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Basics of Cultural Geography

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Prof. A. Balasubramanian
(Former Director- Culture and Cultural Relations, Pondicherry University)
Former Dean, Faculty of Science & Technology- University of Mysore)
Centre for Advanced Studies in Earth Science,
University of Mysore,
Mysore-6, India.

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Introduction:

Geography is the study of the earth and the people in it. Culture is the sum total of the knowledge,
attitudes, and habitual behavioural patterns shared and transmitted by members of a society. Geography
and culture are inter-related. Culture is the total way of life that characterizes a group of people. It is one
of the most important things that geographers study. There are literally thousands of cultures on the planet
today and each contributes to global diversity. One reason for the existence of so many cultures is that
there are so many ways that the ever-growing population can be culturally different. Specifically, a culture
consists of numerous cultural components that vary from one culture group to the next.

Cultural Components

The Cultural Components mostly include the religion, language, architecture, cuisine, technology, music,
dance, sports, medicine, dress, gender roles, law, education, government, agriculture, economy, sports,
grooming values, work, ethic, etiquette, courtship, recreation and gestures, to mention a few. Because of
the innumerable cultural differences that characterize people and land all over the world, there was a need
to focus on this subfield of geography. Hence, the subject devoted to the study of culture was appropriately
named as cultural geography. Cultural geography is the study of relationships between humans and
location.

Meaning of terminology

It is a very general term and highlights an “overview” when compared to the detailed sub-disciplines like
Economic, Agricultural or Political Geography. The subject of cultural geography today focuses on
migration, especially, the relocation of people from one physical location to another. There are certain
push and pull factors to motivate this movement. Some are negative attributes of the location which
encourage people to leave, like crimes, scarcity of jobs, resources, food, etc. Recurring war and civil
unrests are also powerful motivators. A poor economy, continuous natural disasters, or a strong desire to
live in a developed nation, are other examples of push factors.
Background:

Cultural Geography

In broad terms, cultural geography examines the cultural values, practices, discursive and material
expressions and artefacts of people, the cultural diversity and plurality of society. It also emphasizes on
how cultures are distributed over space, how places and identities are produced, how people make sense of
places and build senses of place, and how people produce and communicate knowledge and meaning.

In the late 19th century, cultural geography sought to compare and contrast different cultures around the
world and their relationship to natural environments. This approach has its roots in
the anthropogeography of Friedrich Ratzel and, in common with anthropology, it aimed to understand
cultural practices, social organizations, and indigenous knowledge, but gave emphasis to people’s
connections with and use of place and nature .

Wagner and Mikesell , in 1962, defined that cultural geography is concerned with the diverse geographic
expressions of culture (such as the distribution of traits like religion and language), the imprint of material
culture on the landscape and the ways different culture use, and interact with, the earth. Cultural
geography focuses on cultural struggle, on the imposition of social control through “cultural means,” and
on the construction of and resistance to the cultural spaces that define social life in different setting.

Mark Paterson further elaborates that " Cultural geography is a sub-discipline of human geography that
explores the human organization of space and the impact of human activities and culture upon the natural
environment. Human geography is one of the most active and interdisciplinary areas within the social
sciences. There is a crossover in methodological and theoretical approaches with disciplines such as
anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies. But cultural geography in particular retains its focus on

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culture and its signifying practices of self, groups, the creation of “others” and of worlds of experience
while maintaining an emphasis on environment, space, and place".

The field of cultural geography is wide-ranging and comprehensive. Though the study of different nations
and cultures in the world can be traced back to ancient geographers such as Ptolemy or Strabo, cultural
geography as academic study, firstly got emerged as an alternative to the environmental
determinist theories of the early Twentieth century. The study of cultural geography started way back in
1920s, in the United States with the Berkeley School describing the idea of the “cultural landscape”. While
adopting this concept by various countries, the pathway diverged and the notion of cultural geography also
got diversified. Great differences, as well as startling similarities, can be seen when comparing world
cultures.

