Cultural Geography

Folk Dishes From Around The World: Japanese Sushi

- All of these forms are based on original forms of folk food dishes. - Sushi is a simple but artistic form of folk food from Japan. - Sushi has also become stylized in the contemporary form with special rolls, makizushi or just maki. - The condiment wasabi is also part of this folk food tradition.

The Cultural Landscape

- Almost everything we see and hear in the human landscape expresses some form of culture. - Culture is complex, and trying to take it all in and make sense of it can be confusing. - We can see the cultural landscape in the form of signs and symbols in the world around us. - Each component of culture is expressed in a multitude of ways that signify and symbolize cultural influences. - These historical influences can be as simple as the language used on a street sign or as complex as the cooking methods and spice mix in Louisiana Cajun food.

Country Music

- An example of cultural synthesis is country music in the US and Canada. - It is often thought of as a product of American culture and is strongly tied to folk music traditions such as bluegrass. - When we research the origins of country music, we find a culmination of influences from the Scots-Irish, the German, and African immigrants and slaves in the American South and Appalachia following the American Revolution. - The mixture of musical sounds, vocabulary, rhythms, and instruments from these four culture groups came together to form a new style of music, as well as later developing into other American musical styles like jazz, the blues, and rock and roll.

Modern v.s. Contemporary Architecture

- Architects have a distinct modern period of architecture which differs from new, or contemporary forms. - Modern means architecture developed during the twentieth century that expresses geometric, ordered forms such as the 1950's homes of Frank Lloyd Wright or the rectangular steel and glass skyscrapers built in the 1970's and 1980's. - The contemporary architecture of the present is more organic, with the use of curvature. - Postmodern is a category within contemporary that means that the design abandons the use of blocky rectilinear shapes in favor of wavy, crystalline, or bending shapes in the form of the home or building. - Contemporary architecture can also incorporate green energy technologies, recycled materials, or non-traditional materials like metal sheeting on the exterior.

Major Language Families

- Around the world, there are a small number of major language families represented by the early or prehistoric language roots. - Each language family can be broken into language groups. - Some larger language families such as the Indo- European and Sino- Tibetan can be broken down into language subfamilies and then into smaller language groups. - The Indo- European concept is derived from linguistic analysis and genetic evidence of prehistoric migrations from the Indian subcontinent into Europe. - These early immigrants brought their Indo- European root language with them, which then divided locally and evolved into the contemporary European languages of today.

List of components of culture

- Art - Architecture - Language - Music - Film and Television - Food - Clothing - Social Interaction - Religion - Folklore - Land Use

Two kinds of music: Country and Western

- Bluegrass has heavily influenced contemporary country music, and more recently, so has rock and roll. - The difference between bluegrass and country is that country music tends toward the guitar as the lead instrument. - The guitar is linked back from country to "Western" music and from there, back to the Spanish Americans of colonial Mexico and the American Southwest. - Besides Kentucky, there are the other hearths, or historic development cores, of country music.

Cockney

- Cockney rhyming slang is an odd but humorous use of code phrases to describe everyday situations. - In slang, "going up the apples" means going up the stairs; stairs rhymes with pears, heard in the fruit markets as "apples and pears," and thus, stairs is replaced with apples.

The Components of Culture Explained

- Combined, the many components come together to identify and define a single cultural group or nation.

What is Culture?

- Culture is the shared experience, traits, and activities of a group of people who have a common heritage. - While a definition of culture technically exists, its too abstract in nature to be of any use.

Language continued

- Depending upon where you are in a larger linguistic region, the way a common language is spoken can sound different, depending upon who is speaking it. - In the global English linguistic region, dialect changes from nation to nation. - Although the English spoken by English people and Australian people sounds similar, there is a distinct "strain" of English spoken in Australia with a variety of different word sounds and vocabulary. - Within countries, dialect can change from region to region, such as the changes heard when traveling in the US from New England to the American South.

Art

- Different artistic forms are important signs of a cultural imprint on the landscape.

