Cultural Geography

Intro to Culture Language Religion Popular and Folk
Culture

• Concepts of • Intro to • Intro to • Folk Culture
Culture Language Religion • Popular
• Schools of • Language • Universalizing Culture
Thought families, Religions • Cultural
• Cultural Languages, • Ethnic Landscapes
Hearths and dialects. Religions and Identity
• Cultural • Language • Spatial Impact
Diffusion Barriers of Religions
• Acculturation • Toponymy
• Ethnocentrsm • Language
and Cultural Extinction
Relativism
• Cultural
Differences

Part 1: Introduction to Culture

What is Culture?

CULTUS – “To Care About”

Culture is the mix of values,
beliefs, behaviors, and
material objects that form a
people’s way of life.

Cultural
Geography

Culture

Cultural Cultural
Ecology Landscapes

Cultural geography is the
study of how cultures vary
over space.

What is the cultural landscape?

The cultural landscape is the
interactions of a group in
relation to their own cultural
practices as well as the values
of society as reflected through
artifacts and architecture.

Cultural ecology is the field
that studies the relationship
between the natural
environment and culture.

Cultural Geography: Schools of
Thought
Environmental Environmental Cultural
Possibilism
Determinism Perception Determinism

Social Culture is Human culture is
People develop Perception of the
developed more important
culture as much environment
completely by the than the physical
as environment. affects culture.
environment. environment.

Similar The environment Perception is
Humans
environments provides developed by the
determine the
produce similar possibilities for a teachings of
environment.
cultures. culture. culture.

Technology
increases the
possibilities.

What school(s) of thought best
explains the following scenarios?

Case 1
A small, undiscovered community is located on
the coast of South America. The food they
consume is fish and they spend much of their
time sacrificing to their god Elmo – who visits
wrath upon them in the form of large, windy
storms that destroy their village when he is
angered.

Case 2

Develop your own case study that
demonstrates both Possibilism and Cultural
Determinism. It needs to be at least four
sentences long.

• A repetitive act
Habit that an individual
performs

• A repetitive act of a
group performed
Custom so that it becomes
a characteristic of
the group.

• A group’s

Culture entire
collection of
customs.

Material Culture
(Artifacts)

Houses

Furniture

Instruments

Books

Nonmaterial
Culture

Values

Beliefs

Behaviors
?
Norms

Cultural Realm
Culture Culture System Culture Region
Culture Trait Complex
A single The A group of An area marked A large area
attribute of a combination of interconnected by culture that marked by a
culture. different culture distinguishes it number of
Often not cultural traits in complexes. from other cultural
confined to a distinctive Any area with regions. regions. It is set
single area. ways. strong cultural apart from
Common ties that bind other world
values, beliefs, its people areas because
behaviors, and together. of these
artifacts that regions.
make one place
distinct.

What are the traits, complexes, and systems
that make up New Orleans?

A cultural hearth is the area
where a cultural aspect first
began.

Early cultural hearths were almost
completely determined by their physical
environment – IE. Environmental
Determinism.

What are independent inventions?

Independent Inventions are
developments that can be
traced back to specific
civilizations or cultural
hearths.

Cultural Diffusion is the spread
of culture to areas
surrounding the cultural
hearth.

Hierarchical

Relocation Diffusion Contagious

Stimulus

How do people adapt to culture?

Acculturation is the process of
the less dominant culture
adopting the traits of the
more dominant one.

Assimilation is when
immigrants lose their native
customs completely.

Trans Culturation

Two-way flows of
culture.

Ethnocentrism – The
practice of judging
another culture by the
standards of one’s
own culture.

What is ethnocentric about this comic?

Cultural
Relativism is
the practice
of evaluating
a culture by
its own
standards.

Big Dog? Small
Dog? Its all about
perception.

Part 2: Folk and Popular Culture

Part A: Introductions to Folk and
Popular Culture

Folk Culture

The practice of a The practice of
relatively small customs that span
group of people in several different
a focused area. cultures and may
even have a

Popular Culture
global focus.

Usually relatively
isolated

Anonymous
hearths,
Often
anonymous
dependent on
sources,
the environment
anonymous
dates Folk
Culture

Usually practiced
Are often by small,
isolated or have homogenous
multiple hearths groups in
isolated areas.