Analysing the cultural landscapes

Rather than studying pre-determined regions based upon environmental classifications, cultural geography
became interested in analysing the cultural landscapes. Geographers have the tradition of seeing both
cultures and societies are developing out of their local landscapes but also shaping those landscapes. This
interaction between the natural landscape and humans totally promote the creation of cultural landscape.
This is the foundation of cultural geography.

Cultural geography studies the geography of culture pertaining to the following:

A cultural area

A cultural area is a region (area) with one relatively homogeneous human activity or complex of
activities (culture). These areas are primarily geographical, not historical (but see below), and they are not
considered equivalent to Culture circles. A culture area is a concept in cultural anthropology where a
geographic region and time sequence (age area) is characterized by substantially uniform environment and
culture. For example, a music area is a cultural area defined according to musical activity, and may or
may not conflict with the cultural areas assigned to a given region.

Global Cultural Areas

The prescribed cultural areas constitute vast social spaces made up of territories with common geographic
and cultural characteristics— architectural, linguistic and religious characteristics, among others.

Culture Regions

A culture region is a portion of Earth’s surface that has common cultural elements. Identifying and
mapping culture regions are significant tasks of cultural geographers. This can show us where particular
culture traits or cultural communities are located. Maps of culture regions provide answers to the most
fundamental geographical questions like Where and what are together or away from each other.

Culture regions differ greatly in size. The Hindu culture region in South Asia is an example. While
studying the world's Hindu culture region, anybody may logically think that only Hindus may live there.
But it is not so. That region also is a home to millions of Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, and other non-
Hindus. Some Culture regions are exceedingly large, like the Islamic culture region that encompasses
millions of square miles of North Africa and Southwest Asia. Some are very small, like Spanish Harlem,

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which encompasses about two square miles of Manhattan. Many others are of intermediate size, like the
Corn Belt, which occupies a portion of the mid-western United States.

Culture regions can be found in urban, suburban, or rural settings. Many cities contain ethnic
neighbourhoods. A typical American suburb may exhibit unique housing, land use, and lifestyles that differ
significantly from what is observed on the periphery of cities in West Africa or Central America. Similarly,
the rural parts of the world may differ on the basis of language, religion, or some other cultural component
like agricultural practices. The rural culture regions in some parts of the world might be dominated by
cattle ranches, rice fields, banana plantations, or some other form of agriculture.

Over a period of time, the culture regions tend to appear and disappear, and expand and contract in
between. The ancient Phoenician culture region which initially gave way to form the Roman culture
region, got disappeared, later. The prevailing culture may also unite and divide humanity. It also creates
differences (perhaps deep animosities as seen among some nations) between others. Accordingly, maps of
culture regions may provide important perspectives on the contemporary problems that are rooted in
cultural differences.

Cultural Diffusion

The term cultural diffusion is related to the spread of a culture and/or an individual trait, and the factors
that account for such a spread. Cultural diffusion is concerned with the spread of culture and the factors
that account for it. Typical aspects are migration, communications, trade, and commerce. Because culture
moves over the global space, the geography of culture is also constantly changing. Generally, culture traits
originate in a particular area and spread outward, ultimately to characterize a larger expanse of a
territory. When culture region describes the location of culture traits or cultural communities, the cultural
diffusion helps to explain how they got together there. In some parts of the world, the long-cherished
cultural traditions that were perceived by local practitioners are found to be threatened by intrusion (i.e.,
diffusion) of something coming from outside. Westernization is a term often associated with this process.
Thus, while cultural diffusion encourages cultural sharing and interaction between people, it may also
promote conflict among them, because humans mind works differently based on some reasons.

