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The Human Mosaic

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The Human Mosaic A Cultural Approach to Human Geography

Eleventh Edition

Mona Domosh Dartmouth College

Roderick P. Neumann Florida International University

Patricia L. Price Florida International University

Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov University of Texas at Austin

W. H. Freeman and Company New York

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2008942560

ISBN-13: 978-1-4292-1426-1 ISBN-10: 1-4292-1426-0

©2010 by W. H. Freeman and Company All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

First printing

W. H. Freeman and Company 41 Madison Ave. New York, NY 10010 Houndmills, Basingstoke RG21 6XS, England

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Contents in Brief

1. Human Geography: A Cultural Approach 1

2. Many Worlds: Geographies of Cultural Difference 31

3. Population Geography: Shaping the Human Mosaic 65

4. Speaking about Places: The Geography of Language 107

5. Geographies of Race and Ethnicity: Mosaic or Melting Pot? 139

6. Political Geography: A Divided World 177

7. The Geography of Religion: Spaces and Places of Sacredness 215

8. Agriculture: The Geography of the Global Food System 255

9. Geography of Economies: Industries, Services, and Development 293

10. Urbanization: The City in Time and Space 325

11. Inside the City: A Cultural Mosaic 357

12. One World or Many? The Cultural Geography of the Future 401

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Chapter 1

Human Geography: A Cultural Approach 1

What Is a Cultural Approach to Human Geography? 2

How to Understand Human Geography 4 Themes in Human Geography 5

Region 6 Mobility 10 Globalization 14 Nature-Culture 16 Cultural Landscape 20

Subject to Debate: Human Activities and Global Climate Change 21

Global Spotlight: “Reading” Globalization in a Medieval Square 24

Practicing Geography: Denis Cosgrove 26 Conclusion 26 Doing Geography: Space, Place, and Knowing

Your Way Around 27 Seeing Geography: Aboriginal Topographical

Painting of Arnhem Land 28

Chapter 2

Many Worlds: Geographies of Cultural Difference 31

Many Cultures 32 Region 34

Material Folk Culture Regions 34 Is Popular Culture Placeless? 35 Popular Food and Drink 37 Popular Music 38 Indigenous Culture Regions 38 Vernacular Culture Regions 40

Mobility 40 Diffusion in Popular Culture 40 Advertising 42 Communications Barriers 42 Diffusion of the Rodeo 43 Blowguns: Diffusion or Independent

Invention? 44 Globalization 45

From Difference to Convergence 45 Difference Revitalized 45

Place Images 45 Subject to Debate: Mobile Identities: Questions

of Culture and Citizenship 46 Nature-Culture 46

Indigenous Ecology 46 Local Knowledge 47

Global Spotlight: Indigenous Cultures Go Global 48 Global Economy 48 Folk Ecology 49 Gendered Nature 49

Practicing Geography: Gregory Knapp 50 Nature in Popular Culture 51

Cultural Landscape 52 Folk Architecture 52 Folk Housing in North America 52 Folk Housing in Sub-Saharan Africa 54 Landscapes of Popular Culture 56 Leisure Landscapes 57 Elitist Landscapes 57 The American Popular Landscape 59

Conclusion 59 Doing Geography: Self-Representation

of Indigenous Culture 60 Seeing Geography: American Fathers and

Daughters 63

Chapter 3

Population Geography: Shaping the Human Mosaic 65

Region 66 Population Distribution and Density 66 Patterns of Natality 68 The Geography of Mortality 69 The Demographic Transition 70 Age Distributions 74

Subject to Debate: Female: An Endangered Gender? 76 Geography of Gender 79 Standard of Living 81

Mobility 81 Migration 81 Diseases on the Move 87

Globalization 89

Contents

Preface xiii

Population Explosion? 89 Global Spotlight: The Geography of HIV/AIDS 90

Or Creativity in the Face of Scarcity? 91 The Rule of 72 92 Population Control Programs 93

Nature-Culture 94 Environmental Influence 94 Environmental Perception and Population

Distribution 94 Population Density and Environmental

Alteration 95 Cultural Landscape 96

Rural Settlement Patterns 97 Historical Factors Shaping the Cultural-

Demographic Landscape 99 Political and Economic Factors Shaping the

Cultural-Demographic Landscape 99 Gender and the Cultural-Demographic

Landscape 101 Practicing Geography: Rachel Silvey 101 Conclusion 102 Doing Geography: Public Space, Personal Space:

Too Close for Comfort? 103 Seeing Geography: Street in Kolkata, India 104

Chapter 4

Speaking about Places: The Geography of Language 107

Region 109 Language Families 109

Global Spotlight: Texting and Language Modification 114

Mobility 115 Indo-European Diffusion 115 Austronesian Diffusion 117 Religion and Linguistic Mobility 117 Language’s Shifting Boundaries 117

Globalization 121 Technology, Language, and Empire 121

Subject to Debate: Imposing English 122 Practicing Geography: Allan Pred 124

Language Proliferation: One or Many? 124 Language and Cultural Survival 125

Nature-Culture 127 Habitat and Vocabulary 127 The Habitat Helps Shape Language Areas 127 The Habitat Provides Refuge 127

Cultural Landscape 130 Messages 130

Toponyms 131 Generic Toponyms of the United States 132 Toponyms and Cultures of the Past 132

Conclusion 133 Doing Geography: Toponyms and Roots of Place 135 Seeing Geography: Aquí se habla Spanglish 136

Chapter 5

Geographies of Race and Ethnicity: Mosaic or Melting Pot? 139

Subject to Debate: Racism: An Embarrassment of the Past, or Here to Stay? 142

Region 144 Ethnic Homelands and Islands 144 Ethnic Neighborhoods and Racialized

Ghettos 147 Recent Shifts in Ethnic Mosaics 150

Global Spotlight: Selena Crosses the Line 152 Mobility 156

Migration and Ethnicity 156 Simplification and Isolation 158

Globalization 159 A Long View of Race and Ethnicity 159 Race and European Colonization 159 Indigenous Identities in the Face

of Globalization 161 Nature-Culture 162

Cultural Preadaptation 162 Habitat and the Preservation of Difference 163 Environmental Racism 164

Cultural Landscape 166 Urban Ethnic Landscapes 166

Practicing Geography: Daniel Arreola 168 The Re-Creation of Ethnic Cultural

Landscapes 169 Ethnic Culinary Landscapes 170

Conclusion 171 Doing Geography: Tracing Ethnic Foodways

Through Recipes 172 Seeing Geography: American Restaurant

Neon Signs 174

Chapter 6

Political Geography: A Divided World 177

Region 177 A World of States 177 Political Boundaries in Cyberspace 183 Supranational Political Bodies 184

viii Contents

Electoral Geographical Regions 185 Red States, Blue States 185 Islamic Law in Nigerian Politics 189

Mobility 190 Movement Between Core and Periphery 190 Mobility, Diffusion, and Political Innovation 191 Politics and Migration 191

Global Spotlight: The Condition of Transnationality 193

Globalization 193 Practicing Geography: Katharyne Mitchell 194

The Nation-State 194 Ethnic Separatism 194

Subject to Debate: The End of the Nation-State? 195 The Cleavage Model 197 An Example: The Sakha Republic 197 Political Imprint on Economic Geography 200

Nature-Culture 201 Chain of Explanation 201 Geopolitics 202 The Heartland Theory 203 Geopolitics Today 203 Warfare and Environmental Destruction 205

