CHAPTER 7
ETHNIC GEOGRAPHY:
HOMELANDS AND ISLANDS
Expanded by
Joe Naumann
UMSL

I. Introduction
A.
Changing ethnicity of the United States
1. Italians in Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis
2. Ethnic celebrations in Nebraska
3.
Today’s immigrants coming from different source regions a. Latin America b. Asia
Bosnian restaurant in USA

• Mounted statue of American hero Paul
Revere is in an Italian neighborhood
• Most businesses have Italian names
• Women lean out of upper-story windows conversing —Naples-style — to neighbors across the street
• Italian-dominated outdoor vegetable market
• Pilgrimage to the site where the American
Revolution began has become a trip to Little
Italy

• Holds an annual “National Czech Festival”
• Authentic food, and locally made handicraft are offered for sale
• Many shops are decorated in Czech motif and ethnic music is played on the streets
• The festival draws thousands of visitors each year

• Newman Grove —”Norwegian Days”
• Bridgeport —”the Greek Festival”
• Dannebrog —the Danish
“Grundlovs Fest”
• McCook —”German Heritage Days”
• Stromsburg —the “Swedish
Festival”
• O’Neal—the “St. Patrick’s Day
Celebration”
• Several Indian tribal “powwows” are held in other cities

• An ethnic crazy-quilt pattern exists in both urban and rural areas of the United
States
• The best example in St. Louis today is
“The Hill” – originally a Northern Italian enclave
• Same kind of pattern exists in Canada,
Russia, China, and many other countries

I. Introduction
B. The word race versus ethnicity
1.
Have very different meanings
2.
Many social scientists suggest race is a social construct rather than a biological fact

• Controversy has surround attempts to formulate an accepted definition
• Word ethnic derived from Greek word ethnos meaning “people” or “nation”
• In the USA: defined as people of common ancestry and cultural tradition, living as a minority in the larger society, or host culture
• Strong feeling of group identity, of
belonging characterizes ethnicity

• Membership in an ethnic group is involuntary
– He or she must be born into the group
– Some immigrants have chosen to discard their ethnicity – assimilated with the host culture
• Politics can also help provide the basis for the we/they dichotomy that underlies ethnicity

• Main problem is different groups base their identities on different traits
– The Jews —primarily means religion
– The Amish —both folk culture and religion
– African-Americans —skin color
– Swiss-Americans —national origin
– German-Americans —ancestral language
– Cuban-Americans —mainly anti-Castro, and anti-
Marxist sentiment

• Identity with a group of people who share distinct physical and meltal traits as a product of common heredity and cultural traditions.
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I. Introduction
B. The word race versus ethnicity
3.
Example of Brazil a. Great variety of mixtures: Amerindian,
European, African
BRAZILIANS
4.
Most scholars believe humans are, genetically speaking, members of one race —Homo sapiens sapiens

• Often confused
• Have been used to spatially segregate and legally discriminate
• Race has been biologically defined, however some groups do not fit easily in the categories
– People of mixed racial background
– Examples: Aborigines, Dravidian Indians
– Categorizing according to race has led to racism
• Ethnicity has been more culturally defined
– Religion & language major factors
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Race & Ethnicity Confused by U.S. Census
• White
• Black, African
American, or Negro
• Amerindian or Alaska native
• Asian Indian
• Chinese
• Filipino
• Japanese
• Korean
• Vietmanese
• Other Asian
• Native Hawaiian
• Guamanian or
Chamorro
• Samoan
• Other Pacific Islander
• Other race
If the “other” categories are selected, a place is provided for writing in the specific name.
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• Education - Upheld by Plessy v. Ferguson
• Reality – they were separate but rarely equal
• 1954 Brown v. Topeka, Kansas Board of
Education overturned Plessy v. Ferguson
• 1950s-1960s Integration of Schools
– White flight made possible expansion of
African American ghettos
– Increase of private schools, particularly in the
South
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• Keepers of distinctive cultural traditions
• Focal point of various kinds of social interaction
• Provide group identity, friendships, and marriage partners
• Also provides a recreational outlet, business success, and a political power base
• Can give rise to suspicion, friction, distrust, clannishness, and even violence