Cultural Landscape

The term cultural landscape is a natural landscape as modified by human activities and bearing the imprint
of a culture group or society including buildings, shrines, signage, sports and recreational facilities,
economic and agricultural structures, transportation systems, etc over a location. Today, high-rise
apartment, silo, stop sign, golf course, shopping mall, railroad, pyramid, oil derrick, plantation areas are
also coming under the facets of cultural landscape. The cultural landscape consists of material aspects of
culture that characterize Earth’s surface. That includes buildings, shrines, signage, sports and recreational
facilities, economic and agricultural structures, crops and agricultural fields, transportation systems, and
other physical things.

Some geographers would include humans as components of the cultural landscape, when their clothing and
grooming may visually reflect some cultural preferences. Because cultural landscape so often embodies
humans’ most basic needs—shelter, food, and clothing—many geographers consider it the most important
aspect of cultural geography.

All cultures change over time (albeit at different rates). As a result, the cultural landscape of a given locale
may look much different today than in the past. The cultural landscapes change in bits and pieces. Thus,
most cultural landscapes are a mixture of new buildings and old ones (including abandoned structures),
modern superhighways and old narrow streets, gleaming office buildings and rusting manufacturing
facilities, and so on.

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Cultural Ecology

Cultural ecology describes the interactions between a culture and its physical environment. It addresses the
relationships between culture and the physical environment. Normally Culture arises and evolve in a great
variety of physical settings that differ in climate, natural vegetation, soils, and landforms. In such diverse
natural environments, humans have developed adaptive strategies to satisfy their needs for clothing, food,
and shelter. The result is a literal world of difference in clothing styles and the materials from which they
are made; the production, preparation, and consumption of foods; and the architectural styles and materials
that define human shelter. The concept of cultural ecology often helps us better understand the cultural
landscape. Cultural ecology focuses on culture-environment interaction in the past as well as the present.

Cultural Interaction

Cultural interaction is defined as the interconnectedness of various cultural components. It focuses on the
relationships that often exist between cultural components that characterize a given community. When
geographers seek to explain why a particular culture trait is found in a particular area, they often discover
that the answer lies in another trait possessed by that same cultural community. Wine shops, Bars and
liquor stores are not likely to be found in Muslim neighbourhoods. It is because of the fact that Islam
forbids consumption of alcoholic beverages. So, Cultural interaction may explain the presence—as well as
the absence—of particular traits in particular areas.

Mapping Cultural geography

Based on the above said facts, the key concepts of cultural geography includes, culture region, cultural
diffusion, cultural landscape, cultural ecology, and cultural interaction. Specifically, mapping of this
involves the following:
 Delineating and describing parts of Earth that have common cultural elements, as well as
comparing and contrasting areas that are culturally different (i.e., studying the concept of culture
region);
 Describing how cultural components spread over space and come to characterize different parts of
our planet (i.e., studying the concept of cultural diffusion);
 Appreciating how culture contributes to the visual distinctiveness of different areas (i.e., studying
the concept of cultural landscape);
 Understanding how cultural communities have adapted to—and, in turn, impacted—the natural
environment (i.e., studying the concept of cultural ecology); and
 Noting how one particular culture trait might lead to the appearance of others in a specific cultural
community (i.e., studying the concept of cultural interaction)
These concepts, though distinct, may also overlap in ways that help to describe and explain the nature of
cultural communities. Cultural landscapes are very important because they link culture to the physical
environments in which people live. This is vital because it can either limit or nurture the development of
various aspects of culture.

Cultural Perception

One of the main areas of cross-cultural differences and an important source of cultural misunderstandings
is our difference perceptions. Different cultures perceive things differently, sometimes these differences
are very subtle and sometimes perceptions can lead to totally opposite interpretations. We all have different
cultural perceptions and these difference can impact our international business success.

Cultural Environments

This area deals with the role of culture in human understanding, use, and alteration of the environment. It
focuses on describing and analyzing the ways language, religion, economy, government and other cultural
phenomena vary or remain constant, from one place to another and on explaining how humans function

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spatially. Human societies progress in small steps just as biological evolution does, according to a study of
the structure and language of societies in South East Asia and the Pacific Ocean.

