NORTH AFRICA &
SOUTHWEST ASIA
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Map Test 2
Geography Conference
North Africa/Southwest Asia
Frequency Distribution - Map Test 2
18
16
Frequency
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Mark out of 20
Andean
countries
WDCAG – March 11-13, 2005
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The Western Division of the Canadian
Association of Geographers.
Annual conference is in Lethbridge.
For details see the Geography website
(http://www.uleth.ca/fas/geo).
Reduced rates for students ($30).
Includes:
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Conference registration, Banquet, Field trips (nominal
fee), Curling Funspiel, Free entrance to Friday night
social.
Friday Night Social.
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Held at the Zoo.
Live Band (Southern Flyer playing from 8 pmmidnight).
Pizza by the slice.
Lots of Geographers from Western Canada
(Manitoba to BC).
Come and meet other students and professors.
You don’t have to register for the conference to
come and join us ($5/cover).
NORTH AFRICA &
SOUTHWEST ASIA
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North Africa/Southwest Asia
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Defining the realm
Naming the realm
Orient and Orientalism
Culture Hearths
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Early civilizations
Holy Land: Judaism, Christianity, Islam
Water and aridity
An Arab Realm??
An Islamic Realm??
Oil and wealth
Defining the Realm
Naming the Realm
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Traditional (ethnocentric) Regionalization
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Near East
Balkan Peninsula, Turkey to Egypt
 (Old Ottoman Empire)
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Middle East
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Far East
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Persia (Iran) to Burma
China, Indo-China, Japan
Levant=Holy Land
Modern “Middle East”
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All of realm except Turkestan
Not really eastern or in the middle!
Orient … and Orientalism
Orientalism
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Edward Said and Orientalism
A Western (Occidental) ethnocentric invention
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Exotic, mysterious, haunting, uncivilized, backward
Yet it defines the west!
Do these understandings persist?
Israeli occupation of Palestine/West Bank
Critical of Orientalist bias in colonial discourses
REGIONS OF THE REALM
Two Early Culture Hearths
The Dry World ?
 Arid
climate prevails
 Exceptions:
 Coastal
Turkey
 Northwestern Iran
 Great river valleys
 Oases
ANNUAL PRECIPITATION
E.J. PALKA
NEGEV DESERT
E.J. PALKA
NEGEV DESERT
Water - A Renewable Or
Finite Resource?
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Water is contested resource.
Imminent water-shortages in many regions
(the most concentrated region of scarcity in
the world).
Rates of natural increase > 2.0% in North
Africa increase stress on water sources.
E.J. PALKA
ISRAEL-SYRIA BORDER
POPULATION DISTRIBUTION
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Water sources determine population
distribution.
- The Nile
- Mediterranean Sea
- Euphrates and Tigris Basin (Hydraulic
Civilizations)
- Lower slopes of Zagros Mountains, south
of the Caspian
AN ARAB REALM ?
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Relates to language as a cultural feature of
this realm
Arabic is the dominant language in 16
States of the realm.
Non-Arab States:
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Turkey – Turkish
Iran – Farsi
Israel – Hebrew
Niger - French
ISLAMIC REALM?
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Muhammed (571- 632 CE)
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Hejira 622 CE = 0
Five Pillars Of Islam
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Recitation of creed
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Daily Prayer
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like Judaism
Sabbath day (Friday - 7 day week)
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like LDS (polygamy OK until 1890)
Dietary rules prohibit Pork, require ritual slaughter
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(like RC, Judaism, Shintoism)
Abstinence from tobacco, alcohol, gambling
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(like every religion!)
Pilgrimage to Mecca
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(like RC Lent (40 days) until World War II)
Alms-giving
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(like Christianity)
Month Of Daylight Fasting during Ramadan
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like Christianity
like Judaism and Christianity)
Sunni (85%) and Shi’ite (15%) sects