Cultural Landscape 206 Imprint of the Legal Code 206 Physical Properties of Boundaries 206 The Impress of Central Authority 208 National Iconography on the Landscape 209

Conclusion 210 Doing Geography: The Complex Geography

of Congressional Redistricting 210 Seeing Geography: Are These Border Fences

or Walls? 212

Chapter 7

The Geography of Religion: Spaces and Places of Sacredness 215

Subject to Debate: Religious Fundamentalism 218 Region 219

Judaism 219 Christianity 219 Islam 223 Hinduism 225 Buddhism 226 Taoic Religions 227 Animism/Shamanism 227

Mobility 229 The Semitic Religious Hearth 229 The Indus-Ganges Hearth 231

The East Asian Religious Hearth 231 Religious Pilgrimage 232

Globalization 234 The Rise of Evangelical Protestantism

in Latin America 234 Religion on the Internet 234 Religion’s Relevance in a Global World 235

Nature-Culture 237 Appeasing the Forces of Nature 237 The Impacts of Belief Systems on Plants

and Animals 238 Ecotheology 240

Cultural Landscape 242 Religious Structures 242 Faithful Details 244 Landscapes of the Dead 246 Sacred Space 248

Conclusion 248 Global Spotlight: Moving Faith 249 Practicing Geography: Kenneth Foote 250 Doing Geography: The Making of Sacred Spaces 251 Seeing Geography: Parking Lot Shrine 252

Chapter 8

Agriculture: The Geography of the Global Food System 255

Region 255 Swidden Cultivation 255 Paddy Rice Farming 258 Peasant Grain, Root, and Livestock Farming 259 Plantation Agriculture 259 Market Gardening 260 Livestock Fattening 261 Grain Farming 262 Dairying 263 Nomadic Herding 263 Livestock Ranching 264 Urban Agriculture 265 Farming the Waters 265 Nonagricultural Areas 267

Mobility 267 Origins and Diffusion of Plant

Domestication 267 Locating Centers of Domestication 267 Pets or Meat? Tracing Animal Domestication 268 Modern Mobilities 268 Labor Mobility 270

Globalization 271 Local-Global Food Provisioning 271

Contents ix

Practicing Geography: Karl Zimmerer 272 The von Thünen Model 273 Can the World Be Fed? 275 The Growth of Agribusiness 276

Global Spotlight: The Global Chicken 276 Food Fears 278

Nature-Culture 279 Technology over Nature? 279 Sustainable Agriculture 280 Intensity of Land Use 280 The Desertification Debate 280 Environmental Perception by Agriculturists 281 Don’t Panic, It’s Organic 283 Green Fuels from Agriculture 283

Subject to Debate: Can Biofuels Save the Planet? 284

Cultural Landscape 285 Survey, Cadastral, and Field Patterns 285 Fencing and Hedging 287

Conclusion 288 Doing Geography: The Global Geography of

Food 288 Seeing Geography: Reading Agricultural

Landscapes 290

Chapter 9

Geography of Economies: Industries, Services, and Development 293

Region 293 Mobility 297

Origins of the Industrial Revolution 297 Diffusion of the Industrial Revolution 298 The Locational Shifts of Secondary Industry 298 The Locational Shifts of Service Industries 302

Globalization 305 Labor Supply 305

Practicing Geography: Amy Glasmeier 305 Global Spotlight: A Day in the Life of a Back-Office

Worker in India 306 Markets 307 Governments and Globalization 308

Subject to Debate: Is Free Trade Fair Trade? 309 Economic Globalization and Cultural

Change 310 Nature-Culture 311

Renewable Resource Crises 311 Global Spotlight: Women, Men, and Work in the

Maquiladoras 311

Acid Rain 313 Global Climate Change 314 Ozone Depletion 314 Radioactive Pollution 315 Environmental Sustainability 315

Cultural Landscape 316 Conclusion 321 Doing Geography: The Where and Why of What You

Wear 321 Seeing Geography: Factories in Guangdong

Province, China 322

Chapter 10

Urbanization: The City in Time and Space 325

Region 325 Patterns and Processes of Urbanization 326 Impacts of Urbanization 328 Central-Place Theory 329

Mobility 331 Origin and Diffusion of the City 332 Models for the Rise of Cities 332 Urban Hearth Areas 333 The Diffusion of the City from

Hearth Areas 336 Rural-to-Urban Migration 338

Globalization 338 Global Cities 338

Global Spotlight: One Family’s Tale 339 Globalizing Cities 339

Nature-Culture 340 Practicing Geography: Kris Olds 341

Site and Situation 341 Urbanization and Sustainability 344 Natural Disasters 345

Cultural Landscape 346 Globalizing Cities in the Developing

World 346 Subject to Debate: Can Urbanization Be

Environmentally Sustainable? 347 Latin American Urban Landscapes 348 Landscapes of the Apartheid and

Postapartheid City 350 Landscapes of the Socialist and

Postsocialist City 351 Conclusion 353 Doing Geography: Connecting Urban Population

Growth with Globalization 353 Seeing Geography: Rio de Janeiro 354

x Contents

Chapter 11

Inside the City: A Cultural Mosaic 357

Region 357 Downtowns 357 Residential Areas 358 Homelessness 360 Models of the Internal Structure of American and

Canadian Cities 361 Practicing Geography: Susan Hanson 365 Mobility 366

Centralization 366 Suburbanization and Decentralization 367 Gentrification 370

Subject to Debate: Can Gentrification Be Socially Just? 373

Globalization 373 New Ethnic Neighborhoods 373 A Global Urban Form? 375

Global Spotlight: Spaces of Inclusion and Exclusion: Urban Ethnic Enclaves 375

Nature-Culture 377 Urban Weather and Climate 378 Urban Hydrology 378 Urban Vegetation 378

Cultural Landscape 379 Ways of Reading Cityscapes 380 Landscape Histories of American, Canadian, and

European Cities 382 The New Urban Landscape 393

Conclusion 396 Doing Geography: Reading “Your” Urban

Landscape 396 Seeing Geography: Chinatown, New York City 398

Chapter 12

One World or Many? The Cultural Geography of the Future 401

Region 402 The Uneven Geography of Development 402

One Europe or Many? 403 Glocalization 404 The Geography of the Internet 405

Subject to Debate: The Internet: Global Tool for Democracy or Repression? 406

Mobility 407 The Information Superhighway 407 New (Auto)Mobilities 407 The Place(s) of the Global Tourist 409

Global Spotlight: China’s New Car Culture 411 Globalization 412

A Deeper Look at Globalization 412 History, Geography, and the Globalization

of Everything 412 Globalization and Its Discontents 413

Practicing Geography: Susan Mains 414 Blending Sounds on a Global Scale 415

Nature-Culture 416 Sustainable Futures 416 Think Globally, Act Locally 417

Cultural Landscape 418 Globalized Landscapes 418 Striving for the Unique 418 Wal-Martians Invade Treasured Landscape! 419 Protecting Europe’s Rural Landscape 419

Conclusion 420 Doing Geography: Interpreting the Imagery

of Globalization 420 Seeing Geography: Global Reach 422

Glossary 425

Index 435

Contents xi

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Geography is a diverse academic discipline. It concerns place and region and employs diverse methodologies from the social sciences, humanities, and earth sciences. Geographers deal with a wide range of subjects, from spatial patterns of human occupancy to the interaction between people and their environments. The geographer strives for a holistic view of the Earth as the home of humankind.

