Geography 106 Chapter 5 & 6
Islam
Arabic term that means submission to God's will A muslim is a member of the community of believers whose duty obedience and submission to the will of God. As a revealed religion, Islam recognizes the prophets of the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible, but to Muslims Muhammad is the last prophet and God's messenger on Earth.
What is the formula from chapter 3 for population growth? write out the formula and identify what each variable stands for.
G = (B-D) + (I-E) where G is population growth B is births D is deaths I is immigration E is emigration
cultural complex
The combination of traits characteristic of a particular group is known as a cultural complex. The avoidance of pork, the celebration of bar and bat mitzvahs, and other dietary, religious, and social practices constitute the cultural complex of Judaism, although it is important to note that even within the cultural complex of Judaism, variation exists among regions and sects
Show that globalization does not necessarily mean the world is becoming more homogeneous, and recognize that in some ways, globalization has made the local even more important than before
While globalization is undoubtedly reshaping the world and bringing different cultural groups closer together than they have ever been previously, there is no conclusive evidence that globalization leads to cultural homogenization. Instead, globalization seems to be a different process, which means that it is deployed differently in different places and experienced and responded to differently by the people who live in those places
cultural landscape
a characteristic and tangible outcome of the complex interactions between a human group and a natural environment
culture system
a collection of interacting elements that taken together shape a group's collective identity
hybridity
a mixing of different types; in cultural geography, hybridity is most often associated with movements across a binary of, for instance, the racial categories of black and white such that identities are more multiple and ambivalent
culture
a shared set of meanings that are lived through the material and symbolic practices of everyday life
cultural trait
a single aspect of the complex of routine practices that constitute a particular cultural group
materialism
a theory which emphasizes that the material world--its objects and nonhuman entities --is at least partly separate from humans and possesses the power to affect humans; materialism attempts to understand the ways that specific properties of material things affect the interactions between humans and nonhumans
identify how different cultural identities and status categories influence the ways people experience and understand landscapes, as well as how they are shaped by--and able to shape landscapes
among the most important relations are the cultural identities of race, class, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality. Often these identities come together in a group, and their influence in combination becomes central to our understanding of how group identity shapes space and is shaped by it
non-representational theory
an approach to human (and nonhuman) practices that explores how they are performed and what are their effects such as how music produces in humans both remembering and forgetting
cultural nationalism
an effort to protect regional and national cultures from the homogenizing impacts of globalization, especially from the penetrating influence of U.S. culture
cosmopolitanism
an intellectual and aesthtic openness towards divergent experiences, images, and products from different cultures.
Islamism
anti colonial, anti-imperial, and generally anti-core political movement In Muslim countries, Islamists resist core, especially Western, forces of globalization--namely modernization and secularization. Not all Muslims are Islamists, although Islamism is the most militant movement within Islam today
sacred spaces
area recognized by individuals or groups as worthy of special attention as a site of special religious experiences or events
religion
belief system and set of practices that recognize the existence of a power higher than humans
rites of passage
ceremonial acts, customs, practices, or procedures that recognize key transitions in human life, such as birth, menstruation, and other markers of adulthood such as marriage
language branch
collection of languages that possess a definite common origin but have split into individual languages
language group
collection of several individual languages that are part of a language branch, share a common origin, and have similar grammar and vocabulary
language family
collection of several languages believed to be related in their prehistorical origin
language
communicating ideas or feelings by means of a conventionalized system of signs, gestures, marks, or articulate vocal sounds
cultural geography
how space, place, and landscape shape culture at the same time that culture shapes space, place, and landscape. cultural geography focuses on the way space, place, and landscape shape culture at the same time that culture shapes space, place, and landscape
landscape as text
idea that landscapes can be read and written by groups and individuals
What are the three major ways in which states shape people
ideology institutions repression
digital divide
inequality of access to telecommunications and information technology, particularly the Internet
Landscape
is a term that means different things to different people. For some, the term brings to mind the design of formal gardens and parks, as in landscape architecture. For other, landscape signifies abucolic countryside or even the organization of residences and public buildings. For others, landscape calls to mind the artistic renderings of scenery, as in landscape painting. Geographers study the vernacular (ordinary) landscapes because they reflect the distinctive attributes of particular places or regions.
