Geography 50AC Midterm Review

The Plaza

The historic center of Los Angelos where Sonoratown and Chinatown overlap

Comstock Lode

A massive silver deposit in Nevada (the Eastern Sierra) financed by San Francisco financiers [see Brechin]

Inverted Minescape

A metaphorical concept that Brechin argues is seen in San Francisco, it allowed the city to grow higher and higher for every foot dug deeper and deeper into the mountains through new technologies (i.e. deidesheimer square).

Workingmen's Party of California

A nationalist anti-Chinese political party from 1877-1882. It arose during an economic depression and had elements of facism, supporting and eventually helping to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Secularization Act of 1833

A piece of legislation passed after Mexican independence in order to reduce the power of the Missions (which were largely loyal to Spain). It was followed by the redistribution of mission land to Californios.

Cubic Air Ordinance

A piece of legislation that required all residents have 500 cubic feet of air. It only applied in Chinatown as a discriminatory practice against house courts.

Cultural Appropriation

A process by which a dominant culture adopts, misuses, exploits, or/and fetishizes a minority cultures customs, practices, and knowledge to their own benefit (profit, pleasure, power...). Is a power practice taking away and assimilating aspects of a culture through privilege and a lack of understanding (if this definition doesn't make sense look it up). We talked about it in relation to contemporary times and the further removal of Native California group as well as other historically oppressed groups in California through these practices.

Resource Rushes

Periods of migration to a certain area with the goal of profiting from a (usually) newly exploitable resource. Includes the gold, health, land, and orange rushes in California.

Environmental Determinism

Physical geography determines human development, including biological and cultural traits

Frontier

Physical/imaginary/idealogical border. Not neutral or natural, and usually related to colonization. Processes that occur here are usually mechanisms of domination undertaken in favor of a dominant group.

Industrial Clustering

Placing factories of related industry in close proximity to maximize efficiency and reduce the need for transportation of supplies between factories.

Contado

The geographic area that a major city or urban center influences culturally, politically, economically, and socially

Free Labor Ideology

The idea that unfree labor (slavery, contract labor, etc) was a threat to a white male economic independence. Therefore legislation was created to segregate the labor force and allow white male dominance even in a "free" labor market.

Manifest Destiny

The idea that whites had to expand westward and christianize the savages of the wilderness. In doing so they were "spreading civilization"

"The Better City"

The idealized, americanized Los Angelos that excludes unsanitary and uncultured "slums" such as Sonoratown and Chinatown

Open Shop

The labor market in Los Angelos was this type, which banned unions

Mission Myth

The misrepresentation of native Californian's cultural eradication, appropriation, and assimilation by missions as a positive icon of historical California

Cultural Representation

The way a culture is represented in the wider world

Land-taking (frontier process)

A frontier process inseparable from native genocide that was undertaken by the Spanish, then independent Mexico, and finally the US in California. It helped establish today's distribution of power in society.

Joss House

A heathen (non Christian) temple. It usually refers to a Chinese temple and Joss=incense

Closed Shop

A labor market where high union membership and union requirements make workers follow certain expectations and force hirers to comply with union regulations.

Sonoratown

A Mexican "slum" in L.A. It wasn't just defined by poverty though, it was also defined by racial and intrinsic differences. In the early 1900s the Mexican community began to disappear as that part of Downtown Los Angeles became a desirable industrial center with many rail yards. By the 1930s the neighborhood had almost completely lost its Mexican residents and began being replaced with the new Chinatown.

Industrial suburb

A community near a large city with an industrial economy. They may be established as tax havens or as places where zoning promotes industry. Vernon, Emeryville, and CMD are examples of these.

Property Regime

A complex set of political and social principles, rules, and procedures that regulates control over, access to, and use of land and resources. It is established through the expropriation of land to create the public domain and distribution of public land (& its resource base). It was a form of capitalist penetration and became the principle for class in Alta California

Harvest Labor System

A farming system that requires mass amounts of workers only for the harvest of crops.

Nob Hill

A wealthy area of San Francisco made accesible by Cable Cars in 1892, bankers and stockbrokers such as Crocker built mansions here

Downstream Links

After Farming -Marketing Collectively s -Processing industries -Merchandising / Retailing -Consumption

Anti-Queue Law

Also known as the Pigtail Ordinance, the 1873 law forced Qing Chinese prisoners in San Francisco, California to have their hair cut within an inch of the scalp.

Ohlone

An Indian tribe native to the East Bay responsible for the construction of Shellmounds

"Vice Resort"

An area filled with immorality/greed and illegal or unseemly activities such as gambling, prostitution, etc. Chinatown was often considered to be one.

Central Manufacturing District

An area often owned privately and tailored to the needs of industrialists, supporting industry. Vernon in Los Angeles was modeled on Chicago's {term}. This was made possible by massive funding of Chicago capitalists.