Because the world is in constant flux, geography is an ever-changing discipline. Geographers necessarily consider a wide range of topics and view them from several different perspectives. They continually seek new ways of looking at the inhabited Earth. For example, the rise of feminist per- spectives has enabled geographers to see the world anew by pointing out that the spaces we use every day are shaped and used differently because our societies are profoundly structured by gender roles. Another example is the impor- tance of globalization to our world today. This has led ge- ographers to new and incisive engagements with concepts such as transnationalism and postcolonialism. Every revi- sion of an introductory text such as The Human Mosaic re- quires careful attention to such changes and innovations ongoing in the dynamic field that is human geography.

The Five Themes The Human Mosaic has always been built around five themes. In this new edition, we have modified some of these themes to reflect changes both in the discipline of human geogra- phy and in the world. The five themes we explore in this book are region, mobility, globalization, nature-culture, and cultural landscape. These five themes are introduced and explained in the first chapter and serve as the frame- work for the 11 topical chapters that follow. Each theme is

applied to a variety of geographical topics: demography, language, ethnicity, politics, religion, agriculture, industry, the city, and types of culture. This thematic organization allows students to relate to the most important aspects of human geography at every point in the text. As instructors, we have found that beginning students learn best when provided with a precise and useful framework, and the five- themes approach provides such a framework for under- standing human geography. A small icon accompanies each theme as a visual reminder to students when these themes recur throughout the book. They will see:

Region

Mobility

Globalization

Nature-Culture

Cultural Landscape

In our classroom experience, we have found the the- matic framework to be highly successful. Our region theme appeals to students’ natural curiosity about the differences among places. Mobility conveys the dynamic aspect of peo- ple and place particularly relevant to this age of incessant and rapid change. Students acquire an appreciation for how people and cultural traits move (or do not move) from place to place. The topics employed to illustrate the con- cepts of mobility include many examples to which college students can relate, for instance, reggae and rap music, computer technology and the Internet, and the impact of globalization on consumer goods around the world. Global- ization permits students to understand the complex pro- cesses that link the various economies, cultures, and societies around the world. An understanding of globaliz- ing processes is necessary for explaining how those linkages

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Preface

can create economic and cultural similarities as well as dis- parities. Nature-culture addresses the complicated relation- ship between culture and the physical environment. With today’s complex and often-controversial relationship be- tween the natural environment and our globalizing world, both the tensions and the alliances that arise in regard to this relationship are now at the forefront of this theme. Last, the theme of cultural landscape heightens students’ awareness of the visible character of places and regions.

New to the Eleventh Edition Key Chapter Changes In response to instructor input from the tenth edition of The Human Mosaic, population geography is now the third chap- ter in the book. Students are now exposed to the patterns and movements of human settlement before examining so- ciocultural topics such as language, ethnicity, and religion.

Chapters 10 and 11, which consider cities from various perspectives, have been reorganized. Chapter 10 (“Urban- ization: The City in Time and Space”) examines the pro- cesses of urbanization. On a completely different scale of analysis, Chapter 11 (“Inside the City: A Cultural Mosaic”) considers in more detail the patterns inside of cities. As part of this new schema, material on the history of urban form has been moved into Chapter 11 under the subsec- tion “Landscape Histories of American, Canadian, and European Cities.”

New Features The use of pedagogical features and boxes has been stream- lined, and a new feature has been added: Subject to De- bate. In this feature, which appears in every chapter, students are presented with several sides of a controversial topic and are asked to form an educated opinion. Students will try to answer the following questions:

• How do human activities affect the Earth’s climate?

• How do transplanted cultures become a part of or reshape the culture of their new homes?

• Are females an endangered gender?

• Should learning and speaking English be imposed on all residents of the United States?

• Will racism persist as long as cultural differences exist in the world?

• Does globalization mean the end of the nation-state?

• What is religious fundamentalism?

• Are biofuels the answer to the current resource crisis?

• Does free trade benefit some groups more than others?

• Can urban areas become environmentally sustainable?

• Can gentrification of urban areas benefit everyone?

• How is the Internet used to promote democracy and to suppress free speech?

New Topics In addition to completely updated information and data in the text and figures throughout the book, you will find a number of new examples, concepts, and discussions in the eleventh edition:

• A broad view of the concept of globalization (Chapter 1)

• The diffusion of disease in human history, including cholera, HIV/AIDS, and SARS (Chapter 3)

• The dynamics of language dominance on the Internet (Chapter 4)

• The red state/blue state phenomenon in the United States, accompanied by several eye-popping new figures (Chapter 6)

• Discussions of the Taoic religions alongside the major monotheistic religions throughout all five themes (Chapter 7)

• Timely topics, such as aquaculture, labor mobility, organic food, food safety and biofuels (Chapter 8)

xiv Preface

SUBJECT TO DEBATE Female: An Endangered Gender? Does the simple fact of being female expose a person to demographic peril? In most societies, women are viewed as valuable, even powerful, particularly as mothers, nurturers, teachers, and spiritual leaders. Yet in other important ways, to be female is to be endangered. We will consider this controversial idea with an eye to how demographics and culture closely shape one another.

Many cultures demonstrate a marked preference for males. The academic term describing this is androcentrism; you may know it as patriarchy, male bias, or simply sexism. Whether a preference for males is a feature of all societies has been disputed. Some societies pass along forms of their wealth, property, and prestige from mother to daughter, rather than exclusively from father to son. This is rare, however, and it is clear that the roots of cultural preference for males are historically far-reaching and widespread. In most societies, positions of economic, political, social, and cultural prestige and power are held largely by men. Men typically are considered to be the heads of households. Family names tend to pass from father to son, and with them, family honor and wealth. In traditional societies, when sons marry, they usually bring their wives to live in

an unborn baby. Puneet Bedi, a New Delhi gynecologist, remarked, “I can tell you that no pregnant woman would suffer if the ultrasound test were banned. Right now it is used to save 1 out of 20,000 fetuses and kill 20 out of every 200 because [it reveals that the baby] is the wrong gender”

This “little emperor” poses with his grandparents. (Dennis Cox, LLC.)

• A stronger focus on economic development, including Rostow’s model of economic development and its failings (Chapter 9)

• The future of geography as a result of globalization (Chapter 12)

Media and Supplements The eleventh edition is accompanied by a media and sup- plements package that facilitates student learning and en- hances the teaching experience.

Student Supplements eBook The eBook allows instructors and students access to the full textbook online anywhere, anytime. It is also available as a download for use offline. The eBook text is fully searchable and can be annotated with note-taking and highlighting features. Students can copy and paste from the eBook text to augment their own notes, and important sections can be printed. For more information, visit www.coursesmart.com.

Atlas Rand McNally’s Atlas of World Geography, ISBN: 1-4292-2980-2

Available packaged with the textbook, with the textbook and Student Study Guide, or with the textbook and Exploring Human Geography with Maps, second edition.

Mapping Exercise Workbook Exploring Human Geography with Maps, second edition, by Margaret Pearce, Ohio University, and Owen Dwyer, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, ISBN: 1-4292-2981-0

This full-color workbook introduces the student to the di- verse world of maps as fundamental tools for exploring

and presenting ideas in human geography. It directly ad- dresses the concepts of The Human Mosaic, chapter by chapter, and it includes activities accessible through The Human Mosaic Online at www.whfreeman.com/jordan11e.

