Hide Notes 

Slide 1: Cultural Geography With Welcome to Angela (Skinner) Orr 1
Slide 2: This week we will: ► Study topics Chapter 1 and some introductory  PowerPoint slides will be available online at http://phoenixgeography.blogspot.com 2
Slide 3: What is Geography? You might have thought, before taking this course, that Geography is all about: 3
Slide 4: What is Geography? You might have thought, before taking this course, that Geography is all about: ► Maps 4
Slide 5: What is Geography? You might have thought, before taking this course, that Geography is all about: ► Maps 5
Slide 6: What is Geography? ► Where things are in the world 6
Slide 7: What is Geography? ► The study of Earth 7
Slide 8: What is Geography? ► Rocks and landforms 8
Slide 9: What is Geography? ► How humans and the environment interact with one another 9
Slide 10: What is Geography? ► Maps ► Where things are in the world ► The study of Earth ► Rocks or landforms ► How humans and the environment interact with one another ► (What else?) 10
Slide 11: What is Geography? If you thought geography was about any of these, you are correct. Geography is about all of these things… …AND MORE!!! 11
Slide 12: The most important question in Geography is: Why is it there? 12
Slide 13: Where did “Geography” come from? Geo- comes from Greek “ge” = “Earth” geoid geology geometry -graphy comes from Greek “graphe” = “writing” or “description” (Does it remind you of “graph”?) 13
Slide 14: Who were the first geographers? The Greeks were not the first to “do” Geography… Mesopotamian land ownership map on a clay tablet 14
Slide 15: Who were the first geographers? Egyptian gold mine map on papyrus 15
Slide 16: Who were the first geographers? ► The Greeks  codified it, broadened it, deepened it, named it, lived it ► These were the first geographers in the Western tradition, and their ideas have been handed down over thousands of years ► The real reason we follow in the Greeks’ footsteps?  The ideas contained in their works survived and were translated into other languages 16
Slide 17: A Brief History of the Early Development of Geography ► Western Geography—Greece and Rome   Development of geometric principles Eratosthenes, Strabo, Hipparchus and Ptolemy 17
Slide 18: Asian Geography Academic knowledge was highly-prized ► Japan, Korea, and China all were engaging in extensive trade long before European explorers ► 18
Slide 19: China ► Expansion of the Chinese empire  Needed to know what was IN that empire (resources, cultures, wealth, areas of potential political threats or alliances, etc.) ► Chinese geographers created extensive maps, wrote detailed descriptions of culture groups and physical environments 19
Slide 20: Muslim Geographers ► One of the tenants (the “pillars”) of Islam is that every able-bodied Muslim must make a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca (in what is, today, Saudi Arabia) at least once in a lifetime Pilgrimages to Mecca offered opportunities for observation and description, from Africa to Spain to India and throughout Southwest Asia As these pilgrims traveled, they wrote about what they saw and experienced, and mapped out land and seas 20 ► ►
Slide 21: Immanuel Kant—18th Century philosopher ► Order out of chaos  He proposed three Categories of Academic Disciplines… 21
Slide 22: Immanuel Kant—18th Century philosopher Wrote of the Categories of Academic Disciplines: 1. Systematic Sciences—orderly, methodical, subject matter is easily classified (Physics, Geology, Botany, Zoology, etc.) 2. Temporal Sciences—the dimension of time (History, Archaeology, Paleontology) 3. Spatial Sciences—the dimension of space (Geography, Geophysics*, Astronomy) The map is a geographer’s primary spatial tool 22
Slide 23: The Fundamentals ► 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Every study of Geography incorporates one or more of the following 5 Fundamental Concepts in Geography: Location Place Distribution Circulation Region 23
Slide 24: The 5 Fundamental Spatial Concepts of Geography ► 1. Location—study of where something is found in Earth space 24
Slide 25: The 5 Fundamental Spatial Concepts of Geography ► 2. Place—study of the site and situation characteristics of a particular portion of space 25
