.
Folk Culture vs Popular Culture
Folk cultures are often self-sustaining cultures rooted in tradition and slow to change. Additionally, they are found in isolated, rural, or indigenous communities with anonymous origins.
folk food | Traditional societies do not go far for food, so much of what they eat is local foods. For example, in Texas, pecans and blackberries are foods that can be gathered and eaten. |
folk housing | Many times local materials are used. In the picture above, Maasai women gather sticks from nearby and use the earth to bind them together. |
folk songs | These are songs that tell a story or convey information about daily activities such as farming, life-cycle events or mysterious events. |
folklore | These are the traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people, usually transmitted orally. |
Time-space compression and pop culture is having a bigger and bigger impact on folk culture. Unintentional loss of culture may happen as people start depending on the more common, more convenient practices. (such as language)
Pop culture is very quick to spread. It also has the consequence of homogenizing, and has changeable roots in urban areas and media.
Placelessness - the result of much homogenization due to pop culture and globalization. Places all look the same and locations around the world lose their identity/sense of place.
Media restrictions work against this in an effort to combat placelessness
popular culture also creates an environmental demand on natural resources. For example, the US eating habit of high amounts of meat, when diffused outward, increases meat production demands on land that may not be equipped to handle it. Pollution also can increase due to the increasing amount of waste produced by strain on areas that traditionally cooked all of their own food and generated small amounts of waste.
Language is thetransfer of ideas. Communication through speech, and sounds that humans have unanimously decided the meaning of.
There are 7000-8000 languages spoken today.
Language families are a collection of common languages that relate to each other via ancestry and location and more.
Indo-European languages are the common ancestry of many languages today. These languages diffused to Europe and parks of Asia.
About 50% of the population speaks Indo-European languages or languages that fall under that branch.
Language subfamilies are more language groups with more distinguishable features. Some major language subfamilies are the Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian) and the Germanic languages (English, German, Dutch). These languages subfamilies fall under Indo-European.
It is important to note that language subfamilies are not intelligible to one another, as they are that different.
Some causes of language diffusion are colonialism, migrations (both forced and voluntary), imperialism, and trade.
Colonialism - control by one power over a dependent set of people
Imperialism - expanding via military force or taking over, kings and queens
Lingua Franca - the common language between speakers of many different native languages
English is the official language of over 60 countries
English has changed significantly over the last 1000 years
A Dialect is a change made to a language or variety in a group.
Pidgin is a simplification of a language so that two or more groups with non-similar languages can communicate.
A Creole is the result of the combination of a Pidgin and another language.
Correct | Incorrect |
Isogloss is the boundary that separates region with different languages
1. What is religion?
Religion is systems of belief that have evolved over time. They’re used to explain the unexplained, and are primarily rooted in the belief that there is something greater than us.
2. What are the world's main religions?
Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.
3. What are some similarities in the main religions?
A greater being, moral guidelines, sacred texts, rituals and worship pratices, afterlife concepts, community,
4. What are some differences in these religions?
The nature of god, founders, sacred texts, rituals, salvation, afterlife views, religious law.
Religion | Number of followers as of 2005 | Origin Date (BCE=Before Common Era same as B.C., CE=Common Era same as A.D.) | Core Characteristics |
Christianity | 2.1 billion | 0 BCE | Origin in the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish preacher whom his followers believe was the messiah promised by God. Spread quickly because missionary work was critical. In 313 CE, Emporer Constantine proclaimed Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. Universalizing |
Catholic Christianity | 1054 CE | The dissolution of the Roman Empire also divided Christianity. The Western Church, based in Rome, united Western Europe during the Medival Ages. Bishops were the authorities over large areas otherwise without government. | |
Orthodox Christianity | 1054 CE | The Eastern Empire seated in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey) and expanded until falling to Islam (Turks) in the 15th century. | |
Protestant Christianity | 15th and 16th Centuries CE | Protestant reformation (opposing the fundamental* teachings of the Roman Catholic Church) split the church again, leaving Catholicism supreme in Southern Europe but creating a variety of protestant churches in Western and Northern Europe. | |
Islam | 1.5 billion | 7th Century CE | One of the youngest religions, Islam is based on 5 pillars, one of which is the belief that Mohammed is God's final prophet. They also believe in the hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca once in their lives, the hearth of the religion (current day Saudi Arabia) and charity to the poor. |
Sunni Islam | 83% | Although many Muslims live in the Middle East, near its hearth, the country with the largest Mulsim population is Indonesia. This branch of Islam believes that the rightful successors of Mohammed were to be chosen by agreement of religious leaders. | |
Shia Islam | 16% | Most Shia (or Shi'ites) live in Iran. This branch of Islam believes that the rightful successors of Mohammed were his relatives. | |