• Acculturation — an ethnic group adopts enough of the host society’s ways to be able to function economically and socially
• Assimilation — a complete blending with the host culture
– Involves loss of all distinctive ethnic traits
– American host culture now includes many descendants of —Germans, Scots, Irish,
French, Swedes, and Welsh
– Intermarriage is perhaps the most effective assimilatory device
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• In reality few ethnic groups have been assimilated in the socalled “melting-pot”
• It was assumed all ethnic groups would eventually be assimilated
– Degree of similarity or difference between the ethnic group and the host culture
• The last 25 years has witnessed a resurgence of ethnic identity in the United States, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere
• Ethnicity easily made the transition from folk to popular culture
• Popular culture reveals a vivid ethnic component
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• First Migration – Forced migration
– 1710-1810 10 million Africans uprooted & shipped to Western Hemisphere
• < 5% made it to what became the U.S.A.
• Triangular Trade
– Leg 1 – Europe to Africa with trade goods
– Leg 2 – Africa to Western Hemisphere with slaves & gold
– Leg 3 – Caribbean to Europe with sugar & molasses
• Offshoot – molasses taken to N. America traded for rum which was then sent to Europe
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• 18 th century – British brought 400,000 slaves to the 13 colonies
– Most to southern plantations
• 1808 U.S. bans importation of more slaves
– 1808-1858 additional 250,000 slaves illegally brought into the U.S.A.
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2 nd Migration – Emigration from the South
• Civil War and emancipation 1861-1865
• Post-Reconstruction reestablishes White dominance – socially, politically, & economically
– Slavery traded for sharecropper status
• End of “King Cotton”
– Land devoted to cotton reduced
– Machinery reduced need for labor
• Many move north and west for opportunities in urban industries
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First wave – 1910s-1920s Second wave – 1940s-1950s
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• The study of ethnic geography is the study of spatial and ecological aspects of ethnicity
– Ethnic groups often practice unique adaptive strategies
– Normally occupy clearly defined areas— urban and rural
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• Ethnic formal culture regions can be mapped
• Geographers rely on diverse data
• Surnames in telephone directories
• Census totals for mother tongue
– Each method will produce a slightly different map
• Such regions exist in most countries
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Transforming Ethnicities into Nationalities
• Nationalities usually identify with a particular country
– Tend to be more related to shared political activities than shared cultural traits
• A nationality, once established, must hold its citizens loyalty of its to survive.
– Governments try to instill loyalty through nationalism, which is loyalty and devotion to a nationality.
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Ethnic groups transformed to nationalities
• Results from desire for self-rule
– Thought of as the right to self-determination
• If all ethnic groups achieve selfdeterminism, the world will be composed of only nation-states.
• What is the lower size limit for a viable nation-state?
• Nation-States developed in Europe
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EUROPE 1848
Western Europe consisted of nationstates, but Central
Europe was a collection of small principalities, and
Eastern Europe was divided among several empires.
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Germany & Italy had united as nation-staters
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Eastern
Europe: empires were broken up into nationstates and multinational states
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Eastern European countries released from Soviet “satellite” status and Germany was on the verge of reuniting.
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Multinational states in Eastern
Europe were broken up into smaller nationstates.
Devolution:
Czechoslovakia,
(2 parts)
Yugoslavia (6 or
7 parts), Soviet
Union (15 parts)
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• Despite continuing attempts to create nation-states in Europe, the territories of states rarely corresponded precisely to the territories occupied by ethnicities —a recipe for continued conflict.
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Foci for possible additional devolution in
Europe
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• A multinational state has more than one ethnicity recognized as distinct nationalities.
• The Soviet Union was once the largest multinational state, but after its breakup,
Russia became the largest.
