PRECIOUS O.

ONGOCO
Department of Geography
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of the Philippines Diliman

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

CULTURE
A shared set of meanings that are lived through the
material and symbolic practices of everyday life
Has no standard definition
Gritzner (1966:9)
A Culture is a human society bound together by a
common complex of culture traits, each trait being
anything which to the culturally-bound group has
either material form and applicable function, or an
expressed value

 Wagner (1975)
The fact is that culture has to be seen as carried in
specific, located, purposeful, rule-following and rulemaking groups of people communicating and
interacting with one another
Jordan,Domosh and Rowntree (1997)
Culture is learned collective human behaviour, as
opposed to instinctive, or inborn, behaviour. These
traits form a way of life held in common by a group
of people

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
Study of the ways in which space, place, and
landscape shape culture at the same time
that culture shapes space, place, and
landscape

CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS
Characteristics that can link or divide a region
i.e. Language, Religion, Race
Cultural Nationalism is an effort to protect
regional and national cultures from the
homogenizing impacts of globalization

TOPICS UNDER CULTURAL

GEOGRAPHY

CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
coined by Prof. Carl Sauer which is meant to be the
form superimposed on the physical landscape by the
activities of man
i.e. any photograph may reveal the cultural
environment of the area

A characteristic and tangible outcome of the

complex interactions between a human group and a
natural environment
Culture is the agent, the natural area is the medium,
the cultural landscape is the result

CULTURE HEARTHS
the geographic origins or sources of innovations,
ideas or ideologies
Source Areas:

Judaism/Christianity began in Israel-Jordan area

Hindu has no central figure and is a complex
multifaceted faith originated in Indus region
(Pakistan)
Buddhism emerged from Prince Siddharta in
northeast India

CULTURAL DIFFUSION
From their sources, cultural innovations and ideas spread
to other areas
Important concepts:

Acculturation the process by which a minority or

politically weaker cultural group gradually experiences
cultural change to accord more closely with the
character of a majority or dominant cultural group.
Does not involve a process of complete cultural
change.
Assimilation the loss by a cultural group of all their
previous cultural traits through the acceptance of the
traits of some other dominant group with which they
are in contact. Involves a loss of identity.

CULTURAL DIFFUSION:
LANGUAGE
Language is one of the cornerstones of national
identity, of cultural unity, of community cohesion
Dialects are regional variants of standard language.
Classification:
Language Family a collection of individual languages
believed to be related in their pre-historical origin
Language Branch a collection of languages that
possess a definite common origin but have split into
individual languages
Language Group a collection of several individual
language that are part of a language branch, share a
common origin, and have similar grammar and
vocabulary

FAMILY

INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
INDO EUROPEAN
URALIC
URALIC
BASQUE

BRANCH

GROUP

ROMANCE
ROMANCE
ROMANCE
ROMANCE
ROMANCE
GERMANIC
GERMANIC
GERMANIC
GERMANIC
SLAVIC
SLAVIC
SLAVIC
SLAVIC
CELTIC
THRACO-ILLYRIAN
HELLENIC
BALTIC
FINNIC
UGRIAN
BASQUE

LATIN
ITALIAN
SPANISH
FRENCH
ROMANIAN
ENGLISH
GERMAN
SWEDISH
ICELANDIC
RUSSIAN
CZECH
POLISH
SERBO-CROATIAN
ERSE
ALBANIAN
GREEK
LITHUANIAN
FINNISH
HUNGARIAN
BASQUE

THREE
TRES
TRE
TRES
TROIS
TREI
THREE
DREI
TRE
THRIR
TRI
TRI
TRZY
TRI
TRI
TRE
TREIS
TRYS
KOLME
HAROM
IRU

MOTHER
MATER
MADRE
MADRE
MERE
MAMA
MOTHER
MUTTER
MODER
MODIR
MAT
MATKA
MATKA
MATI
MATHAIR
MOTRE
METER
MOTYNA
AITI
ANYA
AMA

CULTURAL DIFFUSION:
RELIGION
Religion is a belief system and a set of practices that
recognize the existence of a power higher than humans
Religious missionizing- propagandizing and persuasionand the conversion of non-Christian souls were key
elements
Religious missionizing and conversion flowed from the
core to the periphery
In the current postcolonial period, however, the
opposite is becoming true
One other impact of globalization on religious change
occurs by conversion through the electronic media

 Expansion Diffusion develops in a core or source

area and remains strong there while also spreading
outward
Relocation Diffusion takes place through
populations that are stable and fixed. It is the
innovation, the idea, or the disease that does the
moving

 Hinduism started in Indus valley

Cultural Diffusion: through relocation diffusion; Indians
were transported to east and South Africa, the
Caribbean

Christianity it is most widespread and largest of

the global religions
Cultural Diffusion: both Expansion and relocation
diffusion

Islam Iran(Shiite), Iraq(Sunni).

Cultural Diffusion: Expansion Diffusion

CULTURAL REGION
The area within which a particular cultural
system prevails
Cultural system a collection of interacting
elements that taken together shape a groups
collective identity
A cultural system includes traits, territorial
affiliation, and shared history, as well as other more
complex elements such as language

Culture Region an entire cultural system

constitute culture region

 Formal Culture Region - an area inhabited by people

who have one or more cultural traits in common,
such as language, religion, or system of livelihood.
Functional Culture Region - an area that has been
organized to function politically, socially, or
economically as one unit. Examples are a city, an
independent state, a precinct, a church diocese or
parish, a trade area or a farm.

CULTURAL ECOLOGY
The study of the relationship between a cultural
group and its natural environment
Important Concept:
Environmental Determinism
Cultural Adaptation the use of complex strategies
by human groups to live successfully as part of a
natural system

CULTURAL PERCEPTION AND

ETHNICITY
Geographical race people having features in
common and extending over a geographically
definable area
Ethnicity a socially created system of rules about
who belong and who does not belong to a particular
group based upon actual or perceived commonality
Larger cultures divide into trait-based ethnic groups,
minorities whose self-perception helps perpetuate
their strength and identity
i.e. Chinatown

GEOGRAPHY OF GENDER
Gender is a category reflecting the social differences
between men and women rather than the anatomical
differences that are related to sex
It is a type of inequality
Class
Vulnerability
i.e. In India, since long back, women were considered as an oppressed
section of the society and they were neglected for centuries. During
the national struggle for independence, Gandhi gave a call of
emancipation of women.

SEXUAL GEOGRAPHIES
Sexuality is the set of practices and identities that a
given culture considers related to each other and to
those things it considers sexual acts and desires.
Prostitution (White prostitute, Black prostitute, Pimp)
Homosexuality
Pink spending
Gay Capitals: Amsterdam, Netherlands, San Francisco, USA,
and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Political action
Queer Tactics (AIDS political activism)