Chapter 5:

Cultural Geographies
 Overview
Cultural geography is the topic of Chapter Five. This broad field focuses on how
space, place, and landscape shape culture, and on how culture shapes space,
place, and landscape. Globalizing trends and the distinctiveness of cultures are
both aspects of this field of study.
Language and religion are two fundamental aspects of culture. Both language and
religion demonstrate globalizing and localizing characteristics. For example, English
has become a global language while, at the same time, speakers of many other
languages are asserting their linguistic identity. Likewise, Islamism is an influential
force in some countries as it attempts to resist globalizing trends.
Cultural geographers today also realize that other forms of cultural identity—such
as sexuality, gender, and ethnicity—are also means of asserting identity and of
resisting the influence of majority or dominant cultural patterns. In sum, this chapter
explores the globalization (or worldwide standardization) of culture and various
local and societal attempts to resist this globalization.
 Chapter Objectives
• The objectives of this chapter are to:
– Examine the cultural systems of religion and language
as they are related to geography
– Provide a foundation in the understanding of cultural
nationalism
– Survey culture and identity by examining our sexual
geographies, ethnicity and the use of space, race and
place, and gender
– Explore the relationship between culture and the
physical environment
– Investigate the relationship between globalization and
cultural change
 Cultural Geographies
Culture may be thought of as a way of life
involving a particular set of skills, values,
and meanings.
Geographers focus on how place and space
shape culture, and how culture shapes
place and space. Culture is dynamic.
Culture has been profoundly impacted by
globalization.
Cultural geography seeks to understand the
role played by politics and economy in
establishing and perpetuating cultures,
cultural landscapes, and global patterns of
cultural traits and complexes.
Cultural geography includes analysis of gender, class, sexuality, race, ethnicity,
and life-cycle stages.
Globalization does not necessarily mean that the world is becoming more
homogenous. The local is in some ways even more important.
 Expressions of Culture

Ta mako (tribal tattoos) are signs of identification, rank, genealogy, tribal

history, eligibility to marry, beauty, and ferocity in the Maori culture of
New Zealand.
 Culture as a Geographical Process
• Geographers are interested not only in how place and space
shape culture but also the reverse—how culture shapes place
and space.
• Definitions of culture:
– Culture is a particular way of life, such as a set of skilled activities,
values, and meaning surrounding a particular type of economic practice.
– Culture is a set of classical standards and aesthetic excellence: opera,
ballet, or literature.
– The term culture describes the range of activities that characterize a
particular group, such as working-class culture, corporate culture, or
teen culture.
• For our purposes: Culture is a shared set of meanings that is
lived through the material and symbolic practices of everyday
life.
• Cultural Geography - focuses on the way
space, place, and landscapes shape culture at
the same time that culture shapes space,
place, and landscapes
Two important and interrelated parts:
1.Culture - the ongoing process of producing a
shared set of meanings and practices
2.Geography - the dynamic context within which
groups operate to shape those meanings and
practices and in the process form an identity and
act.
Ex. Online social networks (Facebook)
“The Internet of Things”
Figure 1. The Internet of things. Experts who study the effect of present and
evolving technologies on the future believe that one of the biggest influences on
the way we live our lives in the next 20 years is the internet of things.
Cultural landscape - a characteristic and
tangible outcome of the complex
interactions between a human group and
a natural environment
Historical geography - the geography of
the past
Genre de vie - a functionally organized
way of life characteristic of a particular
culture group
Cultural trait - a single aspect of the
complex routine practices that constitute a
particular cultural group
Rites of passage - the ceremonial acts,
practices, or procedures that recognize key
transactions in human life (such as birth,
menstruation, and other markers of
adulthood such as marriage)
Cultural complex - combination of traits
characteristic of a particular group
Cultural region - the area(s) within which a
particular cultural system prevails
• Cultural system- a collection of interacting
elements that taken together shape a
group’s collective identity.
 Death Practice

Roadside memorials are artistic expressions that mark the place where
the soul has left the body in a fatal accident. Have you seen these where
you live?
The Geography of Hip-Hop

