The Five Themes of
Geography
A Framework for Studying the
World
Florida Geographic Alliance
PowerPoint Presentations
2007
Theme 1: Location
• Where is It?
• Why is It There?
Two Types of
Location
•Absolute
•Relative
Absolute Location
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A specific place on the Earth’s surface
Uses a grid system
Latitude and longitude
A global address
Florida
Absolute Location
• Florida
24°30'N to 31°N Latitude
79°48'W to 87°38'W Longitude
• Tallahassee
30° N Latitude
84° W Longitude
Relative Location
• Where a place is
in relation to
another place
• Uses directional
words to describe
– Cardinal and
intermediate
directions
Florida
• North Carolina is bordered by
Georgia and Alabama on the north,
and Alabama to the west.
• The Atlantic Ocean forms Florida’s
east coast. The Gulf of Mexico
forms it’s west coast
• Florida is one of the Southeastern
States
Theme 2: Place
Physical Characteristics
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peninsula
Everglades
Climate
Bodies of Water
Theme 2: Place
Human Characteristics
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People
Culture
Language
Religion
Buildings and
Landmarks
• Cities
Florida: Human
Characteristics
Theme 3: Human
Environment Interaction
How People Interact With Their
Environment
People . . .
• Adapt to Their Environment
• Modify Their Environment
• Depend on Their Environment
http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/corbis/DGT119/BAG0017.jpg
Florida: Human Environment
Interaction
Theme 4: Movement
The Mobility of
• People
• Goods
• Ideas
How Places are
linked to one
another and the
world
Florida: Movement
Theme 5: Regions
What Places Have in Common
• Political Regions
• Landform Regions
• Agricultural Regions
• Cultural Regions
Florida: Regions
People, Things, and Phenomena
• Move across space (MOVEMENT)
• May be associated with specific spaces for a
variety of physical and social reasons (PLACE)
• Can be physically located in space (LOCATION)
• Can be used to classify space (REGION)
• Interact with each other in specific ways in
different places and combinations (HUMANEARTH RELATIONSHIPS)
William Pattison’s Four Traditions
of Geography
• In 1964, W.D. Pattison, a professor at the
University of Chicago, wanted to counter
the idea that geography was an
undisciplined science by saying that
geographers had exhibited broad enough
consistency such that there were four
distinctive, but affiliated traditions.
1) An earth-science tradition physical (natural) geography
• Physical geography
• The lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere,
and biosphere
• Earth-sun interaction
• Offshoots are geology, mineralogy,
paleontology, glaciology, and meteorology
• The study of the earth as the home to
humans
Earth-Science Tradition
• Intellectual legacy:
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.); Greek philosopher who looked at
natural processes, Earth is spherical, matter falls together
toward a common center.
• Modern geographer:
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804); German
• 1) All knowledge can be classified logically or physically
• 2) Descriptions according to time comprise history,
descriptions according to place compromise geography
• 3) History studies phenomena that follow one another
chronologically, whereas geography studies phenomena
that are located beside one another.
A man-land tradition - relationships
between human societies and natural
environments.
2)
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Human impact on nature
Impact of nature on humans
Natural hazards
Perception of environment
Environmentalism
Cultural, political, and population
geography
Man-Land Tradition
• Intellectual legacy:
Hippocratic; a Greek Physician of 5th century B.C. who
wrote that places affect the health and character of man.
• Modern geographer(s):
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and Carl Ritter
(1779-1859); German
• 1) Move beyond describing earth’s surface to explaining
why certain phenomena are present or absent.
• 2) Origin of “where” and “why” approach
• 3) Environmental determinism – how the physical
environment causes social development
3) A spatial tradition - spatial unifying
theme, similar patterns between physical &
human geography.
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Mapping
Spatial analysis
Boundaries and densities
Movement and transportation
Quantitative techniques and tools, such as
computerized mapping and Geographic
Information Systems
• Central Place Theory
Spatial Tradition
• Intellectual legacy:
Claudius Ptolemy (A.D. 100?-170?); a Greek, who wrote
8-volume Geographia in the second century A.D.
containing numerous maps (also father of geometry).
• Modern geographer:
Alfred Wegener; climatologist
• 1) Studied spatial arrangement of landmasses, used
geographical and geological evidence
• 2) Continental drift – landmasses were once part of
supercontinent (plate tectonics)
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4) An area-studies tradition regional geography
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Description of regions or areas
World regional geography
International trends and relationships
How regions are different from one another
Area Studies - Regional
• Intellectual legacy:
Strabo (63? B.C.-A.D. 24?); Roman investigator, who
wrote a report called Geography, a massive production for
the statesmen intended to sum up and regularize
knowledge of location and place, their character, and their
differentiation.
• Modern geographer:
Carl Sauer (1889-1975); American
• 1) The work of human geography is to discern the
relationships among social and physical phenomena
• 2) Everything in the landscape is interrelated.