Human Geography Basics:
Gaining a New Paradigm
I. What is Geography?
Geography is the study of where things are located on the Earth’s surface
Greek Eratosthenes invented the word meaning “earth” (geo) and to write (graphy) or to write about the
earth
Human Geographers mostly ask two types of questions1) where are the people and their activities on the earth and
2) why are they located in these particular places?
Divisions within Geography
Human versus Physical Geography
Human = social science studying culture, language, religion, economy, cities, agriculture
Physical = earth’s physical features like climate soil, vegetation and geology
Environmental = the interaction between people and the earth’s physical features
Topical versus Regional
Topical = pick an important social issue and study where it happens on the earth looking for patterns,
distribution of the issue and trying to explain why it happens in the places it does
Regional - pick a region of the earth and study it trying to explain what issues the people in each region are
concerned about
Descriptive versus Systematic
Descriptive = explain using stories and examples the situation or issue or region studied
Systematic = uses theories, formulas, and statistics to come up with explanations for why people live where
they do and why they behave the way they do
Outline of the Course
What do Geographers do and why do they do it that way?
Where are the people in our world?
How are different cultural groups distributed about our earth?
How do people earn a living in different parts of the world?
What are the effects of people living on the earth and using its resources?
Central Theme of the Course
Our world is trying to resolve the tension between globalization and cultural diversity. How do we become
one big happy family if we remain so different? On the other hand, How can we remain ourselves if we
become like everyone else?
Basic Concepts
Geographers ask “where” things are and “why” they are there.
Where?
Everyone is LOCATED or SITUATED somewhere and these locations or situations are DISTRIBUTED or
ARRANGED around the world in interesting PATTERNS that are often based on PHYSICAL FEATURES
of the earth.
Why?
1) Why is each place unique?
2) Why are many places similar?
The Patterns people create by their distribution can also be created by their central beliefs and passions
(called CULTURE) and because people are attracted to others who believe like they do. This increases the
importance of the CULTURE of a group of people. CULTURE is also determined by the physical features
of the earth around the people. An area which has a specific culture and physical features is called a
REGION. The culture and region of a people combine to make them unique.
So why are people similar?
1) Their cultures may be similar to start
2) The physical region they live in may be similar to another’s region
3) They may influence one another through
DIFFUSION
SPATIAL INTERACTION
GEOGRAPHERS are uniquely able to study large problems and issues of the earth because they
understand both the culture of peoples and the physical make-up of our earth. Useful geography often
includes explanations based on both human factors and physical characteristics of the earth.
So, how do geographers study?
They have three types of geography: environmental, human and physical
1. Environmental geography links human and physical geography.
2. Four traditions of geography:
a. Earth Science
b. Cultural Environmental
c. Locational
d. Area Analysis
3. Five themes of geography:
a. Location – where is it and why?
b. Human-Environmental Interaction - human systems are connected and
interact with physical systems: they interact, depend, modify, and adapt to
environments, opportunities and constraints cultural variability
c. Movement human and spatial interaction, accessibility and connectivity,
migration and spatial diffusion
d. Region - spatial similarities and regularities characteristics: location, spatial
extent, boundaries, hierarchically arranged
e. place – what are the physical and culture characteristics of a place?
Five Amplifiers or things to think about for each theme
1. Pattern: regularity and reason
2. Scale: local to global, level at which geographers place and study events
3. Change: process; change over time, space or both, changes in landscape, land use, economics, etc.
4. Systems: relationships among items within a spatial context; collections of elements that are
connected and therefore influence one another to form a unified whole. Boundaries, driving and
resisting forces, thresholds, equilibrium.
5. Perception: varying perspectives from which the world is seen
How do Geographers share the information they learn with other people?
Writing, but mostly with MAPS - maps are used to express the information geographers learn in easy to
understand, visual and accurate form.
