Transcript Unit 3 Cultural Patterns and Processes

Unit 3
Cultural
Patterns and
Processes
Cultural Landscape
• If you have ever studied the earth’s
surface from an airplane thousands of feet
in the air, you have observed the cultural
landscape – the modification of the natural
landscape by human activities.
Midwestern U.S.
Big Cities
Culture – the complex mix of values, beliefs,
behaviors, and material objects that together form a
people’ way of life. – Important terminology follows:
• Non-material Culture –
consists of abstract concepts
of values, beliefs and
behaviors.
• Values – are culturally
defined standards that guide
the way people assess
desirability, goodness, and
beauty, and that serve as
guidelines for moral living.
Red Sonia – Leslie
Hovvels of Welsh –
died because of
infection related to
nose piercings.
• Egyptian body piercings reflected status
and love of beauty.
• Romans were practical piercers. Signified
Strength and Virility.
• Aztecs, Mayans and some American
Indians practiced Tongue Piercing as
religious ritual.
• Modern Day – Mostly limited to the ears
until recently. Hippies of the 1960’s
traveled to India and brought back the
concept of nose rings. The concept of
body piercing has continued to gain in
popularity throughout the 80’s, 90’s and
today.
• Beliefs – specific
statements that people
hold to be true – almost
always based on values.
• Behaviors – Actions that
people take – generally
based on values and
beliefs as reflected in
norms the rules and
expectations by which a
society guides the
behavior of its members.
Material Culture –
wide range concrete human creations.
• Artifacts – reflect the values, beliefs, and behaviors
or a culture.
– From an airplane you can readily see material culture as it
relates to the environment.
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Roads
Houses
Buildings,
Car
Farm equipment
Airport runways
– Look beyond the objects… Why does a person build a
house? Why are the houses arranged in the patterns that
you see? What purpose do checkerboards serve, and
where do the roads lead? The answers to these questions
lie in the values, beliefs, and behaviors (non-material
culture) that humans use to guide the creation and
maintenance of their artifacts (material culture)
Culture Regions – Traits – and
Complexes
• Separating culture into non-material and
material types helps you begin to study its
complexities.
• Culture Region is an area marked by culture
that distinguishes it from other regions – nonmaterial culture, such as clothing and building
style, reflect the values, beliefs, and
behaviors of the people that live in the region.
Culture Trait
• A single attribute of a culture is called a
Culture Trait and a culture region consists of
countless numbers of traits.
– Ex: A trait may be wearing colorful clothing with
the group’s own skillful weave and design.
Another culture trait may be the building of roads
and bridges across mountain ranges. Yet
another trait may be the construction of buildings
without mortar and another the terracing of land
for crop growth. Put all these and thousands of
others – together, and you may study the culture
region that survives today around the Andes
Mountains in South America.
• Culture traits are not necessarily confined
to a single culture. – For example, people
in many cultures use brushes to clean
their teeth and to make their hair more
attractive, and they usually use different
kinds of brushes for the two types of
activities. However, the trait combines with
others in a distinctive way, so that a
culture complex is formed. A culture
complex consists of common values,
beliefs, behaviors, and artifacts that make
a group in an area distinct from others.
China – Many Culture Complexes
• Modern City of Xian – combines religions and
beliefs, such as Buddhism, Islam and
Confucianism in a way that makes it identifiable
as a separate culture complex. However,
particular traits such as following Confucian
principles, are shared by other complexes
around them. Any area with strong cultural ties
that bind its people together forms a Culture
System – a group of interconnected culture
complexes.
• On the map, a culture region can represent an
entire culture region can represent an entire
culture system that intertwines with its locational
and environmental circumstances to form a
geographic region.
• Cultural Hearths are the areas where
civilizations first began that radiated the ideas,
innovations and ideologies that culturally
transformed the world.
• Early Cultural Hearths developed in
Southwest Asia, North Africa, South Asia, and
East Asia in the valleys and basin of great river
systems.
• Cultural Hearths developed much later in
Central and South America, and their
geography shaped cultural development not
around river valleys, but around mountain
ranges and central highlands.
• Another Cultural Hearth with its own culture
complex developed centuries later in West Africa,
very much influenced by earlier hearths along the
Nile River in Northeast Africa.
• Another unique cultural hearth developed in the
islands of the Aegean Sea, where the inhabitants
were jointed by easy water access among islands
and mainland.
• From their centers, the hearths grew until they
came into contact with one another, although their
ability to travel to and contact other cultural hearths
was limited by their levels of technology and
distance. Cultural hearths have shifted greatly
over time. For example, the Industrial Revolution
of the 18th and 19th century moved cultural hearths
to Europe and North America, with modern shifts in
the 21st century continuing to occur.
Cultural Hearths
Cultural Diffusion
• The early cultural hearths were centers for
innovation and invention, and their non-material
and material culture spread to areas around
them through a process called cultural
diffusion.
• Over time, as cultural hearths have shifted,
cultural diffusion has spread culture traits to
most parts of the globe.