Some more aspects

Folk customs (a.k.a. traditional customs) are developed and practiced primarily by small, homogeneous
groups living in more isolated rural areas. Social customs such as the provision of clothing, shelter,
transportation and food have evolved differently in different areas of the world because natural resources
vary widely from place to place. Folk customs reflect the benefits and constraints of each group's
environment, and through cultural evolution, particularly the level of technology, each generation has left
its unique imprint on the cultural landscape.

Surface culture is composed of those aspects of a way of life which are relatively easily observed.

Deep culture provides the foundational elements of a culture which are often unexamined and held at the
subconscious level by most members of the society – the attitudes, objectives, and world view.

Cultural Relations and Policies

Cultural relations may be defined as interactions, both direct and indirect, among two or more cultures.
Direct interactions include physical encounters with people and objects of another culture. Indirect
relations are more subtle, involving such things as a person's ideas and prejudices about another people, or
cross-national influences in philosophy, literature, music, art, and fashion. Cultural relations, in contrast,
are both narrower and broader than the interaction of national interests. Instead of power, security, or
economic considerations, cultural affairs are products of intangible factors such as a nation's ideas,
opinions, moods, and tastes. Symbols, words, and gestures that reflect its people's thought and behaviour
patterns comprise their cultural vocabulary in terms of which they relate themselves to other peoples.

Scope of studying Cultural Geography

The course of studying Cultural Geography orients to focus on the role of culture in shaping places,
regions, and landscapes. Cultural geography is concerned with making sense of people and the places they
occupy through analyses of cultural processes, cultural landscapes, and cultural identities. The subject
explains culture from a geographical perspective, focusing on how cultures work in place and how they are
embedded in everyday life. It gives students an appreciation for not only how cultures are geographically
expressed, but also how geography is a basic element in the constitution of culture.

Any introduction to Cultural Geography provides students with an understanding of the spatial
distributions of cultures and the processes that led to these distributions. The purpose of studying this
course is to introduce you to the systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human
understanding, use, and alteration of Earth’s surface. Students will employ spatial concepts and landscape
analysis using maps, aerial photos, and satellite images to examine human social organization and its
environmental consequences.

The students studying this subject will be able to do the following:

1. Use and think about maps and spatial data:

Maps and spatial data are fundamental to the discipline of geography. Students are expected to learn how
to use maps and spatial data to pose and solve problems, to analyze spatial information, and to think
critically about what is revealed in different types of maps.

2. Understand and interpret the implications of associations among phenomena in places:

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Students are expected to learn not just to recognize and interpret spatial patterns but to assess the nature
and significance of the relationships among phenomena that occur in the same place, and to understand
how tastes and values, political regulations, and economic constraints work together to create types of
cultural landscapes.

3. Recognize and interpret at different scales the relationships among patterns and processes:

Geographical analysis requires a sensitivity to scale as a framework for understanding how events and
processes at different scales influence one another. Students need to understand that phenomena they are
studying at the local scale may well be influenced by developments regionally, nationally, or globally.

4. Define regions and evaluate the regionalization process:

Geography is concerned not simply with describing patterns but with analyzing how they came about and
what they mean. Students should see regions as objects of analysis and exploration and move beyond
simply locating and describing regions to considering how and why they come into being and what they
reveal about the changing character of the world in which we live.

5. Characterize and analyze changing interconnections among places:

At the heart of a geographical perspective is a concern with the ways in which events and processes
operating in one place can influence those operating in other places. Students have to visit places and
patterns not in isolation but in terms of their spatial and functional relationship with other places and
patterns.

Techniques employed:

The study of the cultural areas in the program requires the use of techniques both to obtain information and
to convey research results. The study of the prescribed cultural areas requires the use of techniques,
which are resources for students to draw on in learning and evaluation situations.
– Interpreting and creating a map
– Interpreting a landscape
– Making a geographical sketch of a landscape
– Interpreting a written document
– Interpreting a picture
– Interpreting and creating a graph
– Interpreting and creating a table

These techniques provide access to information and enable students to communicate their research results.

