Chapter 1: Basic Concepts

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Chapter 1 Basic Concepts

• The Cultural Landscape
• An Introduction to Human Geography

2
Defining Geography

• Word coined by Eratosthenes
• Geo Earth
• Graphia writing
• Geography thus means earth writing

3
Contemporary Geography

• Geographers ask where and why
• Location and distribution are important terms
• Geographers are concerned with the tension
  between globalization and local diversity
• A division physical geography and human geography

4
Geographys Vocabulary

• Place unique location or position on Earth
• Region combination of cultural/ physical
  features
• Scale portion of the Earth compare to the whole
• Space gap between two objects
• Connections relationship btw people/objects

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Maps

• Two purposes
• As reference tools
• To find locations, to find ones way
• As communications tools
• To show the distribution of human and physical
  features

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Early Map Making

• Above oldest map (Turkey) 7th century BC
• Below Babylon (Iraq) 6th Century BC

Figure 1-2
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Maps Scale

• Types of map scale
• Ratio or fraction numerical ration btw distances
  on Earths surface 1100
• Written written word form of ratio
• Graphic bar line to show distance
• Projection
• Distortion 4 types
• Shape appears more elongated
• Distance distance, more or less
• Relative size altered size
• Direction distorted

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• Map Scale
• 1) Washington State 110,000,000 (1 in
  10,000,000 inches or 158 miles)
• 2) Western Washington 11,000,000
• 3) Seattle 1100,000
• 4) Downtown Seattle 110,000
• As the area covered gets smaller, the maps get
  more detailed. 1 in represents smaller distances

Figure 1-4
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2 Types of Uninterrupted Maps

• Robinson Map shape distortion/ more ocean

• Mercator Map accurate shape/ distorted poles

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U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785

• Township and range system
• Township 6 sq. miles on each side
• Northsouth lines principal meridians
• Eastwest lines base lines
• Township T1 (distance north or south on a
  particular baseline
• Range R1 (distance east or west on a particular
  meridian line
• Sections each township is divided into 36
  sections, each of which is 1 mile by 1 mile.

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Township and Range System

• TL north-south lines meridian lines (red
  lines). East-west lines base lines (green
  lines).
• TR West 6x6 miles/ East 6x6 (then divided into
  36 1x1 mile subsections
• BL scale of 124,000 or 1 inch 24,000 inches
  (2,000 ft)

Figure 1-5
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Contemporary Tools

• Geographic Information Science (GIScience)
• Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
• Remote sensing
• Geographic information systems (GIS) fig 1-7

Figure 1-7
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A Mash-up
Figure 1-8 https//developers.google.com/maps/
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END of Key Issue 1

• How Do Geographers Describe Where Things Are?

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Key Issue 2

• Why is Each Point on Earth Unique?
• pg13 - 28

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Place Unique Location of a Feature

• Location 4 ways to identify
• Place names
• Toponym
• Site the physical characteristics of a place
• Situation location of a place relative to other
  places (helps locate a location)
• Mathematical location

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Place Mathematical Location

• Location of any place can be described precisely
  by a numbering system
• Meridians (lines of longitude) 74W
• Prime meridian (Greenwich, England)
• Parallels (lines of latitude) 41N
• The equator

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The Cultural Landscape

• A unique combination of social relationships and
  physical processes
• Each region a distinctive landscape
• People/Culture the most important agents of
  change to Earths surface

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Types of Regions

• Region can apply to any area larger than a point
  but smaller than the planet.
• Regional Studies approach to geography that
  emphasizes the relationship among social and
  physical phenomena in a particular study.

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Types of Regions

• Formal (uniform) regions
• Example Florida or Red vs Blue state.
• Functional (nodal or focal point) regions
• Example the circulation area of a newspaper
• Vernacular (cultural) regions rather than a
  scientific model
• Example the American South

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Vernacular Region by Mental Mapping

• American South
• Middle East
• South America
• Miami
• Florida State University
• Hawaii
• Weston

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Spatial Association

• Spatial distribution of a region can be
  constructed to encompass an area of widely
  varying scale.
• i.e. cancer rates vary according to cultural,
  economic, and environmental factors

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Culture

• Origin from the Latin cultus, meaning to care
  for. Body of customary beliefs, material traits,
  and social forms that distinguish a group.
• Two aspects
• What people care about
• Beliefs, values, and customs
• Three identifying factors of culture derive from
  Language, Religion, Ethnicity.
• What people take care of
• Earning a living obtaining food, clothing, and
  shelter
• -

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Cultural Ecology

• The geographic study of humanenvironment
  relationships
• Two perspectives
• Environmental determinism
• Possibilism
• Modern geographers generally reject environmental
  determinism in favor of possibilism because
  humans have the ability to adjust to their
  environment/ resources

• Determined by a groups values
• Crop selection determine by environment
• Vegetarian vs Non-vegetarian
• Cremation versus burial

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Physical Processes determined by human activity/
4 types

• Climate Tropics, Dry, Warm, Cold, Polar
• Vegetation Forest, Savanna, Grassland Desert
• Soil 12,000 soil types
• Landforms flat to mountainous

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Modifying the Environment

• Examples
• The Netherlands
• Polders creating land by drainage
• The Florida Everglades
• Not so sensitive environmental modification/
  unintended environmental/social consequences

Figure 1-21
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Key Issue 2

• Why Is Each Point on Earth Unique? Pg 13 - 28

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Scale

• Globalization
• Economic globalization
• Transnational corporations
• Cultural globalization
• A global culture?

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Space Distribution of Features

• Distributionthree features
• Density
• Arithmetic
• Physiological
• Agricultural
• Concentration
• Pattern

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SpaceTime Compression
Figure 1-29
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Spatial Interaction

• Transportation networks
• Electronic communications and the death of
  geography?
• Distance decay

Figure 1-30
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Diffusion

• The process by which a characteristic spreads
  across space and over time
• Hearth source area for innovations
• Two types of diffusion
• Relocation
• Expansion
• Three types hierarchical, contagious, stimulus

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Relocation Diffusion Example
Figure 1-31
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The End.

• Up next Population