The NEW edition provides:

• Nine new activities featuring current topics suggested by geography instructors

• Web and text updates for all other activities • An instructor’s guide to help integrate Exploring Human

Geography with Maps into curriculum • Assessment questions for instructors which draw from

both The Human Mosaic and Exploring Human Geography with Maps, further incorporating map-reading skills into the classroom

• PowerPoint slides with maps from the text and information from the instructor’s guide to help in lectures

Study Guide Student Study Guide, by Michael Kukral, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, ISBN 1-4292-2976-4

The new and updated Student Study Guide provides a tre- mendous learning advantage for students using The Human Mosaic. This best-selling supplement contains updated prac- tice tests, chapter learning objectives, key terms, and sec- tions on map reading and interpretation. A highly integrated manual, the Student Study Guide supports and enhances the material covered in The Human Mosaic and guides the student to a clear understanding of cultural geography.

Self-Study on the Web The Human Mosaic Online: www.whfreeman.com/jordan11e

The companion web site serves as an online study guide. The core of the site includes a range of features that en- courage critical thinking and assist in study and review:

• Web activities from Exploring Human Geography with Maps, second edition

• Web links to important and informative geographical sites

• Maps for note-taking and study

• Over 260 videos, covering key topics in geography. All are 2–6 minutes long and are accompanied by multiple- choice questions that can be automatically graded and entered into a gradebook.

Instructor Supplements Presentation Instructor’s Resource CD-ROM and Web Site (www.whfreeman.com/jordan11e), ISBN 1-4292-2982-9

Both resources contain all the text images available in JPEG format and as Microsoft PowerPoint™ slides for use in

Preface xv

www.coursesmart.com
www.whfreeman.com/jordan11e
www.whfreeman.com/jordan11e
www.whfreeman.com/jordan11e
classroom presentations. Images have been optimized for high-quality projection in large classrooms. The Instructor’s Resource CD-ROM also contains chapter-by-chapter Microsoft Word™ test bank files that can be easily modified by the instructor.

Overhead Transparencies, ISBN 1-4292-2977-2

A convenient set of 100 key maps and figures from the text- book optimized for high-quality projection in classroom presentation.

Course Management All instructor and student resources are also available via WebCT and Blackboard to enhance your course. W. H. Free- man and Company offers a course cartridge that populates your course web site with content tied directly to the book.

Assessment Test Bank, by Ray Sumner, Long Beach City College; Jose Javier Lopez, Minnesota State University; Roxane Fridirici, California State University–Sacramento; and Douglas Munski, University of North Dakota

The newly revised Test Bank is available on the Instructor’s Resource CD-ROM. The Test Bank is carefully designed to match the pedagogical intent of the textbook and to include questions from basic memorization to comprehension of concepts. It contains more than 1000 test questions (multiple choice and true/false). The files are provided as chapter-by- chapter Microsoft Word files that are easy to edit and print.

Acknowledgments No textbook is ever written single-handedly or even “double-handedly.” An introductory text covering a wide range of topics must draw heavily on the research and help of others. In various chapters, we have not hesitated to mention a great many geographers on whose work we have relied. We apologize for any misinterpretations or oversim- plifications of their findings that may have resulted because of our own error or the limited space available.

Many geographers contributed advice, comments, ideas, and assistance as this book moved from outline through draft to publication from the first edition through the tenth. We would like to thank those colleagues who contributed their helpful opinions during the revision of the eleventh edition:

Paul C. Adams, University of Texas, Austin W. Frank Ainsley, University of North Carolina,

Wilmington Brad A. Bays, Oklahoma State University Sarah Osgood Brooks, Central Michigan University Kimberlee J. Chambers, Sonoma State University

Wing H. Cheung, Palomar Community College Carolyn A. Coulter, Atlantic Cape Community College Jeff R. DeGrave, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire Christine Drake, Old Dominion University Owen Dwyer, IUPUI James D. Ewing, Florida Community College, Jacksonville Maria Grace Fadiman, Florida Atlantic University David Albert Farmer, Wilmington College Kim Feigenbaum, Santa Fe Community College Charles R. Gildersleeve, University of Nebraska, Omaha M. A. Goodman, Grossmont College Jeffrey J. Gordon, Bowling Green State University Richard J. Grant, University of Miami Joshua Hagen, Marshall University Daniel J. Hammel, University of Toledo Ellen R. Hansen, Emporia State University Deryck Holdsworth, Pennsylvania State University Ronald Isaac, Ohio University Brad Jokish, Ohio University Edward L. Kinman, Longwood University Marti L. Klein, Saddleback College Jennifer Kopf, West Texas A&M John C. Kostelnick, Illinois State University William G. Laatsch, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay Paul R. Larson, Southern Utah University Michael Madsen, Brigham Young University, Idaho Edris Montalvo, Texas State University, San Marcos Karen M. Morin, Bucknell University David J. Nemeth, University of Toledo James W. Newton, University of North Carolina,

Chapel Hill Stephen M. O’Connell, Oklahoma State University Kenji Oshiro, Wright State University Darren Purcell, University of Oklahoma Steven Schnell, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania Emily Skop, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs Ray Sumner, Long Beach City College David A. Tait, Rogers State University Thomas A. Terich, Western Washington University Benjamin F. Timms, California Polytechnic

State University Elisabeth S. Vidon, Indiana University Timothy M. Vowles, Colorado State University Henry Way, University of Kansas John Western, Syracuse University

We would also like to thank those colleagues who offered helpful comments during the preparation of earlier editions:

Jennifer Adams, Pennsylvania State University; W. Frank Ainsley, University of North Carolina, Wilmington; Christopher Airriess, Ball State University; Nigel Allan, University of California, Davis; Thomas D. Anderson,

xvi Preface

Preface xvii

Bowling Green State University; Timothy G. Anderson, Ohio Wesleyan University; Patrick Ashwood, Hawkeye Community College; Nancy Bain, Ohio University; Timothy Bawden, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire; Brad Bays, Oklahoma State University; A. Steele Becker, University of Nebraska, Kearney; Sarah Bednarz, Texas A&M University; Gigi Berardi, Western Washington University; Daniel Borough, California State University, Los Angeles; Patricia Boudinot, George Mason University; Wayne Brew, Montgomery County Community College; Michael J. Broadway, Northern Michigan University; Scott S. Brown, Francis Marion University; Craig S. Campbell, Youngstown State University; Merel J. Cox, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona; Marcelo Cruz, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay; Christina Dando, University of Nebraska, Omaha; Robin E. Datel, California State University, Sacramento; James A. Davis, Brigham Young University; Richard Deal, Western Kentucky University; Lorraine Dowler, Pennsylvania State University; Matthew Ebiner, El Camino College; D. J. P. Forth, West Hills Community College; Carolyn Gallaher, American University; Jeffrey J. Gordon, Bowling Green State University; Charles F. Gritzner, South Dakota State University; Sally Gros, University of Oklahoma, Norman; Qian Guo, San Francisco State University; Jennifer Helzer, California State University, Stanislaus; Andy Herod, University of Georgia; Elliot P. Hertzenberg, Wilmington College; Cecelia Hudleson, Foothill College; Ronald Isaac, Ohio University; Gregory Jean, Samford University; Brad Jokisch, Ohio University; James R. Keese, California Polytechnic State University; Artimus Keiffer, Wittenberg University; Edward L. Kinman, Longwood University; Marti L. Klein, Saddleback College; Vandara Kohli, California State University, Bakersfield; Debra Kreitzer, Western Kentucky University; Olaf Kuhlke, University of Minnesota, Duluth; Michael Kukral, Ohio Wesleyan University; Hsiang-te Kung, Memphis University; William Laatsch, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay; Paul R. Larson, Southern Utah University; Ann Legreid, Central Missouri State University; Peter Li, Tennessee Technological University; Ronald Lockmann, California State University, Dominiquez Hills; Jose Javier Lopez, Minnesota State University; Jesse O. McKee, University of Southern Mississippi; Wayne McKim, Towson State University; Douglas Meyer, Eastern Illinois University; Klaus Meyer-Arendt, Mississippi State University; John Milbauer, Northeastern State University; Cynthia A. Miller, Syracuse University; Glenn R. Miller, Bridgewater State College; Don Mitchell, Syracuse University; Karen Morin, Bucknell University; James Mulvihill, California State University, San Bernardino; Douglas Munski, University of North Dakota; Gareth A. Myers, University of Kansas; Michael G. Noll, Valdosta State University; Ann M. Oberhauser, West Virginia University; Thomas Orf,

