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1. Definition Of Culture
To the social scientist, culture is the specialized behavioral patterns, understandings, adaptations & social systems that summarize a people’s way of life.
culture shaped by environment – rain a tool of God's wrath to Hebrews, sacred to Anasazis culture shaped by social organization – the more advanced a society, the more organized it is culture shaped by values & beliefs – Aztec flower wars, cannibals culture as learned behavior – sports, kiss
Culture includes the visible (buildings) and the invisible (language), the material (cultural landscape) & the internal.
cultural landscape – the artificial landscape; the visible human imprint on the land. The natural landscape as modified by human activities and bearing the imprint of a culture group or society, the built environment
perceptual regions
How is the cultural landscape perceived? People of all cultures have spatial memories that influence their perceptions. From the viewpoint of the US, many countries appear to be technologically unsophisticated and poor. But from the perspective of those countries, US society may seem overdeveloped and wasteful. Our perceptions of our own community and culture may greatly differ from those of people in other cultures.
Perceptual regions are intellectual constructs designed to help us understand the nature and distribution of the impressions and images of various regions and cultures. Although we can easily explain in general terms how we perceive a cultural region, it is much more difficult to put our impressions on a map. We all have a perception of the South as a cultural region of the US but we don't all agree on where that perceptual region begins and ends.
You can find an interesting example of a perceptual region in an article by Terry Jordan entitled “Perceptual Regions in Texas” (1978). Texans use regional-cultural names for various parts of the state and Jordan identifies where names such as Panhandle, Gulf Coast, Permian Basin and Metroplex actually apply. T. G. Jordan, “Perceptual Regions in Texas.” Geographical Review 68, 1978, p. 295.
Culture is learned.
It is not biological.
Culture is passed on from generation to generation through imitation, instruction & example.
Imprinting is the acquisition of information through speech and behavior. Imprinting is how we transfer our culture to others, especially our children. Imprinting starts when children are born. Children learn by watching other people, especially their parents, and then using the behavior they see as a model for their own. Imprinting can occur remarkably fast for children. Acquiring a new language can occur in a matter of months for children of a certain age.
Cultural Traits & Complexes
Cultural traits are units of learned behavior.
They are the building blocks of the complex behavioral patterns of distinctive groups of people.
o language o tools & technologies to make a living o entertainment o beliefs (religion) & attitudes o architecture o cuisine o music & dance o medicine o dress & grooming o gender roles o law o education o government o agriculture o economy o sport & recreation o values o work ethic o etiquette o courtship o gestures
A cultural complex is a related set of cultural traits descriptive of one aspect of a society’s behavior.
Cultural Regions & Realms
Cultural traits & complexes have spatial dimensions.
A cultural region is a physical space occupied by populations that have recognizable & distinctive cultural characteristics.
A set of cultural regions that have related cultural complexes & landscapes may be grouped together to form a cultural realm.
[When you generalize at this scale, you ignore the enormous diversity in each cultural realm.]
The Structure of Culture
Leslie White - Anthropologist
Ideological Subsystem - value/belief systems
Technological Subsystem - material objects
Sociological Subsystem - social organizations & behaviors
Julian Huxley - Biologist
Mentifacts - the ideas, values and beliefs of a culture. Both religion and language are examples of a mentifact. Religion has had an impact on culture more than any other trait. Also, language is very important to a culture as well. Some languages may be more specific to a certain culture, while many different cultures will all share a common language.
Artifacts - the objects, hardware & technologies that a culture creates. They provide entertainment, shelter and most of the things that make life easier for people. Computers, machines and the buildings of religious centers can be seen as examples of artifacts. A few other examples might be religious masks or musical instruments. These objects tell us all kinds of things about a specific civilization.
Sociofacts - represent the social structures of a culture and dictate social behavior. Some of the best examples of sociofacts are families and tribes. Family means different things depending on the culture you are a part of. Some cultures only consider immediate family as family. Other cultures include more distant relatives such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Political & educational institutions are also examples of sociofacts.
