Extensive Textbook Notes
Kenya Field Note
Background
● 1/7​ of the world’s population is malnourished
● Most of the 1 billion malnourished people are ​women and children
● Wealthier countries are the best fed, and ​Subsaharan Africa​ is the most malnourished
area in the world.
● Major causes of malnourishment:
○ Poverty (inability to pay for food)
○ Failure to distribute food
○ Cultural and political practices that favor some groups over others
● Hundreds of millions of people only subsist on one dollar per day, which most is spent on
rent, leaving little to nothing on food, and the children suffer the most.
Arable Lands
● 4% of Norway is arable (farmable) land, and more than 70% of Bangladesh is arable
○ However, Norway is well fed when Bangladesh is malnourished
○ Norway makes up this with its importations of food.
○ ⅔ of Bangladesh is regularly flooded, which is good for rice production, but
makes survival a daily struggle.
● 8% of Kenya’s land​ is arable, but in the western highlands (northwest Africa) it has the
most productive land in the world
Kenya’s Lands
● Kenya’s lands are owned by foreign coffee and tea corporations.
● The ​women ​work on the plantations, while the husbands or sons own the land, because
women cannot own the lands.
● Kenya grows coffee instead of subsistence farming (farming to actually feed people)
○ Kenya needs ​foriegn income​ and that apart from tourism, exporting coffee and
tea was the main opportunity for foriegn income.
● Kenya is a part of a​ globalized economy ​(economy that has developed to operate as a
collective system)
○ With foeign corporations own Kenya’s best lands, Kenya relies on foriegn income
from that land
○ A gendered legal system in Kenya leads to the disfranchisement of the
agricultural labor force (revoking women's rights), which in turn leads to the
disempowerment of the caregivers of the children.
● Kenyan agro-pastoralists, (those who raise crops and livestock) have been having higher
rates of drought and famine since 2006.
● However, if Kenya did switched to cash crop farming:
○ the people would not be able to afford the crops sold
○ The government would not be able to pay loans to global institutions.
● To try and solve these issues, geographers go out in the field and see what people are
doing, observe how people’s actions and reactions vary across space, and then develop
maps to help analyse what they see. ​Fieldwork ​helps us understand situations.
What is Human Geography?
● Human Geographers study people and places. The actual field of human geography
focuses on:
○ How people make places
○ How we organize space and society
○ How we interact with each other in places and across space
○ How we make sense of others and ourselves in our localities, regions, and the
world
● Advances in communications and transportation technologies are making places and
people more interconnected.
● Economic globalization(developed to operate as a collective system) and the rapid
diffusion​(spread) of ideas have made people and places look more alike.
● The work leans towards homogeneity(everyone being the same) there are several ways
people can identify themselves and others:
○ There are nearly 200 countries
○ a diversity of religions
○ Thousands of languages
● Several places are affected by ​Globalization​, which is a set of processes that are
increasing interactions, deepening relationships, and accelerating independence across
national borders. It is also the set of outcomes that are felt from these global processes.
● Geographers use the concept of ​scale ​to understand individual, local, regional, national,
and global interrelationships.
○ What happens at the global scale affects al the other scales, and vice versa.
○ Whenever processes are thought about at one scale, they are always thought of
on another scale.
● Globalizing processes occur at the world scale; these processes bypass country borders
and include financial markets and global environmental change.
○ However, what happens at other scales helps create the process of globalization
and shape the outcomes as well
● Each place we see is affected by and created by people, and each place reflects the
culture of the people in that place over time.
What are geographic questions?
● Geographers study human phenomena such as language, religion, identity, and physical
phenomenon such as landforms, climate, and environmental change.
● Human geography is the study of spatial and material characteristics of the human made
places and people found on Earth’s surface
● Physical geography ​and human geography adopt a similar perspective but focus on
different phenomena.
● A ​spatial perspective ​is the way geographers look at how something is distributed
across a space.
● Mapping the ​spatial distribution​ can be the first step to understanding it. By looking at
the map, patterns can be noticed between different places and things.
Cholera Outbreaks
● In medical geography, mapping the distribution of a distance is the first step to finding its
cause.
● In 1854,​ Dr. John Snow​, a noted anesthesiologist in London, mapped cases of cholera
in London’s Soho District.
● Cholera is an ancient disease associated with diarrhea and dehydration. It is highly
contagious, and considered a pandemic. Nobody knew what caused the disease or how
to avoid it.
● When London was hit with an outbreak, Dr. Snow mapped the Soho District marking the
area’s water pumps, where people got their water.
● Dr. Snow found that deaths were centered around a major water pump, and when that
pump was closed, no new cases of cholera were reported. This confirmed the theory that
water could spread cholera.