Prestonburg Community College; Brian Osborne, Queen’s University; Kenji Oshiro, Wright State University; Bimal K. Paul, Kansas State University; Eric Prout, Texas A&M University; Virginia M. Ragan, Maple Woods Community College; Jeffrey P. Richetto, University of Alabama; Henry O. Robertson, Louisiana State University, Alexandria; Robert Rundstrom, University of Oklahoma; Norman H. Runge, University of Delaware; Stephen Sandlin, California State University, Pomona; Lydia Savage, University of Southern Maine; Steven M. Schnell, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania; Andrew Schoolmaster, III, University of North Texas; Cynthia S. Simmons, Michigan State University; Emily Skop, University of Texas, Austin; Christa Smith, Clemson University; Anne K. Soper, Indiana University; Roger W. Stump, State University of New York, Albany; Jonathan Taylor, California State University, Fullerton; Thomas Terich, Western Washington University; Thomas M. Tharp, Purdue University; Ralph Triplette, Western Carolina University; Daniel E. Turbeville, III, Eastern Washington University; Ingolf Vogeler, University of Wisconsin; Philip Wagner, Simon Fraser State University; Barney Warf, Florida State University; Barbara Weightman, California State University, Fullerton; W. Michael Wheeler, Southwestern Oklahoma State University; David Wilkins, University of Utah; Douglas Wilms, East Carolina State University; and Donald Zeigler, Old Dominion University.

Our thanks also go to various staff members of W. H. Freeman and Company whose encouragement, skills, and suggestions have created a special working environment and to whom we express our deepest gratitude. In particular, we thank Marc Mazzoni, senior acquisitions editor for geog- raphy; Lisa Samols, developmental editor par excellence; Michael Zierler, developmental editor; Scott Guile, senior marketing manager; Jane O’Neill, project editor; Diana Blume, art director; Susan Timmins, illustration coordina- tor; Bianca Moscatelli, photo editor; Paul Rohloff, project manager; Philip McCaffrey, managing editor; Ellen Cash, vice president of production; and Beth McHenry, media and supplements editor. We owe thanks to several other people who worked assiduously to ensure the overall quality of our writing and of our photographic choices: Francine Almash, Katherine Evancie, and Sandro Vitaglione, copyeditors; Kirsten Kite, indexer; Christina Micek, photo researcher; and Karen Osborne, proofreader. The beneficial influence of all these people can be detected throughout the book.

And, finally, we dedicate this book to Denis Cosgrove (featured in Practicing Geography, Chapter 1) and Allan Pred (featured in Practicing Geography, Chapter 4). To- gether their scholarship made possible an enlivened and enriched human geography, one in which economy, cul- ture, and politics were inextricably linked. This new edi- tion of The Human Mosaic is indebted to their work.

Mona Domosh is professor of geogra- phy at Dartmouth College. She earned her PhD at Clark University. Her re- search has examined the links between gender ideologies and the cultural for- mation of large American cities in the nineteenth century, particularly in re-

gard to such critical but vexing distinctions as consumption/ production, public/private, masculine/feminine. She is currently engaged in research that takes the ideological as- sociation of women, femininity, and space in a more post- colonial direction by asking what roles nineteenth-century ideas of femininity, masculinity, consumption, and “white- ness” played in the crucial shift from American nation- building to empire-building. Domosh is the author of American Commodities in an Age of Empire (2006); Invented Cities: The Creation of Landscape in 19th-Century New York and Boston (1996); the coauthor, with Joni Seager, of Putting Women in Place: Feminist Geographers Make Sense of the World (2001); and the coeditor of Handbook of Cultural Geography (2002).

Roderick P. Neumann is professor of geography in the Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies at Florida International University. He earned his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. He studies the complex interactions of culture and

nature through a specific focus on national parks and natural resources. In his research, he combines the ana- lytical tools of cultural and political ecology with land- scape studies. He has pursued these investigations through historical and ethnographic research mostly in East Afri- ca, with some comparative work in North America and Central America. His current research explores interwo- ven narratives of nature, landscape, and identity in the European Union, with a particular emphasis on Spain. His scholarly books include Imposing Wilderness: Struggles over Livelihoods and Nature Preservation in Africa (1998), Making Political Ecology (2005), and The Commercialization of Non-Timber Forest Products (2000), the latter coauthored with Eric Hirsch.

Patricia L. Price is associate professor of geography at Florida International University. She earned her PhD at the University of Washington. Connecting the long-standing theme of humanistic scholarship in geography to more re- cent critical approaches best describes

her ongoing intellectual project. From her initial field re- search in urban Mexico, she has extended her focus to the border between Mexico and the United States and, most re- cently, to south Florida as a borderland of sorts. Her most recent field research is on comparative ethnic neighbor- hoods, conducted with colleagues and graduate students in Phoenix, Chicago, and Miami, and funded by the National Science Foundation. Price is the author of Dry Place: Land- scapes of Belonging and Exclusion (2004) and coeditor (with Tim Oakes) of The Cultural Geography Reader (2008).

Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov was the Walter Prescott Webb Professor in the Depart- ment of Geography at the University of Texas, Austin. He earned his PhD at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A specialist in the cultural and histori- cal geography of the United States,

Jordan-Bychkov was particularly interested in the diffusion of Old World culture in North America that helped produce the vivid geographical mosaic evident today. He served as president of the Association of American Geographers in 1987 and 1988 and received an Honors Award from that or- ganization. He wrote on a wide range of American cultural topics, including forest colonization, cattle ranching, folk architecture, and ethnicity. His scholarly books include The European Culture Area: A Systematic Geography, fourth edition (with Bella Bychkova Jordan, 2002), Anglo-Celtic Australia: Colonial Immigration and Cultural Regionalism (with Alyson L. Grenier, 2002), Siberian Village: Land and Life in the Sakha Re- public (with Bella Bychkova Jordan, 2001), The Mountain West: Interpreting the Folk Landscape (with Jon Kilpinen and Charles Gritzner, 1997), North American Cattle Ranching Fron- tiers (1993), The American Backwoods Frontier (with Matt Kaups, 1989), American Log Building (1985), Texas Graveyards (1982), Trails to Texas: Southern Roots of Western Cattle Ranching (1981), and German Seed in Texas Soil (1966).

About the Authors

The Human Mosaic

Why is it difficult for most of us to interpret this image as a map?

