History of Geographic

Thought

The Spatial Organization of Human Activity

• Geography is a “spatial science” (the study of place/space)

• Human activities are: located in space at particular places regular (w/ discernible patterns) able to be described and understood

Ancient Map-MakingEarliest maps: clay tablets by ancient

Babylonians

Catal Huyük village map (Turkey); 8,000 yrs. old

China: silk maps from 2nd-century BCEMayans/Incas: maps of conquered territories

Greek geographic thought:

“geography”(earth-writing): coined by Eratosthenes

closely estimated Earth’s circumference

Eratosthenes' measurement of the Earth's circumference:

Syene (S) is located on the Tropic of Cancer, so that at summer solstice the sun appears at the zenith, directly overhead. In Alexandria (A) the sun is south of the zenith at the same time. So the circumference of earth can be calculated being times the distance δ between A and S.

Medieval MappingChinese:

O Chinese geographers highly advancedO Invented compass in 11th-centuryO Burned sticks of incense to measure

time

Muslim world:O Arab geographers (700-1400)

translated O Greek geographic worksO Religious need for good maps?

O holy pilgrimage to Mecca & prayer facing Mecca 5 times a day…

Muslim World in 1500

Meanwhile, in Europe…

The medieval Christian T-O mapT = Mediterranean, the Nile, the DonO = encircling ocean

Crusader map of Jerusalem, dating from the 12th- century (east is at the top)

“Modern” Geography

Started during the Scientific Revolution From the late Renaissance to the Enlightenment From trust in a person’s mind external observation Copernican Revolution (1543) to Newton’s Principia (1687)

A Note on The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas Kuhn How science changes

Normal science Anomalies Crisis Revolutionary science

I Kant Believe It. Immanuel Kant:

Human knowledge could be classified in three ways: Classify knowledge in terms of type (zoology,

geology, etc.) Studying things in a temporal dimension (history) Facts relative to spatial relationships (geography!)

Geography types Physical, mathematical, moral, political,

commercial, and theological

A PHILOSOPHY OF SPACE

ABSOLUTE SUBSTANTIVE

RELATIVE

1. knowledge gained through experience

2. fundamental laws (Cogito ergo sum)

3. scientific or religious

1. “a priori”: knowledge exists outside of us

2. reality is perception

1. knowledge is subjective between objects

2. we produce “space”

By the end of the 19th century…

Geography a discipline in world universitiesThe Royal Geographic Society is founded in EnglandThe National Geographic Society is founded in the US.

In the 20th Century…O Environmental Determinism

O People’s physical, moral, and mental attributes are directly caused by natural environment

O Yeah. No.O Regional Geography

O Simply looking at places (areal differentiation)O Quantitative Revolution

O Numbers, numbers, numbers!O Critical Geography

O Marxist, feminist, postmodern geographies

Pattison’s Four Themes (1964)

O Spatial TraditionO True essentials: geometry and movementO Location, place, distance, etc.

O Area Studies TraditionO Nature of places, character and differentiation

O Human-Land TraditionO Interaction between human and environment

O Earth Science TraditionO Physical geography

Today: GPS and GIS!O Global Positioning System

O 24 orbiting satellites + tracking stations on the ground + portable receivers

O Locations determined by time delay in signals received from 3+ satellites

O Geographic Information SystemO Software package + computer databaseO Vector approach: precise location of each

object is describedO Raster approach: the study area is divided

into a set of small square cells, and the content is quantified/described.

Let’s look at how this technology is used!

O http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/media/geospatial-revolution/?ar_a=1

The pioneering research of Paul Baran in the 1960s, who envisioned a communications network that would survive

a major enemy attacked…the distributed network structure offered the best survivability.

Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET)

Who has access to the Internet in the US now?http://broadbandmap.g

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