People & the Environment
Cultural ecology is the study of the relationship between a cultural group & the natural environment it occupies.
technology site & situation (resources)
Environmental determinism is the belief that the physical environment exclusively shapes human culture.
Possibilism is the belief that people, not the environment, are the dynamic forces of cultural development.
2. Cultural Hearth
a nuclear area within which an advanced and distinctive set of culture traits, ideas and technologies develops and from which there is diffusion of those characteristics and complexes
cultural diffusion – the spread of elements of culture from the point of origin over an area
We use the term cultural hearth to describe centers of innovation & invention from which key cultural traits moved to influence surrounding regions.
These are the foundations of major cultures.
We can trace the domestication of plants & animals to a small number of areas in the world.
Early cultural hearths formed in areas of surplus in which agriculture freed some people to pursue occupations other than farming.
Characteristics of Cultural Hearths
Historically, there are several main cultural hearths.
Nile Valley Indus Valley Wei-Huang Rivers Ganges Delta Mesopotamia Mesoamerica West Africa Andean America
www.wiley.com/legacy/college/media_dev/deblij_human/assets/deblij_human7e_ch02.pdf
Many of the ideas & improvements that began in these hearths spread to other parts of the world.
Modern cultural hearths include cities such as London, NY and Tokyo.
Other things like religions & inventions have spread from cultural hearths.
Cultural hearths of major religions: Middle East – Judaism, Christianity, Islam Indus / Ganges – Hinduism, Buddhism
http://go.hrw.com/ndNSAPI.nd/gohrw_rls1/pKeywordResults?ST9 Buddhism
Characteristics of hearth areas include:
o social stratification & labor specialization o government o metallurgy & other technologies o long-distance trade connections o urban culture o writing, astronomy, mathematics
The Emergence Of Human Culture www.archive.org/details/emergenceofhuman032896mbp
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND SPATIAL FORM
3. Cities As Cultural Geography
o What's a city?
o What are some basic characteristics of cities?
densely populated, pluralistic, permanent settlements that rely on surplus, specialization & trade to survive
o Where are cities likely to develop?
o How important are geographic features to the development of cities?
access to resources, defensive capabilities, ease of transportation and potential for trade
o How important are non-geographic features to the development of cities?
historic significance and pilgrimage sites
Types of Cities
Political Cities
Some cities were carefully planned before they were built to symbolize and reinforce a ruler's power and authority.
How could you locate a city so it symbolized and strengthened a ruler's power & authority? What would be at the city's center? Where would the streets go? Where would the religious buildings be?
Analyze a city plan of Baghdad Iraq. How does the plan give the impression that the ruler was the authority?
Other cities that demonstrate a leader's power include Xi'an [formerly Chang'an] China and Hangzhou China.
Commercial Cities
What geographic features are essential for good commerce? Where would the markets be? Where would the streets go?
Analyze a city plan of Calcutta India.
How does its geographic position and layout enhance its commercial importance?
Other major commercial cities include Canton (Guangzhou) China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Samarqand & Bukhoro Uzbekistan, Baku Azerbaijan, Turpan & Shanghai China and Mumbai India.
Cosmic Cities
Besides political and commercial cities, there are also planned cities that represent a people's idea of the cosmos or of the ruler's relationship to the cosmos. They are sometimes called cosmic cities. Many Chinese cities are planned cosmic cities intended to express and maintain the ruler's power.
Analyze city plans of Kyoto Japan.
The ruler's sacred power, which radiated out over the city, was symbolized by a carefully laid-out city plan.
Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, cities in the Khmer Empire, are also cosmic sites.
In what ways are these centers replicas of the cosmos?
Sacred Cities
A fourth type of city is a sacred city, one that grows at a sacred site such as at the base of a sacred mountain or at a location associated with a famous person. Unlike a cosmic city, which can be built at any site, a sacred city cannot be moved … the site is what is most important.
Its development is often haphazard — as pilgrims gather there and merchants come to sell their goods, a city gradually grows.
Jerusalem Israel and Varanasi India are sacred cities.