Hinduism | 900 million | 2000+ BCE | Began in India, it is an ethnic religion and is still primarily practiced in India, although it has spread through relocation diffusion. It is generally believed to be the world's oldest organized religion still in practice. It is not organized into specific branches. It doesn't have a particular main deity or book, but most Hindus believe in Brahma (universal spirit) and Vishnu and Shiva. Hindus also are arranged into a caste system, which has been outlawed in India but is still practiced. The caste system arranges people in social classes at birth, which only through reincarnation can one come back in a higher caste. Generally believed to be polytheistic, multiple gods, although there is a discussion within Hinduism if the gods are all different versions of the same god. |
Judaism | 14 million | 2000 BCE | Belief in a single God laid the foundation for both Christianity and Islam. Ethnic religion based on descent from ancient Israel. The Holy book is the Torah. Conquests led to their diaspora to much of the Mediterranean and Asia. Suffered persecution and mass destruction during World War II. Afterward, the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 was a fulfillment of the goal of Zionism, the idea to create a new Jewish state based on the historic one. |
Buddhism | 376 million | 489 BCE | Buddhism began with the Prince Siddartha Gautama who achieved enlightenment after sitting under a bodhi tree and became the Buddha. He rejected the Hindu idea of caste systems and believed that people who follow the 8-fold path can achieve nirvana regardless of their position in society. The hearth is India but it spread through trade routes and is currently considered a universalizing religion. |
Mahayana Buddhism | 56% | Do not serve as monks but spend much time in personal meditation and worship. Vietnam, Korea, Japan, China | |
Theravada Buddhism | 38% | Strict adherence to Buddha's teaching, monastic. Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia | |
Other | Varies | Varies | Shamanism, Animism, Confucianism, Daoism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Bahai, Jainism |
*Remember fundamentalism just means a strict adherence to doctrinal conformity, also seen as ultraconservative. Fundamentalism is found in every dominant religion as a reactive rejection of the secularist tendencies of modernism.
Ethnic Religions spread via relocation diffusion, and are usually found near the Hearth. Some examples of this include Hinduism and Judaism.
Universalizing Religions are spread through expansion AND relocation diffusion. Beliefs are spread and followers are gained. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism.
Universalizing tries to universalize itself, spreading as far as it can.
Religious structures are the tallest and most elaborate especially in urban areas.
Sacred Sites | Material Culture (Interior) | Architecture (Exterior) | Place Names | Burial Traditions | |
Christian | Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Nazareth, Church of the Holy Sepulchre | Crosses, crucifixes, altars, icons and statues. | Churches, Cathedrals, Stained Glass Windows | Jerusalem, Rome, Behtlehem | burial for the dead in a cemetery, this occupies significant land use in urban areas |
Islam | Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem | Prayer Rugs, Calligraphy, Minbars | Mosques, Domes, Courtyards | Mecca, Medina, Baghdad | Simple Graves, Body placed on right side facing Mecca, no elaborate grave markers |
Buddhism | Bodh Gaya, Lumbini, Sarnath | Buddha statues, Thangka paintings, Prayer wheels | Stupas and pagodas, Monasteries, Temples with intricate carvings | Bodh Gaya, Lumbini, Sarnath | Cremation, Stupa interment, Sky burial |
Judaism | Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed | Torah scrolls, Menorahs, Mezuzahs | Synagogues, Dome or Arches, Star of David symbols | Jerusalem (in Hebrew, "shalom" means peace, so Jeru-salem means city of peace) | Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed |
Hinduism | Varanasi, Rishikesh, Puri | Murti, Puja, Yantras, | Temples with spikes, carvings and sculptures, Gopurams | Varanasi, Rishikesh, Puri | Cremation on funeral pyres, Ashes scattered in sacred rivers, elaborate ceremonies |
*If you struggle to locate this or any piece, please contact your teacher for assistance
Race - Population subset with biological similarities.
Ancient societies did not group based on physical differences but on religion, language, and class.
DNA-based evidence shows there is no more genetic difference between two Koreans than there are between a Korean and an Italian. Even with this information, we find ourselves in a society where racism, or prejudice, is real.
What does exist are ethnic groups. Based on the root "ethnos", or people/nation, an ethnic group is a group with a unifying thread of a common heritage of distinguishing features. These may be based on language, religion, historical events, traditions, festivals, cuisines, and relationships.
The Ethnic Landscape is also an expression of ideas and the work of people.
a geographical area where a particular ethnic group is spatially clustered and socially and economically distinct from the majority group. - ethnic enclave
Barrio represents a large Hispanic neighborhood.
The cultural shatter belt case of Yugoslavia is interesting.
Physically and linguistically, the majority of the people in the Balkan Mountains region pictured here are Slavic. However, over time, this crossroads has been influenced by Roman Empire (Catholicism), Eastern Orthodox (Byzantine), and Islam (Ottoman Empire). Thus, distinct ethnic groups have evolved. You can see them on the map. After the end of WWI, this area was grouped together and called Yugoslavia (translated to "Land of the Slava") and ruled by Josef Tito, who held the state (country) together even though it housed many different ethnic groups (or nations). It was considered a multi-nation state
Croatians are mostly Catholic, many Bosnians are Muslim, and Serbians are Orthodox. This creates interfaith boundaries as well. After the collapse of the USSR, many nations (ethnic groups) decided to separate from Yugoslavia, starting with the Slovenians. During this balkanization (or shattering) of the former state, many ethnic groups were targeted for forced removal. This is a term we call ethnic cleansing, which is the ousting and sometimes murder, of people that are being forced to move from their ethnic homelands. The Bosnian Muslims were the most targeted group during the breakdown of Yugoslavia (which took place throughout the 1990s) but Croatian and Serbs also targeted each other.