Slide 26: The 5 Fundamental Spatial Concepts of Geography ► 2. Place—study of the site and situation characteristics of a particular portion of space  “Sense of Place” is an important geographical concept 26
Slide 27: 27
Slide 28: 28
Slide 29: 29
Slide 30: The 5 Fundamental Spatial Concepts of Geography ► 3. Distribution— study of the spatial pattern of the locations of things on Earth’s surface 30
Slide 31: The 5 Fundamental Spatial Concepts of Geography ► 4. Circulation—study of the movement of objects, people, and ideas on Earth’s surface 31
Slide 32: 32
Slide 33: The 5 Fundamental Spatial Concepts of Geography ► 5. Region— study of an area on Earth’s surface that exhibits some form of spatial cohesion reflected by a homogeneity of specific features or functional linkages to a central node (WHAAAA???) 33
Slide 34: Functional linkages to a central node Homogeneity of specific features 34
Slide 35: The 5 Fundamental Spatial Concepts of Geography (review) ► ► 1. Location—study of where something is found in Earth space 2. Place—study of the site and situation characteristics of a particular portion of space 3. Distribution—study of the spatial pattern of the locations of things on Earth’s surface 4. Circulation—study of the movement of objects, people, and ideas on Earth’s surface 5. Region—study of an area on Earth’s surface that exhibits some form of spatial cohesion reflected by a homogeneity of specific features or functional linkages to a central node 35 ► ► ►
Slide 36: Geography is holistic ► Interested in interrelationships ► Informed by many other sciences  Geography is actually the Mother of many other fields of science! ► Test your professor!  Name a field which cannot in some way be studied by a geographer 36
Slide 37: The Subdivisions of Geography ► Geography can be divided into any number of subfields. The main divisions are:  Physical Geography ►Biogeography is sometimes considered a part of physical geography  Human Geography  Technical Geography 37
Slide 38: Physical Geography ► [Don’t write this down, yet!] The spatial analysis of the physical elements and processes of natural phenomena (tornadoes, earthquakes, precipitation patterns, etc.) in the space accessible to human beings and their instruments (within the hydrosphere, biosphere, lithosphere and atmosphere—and, some would argue, the solar system).  Subfields include geomorphology, climatology, hydrogeography, etc.  Maintains connections with all other physical sciences 38
Slide 39: Definition of Physical Geography ► Physical geography is the study of Earth’s natural systems, their spatial distributions, and interactions. It is the study of the natural and human-induced processes that shape the surface of our planet. 39
Slide 40: Biogeography ► The study of the spatial distribution of plants and animals.  Subfields include phytogeography, zoogeography, pedology (cross-over with physical geography), etc.  Often considered a subfield of Physical Geography 40
Slide 41: Human Geography ► The study of how people use the land, how they perceive it and relate to it; the spatial variations between human groups  Subfields include: cultural geography, economic geography, urban geography, political geography, ethnic geography, geodemography, religious geography, geolinguistics, proxemics, etc.  Maintains connections with all other social sciences 41
Slide 42: Technical Geography ► All of the technical specialties within the field which assist geographic studies.     Cartography (GIS) Remote sensing Statistical studies Maintains connections with information technologies, mathematics, computer sciences, etc. 42
Slide 43: Congratulations! You just finished Lesson #1…. Are you ready for some review questions to test how well you’ve understood everything we’ve covered so far? 43
Slide 44: Quick Review What is the most important question in Geography? 2. Who were the first geographers in the Western tradition? Was theirs the only culture to produce good geographic studies? 3. Which of the Categories of Academic Disciplines does Geography fit into? 1. 44
Slide 45: Quick Review Name the 5 fundamental spatial concepts of geography. What one word or phrase defines each of these? 2. What does it mean when we describe Geography as being holistic? 3. What are the subdivisions of Geography? 1. 45
Slide 46: Mission Accomplished!