• The process of Russification failed to eliminate ethnic differences.
• 15 separate states – varying degrees of multi-nationality
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• In the other 14 former Soviet republics, there are significant minorities of Russians living there.
– At least 100 languages spoken in Russia attest to its multinational status
• Unsuccessful efforts of Chechnya to separate from Russia
– Additional differences:
• Azeris in Armenia
• Armenians in Azerbaijan
• Two ethnicities within Georgia, the Ossetians and
Abkhazianas, are fighting for autonomy and possible reunification with Russia.
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Ethnic minorities exist in all of these countries
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Ethnicity in what was the former
Soviet Union
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Chechnyan woman prepared to fight for independence in 1995
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• Two distinct geographical types of ethnic regions
– Ethnic minorities who reside in ancient home territories
• Lands where their ancestors lived back into prehistoric times
• Became ethnic when their territory was annexed into a larger independent state
• Examples — Basques of Spain, Navajo Indians of
American Southwest
• Place and region provide a basic element in their ethnic identity
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• Levels
– National
– Urban
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• Marriage across ethnic/racial lines
– Less resistance when physical and cultural difference are not great (i.e. English-German or
French-Italian)
– More resistance when physical and cultural difference are great
• Racial differences
• Religious differences
• i.e. Jewish-Protestant Christian or Caucasian-
African American etc.
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• Two distinct geographical types of ethnic regions exist
– Results from migration when people move great distances
• Emotional attachment tends to be weaker toward new homeland
• Only after many generations pass do descendants of immigrants develop strong bonds to region and place
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• Countries were created in South Asia to separate two ethnicities
– India & Pakistan (later divided)
• West Pakistan = Pakistan
• East Pakistan = Bangladesh
• Conflicts have arisen because country boundaries have not matched those of ethnicities.
– Kashmir conflict
– Punjab
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• Massive migration – 14 million
– Muslims from India to Pakistan
– Hindus from Pakistan to India
– There are still >100 million Muslims in India
• Kashmir & Jammu
– Ruler was Hindu – chose to be part of India
– Population majority was Muslim
• Punjab
– Religious unrest is complicated by the presence of 25 million Sikhs, who resent that they were not given their own independent country
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Kashmir &
Jammu divided by
U.N.
Peacekeeping forces since
1948
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• Evidence of Sikh unrest
– Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinated by her
Sikh bodyguards
– Sikhs at the Golden Temple in Amritsar were fired on by the Indian military & police
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• Civil war 1962-2009 - 60,000 have died
– Sinhalese Buddhists 74% of pop.
– Tamil Hindus 18% of pop. Live in the N. & E.
– Language differences
• Sinhalese is an Indo-European language
• Tamil is a Dravidian language
– Since r1948, Sinhalese have dominated the government & military
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• Afghanistan, Iraq & Iran
• Afghanistan: largest ethnicities are
Pashtun, Tajik, and Hazara, along with significant numbers of Baluchi, Turkmen, and Uzbek. There is no majority ethnicity
– Civil War 1972 & king overthrown 1973
– Soviet troops arrive 1979 – leave 1989
– Soviet backed govt. fell 1992
– 1995 Taliban gain control & impose harsh
“religious” rule
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• War on Terrorism (post- 9/11/2001): U.S. invades Afghanistan 2001 and ousts the
Taliban – establishes an elected government
• 2009 U.S. still fighting Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan
– Taliban control parts of Pakistan bordering
Afghanistan. 2009 Pakistan launches an attempt to wrest control from the Taliban
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• 1991 Desert Storm drives Iraq out of Kuwait
• 2003 George Bush’s War
– To remove Saddam Hussein from power
– To remove WMDs – none ever found
– To sever connection with al-Qaeda in
Afghanistan (never established that the connection existed).
• Opening the ethnic Pandora’s Box
– Arab Sunni minority had dominated government
– Arab Shiite majority left “out of the loop” – saw an opportunity to gain control of government
– Kurds – Sunni Muslims but non-Arab in language and culture 66

