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Slide 1: Cultural and Physical Geography With Welcome to Angela (Skinner) Orr
Slide 2: What is Geography? You might have thought, before taking this course, that Geography is all about: ► Maps
Slide 3: What is Geography? You might have thought, before taking this course, that Geography is all about: ► Maps ► Where things are in the world
Slide 4: What is Geography? You might have thought, before taking this course, that Geography is all about: ► Maps ► Where things are in the world ► The study of Earth
Slide 5: What is Geography? You might have thought, before taking this course, that Geography is all about: ► Maps ► Where things are in the world ► The study of Earth ► Rocks or landforms
Slide 6: What is Geography? You might have thought, before taking this course, that Geography is all about: ► Maps ► Where things are in the world ► The study of Earth ► Rocks or landforms ► How humans and the environment interact with one another
Slide 7: What is Geography? If you thought geography was about any of these, you are correct. Geography is about all of these things… …AND MORE!!!
Slide 8: The most important question in Geography is: Why is it there?
Slide 9: Where did Geography come from? Geo- comes from the Greek word ge meaning “Earth” geoid geology geometry Greek word graphe The Greeks traveled and meaning “writing” or wrote about everything they “description” saw, heard, felt, and tasted (often while conquering and changing the very cultures they were exploring) -graphy comes from the
Slide 10: Where did Geography come from? Geo- comes from the Greek word ge meaning “Earth” geoid geology geometry Greek word graphe meaning “writing” or “description” -graphy comes from the (Does it also remind you of a graph? Latitude and Longitude are x and y axes of the “geographic grid”!)
Slide 11: Where did Geography come from? The Greeks were not the first to “do” Geography… Mesopotamian land ownership map on a clay tablet
Slide 12: Where did Geography come from? Egyptian gold mine map on papyrus
Slide 13: Where did Geography come from? ► There were undoubtedly people “doing geography” long before formal writing systems or map-making:  Drawing in the dirt to plan out a group hunting strategy  Describing to another person how to get from one place to another  Trying to understand the natural world and its interactions in order to make predictions that helped humans survive
Slide 14: Miletus, Anatolia (A Greek city in Turkey) The Greeks ► The Greeks were the 1st to codify the subject, broaden it, deepen it, name it, and live 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
Slide 15: Immanuel Kant—18th Century philosopher ► He thought that the world was so complex, we couldn’t possibly understand all that chaos without some sort of organization. In order to understand our jumbled-up reality, he thought it made sense to divide the world up into categories that we can more easily study.  He proposed three Categories of Academic Disciplines… ►
Slide 16: Immanuel Kant’s Categories of Academic Disciplines: 1. Systematic Sciences—orderly, methodical, subject matter is easily classified (like: Physics, Geology, Botany, Zoology, etc.) 2. Temporal Sciences—the dimension of time (like: History, Archaeology, Paleontology) 3. Spatial Sciences—the dimension of space (like: Geography, Geophysics*, Astronomy) *Geophysics studies the spatial characteristics of the interior of Earth Remember: The map is a geographer’s most important tool. The map is a geographer’s primary spatial tool
Slide 17: Now on to 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
Slide 18: Note: ► I’ve underlined the key words of each of the following definitions. If you can remember at least the underlined key word or words, it will help you recall the definition of each term.
Slide 19: The 5 Fundamental Spatial Concepts of Geography: Location ► 1. Location—the study of where something is found in Earth space  Latitude and longitude  Addresses ► But this doesn’t tell you anything about what that location looks like or any of its other conditions
Slide 20: The 5 Fundamental Spatial Concepts of Geography: Place ► 2. Place—study of the site and situation characteristics of a particular portion of space  This tells us something about what a place actually looks like, feels like, sounds like, smells like, etc.  Example: How is a building situated? Is it a on a hill surrounded by trees? ► Is it a fancy vacation home in Tahoe, or a hand-made building in a favela (a slum area) on the edge of Rio de Janeiro?
Slide 21: Place ► “Sense of Place” is an important part of this geographical concept  How one feels about a place—a very subjective assessment (different from person to person)
Slide 22: Sense of Place ►Look at the next few photos and think about your own sense of these places.  How do you feel when looking at the pictures?  If you’ve been there, what do you remember the most about that place?  What do you imagine they sound or smell like? What would you do while you were there?
Slide 26: The 5 Fundamental Spatial Concepts of Geography: Distribution ► 3. Distribution— the study of the spatial pattern of the locations of things on Earth’s surface  How ethnic groups are distributed can tell you something about where or why conflict might occur
Slide 27: Distribution ► Why is it useful? Mapping patterns of tornado distribution can help us more effectively distribute emergency supplies and place aid workers where they’ll be needed most
Slide 28: The 5 Fundamental Spatial Concepts of Geography: Circulation ► 4. Circulation—study of the movement of objects, people, and ideas on Earth’s surface
Slide 29: Circulation ► Studying the circulation of hurricanes and their movements can help us plan for future disasters Widespread damage after Hurricane Katrina
Slide 30: Circulation ► How did MacDonald’s come to be in almost every major city of the world? How about Starbucks? Map of Starbucks locations in downtown Beijing, China
Slide 31: Circulation ► Circulation of objects and ideas may lead to some surprising situations. Take cell phones, for example: Cultures can be altered radically by the adoption of new ideas ►
Slide 32: The 5 Fundamental Spatial Concepts of Geography ► 5. Region—the 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 (WHAAA???)
Slide 33: Region Let’s break down the tough parts of that definition: ► Spatial = dealing with some portion of Earth’s space; the way things are related to one another in terms of their positions = How those things seem to “stick” or fit together ► Cohesion
Slide 34: Region ► Homogeneity the same) = sameness (looking or acting  What about CSM makes it look the same all over campus? ► Functional linkage = Functioning or working together through links, like highways or personal networks  Can you name at least one functional linkage on this campus? (Example: the interconnected sidewalks)
Slide 35: Region ► Central node = some point or area that a region centers on  What is the central node that links the Bay Area together? Is it San Francisco, or some other place?
Slide 36: Examples: Functional linkages to a central node Homogeneity of specific features These things bring parts of an area together through the ways they look or work, creating a region.
Slide 37: 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
Slide 38: 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
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.
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
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
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.
Slide 43: Homework!!!! ► Your Homework: Please read the document, “Why Geography Is Important”. (see class blog for the link) Write your answers to the questions asked on the class blog. Turn them in on the next class day. See you again soon!