INTRODUCTION:
Cultural Geography

WHAT IS "CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY"?

Introduction
Definitions of "Culture"
Components of a Culture
Cultural Landscape
Sequent Occupance
Acculturation
Transculturation
Culture vs. Ethnicity

Introduction

"Cultural geography" is another of the "regional criteria" that we will applying to each of the world realms. (Do you know the other criteria? If not review the lecture on regional geography.) Below are some definitions and concepts that you will need to know. I want you to know more than just the definitions. You should be able to explain several examples from around the world (see the chapter objectives in the study guide). The index of your textbook will therefore come in handy . Use it.

[top]

Definitions of "Culture"

" . . . the sum total of the knowledge, attitudes, and habitual behavior patterns shared and transmitted by members of a society."

" . . . the learned patterns of thought and behavior characteristic of a population or society."

" . . . The attitudes, objectives, and technical skills of a society."

"Culture" does NOT mean "high culture" or a "cultured person". It is not just the arts, but "culture" includes all learned behavior.

Culture can be divided into the following components:

• Material Culture
• Social Institutions
• Attitudes Toward the Unknown
• the Arts
• Language

[top]

Components of a Culture:

1. Material Culture
2. Social Institutions
3. Attitudes Toward the Unknown
4. the Arts
5. Language

[top]

Material Culture

• homes
• tools
• transportation
• clothes
• cities
• furniture
• etc.

[Components]

Social Institutions

• government
• the economy
• education
• family
• religion
• tribe, clan
• etc.

[Components]

Attitudes Toward the Unknown

• superstitions
• religion
• science

the Arts

• music
• dance
• theater
• literature
• architecture
• painting
• sculpture
• etc.

[Components]

Language

• language is a very important component of culture
• culture is LEARNED behavior
• culture is transmitted through language
• top 100 languages by population:
  http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/top100.html

[top]

Cultural Landscape

DEFINITION:

• the forms placed on the physical landscape by human activities
• how people arrange the physical space around them

INCLUDES:

buildings, roads, fields, cities, etc.
any change to the physical landscape

[top]

Sequent Occupance

DEFINITION

the notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape

EXAMPLES:

Bolivia: The present cultural landscape of Bolivia includes parts from the early Incan Indians, and from the Spanish colonists who conquered them, and finally from the period after independence. Parts of all these successive cultures make up the cultural landscape of Bolivia today.

 [top]

Acculturation

DEFINITION

• cultural modifications resulting from intercultural borrowing
• usually this implies changes in an indigenous culture caused by the imposition of a technologically more advanced culture (e.g. colonists)
• a one-way transfer of cultural traits

EXAMPLES

The Amerindians of North America (US and Canada) were acculturated into western, European, society. The culture of the colonists replaced that of the Native Americans.

[top]

Transculturation

DEFINITION

the two-way exchange of cultural traits between societies in close contact

EXAMPLE

Mexico: The current cultural landscape of Mexico is the result of a mixing of the earlier Amerindian cultures and the Spanish culture of the European colonists. The result is an entirely new culture.

[top]

Culture vs. Ethnicity

-they are not the same
-culture is learned
-ethnicity is biological
-the same ethnic group can be divided culturally:

• In Rwanda: Hutus and Tutsis are of the same ethnic group but they are different cultural groups
• In Bosnia, the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims are all from the same Slavic ethnic group, but they are different cultural groups. For example, they speak different languages and practice different religions.

-"Ethnic conflicts" are usually "cultural conflicts". Often they are not between different races, but rather between different cultural groups.

[top]