Introduction to Geography
People, Places, and Environment, 6e
Carl Dahlman
William H. Renwick
Chapter 7: Cultural Geography
Holly Barcus
Morehead State University
And
Joe Naumann, UMSL
Definition
• Culture is the generally accepted way of life of a
group of people which results from the
accumulated and ever-changing attitudes,
objectives, world view, and technical skills of the
group.
– A learned phenomenon
– Much of the “deep culture” – attitudes, world view,
etc. is at a subconscious level
– Influences how a society is organized and how it
functions
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Cultural Geography
• Describes everything about the way people live
–
–
–
–
–
Clothes
Diet
Articles of use - artifacts
Customs – patterns of behavior
Interpersonal arrangements, family structure,
educational methods
• Culture is not static
• Forces of cultural change
– Evolutionism
– Diffusionism
3
Cultures and Subcultures
• Not every individual
accepts and
practices every
culture trait
• Sub cultures exist
within cultures:
– Racial/ethnic
– Regional
– Religious
4
Theories of Cultural Evolution
• Theory of human stages
– Marcus Tarentius Varro
– Hunter-gatherers
– Pastoral nomadism
• Transhumanance
– Settled agriculture
• Subsistence and commercial agriculture
• Historical materialism
– Karl Marx
– Technology and human progressive control of the
environment
– Conflicts with Malthusianism
5
A Possible
Culture
Development
Progression
Cultures and Environments
• Environmental determinism
– Human events explained (determined) by
environment
• Cultural ecology
– Societies adapt to their environment
– Challenge-response theory
• Toynbee
• Possibilism
– Physical environment influences (affects), but
does not control, human events
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Cultural Diffusion
• Global communication, transportation, trade
• Circulation
• Clark Wissler
– Geographical culture centers (hearths or cores)
• Places where cultures are developed
– Age area principle
• Diffusion does not explain all distributions
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Culture Change and Growth
• Innovation – original ideas which are successful in
particular places
• Diffusion – spreading or “borrowing”
– Contagious diffusion (contact of neighbor to neighbor)
– Hierarchical diffusion – Usually top down
– Relocation diffusion – People move to new places and
take culture traits with them
• Adopting and/or Adapting :
– Adopt – blueprint copying – incorporate w/o change
– Adapt – take the idea but alter it somewhat to fit
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DIFFUSION
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Culture Hearths
& Domestication
• Independent of
Afro-Eurasian
hearths
• Different plants
and animals
• Part of
Columbian
Exchange
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More Change and Growth
• The process of the fusion of old and new cultural
forms and practices by contact with outside groups
is termed syncretism.
– Spread of rock and roll music from the USA to other
countries.
– Latin American Catholicism
– Can be the result of relocation diffusion and of
contagious diffusion
• Contagious diffusion occurs easily across the U.S.-Canadian
border
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Acculturation & Assimilation
• Acculturation – culture change resulting from the
traits of a dominant group being adopted by others
– i.e. European immigrant experience in the
U.S.(they became “Americanized.”
– Individual or minority group’s point of view
• Assimilation – to absorb groups into the main
culture
– Point of view of the dominant culture
• When a person adopts (acculturation) enough
culture traits of the dominant culture to “fit in”
he/she has been assimilated by the society.
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Eight Early Culture Hearths
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Folk Culture
• Cultures that preserve traditions
– Usually a minority group
– Struggle to keep youth from shifting to the dominant
culture
• Characteristics
– Conservative, resistant to change, distinctive religions,
dress, and/or language (dialect)
• Urban folk cultures
– Immigrant groups
– i.e. St. Louis – “The Hill” – San Francisco – “Chinatown”
• Examples
– Diffusion of house types in the US
– Amish; Amerindians of the Altiplano in Peru; etc.
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Folk Cultures
• Click on the picture to see the movie on folk
culture.
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Paths of Diffusion of House Types
Culture and Location
• The spatial
characteristics of a
culture can be
located and
boundaries
delineated in
absolute and
relative terms.