Problems with maps
accuracy - the earth is round, the earth is big,
not easy to understand - to much information to share at a time
visually can be messy and confusing because of color, or details
CARTOGRAPHY is the science and art of mapmaking
Solutions
scale - the greater the area being mapper, the smaller the map size, and the closer to 1:1 the scale the fewer
details can be included, the smaller the area being mapped, the bigger the size of the map and the farther
from 1:1 the more detail can be included
projection - taking a round earth and putting it on a flat map will cause DISTORTION of
shape, distance between two points, relative size of areas, and the direction between places
High Tech mapping
remote sensing using satelites
geographic information system (GIS)
uses info to create maps that are then layeredon top of each other in a map version of a
database
Global positioning System (GPS)
Historical Development of Geography
Early Development
Mediteranian and polynesian people were probably first geographers
Aristotle demonstrated the Earth was round
Strabo (Greek) wrote 17 volume Geography
Ptolemy wrote 8 volume Guide to Geography with many maps used for 1000 years
**Geography also developed independantly in China
Age of Exploration 1399 –1900 – many explorers greatly increased our knowledge of the world and
improved mapmaking techniques by demanding and creating better maps to guide their voyages
Modern Geography
Immanuel Kant first to categorize geography as a science in modern world
19th C Germans Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Ritter first to try to explain why things are where
they are and use systemic theories and ideas to prove why - give us environmental determinism which led
to possibilism
regional studies initiated by Paul Vidal de la Blache and Jean Brunhes emphasizes the interplay of culture
and landscape to produce each new generation
Location and means to describe location
place names are often based on founders, physical features, social customs, political changes, historical
events, physical features, and religion traditions
local names versus correct names
political changes often produce name changes
site or physical character of a place
situation is the location of a place relative to other places
mathematical location using latitude and longiture
meridians is an arc drawn between the north and south poles and mark lines of longitude
prime meridian is in London
parallels are circles drawn around the globe parallel to the equator and mark lines of latitude
latitude and longitude are measured in degrees then minutes, seconds
governmental or political lines drawn on maps to mark boundaries
Distribution: spatial regularities
density is the frequency something occurs in an area
arithmetic density is the total number divided by the total area
concentration is the extent of a feature’s spread over an an area
clustered or dispersed
can be relatively or evenly dispersed
pattern can be regular or geometric or irregular (pattern is often set by physical or political
reasons)
Important parts of the physical earth to understand
climate : tropical, dry, warm mid latitude, cold mid latitude and polar
vegetation : four main biomes are forest, savanna, grassland and desert
soil - up to 12000 soil classifications; human geographers are concerned with the destruction of the soil that
results from a combination of natural processes and human actions
erosion - depletion of nutrients
landforms (geomorphology) - flat, hills, valley, mountains people prefer flat; topographic maps
people can alter their landforms to meet their needs. For example: Netherlands, Manhatten , tunnels, canals,
irrigation
Region
Types of Regions
formal or uniform or homogeneous
an area within which everyone shares one or more distinctive characteristics like a cultural value (language
or religion) or economic acticity (like an industry or crop) or an environmental property (like climate) or a
political region (like a state or city or political views)
functional region or nodal region
an area organized around a place that acts as a node or focal point. This could be a shop or service, a city, a
newspaper, or tv station
vernacular region or perceptual region
one that people believe to exist as part of their cultural identity
can be big (inland northwest) or small the ninth grade hallway or the jock table at lunch
regional integration is how regions work together and the commonalities between regions
MDCs and LDC
can be used to explain dispersion and patterns, or clusters or ideas or events
Dan Quayle on Geography
Hawaii is a unique state. It is a small state. It is a state that is by itself. It is a -- it is different than the other
49 states. Well, all states are different, but it's got a particularly unique situation.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle when a woman at a hospital in Colorado Springs asked Mr. Quayle
whether Hawaii's universal health-care plan might serve as a national model. (reported in the NY
Times, 10/7/92 and the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette 10/11/92)
It's wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, 4/30/91
We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe.
We are a part of Europe.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle
I love California; I practically grew up in Phoenix.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle
AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
“Your Place or Mine” Project
Human geography is more than a list of physical locations and their related facts. As the text points out,
places contribute to collective memory as well as functioning as emotional and cultural symbols. In this
exercise, you will be given one opportunity to distinguish between the physical facts about a place and those
more associated with human identification and meaning. You will need to choose 3 locations to describe.