derelict landscapes
landscapes that have experienced abandonment, missuse, disinvestment or vandalism
understand how codes signify important information about landscapes, a process known as semiotics
to interpret our environment, we must learn how to read the codes that are written into the landscape. Landscape as different from each other as shopping malls and war memorials can be understood in terms of their semiotics, although it is important to appreciate that even when certain landscapes have intended meaning by those who have created them, those who perceive them may make their own sense of that landscape
folk culture
traditional practices of small groups, especially rural people with a simple lifestyle who are seen to be homogeneous in their belief systems and practices
postmodernity
view of the world that emphasizes an openness to a range of perspectives in social inquiry, artistic expression, and political empowerment
Geographers also study
"landscapes of power" such as clusters of corporate tower blocks, and "landscapes of despair" such as homeless encampments and derelict landscapes.
cultural hearths
the geographic origins or sources of innovations, ideas, or ideologies. language hearths are a subset of cultural hearths; they are the source areas of languages.
Interpret how place and space shape culture and conversely, how culture shapes place and space
A simple understanding of culture is that it is a particular way of life, such as a set of skilled activities, values, and meanings surrounding a particular type of economic practice. Geographers understand culture to be shaped by the places in which people live and make meaning from their lives. This means that social relations, politics, and economy all play a role in the production of cultural practices by different groups in different places
J.B. Jackson
John Brinckerhoff "Brinck"[1] Jackson, J. B. Jackson, (September 25, 1909, Dinard, France - August 28, 1996, La Cienega, NM) was a writer, publisher, instructor, and sketch artist in landscape design. Herbert Muschamp, New York Times architecture critic, stated that J. B. Jackson was "America's greatest living writer on the forces that have shaped the land this nation occupies." He was influential in broadening the perspective on the "vernacular" landscape.
probe the way that differences --especially gender, class, sexuality, race, and ethnicity are both products of and influences upon geography, producing important variations within, as well as between, cultures
Like most social scientists, geographers understand that cultural groups are not homogeneous. All women are not alike anymore than all working class people are. Where people live can have an important impact on their sexual identity, for instance, when they are living in a place that is homophobic
Based on reading from the book nd our discussion in class explain the meaning of: a) the politics of geography, and b) the geography of politics
The politics of geography is the notion that space is shape to articulate the interest of certain groups (from class). or the notion that the tactics of the state (or power) shapes geography (aka the areal differentiation of people & objects in space) [from book] b) the geography of politics is the notion that power is exerted through influence or control over space [from class] or the notion that the areal differentiation of people and objects in space has a real and measurable impact on politics [from the book]
compare and contrast the different ways that contemporary approaches in cultural geography interpret the role played by politics and the economy in establishing and perpetuating cultures and cultural landscapes
culture is not something that is necessarily tied to a place and thus a fact waiting to be discovered. Rather, the connections among people, places, and cultures are social creations that can be altered by new impulses from the economy or politics, for example, and are therefore always changing, sometimes in subtle and other times in more dramatic ways. As a result, a particular ethnic landscape may change dramatically after only a decade as the economy improves or declines and members of the group have access to additional or fewer resources that then shape their homes, vehicles, businesses, etc.
heterogeneous
diverse in character or content: a large and heterogeneous collection. • Chemistry of or denoting a process involving substances in different phases (solid, liquid, or gaseous). • Mathematics incommensurable through being of different kinds, degrees, or dimensions.
topophilia
emotions and meanings associated with particular places that have become significant to individuals
affect
emotions that are embodied reactions to the social and physical environment. Affect is also about the power of these emotions to result in or enable action
tribe
form of social identity created by groups who share a set of ideas about collective loyalty and political action
modernity
forward-looking view of the world that emphasizes reason, scientific rationality, creativity, novelty, and progress
genre de vie
functionally organized way of life that is seen to be characteristic of a particular cultural group
symbolic landscapes
geographers study symbolic landscapes because they reflect certain values or ideals-either those intended by the builders or financiers of particular places or those perceived by other groups. some individual buildings and structures are so powerfully symbolic that they come to stand for entire cities; Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Colosseum in Rome, and the Sugarloaf in Rio de Janeiro.
