Chapter 1

•Where are people and activities found on earth?

•Why are they found there?•Why is each place unique?•Why do different places on

this earth have similar features?

What is Human Geography?

Key Question:

Human Geography

• 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.

LocationHuman-Environment

RegionPlace

Movement

LOCATION

•WHERE DO YOU LIVE?•HOW CAN YOU FIND IT?•WHAT IS IT LIKE THERE?•HOW DO GEOGRAPHERS

DESCRIBE WHERE THINGS ARE?

• DUH!!!!• BIXBY

• OKLAHOMA• UNITED STATES• NORTH AMERICA

• NORTHERN HEMISPHERE

TOPONYMS

• FUN, FUN, FUN!• NAME GIVEN TO A PLACE ON EARTH!• LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGRYCHWYRND

ROPWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH—”CHURCH ST. MARY’S IN THE GROVE OF THE WHITE HAZLENUT TREE NEAR THE RAPID WHIRLPOOL AND THE CHURCH OF ST TISILIO NEAR THE RED CAVE”

• LONGEST IN US—LAKE CHARGOGGAGOGGMANCHAUGGAGOGGCHAUBUNAGUNGAMAUGG IN MASSACHUSETTS

• Climate• Water sources• Topography• Soil• Vegetation • Latitude• elevation

•DO YOU KNOW WHERE JUJAX IS?

•HOW ‘BOUT THE OLD FOLK’S HOME?

•THE STRAIGHT OF MALACCA?

Situation: Singapore

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

How Else Do Geographers Address Location

• Maps– Early mapmaking– Map scale– Projection– Land Ordinance of 1785

• Contemporary Tools– GIS– Remote sensing– GPS

Why do Geographers use Maps, and What do Maps

Tell Us?

Key Question:

Two Types of Maps:

Reference Maps- Show locations of

places and geographic features

- Absolute locations

What are reference maps used for?

Thematic Maps- Tell a story about

the degree of an attribute, the pattern of its distribution, or its movement.

- Relative locations

What are thematic maps used for?

World Political Boundaries (2004)

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

Reference Map

Thematic Map

What story about median income in the Washington, DC area is this map telling?

Mental Maps: maps we carry in our minds of places we have been and places we have heard of.

can see: landmarks, paths, and accessibility

Activity Spaces:the places we travel to routinely in our rounds of daily activity.

How are activity spaces and mental maps related?

Maps of the Marshall Islands

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.

Scale Differences: Maps of Florida

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

Land Ordinance of 1785

• a law that divided much of the United States into a system of townships to facilitate the sale of land to settlers

• A north-south line designated in the Land Ordinance of 1785 to facilitate the surveying and numbering of townships in the US

• An east-west line designated under Land Ordinance of 1785 to facilitate the surveying and numbering of townships in the US

Township and Range System in the U.S.

• township—square normally 6 miles on a side, divided into 36 sections

• Section—square normally one mile on a side

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

Layers of a GIS

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

Remote Sensing: a method of collecting data by instruments that are physically distant from the area of study.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIsUP1Ds5Pg

• MERIDIANS/PARALLELS• LONGITUDES/LATITUDES• 0° LONGITUDE?• 0° LATITUDE?• MORE PRECISE? DIVIDE EACH

DEGREE INTO MINUTES AND EACH MINUTE INTO SECONDS

LONGITUDE—THE BRITISH CONSPIRACY

• PRIME MERIDIAN/GREENWICH ENGLAND• LONGITUDE ACT OF 1714• JOHN HARRISON—CLOCK WITHOUT

PENDULUM• EACH HOUR IS 15 DEGREES• TIME MEASURED FROM GREENWICH

MEAN TIME OR UNIVERSAL TIME• INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE 180°

World Geographic Grid

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

World Time Zones

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

PLACE

• WHAT IS IT LIKE THERE?

• A SPECIFIC POINT ON EARTH DISTINGUISHED BY A PARTICULAR CHARACTER.

• PLACES HAVE PHYSICAL AND HUMAN FEATURES. HUMAN FEATURES INCLUDE CULTURE.

Geographers describe a feature’s place on earth by describing its

location. Place=unique location of a

featureGeographer’s consider four ways to identify a location!! ???????

1. Place name…akaTOPONYM

2. Site3. Situation4. Mathematical location

Place

Sense of place: infusing a place with meaning and emotion.

Perception of place: belief or understanding of what a place is like, often based on books, movies, stories, or pictures.

Where Pennsylvanian students prefer to live

Where Californian students prefer to live

Perception of Place

HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION

• CAN YOU GROW FOOD?• CAN YOU BUILD WATERWAYS?• CAN YOU CHANGE AND BE CHANGED

BY THE PLACE YOU LIVE?• HOW DO PEOPLE AND PLACES

EFFECT EACH OTHER?• We will discuss this further, later.