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• Hostility between the U.S. & Iran dates from
1979
– pro-U.S. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ousted
– Ayatollah Ruholiah Khomeini proclaimed an
Islamic republic
– Ayatollah seized the U.S. embassy - hostages held
11/4/79 to 1/20/81
• 1980-88 Iran/Iraq war – a costly draw
– U.S. supplied weapons to Iraq
– Fought for control of the Shatt al-Arab
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• Bush Administration’s problems with Iran
– U. S. accused Iran of harboring al-Qaeda members
– Iran trying to gain influence with Iraq’s Shiite majority
– Evidence that Iran was developing a nuclear weapons
– 2009 contested “rigged” election set off mass protests – largest protests since 1979
• Will the Supreme Ruler maintain control?
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• Ethnic cleansing is the forcible removal of an ethnic group by a more powerful one in order to create an ethnically homogeneous region
– Frequently equated with genocide
– Term came into use in Bosnia in the 1990s
• Sub-Saharan Africa has been a region especially plagued by such conflicts
– Western Sahara claimed by Morocco
– Sudan
• Darfur – Arab Muslims vs. African Muslims
• Arab Muslims vs. Southern Sudanese non-Muslim
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• Eritrea – 1961-91 war for independence from
Ethiopia
– war between Ethiopia and Eritrea flared up in 1998 over the location of the border.
• Somalia - 9 million inhabitants are divided among six major ethnic groups known as clans
– Islamist militias took control of much of Somalia in
2006, but that has failed to stop fighting among various sub-clans.
– There is no really effective government for the country
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• ETHIOPIA a complex multi-ethnic state
– Until the 1990s, Ethiopia was controlled by the Amharas, who are Christians (Coptic
Branch)
– Oromo, who are Muslim fundamentalists from the south, are the largest ethnicity in Ethiopia, at 40 percent of the population
– Amharas had banned the languages and cultures of the other ethnic groups since conquering Ethiopia in the late nineteenth century .
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• RWANDA Minority Tutsi cattle herders long dominated the majority Hutu farmers
– Hutus killed or ethnically cleansed most of the
Tutsis
– Tutsis from Uganda returned to Rwanda and defeated the Hutu army
– Result: ½ million dead on each side
• South Africa - Apartheid ended 1990s
– legacy lingers in economic inequality between blacks and whites.
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Every country in
Africa is a multinational state except possibly for
Swaziland or
Lesotho
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• Multi-ethnic states have been created and torn apart in the Balkans.
• Ethnic cleansing has occurred in the
Balkans region of Southeastern Europe.
• History of Complexity
– North was part of Austro-Hungarian Empire
– South was part of the Ottoman Empire
– For centuries, the border shifted back and forth
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• Various branches of the Orthodox
Christian Church
• Roman Catholic Christianity
• Islam – Mostly Sunni
• Scripts linked to religions
– Orthodox – Cyrillic alphabet
– Catholic – Roman alphabet
– Islam – Arabic alphabet
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• Creation of Yugoslavia at Versailles after WWI
– not a nation-state
– Artificial construct - no basis in history or nationality
– Major ethnicities (nationalities) in Yugoslavia
• Croatians
• Slovenians
• Serbians
• Bosnians
• Macedonians
• Kosovars
• Hungarians
• Montenegrins
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• After death of Tito, devolution began
– Croatia & Slovenia separated
– Ethnically mixed Bosnia-Herzegovina became the focus of fighting
• Croats fought to unite with Croatia (Catholic)
• Serbs fought to unite with Serbia (Orthodox)
• Both Croats and Serbs wer anti-Bosnian (Muslim)
– Employed ethnic cleansing toward the Bosnians
– Most vicious was Bosnian Serbs against Bosnian Muslims
• Dayton Accord divided Bosnia into 3 parts: Bosnian
Croatians, Serbs, & Muslims (short changed in territory)
• 2009 NATO peace keeping troops still stationed in Bosnia
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• Top: Prewar bridge built by
Turks in 1566 c.e.
• 1993 blown up by Serbs
• 2004 Rebuilt
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• A century ago, the term Balkanized was widely used to describe a small geographic area that could not successfully be organized into one or more stable states because it was inhabited by many ethnicities with complex, longstanding antagonisms toward each other
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• Population of Kosovo is >90 percent ethnic
Albanian (Kosovars)
• The historic Serbian culture hearth is located in Kosovo
– Had been an autonomous province
– With devolution, Serbs took direct control
– By 1999, Serb ethnic cleansing had forced
750,000 of Kosovo’s 2 million Kosovar residents from their homes, mostly to camps in Albania.
• NATO forces attacked Serbia and forced
Serbian troops out of Kosovo (still there)
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• 2008 Kosovo declared its independence
– U.S. & most European countries recognized the new country
– Countries allied with Serbia refused recognition: China & Russia
• Montenegro, formerly united with Serbia has separated from Serbia-Montenegro
• Former Serbian Prime Minister tried for crimes against humanity (ethnic cleansing genocide). Died before the trial was concluded
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• Cover large areas, often over-lapping state and provincial borders
• Have sizable populations
• Residents seek or enjoy some measure of political autonomy or self-rule
• Populations usually exhibit a strong sense of attachment to the region
• Most homelands belong to indigenous ethnic groups

