| GEOIOO-Earth, The Human Home | Dr.
Rodrick A. Hay |
| Test Review #2 | |
The test will cover material from textbook Chapter #4 Nature and Society, and Chapter #5
Cultural Geographies. All material covered in class, or in the textbook, whether presented here
or not, is fair game for the test. Material presented in class will be emphasized. Be sure to know
the definitions of the bolded words in the chapters, also look at the illustrations (and read!).
Bring a scantron sheet and a #l pencil (with a good eraser).
Chapter #4 Nature and Society
Nature as a social construct
Nature as a physical construct
Nature as a product of different times and places (sun block vs. sun tan lotion)
Environmental determinism - Ellen Semple (people of Kentucky), Ratzel (people of France)
Society-sum of inventions, institutions,relationships
Technology
Objects of artifacts
Activities and processes
Knowledge and know how
Humans can destroy the world
I=PAT, Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology
Cornucopeans vs. Malthusians
Religious perspective on nature
Greeks (nature not human made)
Judeo-Christian (right to change)
Taoist (nature stands on its own merit)
Buddhist (everything intertwined)
Islamic (made for humans)
Animist (all possess spirits)
Overheads of globalization
Core -- Periphery
Political, economic, cultural interconnectedness
Components of globalization
1. migration 2. dominance of the capitalistic system 3. displacement of
traditional politics 4. transnational environmental issues 5. widening
gulf between rich and poor 6. cultural hybridization 7. supranational
corporations 8. global hierarchy of countries 9. resistance to global
domination.
Chapter #5 Cultural Geographies
Geolinguistics - geographic study of language
Language - single most common and important cultural variable
Terminology
Language - basic linguistic unit NOT mutually intelligible
Dialect - varies in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, IS mutually
intelligible
Pidgin - small vocabulary created from different languages to allow
communication
Lingua franca - mutually understood language, trade language
Isoglosses - language borders
2500-4000 languages worldwide (6000+?)
language families - languages descending from a common ancestor
Indo European languages - English (450 million speakers)
80% of world's scientific programming is in English
languages have been changed to "fit" the computer keyboard
Afro Asiatic
Semitic - Babylonians, Syrians
Arabic - 200 million speakers
Hebrew - ceremonial until 1947, language of Israel, previously a
polyglot
Hamitic - pushed to North Africa by Arabic speakers
Niger Congo (Bantu Subgroup)
Sub-Sahelian Africa, shatter belt of cultural and linguistic diversity
Bantu subgroup - 83 different tongues
Other - Chinese 840 million speakers
Words are on the landscape, road signs, graffiti, billboards
Dialect indicates location
Place and city names are used around the world to promote or minimize cultures
of the past (New Zealand-Maoris)
Religion is a set of beliefs and practices, code of ethics, establishes groups,
explains nature
Regionally religion has sacred space (sought out or barred) global/local
Two major religious categories; proselytic and ethnic
Origins of major religions; Middle East (fertile crescent), Indus Ganges Hearth
Religious diffusion, missionaries, contagious vs. Relocation
Christianity - 1.9 billion adherents, widely dispersed and varying forms
Islam - 820 million followers, five pillars, Koran, Mecca, Sunnite vs. Shiite
Judaism - 18 million followers, old testament, Moses
Hinduism - 650 million followers, polytheistic, caste system, reincarnation
Buddhism - Prince Siddhartha, 4 noble truths
Animism - tribal, appears primitive, but may be complex
Places of worship for different religions (see them on the landscape)
Cathedrals, mosques, synagogues, pagodas
Cultural complexes - transformation of natural and cultural landscapes