Clothing

- Different clothing styles are other signs of a cultural imprint on the landscape. - Clothing is a conduit for cultural globalization.

Film and Television

- Different forms of film and television are important signs of a cultural imprint on the land. - These media forms are major conduits for cultural globalization.

Social Interaction

- Different types of social interaction are culturally constructed, meaning they were traditions devised by a specific culture group. - Physical greetings are a basic example of culturally different social interaction. - In the West, a handshake is a common physical greeting, whereas in Japan, the bow still holds as the primary formal greeting. - The traditional New Zealand Maori physical greeting is the pressing together of the forehead and noses.

Judaic Buildings and Places

- There is not a common architectural design style to synagogues. - The most holy place in Judaism is the Western Wall of the former Temple of Solomon, next to the Dome of the Rock. - Known as the Wailing Wall, the old foundation walls feature large rectangular stone blocks where Jews pray and place written prayers in the cracks between the blocks.

Know your World Religions

- These traditions can be further broken down into major religious groups.

Great Britain English

- Even within Great Britain, varieties of dialect are shaped in part by national heritage. - English spoken in England proper is quite different from English in the other nations or culture areas of Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, or the Isle of Man. - These variations are due in part to the degree of Celtic influence and the degree to which Anglo-Saxon invaders, who brought their Germanic language with them, settled in the region during the first millennium C.E. - What some refer to as the King's English or "posh" English is linguistically known as received pronunciation. - Cockney English is the language of the working-class areas of the East London docklands and surrounding neighborhoods, which sounds distinctly not posh.

Fiddlin' and Pickin'

- Folk traditions in Appalachia are often realized by the playing of the fiddle, a variant of the European violin, and the banjo- and instrument of African origin. - The most popular folk music type in the region is bluegrass, which originated in Kentucky. - In bluegrass, fiddle and banjo are the lead instruments.

Food

- Food is a material form of culture that varies regionally and is rooted in a number geographic ways. - Continental cuisine refers to the formal food traditions that emerged from mainland Europe in the 1800's. - It is embodied in haute cuisine, French for "high cooking", where traditionally a main meat course is served with a flour, cream, or wine-based sauce and side dishes of vegetables and potato. - This style of cooking can also include regional influences from folk traditions in France such as escargots from Provence in Southern France and coq au vin (rooster in red wine sauce) found in a number of regions- these are foods of the French farmer raised to a higher form.

Social Interaction continued

- Formal, non-touching cheek kissing is another example. - Kiss four times in Paris, France, upon greeting, twice on each side; in Serbia and the Netherlands, three times, right side first; twice in Spain, Austria, and Scandinavia; no kisses in Germany and the UK; and a variable number of kisses in Italy and Greece, where if you don't know the local rules, it's better to just extend a handshake. - Personal space also varies from country to country. - In Peru, it's considered rude not to sit in an empty seat next to someone, even if they're a stranger.

French Language

- French itself has long been a language used to bridge the linguistic gap between people of different national heritage. - So much that the term lingua franca was coined to describe its utility as a bridge language. - France has been the center for learning, literature, and diplomacy. - There was also a number of French colonies around the world, and Great Britain has long had territorial claims in France, necessitating French literacy among British aristocrats, diplomats, and merchants. - Today English is accepted as the global lingua franca as different forms of popular culture media, the Internet, and the business world are dominated by the English language. - A notable use is that English is the required language of all airline pilots and air traffic controllers around the world. - This is done mostly for safety reasons, but is evidence of the US and Britain's international business dominance in the post- World War II era.

Europeans from India?

- Genetic research shows that almost all Europeans are derived genetically from populations that in prehistoric times inhabited the Indian subcontinent.

Hindu- Buddhist Tradition

- Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism. - The oldest Universalizing religions began with Hinduism 5,000 years ago. These polytheistic denominations spread throughout Asia by the 1200s C.E. - The commonalities ate that there are many levels of existence, the highest being nirvana, where someone achieves total consciousness or enlightenment. - Ones soul is reincarnated over and over into different forms. Karma, the balance between good and evil deeds in life, determines the outcome of reincarnation into a lower, similar, or higher form of existence in the next life.

