Unit One

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Unit One

• Geography Its Nature and Perspectives

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What is Geography?
Geography is a representation of the whole known
world together with the phenomena which are
contained therein. Ptolemy, Geographia 2nd
Century A.D. Geography is the science of
place. Its vision is grand, its view panoramic.
It sweeps the surface of the Earth, charting the
physical, organic and cultural terrain, their
areal differentiation, and their ecological
dynamics with humankind. Its foremost tool is the
map. Leonard Krishtalka, Carnegie Museum of
Natural History, 20th Century A.D.
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Geography

• Concerned with place and location two
  inherently important parts of everyday life.
• APHG invites you to see your world through the
  lens of the geographer (enlarge your vision to
  encompass other places and locations and consider
  them in new ways).
• Geographers are not merely able to name all the
  rivers, lakes, cities, and countries of the
  world. - Geographers are much more interested in
  understanding how those places shape and are
  shaped by people, and what their location means
  in the past, present and future.

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What is Geography?
Geography is the study of what is where and why
its there. Mike Reed
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Okay, but what exactly is it? Well, its a way of
thinking about intellectual problems, both
natural and societal, which emphasizes the
importance of spatial relationships.. Take any
social, environmental, or physical question or
problem and ask yourself whether there is a
spatial aspect to it. Chances are that space and
place play a role in the explanation and
distribution of that question. Mike Reed,
Making It Up As I Go For example Why are so
many plant and animal species becoming extinct at
the end of the twentieth century? Why do there
always seem to be been so many wars in
Africa? Why is corn such an important part of a
traditional Mexican diet? Why are some beers
known as India Pale Ales?
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Divisions of Geography

• Physical Geography
  Human Geography
• Rocks and Minerals
  Population
• Landforms
  Settlements
• Soils
  Economic Activities
• Animals
  Transportation
• Plants
  Recreational Activities
• Water
  Religion
• Atmosphere
  Political Systems
• Rivers and Other Water Bodies
  Social Traditions
• Environment
  Human Migration
• Climate and Weather
  Agricultural Systems
• Geography is a bridge between the natural and
  social sciences. Geography is a holistic or
  synthesizing science.

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The Five Themes of Geography
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Key Concepts

• Geography as a field of study
• Location the position of something on earths
  surface.
• Space the physical gap or distance between two
  objects.
• Scale the relationship between the size of an
  object or distance between objects on a map and
  the size of the actual object of distance on
  earths surface.
• Place a specific point on earth with human and
  physical characteristics that distinguish it from
  other points.

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Key Concepts Cont

• Pattern the arrangement of objects on the
  earths surface in relationship to one another.
• Regionalization the organization of earths
  surface into distinct areas that are viewed as
  different from other areas.
• Globalization the expansion, political, and
  cultural activities to the point that they reach
  and have impact on many areas of the world.

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• All of these concepts help you understand the
  importance of spatial organization the location
  of places, people, and events, and the
  connections among places and landscapes (the
  overall appearance of an area that is shaped by
  both human and natural influences).
• Why of Where - Critical explanations for why
  spatial pattern occurs. Sometimes geographers ask
  questions about how particular human patterns
  came about, so that specific places become
  distinct from all others.

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Human Geography vs. Physical Geography

• Human Geography focuses on people where are
  they? How are they are alike and different? How
  do they interact? How do they change the natural
  landscapes, and how do they use them? Because
  other fields of study such as history,
  sociology, economics, and political science
  also deal with human behavior, human geography
  often overlaps and interacts with these
  disciplines.
• Physical Geography focuses on the natural
  environment itself. Example Physical Geographers
  might study mountains, glaciers, coastlines,
  climates, soils, plants, and animals.
• Of course, neither human nor physical geography
  could exist without the other because the two
  fields inevitably intersect and interact, making
  them inextricably bound to one another.

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The Geography of Breakfasta geographic thinking
demonstration

Take a minute to write down everything ate for
breakfast or lunch today.
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COFFEE
? Top Ten Coffee Growing Countries
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CHOCOLATE
Chocolate was discovered for Europe by
Christopher Columbus, but its commercial
possibilities were recognized by Hernan Cortez
who was served a drink made from cocoa beans by
Moctezuma, leader of the Aztecs (whom he later
executed). The cacao tree, like coffee, grows
only in the tropics. Today it is grown primarily
for export to the U.S. and Europe.
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Breakfast Foods
Food Place of Origin Current
Production coffee Ethiopia Tropics oranges Sout
h Asia, India US, Mediterranean pork China,
South Asia Worldwide wheat Near East US,
Russia, Argentina tea China Asia oats Near
East Temperate Climates pepper South
America Americas, Asia
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What is CULTURE?
What are its elements? How is it transferred? How
has the meaning of the word changed over time?
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What is CULTURE?

• Culture is learned behavior that is passed on by
  imitation, instruction, and example.
• Culture is almost entirely relative. Proper
  behavior shifts from culture to culture.
• U.S. current problems 1) little shared
  culture2) no one is teaching culture.
• For example sex education - Home? School?
• Note experiencing another culture is useful for
  gaining perspective on your own.

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Geographic Importance of Culture

• Geographers study culture because it leaves
  dramatic imprints on the earth, both physical and
  cultural.
• Language a crystal ball into culture.
• Religion strongest determinant of ethics.
• Nationalism and Borders
• Material Culture tools, clothes, toys, etc.
• Architecture Suburban garages vs. earlier
  porches

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Key Concepts

• REGIONS
• Culture Regions
• Formal - all members share a characteristic
• Functional - defined by a node of activity and
  distance decay from center
• Vernacular - perception of cultural identity

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Vernacular Regions
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• Where is AIDs?
• Where do we find hunger?
• Where are American blacks?
• Where are cows produced?

