An Introduction to Cultural Geography

What is Culture?

Defining CultureA shared set of meanings that are lived through

the material and symbolic practices of everyday life.

Culture combines three things: values, political institutions, and material artifacts.

The specialized behavioral patterns, understandings, adaptations, and social systems that summarize a group of people’s learned way of life.

A group of belief systems, norms, and values practiced by a people.

What is CultureThe languages we speak.

Language:Communicating ideas or

feelings by a system of signs, gestures, marks, or articulate vocal sounds.

Languages are quite possibly the core element of culture; nearly all other elements of culture are transmitted via language.

What is Culture?The foods we eat.Oftentimes, culture

dictates what a group of people might eat.

Certain peoples have foods that are used for sacred days – gefilte fish for Passover.

Some peoples have foods that are forbidden – pork in Judaism and Islam; beef in Hinduism.

What is Culture?

The Clothes we wear.Clothing indicates the value a culture places on

humility, the area in which the culture originated in, and even the types of work done in those cultures.

Clothes also play a role in religious ceremonies.

What is Culture?The God(s) we worship.

Religion is a key element of culture, and the transmission of cultural beliefs, values and norms.

Religion oftentimes is shaped by the region in which it originates, and the environment its adherents live in.

Religion can also lead people to alter their environment.

What is Culture?The houses we live in.Different cultures value

different housing styles for family structures, religious purposes, protection.

Environmental factors determine house styles.

Different styles are valued for different reasons in different cultures:Material wealth, social status,

functionality

What is Culture?The jobs we do.Some cultures value

particular jobs over others:Farmers are highly valued

in certain African nations, and pastoralists – herders – are valued in various parts of Central Asia and Mongolia.

The jobs available in some cultures are the result of the environment in which the group lives.

Culture is EverythingEverything that we do is largely based on

our culture.The values we hold, the material goods

that we covet are the result of what our culture tells us.

Your culture tells you that education is important, and so you are in this classroom.

Most of you come here because of the religious culture in which you were raised.

Some of you are here because you live in a culture that places a high value on athletics.

What types of Cultures are there?Cultures can arise anywhere, and around

any collection of culture traits.Urban culture, rural culture, tribal culture,

folk culture, Catholic culture, material culture, military culture, sports culture, pastoral culture, Muslim culture, farming culture, LBGT culture.

What cultures do you observe regularly?

Foundations and Components of Culture

Culture traits – smallest component of culture; units of learned behavior ranging from the language spoken, to the tools used or games played.

Culture complex – comprised of functionally interrelated culture traits.

Cultural systems – broader generalization than culture complex; refers to a collection of interacting culture traits and complexes that are shared by a group within a particular territory.

Foundations and Components of Culture

Culture region – a portion of the earth’s surface occupied by populations sharing recognizable and distinctive cultural characteristics.

Culture realm – a set of culture regions showing related culture complexes and landscapes; a large segment of the earth’s surface having an assumed fundamental uniformity in its cultural characteristics, and showing significant differences from adjacent realms.

The Cultural Landscape

Coined by geographer Carl Sauer, cultural landscape refers to the fashioning of a natural landscape by the cultural group living in it..

Sauer argued that all geography was cultural geography

Most geographers are concerned with how place and space shape culture and, conversely, how culture affects space and place.

Geographers recognize that culture is dynamic, and it is contested and altered within larger contexts.

Human-Environment Interaction

The interplay between humans and their environment shapes culture.

Environmental determinism discredited. The environment does place limitations, but does not exclusively shape human life.

Possibilism – people, not environments, are the dynamic forces of cultural development.

Environment as Control

We know that the environments of the earth do control human activity:The vast majority of the earth’s population lives on

less than half of the world’s land surface. Why?

Humans cannot live where the environment does not provide the basic necessities of life.

Environments that do not provide these goods give no inducement for humans to live there.

Human ImpactsPeople modify their environments.Part of the way we do this is through the material

objects we place in it:Cities, roads, farms, etc . . . The form these objects take is the product of the kind

of culture group that makes them.Indicators of the use that humans make of the land:

House types, cemeteries, parks, transportation networks, settlement types and distribution

Human Impacts (cont.)