Language

- In terms of official languages, the US federal government has not designated one. - Some states have English- only laws and provisions. - These affect education standards and state government publications such as driver's licensing exams, since much of the US tends to be monolingual (knowing one language- English- only). - Others states such as California accept that they have a large multilingual immigrant population and made provisions to provide some services in multiple languages including Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese. - In Canada, there are two official languages: English and French. - Canada is bilingual.

The Largest Members of theses language families

- Indo- European (2.9 billion people) - Sino- Tibetan (1.3 billion people) - Niger- Congo (435 million people) - Afro- Asiatic (375 million people) - Austronesian (346 million people, from Southeastern Asia, Oceania, and Hawaii) - Dravidian (230 million people, from on and around the Indian subcontinent) - Altaic (165 million people, from Eastern Europe through Central and Eastern Asia) - Japanese (123 million people) - Tai- Kadai (81 million people)

Abrahamic Tradition

- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. - Each of these religions has similar scriptural descriptions of the earths Genesis and the story of Abraham as a mortality tale of respect for the will of God or Allah. - Each is a monotheistic belief system with a singular supreme being. There can also be sub- deities such as saints, angles, and archangels. - Significance is placed upon prophecy that predicts the coming or return of a messianic figure that defeats the forces of a satanic evil for souls of followers.

Music

- Like language, music is a form of non-material culture that has geographic roots and regional variation.

Folk Music Forms and World Music

- Many of the recordings sold today in the US and Canada as World Music are actually folk musicians from other culture groups. - Celtic folk music traditions are played anywhere Celtics, Irish, Welsh, Scots, Manx, Galicians, or Bretons or their migrant descendants are found. - Irish Celtic music has a particularly large following. - The traditional music features a multitude of instruments including the fiddle, flutes, the tin whistle, harp, concertina accordion, the bodhran drum and "Uilleann" or Irish pipes. - It is common to hear Pan- Celtic music that draws from more than one Celtic region and utilizes other non- Celtic instruments like guitar, banjo, and bouzouki.

Islamic Buildings and Places

- Mosques can take a variety of forms, through many have central domes. - The giveaway feature of a mosque is one or more minarets, narrow towers that are pointed on top. - Almost all mosques are built on an angle that places the main prayer area toward Mecca.

Folkies and Pop stars

- Music that is original to a specific culture is categorized as folk music. - Folk music traditions often incorporate instruments unique to that region or have orchestrations that are specific to that culture. - Folk song lyrics often incorporate cultural stories and religious tradition, which can be described as folklore. - Popular culture generates a global flow of pop music that often has the effect of drowning out local folk music traditions from radio and other media. - In the cases where you do hear electronic instrumentation in folk music, this indicates a form of acculturation in which folk traditions are accepting the influence of popular music.

Housing Types

- New England: Small one-story pitched roof "Cape Cod" style or the irregular roof "Saltbox" with one long pitched roof in front and a sort of low-angle roof in back. - Federalist or Georgian: Refers to the housing styles of the late 1700's and early 1800's in Anglo-America. These are often two- or three-story urban town homes connected to one another. Architectural elements around windows and roof lines feature classical Greek and Roman designs and stone carvings. As stand-alone buildings, these are symmetrical homes with central doorways and equal numbers of windows on each side of the house. - The I-house: A loose form of Federalist and Georgian influence on the average family home in the US and Canada. Simple rectangular I-houses have a central door with one window on each side of the home's front and three symmetrical windows on the second floor. As the I-house style diffused westward, the rectangle shape and symmetry was lost. Later I-houses have the door moved to the side and have additions onto the back or side of the house. The I-house giveaways are the fireplaces on each end of the house and an even-pitched roof. The loss of form as the I-house moved across the Appalachian Mountains to the Midwest and across the Great Lakes to the Prairie Provinces is an example of relocation diffusion.