East Coast vs. West Coast vs. South Coast

Folk Culture vs. Popular Culture
• Folk culture is seen by specialists
as the traditional practices of small
groups, especially rural people with
a simple lifestyle, such as the Amish
or the Roma.
• Popular culture is viewed by some
cultural geographers as the practices
and meaning systems produced by
large groups of people whose norms
and tastes are often heterogeneous
and change frequently, often in
response to commercial products.
 Building Cultural Complexes

This Masai village is enclosed by thorny vegetation gathered from the

surrounding area. Inside the barrier are dwellings, as well as pens for
all-important livestock.
 Sauer’s “Morphology of Landscape”

• Material expression of culture manifest themselves in the

landscape.
• Cultural landscape is a characteristic and tangible outcome of
the complex interactions between a human group and its natural
environment.
• A cultural landscape is a “humanized” version of a natural
environment (i.e., landscape management).
 Market Gardens in Corsica
This image shows a rural setting in Corsica, an island nation in the
Mediterranean, where commercial agriculture is being undertaken. Farming
is a way of life—a genre de vie—that we can read from the landscape where
extensive cultivated fields and isolated farmhouses constitute key elements.
 Domesday Book
H. C. Darby most successfully
implemented his historical geography
approach to cultural geography and
landscape by developing a geography
based on the Domesday Book (or
Doomsday Book).
William the Conqueror ordered this
book compiled so that he could know
the value of all that he conquered.
For geographers like Darby, such data
(e.g., homes, people, wealth, customs)
were invaluable for reconstructing the
political, economic, and social forces
that shaped past landscapes.
 Iroquois Longhouse
A cultural trait is a single aspect of the complex of routine practices
that constitute a particular cultural group (e.g., distinctive styles of
dress, dietary habits, and styles of architecture). Longhouses were
communal, housing up to 20 families at once.
 Rites of Passage

The coming-of-age ceremony for girls turning twenty years old in

South Korea is held every May 15 in Seoul. Koreans who turn 60 are
also ritually celebrated on hwan-gap.
 Cultural Systems
• Geography and Religion
– Religion is a belief system and a set of practices that
recognizes the existence of a higher power.
– Diaspora is a spatial dispersion of a previously
homogeneous group.
• Geography and Language
– Language is a way of communicating ideas or feelings by
means of a conventionalized system.
– Cultural hearths are the geographic origins or sources of
innovations, ideas, or ideologies.
• Culture and Society
– Kinship is a relationship based on blood, marriage, or
adoption, but also includes a shared notion of relationship
among members of the group.
World Distribution of Major Religions

Not evident on the map are the local variations in practices, as

well as the many smaller religions that are practiced worldwide
(e.g., Sikhism or Santería).
 Origin Areas and Diffusion of Four
Major Religions
The world’s major religions originated
in a fairly small region of the world.
Judaism and Christianity began in
present-day Israel and Jordan.
Islam emerged from western Arabia.
Buddhism originated in India, and
Hinduism in the Indus region of
Pakistan (from Vedic rites and rituals).
Religious beliefs are organized and
codified, often based on the teachings
and writings of one or more of its
founders.
Geography and Language
• Language classification includes
families, branches, and groups.
• A language family is a collection
of individual languages believed to
be related in their pre-historical
origin.
• A language branch is a collection
of languages that possess a definite
common origin but have split into
individual languages.
• A language group is a collection of
several individual languages that is
part of a language branch, shares a
common origin in the recent past,
and has relatively similar grammar
and vocabulary.
 Spread of Buddhism

Commercial routes, like the Silk Road, were important vectors for
the spread of the religion across Asia.
Spread of Christianity in Europe
• Christianity diffused
through Europe largely
because of missionary
efforts.
• Monks and monasteries
were especially important
as hubs of diffusion in the
larger network.
• The shaded areas indicate
places where Christian
converts dominated by
A.D. 300.
 Changing Religious Practices

Tibetan monks protest in Nepal Megachurch, Illinois, United States

 Muslim Women
Afghanistan Turkey

In fundamentalist, theocratic states (e.g., Afghanistan under the

Taliban), women must observe rules of modesty. In Turkey, where
there is a secular democratic government, women may have more
liberal attitudes of decorum. How do Westerners view the burqua and
conservative Islamic culture?
 African Countries with Extinct and
Threatened Languages
It is not absolutely certain how many
languages are currently being spoken
worldwide.

Estimates range between 4,200 and 5,600.

While some languages are being created

through the fusion of an indigenous
language with a colonial language,
indigenous languages are mostly dying out.