• Possess special, venerated places that serve to symbolize and celebrate the region — shrines to the special identity of the group
• Combines the attributes of both formal and functional culture regions
• Regarded by some as incompletely developed nation-states
• Because of sex, age, and geographical segregation tend to strengthen ethnicity
• Long occupation helps people develop modes of life, behavior, tastes, and relationships regarded as the correct ones
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• Acadiana — Louisiana French increasingly identified with the Cajun people and recognized as a perceptual region
• Spanish-American — highland New Mexico,
Colorado, and South Texas
• Navajo Reservation — New Mexico and Arizona
• French-Canadian — centered on valley of lower St.
Lawrence River in Quebec
• Some include Deseret — Mormon homeland in the
Great Basin of the Intermontane West

• Some ethnic homelands have experienced decline and decay
– Pennsylvania “Dutch” — weakened to almost extinction by assimilation
– Southern “Black Belt” — diminished by collapse of plantation-sharecrop system resulting in outmigration to urban areas
– Mormon absorption into the American cultural mainstream
– Non-ethnic immigration has damaged the Spanish-
American homeland

• Most vigorous homelands are the
French-Canadians and South Texas
Mexican-Americans
• Ethnic substrate
– Occurs when a people in a homeland are assimilated into the host culture and a geographical residue remains
– The resultant culture region retains some distinctiveness
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• Geographers often find traces of an ancient, vanished ethnicity in a region
– Italian province of Tuscany owes both its name and some uniqueness to the Etruscan people who ceased as an ethnic group 2,000 years ago
– Massive German presence in American
Heartland helped shape cultural character of the Midwest, which can be said to have a
German ethnic substrate
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• This small town is in
America’s ethnically diverse rural heartland.
• Westby was a
Norwegian pioneer and the town’s population is primarily Norwegian.
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• Although traditional events such as the fall lutefisk dinner and the
May 17 th Norwegian
Independence Day celebration are celebrated, this ethnic group has essentially assimilated with the host culture.
• Note the various popular cultural organizations and activities in this community.
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• Small dots in the countryside
• Usually occupy less area than a county
• Much smaller than a homeland-serve as home to only several hundred or several thousand people
• More numerous than homelands or substrates
• Many found in large areas of rural North
America
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• Crazy-quilt pattern found in some areas of Midwest
• Germans form the largest group found in ethnic islands —southeastern Pennsylvania and in
Wisconsin
• Scandinavians — primarily Swedes and Norwegians
—came mainly to Minnesota, the eastern Dakotas, and western Wisconsin
• Ukrainians settled mainly in the Canadian Prairie
Provinces
• Slavic groups — mainly Poles and Czechs — established scattered colonies in the Midwest and
Texas
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• Ethnic islands develop because “a minority group will tend to utilize space in such a way as to minimize the interaction distance between group members”
• The desire is to facilitate contacts within the community and minimize exposure to the outside world
• The ideal shape of an ethnic island is circular or hexagonal
• People are drawn to rural places where others of the same ethnic background are found
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• Survive from one generation to the next because most land is inherited
• Sale of land is typically confined within the ethnic group, helping to preserve its identity
• Social stigma is often attached to sale of land to outsiders
• Small size makes populations more susceptible to acculturation and assimilation
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Urban ethnic neighborhoods and ghettos
• Ethnic neighborhood
– Ethnic neighborhood — a voluntary community where people of like origin reside by choice showing a desire to maintain group cohesiveness
– Minority people tend to create ethnic residential quarters
– Residents have much in common
– Example of Miami's Jewish population
– Formal ethnic culture regions occur in cities throughout the world