For each location, type on a separate sheet, short answers consisting of 3-5 sentences answering the
following questions. Please note that you are being asked to give opinions as well as provide descriptions.
1.
Place: name of location
2.
Physical description: provide a physical description of the location
3.
Feelings: Describe your feelings associated with this place. This can include the place’s lore or
mythology.
4.
Changes: Discuss how the feelings associated with this place changes at different times of the day or
week, or with different weather.
5.
Individual factors: How might a person’s gender, race, age, or social class affect the way a person may
feel about this place?
Do your own work. Answer all five questions for each location. Be sure that your assignment is typed and
that your full name appears in the header of each page. Be familiar with your answers as you may be asked
to discuss these later in class. To better help you to understand this assignment, the following example is
provided:
Place: The front steps of the Sarratt building at Vanderbilt University (my old school)
Physical Description: It is a set of concrete steps leading into a primarily red brick building with a partial
overhang. It is where students gather before and after classes to chat, read the student newspaper, snack, and
drink soda. A landscaped plaza lies in front of the main entrance facing the street.
Feelings: It creates a sense of dread or elation depending on your workload. Students often greet each other
or sometimes are preoccupied with assignments and worries. Faculty and staff often buzz in preparation or
the day’s classes.
Changes: In the evenings it is quiet and desolate. On game days, it is full of people eating and drinking. The
place takes on an even more sinister look on dark and dreary days. In the morning, students often stumble
sleepily around while going to early morning classes.
Individual factors: It has a feeling of neutrality in terms of race. For a female alone at night, it would create
a slight feeling of unease with the surrounding darkness. For an educated or middle- class person, this place
may represent opportunity and self- improvement. For a disadvantaged or uneducated individual, this place
may represent privilege and social exclusion.
POPULATION
Who cares?
We do becaause more than 6 billion people now live on earth and the number is getting bigger quick
the faster growth is happening in the places least able to handle the growth
some of those people don’t like us
we should care about everyone
demography
the scientific study of population characteristics. Demographers look statistically at how people are
distributed spatially and by age, gender, occupation, fertility, health, religion, and any other characteristic
that matters
Important questions for geographers to ask
1) Where are people found on the earth?
2) Where is the population growing and shrinking and staying the same?
How do populations grow?
3) why is the population growing at different rates in different regions
4) Why do different rates of growth in different cultures matter?
Global perspective geographers say Over population is not just a certain number of people but instead the
relationship between the number of people and the availability of resources. The problem is when a region
has more people than it has resources available.
Local diversity perspective grographers find overpopulation a threat in some regions of the world but not in
others
Where is the world’s population distributed?
Concentration and density
Population concentrationss
75% of the world population lives on 5% of the earth’s surface
71% of the earth is ocean
Five major clusters of population
East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Western Europe, Eastern North America
Similarities between regions
near an ocean or river (67% of world’s people live within 300 miles of an ocean and
80% within 500 miles)
low lying areas
fertile soil
temperate climate
Northern Hemisphere between 10 and 55 latitude
East Asia (1)( east China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan) most people in this region live in China
most live near the Pacific ocean, or in river valleys
14 huge cities over 2 million but 75% of people live rurally
Japan and Korea - 75% of people live in cities
South Asia (2) - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka most of these people live in India
many live along the plains of the Indus and Ganges River and many others along the Arabian Sea
in the West and the Bay of Bengal in the east
75% are farmers while the area does have 14 cities over 2 million
Southeast Asia (4) series of islands that lie between the Indian and Pacific oceans including Java, Sumatra,
Borneo, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines, Java has the most population with over 100 million
Indoneia with 13000 islands is where most of these people live
many of these people are farmers
these 3 Asian populations concentrations have over 50% of the world’s population but live on less than 10%
of the earth’s land area - the same as was true 2000 years ago
Europe (3) 1/8 of the world’s population
75% live in cities and a desne network of roads and rails connect these cities
many live along the coalfields of England, Germnay and Belgium and along the Rhine River
most large cities are on a plain near a river
Eastern North America
Atlantic Coast from Boston to Newport News Virginia
Sparsely Populationed Regions
too dry, too wet, too cold, too mountainous for farming
ecumene - the portion of the Earth’s surface occupied by permanent human settlement
Desert
20% of the earth’s land surface mostly between 15 and 50 latitude North and South
largest desert is the Sahara, Arabian, or Gobi
2nd largest is in Australia
