Jordan Ray B.

Rojas Geog 1 WFW

2019-06587 Activity # 5

1. Make a list of movies that members of your household have viewed recently. Pick
two of the films on which to conduct research. If possible, watch the trailers for each
film. While watching the trailers, identify three different aspects of culture that are
depicted. In terms of cultural geography, how do the aspects of culture you
identified interact with space, place, and landscape?
● I recently watched Avatar: The Way of Water. My father and sister recently
watched Top Gun: Maverick. My little brother recently watched Turning Red.
Since I already watched Turning Red before, I’ll be using this and the movie I
recently watched as an example for this matter. In Avatar: The Way of Water,
their culture believed in spiritual brotherhood and sistership. Avatars also value
their relationship with the environment since they have the ability to communicate
with it. Lastly, Avatars value their families the most. The last aspect of culture in
Avatar can be also observed in Turning Red. Turning Red also shows their belief
system concerning the deities they worship. Lastly, Turning Red also showcases
the power of camaraderie. Cultural geography focuses on the way space, place,
and landscape shape culture at the same time that culture shapes space, place, and
landscape. Both of these movies values their family the most and manifestations
of cultural geography are evident in them. In Avatar: The Way of Water, Avatar
families live together in a village, and their space, place, and landscape help how
their culture develops and vice versa. For example, the Avatars living on an island
developed a culture where they formed spiritual sisterhood and brotherhood with
the Tulkun (a whale-like creature that is smart and can communicate with the
Avatars). The vice versa is evident when people modified their islands to
accommodate them by creating their houses near the water. In Turning Red, the
manifestation of how their culture shapes their space, place, and landscape is
evident in their architecture. On the other hand, their space, place, and landscape
shape their culture by letting their family live in close areas due to the dangers of
society, such as war and colonization.

2. Variations in gender identities are often the result of the different spaces in which
they are enacted. In your group (could be your family or household), discuss what
this means by creating a list of how gender might be performed in different spaces
by members of your group. For instance, in what spaces are you likely to project a
highly feminized or masculinized identity? In what spaces might you project an
identity that is not traditionally feminine or masculine? How does space - for
example, a venue for a job interview, a date, or sports competition, or a place of
worship - shape your gender performance?
 ● Gender can be performed in different spaces at any time a person wants. By
classifying which place you can only showcase your gender normalizes the notion
that people should not act the way he/she is. However, for the sake of answering
this question, the place where I can highly express masculinity is when I am
meeting new people that work with my dad since I do not know the people we
were meeting and I don’t want to cause any problems with my dad’s work. The
place where I am likely to express my femininity is our home. A space where I
can project my femininity that is not considered traditional would be at school.
Space help shape gender performance in a way that people can freely express
themselves in certain areas they feel comfortable with. At the same time, space
also restricts them from expressing themselves freely when they are in a place that
is new to them or a place that is traditionally inclined.

3. Research the religious organizations in your area. Do you live near any of these
spaces? Are certain religions more widely represented than others? List all of the
religious centers in your area and examine their role in the community. For
example, do followers offer social services or host special events in your
neighborhood? Do any of these organizations work with each other; that is, do they
hold interfaith dialogues directed toward issues of conflict resolution between the
communities or shared contemporary issues like environmental concerns? Are some
of these spaces involved in politics – either directly b supporting candidates, or
indirectly, by influencing public opinion and the decision and policy-making
processes of the government? Are some centers wealthier than others? Why do you
think this is?
● There are a lot of religious affiliations in our city. In the latest 2015 Census of
Population, the table below showcases the religious affiliations present in
Valenzuela and the demographics of their members. Since there are a lot of
religious affiliations, I will only examine the two with the highest members,
Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) and Roman Catholic. In the case of Roman Catholics and
INC, they are both responsible for the social services in our city with their
respective members, such as weddings, baptisms, and the blessing of the house.
They are also responsible for initiating the mass during their mass days. When it
comes to working together, both religious affiliations opt to mind their own
business or projects when it comes to addressing several environmental concerns.
However, people in actual places do not really consider their religious affiliations
when joining advocacies and programs concerning the environment. In Roman
Catholic, the church does not promote any candidates during an election, but tells
people to vote for the candidate they think will become a good leader. However,
the INC is involved in politics since they are always making sure that all their
members are voting for the same person that they want to win. Moving on, it is
obvious that some of the religious centers in Valenzuela, and even the whole
world, are wealthier than others. This is because Roman Catholics and some
religious affiliations are only using the donations given by their members during
mass or private donations. However, there are also religious affiliations that
collect money from their member and use it to fund their projects and other
things.