II. Ethnic regions
B. Ethnic neighborhoods and ghettos
2.
Ghetto a.
History of the word b. As much a functional culture region as a formal one

II. Ethnic regions
B. Ethnic neighborhoods and ghettos(New York example)
3.
Description of early American ethnic neighborhoods
4.
Examples of transitory movement in ethnic neighborhoods

II. Ethnic regions
C. Recent ethnic migrants
1.
Law changes led to change in national origin of migrants
2.
Growing ethnic variety
3.
Examples

II. Ethnic regions
C. Recent ethnic migrants
4.
Impact of Latin American immigrants
5.
Diversity
6.
Migrant groups in other parts of the world discussed

III. Cultural diffusion and ethnicity
A. Migration and ethnicity
1.
Importance of relocation diffusion
2.
Migration creates ethnicity
3.
How chain migration works a. Letters sent “home” praising the new location

III. Cultural diffusion and ethnicity
A. Migration and ethnicity
4.
Examples of involuntary migration a. Africans to the Western Hemisphere 18 th century b. Russian Jews relocated during pogroms
5.
Return migration of African-Americans to the
South

III. Cultural diffusion and ethnicity
B. Simplification and isolation
1.
Few culture traits survive migration
2.
Role of absorbing and permeable barriers a. Food elements pass through permeable barriers
(1) Italian restaurants throughout St. Louis & other cities

III. Cultural diffusion and ethnicity
B. Simplification and isolation
3.
Isolation helps more culture traits survive
4.
Examples of how isolation preserves language a. Cajun French in “bayou” Louisiana b. Chinese in “china towns”

IV. Ethnic ecology
A. Cultural preadaptation
1.
Helps migrants survive and prosper
2.
Example of ethnic groups in Wisconsin
3.
Grain farming Germans

IV. Ethnic ecology
B. Ethnic environmental perception
1.
Immigrants tend to have environmental misconception of new home
2.
Causes of maladaptation
3.
Examples of successful immigrant farmers

V. Ethnic cultural interaction
A. Ethnicity and livelihood
1.
Some ethnic groups become identified with particular jobs
2.
Recent Asia immigrant groups use distinctive gardening techniques

V. Ethnic cultural interaction
B. Ethnic foodways
1.
Inevitable change over time
2.
Role of intermarriage

V. Ethnic cultural interaction
C. Ethnicity and globalization
1.
Ethnicity has not disappeared as predicted
2.
Ethnic resurgence in late twentieth century

VI. Ethnic landscapes
A. Finnish landscapes in America
1.
The sauna as a visible indicator of culture
2.
Leftist Finns left almost no trace on landscape
3.
Finding subtle indicators of culture important

VI. Ethnic landscapes
B. Ethnic settlement patterns
1.
Government land-survey systems and farmstead placement
(see picture below)
2.
Example of Mescalero apache Indian village clustering

VI. Ethnic landscapes
B. Ethnic settlement patterns
3.
The creation of
Brasilia —Brazil's new capitol a.
Designed to alter
Brazilian culture habits b. Development of surrounding slums for workers c.
Wealthy residents built homes forming enclaves

VI. Ethnic landscapes
C. Urban ethnic landscapes
1.
Example: murals found in Mexican-American neighborhoods
2.
Ethnic color preference

VII.Conclusion