Food continued

- Nouvelle cuisine is the contemporary form of the continental styles mainly from France, Spain, and Italy. - Wolfgang Puck is also seen as a proponent of fusion cuisine, where more than one global tradition is incorporated in dishes. - Hawaii's location makes it a place of heavy immigration from these parts of the world, where cultural synthesis in food and other cultural components such as music takes place.

Religion

- Religions, also referred to as belief systems by some social scientists, are as numerous as languages. - Specific religions are drawn from a number of larger global groups. - Religions can characterized by their expanse: Universalizing religions accept followers from all ethnicities worldwide; as opposed to ethnic religions, which are confined to members of a specific culture group. - All organized religions have one or more books of scripture, said to be written of divine origin. - They also have formal doctrine that governs religious practice, worship, and ethnical behavior in society. - Religions and their component denominations can also be understood by their ability to compromise and change ideologically. - Compromising religions are often cited for the ability to reform or integrate other beliefs into their doctrinal practices. - Fundamentalists are known to have little interest in compromising their beliefs or doctrine and strictly adhere to scriptural dictates. - Fundamentalists tend to focus on particular relevant or legal in contemporary life.

Pidgin, Creole, and Patois

- Slang is similar to other heavily modified dialects of pidgin English. - Pidgin languages are simplified forms of the language that use key vocabulary words and limited grammar. - Pidgin language forms can evolve into their own individual language groups over time. - In Haiti, French Creole is spoken, which incorporates continental French with African dialectal sounds and vocabulary. - Patois is like the one spoken in the islands of Martinique or Reunion, formed by local or immigrant linguistic syntheses. - Pidgin, Creole, and patois can all be thought of as syncretic language forms that integrate both colonial and indigenous language forms.

Hindu Buildings and Places

- Temple and shrines tend to have a rectangular-shaped main body and feature one or more short towers of carved stone. - The towers often feature stepped sides and display carvings of the heads and faces of deities. - The most famous example of this design is the temple complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Buddhism Buildings and Places

- Temples and shrines vary depending on which Buddhist tradition is followed in the region. - In Nepal and Tibet, a temple can be a stupa, with a dome or tower featuring a pair of eyes. - In East Asia, the tower-style pagoda with several levels that each feature winged roofs extending outward is common. - Temples and shrines in China and in Shinto Japan feature one- or two- story buildings with large, curved, winged roofs. - Temples are often guarded by large lion statues, such as hose at the Temple of the Sun and Moon in the Forbidden City of Beijing. - Temples in Southeast Asia tend to have several towers with thin pointed spires that point outward at an angle.

Caste System in India

- The Hindu scriptures describe a cosmology (a belief in the structure of universe) in which there are several levels of existence, from the lowest animal forms to human forms and then higher animal forms, which are considered sacred, such as cattle, elephants, and snakes. - The levels are known as chakras. - As a soul is reincarnated it can be elevated to a higher chakra, if the soul has a positive karmic balance. - Karma is the balance between the good and evil deeds in one's life. - Once someone is born into a caste, he remains there for the rest of his life, no matter how rich or poor he becomes. - The lowest human forms, dalits, are considered less holy due to their distance from nirvana on the chakras, whereas the Brahmans, the highest human form, are considered the priesthood of Hindus due to their relatively close position to the enlightened. - India's government has initiated a number of efforts to eliminate the caste system.

Animist Religions

- There are hundreds of animist belief systems.

Anatolian or Kurgan Theories

- There are two competing theories regarding the origins of European language, each with their own hearth, or launching point. - The Anatolian theory holds that this group of migrants from the Indian subcontinent and their language were for some time concentrated in the peninsula that makes up most of present-day Turkey, known historically as Asia Minor or Anatolia. - A large migration crossed the Hellespont into continental Europe and spread outward into what was possibly a relatively unpopulated region. - The Kurgan theory holds that the same group of migrants from the Indian subcontinent instead made their way into Central Asia, and then migrated across the Eurasian steppe into central and Western Europe, taking their language with them. - Without significant archaeological discovery or possibly extensive genetic research, it will be difficult to prove whether either theory holds true.