Site: Lower Manhattan Island

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

Environmental Modification in the Netherlands

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

Environmental Modification in Florida

Fig. 1-16: Straightening the Kissimmee River has had many unintended side effects.

MOVEMENT

• HOW DO YOU GET YOUR INFORMATION?

• HOW DO YOU MOVE AROUND?• HOW DO PEOPLE, IDEAS, GOODS OR

THINGS MOVE FROM PLACE TO PLACE?

Spatial interaction: the interconnectedness

between places depends upon:

DistanceAccessibilityConnectivity

Why are Geographers Concerned with Scale and

Connectedness?

Key Question:

Scale

Scale is the territorial extent of something. The observations we make and the

context we see vary across scales, such as:

- local- regional- national- global

Scale

Scale is a powerful concept because:

- Processes operating at different scales influence one another.

- What is occurring across scales provides context for us to understand a phenomenon.

- People can use scale politically to change who is involved or how an issue is perceived.

-EX laws jump scales, ignoring cultural differences

Map Scale

Space-Time Compression, 1492–1962 the reduction in the time it takes for something to reach another place

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

Airline Route NetworksSPATIAL INTERACTION

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

Connectedness

Diffusion: the process of dissemination, the spread of an idea or innovation from its hearth (origin) to other areas.

What slows/prevents diffusion?- time-distance decay- cultural barriers-transportation/

communication barriers

Types of Diffusion• Expansion Diffusion – idea or innovation spreads

outward from the hearth

• Contagious – widespread to most people• Hierarchical – spread of idea from nodes of

authority or power to other people or places• Stimulus – spread of underlying principal but

with some adaptations

• Relocation Diffusion – movement of individuals who carry an idea with them

BARRIERS TO DIFFUSION

•TIME and DISTANCE DECAY – farther from the source & the more time it takes, the less likely innovation adopted

•CULTURAL BARRIERS – some practices, ideas, innovations are not acceptable/adoptable in a particular culture – e.g. pork, alcohol, contraceptives…

•PHYSICAL BARRIERS – physical barriers on the surface may prohibit/inhibit adoption

Distance Decay Graph

• Learn to think about distance decay in a “spatial” context

• Think of distance decay in terms of an ‘x’ and ‘y’ axis

Examples of Hierarchical Diffusion

• AIDS is typically viewed as hierarchical because if its historically distinctive URBAN to URBAN diffusion pattern

• Political ideas• Fashion is also viewed as

hierarchical. Why?

AIDS Diffusion in the U.S., 1981–2001

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.

Expansion Diffusion

• Stimulus Diffusion – the spread of an underlying principle even though the characteristic itself does not spread.

»OR

• Stimulus Diffusion - involves the transfer of an underlying concept or idea, without the specific accompanying traits due to some cultural or other barrier to the movement of the idea

Stimulus Diffusion

Because Hindus believe cows are holy, cows often roam the streets in villages and towns. The McDonalds restaurants in India feature veggie burgers.

Other Types of Diffusion• Relocation diffusion –

movement of individuals who carry an idea or innovation with them to a new, perhaps distant locale. Can include languages, religions, and ethnicities.

Photo credit: A.B. MurphyPhoto credit: H.J. de Blij

Kenya

Paris, France

Migrant Diffusion (a form of Relocation Diffusion)

• Migrant Diffusion is when an innovation originates and enjoys strong, but brief, adoption there. The innovation may travel long distances (& be thriving), but could be faded out back at the point of origination – e.g. influenza in China will reach the U.S., but the epidemic could be over in China by the time it takes hold in the U.S.

Relocation and Expansion – In Review

• A’ is relocation diffusion as the personperson goes.

• ‘B’ is expansion diffusion as the idea/traitidea/trait moves or transports.

Acculturation• Acculturation –

when smaller/weaker groups take on traits of the larger/dominant culture. Can be 2-way process – e.g. Aztecs acculturated into Spanish culture, but some Aztec traits remained and became Spanish culture.

Assimilation• Assimilation – the

adoption of cultural elements can be so complete that two cultures become indistinguishable – e.g. – jeans being worn here in the Czech Republic

REGIONS

•WHAT THINGS ARE ALIKE AND DIFFERENT IN THE PEOPLE AND PLACES AROUND YOU?

Regions

Formal region: defined by a commonality, typically a cultural linkage or a physical characteristic.

e.g. German speaking region of Europe

Functional region: defined by a set of social, political, or economic activities or the interactions that occur within it.

e.g. an urban area

Regions

Vernacular Region: ideas in our minds, based on accumulated knowledge of places and regions, that define an area of “sameness” or “connectedness.”

e.g. the Souththe Mid-Atlanticthe Middle East

Uniqueness of Places and Regions

• Place: Unique location of a feature– Place names– Site– Situation– Mathematical location

• Regions: Areas of unique characteristics– Cultural landscape– Types of regions– Regional integration of culture– Cultural ecology