Dowry deaths are also discrimination, and it happens cuz enough dowry wasn’t paid.
This can lead to suicide of women, or bride burning, which is where the bride lights herself on fire.
In the past unit, we looked at the practice of infanticide, or the intentional killing of children under 12 months, usually because of their gender. In addition to these antinatalist policies of some states, the stress of the practice of having to offer a dowry, some women refuse to raise a girl child.
Gender is the socially created distinction between femininity and masculinity.
Gender roles are different between societies, so the status of women “” is variable across space.
Anthropologists suggest that gender roles evolved with the development of agriculture. As the hoe was replaced with the plow, the woman moved more to the market and subordinated their role, losing domestic authority.
In the last half of the 20th century did women in more-developed countries get significantly economically engaged, with 47% of the workforce of the US in 2008 identifying as female.
Women spend more time at work than men today, on average, and this difference is more prominent in developing countries.
Enfranchisement, is the freedom from political subjugation or servitude.
education is the most important variable in empowerment
1) Define the treaty that redrew the borders in the Middle East.
Sykes-Picot agreement
2) When?
November 1915 and March 1916
3) By whom?
France and Britain
4) What are the current social, economic, and political implications?
Christians, Mrionettese, and Jews have their havens. And then Shia and Sunni Muslims split it as well.
Germany: The Berlin Wall was a physical barrier that divided the city of Berlin from 1961 to 1989. It separated East Berlin, the capital of East Germany (the German Democratic Republic or GDR), from West Berlin, which was surrounded by East Germany but aligned with West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany). East Germany, backed by the Soviet Union, constructed the Wall to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the West.
Soviet Union: The USSR played a crucial role in the establishment and maintenance of the Berlin Wall. As the primary supporter of East Germany, the Soviet Union saw the Wall as a necessary measure to protect its sphere of influence and prevent the loss of skilled workers and intellectuals to the West.
United States: The United States was a significant player in the Cold War and a staunch ally of West Germany. The presence of U.S. troops in West Berlin and diplomatic efforts were essential in maintaining the city's status as a symbol of freedom and resistance against communist expansion.
United Kingdom and France: These two countries, alongside the United States, were responsible for the administration of West Berlin. They maintained a military presence and supported West Berlin economically and politically, reinforcing the city's connection to the democratic West.
The Berlin Wall stood as a symbol of the Cold War, representing the ideological divide between the communist East and the capitalist West. Its fall in 1989 marked the beginning of the end of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe and paved the way for German reunification in 1990.
State borders and territory areas are fluid, and they may (and have) change due to war.
Political Geographers - The entire area of our world is split into regions like country, state, city, and more.
Territoriality is the concept of ownership or personal belonging. This is emotional attachment, and qualifies as the home ground.
Sovereignty - is when states manage its own affairs
A nation is a group of people who have a shared culture and history.
A state is a space that possesses the following: a permanent population, a defined territory and a government that is capable of maintaining effective control over the corresponding territory and of conducting international relations with other states (sovereignty).
Stateless nation - a concept of people with similar history and culture that have no political nation.
A forward capital is a strategically planned or relocated city as you can see in the picture to the right.
Modern Nation-State: Origin, spread, boundaries.
Political Organization: Greek city-states, Roman Empire, dynasties, kingdoms.
Peace of Westphalia: Sovereign state, territorial boundaries.
Colonialism: Spread of ideas, imposed boundaries, economic exploitation.
Berlin Conference: Division of Africa, superimposed boundaries, internal unrest.
Decolonization: Independence, retained boundaries.
Apartheid: Segregation on ground of race
Scramble for Africa: Colonial division, economic systems.
Ottoman Empire: Collapse, Middle East borders.
In this context, "superimposed" means the colonial powers imposed new borders over existing cultural and ethnic boundaries, disregarding the pre-existing divisions among indigenous populations.
Geopolitics - study that analyzes geography, history, and socials with relation to international politics.
Heartland Theory - whoever controls the Heartland can eventually control the whole world.
This is because they control the “world Island” which is africa and eurasia.
This will feed their people, feed their troops, and give them a strategic advantage to see where other invaders could be coming from.
Breadbasket concept
Spykman disagreed with Mackinder and proposed the Rimland Theory. Similar world domination strategy as developed above, but this time, it is the access to the waterways that gives the advantage.
Organic Theory - He believed that the state was organic because he believed that political bodies, such as countries, behave in a way similar to that of living organisms. More growing, the healthier it is
Domino theory - one country becomes communist and the others fall to it as well.
Boundaries are defined, delimited, demarcated, and administered. International boundaries establish the limits of sovereignty and can be the source of disputes.
A frontier is a zone where no state exercises complete political control.
Natural/physical boundaries are created with naturally occurring features.
Ethnographic/cultural boundaries are outlined by cultural factors such as language, religion, or ethnic groups.