1 Human Geography

A Cultural Approach

Most of us are born geographers. We are curious about the distinctive charac-ter of places and peoples. We think in terms of territory and space. Take alook outside your window right now. The houses and commercial buildings, streets and highways, gardens and lawns all tell us something interesting and pro- found about who we are as a culture. If you travel down the road, or on a jet to another region or country, that view outside your window will change, sometimes subtly, sometimes drastically. Our geographical imaginations will push us to look and think and begin to make sense of what is going on in these different places, environ- ments, and landscapes. It is this curiosity about the world—about how and why it is structured the way it is, what it means, and how we have changed it and continue to change it—that is at the heart of human geography. You are already geographers; we hope that our book will make you better ones.

If every place on Earth were identical, we would not need geography, but each is unique. Every place, however, does share characteristics with other places. Geog- raphers define the concept of region as a grouping of similar places, or of places with similar characteristics. The existence of different regions endows the Earth’s surface with a mosaiclike quality. Geography as an academic discipline is an outgrowth of both our curiosity about lands and peoples other than our own and our need to come to grips with the place-centered element within our souls. When professional, academic geographers consider the differences and similarities among places, they want to understand what they see. They first find out exactly what variations exist among regions and places by describing them as precisely as possible. Then they try to decide what forces made these areas different or alike. Geographers ask what? where? why? and how?

Our natural geographical curiosity and intrinsic need for identity were long ago reinforced by pragmatism, the practical motives of traders and empire builders who wanted information about the world for the purposes of commerce and conquest. This concern for the practical aspects of geography first arose thousands of years ago among the ancient Greeks, Romans, Mesopotamians, and Phoenicians, the greatest traders and empire builders of their times. They cataloged factual information about locations, places, and products. Indeed, geography is a Greek word meaning literally “to describe the Earth.” Not content merely to chart and describe the world, these ancient geographers soon began to ask questions about why cultures and environ- ments differ from place to place, initiating the study of what today we call geography.

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Aboriginal painting of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. (Penny Tweedie/Corbis.) Turn to Seeing Geography on page 28 for an in-depth analysis of the question on the photo.

2 Chapter 1 Human Geography

A particular culture is not a static, fixed phenomenon, and it does not always govern its members. Rather, as geog- raphers Kay Anderson and Fay Gale put it, “culture is a process in which people are actively engaged.” Individual members can and do change a culture, which means that ways of life constantly change and that tensions between opposing views are usually present. Cultures are never inter- nally homogeneous because individual humans never think or behave in exactly the same manner.

A cultural approach to human geography, then, stud- ies the relationships among space, place, environment, and culture. It examines the ways in which culture is expressed and symbolized in the landscapes we see around us, includ- ing homes, commercial buildings, roads, agricultural pat- terns, gardens, and parks. It analyzes the ways in which language, religion, the economy, government, and other cultural phenomena vary or remain constant from one place to another and provides a perspective for understand- ing how people function spatially and identify with place and region (Figure 1.1).

In seeking explanations for cultural diversity and place identity, geographers consider a wide array of factors that cause this diversity. Some of these involve the physical envi- ronment: terrain, climate, natural vegetation, wildlife, vari- ations in soil, and the pattern of land and water. Because we cannot understand a culture removed from its physical set- ting, human geography offers not only a spatial perspective but also an ecological one.

Many complex forces are at work on cultural phenom- ena, and all of them are interconnected in very compli-

Figure 1.1 Two traditional houses of worship. Geographers seek to learn how and why cultures differ, or are similar, from one place to another. Often the differences and similarities have a visual expression. In what ways are these two structures—one a

What Is a Cultural Approach to Human Geography? Human geography forms one part of the discipline of geog- raphy, complementing physical geography (which deals with the natural environment). Human geography exam- ines the relationships between people and the places and spaces in which they live using a variety of scales ranging from the local to the global. Human geographers explore how these relationships create the diverse spatial arrange- ments that we see around us, arrangements that include homes, neighborhoods, cities, nations and regions. A cul- tural approach to the study of human geography implies an emphasis on the meanings, values, attitudes, and beliefs that different groups of people around the world lend to and derive from places and spaces. To understand the scope of a cultural approach to human geography, we must first discuss the various meanings of culture.

There are many definitions of culture, some broad and some narrow. For the purposes of this book, we define cul- ture as learned, collective human behavior, as opposed to innate, or inborn, behavior. Learned similarities in speech, behavior, ideology, livelihood, technology, value systems, and society form a way of life common to a group of peo- ple. Culture, defined in this way, involves a means of com- municating these learned beliefs, memories, perceptions, traditions, and attitudes that serves to shape behavior. As geographers, we tend to be interested in how these various aspects of culture take shape in particular places, environ- ments, and landscapes.

Catholic church in Honduras and the other a Buddhist temple in Laos—alike and different? (Left: Rob Crandall/Stock Connection/Alamy; Right: Peter Adams/Alamy.)

What Is a Cultural Approach to Human Geography? 3

cated ways. The complexity of the forces that affect culture can be illustrated by an example drawn from agricultural geography: the distribution of wheat cultivation in the world. If you look at Figure 1.2, you can see important areas of wheat cultivation in Australia but not in Africa, in the United States but not in Chile, in China but not in South- east Asia. Why does this spatial pattern exist? Partly it results from environmental factors such as climate, terrain, and soils. Some regions have always been too dry for wheat cul- tivation. The land in others is too steep or infertile. Indeed, there is a strong correlation between wheat cultivation and midlatitude climates, level terrain, and good soil.

Still, we should not place exclusive importance on such physical factors. People can modify the effects of climate through irrigation; the use of hothouses; or the develop- ment of new, specialized strains of wheat. They can conquer slopes by terracing, and they can make poor soils produc- tive with fertilization. For example, farmers in mountainous parts of Greece traditionally wrested an annual harvest of wheat from tiny terraced plots where soil had been trapped behind hand-built stone retaining walls. Even in the United

States, environmental factors alone cannot explain the curi- ous fact that major wheat cultivation is concentrated in the semiarid Great Plains, some distance from states such as Ohio and Illinois, where the climate for growing wheat is better. The human geographer knows that wheat has to sur- vive in a cultural environment as well as a physical one.

Ultimately, agricultural patterns cannot be explained by the characteristics of the land and climate alone. Many factors complicate the distribution of wheat, including peo- ple’s tastes and traditions. Food preferences and taboos, often backed by religious beliefs, strongly influence the choice of crops to plant. Where wheat bread is preferred, people are willing to put great efforts into overcoming physical surroundings hostile to growing wheat. They have even created new strains of wheat, thereby decreasing the environment’s influence on the distribution of wheat culti- vation. Other factors, such as public policies, can also encourage or discourage wheat cultivation. For example, tariffs protect the wheat farmers of France and other Euro- pean countries from competition with more efficient Amer- ican and Canadian producers.

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Figure 1.2 Areas of wheat production in the world today. These regions are based on a single trait: the importance of wheat in the agricultural system. This map tells us what and where. It raises the question of why. What causal forces might be at work to produce this geographical distribution of wheat farming?

4 Chapter 1 Human Geography

This is by no means a complete list of the forces that affect the geographical distribution of wheat cultivation. The distribution of all cultural elements is a result of the constant interplay of diverse factors. Human geography is the disci- pline that seeks such explanations and understandings.

How to Understand Human Geography Generally speaking, there are three different perspectives geographers have taken in regard to studying and under- standing the complexity of the human mosaic. Each of these perspectives brings a different emphasis to studying the diversity of human patterns on the Earth.