Militia

An armed group of non-professional soldiers sponsored by the state.

Placer Mining

An early California gold rush mining tactic, involves panning for Gold in Sierra streams and rivers or mining surface pits. Compare to hydraulic mining.

Anthropogenic landscape

Areas of Earth's terrestrial surface where direct human alteration of ecological patterns and processes is significant, ongoing, and directed toward servicing the needs of human populations for food, shelter and other resources and services including recreation and aesthetic needs

White Supremacy

Attitudes, ideologies, and policies associated with the rise of blatant forms of white or European dominance over 'nonwhite' populations. The belief that whites are biologically different and superior to people of other races. Includes Manifest Destiny and free labor ideology

Upstream Links

Before Farming -Nurseries & breeders -Tools & machinery -Fertilizer (petrochemicals) and nutrients

Genocide

By U.N. definition: 1 or more must be committed with intent 1)committing acts with intent to destroy a national/racial/ethnic/religious group 2) killing/causing serious bodily injury to the groups 3) inflicting mental harm/physically destructive conditions of living 4) imposing measures to prevent births within a group 5) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Chinese Exclusion Act

Federal legislation preventing any Chinese immigrants from entering the country between 1882-1943

Complex hunter-gatherers

Hunting and gathering, but not just randomly searching for food in an environment. Intentional and complex manipulation of nature to make it more beneficial for humans. Societies characterized by social organization and interdependence beyond typical hunter-gatherer groups.

Trespass Grows

Illegal marijuana farms often located on public lands- often having environmental consequences such as runoff or deforestation

Bracero Program

In response to a "labor shortage" in WWII, this program was launched to get "supplementary labor" from Mexico to help with agricultural production. However, the Mexican workers were exploited for lower pay, because the agribusiness men didn't have to pay for the cost of housing as it was subsidized through the FPC (Farm Production Council)

Species-shifting (frontier process)

Inadvertent destruction in the form of pathogens and apolitical diease (e.x. vergin soil). Intentinal destruction of farmland, ecosystems,

Agricultural Buisiness

Industrial agriculture that took off after WWII, where grower's produce proceeds down the commodity chain. Much more profitable, productive, and mechanized than subsistence agriculture. Especially prevalent in California due to the large agricultural presence.

Resource Industrialization

Industrialization caused by the symbiotic relationship between industry & extraction. Mining supplies production (machinery & equipment), and resource Processing were industries that arose in San Francisco as a result of this.

Intimate Labor

It consisted of household chores, caring for children and family, cooking and cleaning, etc. It created strong bonds of community, mainly among women in house courts.

"Nobel Savage"

It refers to native Americans. It's calling them innocent, but also without any sort of technological advances. They are seen as frozen in time.

Land Grants

Large gifts of the land in Alta California by the Mexican government to Ranchers as a method of securing the border

Delano Grape Strike, 1965

Lead by the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee and the United Farm Workers (UFW), as well as individuals such as Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, farm workers organized strikes, consumer boycotts, marches, community organizing against the conditions that Delano growers subjected their workers to.

Act for the Government & Protection of Indians, 1850

Legalized white custody of Indian minors and Indian prisoners. This encouraged whites to arrest Indians for fake charges to get unpaid labor

Sidewalk Ordinance

Legislation targeted at making everyday life more difficult for people in SF Chinatown. One law banned "Yeo-ho" poles for transporting goods (slung across shoulders), therefore limiting commercial possibilities

Shellmounds

Ohlone burial/archeological sites that demonstrate the obfuscation of Indigenous cultures (Anderson lecture)

United Farm Workers

On organization based on class, not ethnic solidarity, which strengthened and enforced labor laws for farm workers. It operated mainly through coalitions which included unions, churches, students, civil rights groups, and others.

Emeryville

Once the location of historic Ohlone shell mounds Emeryville was developed by Joseph Emery who transformed this area into an industry and factory sector with low taxes.

The Chinese Theater

Originally talked about in the "Night Stroll Through Chinatown", cited by the author as an example of how Chinese culture is hedonistic, subhuman, emotionless, boring, old, other, etc.

SF Mining Stock Exchange (the 'Change')

Outlined in the Brechin reading, the San Francisco Stock and Exchange Board (also called the 'Change') pooled and channeled capital devoted to mining both domestically and internationally. They were notoriously used by mine owners to create speculation "bubbles" that only mine owners use to swindle money away from investors. The 'Change' as at time more similar to gambling than investment.

Racialization of Place

Particular landscapes help define, contest, or reinforce meanings of race, thus facilitating exploitation and domination. Where you are becomes who you are in the context of race: ie: chinatown

Neophytes

People new to a subject or belief, i.e. non-christians in the Mission system.

Racialization

Race-making. The representation and treatment of a group to highlight differences, often followed by institutionalization

Missions

Religious settlements run by Catholic priests and friars to convert Indians to christianity and "civilization".