Geometric boundaries are created with latitude and longitude features or with other straight lines.
Antecedent boundary is a boundary that existed before the cultural landscape emerged and these are the most likely to stay in place without resistance.
Superimposed boundary is a political boundary that ignores the existing cultural organization of the landscape, usually placed by a higher authority, such as a superpower or a delegation of superpowers, to ease tension and satisfy the demands of the alliances rather than the needs of the country in which the boundary is dividing the population.
Relic boundaries no longer exist as international boundaries. Like north and south germany
The first phase is definition, in which the exact location of a boundary is legally described and negotiated.
The next phase is delimitation in which the exact location of a boundary is drawn on a map.
Demarcation is the final step and it is the process of showing the physical representation of a boundary on the landscape marked visibly by a fence, line, sign, wall or other means.
Definitional are disputes that arise from the legal language of the treaty definition of the boundary itself.
Locational arise when the definition of the border is not questioned but the intention of the border is, as when the border has shifted
Operational disputes arise from two adjacent countries disagree about a major functionality of the border
Allocational disputes involve conflicting claims to the natural resources of a region and the drilling or mining of it
EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) established in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), is a zone of exploitation extending 200 nautical miles* (370 uncloskm) seaward from a coastal state that has exclusive mineral and fishing rights over it.
This code of maritime law was approved by the United Nations in 1982 and it authorized, among other provisions, territorial waters extending 12 nautical miles (22 km) from shore and 200-nautical-mile-wide (370-km-wide) exclusive economic zones.
What this means it that states' laws (sovereignty) and fishing rights extend to 12 miles, they can mine, explore, and extract the natural resources up to 200, but after that, it is the "high sea" and everything is fair game for anyone (fishing, passing through, flying over).
When EEZs overlap, the median line principle was established to distribute waterways when states are within 200 miles of each other.
As you can see in the map above, there are seven different countries with territorial claims, but since the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, there have been no further movements to disrupt the status quo
An ethnic conflict is a war between ethnic groups often as a result of ethnic nationalism or fight over natural resources. Ethnic conflict often includes genocide. It can also be caused by boundary disputes. Examples are the ethnic conflicts in Africa (Darfur, Sudan).
Many times a conflict is not purely religious, ethnic, or political but an overlap of two or three.
Religious fundamentalism is a religious ideology whose objectives are to return to the foundations of the faith and to influence state policy and is carried to the point of violence. Religious fundamentalism can lead to religious conflict.
1. What is genocide?
Mass killing
2. List three examples of genocide besides the Holocaust.
Transantlantic slave trade, me at a all-you-can-eat buffet
3. Why do you think genocides still occur?
Intense hatred
During the Industrial Revolution, European nations sought resources, leading to Africa's colonization. In 1884, the Berlin Conference gathered 14 countries, including Germany, to arbitrarily divide Africa, creating 50 countries under Western rule. Germany colonized Rwanda in the 1890s, encountering an organized society with shared culture and governance. After World War I, Belgium took control and implemented discriminatory policies favoring the Tutsi minority over the majority Hutu, influenced by German racial ideas.
The history of Rwanda's colonial legacy and the subsequent events leading to the genocide is deeply tragic and complex:
After World War II, Rwanda's Tutsi and Hutu populations, resentful of Belgian rule, clashed in the 1950s. The Hutu overthrew Tutsi dominance in 1959, leading to independence and the election of Hutu leaders. The Hutu continued the Belgian-created racial classification system, exacerbating ethnic tensions. In 1994, the assassination of President Habyarimana triggered the Rwandan Genocide, where an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were brutally killed over 100 days. This genocide devastated Rwanda socially and economically, with lasting impacts such as increased HIV rates, damaged infrastructure, and regional conflicts like the Congo Wars. Today, Rwanda commemorates the genocide annually from April 7th to July 4th, reflecting on its tragic legacy and ongoing efforts toward reconciliation and healing.
Language - Kannada
Religion - Hinduism
Ethnicity - Indian
House - Normal
Clothes - Normal
Food - no meat, Indian food
Taboo - sex before marriage
Cultural Iceberg - bottom part of iceberg is things we can’t see but they make a difference.
Material Culture - things we can see about a culture
Non-Material Culture - things we can't see with culture, but become apparent as you unfold the fabrics of different cultures.
Above the tip of the iceberg (visible material culture) | Below the water (invisible non-material culture) | |
Food | Communication Styles and Rules: | |
Flags | Facial Expressions/Body Language | |
Fashion | Gestures/Personal Space | |
Festivals | Eye Contact | |
Holidays | Handling Emotion | |
Music | Notions of Beauty | |
Games | Notions of Cleanliness | |
Performances | Notions of Manners | |
Dances | Concepts of Self, Time, Fairness | |
Arts and Crafts | Gender Roles | |
Literature | Attitudes toward Elders, Animals, Sin, Death, Work, Authority | |
Language | Approaches to Religion, Courtship, Marriage, Raising Children |
Culture - is comprised of shared practices, technologies, attitudes, and behaviors
Culture is also learned behavior, not biological.
Age, sex, and status determine how much we absorb (culture.