Folk Culture can be expressed in three
ways:

Indigenous Cultures

• A culture group that constitutes the original inhabitants of
a territory, distinct from the dominant national culture,
which is often derived from colonial occupation.

Folk Culture Regions

• Cultural norms traditionally practiced by a small,
homogeneous, rural group living in relative isolation from
other groups.

Subcultures

• groups that share in some parts of the dominant culture
but have their own distinctive values, norms, language,
and/or material culture

Large,
heterogeneous
societies that
share certain
habits.

Largely Urban
Large Scaled
Based

Popular
Culture
Based on rapid
Often allowed
simultaneous
b/c of
global
industrialization.
connections

Often the
product of
economically
more developed
countries.

Globalization is the process of
increased interconnectedness
among countries most notably
in the areas of economics,
politics, and culture.

Contains actual information about the
culture.

Contains important life cycle events
(birth, death, and marriage) customs.

You can learn a lot about a culture
simply from their music.

A Vietnamese Folk Song
While seedlings for the summer crop are no old
when they are three months of age, Seedlings
for the winter crop are certainly not young when
they are one-and-a-half months old

American Folk Music
The Northern Songs:

• Ballads close to English originals. The fiddle is featured at dances, and
fife-and-drum bands are popular.

The Southern and Appalachian Songs:

• Westward to Texas, speak of hard lives and is the roots of country
music.

The Western Songs:

• West of the Mississippi River, reflects the experiences of cowboys, plains
farmers, river people, and gold seekers.

The Black Songs:

• Located in the south and grew out of the slave experience.

Originated
around 1900

Popular Written by
individuals to be
sold to a large
Music number of people

Diffusion began
in WWII

Reflect both
cultural and
environmental
influences

Houses from
different regions
can be vastly Housing Often based on
the resources
different even in
the same Styles available
environment

Culture can
affect styles and
materials used.

Unchanged-traditional dwelling

• The layout, construction, and appearance have not been significantly altered
by external influences.
• Examples: Some Arab towns and African villages

Modified Traditional Dwelling

• New building materials have been used to build these The structure layout is
not altered Example: West Africa changed their thatch roofs to iron

Modernized Traditional Dwelling

• Modifications have been made in both the building materials and the general
layout of the dwelling Example: multiple bathrooms, two car garage

Modern Dwelling

• Advanced technology is reflected in the building of these
• Other reflections include upward mobility, practicality, comfort, and hygiene.
• most common in the United States

Wood

Grass Building
and Brick
Bush Materials

Stone

Nodes

New Middle Lower
England Atlantic Chesapeake

Salt Box “I” Houses Steep Roof

Two
Chimney

Cape Cod

Front Gable
and Wing

Uniformed
Landscapes

Problems
with
Popular
Culture
Increased
Demand
Pollution
for
Resources

Language is a system of
communication through
speech, a collection of sounds
that a group of people
understands to have the same
meaning.

Why did language come to exist?

Writing
Direction

Differences
Grammar In Alphabets
Language

Allowable
Sounds

Linguistic Geography is the
study of speech areas and
their local variations by
mapping word choices,
pronunciations, or
grammatical constructions.

What can this map teach us about
language?

Language Language
Divergence Convergence
Spatial Interaction Two languages
between speakers become one
break down – because of close
British/Americans spatial interaction.

Language breaks
This can also
into dialects and
cause Language
then into new
extinction
tongues.

We track languages by looking at
language divergence and convergence.

Latin: Crux
•Albanian: kryq •Occitan: crotz
•Aromanian: crutse •Old Portuguese: cruz
•Catalan: creu •Portuguese: cruz
•Dalmatian: crauc •Romanian: cruce
•English: crux, crucial •Romansch: crusch, crousch
•French: croix •Sardinian: cruche, crugi, cruxi, gruche,
•Galician: cruz grughe, gruxi
•German: Kreuz •Serbo-Croatian: krȋž / кри̑ж
•Italian: croce •Spanish: cruz
•Venetian: cróxe

• Languages with a shared, but fairly distant
Language origin.
Families

• Culturally Defined.
• Standard Languages are recognized as the
Languages Norm

• Regional Variants of a Standard Language
Dialects

This is a map of various language
families and branches.