Traditional Architecture

- Traditional architecture can express one of two patterns in building type. - One form of traditional architecture seen in new commercial buildings incorporates the efficiency and simplicity of modern architecture into a standard building design with squared walls and utilizes traditional materials like stone, brick, steel, and glass. - The other expression of traditional architecture seen in housing based upon folk house designs from different regions of the country. - New homes built today often incorporate more than one element of folk house design like a hybrid Swiss chalet- Williams-burg- style home covered in stucco, with a clay tile roof.

Christian Buildings and Places

- Traditional houses of worship tend to have a central steeple or two high bell towers in the front of the building. - The steeple is typical of smaller churches, and bell towers are found in larger churches and cathedrals. - Basilicas, like St. Peters in the Vatican or St. Paul's Cathedral in London, have central domes similar to the US Capitol building. - Symbolically, older churches, cathedrals, and basilicas feature a cross-shaped floor plan.

Animist Tradition

- Various ethnic, tribal, and forms of nature worship. - Through geographically unrelated, these groups have common themes, worship practices, and mortality takes, which define a right and ethical way to live. - Animus means spirit in Latin. Animists share the common belief that items in nature can have spiritual being, including landforms, animals, and trees.

Reading the Cultural Landscape

- We can think about the cultural landscape as a form of text that can be read. - We can read the signs and symbols that we see within the different components of culture and understand that place's cultural background and heritage. - What we find is that some things are original to a single culture, but most things in the cultural landscape are the product of cultural synthesis or syncretism- the blending together of two or more cultural influences.

Jainism

- Who: A fundamentalist interpretation of Hinduism. - When: Around 2,900 years before present. - Where: Western India. - Scripture: Several texts collectively known as Agamas. The most commonly cited is the Tattvartha Sutra. - Doctrine: At the core of religious practice is the complete respect for all other animal life, in that every living soul is potentially a divine God. Followers are strict vegetarians and often wear face masks to prevent the inhalation of insects. - Denominations: Three main groups exist that differ in practice and worship. - Historical Diffusion: Some Jain communities relocated to places such as Great Britain during the colonial period, 1830s to 1940s. Mohandas Gandhis mother was a devout Jain and her compassion for all life influenced her sons civil rights and peace activism.

Buddhism

- Who: An ideological following that rejected he caste system and the Hindu practices. - When: About 2,500 years before present. - Where: Hearth in the Gangetic Plain of North Central India and spread throughout Asia. - Scripture: Early Hindu texts combined with the Tipitaka, part of which contains the life and teachings of Siddharrha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. - Doctrine: Different doctrinal texts. A main doctrinal difference with Hinduism is the belief that nirvana can be achieved in a single lifetime, with intensive study, meditation, and moral thought. This is through an understanding of the effects of suffering on human life and the following of a "Middle Way" or non- extremist pathway toward enlightenment. Buddhism also rejected the Hindu caste system as oppressive and not in line with Buddhists view of human suffering. - Denominations: Three distinct traditions: Tibetan; Southeast Asian; and East Asian, each broken into smaller regional and philosophical denominations. Tibetan Buddhists tend to be Universalizing, accepting westerners into their community but uncompromising in their beliefs. Theravada tends to be far less universalizing and does not compromise their traditions; Mahayana Buddhism is both universalizing and compromising. - Historical Diffusion: Several example of Buddhism relocating across physical barriers: Tibetan Buddhism across the Himalayas and Tarim Basin desert to Siberia and Mongolia; Theravada from Sri Lanka across the Bay of Bengal to Southeast Asia; and Mahayana across the Himalayas to Eastern China.