Analyze city plans of these cities.
Colonial Cities
Some cities in Asia were built by colonial powers and were intended to support their imperial strength.
Shanghai China, Lahore Pakistan, Bombay (Mumbai) and Calcutta & Goa India are examples.
4. Cultural Convergence
Cultural convergence is the tendency for cultures to become more alike as they increasingly share technology & organizational structures in a modern world united by improved transportation & communication systems.
Diffusion
Spatial diffusion is the general process by which an idea or innovation is transmitted across space.
Relocation diffusion - when people move & take their culture with them … example: immigrants to US
Expansion diffusion - the spread of a culture (idea/innovation) from one place to another by direct contact. [also known as contagious diffusion] … example: Islam
The process of transferring ideas first between larger places & later to smaller places is a special form of expansion diffusion called hierarchical diffusion … examples: Christianity, clothing, fashion
Diffusion Barriers
Barriers to the spread of ideas/culture can be both physical & cultural.
A physical diffusion barrier can impede the spread of an idea.
examples: mountains, oceans
Physical diffusion barriers were more effective in the past because of limited transportation technology.
A cultural diffusion barrier is when a culture makes a decision not to use a new idea or accept a new culture … example: Amish
Distance decay describes the decline of an activity with increasing distance from its point of origin.
Documenting Diffusion
We can often document the diffusion of ideas & culture:
o tobacco (England & Spain) o corn hybrids o soccer in the US o Wal-Mart
Acculturation & Syncretism
Acculturation - the process by which a cultural group (or individual) adopts the traits of a new culture through immigration or conquest.
Syncretism - the development of a new form of cultural trait by the fusion of two or more distinct parental elements … examples: food, religion
5. Cultural Divergence
When all people were hunters & gatherers their cultures had similarities.
The change to agriculture brought cultural divergence - the tendency for cultures to become increasingly dissimilar with the passage of time.
HUNTING & GATHERING
o requires large areas o nomadic lifestyle o group trade and socialization though generally isolated bands o low density o 5-10 million global population by 9000BC
Before farming, hunting and gathering were the universal forms of primary production. It is only practiced by very few people now, in very isolated areas. These numbers are declining as contact with more technologically advanced cultures is made.
AGRICULTURE
o domestication of plants and animalso greater population per area of lando sedentary lifestyleo childreno labor specializationso spinning and weaving o pottery o bricks o smelting o government-legal codes o more formal religiono eventually an accelerated rate where change became a way of life
Cultural Change
Cultural change is constant.
Cultural change can be both major & minor.
Cultural change is brought about by:
o innovation o spatial diffusion o acculturation
Innovation
ideas or technology created within one group and adopted by the larger culture
All cultures have some innate resistance to change.
However, when a social group is especially unresponsive to innovation it exhibits cultural lag.
Independent Invention
It is not always clear or certain whether the existence of a cultural trait in two different areas is the result of diffusion.
In some cases independent (or parallel) invention has occurred … example: pyramids
6. Cultural Conflict
Culture vs. Ethnicity
-they are not the same
"Ethnic" conflicts are usually cultural conflicts. Often they are not between different races, but rather between different cultural groups.
Balkanization
fragmentation of a region into smaller, often hostile, political units … usually results in a new independent state [Term comes from the Balkan Peninsula of Europe, a region that has balkanized many times and is still undergoing balkanization.]
Examples: Yugoslavia, USSR, East Timor Unsuccessful Attempts: Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Kurdistan
Devolution
process by which regions within a state demand and gain political strength and growing autonomy at the expense of the central government … results in increased autonomy for a region (If strong enough, these devolutionary pressures may result in balkanization.