Proto-Indo-
European is
spoken by 46%
of the world’s
population.

Sedentary
Farmer
Hypothesis
Sedentary Farmer
Hypothesis
Developed by
Colin Renfew

Also called the
“Renfew
Hypothesis”

PIE Started in the
Fertile Crescent

Language
diffused
peacefully
through
agricultural trade.

Nomadic
Warrior Thesis
Kurgan Migration
Developed by Marinja
Gimbutas

Also called the
“Conquest Theory”

PIE Started around
Russia

Says that Kurgan
Warriors brought the
language with them
as they conquered

Languages of Proto-Indo-European

15
Hindi
Others

Indic:

Indo-
Iranian

Kurdish Iranian Farsi

Pashto

What is Linguistic Fragmentation?

Linguistic Fragmentation is
when people in a country
speak many different
languages. This often reveals
large cultural differences.

Many countries with linguistic fragmentation also
have an official language. India’s official language is
English.

An official language is the
language used by government
when making laws, reports,
public objects, money, and
stamps.

An official language is not always
the majority language of an area.

Example:
New Zealand’s Official Language is only
spoken by 5% of the Population

Some countries have more than one
official language.

Example:
Switzerland has four: German, French,
Italian, and Romansch

Romance
Languages
• French, Spanish,
Italian,
Romanian,
Portugese.

PIE
Slavic Germanic
Languages Languages
• Russian, Polish, • English, German,
Czech, Ukranian, Danish,
Slovenian, Serbo- Norwegian,
Croation Swedish

Geographic boundaries
play a huge role in
language formation.

Look at this little
language here: Basque.

Basque is a language
isolate.

A language isolate is a
language that is isolated from
all other languages around it.

English is part of
the Germanic
Branch of PIE.

English is Spoken
By 328 Million
People

Two Billion People
live in a country
where English is
A Few It is the official
the official
language even if
English language in 57
countries
they cannot speak
it. Facts

It is the
predominate
language in the US
and in Australia

Germanic Tribes Where did English come
from?
Latin

Old Norse
English

Norman French

Celtic Tribes

Old
English Middle Modern
• 450-1100AD English English

Old English
Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum;
Si þin nama gehalgod
to becume þin rice
gewurþe ðin willa
on eorðan swa swa on heofonum.
urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg
and forgyf us ure gyltas
swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum
and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge
ac alys us of yfele soþlice

Middle English
Oure fadir that art in heuenes, halewid be thi
name; thi kyndoom come to; be thi wille don in
erthe as in heuene: gyue to us this dai oure
breed ouer othir substaunce; and forgyue to us
oure dettis, as we forgyuen to oure gettouris;
and lede us not in to temptacioun, but delyuere
us fro yuel.

What are some concepts that the
growth of the English language show
us about the growth of language in
general?

The English Language: Diffusion

Britain

British Colonies

United States

United States
Annexes
(Philippines)

The English Language: Dialects

One result of the mass spread of the
English language is the creation of
many dialects.

A dialect is a regional variation
of a language distinguished by
distinctive vocabulary,
spelling, and pronunciation.

An isogloss is a geographic
boundary line delimiting the
area in which a given linguistic
feature occurs

British Received Pronunciation
The perceived dialect of the upper-class British
living in London.

Used by many actors, broadcasters and
politicians.

The English Language: American
English

Differences between British and
American English
Vocabulary

• Different because settlers in America encountered new objects, animals,
etcetera.
• New animals, for example, were given Native American Names.
• As new inventions appeared they received different names.

Spelling

• Spelling diverged from a strong national American Identity.
• Webster, an American dictionary publisher had an American agenda

Pronunciation

• Largely explained by distance.
• Pronunciation

Northern

East
Coast
Isoglosses

Southern Midlands

How has mass media changed
dialects?

The English Language:
DOMINATION

The
Internet

English
as Lingua
Franca

Commerce ESL

Many areas do not learn full English
but a Pidgin.

A Pidgin is a simplified version
of a language.

A Creole Language is a pidgin
language that becomes the
major language of a people
group.