Although only Africa is shown in this map,

indigenous languages are dying out
throughout the Americas and Asia as well.
World Film Production, 2001
 Globalizing Film Industry: Nollywood

Nollywood video films are popular the world over and rival Hollywood and
Bollywood in numbers produced. The films follow different production
techniques and invoke different kinds of stories, ultimately resulting in a different
aesthetic.
 Sexual Geographies
Sexuality is a set of practices and identities that a given culture considers related to each other and to those
things it considers sexual acts and desires. This gay pride (LGBT) parade in São Paulo, Brazil, attracted
almost 2 million people.
End of Chapter 5
 Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• Have the class describe and discuss
some of the natural and cultural
landscapes in the local community. How
have these landscapes shaped each
other?
– The natural environment and cultural
practices shape each other. The university
campus may be a good example to
consider.
 Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• Discuss how religions have been used
as the bases of identity, and,
consequently, as instruments of
resistance to globalization.
– You might consider the example of Islam
and Islamism, as well as related movements
—see pages 197–203 in the textbook for
more information on Islamism. Other
religions and religious movements would
also provide good examples.
 Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• Discuss how measures of identity—such as
gender, sexuality, and ethnicity—are used as
instruments of resistance to culturally dominant
groups. How do gender-, sexuality-, and
ethnicity-based groups use space as an
element in this resistance? Does the local
community have any evidence of such identity-
based social spaces?
– Depending on the community, there may be
enclaves, ghettoes, or colonies of ethnic groups and
gay or lesbian groups. See pages 203–206 in the
textbook for further information.
 Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• An interesting topic for lecture or discussion is
the development of syncretic religions, which
combine elements of two or more religions.
– Good examples are found in the Caribbean region,
in which African, European, and indigenous cultures
mixed. Most Caribbean islands have their own
syncretic religion, notably Voodoo in Haiti, and
Lucumí or Santería on Spanish-speaking islands
such as Cuba and Puerto Rico. Have the students
research one of these religions. You can then trace
different elements of these religions back to African,
European, and indigenous roots.
 Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• What are the advantages and disadvantages
of globalization and the standardization of
culture? Ask the students if they would prefer
to live in a community in which everyone were
the same (no differences in language, religion,
sexuality, and so forth) or one in which such
differences exist. What are the costs and
benefits of each?
– Answers to these questions are largely a matter of
opinion. Having the students read pages 208–211 in
the textbook might better prepare them for a
discussion of this topic.
 Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• What is the hearth region of the English language?
How did the language diffuse globally? How is this
diffusion reflected in the language itself?
– England could be considered the hearth region of English,
though the language derives from the migrations of Germanic
tribes as well with an admixture of French after the Norman
conquest. English diffused globally through exploration and
colonization. English outside England has adapted to local
circumstances and has borrowed words both from local
languages and from immigrant groups, making American and
Australian English different from that of England and from
each other, for example. You might want to consult the works
of David Crystal, in particular his book English as a Global
Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997) for
more information.
 Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• Use Figure 5.A to illustrate the diffusion of rap
music in the United States. This figure clearly
indicates the geographic concepts of a hearth
region and spatial diffusion. You might also
use examples of recorded music to illustrate
changes and differences in regional styles.
– Playing music in class with a portable player will
give the students a chance to experience regional
differences in musical styles. If you are not fond of
rap music, you can substitute a different musical
genre to illustrate the same points.
Country/Western, bluegrass, jazz, blues, and
rhythm and blues work particularly well.
Discussion Topics and
Lecture Themes
• Compare Figure 5.E with a
political map of Africa. How
do political boundaries relate
to linguistic boundaries?
What are the consequences
of the lack of overlap?
– Linguistic boundaries and
political ones do not
generally match because
colonialism largely ignored
African political and cultural
boundaries. Consequently,
linguistic groups are often
divided between two or more
countries or have become
minority languages within a
country, often leading to
political tensions.
 Discussion Topics and Lecture
Themes
• Discuss the importance of the works of
the geographers Carl Sauer, H.C. Darby,
and Paul Vidal de la Blache on 20th-
century geography.
– Information about these geographers can be
found on pages 179–182 of the textbook.
They each helped lead geography away
from the environmental determinism that
dominated much of early 20th-century
geography.