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Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography

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Page 1: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

Place & Movement

IREL 204World Geography

Page 2: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

The Tradition of Place• The study of PLACE in geography looks at the

associations among phenomena IN an area

– So, where location looks at the association of phenomena across areas, and regions look at the association of phenomena between areas, PLACE looks at the association of phenomena WITHIN an area

• The two main characteristics we study in order to determine the nature of “place” are:– Physical characteristics– Human characteristics

Page 3: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

• Physical characteristics: – Include natural features like physical location, mountains,

rivers, valleys, coastlines, flora and fauna, but also climate and soil, among others

• Human characteristics:– Include human features like language, beliefs & values,

and overall culture and its material manifestations:• Art• Architecture• Political institutions (laws, welfare, etc)• Dress• Food• Music

Page 4: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

• Place is a synthesis of physical and human attributes – where these attributes come together, enjoin, fuse – the end result is “place”.

• By now you should be able to see that the nature of “place” is profoundly social – especially since the human characteristics of a place center on culture, and we should take a moment to look at how culture is understood in the geographical idiom:

• The American Heritage English Dictionary defines culture as, "The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought."

Page 5: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

Thinking About Culture:Substantive & Functional Definitions

• A precise definition of culture is difficult to arrive at – because there is much debate as to what it actually is. Further debate centers on what it does, precisely.

• So it would be helpful to be mindful of the substantive and functional

definitions of culture: – SUBSTANTIVE: (What it is):

• The total collection of human thought, values, beliefs and their material manifestations – like the arts, social, political, economic institutions – which we learn and which we transmit from one generation to the next

• Because it is learned and because it is transmitted, CULTURE represents the cumulative human knowledge, skills, abilities through time – every new thing we learn, skill we develop, builds upon a previous ‘database’.

– FUNCTIONAL: (What it does):• Culture acts as a template – a guide for human behavior because it SHAPES human

behavior and human consciousness within society • CULTURE is an adaptive mechanism:

• Consider the ways in which the invention of efficient hunting skills, use of fire, clothing, warm housing, agriculture, and commerce all contributed to our survival as a species. In many ways, culture has given us a great selective advantage to survive, and so can be considered an adaptive mechanism – the means through which we adapt to our environment over time

Page 6: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

• Since it is something we learn and transmit to others - CULTURE requires a community to experience it – and because it requires a COMMUNITY of people to SHARE it – it FORMS Identity – it is central to identity formation. – whether we replicate, alter, modify, or completely dismiss

some elements of culture over time, culture at large is ALWAYS an outgrowth and a representation of a COMMUNITY (i.e., society).

– So for example, to ascribe to a Greek culture is learning behaviors and enacting those behaviors in a way that gives you a shared sense of identity among other Greeks, and includes, among other things: • To possess a sense of continuous history & heritage• To speak the Greek language• To be Greek Orthodox• To celebrate major annual festivities that may have political or

religious nature (March 25th, Easter, the 15th of August, etc) • A distinct musical tradition• A distinct culinary tradition

Page 7: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

• Now in geography, CULTURE is broken down into component parts that can be studied; from the smallest to the largest components, these are:

• Cultural trait: the smallest unit of culture. • Cultural complex: cluster of related traits seen as a single

unit• Cultural system: grouping of cultural complexes• Culture region – the area within which a particular culture

system prevails • Cultural realm: an assemblage of culture regions; the

most highly generalized regionalization of culture and geography

Page 8: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

• cultural trait—a single attribute of a culture— such as using particular utensils to eat, wearing particular head-dress, etc. – A single element of learned behavior

• cultural complex—a discrete combination of traits exhibited by a particular culture—– A related set of culture traits descriptive of one aspect of a

society's behavior or activity (may be associated with religious beliefs or business practices.)

• culture system—culture complexes with traits in common that can be grouped together— ethnicity, language, religion, etc.

• cultural region – formal or functional region within which a particular culture system prevails— bears all the characteristics of a culture.

Page 9: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

Put in Perspective…• For example, a Cultural REGION is a portion of the world that is characterized

by common cultural elements where a particular cultural ‘system’ prevails. • Since we are “grouping” parts of the world – as in regional geography – in

terms of “like” characteristics – these groupings are “arbitrary” – they are conceptual, and exist to help us make more clear sense of the information at hand.

• Think back to the exercises on Typhoons Ketsana and Parma… South-East Asia is a good example of the diversity of a cultural region, and why it is difficult to “map” out the physical dimensions of this “place”.

– Think of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia… where the typhoons hit. Think of the trajectory of the storms moving to the South China Sea, and moving up to Japan. • Each of these countries have their own language or languages, social

organization, traditions, histories, customs. – Yet we can view them as a cultural region because they share features like

» Patriarchal organization» Confucian values» Collectivist orientation» Buddhism» Family-centered

Page 10: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

• However, when we think of the location of culture – a “place” – we may try to express this on a map, but we must be careful to remember that cultures tend to spread over vast regions where common features or attributes are readily observable - and as such they do not cohere to a strict delineation or taxonomy of space.

