AP Human Geography

1
AP Human Geography

• Chapter 31 Geographies of Inequality Race and
  Ethnicity

2
The Human Race

• All humans belong to the same species.
• The term race focuses on differences rather than
  on similarities.
• Many anthropologists believe the whole concept of
  human races should be abandoned.

3
The Geography of Race

• Genetic makeup is the key.
• Within a species, chromosomes of reproducing
  organisms are identical in number and size.
• Regional differences in physical appearance.
• Does not result from differences in fundamental
  genetic makeup of each group.
• Does result from differences in gene frequencies
  among populations.
• Blood Type Differences

4
The Geography of Race

• Type O dominates in Native American
  populations.
• Type A dominates in Western Europe.
• Differences occur within the human race, not
  between races
• - Differences probably result from a long
  history of adaptation to different genetics.
• - Use of term race is in error.
• Genetics and inheritance
• - Darwin failed to explain exactly how traits
  are passed from one generation to the next.
• - Before the end of the nineteenth century the
  broad principles of genetics were understood.

5
The Geography of Race

• The term gene introduced to signify the physical
  basis of an inherited quality.
• Genes as units of inheritance for certain traits
  put together from a genotype.
• The expression of those traits forms the
  phenotype.
• Today, it is known that all individuals except
  identical twins are genetically unique.
• Culture and Race
• - Many continue to see race as a simple way of
  dividing humans into a small number of groups
  based primarily on skin color.
• - The idea that skin color is important is
  rooted in culture
• - Skin color broadly correlates with
  environmental factors.
• - Sunlight stimulates production of melanin,
  which protects skin from damaging rays.
• - The more melanin the darker the skin.

6
The Geography of Race

• Skin color helps in the comprehension of past
  patterns of human migration.
• Indigenous population of Australia has much
  darker skin pigmentation than indigenous people
  of the Americas.
• Suggests Australian Aborigines diffused from a
  tropical area.
• American indigenous people came from a higher
  latitude.
• Important to recognize skin color is not a
  reliable indicator of genetic closeness.
• Example of Rwanda a cultural not a racial
  conflict.
• Examples of Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland.
• It is culture, not the misused notion of race
  that often produces conflict.

7
The Scourge of Racism

• Basic discussion about how cultures use racism.
• Racism in the United States
• Native Americans were pushed to the side or even
  slaughtered.
• The country was founded and built by other
  groups.
• African-Americans arrived as slaves and were
  exploited.
• The Civil War did not really end the way
  African-Americans were treated as inferior.
• Civil Rights Act of 1964.

8
The Scourge of Racism

• Segregation goes beyond who lives where.
• Promotes stereotypes of racial neighborhoods.
• Fosters arrangements and perceptions that affect
  what people do and where they do it.
• Creates images of African-American neighborhoods
  as being dangerous places where crime is rampant.
• City planners, investors, and business people
  make decisions that consciously impact race
  relations.
• Necessity of understanding racial patterns at
  various scales.

9
The Scourge of Racism

• Historical geography and the fallacy of racial
  superiority.
• Short discussion on white supremacists and their
  notions.
• Asia and Africa developed sophisticated cultures
  long before most European societies.
• Unfortunately skin color remains a critical
  factor in peoples relationships.

10
Ethnic Patterns and Process

• Ethnicity is in many senses as important a
  category as race.
• Defining characteristics differ from place to
  place.
• Feelings are a product of socially and
  historically rooted perceptions of
  distinctiveness.
• Shared cultural traits
• Common history
• Treasured cultural landscape
• Real or potential threats to language or faith

11
Ethnic Patterns and Process

• All combatants in the former Yugoslavia are
  Slavs.
• The Hutu and Tutsi are African peoples who define
  themselves in terms of cultural history and
  lifestyle.
• Where ethnic and racial conflict coincide,
  mutually antagonistic groups perceive themselves
  to be of different ancestries.
• The Sinhalese and the Tamils in Sri Lanka
• Native peoples of North and South America
• The Maori community in New Zealand is in a
  struggle over territory
• Race is implicated when it is actually a growing
  ethnic awareness and identity.
• Desire to improve their position in New Zealand
  society and regain control of half of the
  countrys territory.