historical geography
geography from the past
describe how globalization has occurred in parallel with a transition from Modernity to postmodernity and assess how those two periods differ.
material consumption has become central to the repertoire of symbols, beliefs, and practices of postmodern cultures. As a result, the "culture industries" advertising, publishing, communications media, and popular entertainment--have also become important shapers of spaces, places, and landscapes as have global products. In this way, landscapes can become familiar in foreign places like a McDonald's in Bangkok. Thailand, or a fancy shopping mall in Istanbul, Turkey, that contains a wide array of global brands.
Muslim
member of the Islamic community of believers whose duty is obedience and submission to the will of God
world music
musical genre defined largely in response to the sudden increase of non-English-language recordings released in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s
Ordinary landscape the stereotypical New England townscape, for example, is widely taken to represent not just a certain type of region archietecture but the best that Americans have known
of an itimate, family-centered, God-fearing, morally conscious, industrious, thrifty, democraticcommunity.
Carl Sauer
one of the most influential geographers who taught at the University of California Berkeley. He was largely responsible for creating the "Berkeley School" of cultural geography
appreciate the conceptual changes that are taking place in cultural geography that include actor-network theory and non-representational theory
over the last decade, cultural geography has experienced a dramatic change in the way its practitioners think about the relationship between people and their worlds. These new ways of conceptualizing culture and space are still developing, but they focus on the importance of objects and material practices and how they shape the ways we experience and conduct our daily lives
Investigate how environment shapes people and how people shape environments
people not only filter information from their environments through neurophysiological and psychological processes but draw on personality and culture to produce cognitive images of their environment-pictures or representations of the world that can be called to mind through the imagination. Thus human-environment relationship results in a variety of ways of understanding the world around us as well as different ways of being in the world as information about our environment is filtered by people
actor-network theory
perhaps the most important influence on cultural geography in the twenty-first century has been actor-network theory (ANT), which is actually less of a theory and more of an orientation. Actor-network theory views the world as composed of "heterogeneous things" including humans and nonhumans and objects What makes ANT so interesting is that the approach attributes to nonhumans and objects as much force in the composition of social life as humans have. Rather than elevating humans as the superior species that determines all social practice and action, ANT recognizes that humans coexist with nonhumans (who may be other living species or inert objects) in a network that includes all sorts of social and material bits and pieces. Things are just as important to social life as are humans in an actor network.
recognize the place-making stands at the center of issues of culture and power relations and is a key part of the systems of meaning through which humans make sense of the world
places are the result of a wide range of forces from economic to social. Economically, places emerge through all sorts of transactions that result from the complexities of the land market. But places are also more than just real estate. They can reflect tensions between social groups as well as harmonious interaction.
humanistic approach
point of view that places the individual--especially individual values, meaning system, intention, and conscious acts--at the center of analysis
racialization
practice of categorizing people according to race or of imposing a racial character or context
semiotics
practice of writing and reading signs
popular culture
practices and meaning systems produced by large groups of people whose norms and tastes are often heterogeneous and change frequently, often in response to commercial products
race
problematic classification of human beings based on skin color and other physical characteristics
dialects
regional variations in standard languages
kinship
relationship based on blood, marriage, or adoption
hajj
religious pilgrimage
ethology
scientific study of the formation and evolution of human customs and beliefs
sexuality
set of practices and identities that a given culture considers related to each other and to those things it considers sexual acts and desires
ethnicity
socially created system of rules about who belongs and who does not belong to a particular group based upon actual or perceived commonality
diaspora
spatial dispersion of a previously homogeneous group
territoriality
specific attachment to individuals or people to a specific location or territory
proxemics
study of the social and cultural meaning that people give to personal space
cultural region
the areas within which a particular cultural system prevails