Examples: Quebec, Indian Reservations in the US, Scotland, Chechnya in Russia (changing)
Centrifugal Forces
forces from within a state that tend to divide it … causes of conflicts within a state
Hint: centrifugal = go apart
Examples: religion, language, ethnicity, ideology
Centripetal Forces
forces from within a state that unite it … forces that keep a country together
Hint: centripetal = pull together
Examples: a strong common culture, religion, language, history, a popular national hero, a common outside threat, colonialism, an historical enemy
Irredentism
policy of cultural extension and potential political expansion aimed at a national group living in a neighboring country … for example, when India mistreated Muslims living in state of Jammu and Kashmir, the Muslim government of neighboring Pakistan threatened and ultimately went to war.
Irredentism is often a cause of cultural conflicts as countries protect members of their cultural group living in neighboring countries.
Examples: the Marsh Shiites, Armenians in Azerbaijan, Muslims in Kashmir, Serbs in Bosnia, Somalis in Ethiopia & Kenya, Afghanis in Pakistan Solution: relocate borders, resettle population, devolution / autonomy
7. THE GEOGRAPHY OF LANGUAGE
Language is a fundamental strand in the complex web of culture serving to shape and distinguish people and groups.
Languages are constantly changing. Languages evolve in place; responding to changes and borrowing from other languages. Languages disperse … carried by migrants, colonizers and conquerors.
Language is an organized system of spoken words by which people communicate with each other with mutual comprehension. This definition fails to recognize the gradations among and between languages or the varying degrees of mutual comprehension between two or more languages.
Language Diversity
Some estimates place the number of languages spoken around the world at 4000 to 6000. Although this seems like a lot, we estimate that up to 15,000 languages were spoken in the past.
Cultural convergence: More than half of the world’s inhabitants speak just eight languages.
Language Family
a group of languages descended from a single earlier tongue
Latin - Romance Languages
We can trace Latin, Germanic, Celtic, and Slavic (and other) languages further back to a larger family of languages known as the Indo-European Language Family.
About half of the world speaks a language from the Indo-European Family of Languages.
World Pattern of Languages
The present world distribution of languages can not show much of the details, but gives an overall view.
Language Spread
Languages are dynamic and some have spread throughout the world from their place of origin.
Indo-European Languages Amerindian (Asian) Languages Bantu and Khoisan Languages Arabic Language
Language can spread through each type of spatial diffusion.
Relocation - English; Bantu Expansion - Latin; Arabic Hierarchical - English in India
Most languages spread through adoption rather than eviction of other languages.
Diffusion Barriers to Language
Language can be affected by the presence or absence of diffusion barriers.
Physical Diffusion Barriers
Pyrenees (Basques) Caucasus Mountains (Slavic and Ural-Altaic)
Cultural Diffusion Barriers
Greeks Celtics
Language Change
Languages constantly change and these changes may not always be noticeable over a lifetime, but can be significant over longer periods of time.
Shakespeare King James Bible
Change can be gradual or abrupt.
In the case of the English Language:
Norman Conquest (10,000 new words) From 1558 to 1625 (12,000 new words) New World (200 new words)
Scientific research, computers, business and the internet are constantly adding new words.
The Story of English
English is a product of change starting with proto-Germanic dialects and other dialects brought by different conquerors (Danish, Angles, Saxons, etc.).
Earlier Celtic-speaking people were displaced to the north and west. The Norman Conquest brought more change along with the adoption of French by the nobility.
Within 400 years English has developed from a localized language of 7 million islanders to an international language.
400 million speakers 400 million know it as a second language 300 to 400 million who can communicate in English
The spread of English as a worldwide language was the result of the establishment of overseas colonies and the former English dominance in world trade. English is the official language of 60 countries … more than French, Arabic or Spanish.
Standard & Variant Languages
People who speak a common language, such as English, are members of a speech community which possesses both a standard language … comprised of the accepted forms of syntax, vocabulary and pronunciation and also of dialects.
Standard Language
At some point in the development of a language one of the dialects becomes accepted as the standard language.
French - Paris Russian - St. Petersburg and Moscow Chinese - Mandarin dialect of Beijing English - Oxford English
Dialects
All languages display recognizable speech variants - vocabulary, pronunciation, rhythm - which are called dialects.
Dialects can become so different that people using the standard language will have trouble understanding other dialects.
