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Imagine and describe the most remote place on Earth you can think of 100 years ago.
Now, describe how globalization has changed this place and how the people there continue to shape it –to make it the place it is today.

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Many people have misconceptions about geography and think of the discipline as simply an exercise in memorizing place names.

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The study of how people make places, how we organize space and society, how we interact with each other in places and across space, and how we make sense of others and ourselves in our locality, region, and world.

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Geography exist in the global issues receiving attention at this time things such as
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Population growth
Terrorism
Cultural diffusion.
 Diffusion is defined as the spread of linguistic or cultural practices or innovations within a community or from one
community to another.

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Geography's importance can also be established by looking at community issues, such as:
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Water supply
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Pollution
Growth management
Housing
Retail
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Openings
Closures

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In addition to political rule, boundaries can be drawn based on various components of culture including language, religion, values.

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Where would the most desirable places to live be located?
What impacts would this population increase cause?

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Consider natural events and natural disasters.
Do humans choose to live in harm’s way?

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Geography by its nature is a spatial science.
Geographers therefore study space in order to locate the distribution of people and objects.
Geographers ask two main questions,
“where” and “why.” Spatial analysis is concerned with analyzing regularities achieved through interaction. Regularities result in a distinctive distribution of a feature.
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Distribution has three properties:
Density
Concentration
Pattern

Fig. 1-1: National political boundaries are among the most significant elements of the cultural landscape

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Maps
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Early mapmaking
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Map scale
Projection
Land Ordinance of 1785
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Contemporary Tools
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GIS
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Remote sensing
GPS

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Map = FLAT
Cartographer = Map Maker
Cartography is the art/science of map making.

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4 basic directions on earth
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North – Never
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East – Eat
South – Soggy
West – Waffles
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Compass Rose
 Directional marker, a map symbol that tells you where the four cardinal directions are in relation to the map

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Hemi = half/one side
Sphere = ball/globe
The equator divides the earth into 2 hemispheres
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Everything north of the Equator is in the
Northern Hemisphere
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Everything south of the Equator is in the
Southern Hemisphere

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Run parallel to the Equator north and south
Start at the equator 0 ° Latitude
North of the Equator towards the North
Pole up to at 90 ° N
South of the Equator towards the South
Pole up to 90 ° S

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The Prime Meridian divides the earth into 2 hemispheres
Everything WEST of the prime meridian is in the
Western Hemisphere
Everything EAST of the prime meridian is in the
Eastern Hemisphere

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Run East and West at equal intervals away from the Prime Meridian
Start at the Prime Meridian 0 ° Longitude
Are numbered up to 180 ° Longitude at the international dateline
Are designated as either East or West of the prime meridian.

Fulfilling the duties of formal prayers and the pilgrimage, Muslims need to find the direction and routes leading to al Ka'ba from virtually any spot on the globe. The Ka'ba is the house of Abraham in
Mecca. And it is the point at which Muslims must face when they perform prayers.
Left - map of the world in 1154 by
Idrissi
Right - map of the world made by the Muslim geographer
Jihani in the 10th century of the
Christian era.

Fig. 1-
2: A Polynesian “stick chart” depicts patterns of waves on the sea route between two South Pacific islands. Modern maps show the locations of these Marshall Islands .

Fig. 1-3: The effects of scale in maps of Florida. (Scales from 1:10 million to 1:10,000 )

Reference Maps
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Show locations of places and geographic features
Absolute locations
What are reference maps used for?

THEMATIC MAPS – depict characteristics of places
Categorical type
- Depict areas that are different in kind
- Use several distinct colors to show different categories desert forest tundra
Examples: climates, religions
Choropleth type
- Depict areas that are different in amount
- Use shades of similar colors to show different values high value medium low value
Examples: population density, literacy rates

Example of “categorical map”

Example of “choropleth map”
Human Development Index (HDI) Rankings
Includes GNI/PPP, Literacy, and Life Expectancy
Which regions have high HDI?
Which regions have low HDI?
Which places are exceptions?

Mollweid - Equal Area Map http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/mapping
/a_projections.html

Fig. 1-4: Principal meridians and east-west baselines of the township system. Townships in northwest Mississippi and topographic map of the area.