Multiple cultures can share cultural traits.
The combination of multiple cultural traits is called a cultural complex.
Cultural systems are societies with multiple cultures working together, often entailing a multiethnic society.
Culture regions reveal themselves when cultural systems are plotted, showing a pattern.
Cultural realms are the broadest grouping, and their geographical region can go as large as an entire continent.
The built environment is all of the man-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, which can be large stadiums to small houses. Thus, the cultural landscape, or the earth surface as modified by human action, is an important part of cultural analysis.
Cultural landscapes are just a combination of various cultural aspects.
Symbols, space and style, and naming convention all hint towards tradition and culture.
Syncretism - fusion of old and new
Stimulous diffusion is actually INNOVATION 🫨
A major cause of diffusion is colonialism, imperialism, and early trade.
Because of today’s time-space compression and accessibility, culture diffuses the fastest.
Lingua Franca - common tongue - english
Acculturation - a cultural group undergoes major change due to influence of a more dominant culture. Adoption of characteristics. Can change both groups.
Multiculturalism is the melting pot theory.
Assimilation - is where the original culture is lost, like with natives.
Ethnocentrism - aka cultural relativism, is the close-minded conclusion that their culture is superior.
Folk Culture vs Popular Culture
Folk cultures are often self-sustaining cultures rooted in tradition and slow to change. Additionally, they are found in isolated, rural, or indigenous communities with anonymous origins.
folk food | Traditional societies do not go far for food, so much of what they eat is local foods. For example, in Texas, pecans and blackberries are foods that can be gathered and eaten. |
folk housing | Many times local materials are used. In the picture above, Maasai women gather sticks from nearby and use the earth to bind them together. |
folk songs | These are songs that tell a story or convey information about daily activities such as farming, life-cycle events or mysterious events. |
folklore | These are the traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people, usually transmitted orally. |
Time-space compression and pop culture is having a bigger and bigger impact on folk culture. Unintentional loss of culture may happen as people start depending on the more common, more convenient practices. (such as language)
Pop culture is very quick to spread. It also has the consequence of homogenizing, and has changeable roots in urban areas and media.
Placelessness - the result of much homogenization due to pop culture and globalization. Places all look the same and locations around the world lose their identity/sense of place.
Media restrictions work against this in an effort to combat placelessness
popular culture also creates an environmental demand on natural resources. For example, the US eating habit of high amounts of meat, when diffused outward, increases meat production demands on land that may not be equipped to handle it. Pollution also can increase due to the increasing amount of waste produced by strain on areas that traditionally cooked all of their own food and generated small amounts of waste.
Language is thetransfer of ideas. Communication through speech, and sounds that humans have unanimously decided the meaning of.
There are 7000-8000 languages spoken today.
Language families are a collection of common languages that relate to each other via ancestry and location and more.
Indo-European languages are the common ancestry of many languages today. These languages diffused to Europe and parks of Asia.
About 50% of the population speaks Indo-European languages or languages that fall under that branch.
Language subfamilies are more language groups with more distinguishable features. Some major language subfamilies are the Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian) and the Germanic languages (English, German, Dutch). These languages subfamilies fall under Indo-European.
It is important to note that language subfamilies are not intelligible to one another, as they are that different.
Some causes of language diffusion are colonialism, migrations (both forced and voluntary), imperialism, and trade.
Colonialism - control by one power over a dependent set of people
Imperialism - expanding via military force or taking over, kings and queens
Lingua Franca - the common language between speakers of many different native languages
English is the official language of over 60 countries
English has changed significantly over the last 1000 years
A Dialect is a change made to a language or variety in a group.
Pidgin is a simplification of a language so that two or more groups with non-similar languages can communicate.
A Creole is the result of the combination of a Pidgin and another language.
Correct | Incorrect |
Isogloss is the boundary that separates region with different languages
1. What is religion?
Religion is systems of belief that have evolved over time. They’re used to explain the unexplained, and are primarily rooted in the belief that there is something greater than us.
2. What are the world's main religions?
Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.
3. What are some similarities in the main religions?
A greater being, moral guidelines, sacred texts, rituals and worship pratices, afterlife concepts, community,
4. What are some differences in these religions?
The nature of god, founders, sacred texts, rituals, salvation, afterlife views, religious law.