Isolation can preserve dialects.
Pidgins
A pidgin is a combination of two languages - usually a simplified form of one - so that people speaking two different languages can communicate with each other.
A pidgin is not the first language of either speaker.
Creole
If a pidgin becomes a first language for a group of people - who may have lost their former language through disuse - a Creole has evolved.
Haitian Creole Swahili - Bantu Afrikaans - Dutch
A pidgin is not a Creole, but a Creole can evolve from a pidgin and in the process develop a more complex grammatical structure and enhanced vocabulary.
Lingua Franca
an established language used for communication between groups of people who speak different languages
Greek Latin (Latin Quarter) Arabic (Muslim) Mandarin Chinese Hindi English
Language, Space & Identity
Language is very important part of any culture. Recently many countries in Europe have relaxed the use of the official language or standard dialect.
France Wales
Official Language
a country’s required language of instruction in schools, government, business, law and other official functions
Does the US have an official language?
Toponymy
place names - are language on the landscape, a record of past inhabitants
Toponymy is the study of place names.
8. RELIGION
Religion - like language - is a symbol of group identity. The role of religion can vary in culture, dominating among some & unimportant or denied in others.
Religion is a personal or institutional system of worship and faith in the sacred or divine.
Non-religious value systems - Humanism or Marxism - can be just as binding or important to some people or cultures.
Religion & The Landscape
Religions can leave an imprint on the cultural landscape.
Buildings Cemeteries
Classification of Religion
Monotheism is the belief in a single deity or god.
Polytheism is the belief in many gods.
Neither of these classifications is particularly spatially relevant.
Geographers focus on the patterns and diffusion of religions.
Universalizing Religion
one that claims applicability to all humans and seeks converts … it has open membership and no one is excluded because of nationality, ethnicity or previous religious belief.
Christianity Islam Buddhism
Ethnic Religions
have strong territorial and cultural group identification
Membership is by birth or by the adoption of a complex lifestyle … not by a simple declaration of faith. (Do not seek converts.)
Judaism, Hinduism and Shinto are examples of ethnic religions.
Tribal or Traditional Religions
special forms of ethnic religions distinguished by their small size and close ties to nature
Animism is the belief that life exists in all objects.
Shamanism involves the community acceptance of a shaman who interprets the spirit world.
Patterns
Universalizing religions tend to expand. More than half of the world adheres to the major universalizing religions.
Ethnic religions tend to be regionally confined.
Tribal religions tend to contract and become incorporated into other religions.
Secularism
an indifference or rejection of religion and religious belief
Secularism is an increasing part of many modern societies … articularity of industrialized nations.
Most migration decisions are based on economic opportunity; real or perceived.
Other factors can include:
Climate Safety Schools
Controls on Migration
Many times the decision to migrate is based on perception more than reality. Individual migration decisions are based on push and pull factors.
Push factors - the negative home conditions impel people to migrate
Pull factors - the perceived attractions of another location
Place Utility
the measure of an individual’s satisfaction with a given location ... The potential migrant considers not only the place utility of his present location, but also the expected place utility of potential destinations.
Types of Migrants
Forced Migrants Reluctant Migrants African Slaves Refugees Native Americans Bosnia Convicts
Types of Migration
There are several different ways that people can migrate including:
Step migration - step by step transition usually from a smaller place to a larger place
Chain migration - the process by which migration movements from a common home area to a specific destination are sustained by links of friendship or kinship between first movers and later followers
Counter migration - the return of migrants to the regions from which they earlier emigrated
Migration Fields
the area from which a given city or place draws the majority of its in-migrants
10. ETHNIC GEOGRAPHY
North America is a composite of many ethnic groups; increasingly that is the case for the whole world.
The multiple movements, diffusions, migrations and mixings of people of different origins are the subject of ethnic geography.
Even the most seemingly homogenous countries are home to distinctive groups.
Ethnicity
a term derived from the Greek term ethnos, meaning a people or nation. No single trait denotes ethnicity … group recognition may be based on language, religion, national origin or unique customs. Ethnicity is a spatial concept and ethnic groups are associated with clearly recognized territories.