English Diffusion to Other Languages
• Spanglish – A combination of English and
Spanish
• Franglais – A combination of French and
English

Languages and Political Geography

Monolingual
Countries

Countries
and
Language

Linguistic Multilingual
Fragmentation Countries

Toponyms can show us:
• The History of a Place
– Colonialization
• Example: Most Brazilian toponyms are Portugese
• Example: French toponyms in Louisiana
• The Culture of a People
– George Washington Bridge, Martin Luther King
Blvd, Jacksonville, Florida

Descriptive
•Rocky Mountains

Shift Names Associative
•Lancaster, •Pensacola Beach,
Pennsylvania Florida

Mistakes American Commemorative
•Lasker, North
Carolina Toponyms •New York

Possession Manufactured
•Truth and
•Johnston City, Texas
Consequences

Incidents
•Battle Creek,
Michigan

Religion is a system of beliefs
and practices that attempts to
order life in terms of culturally
perceived ultimate priorities.

Monotheistic Polytheistic Animistic Secularism

• Single God • More than • Inanimate • Lack of
One God Objects Religion
possess
Spirits

Part 1: Universalizing Religions

What is a Universalizing Religion?

A Universalizing Religion
attempts to be global, to
appeal to all people wherever
they live, not just those of one
culture or location.

The Five Universalizing Religions

Buddhism (2500yrs)

Islam (1500yrs)

Christianity (2000yrs)

Sikhism(India) and Baha’I
(Africa/Asia)

http://www.mapsofwar.com/ind/histo
ry-of-religion.html

Each Universalizing Religion Has:
Branch

Large and fundamental division within a religion.

Denominations

A division of a branch that unites a number of local
congregations into a single administrative body.

Sects

A relatively small group that has broken away from
an established denomination.

Origins of Christianity
• Founded upon the teachings of Yehōshu'a
– Translated to Jesus
• Christians believe that Jesus died to atone for
human sins, that he was raised from the dead
by God, and that his resurrection provides
people with hope for salvation.

Three Forms of Christianity
Roman Catholicism

• 51% of Christianity

Eastern Orthodox


Protestantism


Why is South America 93% Catholic and North America only
40% Catholic?

RC PR EO

• Pope • Federal • Elders
• Mary • Mary • Mary
• Clergy • Clergy • Clergy
• Sacraments • Sacraments • Sacraments

Diffusion of Christianity
• First diffused by relocation diffusion as
believers (Missionaries) moved from place to
place.
• Secondly, it diffused by contagious diffusion –
word of mouth between believers in the
towns and nonbelievers in the countryside
• Finally, it diffused by hierarchical diffusion as
elite figures (the emperor) began to accept it.

Origins of the People
Abraham

Sarah Hagar

Isaac Ishmael

The 12
Jacob Esau
Arabian Tribes

The Twelve
Tribes of Israel

Origins of the Prophets

Adam Noah Abraham Moses Jesus Muhammad

Origins of the Scripture (Qur’an)

Revelations compiled
Vision (610) in the Qur’an after
Death
• Given in the
Cave of Hira
• Given by the
angel Gabriel
Birth of Muhammad Hijrah to Medina

1 – The Testimony
There is no god worthy of
worship except God (Allah), and
Muhammad is His
Messenger [or Prophet].

2 – The Salat
The mandatory prayers performed 5 times a
day:
* dawn
* noon
* late afternoon
* sunset
* before going to bed

3 – The Zakat
Almsgiving (Charitable Donations)

4 – The Sawm
Fasting during the month of Ramadan.
No eating from sunrise to sunset.

5 – The Hajj
Pilgrimage to Mecca

Two Main Branches
Sunnis

• 1,140,000,000
• ‘Heir’ to Islam based on community selection.

Shiites

• 220,000,000
• ‘Heir’ to Islam chosen by Allah (Only those from the bloodline of
Muhammad)

Ahmadiyya

• 10,000,000

Druze

• 450,000

How Islam Diffused
• Largely brought about in the early years by
conquest (Relocation/Hierarchical Diffusion)
• Southwest Asia was converted through Islamic
traders.
• Now, largely brought about by missionaries
(relocation diffusion, contagious diffusion)

An Ethnic Religion is religion
that primarily appeals to one
group of people living in one
place. More closely tied to
the physical geography of a
particular region, especially
with agriculture.