those who live here irrigate to grow food or survive on imports and mine natural resources (oil)
West Lands
located mostly near the equator between 20 north and South latitude in S. America, central Africa and
Southeast Asia
rainfall overages more than 50 inches per year and most get more than 90 inches
the rain and the heat rapidly depletes nutrients from the soil
seasonal wetlands are best able to support human settlement because food can be gorwn during the dry
season
Cold land
the poles
covered with ice or permanently frozen (perma frost)
High Lands
mountains ae steep and cold
plains that are high are often populated
peole live in higher elevations if the temperature below is really hot
Population Density
arithmatic density - total number of people divided by the total land area
physiological density - total number of people per area of a certain type of land in a region (often farming
or arable land)
Egypt is 65 arithmatic density and 2167 physiological density since everyone lives on the Nile
river
agricultural density is number of farmers to the number of acres of farm land
MDCs have lower agricultural density because technology allows one farmer to do more and this
allows other people to work in industry and service
Where has the World’s Population increased?
Two ways to increase a population base (
naturally (more people born than die)
through migration ( more people immigrate than emmigrate)
Crude birth rate (CBR) per 1000
crude death rate (CDR) per 1000
natural increase rate (NIR) given in percent so CBR - CDR /1000
doubling time is changed radically by very small percentage changes in the NIR
NIR = 1.5 for the world during 1990s and is slowly dropping
54% if the world’s pop increase has been in Asia
15 percent in Middle east and
15% in subsaharan Africa
10% in South America
3% in North America
3% in Europe
These differences are explained by
Fertility (Total fertility rate or TFR) is the average number of children a women will have between 15 and
49 TFR of world =3 today but is 6 in many countries
infant mortality rate is the annual number of deaths of infants under 1 per 1000 infants born (IMR)
Life Expectancy is the average number of years a newborn infant can expect to live at current mortality
levels
Western Europe and the US have better numbers across the board in these categories except in CDR where
LDCs are lower than MDCs
Why is population increasing at Different rates in different countries
demographic trasition - a 4 stages process that describes the way areas change in population, this process
applys to all cultures/nations and is irreversable without a disaster in the culture
Stage 1 low growth is the result of uneven, chaoticly high CBR and CDR
Stage 2 high growth is the result of rapidly declining CDR and very high CBR
stage 3 birth rate begins to decline and death rate continues to decline so slow moderate growth is result
stage4 low birth rate and low death rate produce a mostly stable population with long life span or zero
population growth (ZPG) TFR of 2.1 = ZPG
why do people progress from one stage to the next?
Agricultural developments
industrial developments
medical developments
resource depletion
disease
change from an agricultural to an industrial economy requires fewer kids to help
England is a great example of the stages
the stage a country is in gives is a distinctive popluation structure especially in the percentage of the
population in each age group and the distribution of males and females in each group. Geographers show
these statistics using population pyramids
Population pyramids are bar graphs that display countries population by age and gender groups
normally in five year increments starting 0-4 at the bottom and going up
men are normally on the left and females on the right
the pyramids look different for each stage of demographic transition
age distribution is very important to understand the differences between countries
dependancy ratio is the number of people to young or to old to wor compared to thenumber of people in
their productive working years
0-14 to young
15 - 64 working
65 and over to old
Stage 1 has a rapidly change ratio, stage 2 has a 1:1, stage 3 stage 4 is 1:2
stage 2 countries have twice as many young dependants as old while stage 4 has about equal numbers of
both
sex ratio
more men than women are born but more men die more quickly
men tend to immigrate more and earlier in immigration cycles
no countries exist today in stage 1, some in stage 2 especially those with access to disease prevention but
that remain agricultural and fundementalist in religion, stage 3 countries today are entering or growing in
the industrial revolution while stage four countries are fully industrialized and have social customs that
encourage few children per family
World population is growing today because many countries are in stages 2 or 3 in the demographic
transition and few of these countries are rapidly developing economies that do not require large numbers of
children and have cultures that either encourage children or discourage birth control
Western industrialized nations have given LDCs the benefits of industrialization like medical care,
immunizations, and high quality food and shelter without also causing them to change their culture to have
fewer children so they have potential to be in stage 2 for a very long time
This is also an important issue because LDCs have so many people to start with. MDCs today had many
fewer people to begin with when they began stage 2 compared to LDCs today. So MDCs are encouraging
LDCs to more through this stage more rapidly than they did and more rapidly than they naturally would. If
todays LDCs take the same amount of time MDCs took (100 years) then the world population will be 15
billion by 2050.
