Main Lesson Content. Lesson 8: Regions: Unique Areas of Land

Example

A sketch map of a community with a store labeled "central point" in the center. Houses, roads, and other buildings are shown in the area surrounding the store. There are five different colored bands that show the number of the store's customers who live within that band. The number of customers in each band is as follows: Band 1 (closest to store): 204 customers Band 2: 123 customers Band 3: 82 customers Band 4: 37 customers Band 5 (farthest from store): 10 customers

cultural region:

An area in which people share the same culture, which usually means the same history, beliefs, and languages.

What Is a Region?

As you have learned, a region is an area that is defined by geographers as sharing common characteristics that set it apart from other regions. Those characteristics can be physical, such as climate, vegetation, or location. A rain forest, the Great Plains, and the Sahara are all examples of physical regions. Human characteristics such as common government, economic activity, or language are also used to classify regions. The country of India, the Chinatown section of San Francisco, and the Dairy Belt in the United States are examples of human regions. Their characteristics, not their size, define regions. World Regions and Subregions in AP Human Geography Major world regions—North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Russian Federation, Asia, Oceania, Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Antarctica. World subregions—Canada, United States, Caribbean, Latin America, Brazil, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Siberia, Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, Australia, Middle East, North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa. Human beings create the criteria used to classify regions, so regions can change over time. As people move in and out of a region, they can change the characteristics of the region. For example, in the late 20th century, hundreds of thousands of Cubans moved to southern Florida, and the region known as "Little Havana" was created in Miami. Similarly, during the first half of the 20th century, the upper Midwestern United States was known as the Manufacturing Belt because it was the center of the manufacturing industry. Beginning in the 1970s, that same region became known as the Rust Belt because manufacturing and overall economic activity declined in the region.

Types of Regions

Here are the answers! The region in which local station ZDK is broadcast Functional Region Language regions around the world Formal Region Climate regions of South America Formal Region The Bluegrass music region of the United States Perceptual Region The "wealthy side of town" Perceptual Region Region of all Foot Locker stores found in the United States Functional Region

Regional Expert: Asia

Here are the answers! Which of the following is a human characteristic of East Asia? B. The region is known for its industrial activity. Which of the following regions features tropical rain forests and archipelagos? D. Southeast Asia Countries in the Southwest Region of Asia have A. significant oil reserves The Asia and Pacific region extends from the Pacific Ocean to the C. Ural Mountains In which of the following regions in Asia would you expect to find the best conditions for large-scale farms? E. river valleys

Cultural Regions

Image of a cultural celebration of people celebrating in Thailand. A crowd of people is standing in the street waving flags and laughing. Buildings consistent with Chinese architecture are shown in the background. Thailand's Chinatown is just one of many all over the world. Geographers study not only what places are like, but also how people live in those places. Geographers use the concept of cultural regions to classify places based on the people who live there. A cultural region is an area in which people share the same culture, which usually means the same history, beliefs, and languages. People in the same cultural region often share the same religion, eat the same types of foods, or sometimes have similar ways of earning a living. Cultural regions can be large, such as the world region known as Latin America, which encompasses Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. Cultural regions can also be as small as an ethnic neighborhood in a city. Places that are geographically close are often part of the same cultural region. The boundaries of cultural regions, however, usually do not exactly line up with national boundaries, as shown with the example of Latin American above. The boundaries of cultural regions can also change over time, as the members of a culture move or are forced to move. For example, the cultural regions of Native American nations in North America changed greatly when European settlers forced American Indians to move to the west and then onto reservations. Cultural regions can be identified by the holidays people celebrate, the clothing people wear, or the words they use for different concepts. The map below shows cultural regions of the United States, based on the terms that people use for soda. In what region do you live?

Cultural Landscape

In this region of China, the people strive to live in harmony with the land and the sea. Select the icon to view the D-link. The cultural landscape is the way that human beings use and shape the physical environment. What exactly makes up the cultural landscape? The languages people speak, their religions, the way in which people make money through agricultural and industrial activities, and the physical features of a place all combine to give a region its unique characteristics. These characteristics help distinguish one region from another. For example, during the Civil War era, there were two main regions in the United States: the North and the South. The North was more industrial, while the South depended on agriculture as its main source of income. Although people spoke the same language, Northern accents differed from Southern accents. The physical environment differed, and some crops, such as tobacco and cotton, were better suited to grow in the South than the North. Many geographers take a cultural landscape approach when studying the world around them. This approach is usually referred to as the regional studies approach. Proponents of regional studies, such as geographers Carl Sauer and Robert Platt, believe that the social connections and physical processes in a region give it its own unique landscape. It is important to note that it is not just one common characteristic that makes a region a region. A combination of common characteristics must be in place in an area to define it as a region. In a region, the people, activities, and/or environment must be similar within that area of land and different from the people, activities, and environment in all other regions.