Judaism

Animism Hinduism

Ethnic
Religions

Shinto Confucianism

Taoism

Hinduism
• 3rd Largest Religion in the World
• Concentrated in India and Nepal

• It is up to the individual to decide the best way to
worship God.
• Does not have a central authority.
• Has many gods but the most popular (70 percent)
is Vishnu. 26% adhere to the god Siva.

Confucianism
• Located largely in China
• Based on ethical obligations important to the
Chinese.

Taoism (Daoism)
• Located mainly in China.
• Followers seek Tao (Dao) which means the
path

Shintoism
• Religion of Japan
• Consider the forces of nature to be divine.
• Was regarded as the state religion before
WWII and the Emperor was considered to be a
God.

Judaism
• One third live in Israel, One third in the United
States, and one third everywhere else.
• First religion to espouse monotheism.

Animism
• Mostly located in Africa
• Finds animate qualities of all other life.
• Not a specific religion but a collection of tribal
religions.

Ethnic Diffusion
• Ethnic religions rarely diffuse farther than
their starting point.
• This means that they are much more
susceptible to Universalizing religions.
• Many times an Ethnic religion will hybridize
with universalizing religions.

Judaistic Diffusion
• Judaism diffused more widely than other
Ethnic religions because they were forced out
of their homeland by the romans in AD.70.
• This was called the diaspora.
• Many Jews were forced to live in ghettos.

Cosmogony is the religious
beliefs concerning the origins
of the Universe.

Ethnic Verses Universalizing
• Ethnic religious creation stories tend to deal with the physical
environment and natural events, whereas universalizing
religion stories often attempt to explain the mystical.

Christianity Confucianism

Two Opposite
God Created the Forces Work in
Universe Creation
(Yin/Yang)

God is more
These interact for
powerful than the
balance
universe

Believers Believers change
transform the their environment
environment as less. More likely to
God’s emissaries. achieve balance.

Ethnic Calendars
• Ethnic religions focus on climate, seasons, and
agriculture.
Jewish Holidays (A Lunar Calendar)

Fall Holidays
Rosh Hashanah (New Year)
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)

Spring:
Sukkot (Final Harvest)
Pesach(Passover)
Shavuot(Feast of Weeks)

Ethnic Calendars
Most important day to many Ethnic Religions:

The Solstice (The Shortest and Longest Days of
the Year)

Universalizing Calendars
• Usually centered around the individual
founder.

• Example: Christmas

• Churches (Symbolic architecture)
Christianity • The Catholic Church: The Vatican

• Mosques (A location for a community to gather.)
Islam • Mecca, Medina

• Pagodas (Contain relics of Buddha’s body or clothing.)
Buddhism
and Shinto
• Lumbini, Nepal

• Community or Home Temples (Built to one or more gods)
Hinduism • The Ganges River

• Seven Houses of Worship on Multiple Continents
Baha’I

The Dead

Christians, • Bury the dead in Cemeteries
Muslims,
Jews • Creates a problem with land

• Wash the body with water from the
Hindus Ganges
• Cremation
Zoroastrians • Exposure to the Elements

Religious Settlements
• Some cities have been founded for religious
reasons.
• These are called utopian settlements.
• The Most Important:
– Salt Lake City (Mormonism)

Hierarchical Religions
• A hierarchical religion has a well-defined
geographic structure and organizes territory
into administrative units.

Example: The Catholic Church
The Pope

Cardinals

Archbishops
(Head
Provinces)

Bishops (Head
Diocese)

Priests (Head
Parishes)

Autonomous Religions
• Self sufficient religions where interaction
between communities is only loose
cooperation of shared ideas.

Example: Islam
• Islam provides the most autonomy in any
universalizing religion.

• The only time this is not true is when the
religious territory coincides with secular
states.
– Examples: Iran, Saudi Arabia

Slides I Did Not Get To Make
• Religious Conflict – Make sure to study up on
– Northern Vs. Southern Ireland (Catholic Vs.
Protestant)
– The Middle East – Especially Israel Vs. Palestine
– Religious Extremism

Cultural Geography

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Mais procurados

Mais procurados (20)

Destaque

Destaque (20)

Semelhante a Cultural Geography

Semelhante a Cultural Geography (20)

Último

Último (20)

Cultural Geography

Notas do Editor