Cultural areas of the World

The document produced by the Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport, has clearly explained the
cultural areas of the world with their specific areas and characteristic features. These areas are highlighted
in the report for a better understanding. The following sections provide the details:

African Cultural Area

The African cultural area covers all the countries in sub-Saharan Africa and most of the African continent,
including the islands in the Indian Ocean, east of Africa. Located almost entirely in the intertropical zone,
this area consists principally of the African Shield. It includes various territories and societies
characterized by several lifestyles, languages and religions.

In the precolonial era, this cultural area was inhabited by populations with different social structures.
Some societies were organized in tribes, while others had formed kingdoms. In the following centuries, the

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area was marked by the slave trade and European colonization, which resulted in the establishment of
borders uniting or dividing different ethnic groups, making the African reality even more complex. Sub-
Saharan Africa is a land of contrasts, a veritable mosaic of traditions and beliefs. Certain values, however,
are shared, such as the importance of family, ancestors, religion and community life. Changes occur
throughout Africa, but different societies are changing at different rates. Youth is another social force
responsible for change in sub-Saharan Africa. Young people are often underemployed or without any work
at all.

Arab Cultural Area

The Arab cultural area comprises countries in North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East.
This cultural area is divided into two parts by the Nile as The Maghreb, made up of the North African
countries, and the Mashreq, or Levant, which, taken in its broadest geographic sense, includes the Arab
countries outside the Maghreb. Another characteristic feature common to this cultural area is the Islamic
religion, although communities may adhere to other religions. Islam plays an important role: political
power and religious power are often closely linked in the countries of the Arab cultural area. It has been
found that the cities have always been major growth poles in the Arab cultural area.

The populations of the area banded together to deal with the constraints of the deserts. Ancient cities took
the form of fortified medinas, containing the Great Mosque, heart of the city and seat of religious power,
the Madrasah, an educational institution, and the souq, the commercial quarter/market place. Beginning in
the 19th century, new cities developed around the ancient ones. As cultural hubs and centres of religious,
political and economic power, cities exert a powerful attraction over the populations of the Arab cultural
area. The Arab cultural area oscillates between tradition and modernity.

East Asian Cultural Area

The East Asian cultural area comprises China, Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan and Southeast Asia,
including the archipelagos of the latter. It is characterized by a wide diversity of peoples, languages and
political systems. It is also characterized by a variety of natural conditions: vast mountainous regions and
plateaux, sometimes extremely arid, and narrow but fertile coastal plains. The territories of this area are
concentrated mainly along shorelines and at the mouths of large rivers. The increasing attraction of rural
populations to the cities has given rise to megalopolises. The East Asian cultural area is the most populous
area in the world.

The East Asian cultural area has produced great civilizations and powerful empires, although often under
Chinese control. The economic growth of the countries in this cultural area constitutes one of the most
important events of the late 20th century. In the 1960s, Japan entered the industrialized world, followed in
the 1980s by Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, then in the 1990s by China, Thailand and
Malaysia. The East Asian cultural area has an enormous population pool. It has an abundant and
increasingly educated work force. Another development factor is the transfer of technology in some of the
countries in this cultural area. As globalization takes over, these countries' growing prosperity makes them
important factors on the international scene.

Indian Cultural Area

This is one of the cradles of world civilization, a historical crossroads of the great trade routes and the
birthplace of important religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. The Indian cultural area comprises
Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Nepal. It also includes Bangladesh and Pakistan, whose
cultures have been strongly influenced by India. The major part of this area consists primarily of a large
peninsula characterized by a vast central plateau, bordered on the north by the Himalayas and located
mainly in a tropical climate zone. The Indian cultural area is one of the most populated areas on Earth.
The Indian cultural area reflects the blending of traditions from other civilizations that marked the area at
one time or another. Indian civilization influenced several areas, particularly Indonesia, in the Indochinese
Peninsula, and South Africa, which has a large Indian diaspora.

