Geography Cultural Diversity

Chapter 1

  • geography is the stud of environmental and social patterns on the earth

  • human geography is the study of the relationships between humans and the spaces in which they live

    • helps us to understand the diverse spatial arrangements we see around us

  • what is culture?

    • the sum of a variety of human behavioral traits that are learned, which help people communicate beliefs, practices, meanings, and values that influence behavior

    • cultural geographers examine the meaning, values, attitudes, and beliefs that different groups lend to and derive from spaces they inhabit and move through

    • People are born into a culture not with aculture, as cultural identity is developed over time through socialization within families, communities, and surrounding environments.

    • culture is not static

    • people engage with culture, changing their beliefs and practices over time and space

    • geographers seek to understand how cultures change how the differ and how the are the same, and how this differ between places

  • Culture and physical environment

    • understanding distribution of culture often require an understanding the geography of the physical environment

      • climate

      • plant and wildlife distribution

      • soil patterns

      • terrain

      • water bodies

  • criteria to classify culture

    • material culture: the visible objects that comprise culture; clothes, food, houses, art, musical instruments

    • non-material culture: the beliefs, values, myths, and symbolic meanings passed from generation to generation of a given society

  • Types of culture

    • Folk

      • Culture is associated with traditional ways of life in rural and agricultural spaces

      • many material items, such as clothes, food, houses, and furniture are homemade and consumed locally

      • nonmaterial practices are localized, passed down through generations, with distinct music and forms of storytelling

    • Indigenous

      • self-identified people

      • colonized

      • minorities in their homelands

      • indigenous culture’s material and nonmaterial characteristics share similarities with folk cultures, but their political histories and geographies set them apart

    • popular culture

      • modern material and symbolic practices are associated with the rise of mass-produced, machine-made goods, and the invention of long distance communication technologies

      • consumer-oriented

      • characterized by the placelessness, where the standardization of the built environment reduces or eliminates the uniqueness of specific locations

  • Cultural Diversification

    • how are difference and change reinforced by geography

      • segregation; whites and blacks

      • relocation; little Italy

      • diaspora culture; connection to homeland