House Court

Repurposed Californio adobes subdivided into multiple units to house large numbers of Mexican and Chinese laborers and their families in Los Angeles

"Hidden Stories"

Rumors, folktales, trickster stories, and other cryptic affirmations of Indian cultures told by subordinate groups in response to the elite's public record.

Hides & Tallow Trade

Spanish open California trade to Western Europe to trade leather. Vaquero's (missionized Indians) managed the ranches. Economy period before anglo capitalism.

Ecological Conquest

Species shifting, the movement of nonhuman, alien invaders into new areas (e.g. European microorganisms, weeds, crops, domesticated animals).

Bungalow Subdivisions

Suburbs that represented industrial freedom and housed the white working class. They creating the opportunity for land/home ownership in Los Angelos.

Vernon

The "private industrial city" created by John Leonis and his partners. It was exclusively industrial, and had a policy of negative population growth. It also limited taxes/public services. (it also would later annex LA's CMD)

Sawyer Decision

The 1884 California supreme court decision outlawing hydraulic mining due to its environmental consequences' effects on the property of farms downstream of mines. ex)pollution of the Sacramento river delta with runoff/sediment

Alta California

The Northern frontier of the Spanish empire, the land area that lay North of Mexico's N. border

"Instant statehood"

The US government granted California "instant statehood" in 1850. California state government was soon formed and began writing state laws skipping past a period of territorial apprenticeship. This was due to the resources that California had to offer.

Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo

The agreement between Mexico and the US that ended the Mexican-American war and resulted in Mexico ceding the northern half of its territory (Alta California) to the United States. It later led to the dispossession of land from Californios

California Land Claims Commission

The commission established after the treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo to "verify" Mexican land claims, ultimately leading to American dispossession of Californio land

Commodity Chain

The complex, multi-step process by which agribusiness produces consumer products. Includes: growers, marketing cooperatives, distributers, consumers, etc.

Social Closure

The creation of a group of legally defined inferiors. The process by which a groups seeks to establish or maintain its privilege through formal legislative actions

Californios

The elite and wealthy recipients of Mexican land grants, a class that was discriminated against by Anglo-Americans and had their land dispossessed

Bank of California

The first commercial bank in the Western US, opened in 1864 by William Ralston.

Chinatown

The forced segregation of Chinese into this area created a "city within a city".

State-Formation (frontier process)

The frontier process that led the Spanish to exploit/relocate/discipline/convert Indians through missions, and attempt to use them to settle the frontier, as a labor force, and secure the borders of the state [see Sandos]

The "Chinese Question"

The popular obsession with a perceived threat to white labor by Chinese immigrants, resulting in anti-Chinese ordinances

Geographic Industrialization

The process by which industrialization drives urban development and metropolitan expansion in a specific area, leading to the further industrialization/development of this area in a cyclical nature.

Branch-plant Industrialization

The process of companies establishing branches in other areas to sell to wider markets (adverting consumers). Many domestic companies established branch plants in LA industrializing much of the city.

Technological Innovation

The product of successful problem-solving, learning by doing, and experimental production. The creation of new technologies and the conversion of tacit into codified knowledge.

Capital accumulation

The transition of wealth from circulation among many individuals to a smaller group including Ralston and the Bank of California. It was encouraged by reinvestment into mining, technology, and industrialization in the 1870-80s by these elite groups.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge

The vast experience of native cultures in how to use, manage, respect, and coexist with other lifeforms. Includes environmental/resource conservation, sustainable economies, and harvesting wild resources

LA Chamber of Commerce

This LA govt. organization aimed to attract midwestern farmers to Los Angelos to help grow the economy and increase industrialization.

People v. Hall

This case conferred non-white status to Chinese people, which meant that they were ineligible for citizenship and could not testify in court

Federal Land Law (1851)

This law established the California Land Claims commission to validate Californio land claims, setting up a bureaucratic process by which Californios had their land dispossessed by the US government.

LA Times

This newspaper was bombed by union protesters in 1910, giving unions in Los Angelos a bad reputation.

CA Agricultural Labor Relations Act, 1975

This piece of legislation establishes collective bargaining and union rights for farmworkers. It was made possible through the efforts (boycott and strikes) of the UFW (united farm workers).

Hydraulic Mining

a method of mining by which water is sprayed at a very high pressure against a hill or mountain, washing away large quantities of dirt, gravel, and rock and exposing the minerals beneath the surface. It's very harmful to the environment as it causes flooding and massive erosion.

Growers

a person who grows large amounts of a particular crop(s) in Califonia apposed to a traditional "mom and pop" farm of the midwest. These are the indivduals making money off of labor exploitation, run the central valley, and fuel much of the states agro-business.

Geomorphic Regions

diversity of regions within a larger region

Technology Transfer

ie: cable cars, mining technologies that moved around, etc