Human actions have greatly modified the natural environments of the earth.Entire species have been hunted to extinctionFormerly fertile areas have been rendered useless

Entire civilizations have died out due to modifications to the environment:Chaco Canyon, Easter Island, Angor Wat, the Mayans

Extinct Cultures

The MasaiThe Masai of Kenya and

Tanzania are prime examples of the components of culture.

Keeping cattle was a culture trait of the Masai.

Creating a culture complex from this basic trait included the number of cattle owned as a measure of personal wealth; a diet containing milk and the blood of cattle; a disdain for any labor unrelated to herding.

The MasaiThe environments of Kenya and

Tanzania have many similarities, but they also have enough differences – Tanzania has a significant amount of marshland and the Great Rift Valley, Kenya has mainly highlands and savannah – that there are some differences in the Masai culture between the two countries.

These various Masai cultures form a culture system.

The two countries form a Masai culture region.

The MasaiThe Masai were primarily a

migratory people, following their herds.

As urbanization and globalization has spread, the Masai have become more sedentary.

Some Masai are now moving into cities, while others are establishing large fenced-in farms.

Other evidence of globalization includes cell phone use, widespread use of electricity, radio, and even internet where available.

Folk and Popular CulturesFolk Culture – traditionally practiced by small

homogeneous groups living in isolated, rural areas.The Amish, Aborigines, Hmong

Popular Culture – found in large heterogeneous societies that share certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics.Wearing jeans, listening to rap, following football

Read Rubenstein chapter 4

Diffusion of CultureCulture is not static, it is not tied to one place.The movement of culture from one area to another

is known as diffusion. There are numerous types of diffusion. Some common types:Expansion Diffusion – spread of an item or idea from one

place to another; frequently intensified in area of origin.Relocation Diffusion – idea is physically carried to new

areas by migrating peoples.Contagious Diffusion – uniform affectation of all persons

and areas outward from source region.Hierarchical Diffusion – spread of ideas from larger places

and important people to smaller places and less important people.

Stimulus Diffusion – a fundamental idea stimulates imitative behavior.

Examples of Diffusion

Diffusion of Culture (and sport)

Jujitsu is believed to have originated in India over 2000 years ago.

Jujitsu spread to Japan over 1000 years ago along trade routes and with religious monks.

The samurai warrior class of Japan adopted jujitsu as their unarmed fighting style should they lose their swords.

JujitsuAs the samurai class declined

in the 19th century, jujitsu was used more and more by the lower classes and eventually criminals.

A jujitsu student, Jigoro Kano, became dismayed with the use of jujitsu’s more violent techniques by ruffians and determined to change it.

Kano realized that jujitsu provided physical and mental benefits, and determined to remove the dangerous aspects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmD1B_2ga4Y

JudoKano created judo.

Ju means gentleJitsu means art or

techniqueDo means path

Judo was know as the gentle path, and was intended for physical fitness and spiritual development.Judo dispensed with the

dangerous techniques of jujitsu, and relied primarily on throws.

Kano’s greatest student was Mitsuo Maeda, a former jujitsu master.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be-BoM-WokY

Judo comes to BrazilMaeda was sent as a diplomatic

representative to Brazil in hopes of establishing a Japanese colony there.

Maeda was befriended by a local dignitary named Gastao Gracie.

Maeda offered to teach Gracie’s sons judo in return for Gracie’s help in securing the colony.

The colony failed, but Gracie’s son Helio developed the judo moves he learned into the art of Brazilian jiujitsu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk5ri8KNmLQ

Mixed Martial ArtsIn order to spread jiujitsu,

Helio began challenging all comers to no-holds-barred matches to prove jiujitsu was better.

Ultimately, Helio’s son Rorion came to America and sought to spread jiujitsu there.Rorion created the Ultimate

Fighting Championship to test jiujitsu against other arts.

The success of the UFC has led to the spread of Brazilian jiujitsu around the world, and the evolution of mixed martial arts

Cultural RemnantsIn Brazilian jiujitsu today, we still use a mixture of

Japanese and Portuguese names for all of the techniques.

The gi – the traditional jiujitsu uniform worn during jiujitsu matches – descends from that worn by the samurai.The samurai wore the gi under their armor as a

funeral garb; if they were to die in battle, they would be prepared for the afterlife.

Most gis today are made by Atama, a Brazilian company with a Japanese name, and a Japanese kanji character as its symbol.