● Dr. Snow advised people to boil the water before use, however not everyone had the
ability to.
● Cholera still had outbreaks in modern times (usually found in places with poor sewer
systems). It became an ​epidemic​(regional outbreak) that touched every country in the
Americas.
● Dr. Snow achieved a victory through the application of geographical reasoning, but the
war against cholera is not yet won.
The Spatial Perspective
● Human geographers employ a ​spatial perspective​ as they study a multitude of
phenomena from political elections to urban shantytowns.
● To bring together the many subfields of human geography, the Geography Education
National Implementation Project was formed. The National Geographic Society
published their findings in 1986, introducing the​ 5 themes of geography.
The Five Themes of Geography
1) Location​: highlights how the geographical position of people and things on Earth’s
surface affects what happens. (helps to establish context)
a) Location theory​: an element of contemporary human geography that seeks
answers to a wide range of questions. (why are places build where they are)
2) Human environment interactions​: relationship between humans and the natural world
a) Ex. Why would the Army Corp of Engineers alter Florida’s physical environment?
3) Region​: when features are more concentrated in a specific area.
a) Geographers use use fieldwork, and both quantitative and qualitative methods to
develop insightful descriptions of different regions of the world.
4) Place​: the unique human and physical characteristics an area has.
a) People develop a ​sense of place​ by infusing a place with meaning and emotion.
b) Perception of places​ are developed when we think of an area that we have
never seen before.
5) Movement​: the mobility of people, goods, and ideas across the surface of the planet.
a) Spatial interactions​ between places depends on distances among places, the
accessibility(the ease of reaching a location), and the connectivity(linkage).
Cultural Landscape
● Landscape​ refers to the material characteristics of a place, the natural features, human
structures and other tangible objects.
● Cultural Landscape​ is the visible imprint of human activity on the landscape.
○ Carl Sauer ​is closely identified with cultural landscape.
○ Sauer says cultural landscapes are comprised of “forms superimposed on the
physical landscape” by human activity.
● Cultural landscape can be seen in the layers of buildings, roads, memorials, fields, and
homes that human activities have stamped onto the landscape.
● Derwent Whittlesy​ proposed the term ​sequent occupance ​to refer to these sequential
imprints of occupancy, whose impacts are layered one on top of the other, each layer
having some impact on the next.
○ Ex. new people colonizing the same place, leaving behind different cultures, all
layering on top of another.
● Pierce Lewis​ explained “Our human landscape is out unwitting autobiography, reflecting
our tastes, our values, our aspirations, and even our fears in tangible, visible form.”
○ Lewis adds that the most major changes in the Cultural landscape occur after a
major event, such as a war, an invention, or an economic depression.
Why do Geographers Use Maps?
● Cartography ​is the art and science of making maps
● Reference maps​ show the locations of places and geographical features.
○ Usually focus on accuracy in showing the ​absolute locations​ of places, by using
a coordinate system which allows for the precise plotting of where on Earth
something is.
○ Coordinate systems are based on latitude and longitudes
○ Absolute locations do not change
● Thematic maps ​tell stories, typically showing the degree of some attribute.
● GPS (Global Positioning System)​ allows the ability to locate things on the surface of
the Earth with extreme accuracy
○ Geocaching is a hobby that involves using GPS to mark coordinates where a
treasure(cache) is.
● Relative Location​: describes a location in relation to other human and physical features
○ For example, Chicago is on Lake Michigan, south of Milwaukee
○ Relative locations are constantly modified and change over time.
● Fredericksburg, Virginia ​is now considered a suburb of Washington D.C. with
transportation that moves commuters between Washington D.C. and Fredericksburg.
○ In the civil war, Fredricksburg used to be a place where bloody battles took place.
○ Although the absolute location has not changed, the urbanization of Washington
D.C. has caused the relative location to change drastically.
● Mental Maps​: maps that are based off places we have merely heard of
○ Mental maps take place within our ​activity spaces​, places that we travel to
routinely in our rounds of daily activity.
●
Generalization in maps​: since everything cannot be accounted for on a single map,
cartographers generalize information on a map
○ They help see general trends, while not showing every case of a given
phenomena
○ Maps that show certain generalizations, such as precipitation per year, are called
generalized maps.
● Remote Sensing​: technology that gathers information at a distance from Earth’s surface
○ Usually available immediately, remote sensing can show data before and after
disasters hit
○ Helps understand the physical and human geography of an area
○ Ex. Google Earth
● GIS (Geographic Information Systems)​: systems used to compare a variety of spatial
data by combining layers and making maps which are based on spatial data.