– A good example would be the cultural region of Islam: • It covers the East and North Africa as well as parts of Asia – each

are very distinct geographical regions, with many distinct countries, languages, histories, and social, political and economic institutions that separate them – not to mention physical differences in the natural terrain, the climate, and the number of resources available to the different peoples that inhabit these spaces.– And yet these diverse countries constitute the terrain of an Islamic

cultural region – where Islam as a religion is practiced, and where the cultural complexes associated with Islam are similar throughout the ‘cultural’ region.» Example: common beliefs, common architecture, common

festivals, common practices (like removing ones shoes when entering a house of prayer).

Page 11: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

• Cultural traits describe/exhibit the wealth of values, beliefs, ideas, norms, and practices of a particular group of people;

• And cultural complexes can be as small-scale as “greeting someone” or “smiling” or “drinking tea”, and as macro – or large-scale as “industrialization” or “agriculture” or “baptism” and “marriage”.

Page 12: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

• To put this into perspective, smiling, eye contact, and shaking hands – these constitute cultural traits that we all recognize –

• Taken together – all three, discrete (separate) traits form the cultural complex of “greeting” much as we do when we greet someone for the first time

– Already from the description you can see that the ways in which traits are perceived and expressed is culturally relative – it varies from place to place, and is influenced by the values, beliefs, notions of gender, and orientation of the culture at large in which they originate.• Smiling, eye contact, shaking hands – these are very “western”

cultural traits • In eastern cultures however, – a slight bow and the nod of the

head would be the cultural traits that would constitute the complex of “greeting” someone, because it reflects the common-held values and beliefs that characterize eastern peoples – primarily the notions of respect, non-physicality, distance

– In many parts of Southeast Asia, the cultural complex of “greeting” constitutes a gesture like prayer – the Thai, for example, put their hands together and bow their head slightly; the more they elevate their hands, the greater respect they are expressing.

Page 13: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

Final word on “sense of place”: • Any discussion of a culture – the total sum of beliefs,

knowledge, skills, values, patterns of behavior and their material expressions – (like art, music, language, etc) that are learned and socially transmitted over time – require PEOPLE

• If culture is this total sum of learned patterns of behavior that are transmitted over time – then society is WHERE this takes place; society is the communal organization of people in which culture can develop.

• They are similar, but not the same. Society does not need culture to exist – but naturally allows it to occur; culture on the other hand, requires that a community is in place, a group of people who will share – or hold in common – the cultural traits that define them.

Page 14: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

• Since “place” as we’ve studied so far – is the synthesis of those physical characteristics of the natural environment – and the human characteristics – most notably CULTURE (occurring in, and arising from society) – we get the idea that “Place” is a profoundly “social” space – it is a word with great emotive content – because we don’t just interface with “place” through our senses – we don’t just see, hear, touch, taste, smell a “place” – we cognitively and emotionally “experience” a place.

• We as human beings engage locations, areas, regions, we ‘experience’ them fully and synthesize the sum of our experiences to crystallize them in an emotionally understood “sense” of place…

Page 15: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

• Sense of place is:

• Hard to quantify: Place is often hard to grasp because it is abstract; it is hard to pinpoint it geographically (physically). – Sometimes definitions of “place” don’t always transfer across political

borders… • Synthesis of natural landscape, patterns of human behavior, and

social features — how people connect between themselves largely characterizes the ‘feeling’ of a place.

• Best expressed by local knowledge — sometimes as outsiders we can describe a place in general terms, but the intimate knowledge of a local (native) always expresses the deeper identity of a place

• Captured in the mythology, folklore, or local histories — the way people “experience” place can rarely be found in official documents like a land registry or a census bureau or even the founding charter of a town; the real sense of place lies in the myths, old wives tales, folklore, traditional songs, and other forms of ‘local’ history that convey the way people have ‘experienced’ the place over time.

Page 16: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

Movement• Movement studies the interconnections of

phenomena between areas

• Movement studies the mobility of phenomena whether these are people, goods, or ideas as that movement originates in one location and progresses to another.

• In specific, the tradition of MOVEMENT looks to see what interconnections exist between two or more particular points in the world, a region, or even a given area.

Page 17: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

• The world is in constant motion around us, and we are in constant motion within it;

• Think of the world you live in– we all move to get to and from school, work, and home– We all use a variety of transportation means and cover

varying distances; – We all consume

– The things we consume whether food, clothing, electronics, music all travels and covers varying distances to get from a point of production to a point of consumption

– We all use communication technologies that “reduce” the distances in time and space and make the world come “closer”

Page 18: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

• The movement of people, the import & export of goods, and the ability to communicate have all transformed the world we live in – as well as the content and direction of our cultures and societies.

• Now more so than any other time, we see that we live in a ‘global

village’ while we participate in a global economy.

• The tradition of movement considers the basic elements of human mobility (which in my opinion is the key element to movement – since if we study the mobility of goods or ideas – we are essentially studying them as outputs or outgrowths or end-results of HUMAN ACTIVITY)

• This human mobility occurs upon the surface of the earth, largely shaped by the forces of the physical environment, even as our mobility adapts to those constraints and in turn – as we recently studied – modifies the physical terrain to facilitate greater mobility opportunities.

