I. Nature and Perspectives
5-10% of the AP Exam
A. Geography as a field of inquiry
B. Evolution of key geographical concepts and models associated
with notable geographers
C. Key concepts underlying the geographical perspective: location,
space, place, scale, pattern, regionalization, and globalization
D. Key geographical skills
1. How to use and think about maps and spatial data
2. How to understand and interpret the implications of
associations among phenomena in places
3. How to recognize and interpret at different scales the
relationships among patterns and processes
4. How to define regions and evaluate the regionalization
process
5. How to characterize and analyze changing interconnections
among places
E. New geographic technologies, such as GIS, remote sensing, and GPS
F. Sources of geographical ideas and data: the field, census data, and
satellite imagery
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
SECTION I
Humans are geographers by nature. They can think territorially or spatially and have an awareness of, and curiosity about the distinctive nature of places. Even children possess qualities of geographers, creating carefully mapped realms in tiny places. Places possess an emotional quality, and we all must belong somewhere. Humans' insatiable curiosity and the place-centered element within us gave birth to geography as an academic discipline. Conquest and commerce generated a need to know about the world and pragmatism was added long ago by traders and explorers. Geography literally means "to describe the Earth," and the practical aspects of geography first arose among the Greeks, Romans, Mesopotamians, and Phoenicians.
Divisions
Physical and human geography are two great branches of the discipline, and their origins can be traced to the Greeks and later the Romans. Greek scholars were curious about the world, particularly the physical aspects, and collected information from traders and travelers. The Romans, un-like the Greeks, were empire builders and brought many different cultures under their control. They added to the Greek knowledge of the physical Earth and added information about different cultures they encountered or conquered. By the end of the Roman era, theories about a spherical Earth, latitudinal climatic zones, environmental influences on humans, and humans' role in modifying the Earth were established. The latter two are quite significant because today environmental geography is emerging as a link between human and physical geography.
Traditions
During the twentieth century, geography was marked by four durable traditions: earth-science (physical geography); cultural-environmental (encompasses a wide range of topics with a difficult, even controversial history); locational theory (the spatial focus of the discipline), which has be-come a modern element of human geography; and area-analysis (primarily involving the description of areas and regions), giving rise to what is today called regional science. These Four Traditions of Geography were first identified in an article by University of Chicago geographer W.D. Pattison in 1964. He argued that these were the four areas where geographic teaching, research, and other activity were concentrated.
New Themes
In the 1980s, rising concerns about geographic illiteracy in America prompted the National Geo-graphy Society, and several other organizations, to begin campaigns to reintroduce geography into school curricula. In a 1986 publication, the NGS proposed a useful five-theme framework for geography as developed by the Geography Education National Implementation Project (GENIP). Three of the themes correspond to traditions identified earlier: location, human-environment inter-action, and regions. As the fourth tradition, the NGS proposed a single word, place, because all places on the surface of the Earth have distinguishing human and physical characteristics. A fifth theme, movement, refers to the mobility of goods, ideas, and people, an appropriate theme in light of the mobile world we live in today.
Maps
Maps—graphic representations of all or part of the Earth's surface drawn to scale—are the most important tool of geographers. Maps and geography are practically synonymous, and mapmaking (cartography) is as old as geography itself. The spatial perspective is geography's unifying bond and there is no better way to demonstrate insights gained through spatial analysis than through the use of maps. Maps are our "window on the world."
Maps are used to portray the distinctive character of places; their relationship to environmental issues; the movements of people, goods, and ideas; and regions of various types. Maps are used to wage war, make political propaganda, solve medical problems, locate shopping centers, bring relief to refugees, warn of natural hazards—in short, for countless purposes.
Maps are not always printed. Everyone has a mental map—a map in their mind—that has developed over years of looking at wall maps, atlas maps, and maps in books, magazines, and newspapers. People’s perception of places and regions is influenced by their individual mental maps as well as printed maps. Since one's perception of different places is a combination of general information, personal experiences, and what is called "hearsay" in the legal profession, that perception is not always accurate. Look carefully at text Figure 1-9 in your text and you will begin to get some idea of the influence that mental maps and perception of places have on people.