○ Used in both Human and Physical geography (ex to show voter’s party
registrations)
○ They allow for complicated questions to be answered. Korine Kolivars analyzed
the probability of dengue fever outbreaks in Hawaii using GIS.
○ GISci​ (Geographic Information Systems Science) is an emerging research field
concerned with studying the development and use of geospatial concepts and
techniques to examine geographic patterns and processes.
Why Are Geographers Concerned With Scale And Connectedness?
● Geographers study places at a variety of ​scales​, including local, regional, national, and
global
○ Scale ​- The distance on a map compared to the distance on the Earth
○ The spatial extent of something (Usually used more often as a definition
● Different observations can be made a different scales (the scale shows the level of detail
that can be expected)
● Rescale ​- a strategy to change scale in order to gain more support (also referred to as
jumping scales)
Regions
● Places are usually divided into regions for analysis
○ Formal Region​ - has a shared trait, it can be a shared physical or cultural trait
○ Functional Region​ - defined by a particular set of activities that occur within it
(function around a certain center or node)
○ Perceptual Region​ - ideas of a region based on accumulated knowledge about
such regions and cultures
■ Wilbur Zelinsky​ attempted to define the perceptual regions of the US
and Canada
■ He identified 12 major perceptual regions
■ Zelinsky defined the regions by using ​telephone directories​ to listen for
certain words that were used in different areas.
Culture
● Location decisions, patterns, and landscapes are fundamentally influenced by cultural
attitudes and practices
● Culture​ is the all encompassing term that identifies not only the tangible lifestyle of
people, but their values and beliefs.
○ E. Adamson Hobel​ emphasised on communications and learning anticipated of
the current view of culture. (the way people communicate is also important)
○ Clifford Geertz​ wrote T
​ he Interpretation of Cultures​ ​which has influenced recent
works in human geography
● A single attribute of a culture is a ​cultural trait​. (ex. Wearing a turban)
● A combination of several cultural traits is a ​culture complex.
● A ​cultural hearth​ is an area where cultural traits develop and from which cultural traits
diffuse (ex. Islam was founded on the Arabian Penninsula)
● When a trait develops in more than one hearth without being influenced by its
development elsewhere, it is an example of​ hearth independent invention
Diffusion
● Carl Sauer​ (as well as being known for cultural landscape), focused on how ideas were
spread in ​Agricultural Origins and Dispersals
● When ideas, people, or goods move across space, this process of dissemination
(spreading) is called ​cultural diffusion
● Torsten Hagerstand​ and Sauer studied how time and distance can affect the diffusion
of ideas
● Time-distance decay​ - the farther and the longer it takes for a cultural trait to spread,
the less likely it will be adopted.
● Some behaviors act as ​cultural barriers​, preventing certain ideas from spreading (ex.
abortions)
● Expansion Diffusion​ - when an innovation of idea develops in a hearth and remains
strong in the hearth, while also spreading outwards. No movement of people is required
for the traits to be diffused. (3 types)
○ Contagious diffusion ​- when nearly all adjacent individuals and places are
affected by a certain idea. (ex, Silly Bands in Ohio)
■
○
Hierarchical diffusion ​- a pattern in which the main channel of diffusion is to
those who are susceptible (more likely) to adopting it. (ex crocs being designed
for boaters specifically)
■
○ Stimulus Diffusion ​- when an idea is remade after its initial failure. (ex. Burgers
being made of non-beef alternatives in India)
● Relocation Diffusion​: involves the actual movement of people who have adopted the
idea or innovation, who carry it to a new place in order to spread it. (ex. Mass
immigration abroad)
What are geographic concepts?
● Geographic concepts​ are terms used to describe something to human or physical
geography.
Environmental Determinism
● Ellsworth Huntington and C.W. Cushing​ suggested that climate is the critical factor in
how humans behave.
○ An “ideal climate” is different for everyone, however
● Environmental determinism ​is the idea that human behavior, individually and
collectively, is strongly affected by, even controlled or determined by the physical
environment.
○ The natural environment affects human activities in ​some ways​, but people are
the decision makers and the modifiers of environmental forces, therefore
environmental determinism is ​not that accurate
Possibilism
● Possibilism​ - When the choices that society make depends on what is available to its
members need and on what technology is available. (people can change/adjust their
environment)
○ Has its limitations, since the physical environment can only change so much
● Cultural Ecology​ is an area of inquiry concerned with culture as a system of adaptation
to and alteration of the environment
● Political Ecology ​is an area of inquiry concerned with the environmental consequences
of dominant political-economic arrangements. (how politics effect the environment)