Page 19: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

Understanding mobility – the influence of human movement:

• Culture Hearths – source point of civilization from which an idea, innovation, or culture originates (e.g. Mesopotamia, Nile River Valley, Indus Valley, et. al.,)

• Culture Hearth—Heartland, source area, innovation center, place of origin of a major culture. – Culture —The totality of socially transmitted behavior

patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought, shared and transmitted by the members of a society.

• Cultural diffusion – spread of an innovation, or idea from its source point to another culture. Culture diffuses – is spread, in several ways– Primarily through:• Expansion Diffusion• Relocation Diffusion

Page 20: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

Cultural Diffusion• Expansion Diffusion: how an innovation, idea, development

spreads (diffuses) through a population in a given area

– contagious diffusion: the spread of an idea, innovation, or other item through a local population by contact from person to person.

– hierarchical diffusion: the spread of an idea, innovation or other item 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 Internet is a good example

– stimulus diffusion, the spread of an idea, innovation or other item from one culture that is not itself adopted by another population but which stimulates local experimentation and eventually leads to genuine invention within the local community• Example: Sequoyah invented the Cherokee writing system in 1821 after

seeing an English example

• The different forms of expansion diffusion take place through populations that are stable.

• It is the innovation or idea that does the moving – NOT the people.

Page 21: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

Examples • Contagious diffusion – nearly all adjacent people are

affected (ex: spread of Christianity, Islam; use of telephone, spread of disease) – Think of the waves you get when you drop a rock in water;

contagious diffusion spreads out like the ripples of water spread out from where you’ve dropped the stone

– Contagious diffusion is based on proximity (closeness) and contact. It experiences distance decay • Its intensity attenuates (gradual weakness) the further you get

from the point of origin.

• "The spread of cultural innovation through person to person contact, moving wave-like through an area and population without regard to social status.“ (Jordan, Domosh, Rowntree, 1994:4 The Human Mosaic)

Page 22: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

• Hierarchical diffusion – – “In hierarchical diffusion, ideas leapfrog from one important person to

another, or from one urban center to another, temporarily bypassing other persons or rural territory. . . By contrast, contagious diffusion involves the wave-like spread of ideas, without regard to hierarchies, in the manner of contagious disease." (Jordan, Domosh, & Rowntree 1994:16, The Human Mosaic)

• Think of the development of the radio … from the first major centers of radio broadcasting (cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, etc) in the 1920s radio diffused hierarchically from big urban centers to even the smallest towns (trickling down)

• Think of fashion, starting out in the major fashion capitals of the world, then hierarchically diffusing to every outlet mall around the world

• Think of music – like Grunge, originally starting in Seattle, hierarchically diffusing first through those who ascribed to that genre and then to the fore of the music scene across the US and the world…

Page 23: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

• Relocation diffusion:– An innovation, idea or other cultural item is already adopted by a

group, and when that group MIGRATES – (moves) the idea moves WITH them and is disseminated to the new physical location the group relocates to• Example: Mexican food originally entered US mainstream by Mexicans who

emigrated to the US, bringing with them their cultural cuisine

• Sometimes Relocation diffusion is FOLLOWED by some type of Expansion diffusion; in the example of Mexican food, it first entered US mainstream by a group that carried WITH it the idea/innovation/cooking style, and then as the concept of Mexican food SPREAD to the new population, it morphed and adapted into variants like “Tex Mex”, etc…

– Migrant diffusion – when an innovation originates somewhere and enjoys strong-but brief-adoption, loses strength at origin by the time it reaches another area (ex: mild pandemic)

Page 24: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

What happens when cultures interact with other cultures?

– Acculturation – when a culture is substantially changed through interaction with another culture • A culture is modified somehow by intercultural borrowing

– HOWEVER: This does not mean a brand new “culture” or cultural “traits” develop that replace the old, indigenous (local) ones. Usually the result of acculturation is a syncretism , or a mixture of traditional and new elements.

– The new elements (traits) are worked into the local ones in a way that make them more readily acceptable

– Think for example of how Catholicism entered traditional Haitian values and beliefs to create Santeria (Catholicism meets Voodoo)

– Transculturation – the cultural exchange that takes place when different cultures that are roughly similar in complexity and technological capacity interact • The mixture of Hellenic culture and Roman culture with Christian

ideals produced the wholly distinctive Byzantine culture• The current Mexican culture is the result of the cultural exchange

between the earlier Amerindian culture and the European culture of Spanish colonists

Page 25: Place & Movement IREL 204 World Geography. The Tradition of Place The study of PLACE in geography looks at the associations among phenomena IN an area

Movement Barriers: Problems in Diffusion

• Time-distance decay – the longer and farther an idea, innovation, concept, person, good has to travel, the less likely it will get there – The phenomenon will be stronger closer to the

original point of origin• Example: remember the stone-in-the-pond ripple effect

• Cultural barriers – prevailing attitudes or taboos that characterize a particular culture may be hostile to the influence of external cultural traits– Obstacles can be natural, like mountains, rivers,

oceans; or cultural, like beliefs, values, and norms