Spatial Models Some geographers seek patterns and regu- larities amidst the complexity and apply the scientific method to the study of people. Emulating physicists and chemists, they devise theories and seek regularities or uni- versal spatial principles that apply across cultural lines, explaining all of humankind. These principles ideally become the basis for laws of human spatial behavior.

Space—a term that refers to an abstract location on a map—is the word that perhaps best connotes this approach to cultural geography (see Doing Geography at the end of the chapter).

Social scientists face a difficult problem because, unlike physical scientists, they cannot limit the effects of diverse factors by running experiments in controlled laboratories. One solution to this problem is the technique known as model building. Aware that many causal forces are involved in the real world, they set up artificial situations to focus on one or more potential factors. Torsten Hägerstrand’s dia- grams of different ways that ideas and people move from one place to another are examples of spatial models. Some model-building geographers devise culture-specific models to describe and explain certain facets of spatial behavior within specific cultures. They still seek regularities and spa- tial principles but within the bounds of individual cultures. For example, several geographers proposed a model for Latin American cities in an effort to stress similarities among them and to understand why cities are formed the way they are (Figure 1.3). Obviously, no actual city in Latin

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Ford developed the model diagrammed here to help describe and explain the processes at work shaping the cities of Latin America. In what ways would this model not be applicable to cities in the United States and Canada? (After Griffin and Ford, 1980: 406.)

Figure 1.3 A generalized model of the Latin American city. Urban structure differs from one culture to another, and in many ways the cities of Latin America are distinctive, sharing much in common with one another. Geographers Ernst Griffin and Larry

Themes in Human Geography 5

America conforms precisely to their uncomplicated geo- metric plan. Instead, they deliberately generalized and sim- plified so that an urban type could be recognized and studied. The model will look strange to a person living in a city in the United States or Canada, for it describes a very different kind of urban environment, based in another culture.

Sense of Place Other geographers seek to understand the uniqueness of each region and place. Just as space identi- fies the perspective of the model-building geographer, place is the key word connoting this more humanistic view of geography. The geographer Yi-Fu Tuan coined the word topophilia, literally “love of place,” to describe people who exhibit a strong sense of place and the geographers who are attracted to the study of such places and peoples. Geog- rapher Edward Relph tells us that “to be human is to have and know your place” in the geographical sense. This per- spective on cultural geography values subjective experi- ence over objective scientific observation. It focuses on understanding the complexity of different cultures and how those cultures give meaning to and derive meaning from particular places. For example, many geographers are interested in understanding how and why certain places continue to evoke strong emotions from people, even though those people may have little direct connec- tion with those places. Denis Cosgrove (see Practicing Geography on page 26) has studied why Venice continues to stir people’s imaginations, people as diverse as tourists from Japan and farmers from Iowa, despite the fact that the city hasn’t held any political or economic power in hundreds of years, and the cultures out of which it was formed have long since ceased to exist. However, some geographers are interested in the opposite kind of places—ordinary places—and ask how and why people become attached to and derive meaning from their local neighborhoods or communities, and how those meanings can often come into conflict with each other. Many of the debates that you see in newspapers and hear about on the evening news—debates about the construction of a new high-rise building or the location of a highway, for exam- ple—can only be understood by examining the meanings and values different groups of people give to and derive from particular places.

Power and Ideology Cultures are rarely if ever homoge- neous. Often certain groups of people have more power in society, and their beliefs and ways of life dominate and are considered the norm, whereas other groups of people with less power may participate in alternative cultures. These divisions are often based on gender, economic class, racial categories, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. The social hier- archies that result are maintained, reinforced, and chal-

lenged through many means. Those means can include such things as physical violence, but often social hierarchies are maintained in ways far more subtle. For example, some geographers study ideology—a set of dominant ideas and beliefs—in relationship to place, environment, and land- scape in order to understand how power works culturally. For example, most nations maintain a set of powerful beliefs about their relationships to the land, some holding to the idea that there is a deep and natural connection between a particular territory and the people who have inhabited it. These ideas often form part of a national iden- tity and are expressed so routinely in poems, music, laws, and rituals that people accept these ideas as truths. Many American patriotic songs, for example, express the idea that the country naturally spreads from “sea to sea.” Yet immigrants to that culture and country, and people who have been marginalized by that culture, may hold very dif- ferent ideas of identity with the land. Native Americans have claims to land that far predate those of the U.S. gov- ernment and would argue against an American national identity that includes a so-called natural connection to all the land between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Uncovering and analyzing the connections between ideology and power, then, are often integral to the geographer’s task of understanding the diversity within a culture.

These different approaches to thinking about human geography are both necessary and healthy. These groups ask different questions about place and space; not surpris- ingly, they often obtain different answers. The model- builders tend to minimize diversity through their search for universal causal forces; the humanists examine diversity among cultures and strive to understand the unique; those who look to power and ideology focus on diversity and con- testation within cultures. All lines of inquiry yield valuable findings. We present all of these perspectives throughout The Human Mosaic.

Themes in Human Geography Our study of the human mosaic is organized around five geo- graphical concepts or themes: region, mobility, globalization, nature-culture, and cultural landscape. We use these themes to organize the diversity of issues that confront human geog- raphy and have selected them because they represent the major concepts that human geographers discuss. Each of them stresses one particular aspect of the discipline, and even though we have separated them for purposes of clarity, it is important to remember that the concepts are related to each other. When discussing the theme of mobility, for example, we will inevitably bring up issues related to globalization, and vice versa. These themes give a common structure to each chapter and are stressed throughout the book.

6 Chapter 1 Human Geography

Region

Phrased as a question, the theme of region could be “How are people and their traits grouped or arranged geograph- ically?” Places and regions provide the essence of geogra- phy. How and why are places alike or different? How do they mesh together into functioning spatial networks? How do their inhabitants perceive them and identify with them? These are central geographical questions. A region, then, is a geographical unit based on characteristics and func- tions of culture. Geographers recognize three types of regions: formal, functional, and vernacular.

Formal Regions A formal region is an area inhabited by people who have one or more traits in common, such as language, religion, or a system of livelihood. It is an area, therefore, that is relatively homogeneous with regard to one or more cultural traits. Geographers use this concept to map spatial differences throughout the world. For exam- ple, an Arabic-language formal region can be drawn on a map of languages and would include the areas where Ara- bic is spoken, rather than, say, English or Hindi or Man- darin. Similarly, a wheat-farming formal region would include the parts of the world where wheat is a major crop (look again at Figure 1.2).

The examples of Arabic speech and of wheat cultiva- tion represent the concept of formal region at its simplest level. Each is based on a single cultural trait. More com- monly, formal regions depend on multiple related traits (Figure 1.4). Thus, an Inuit (Eskimo) culture region might be based on language, religion, economy, social organiza- tion, and type of dwellings. The region would reflect the spatial distribution of these five Inuit cultural traits. Dis- tricts in which all five of these traits are present would be part of the culture region. Similarly, Europe can be subdi- vided into several multitrait regions (Figure 1.5).

Formal regions are the geographer’s somewhat arbi- trary creations. No two cultural traits have the same dis- tribution, and the territorial extent of a culture region depends on what and how many defining traits are used (see Figure 1.5). Why five Inuit traits, not four or six? Why not foods instead of (or in addition to) dwelling types? Consider, for example, Greeks and Turks, who differ in language and religion. Formal regions defined on the basis of speech and religious faith would separate these two groups. However, Greeks and Turks hold many other cultural traits in common. Both groups are monotheistic, worshipping a single god. In both groups, male supremacy and patriarchal families are the rule. Both enjoy certain folk foods, such as shish kebab. Whether Greeks and Turks are placed in the same formal region or in different

Figure 1.4 An Inuit hunter with his dogsled team. Various facets of a multitrait formal region can be seen here, including the clothing, the use of dogsleds as transportation, and hunting as a livelihood system. (Bryan and Cherry Alexander Photography/Alamy.)