Religion | Number of followers as of 2005 | Origin Date (BCE=Before Common Era same as B.C., CE=Common Era same as A.D.) | Core Characteristics |
Christianity | 2.1 billion | 0 BCE | Origin in the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish preacher whom his followers believe was the messiah promised by God. Spread quickly because missionary work was critical. In 313 CE, Emporer Constantine proclaimed Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. Universalizing |
Catholic Christianity | 1054 CE | The dissolution of the Roman Empire also divided Christianity. The Western Church, based in Rome, united Western Europe during the Medival Ages. Bishops were the authorities over large areas otherwise without government. | |
Orthodox Christianity | 1054 CE | The Eastern Empire seated in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey) and expanded until falling to Islam (Turks) in the 15th century. | |
Protestant Christianity | 15th and 16th Centuries CE | Protestant reformation (opposing the fundamental* teachings of the Roman Catholic Church) split the church again, leaving Catholicism supreme in Southern Europe but creating a variety of protestant churches in Western and Northern Europe. | |
Islam | 1.5 billion | 7th Century CE | One of the youngest religions, Islam is based on 5 pillars, one of which is the belief that Mohammed is God's final prophet. They also believe in the hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca once in their lives, the hearth of the religion (current day Saudi Arabia) and charity to the poor. |
Sunni Islam | 83% | Although many Muslims live in the Middle East, near its hearth, the country with the largest Mulsim population is Indonesia. This branch of Islam believes that the rightful successors of Mohammed were to be chosen by agreement of religious leaders. | |
Shia Islam | 16% | Most Shia (or Shi'ites) live in Iran. This branch of Islam believes that the rightful successors of Mohammed were his relatives. | |
Hinduism | 900 million | 2000+ BCE | Began in India, it is an ethnic religion and is still primarily practiced in India, although it has spread through relocation diffusion. It is generally believed to be the world's oldest organized religion still in practice. It is not organized into specific branches. It doesn't have a particular main deity or book, but most Hindus believe in Brahma (universal spirit) and Vishnu and Shiva. Hindus also are arranged into a caste system, which has been outlawed in India but is still practiced. The caste system arranges people in social classes at birth, which only through reincarnation can one come back in a higher caste. Generally believed to be polytheistic, multiple gods, although there is a discussion within Hinduism if the gods are all different versions of the same god. |
Judaism | 14 million | 2000 BCE | Belief in a single God laid the foundation for both Christianity and Islam. Ethnic religion based on descent from ancient Israel. The Holy book is the Torah. Conquests led to their diaspora to much of the Mediterranean and Asia. Suffered persecution and mass destruction during World War II. Afterward, the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 was a fulfillment of the goal of Zionism, the idea to create a new Jewish state based on the historic one. |
Buddhism | 376 million | 489 BCE | Buddhism began with the Prince Siddartha Gautama who achieved enlightenment after sitting under a bodhi tree and became the Buddha. He rejected the Hindu idea of caste systems and believed that people who follow the 8-fold path can achieve nirvana regardless of their position in society. The hearth is India but it spread through trade routes and is currently considered a universalizing religion. |
Mahayana Buddhism | 56% | Do not serve as monks but spend much time in personal meditation and worship. Vietnam, Korea, Japan, China | |
Theravada Buddhism | 38% | Strict adherence to Buddha's teaching, monastic. Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia | |
Other | Varies | Varies | Shamanism, Animism, Confucianism, Daoism, Shintoism, Sikhism, Bahai, Jainism |
*Remember fundamentalism just means a strict adherence to doctrinal conformity, also seen as ultraconservative. Fundamentalism is found in every dominant religion as a reactive rejection of the secularist tendencies of modernism.
Ethnic Religions spread via relocation diffusion, and are usually found near the Hearth. Some examples of this include Hinduism and Judaism.
Universalizing Religions are spread through expansion AND relocation diffusion. Beliefs are spread and followers are gained. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism.
Universalizing tries to universalize itself, spreading as far as it can.
Religious structures are the tallest and most elaborate especially in urban areas.
Sacred Sites | Material Culture (Interior) | Architecture (Exterior) | Place Names | Burial Traditions | |
Christian | Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Nazareth, Church of the Holy Sepulchre | Crosses, crucifixes, altars, icons and statues. | Churches, Cathedrals, Stained Glass Windows | Jerusalem, Rome, Behtlehem | burial for the dead in a cemetery, this occupies significant land use in urban areas |
Islam | Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem | Prayer Rugs, Calligraphy, Minbars | Mosques, Domes, Courtyards | Mecca, Medina, Baghdad | Simple Graves, Body placed on right side facing Mecca, no elaborate grave markers |
Buddhism | Bodh Gaya, Lumbini, Sarnath | Buddha statues, Thangka paintings, Prayer wheels | Stupas and pagodas, Monasteries, Temples with intricate carvings | Bodh Gaya, Lumbini, Sarnath | Cremation, Stupa interment, Sky burial |
Judaism | Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed | Torah scrolls, Menorahs, Mezuzahs | Synagogues, Dome or Arches, Star of David symbols | Jerusalem (in Hebrew, "shalom" means peace, so Jeru-salem means city of peace) | Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed |
Hinduism | Varanasi, Rishikesh, Puri | Murti, Puja, Yantras, | Temples with spikes, carvings and sculptures, Gopurams | Varanasi, Rishikesh, Puri | Cremation on funeral pyres, Ashes scattered in sacred rivers, elaborate ceremonies |
*If you struggle to locate this or any piece, please contact your teacher for assistance
Race - Population subset with biological similarities.
Ancient societies did not group based on physical differences but on religion, language, and class.
DNA-based evidence shows there is no more genetic difference between two Koreans than there are between a Korean and an Italian. Even with this information, we find ourselves in a society where racism, or prejudice, is real.
What does exist are ethnic groups. Based on the root "ethnos", or people/nation, an ethnic group is a group with a unifying thread of a common heritage of distinguishing features. These may be based on language, religion, historical events, traditions, festivals, cuisines, and relationships.