Isogloss
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Location affects a place’s access to
ideas and cultural diffusion
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Boundaries – transition zones
• Transition
zone
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Culture and
Human Place
• Various culture
traits give
character to an
area (human
place), and
physical place will
influence the
development of
the culture.
Distinctive Dress
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Culture and Movement
• The attitudes, objectives, and technical
skills will influence what kinds of
transportation are developed. They will
also influence who will travel, how
much they will travel, where they will
travel, and why they will travel. They
will also influence what types of
communication will be employed
among the people (movement of ideas)
22
Culture and Interaction
• The level of
technical skills
and the world
view of a culture
will influence how
people interact
with the
environment.
Safe nuclear waste storage?
23
Culture and Regions
• The area of the
earth where people
share a particular
culture can be
mapped and shown
as a culture region –
the areal extent of
individual culture
traits and/or
complexes can be
mapped as regions.
Subculture regions
can also be shown.
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Iceberg of
Culture
• When dealing with
other cultures, one
may have problems
because one is only
aware of the surface
culture traits and
may not be aware of
very significant
elements of “deep
culture.”
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Culture Components
• Intricate framework and structure of beliefs
and actions – some easily observable and
other relatively unobservable.
• Culture Traits, Complexes, Regions, and
Realms: a hierarchy from the specific to the
very general and extensive in its spatial
characteristics.
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Observable (surface) Culture
• Numerous culture traits can be observed and measured to
some extent.
Language
Dress
Architecture
Economic system
Rituals
Occupations
Religious practices
Sex roles
Educational system
Tools
Art
Music
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Observable
Features:
Architecture
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Dress and dance style
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Dress & tools (weapons)
30
Cuisine
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Dress & Musical Instuments
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Dress and Sport
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Less observable; hidden/deep culture
• Hidden, or only partially observable, attitudes & fundamental
assumptions influence the whole culture.
Human/nature – influences
Good/evil – influences social
human/environment interaction rules and legal system
Male/female – influences sex
roles, occupations, behavior.
Human/cosmos – influence
world view
Child/adult (parent) – influence Human/God (the
social rules, behaviors &
unexplainable) – influence
structures
social rules, behaviors, etc.
34
Deep Culture
• One can’t truly understand surface actions &
artifacts of religion without gaining an
understanding of many unobservable, fundamental
assumptions & beliefs underlying the observable
traits.
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Attitudes toward the older generation vary
• Unlike the U.S., in some cultures, older people are respected and looked
to for their wisdom – the youth never disrespect them!
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Hate is taught : Protestant child
throws a brick in N. Ireland
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Hate of the U.S. is
passed on in Iran.
“The dark side is not more
powerful, but it is easier,
more seductive.” Yoda (The
Return of the Jedi)
It is easier to respond to
situations that disturb us with
hate than with something
which is positive and
constructive, so for centuries
hate passes from generation
to generation in many
cultures.
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Example: influence of the “deep”
• Deep culture: Aztec’s came to accept that
there was a god of darkness and the sun
god. They understood that the sun was
vital to all life on earth. They accepted that
these two gods were in a daily struggle for
dominance.
• Deep culture: sacrificed human hearts
would provide strength to the sun god and
allow him to prevail each night
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Example: influence of the
“deep”
• Surface culture:
Thousands of human
sacrifices each year for
the purpose of saving the
world from destruction –
preventing the end of all
life on earth.
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Deep culture taught at subconscious level
Parenting is a
very serious
responsibility,
which is often
not taken
seriously
enough. This is
the stuff from
which terrorists
are created.
• Substitute for the Mideast: Bosnia, Northern
Ireland, Rwanda, Kosovo, Chechnya, Sudan, etc.