Ethnocentrism is the term describing a tendency to evaluate other cultures against the standards of one’s own. This sometimes leads to a feeling of superiority of one’s ethnic group or culture over another.
Ethnic Groups & Conflict
Definitions
The host society is the established and dominant society within which immigrant groups seek accommodation.
When an immigrant group adopts cultural and social modifications that permit it to operate effectively within its new social surroundings, the process is known as acculturation.
Assimilation is when an individual or minority group has greatly reduced or loses completely its identifying traits and blends into the host society. Assimilation does not necessarily mean that ethnic consciousness or awareness is lost. Many times ethnic consciousness is revived by the group most assimilated.
Culture rebound is the re-adoption of culture traits and identities associated with your ethnic forebears or ancestral homelands.
Culture Transfer - When immigrants arrive in a new location they bring their culture with them - how much is kept depends on the circumstances.
Germans Hmong Mormons
Immigration Streams
In North America everyone is technically a migrant. If we look at the relatively recent (last 500 years) immigration to North America we can break it down to three major waves.
In 1920 13% of the US population was foreign born. In 1970 only 4.8% was foreign born. By 1990 8.8% was foreign born. Immigration accounts for about 30% of population growth in the US.
First Immigration Stream
from beginning of pioneer settlement to about 1870 mostly Northwestern Europe (English, German, Irish Scotch-Irish, Welsh) and African (About 20% in 1790) source area of the majority of the migrants changed
Second Migration Stream
from 1870 to 1921 made up of mostly migrants from eastern and southern Europe (Poles, Italians, Slavs, Jews, and Scandinavians) ended with new immigration laws
Third Immigration Stream
started in the 1960s with changes in the immigration laws and continuing to present composed of mostly Hispanics and Asians
The Doctrine of First Effective Settlement
Whenever an empty territory undergoes settlement or an earlier population is dislodged by invaders, the specific characteristics of the first group able to effect a viable, self perpetuating society - the charter group - are of crucial significance for the later social and cultural geography of the area, no matter how tiny the initial band of settlers may have been.
Wilbur Zelinsky termed the imprint left by the charter group as the doctrine of first effective settlement.
The English became the charter group for most of North America establishing the cultural norms and standards. In eastern Canada the French were the charter group. In the southwestern US the Spanish were the charter group.
Ethnic Clusters
Many ethnic groups that came to urban areas in the US moved to ethnic enclaves. (chain migration)
Some ethnic groups that moved to rural areas created ethnic islands. (cluster migration)
Ethnic Provinces
Some entire regions of North America have become associated with certain ethnic groups.
French African Americans Native Americans Hispanics
African American Migrations
During the 20th century many African Americans moved from the South to urban areas in the North - over 5 million from 1940 to 1970 alone.
Changes in technology (share cropping) Industrial opportunities
Starting in the 1970s there has been a major counter-migration.
Hispanic Migrations
Hispanics are the fastest growing minority group - soon to pass African Americans.
Diverse group
Mexicans (60% of all Hispanics) Puerto Ricans (NYC, Philadelphia, MA, CO, NJ) Cubans (Miami) Dominicans (NYC) Hondurans (New Orleans)
Chain Migration
Asian Migrations
The rapid growth of Asian Migration is due to:
The change in the immigration laws (chain migration) Refugees from the Vietnam Conflict
Most Asians migrate to the West (59%) with 40% residing in California.
Diverse
Vietnamese (Orange County) Hmong (Minneapolis) Koreans (26% in Koreatown)
Urban Ethnic Areas & Segregation
Immigrant neighborhoods are a measure of the social distance that separates the minority from the charter group.
Segregation is the extent to which members of an ethnic group are not uniformly distributed in relation to the rest of the population.
The rate of assimilation of ethnic groups is dependent on both external and internal controls.
External Controls - Groups on the edge of an ethnic enclave will use blocking tactics to keep that group out of their neighborhood.