The Ethnic Landscape is also an expression of ideas and the work of people.
a geographical area where a particular ethnic group is spatially clustered and socially and economically distinct from the majority group. - ethnic enclave
Barrio represents a large Hispanic neighborhood.
The cultural shatter belt case of Yugoslavia is interesting.
Physically and linguistically, the majority of the people in the Balkan Mountains region pictured here are Slavic. However, over time, this crossroads has been influenced by Roman Empire (Catholicism), Eastern Orthodox (Byzantine), and Islam (Ottoman Empire). Thus, distinct ethnic groups have evolved. You can see them on the map. After the end of WWI, this area was grouped together and called Yugoslavia (translated to "Land of the Slava") and ruled by Josef Tito, who held the state (country) together even though it housed many different ethnic groups (or nations). It was considered a multi-nation state
Croatians are mostly Catholic, many Bosnians are Muslim, and Serbians are Orthodox. This creates interfaith boundaries as well. After the collapse of the USSR, many nations (ethnic groups) decided to separate from Yugoslavia, starting with the Slovenians. During this balkanization (or shattering) of the former state, many ethnic groups were targeted for forced removal. This is a term we call ethnic cleansing, which is the ousting and sometimes murder, of people that are being forced to move from their ethnic homelands. The Bosnian Muslims were the most targeted group during the breakdown of Yugoslavia (which took place throughout the 1990s) but Croatian and Serbs also targeted each other.
Dowry deaths are also discrimination, and it happens cuz enough dowry wasn’t paid.
This can lead to suicide of women, or bride burning, which is where the bride lights herself on fire.
In the past unit, we looked at the practice of infanticide, or the intentional killing of children under 12 months, usually because of their gender. In addition to these antinatalist policies of some states, the stress of the practice of having to offer a dowry, some women refuse to raise a girl child.
Gender is the socially created distinction between femininity and masculinity.
Gender roles are different between societies, so the status of women “” is variable across space.
Anthropologists suggest that gender roles evolved with the development of agriculture. As the hoe was replaced with the plow, the woman moved more to the market and subordinated their role, losing domestic authority.
In the last half of the 20th century did women in more-developed countries get significantly economically engaged, with 47% of the workforce of the US in 2008 identifying as female.
Women spend more time at work than men today, on average, and this difference is more prominent in developing countries.
Enfranchisement, is the freedom from political subjugation or servitude.
education is the most important variable in empowerment
1) Define the treaty that redrew the borders in the Middle East.
Sykes-Picot agreement
2) When?
November 1915 and March 1916
3) By whom?
France and Britain
4) What are the current social, economic, and political implications?
Christians, Mrionettese, and Jews have their havens. And then Shia and Sunni Muslims split it as well.
Germany: The Berlin Wall was a physical barrier that divided the city of Berlin from 1961 to 1989. It separated East Berlin, the capital of East Germany (the German Democratic Republic or GDR), from West Berlin, which was surrounded by East Germany but aligned with West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany). East Germany, backed by the Soviet Union, constructed the Wall to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the West.
Soviet Union: The USSR played a crucial role in the establishment and maintenance of the Berlin Wall. As the primary supporter of East Germany, the Soviet Union saw the Wall as a necessary measure to protect its sphere of influence and prevent the loss of skilled workers and intellectuals to the West.
United States: The United States was a significant player in the Cold War and a staunch ally of West Germany. The presence of U.S. troops in West Berlin and diplomatic efforts were essential in maintaining the city's status as a symbol of freedom and resistance against communist expansion.
United Kingdom and France: These two countries, alongside the United States, were responsible for the administration of West Berlin. They maintained a military presence and supported West Berlin economically and politically, reinforcing the city's connection to the democratic West.
The Berlin Wall stood as a symbol of the Cold War, representing the ideological divide between the communist East and the capitalist West. Its fall in 1989 marked the beginning of the end of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe and paved the way for German reunification in 1990.
State borders and territory areas are fluid, and they may (and have) change due to war.
Political Geographers - The entire area of our world is split into regions like country, state, city, and more.
Territoriality is the concept of ownership or personal belonging. This is emotional attachment, and qualifies as the home ground.
Sovereignty - is when states manage its own affairs
A nation is a group of people who have a shared culture and history.
A state is a space that possesses the following: a permanent population, a defined territory and a government that is capable of maintaining effective control over the corresponding territory and of conducting international relations with other states (sovereignty).
Stateless nation - a concept of people with similar history and culture that have no political nation.
A forward capital is a strategically planned or relocated city as you can see in the picture to the right.
Modern Nation-State: Origin, spread, boundaries.
Political Organization: Greek city-states, Roman Empire, dynasties, kingdoms.
Peace of Westphalia: Sovereign state, territorial boundaries.
Colonialism: Spread of ideas, imposed boundaries, economic exploitation.
Berlin Conference: Division of Africa, superimposed boundaries, internal unrest.
Decolonization: Independence, retained boundaries.
Apartheid: Segregation on ground of race
Scramble for Africa: Colonial division, economic systems.