Themes in Human Geography 7

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8 Chapter 1 Human Geography

means that culture changes continually throughout an area and that every inhabited place on Earth has a unique com- bination of cultural features. No place is exactly like another.

Does this cultural uniqueness of each place prevent geographers from seeking explanatory theories? Does it doom them to explaining each locale separately? The answer must be no. The fact that no two hills or rocks, no two planets or stars, no two trees or flowers are identical has not prevented geologists, astronomers, and botanists from formulating theories and explanations based on generalizations.

Functional Regions The hallmark of a formal region is cul- tural homogeneity. Moreover, it is abstract rather than con- crete. By contrast, a functional region need not be culturally homogeneous; instead, it is an area that has been organized to function politically, socially, or economically as one unit. A city, an independent state, a precinct, a church diocese or parish, a trade area, a farm, and a Fed- eral Reserve Bank district are all examples of functional regions. Functional regions have nodes, or central points where the functions are coordinated and directed. Exam- ples of such nodes are city halls, national capitals, precinct voting places, parish churches, factories, and banks. In this sense, functional regions also possess a core-periphery con- figuration, in common with formal regions.

Many functional regions have clearly defined borders. A metropolitan area is a functional region that includes all the land under the jurisdiction of a particular urban gov- ernment (Figure 1.6). The borders of this functional region may not be so apparent from a car window, but they will be clearly delineated on a regional map by a line

Figure 1.6 Aerial view of Denver. This image clearly illustrates the node of a functional region—here, the dense cluster of commercial buildings—that coordinates activities throughout the area that surrounds it. Can you identify the border of this functional region? Why or why not? (Jim Wark/Airphoto.)

ones depends entirely on how the geographer chooses to define the region. That choice in turn depends on the specific purpose of research or teaching that the region is designed to serve. Thus, an infinite number of formal regions can be created. It is unlikely that any two geographers would use exactly the same distinguishing criteria or place cultural boundaries in precisely the same location.

The geographer who identifies a formal region must locate borders. Because cultures overlap and mix, such boundaries are rarely sharp, even if only a single cultural trait is mapped. For this reason, we find border zones rather than lines. These zones broaden with each addi- tional trait that is considered because no two traits have the same spatial distribution. As a result, instead of having clear borders, formal regions reveal a center or core where the defining traits are all present. Moving away from the cen- tral core, the characteristics weaken and disappear. Thus, many formal regions display a core-periphery pattern. This refers to a situation where a region can be divided into two sections, one near the center where the particular attributes that define the region (in this case, language and religion) are strong, and other portions of the region further away from the core, called the periphery, where those attributes are weaker.

In a real sense, then, the human world is chaotic. No matter how closely related two elements of culture seem to be, careful investigation always shows that they do not cover exactly the same area. This is true regardless of what degree of detail is involved. What does this chaos mean to the human geographer? First, it tells us that every cultural trait is spatially unique and that the explanation for each spatial variation differs in some degree from all others. Second, it

Themes in Human Geography 9

distinguishing one jurisdiction from another. Similarly, each state in the United States and each Canadian province is a functional region, coordinated and directed from a capital, with government control extended over a fixed area with clearly defined borders.

Not all functional regions have fixed, precise borders, however. A good example is a daily newspaper’s circulation area. The node for the paper would be the plant where it is produced. Every morning, trucks move out of the plant to distribute the paper throughout the city. The newspaper may have a sales area extending into the city’s suburbs, local bedroom communities, nearby towns, and rural areas. There its sales area overlaps with the sales territories of competing newspapers published in other cities. It would be futile to try to define exclusive borders for such an area. How would you draw a sales area boundary for the New York Times? Its Sunday edition is sold in some quantity even in

California, thousands of miles from its node, and it is pub- lished simultaneously in different cities.

Functional regions generally do not coincide spatially with formal regions, and this disjuncture often creates problems for the functional region. Germany provides an example (Figure 1.7). As an independent state, Germany forms a functional region. Language provides a substantial basis for political unity. However, the formal region of the German language extends beyond the political borders of Germany and includes part or all of eight other indepen- dent states. More important, numerous formal regions have borders cutting through German territory. Some of these have endured for millennia, causing differences among northern, southern, eastern, and western Germans. These contrasts make the functioning of the German state more difficult and help explain why Germany has been politically fragmented more often than unified.

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Northern limit of divided inheritance (derived from Romans)

Northern limit of Catholic majority

Western limit of surviving rural feudal estates, 1800

German-Slav, Christian-pagan border, A.D. 800

German-speaking area

Berlin •

Figure 1.7 East versus west and north versus south in Germany. As a political unit and functional culture region, Germany must overcome the disruptions caused by numerous formal regions that tend to make the sections of Germany culturally different. Formal and functional regions rarely coincide spatially. How might these sectional contrasts cause problems for modern Germany?

10 Chapter 1 Human Geography

Vernacular Regions A vernacular region is one that is per- ceived to exist by its inhabitants, as evidenced by the wide- spread acceptance and use of a special regional name. Some vernacular regions are based on physical environ- mental features. For example, there are many regions called simply “the valley.” Wikipedia lists more than 30 dif- ferent regions within the United States and Canada that are referred to as such, places as varied as the Sudbury Basin in Ontario and the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. In the 1980s, “the valley” became synonymous with the San Fer- nando Valley in Southern California (Figure 1.8) and became associated with a type of landscape (suburban), a person (a white, teenage girl, called the “valley girl”), and a way of speaking (“valspeak”). Other vernacular regions find their basis in economic, political, or historical charac- teristics. Vernacular regions, like most regions, generally lack sharp borders, and the inhabitants of any given area may claim residence in more than one such region. They vary in scale from city neighborhoods to sizable parts of continents.

At a basic level, the vernacular region grows out of peo- ple’s sense of belonging and identification with a particular region. By contrast, many formal or functional regions lack this attribute and, as a result, are often far less meaningful for people. You’re more likely to hear people say, “we’re fighting to preserve ‘the valley’ from further urban devel- opment,” than to see people rally under the banner of

“wheat-growing areas of the world”! Self-conscious regional identity can have major political and social ramifications.

Reflecting on Geography What examples can you think of that show how identification with a vernacular region is a powerful political force?

Vernacular regions often lack the organization neces- sary for functional regions, although they may be centered around a single urban node, and they frequently do not dis- play the cultural homogeneity that characterizes formal regions.

Mobility

The concept of regions helps us see that often similar or related sets of elements are grouped together in space. Equally important in geography is understanding how and why these different cultural elements move through space and locate in particular settings. Regions them- selves, as we have seen, are not stable but are constantly changing as people, ideas, practices, and technologies move around in space. Are there some patterns to these movements? These questions define our second theme, mobility.

One important way to study mobility is through the concept of diffusion. Diffusion can be defined as the move-

Figure 1.8 The San Fernando Valley. Referred to locally as “the valley,” the San Fernando Valley is located in the northwestern area of Los Angeles. Despite its reputation as a white, suburban area, portions of the valley are densely populated, and the area is home to a wide range of peoples from many different backgrounds. Can you think of other examples of regions that are locally known as “the valley”? (Robert Landau/drr.net.)