Tipping point
Internal Controls
The self-elected segregation of ethnic groups serves four functions including:
Defense (reduces exposure-familiar)
Support (language, jobs, relatives)
Preservation of the culture (diet, marriage)
Attack (voting and political representation)
Ethnic Areas
While an ethnic cluster endures it may be termed a colony or point of entry, many times dispersing after assimilation.
When an ethnic cluster persists because the occupants keep it intact the area is considered an ethnic enclave.
When the cluster is perpetuated by external forces and discrimination it is a ghetto.
Ethnic neighborhoods are not always permanent.
Los Angeles Philadelphia
11. PRIMARY INDUSTRIES
Agriculture - defined as the growing of crops and the tending of livestock - whether for subsistence or commercial reasons, has replaced hunting and gathering as the most significant of the primary economic activities.
In developing areas farming is 75-90% of the labor force. In developed areas, it is 10% or less.
Subsistence Agriculture
consists of any agricultural economy in which the crops and/or animals are used nearly exclusively for local or family consumption
In most of Africa, Asia, and much of Latin America, a large percentage of people are primarily involved with feeding themselves from their own land and livestock.
Two types of subsistence agriculture are recognized - extensive and intensive. Although each type has several varieties, the essential contrast between them is yield per unit of area used.
Extensive subsistence agriculture involves large areas of land and minimal labor input per acre. Both product per land unit and population densities are low.
Intensive subsistence agriculture involves the cultivation of small parcels of land through the expenditure of great amounts of labor per acre. Yields per unit area and population densities are high.
Intensive subsistence agriculture involves the cultivation of small parcels of land through the expenditure of great amounts of labor per acre. Yields per unit area and population densities are high. The major crops produced are rice, wheat, corn, millet and pulses (peas and beans). Most of these people live in monsoon areas of Asia and rice is the major crop which under ideal conditions can provide high yields per unit of land.
Urban subsistence agriculture is an important part of food production in urban areas of the least developed parts of the world.
Positive: more food on marginal land using (recycling) garbage, human wastes.
Negative: environmental/degradation (water supplies) and health problems (spread of disease) from indiscriminant use of fertilizers (human waste) and pesticides/herbicides.
Nomadic Herding
the wandering, but controlled movement of livestock, solely dependent on natural forage - is the most extensive type of land use system
Sheep and goats are the most common with cattle, horses and yaks locally important. The common characteristics are hardiness, mobility and ability to subsist on sparse forage. These animals provide milk, cheese, meat, hair, wool, skins and dung (for fuel).
Declining in numbers (Russia and The Sahel)
Shifting Cultivation
Another form of extensive subsistence agriculture is found in the tropical rainforest areas where people engage in a kind of nomadic farming. This shifting cultivation is called swidden or slash and burn. In these areas, the soils have little ability to hold nutrients because of the large amounts of rain.
The trees and brush are hacked down and burned, and these areas are planted with corn, millet, rice, manioc, yams and sugar cane. Then the field is moved to another area and the plot is allowed to re-vegetate. More and more commercial crops such as coffee are grown as a cash crop.
Initial yields are high, but drop off as the nutrients are used or washed away. Productivity is maintained by rotation of plots rather than crops. Problems include declining soil fertility and population pressures.
Nearly 5% of the world’s population and 1/5 of the world’s land area are predominantly engaged in tropical shifting agriculture.
The Cost of Territorial Expansion
Rapidly growing populations have led to more and more intensive, extensive and exhaustive use of land for agriculture. When population pressures dictate land conversion, serious environmental deterioration may result.
Tropical rain forests Semi-deserts
The Green Revolution
Increased productivity of existing cropland rather than expansion of cultivated area has accounted for most of the growth of food production over the past few decades.
The Green Revolution is a shorthand reference to a system of seed and management (fertilizer and pesticide/herbicide) improvements adapted to the needs of intensive agriculture that have brought larger harvests from a given parcel of farmland.