12
Ethnic Patterns and Process

• Ethnic spaces and places
• In America, ethnic enclaves are common
• Have names such as little Italy, Chinatown,
  or little Havana.
• Place names can record the aspirations of some of
  Americas immigrants use of the word new.
• Some immigrants hoped to find comparable or
  familiar natural environments.
• - Certain rural ethnic groups are concentrated
  in environments similar to their source area.
• - These areas are called ethnic islands.
• Term ethnic comes from the Greek word ethnos,
  meaning people or nation

13
Ethnic Patterns and Process

• Racial identity is largely a matter of
  self-perception.
• Previously discussed Slovenia
• Northern Ireland and its religious ethnic glue
• Belgiums problem is principally linguistic
• Advantages of ethnic community
• - Group identity and cohesiveness yield
  advantages for the individual.
• - Constitutes a social network.
• - For the new arrival it eases transition.
• - A familiar language and common church.
• - Preserves and protects customs and traditions
  to mutual advantage.
• A Sense of Scale box Chinatown in Mexicali

14
Ethnic Patterns and Process

• Acculturation and ethnicity in North America
• Miamis Cuban neighborhoods
• Now a generation old
• The older Spanish-speaking residents represent a
  dwindling minority.
• Old values still prevail, but acculturation is
  eroding them.
• Young Cubans born in Florida are adopting
  American cultural norms.
• These neighborhoods are in transition that will
  stabilize.
• Miami also has other ethnic culture neighborhoods
  (figure 31-1).

15
Ethnic Patterns and Process

• Cultural revival
• People of similar ethnic background first
  clustered in particular areas.
• These dispersed immigrants intermarry and form
  loose networks figure 31-2b.
• They are still conscious of their shared
  ethnicity.
• Prosperity generates funds used to revive old
  ties to the common cultural source- renewed
  awareness of cultural linkage (figure 31-2c).
• Renewed cultural linkage tends to counter
  assimilation.
• In recent years former immigrant groups have even
  demonstrated in support of their former
  homelands.
• The power of the cultural landscape
• - Promotes and sustains ethnic distinctiveness
• - Dominant features are buildings and layout of
  neighborhoods, villages, and towns.
• - Signs in a particular language and religious
  symbols.
• - Clothing

16
Ethnic Conflict

• Causes and deterrents
• Deterring factors
• Achieving independence
• Prosperity
• Achieving power in government
• Causes
• - Discrimination and lack of political power.
• - Lack of territory.
• - When governments seek to suppress or deny the
  existence of ethnic minorities.
• The Case of Quebec
• - Large environmentally diverse country with a
  plural society.
• - Canada, organized as a federal state, is
  divided into 10 provinces, and two territories.
• - Has a specially designated territory of
  Nunavut, set aside for the indigenous peoples
  (figure 31-3).
• - Provinces vary greatly in size.

17
Ethnic Conflict

• Economies of the Atlantic Provinces have
  stagnated.
• In the far west, British Columbias economy is
  growing rapidly.
• Provinces are accustomed to a degree of autonomy.
• Today the biggest problem in Canada is ethnicity
  and ethnic revival.
• French Canada
• - Historical geography of Quebec
• - French entered part of what is now Canada in
  the 1530s- the British followed several years
  later.
• - French created laws, a land tenure system and
  the Roman Catholic Church prevailed.
• - A series of wars with England ended with
  French defeat.
• - French kept a certain amount of territory,
  their land tenure system, and church.
• - The British parliament changed Quebec
  province many times before the French accepted
  their terms.
• - When Charles de Gaulle visited Canada the
  French found a champion.

18
Ethnic Conflict

• Ethnic Revival
• Since the 1960s, ethnic feeling in Quebec has
  ebbed and flowed.
• Quebec demanded to be recognized as a distinct
  society within Canada.
• In 1988 Quebec enacted a law making it illegal to
  exhibit any outdoor commercial sign in a language
  other than French within the entire province.
• Feelings of ethnicity rose among Canadas native
  peoples as well.
• They want their rights protected by the Canadian
  federal government.
• Quebecs Mohawks do not wish to become part of a
  sovereign Quebec.
• The Cree have asserted their right to seek their
  own independence.

19
Ethnic Conflict

• Ethnic assertion by Canadas native people could
  have an impact on the future map of the country.
• The Crees historic domain extends over more than
  half of Quebec.
• In 2000, there were signs its fervor was ebbing.
• The Bloc Quebecois, the political party that
  stands for separatism and independence, has been
  on a losing streak.
• The Liberal party made significant gains even in
  French speaking areas.
• Discussion of the Clarity Act.
• Suggested that slumping of separatist strength is
  directly tied to recent robustness of the
  Canadian economy.
• Quebecs ethnic mix is changing through
  immigration.
• Migrants want to speak English, which they view
  as being more useful.
• Canadas government has addressed issues of
  unfair taxation to disproportional income.
• Today, there are signs a growing majority of
  Quebecers agree to the advantages of capitalism.
• The lesson governments working with
  self-conscious ethnic groups to forge a pluralist
  notions of common purpose can work.