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Interaction of people and
Environment
• Environments as Controls
– Impose a set of “parameters”
– Influence cultural development but don’t
determine it
• Human Impacts
– World view may play a major role in how the
culture interacts with the rest of the natural
ecosystem
• Nature as the “enemy”
• Nature as the friend
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Responses to environment may differ
• Nomads in N. Africa adapt to conditions because they lack
the technology to expand the parameters more and may lack
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the attitudes necessary for introducing big changes.
Technological Subsystem
MESOPOTAMIA
TO
MICROCHIPS
WHO CAN IMPACT THE ENVIRONMENT MORE?
• Largely surface culture – human use of
technology influenced by “deep culture” – What
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is produced by what means?
Sociological Subsystems
• Expressions of “deep culture”
– Many criteria: age, wealth, birth, education, ethnicity,
religion, etc.
– Influence members as well as the major society
• Rules, regulations, roles, structures, institutions, roles,
expectations
• Political and economic systems
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Age & possibly income
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Age & ethnicity
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Age (Sandwich Generation)
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Religion
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Ideological Subsystem
Often symbols may
represent elements of deep
culture. Those symbols
may be perceived
differently by different
individuals depending on
how much of the culture
they personally accept.
• Largely deep culture: beliefs, attitudes,
values, ways of communication
– The basis of the social structure
– Often operates subconsciously
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Cultural Diversity
• Key Differentiating Elements of Culture
– Language – provides many clues to elements of
deep (hidden) culture – a key transmitter of
cultural traits (more in chapter 8)
– Religion – an expression of basic beliefs, world
view, basic assumptions which affects individual
and social behavior and interaction with the
environment (more in chapter 8)
– Ethnicity – powerful force (positive &/or negative?)
– Gender – a distinguishing feature
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Spatial Aspects of Culture
Arranged from very particular and
specific to very broad and general.
• Culture trait – a single feature of a culture
• Culture complex – a distinctive, integrated
combination of culture traits
• Culture System – a generalization suggesting
shared, identifying traits uniting two or more culture
complexes
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This is just one version of major regional divisions of the world
Spatial Aspects of Culture Cont.
• Culture Region – A mental construct: formal or
functional region within which common cultural
characteristics prevail. It may be based on single
culture traits, on culture complexes or on political,
social or economic integration.
• Culture Realms – A collective of culture regions
sharing related culture systems; a major world area
having sufficient distinctiveness to be perceived
as set apart from other realms in its cultural
characteristics and complexes – broad category 54
Popular Culture
• Culture of people who embrace innovation
and conform to changing norms
• Rapid diffusion – TV & Internet
• Mass culture
– Food, clothing, items that are mass produced
– “Mass taste” = loss of individuality
• Geographic variation of market penetration
• Marketing of popular culture
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Coke vs. Pepsi
Television Baseball Viewing
Identity & Behavioral Geography
• Culture groups
– Few or many characteristics
– Subculture
• Races
– Single species
– Secondary biological characteristics
• Ethnic groups
– Ethnocentrism
58
Ethnicity
• From the root word ethnos meaning “people”
or “nation” (nation does not mean country)
• Refers to ancestry and may be based on a
combination of factors – a sense of oneness
from:
– Language
– Religion
– National origin
– Unique customs
– Shared history
– Ill-defined concept of “race”
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Ethnicity
• Ethnocentrism – feel one’s ethnic group is superior –
carried to extreme, -- becomes chauvinism
(militant, boastful, and unreasoning devotion to one’s
country, even justifying ill treatment of others) –
powerful force, depending . . .
• Territorial Segregation frequently exists
– Maintains the group’s uniqueness – can be divisive
(Canada)
– Where lacking, there may be problems – Bosnia, etc.
• Assimilation – immigrants sometimes accept the
ways of the country to which they have moved and
drop some of their ethnic ways – particularly those 60to
US from Europe in late 19th & early 20th centuries
Gender and Culture
• Gender as Social Creation – expected sex roles
– The role of women is a spatial variable more than men
– May be a major factor in cultural distinctiveness
• Changing Gender Relationships – factors affecting:
– Economic stage & technology levels & education
– Religion & custom
– Urban or rural settlement
• Regional Gender Contrasts
– Generally more equity in “western” cultures
– China – legal equality, but male babies are preferred
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Human Place: distinctive gender
• Taliban
Afghanistan
• U.S.A.