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Diffusion

• Relocation
• Hierarchical
• Contagious
• Stimulus

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Toblers 1st Law of Geography

• All things are related. However, all other things
  being equal, those things that are closest
  together are more related.
• Related Concepts
• Distance Decay

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Space

• Latitude and Longitude - a reference system
  designed to provide absolute location (as
  opposed to relative locations).
• Parallels of Latitude
• Meridians of Longitude

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Place and Sense of Place

• Every place is unique. Imagine where you lived as
  a child. What made that special?
• Sensory
• Architecture
• Symbolic
• Humanistic Geography - values the individual
  perspective.
• Place and Placelessness (Relph, 1978)

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What kinds of cultural values are reflected in
each of these American houses?
Gated community?
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The Cultural Landscape

• The result of the natural environment and all of
  the changes to it as a result of a particular
  culture. (Carl Sauer)
• Environmental Determinism environment is primary
  determinant of culture.
• Possibilism humans are primary determinant of
  culture.

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N.Y.C. Environmentally Determined?
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What about Bali, Indonesia?
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Where are we? What values are reflected in each?
What relation to physical environment?
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Geography and Politics

• Ties to Military
• Role in Colonization
• Role in Imperialism
• Role in Cold War

• Ethnocentrism
• Masculinism

Foreign - 4) Situated in an abnormal or improper
place. 5) Not natural alien. The American
Heritage Dictionary
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Key ConceptsCore-Periphery
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Key ConceptsCore-Periphery

• Core
• U.S., Europe, Japan, Australia
• Wealthy
• Powerful
• Controls Media and Finance
• Technologically advanced

• Periphery
• Less Developed
• Poor
• Dependent upon Core countries for
• Education
• Technology
• Media
• Military Equipment

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Globalization

• The increasing interconnectedness of different
  parts of the world through common processes of
  economic, political, and cultural change. The
  economic, cultural, and environmental effects of
  globalization are highly contested.

Panama, 1997
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Maps and Spatial Data

• All geographers are very interested in the way
  places and things are arranged and organized on
  the surface of the earth. This common bond the
  spatial perspective means that they notice
  patterns of both natural and human environments,
  distributions of people, and locations of all
  kinds of objects. Words can describe space, and
  so some geographical data may be communicated
  through written and spoken language however, the
  map is a powerful geographical tool that is
  almost as old as geography itself.

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Absolute and Relative Location

• Absolute Location Maps provide the exact
  location of a place on a mathematical grid of the
  earth divided by two sets of imaginary arcs
  meridians and parallels. A meridian is an arc
  drawn between the North and South Poles that
  measures longitude, a numbering system that
  calculates distance east and west of the prime
  meridian.

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• The prime meridian is located at the observatory
  in Greenwich, England at 0 degrees. The meridian
  at the opposite side of the globe is 180 degrees,
  and all meridians placed in between are
  designated as either east or west of the
  prime meridian. A parallel is a circle drawn
  around the globe parallel to the equator, an
  imaginary circle that lies exactly half way
  between the North and South poles. Parallels
  measure latitude, or distance north and south of
  the equator. The equator is 0 degrees latitude,
  the North Pole 90 degrees north latitude, and the
  South Pole is 90 degrees south latitude. So any
  absolute location of a place on the surface of
  Earth may be described in terms of longitude and
  latitude.

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• Relative Location All places on earth also have
  relative locations spots relative to other
  human and physical features on the landscape. In
  other words, where does the country of Chile lie
  relative to Brazil? Or Argentina? Where does the
  Caspian Sea lie in relation to the Black Sea? Or
  the Mediterranean Sea? Relative location is
  important to think about because it defines a
  place in terms of how central or isolated it is
  in relation to other places.

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Time Zones

• The earth is divided into 360 Degrees of
  longitude (180 d. west of the prime meridian and
  180 d. east).
• International agreement lines of longitude are
  spaced 15 d. apart in both directions from
  Greenwich, England.
• Uniform time 12 p.m. noon is meant to be
  where the sun is high in the sky everywhere in
  the world. 12 a.m. midnight night everywhere.
• System was set up in the late 19th century to
  accommodate internal railroad travel.

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International Date Line

• One consequence of the organization of the world
  into time zones is that somewhere on the globe
  the date has to change. This occurs at 180 d.
  longitude, also called the International Date
  Line that divides the world from pole to pole
  through the Pacific Ocean. If a traveler crosses
  the line headed from Asia to America, he sets the
  clock back 24 hours likewise, a traveler
  crossing the line headed from America to Asia
  will set the clock ahead 24 hours.

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Uses of Maps

• Geographers use maps in two basic ways-
• Reference material Maps are efficient tools for
  storing information. Once a map is drawn it may
  be pulled out to help find relative locations of
  places. Maps show roads or waterways that
  connect places, and they have been used for
  centuries by travelers. For example 16th century
  European explorers use maps to help them cross
  the Atlantic Ocean, just as 21st century
  Americans use maps to visit vacation
  destinations.

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• Communications / education Maps may be used to
  explain spatial perspectives to others. These
  maps are often thematic because they are designed
  to explain a type of geographic information.
  Examples are maps that show soil types, relative
  elevations, economic prosperity levels, and
  spatial arrangements of racial and ethnic groups.

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Map Projections

• An important problem with communicating
  information through maps is that the only
  accurate representation of earth is a globe.
  When spatial information is presented on a flat
  piece of paper, a cartographer immediately faces
  the issue of distortion caused by trying to
  represent a three-dimensional object (like the
  earth) on a two dimensional surface (a flat map).
  Different methods have been devised to increase
  accuracy, but it is impossible to avoid some type
  of distortion.

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The Mercator Projection
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The Robinson Projection
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The Peters Projection
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Scale

• Size of the unite studied