Hinduism

- Who: South Asians and some Southeast Asians. - When: Earliest forms 7,500 years before present. - Where: Mainly India; also today Bali in Indonesia, London, Manchester, and other parts of the former British Empire, with significant populations in Guyana, Trinidad, Fiji, Malaysia, and South Africa. - Scripture: Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and other early Sanskrit religious texts. - Doctrine: The main personal practice is to work continuously toward multiple reincarnations and eventually nirvana. Practice of temple- based worship and festivals to praise particular supreme gods, including humanistic forms Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna, and animal forms Ganesha and Naga. Several doctrinal writings depict the historical moral traditions and practices. - Denominations: Different denominations are often based upon cults to deities. And based upon a hierarchical caste system, which is based upon the reincarnation principle, in which people are born into a particular social level where they remain for the rest of their lives. - Historical Diffusion: Expansion diffusion from the Hindu hearth in Northern India. Later relocation diffusion across the Bay of Bengal to Southeast Asia and to Indonesia where a remnant population is found today on the island of Bali.

Voodoun (Voodoo)

- Who: West African; Afro- Brazilian and Afro- Caribbean descendants. - When: From prehistory to present. - Where: Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, and other states in the region; Haiti, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Brazil, and other small communities in the region. - Scripture: None. System based upon multiple deities that control different parts of the lived world. Like other animist groups, shamanism is part of the system of worship. - Doctrine: Depending upon the community. Common practices often attempt to bring worshippers in contact with deities and family ancestors in the spiritual world through different ceremonies, dance and sacrificial practices. - Denominations: Distinct difference depending upon region and the degree of influence from parallel Christian worship by Voodoun followers. - Historical Diffusion: From West Africa relocation diffusion by forced migration under European- directed slavery to the Caribbean and coastal American mainland areas such as northern Brazil, Belize, and Louisiana.

Native American

- Who?: The pre- Columbian civilizations in the Americas and some descendants. - When?: From the last period of glaciation. - Where?: Alaska to the Tierra del Fuego. - Scripture?: None. System based upon belief in a supreme or Great Spirit that oversees the universe. Instead, spiritual interpretation is provided by shamans, sometimes referred to as "medicine men" who are practitioners that lead worship and religious rites. - Doctrine: Depends upon tribal following. Prayers or appeals to sun, moon, animal spirits, and climatic features are significant in most practices. - Denominations: Hundreds of different tribal interpretations. - Historical Diffusion: By migration diffusion north to south through the Americas.

Concepts

- Within the built environment of the human landscape, we find a multitude of architectural forms that are the product of cultural influence. - When new buildings are constructed, much news is made over innovative designs in modern and contemporary architecture. - This is in contrast to the existing forms of traditional architecture, some of which has been used for centuries.

Hummus

-The Moroccan folk food tradition utilizes a number of regional ingredients from the Mediterranean and North Africa.

Five Levels within the human chakra that define the caste system in Hinduism (from highest to lowest)

1. Brahmans - The priestly caste. Responsible for temples and leading religious worship. - Some can be selected as high government officials. Others may eschew all material possessions to live as monks, who might live as hermits meditating or as acteics who sit on sidewalks and performs prayers for those who provide their food donations. 2. Kshatriyas - The aristocratic and warrior caste. Despite their political power, hereditary princes and kings still bow to the Brahmans. - Many are landowners, government leaders, and wealthy business people. 3. Vaisyas - The merchant and professional caste. - These tend to be the doctors, lawyers, accountants, and middle-ranking officials in the government. - Mohandas Gandhi was born into the vaisya caste and trained as a lawyer prior to his life as a human rights leader. 4. Sudras - The caste of tradespeople and farmers. - The caste is broken up into several hundred sub-castes, or jati, including potters, glass workers, and jewelers. 5. Dalits - The "untouchables," a name derived for their low position in the system and considered unholy by higher castes. Dalits were often segregated from other Hindu housing areas and social networks. - Dalit sub-castes were divided among trades and duties in the community such as leather work, cleaners of train stations, and sewers. - Elected in 1997, Indian President K.R. Narayanana was born into the dalit caste, and he has been a symbol of affirmative action for the untouchables.