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Behavioral Geography
• Subfield of cultural geography
• Mental maps
– World outside
– Pictures in our head
• Cognitive behavioralism theory
– Perception of environment
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Culture Realms (Regions)
• Delineation/ definition of regions
• Visual clues
– Settlement patterns
– Architecture
– Clothing
– Cuisine
– Arts
• Regionalism
65
World Bank Demographic Regions
Traditional Building Materials
Village Settlement Patterns
Believe evil spirits travel
in straight lines
All heads face east
Trade & Cultural Diffusion
• Stabilizing forces
– Infrastructure
– Inertia
• Impact of trade
– Economic geography
• Cultural isolation
– Yielding to interaction
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Impact of World Trade
• Self sufficiency /cultural isolation
• Trade & cultural change
– Systems of production and change
– Felt needs
• Specialization of production
70
Acceleration of Diffusion
• Travel and transportation
– Friction of distance
• Movement of information
– Annihilation of space
– Electronic highway
• Clash of civilizations
– Shatterbelts
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Major division in the technological and
economic subsystems
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Relative World Coverage in
the New York Times
Newspaper
European Culture
• Pervasive Western model
– Consumer goods
– Education
– Technology
– Housing
• Presumption of superiority
– Acculturation of Western life
75
Voyages of Contact
• World exploration and conquest
– Impact of Chinese initiative
– European seaborne empires
• Commercial Revolution
• Global diffusion
– Europe as clearinghouse of info and products
– Relocation of goods and services
76
European Voyages of Exploration
Europe’s Increased Power
• Industrial Revolution
– Increased productivity
• Exploration and conquest
– Stimulated industry
– Money economy
• Creation of stock markets
• Agricultural Revolution
– Created labor supply for industry
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European Partitioning of Africa
European Intervention in Asia
Cultural Imperialism
• Systematic eradication of native culture
• Imposition of Western culture
– Reference group behavior
• Self-Westernization
– Japan, China, Turkey
• Internal colonialism
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Westernization Today
• Dress and lifestyle as status symbols
• Role of media
– Implanting Western values
• TV programs, movies, videos
• Internet
• Tourism
• Education
82
America’s Role
• World view of America
• Military power
– Role of global peacekeeper
– Sole superpower
• Economic power
– One quarter of world economy
• Popular culture
– Most recognized brands
– Challenging local traditions – major concern
in Muslim countries
• Political influence
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Reasons for Studying Culture
• To increase understanding among peoples
• To reduce miscommunication in business and
international relations
• To appreciate the many commonalities
humans share
• Book: The Ugly American – © 1958 & still in
print and available new.
84
Cultural Miscommunication
• Ignorance of another culture may lead to a person
doing or saying something that will be interpreted
very differently by the other person from what the
first person intended.
85
Different assumptions
• The somewhat subconscious attitudes in the deep culture of
one society may be very different from those of another.
The result may be very different reactions to the same type
86
of situation.
Practical Situations
• Inviting a person to dinner: Jewish, Turkish,
Indian
• Going to a business appointment in Tokyo,
Japan
• Sending a business executive to Saudi
Arabia – which gender?
• Trying to explain the benefits of using an
insecticide to a member of the Jain religion
• US advisor to Kenya proposing a plan for
improving the lives of the Masai
87
Sequent occupance reveals
culture changes
1. Cultural landscape – the total impact of human
action upon the natural conditions – changes
made by humans – an expression of their
culture.
•
Cultures rise and fall
•
Cultures change
•
Cultures are replaced by other cultures
2. The cultural landscape changes in response to
the growth of a culture or its replacement
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Central America Sequence
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End of Chapter 6
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