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The globalization of the economy has favoured the replacement of traditional subsistance farming by
export crops, which are more profitable. Large-scale, highly mechanized farming requires very little
labour, and jobs have become scarce in rural areas. This type of situation results in population migration
to the cities, the breakup of the family and the erosion of family values. Child labour and a deterioration of
the social and economic status of women are direct consequences of this phenomenon.

Latin American Cultural Area

The Latin American cultural area is also characterized by the intermingling of populations of Native,
European and African origin, to a greater or lesser extent depending on the region. The Latin American
cultural area extends from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego. Its relief is marked by the presence of huge
plains, vast plateaux, high cordilleras and the West Indian Archipelago. It is a mosaic of societies with a
number of characteristics in common, including Latin languages, mostly Spanish but Portuguese as well.
This is not, however, the case in the West Indies, where English predominates. The population is unevenly
distributed: very dense on the islands and along the coast, and sparser in the mountains and Amazonia.

The Western Cultural Area

The Western cultural area gradually developed in the Mediterranean Basin and spread throughout Europe,
including Russia. It also takes in North America and Oceania. The Atlantic and Pacific oceans played a
determining role in its expansion. The term Western has historical, cultural, economic and political
meanings. It expresses a particular way of living and thinking, which is founded on the recognition of a
society based on the rule of law. The roots of the languages, alphabet system (Latin, Greek, Cyrillic),
calendar, legal systems, architecture, as well as the philosophies of rationalism and humanism in societies
considered Western lie in the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman traditions. Greece was the cradle of
democracy, theatre, philosophy and scientific rigour. From the Roman Empire, the Western cultural area
inherited the foundations of engineering and law. Economic liberalism and many scientific and technical
innovations are also associated with the Western culture.

The area is also characterized by the rise of individualism, which is reflected in a general decline in the
birth rate and the breakup of the family. The influence of the Western cultural area is so widespread that
there are those who confuse Westernization and globalization. There are other movements in this cultural
area, which has experienced large-scale immigration from Southern countries, such as that of Latin
Americans in the United States and Africans in Europe. Immigrants bring their culture, values and
traditions with them, creating a multiethnic context, which sometimes contributes to the emergence of
ethnic neighbourhoods such as Chinatowns.

Culture in India

India's music, dance, culture, religion differs from place to place. There are various cultures across the
country. Even if the food also varies from north to south, west to east. Indians generally say they have 13
festivals in 12 months which is just incredible and just a fact. The people are just awesome. The culture of
India manifested in its traditions, languages, handicrafts, values, arts and, religions etc.

Conclusion:

Examining other cultures as well as their own culture also gives the students a better understanding of the
world in which they are live. Space and territory are parts of cultural geography inasmuch as their analysis
makes it possible to identify values and identities shared by societies. The study of cultural areas, in
geography, reveals relationships between societies and their environment. It enables us to understand the
processes human beings have used to develop territories. They also began to assimilate concepts such as
territory, society, organization, change, diversity and duration. Students also study about the human action
in the past and present, here and elsewhere, and they became aware of the diversity of societies.

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 By deconstructing landscapes, students identify natural characteristics, as well as cultural characteristics
resulting from human activity. This enables them to visualize important aspects of the area studied. Since
cultural areas are made up of many territories, students will have the opportunity of studying different
landscapes, which will help them see that some characteristics are common to all of the territories in the
area, while others are specific to only some of them. Students also gather information from different
thematic maps. They determine reference points based on the characteristics representative of the area.

Cultural Geographers analyse the total way of life of a group of people. A total way of life consists of
institutions, attitudes, values, beliefs, and technologies. Landscapes are used as windows through which
cultures can be studied and understood. By studying the world’s cultural areas, geography students come to
understand the relationships that societies maintain with the space, the ways in which they transform into
territories organized in a particular way. In addition, by considering the relationships that societies within
these cultural areas maintain with each other, geography students also develop their capacity for critical
thinking.

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