Fig. 1-5: A geographic information system (GIS) stores information about a location in several layers. Each layer represents a different category of information.

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Place : Unique location of a feature
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Place names
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Site
Situation
Mathematical location
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Regions : Areas of unique characteristics
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Cultural landscape
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Types of regions
Regional integration of culture
Cultural ecology

Fig. 1-6: Site of lower Manhattan Island, New York City. There have been many changes to the area over the last 200 years.

Fig. 1-7: Singapore is situated at a key location for international trade.

Fig. 1-8: The world geographic grid consists of meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude. The prime meridian (0º) passes through Greenwich, England.

Fig. 1-
9: The world’s 24 standard time zones are often depicted using the Mercator projection.

Fig. 1-10: Presidential election results by county and state illustrate differences in regional voting patterns.

Fig. 1-11: The state of Iowa is an example of a formal region; the areas of influence of various television stations are examples of functional regions.

Fig. 1-12: A number of factors are often used to define the South as a vernacular region, each of which identifies somewhat different boundaries.

Fig. 1-13: Death rates from cancer in the U.S., Maryland, and Baltimore show different patterns that can identify associations with different factors.

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Your book defines culture as a body of customary believes, material trades, and social forms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group of people.
The Latin root of culture is cultus, which means to care for. Example
Agriculture (term for growing things)

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Geographers also consider environmental factors as well as cultural factors, when looking at regions.
This is cultural ecology.
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Basically, this is the geographic study of human-environmental relations.
In the 19 th Century – some geographers said that human actions were caused by environmental conditions.
(environmental determinism)
This is rejected by modern geographers that say some environmental conditions limit human actions.
(possibilism)
Of course now we are realizing that humans can actually adjust their environment. (For good or bad)

Fig. 1-
14: The modified Köppen system divides the world into five main climate regions.

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This is the branch of geology that studies the characteristics and configuration and evolution of rocks and land forms.

Fig. 1-15: Polders and dikes have been used for extensive environmental modification in the Netherlands.

Fig. 1-16: Straightening the
Kissimmee River has had many unintended side effects.
View of
Miami
Beach
The barrier
Island -
Orchid
Island – in the town I grew up in.

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Scale: From local to global
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Globalization of economy
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Globalization of culture
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Space: Distribution of features
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Distribution
Gender and ethnic diversity in space
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Connections between places
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Spatial interaction
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Diffusion

Fig. 1-17: The Denso corporation is headquartered in Japan, but it has regional headquarters and other facilities in North America and Western Europe.

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What are the major Elements of culture?
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Customary beliefs
Social customs
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Material traits
Affects of globalization of culture
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Fewer local differences
Enhanced communications
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Unequal access
Difficulty in maintaining of local traditions
There is also globalization of environment
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Sensitive and insensitive environmental modification

Housing density in Hong Kong
Fig. 1-18: The density, concentration, and pattern
(of houses in this example) may each vary in an area or landscape.

Fig. 1-19: The changing distribution of North American baseball teams illustrates the differences between density and concentration.

Fig. 1-20: The times required to cross the Atlantic, or orbit the Earth, illustrate how transport improvements have shrunk the world.

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Interdependence exists among places based upon the degree of spatial interaction.
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Spatial interaction is established through the movement of people, ideas, and objects between regions.
For example, Travel has changed considerably over the last 500 years.
In the past, most forms of interaction among cultural groups required the physical movement of settlers, explores, and plunders from one place to another.
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Today travel by car or plane is much faster and communication is instantaneous.
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When places are connected to each other through a network, geographers say there is a spatial interaction between them.

Fig. 1-21: Delta Airlines, like many others, has configured its route network in a
“hub and spoke” system.

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Diffusion is the process by which a characteristic spreads across space from one place to another over time.
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The place of origin of the characteristic is called the hearth.
 For example – US, Canadian, and many Latin cultures can be traced back to the European Hearth.
There are two basic types of diffusion:
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Relocation diffusion
Expansion diffusion
Expansion Diffusion includes-
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Hierarchical diffusion
Contagious diffusion
Stimulus diffusion

Fig. 1-22: New AIDS cases were concentrated in three nodes in 1981. They spread through the country in the 1980s, but declined in the original nodes in the late 1990s.