Culture is an all-encompassing term that defines the tangible lifestyle of a people and their prevailing values and beliefs. The concept of culture is closely identified with anthropology. Over more than a century ago most anthropologists believed that culture was learned. However, recent advances in sociobiology and related fields suggest that certain behaviors may be genetically deter-mined, so that culture has an "instinctive" component as well as a "learned" one. This chapter discusses the development of culture, the human imprint on the landscape, culture and environment, and cultural perceptions and processes. The key points covered in this chapter are outlined below.
Culture and Human Geography
The concept of culture lies at the heart of human geography. Locational decisions, patterns, and landscapes are fundamentally influenced by cultural attitudes and practices. The concept of culture, like the regional concept discussed in the previous chapter, appears to be deceptively simple, but in fact is complex and challenging. The definitions of culture vary widely, as does our use of the word itself, but all refer in one way or another to humans—their development, ideas, and adaptation to the world in which they live.
Components
Culture is made up of four major components. The first of these is a cultural trait—a single attribute of a culture—such as eating with certain utensils. The second component is a cultural complex—a discrete combination of traits exhibited by a particular culture—such as keeping cattle for different purposes. The third component is a culture system—culture complexes with traits in common that can be grouped together—such as ethnicity, language, religion, and other cultural elements. The final component, the cultural region—the area within which a particular culture sys-tem prevails—is marked by all the attributes of a culture. Cultural regions may be expressed on a map, but many geographers prefer to describe these as geographic regions since their definition is based on a combination of cultural properties plus locational and environmental circumstances.
Topics
Key topics in cultural geography include cultural landscapes—the human imprint on the Earth's surface. These create a distinct and characteristic landscape that reveals much about the culture presently occupying the area, as well as those that came before. A second key topic focuses on cultural hearths—the sources of civilizations from which radiate ideas, innovations, and ideologies. Cultural geographers identify both ancient and modern cultural hearths.
Cultural diffusion—the process by which innovations and ideas spread to other areas—involves several types of diffusion. Expansion diffusion may take the form of contagious diffusion, where some item of culture is spread through a local population by contact from person to person. In the case of hierarchical diffusion, another form of expansion diffusion, an idea or innovation spreads by trickling down from larger to smaller adoption units. Innovations often leapfrog over wide areas, with geographic distance a less important influence. The early spread of the FAX machine is a good example of this type of diffusion. A third type of expansion diffusion is stimulus diffusion, a process where an idea or innovation is not readily adopted by a population but results in local experimentation and eventual changes in the way of doing things. The Industrial Revolution, for example, did not immediately spread to pre- or non-industrial societies, but did stimulate attempts to mechanize local handicraft production.
The different forms of expansion diffusion take place through populations that are stable. It is the innovation or idea that does the moving. Relocation diffusion—the spreading of innovations by a migrating population—involves the actual movement of individuals who have already adopted the idea or innovation, and who carry it to a new, perhaps distant locale, where they disseminate it. The spread of European emigrants around the world during the period of Europeanization is a classic example.
The topic of cultural perception—the way that members of a culture view themselves as well as how they view other cultures—is a combination of tangible and intangible elements that help to define the personality of a region. We all have impressions and images of various regions and cultures, even though they may not always be accurate. Perceptual regions are intellectual constructs designed to help us understand the nature and distribution of phenomena in human geography. These perceptions are based on our accumulated knowledge about such regions and cultures. Perceptual regions can differ considerably, depending on the individual's mental maps of various communities and cultures.
The final considered topic, cultural environment—the relationships between human societies and the natural environment—is complex. Environment affects societies in countless ways from the types of crops grown to the houses they build, but societies also modify their natural environments in ways that range from slight to severe. One thing is certain, however. While human behavior is not controlled by the environment (as the now-defunct concept of environmental determinism suggested), no culture, no matter how sophisticated, can completely escape the forces of nature.