Overpopulation?
Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) An Essay on the Principle of Population claimed that population was
gorwing much more rapidly than Earth’s food supply because population increases geometrically while food
supply increased arithmetically. Many continue to believe this or a similar concept and are called NEO Malthusians
but many others say either
1) no problem technology will solve our food issues and space issues and medical issues
CULTURE
A. Culture - the body of customary beliefs, material traits, and social forms that together constitute the
distrinct tradition of a group of people
Geographers distringuish groups of people according to important cultural characteristics, describe where
particular cultural groups are distributed, and offer reasons to explain the observed distribution
B. Culture, Environments, and Regions
1. Culture is heart of human geography.
2. Components of culture:
a. Culture Regions- Area where specific culture is.
b. Culture Traits- Single attribute of a culture.
c. Culture Complexes- Combination of culture traits.
d. Culture Systems- Shares several culture complexes.
3. Culture is what people care about
a. and how a person believes, thinks, acts, structure, government, religion,
ethnicity
b. Cultural insitutions like nationalism,citizenship, taxes, governmental
systems
c.
What people take care of like material artifacts, especially daily necessities
of survival (food, clothing, shelter, and leisure activities like art and
recreation
4. Cultural Geography
a. Cultural Landscpe
b. Cultural Hearths- Sources of cultural ideas and innovation.
5. Cultural Diffusion
a. Contageous
b. Heirarchical
c. Stimulus
d. Relocation- Movement of individuals
6. Perceptual regions differ based on mental maps.
Cultural identity is important because it defines people to themselves and helps determine what they
dream and plan for themselves and because it defines how others see us
gender, economic position, ethnicity, urban or rural, sexual guidelines or orientation, work plans
Cultural Ecology is the relationship between culture and environment and is distinctive to geography.
Cultures change their environment to create a particular cultural landscape that reflects their tastes, values,
aspirations and fears
why are places similar?
Spatial Interaction: Interdependence Among Places important because of increasing globalization
economic interaction
multinational corporations or transnational corporations
new tax laws, banking systems, monetary trading systems and
transportation/communication technologies have made it possible
cultural interaction
food, and services, clothing, tv mostly people from LDCs want to be MDCs and people with less
power want to be like those who have more power
Networks - chains of communcation that connect places
distance decay happens the farther from one place to another
Diffusion - movement between places
hearth - a place where an idea, culture, or disease begins
relocation diffusion - peple migrate and take an idea with them physically
expansion diffusion
hertarchical diffusion powerful people act as catalysts
contagious diffusion all people effected
stimulus diffusion the spread of an underlying principle even though a charactericstic itself
apparently fails to diffuse
Diffusion of Economy - investment frows from 3 core regions NA, EUROPE, and Japan
NY, London, and Tokyo
uneven development
specialization of production by location increased and allowed by globalization of economy
Diffusion of Culture
unequal access to culture helps preserve local culture but limits options to participate in larger
culture
acculturation is the modification of one culture as result of contact with a more powerful one
can result in obliteration of the weaker culture or a combination of the two emphasizing the
stronger
conflict between culture often leads to war, conflict, and intolerance