• This long and complicated spread of culture
often makes it difficult to trace the origin, spread,
and timing of a particular trait.
How do I
understand
Diffusion?
Acculturation
• Acculturation –
when smaller/weaker
groups take on traits
of the larger/dominant
culture. Can be 2way process – e.g.
Aztecs acculturated
into Spanish culture,
but some Aztec traits
remained and
became Spanish
culture.
Assimilation
• Assimilation – the
adoption of cultural
elements can be
so complete that
two cultures
become
indistinguishable –
e.g. – jeans being
worn here in the
Czech Republic
BARRIERS TO DIFFUSION
• TIME and DISTANCE DECAY – farther
from the source & the more time it takes, the less
likely innovation adopted
• CULTURAL BARRIERS – some
practices, ideas, innovations are not
acceptable/adoptable in a particular culture – e.g.
pork, alcohol, contraceptives…
• PHYSICAL BARRIERS – physical
barriers on the surface may prohibit/inhibit adoption
Distance Decay Graph
• Learn to think
about distance
decay in a
“spatial” context
• Think of
distance decay
in terms of an ‘x’
and ‘y’ axis
Two Types of Diffusion
• Expansion
• Relocation
Expansion Diffusion
• EXPANSION DIFFUSION
– Spread of an innovation/idea
through a population in an area in
such a way that the # of those
influenced grows continuously
larger, resulting in an expanding
area of dissemination.
(de Blij/Murphy – 7th ed., page R-20)
Expansion Diffusion
• This occurs when an idea or trait
spreads from one place to another.
Kinds of Expansion Diffusion
• Hierarchical
Diffusion – spread
of an idea through
an established
structure usually
from people or
areas of power
down to other
people or areas
Examples of Hierarchical
Diffusion
• AIDS is typically viewed as
hierarchical because if its historically
distinctive URBAN to URBAN
diffusion pattern
• “Blackberries” have diffused
hierarchically. Blackberries, though
becoming cheaper, are too expensive
for most consumers to buy; therefore
diffusing hierarchically.
Expansion Diffusion
• Contagious
Diffusion – spread
of an
idea/trait/concept
through a group of
people or an area
equally without
regard to social
class, economic
position or position of
power.
Diagram of Contagious Diffusion
Human Geography, deBlij & Murphy, 7th ed. Page 28
• ‘A’ is a diagram of
contagious diffusion.
Notice virtually all
‘adopt.’
• ‘B’ is a diagram of
hierarchical diffusion.
Notice the leapfrogging
over some areas.
Expansion Diffusion
• Stimulus Diffusion – the spread of an
underlying principle even though the
characteristic itself does not spread.
»OR
• Stimulus Diffusion - involves the
transfer of an underlying concept or
idea, without the specific
accompanying traits due to some
cultural or other barrier to the
movement of the idea
An example of Stimulus
Diffusion
• McDonald’s spread to
India; however, Indian
Hindus do not eat
beef. Indian
McDonald’s serve
veggie burgers, which
is culturally
acceptable. The idea
(McDonald’s burgers)
was acceptable, but
not in its original form
– hence stimulus
diffusion.
RELOCATION DIFFUSION
Sequential diffusion process in which the items
being diffused are transmitted by their carrier
agents as they evacuate the old areas and
relocate to new ones. The most common
form of relocation diffusion involves the
spreading of innovations by a migrating
population.
(de Blij/Murphy – 7th ed., page R-26)
• This occurs when the people migrate and
take their cultural attributes with them.
Relocation and Expansion – In Review
Human Geography, Fellmann, Getis & Getis, 8th ed. Page 55
• ‘A’ is relocation
diffusion as the
person goes.
• ‘B’ is expansion
diffusion as the
idea/trait moves
or transports.
AIDS and Relocation Diffusion
• Some authors suggest AIDS diffuses
through relocation diffusion. This is
true by the fact that the diffusers
“take” the disease with them.
However, AIDS is not contracted by
everyone in its path. More
importantly, the pattern of AIDS
diffusion is more classically
hierarchical (and therefore
expansion).
Migrant Diffusion (a form of
Relocation Diffusion)
• Migrant Diffusion is when an innovation
originates and enjoys strong, but brief,
adoption there. The innovation may travel
long distances (& be thriving), but could
be faded out back at the point of
origination – e.g. influenza in China will reach
the U.S., but the epidemic could be over in
China by the time it takes hold in the U.S.
One more look…Wal-Mart as both contagious
and reverse hierarchical diffusion – WHY?
Human Geography, Fellmann, Getis & Getis, 8th Ed. Page 57
How about another example
of reverse hierarchical
diffusion?
Random Thoughts on Diffusion
• Expansion Diffusion
• Contagious
• Does not need have a specific pre-existing structure for
transmission
• disease contagion is a prime example
• Don’t forget the orange scent spreading around the room
• Hierarchical
• requires a pre-established structure to channel the flow
ie 'chain of command' or network of power
• Relocation Diffusion
• Movement of people and things
• Europeans moved to the Americas and brought their
culture with them