Analyzing Types of Regions

One location can be part of many different regions. The maps below all show the same general area, but illustrate the three different types of regions. Formal regions can be based on either physical or human characteristics, but functional and perceptual regions are usually based on human characteristics. What characteristics define each of the regions shown in these maps?

Three Types of Regions

Regions come in all shapes and sizes. To be classified as a region, however, an area must be larger than a single point and must be smaller than the planet as a whole. Other than that, any area of land on Earth could potentially be classified as a region. Geographers generally use the concept of region at two different scales. A geographer might classify several countries that border each other as a region, or a geographer might classify several specific areas of land within a country as a region. When classifying regions, geographers often use one of three different types: formal, functional, and perceptual (or vernacular) regions.

formal region

The first type is a formal region, which is also called a homogeneous region or a universal region. A formal region is an area whose defining characteristic, such as climate or the nationality of people who live there, is found throughout the region. Cultural regions are a subset of formal regions. The characteristic that defines a formal region can be either a physical or human characteristic. Political entities such as nations or cities are formal regions, and economic regions, such as the Corn Belt or a manufacturing region, are formal regions based on human characteristics. Landform regions, such as the Great Plains, or vegetation regions, such as a coniferous forest, are formal physical regions. The characteristic that defines a formal region does not have to be found everywhere in the region. For example, the Corn Belt is a formal region because corn is the most commonly grown crop throughout the entire region. That does not mean it is the only crop grown there; it just means that throughout the region, corn is more likely to be grown than any other crop. The boundaries of formal regions do not change much over time.

functional region

The second type of region is a functional region. Functional regions are also called nodal regions. Functional regions are places that are linked by a particular activity or function, such as a transportation system or an economic activity. Functional regions are organized around a central point, or node, which is connected to places within the region. A metropolitan area is an example of a functional region, with the suburbs organized around the node of the central city. The movement of certain phenomenon, such as diseases, can also create a functional region. For example, the Black Death was a disease that plagued Europe from 1347 to 1351. The disease originated in China and Inner Asia, and was transmitted to Europeans when a European army came into contact with the infected Asian population. The Black Death spread rapidly across Europe. In this example, the point of origin of the disease is the node, and the areas where the disease spread makes up the functional region. The influence of the central point of a functional region usually becomes weaker as the distance from that point increases. For example, the customer base of a particular business or store can be seen as a functional region. The store is the central point of the region, and the largest numbers of customers most likely live closest to the store. As distance increases from the store, there are probably fewer customers. With advances in transportation and communication, such as the Internet, the distance a functional region covers increases. Because the activities that connect places can change, the boundaries of functional regions are more likely to change.

perceptual region

The third type of region is a perceptual region, which is also called a vernacular region. Perceptual regions are determined by people's mental images, or perceptions, of places. Although people agree about the general location of a perceptual region, not everyone agrees about their exact locations or even their exact characteristics. The "heartland of America," "the Old West," and "Dixie" are examples of perceptual regions in the United States. People have particular associations with these regions, some of which are based on facts, but many of which are based on feelings or myths. Because people's attitudes about places and their characteristics can change, the boundaries and the characteristics of perceptual regions can change over time. For example, in the 19th century, many people's perceptions of "the West" might have included open plains, cowboys driving cattle along cattle trails, and Native Americans hunting buffalo. Today, when people think of "the West," they are more likely to think of Hollywood and the entertainment industry, the high-tech industry, or vacation destinations.

The Regions of Asia and the Pacific

What do you know about the regions located in Asia and the Pacific? How is the large continent divided geographically? Based on these features alone, what regions would you designate in Asia? What role do physical features play in defining geographic regions? The Southwest, dominated by the Arabian Peninsula, is known for its rich oil fields and the Tigris and Euphrates River Valleys. The region has historically served as a crossroads between Asia, Africa, and Europe. Central Asia features the Gobi Desert, Alpine mountains, and the Plateau of Tibet. North Asia consists of some of the coldest territories in Asia and includes Siberia and the Siberian Plateau. East Asia includes the Manchurian Plain and the fertile river valleys and flooding hazards along the Huang He and Yangtze Rivers. The region is also known for its industrial activity. East Asia islands include the Japanese archipelago and other mountainous islands. Southeast Asia includes Indian Ocean island chains, the Philippines, and the Malay Peninsula. The region also features tropical forests, deep oceanic trenches, volcanic mountains, and fertile lowlands.