Between 1965 and 1995, world cereal production rose 90% … increase was due to increases in yields rather than expansion of cropland. Harvests have risen dramatically. Genetic improvement in rice and wheat has formed the basis of the Green Revolution.
Negative Aspects Of The Green Revolution
Irrigation has mined water and destroyed some soils through salinization. Less genetic diversity Industrialization of farming Very energy intensive Only the most developed parts of the world can afford this type of agriculture.
Commercial Agriculture
In the most developed areas of the world, agriculture is managed like an industry … the farm is a factory that must turn out consistent products that can be processed efficiently.
Intensive commercial agriculture is practiced in areas where large amounts of capital (machinery, fertilizers) and/or labor per unit of land are used with the crops being sold in the market place. Often called truck farms (fruits, vegetables and dairy products)
Extensive commercial agriculture is characterized by low amounts of labor (highly mechanized) per unit of land area and is practiced further from markets on less expensive land. Typified by wheat (grain) farming and livestock raising.
Mediterranean Agriculture
Special circumstances - most often climatic - make some places far from markets intensively developed agricultural regions.
Mediterranean agriculture - grapes, olives, oranges, figs, vegetables - these crops need warm temperatures all year long … winter rain, summer dry, irrigation
These are some of the most productive regions of the world.
Plantation Crops
specialized crops usually native to the tropics in areas where the climate is conducive to these crops: coffee, sugar, cacao, tobacco, rubber, tea, bananas
Plantation crops are not for local consumption and are usually grown near coastlines to export.
Resource Exploitation
In addition to agriculture other primary economic activities include fishing, forestry and mining of materials … The development of these primary activities is dependent on the occurrence of these resources (availability), the technology to exploit these resources, and the cultural awareness of their value.
There are renewable and non-renewable resources.
Fishing and forestry are gathering industries based on the harvesting of renewable resources. In some cases, gathering can be extractive such that the renewable resource cannot recover.
The mining of minerals and mineral fuels is non-renewable.
The maximum sustainable yield of a resource is the maximum volume or rate of use that will not impair its ability to be renewed or to maintain the same future productivity.
Tragedy of the commons
Fishing
Fish provide a significant amount (7%) of protein consumed by the world. Reliance on fish is greatest in developing countries of eastern and southeast Asia, Africa and parts of Latin America.
Almost all marine fishing is from the coastal areas. The wetlands, bays, estuaries, provide the nutrients from rivers and the spawning grounds for many species.
Both over-fishing and pollution have endangered the supply of the traditional and desired food species.
Aquaculture or fish farming is becoming more and more important. Asian rice paddies Catfish and crawfish (SE US) Shellfish
Fish farming is now about 30% of the world’s fish harvest and is growing every year.
Forestry
Commercial forests are restricted to two very large global belts.
the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere the equatorial zones of Central and South America, Central Africa and Southeast Asia
Two major uses of wood:
Industrial - paper, construction, furniture, 50% of all industrial wood harvested in US
Fuel – charcoal, heat, cooking; mostly in developing worlds, depleted at a rate above the maximum sustainable yield
Tropical lowland hardwood mostly cut down for fuel.
Mining
Mineral resources are not distributed evenly across the world. We have exploited the easiest ones.
Three types of minerals that are determined by geology: metallic minerals, mineral fuels and non-metallic minerals.
Metallic minerals - copper, iron, nickel, zinc, lead, etc. The metals market is highly volatile and driven by changes and supply and demand.
Non-metallic minerals - construction materials, gravel, building stone, gypsum and limestone for cement.
Mineral Fuels
Mineral fuels also known as fossil fuels.
Coal - earliest in importance and still most plentiful of the mineral fuels … Supply measured in centuries.
Petroleum - most unevenly distributed of the major resources with 80% of known reserves in 8 countries. 2/3 of world’s total is in Arab states of Middle East.
30 to 70 years of known resources
Natural gas - called the nearly perfect energy resource. A highly efficient, versatile fuel that requires little processing and is environmentally benign.
50 years of known resources
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Copyright © 1996 Amy S. Glenn |