Ottoman Empire: Collapse, Middle East borders.
In this context, "superimposed" means the colonial powers imposed new borders over existing cultural and ethnic boundaries, disregarding the pre-existing divisions among indigenous populations.
Geopolitics - study that analyzes geography, history, and socials with relation to international politics.
Heartland Theory - whoever controls the Heartland can eventually control the whole world.
This is because they control the “world Island” which is africa and eurasia.
This will feed their people, feed their troops, and give them a strategic advantage to see where other invaders could be coming from.
Breadbasket concept
Spykman disagreed with Mackinder and proposed the Rimland Theory. Similar world domination strategy as developed above, but this time, it is the access to the waterways that gives the advantage.
Organic Theory - He believed that the state was organic because he believed that political bodies, such as countries, behave in a way similar to that of living organisms. More growing, the healthier it is
Domino theory - one country becomes communist and the others fall to it as well.
Boundaries are defined, delimited, demarcated, and administered. International boundaries establish the limits of sovereignty and can be the source of disputes.
A frontier is a zone where no state exercises complete political control.
Natural/physical boundaries are created with naturally occurring features.
Ethnographic/cultural boundaries are outlined by cultural factors such as language, religion, or ethnic groups.
Geometric boundaries are created with latitude and longitude features or with other straight lines.
Antecedent boundary is a boundary that existed before the cultural landscape emerged and these are the most likely to stay in place without resistance.
Superimposed boundary is a political boundary that ignores the existing cultural organization of the landscape, usually placed by a higher authority, such as a superpower or a delegation of superpowers, to ease tension and satisfy the demands of the alliances rather than the needs of the country in which the boundary is dividing the population.
Relic boundaries no longer exist as international boundaries. Like north and south germany
The first phase is definition, in which the exact location of a boundary is legally described and negotiated.
The next phase is delimitation in which the exact location of a boundary is drawn on a map.
Demarcation is the final step and it is the process of showing the physical representation of a boundary on the landscape marked visibly by a fence, line, sign, wall or other means.
Definitional are disputes that arise from the legal language of the treaty definition of the boundary itself.
Locational arise when the definition of the border is not questioned but the intention of the border is, as when the border has shifted
Operational disputes arise from two adjacent countries disagree about a major functionality of the border
Allocational disputes involve conflicting claims to the natural resources of a region and the drilling or mining of it
EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) established in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), is a zone of exploitation extending 200 nautical miles* (370 uncloskm) seaward from a coastal state that has exclusive mineral and fishing rights over it.
This code of maritime law was approved by the United Nations in 1982 and it authorized, among other provisions, territorial waters extending 12 nautical miles (22 km) from shore and 200-nautical-mile-wide (370-km-wide) exclusive economic zones.
What this means it that states' laws (sovereignty) and fishing rights extend to 12 miles, they can mine, explore, and extract the natural resources up to 200, but after that, it is the "high sea" and everything is fair game for anyone (fishing, passing through, flying over).
When EEZs overlap, the median line principle was established to distribute waterways when states are within 200 miles of each other.
As you can see in the map above, there are seven different countries with territorial claims, but since the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, there have been no further movements to disrupt the status quo
An ethnic conflict is a war between ethnic groups often as a result of ethnic nationalism or fight over natural resources. Ethnic conflict often includes genocide. It can also be caused by boundary disputes. Examples are the ethnic conflicts in Africa (Darfur, Sudan).
Many times a conflict is not purely religious, ethnic, or political but an overlap of two or three.
Religious fundamentalism is a religious ideology whose objectives are to return to the foundations of the faith and to influence state policy and is carried to the point of violence. Religious fundamentalism can lead to religious conflict.
1. What is genocide?
Mass killing
2. List three examples of genocide besides the Holocaust.
Transantlantic slave trade, me at a all-you-can-eat buffet
3. Why do you think genocides still occur?
Intense hatred
During the Industrial Revolution, European nations sought resources, leading to Africa's colonization. In 1884, the Berlin Conference gathered 14 countries, including Germany, to arbitrarily divide Africa, creating 50 countries under Western rule. Germany colonized Rwanda in the 1890s, encountering an organized society with shared culture and governance. After World War I, Belgium took control and implemented discriminatory policies favoring the Tutsi minority over the majority Hutu, influenced by German racial ideas.
The history of Rwanda's colonial legacy and the subsequent events leading to the genocide is deeply tragic and complex:
After World War II, Rwanda's Tutsi and Hutu populations, resentful of Belgian rule, clashed in the 1950s. The Hutu overthrew Tutsi dominance in 1959, leading to independence and the election of Hutu leaders. The Hutu continued the Belgian-created racial classification system, exacerbating ethnic tensions. In 1994, the assassination of President Habyarimana triggered the Rwandan Genocide, where an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were brutally killed over 100 days. This genocide devastated Rwanda socially and economically, with lasting impacts such as increased HIV rates, damaged infrastructure, and regional conflicts like the Congo Wars. Today, Rwanda commemorates the genocide annually from April 7th to July 4th, reflecting on its tragic legacy and ongoing efforts toward reconciliation and healing.