Total Population by Religious Affiliations and Sex (2015)

Religious Affiliation Both Sex Male Female
Total 620,422 313,419 307,003
Aglipay 703 347 356
Association of Baptist Churches in Luzon,
13 12 1
Visayas, and Mindanao
Association of Fundamental Baptist
8 4 4
Churches in the Philippines
Bible Baptist Church 1,362 655 707
Bread of Life Ministries 216 102 114
Buddhist 656 343 313
Cathedral of Praise , Incorporated 102 54 48
Church of Christ 1,046 530 516
Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day
542 270 272
Saints
Convention of the Philippine Baptist
5 3 2
Church
Crusaders of the Divine Church of Christ ,
17 8 9
Incorporated
Door of Faith 198 98 100
Evangelical Christian Outreach
264 127 137
Foundation
Evangelicals (Philippine Council of
8,489 4,176 4,313
Evangelical Churches)
Faith Tabernacle Church (Living Rock
4 2 2
Ministries)
Good News Christian Churches 29 11 18
Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Cristo 8 4 4
Iglesia ni Cristo 22,754 11,632 11,122
Iglesia sa Dios Espiritu Santo ,
204 107 97
Incorporated
International Baptist Missionary
1 1 0
Fellowship
International One Way Outreach 15 7 8
Islam 1,485 771 714
Jehovah’s Witness 2,572 1,222 1,350
Jesus is Alive Community , Incorporated 85 44 41
Jesus is Lord Church 8,659 4,234 4,425
 Love of Christ International Ministries 62 33 29
Lutheran Church of the Philippines 8 4 4
Miracle Revival Church of the Philippines 15 4 11
Missionary Baptist Churches of the
28 10 18
Philippines
National Council of Churches in the
615 298 317
Philippines
Philippine Benevolent Missionaries
5 3 2
Association
Philippine Ecumenical Christian Church 8 5 3
Philippine Good News Ministries 15 4 11
Philippine Grace Gospel 39 25 14
Philippine Independent Catholic Church 18 10 8
Potter’s House Christian Center 1 0 1
Roman Catholic, including Catholic
560,599 283,617 276,982
Charismatic
Salvation Army, Philippines 10 5 5
Seventh Day Adventist 1,116 551 565
Things to Come 14 7 7
UNIDA Evangelical Church 26 10 16
Union Espiritista Cristiana de Filipinas ,
6 2 4
Incorporated
United Church of Christ in the Philippines 163 83 80
United Pentecostal Church (Philippines) ,
348 170 178
Incorporated
Victory Chapel Christian Fellowship 468 211 257
Way of Salvation Church , Incorporated 2 2 0
Other Baptists 952 459 493
Other Protestants 1,459 717 742
Other Religious Affiliations 4,915 2,381 2,534
Tribal Religions 51 22 29
None 41 22 19
Not reported 1 0 1

4. Consider the notion of religion and its links to the landscape. Does religion express
itself in space only in the form of sacred spaces and sites of pilgrimage? Within the
context of your country, examine the multiple ways in which religion may have been
shaping space (for example, the segregation of residential localities based on
religion, public protests and the relocation of slaughterhouses, incidences, and
location of communal tensions, violence, and riots, etc.). Make a list of ten such
instances and critically discuss these cases to examine the role of religion in shaping
and creating geographical spaces.
● Nowadays, people can be classified into two categories: those who express their
religion faithfully and those who express their religion for their benefit. Those
people who express their religion faithfully are the people who speak their words.
They are the people who follow the word of their god and exhibit their values in
their everyday life. There are also those people who only express their religion for
their benefit, such as social perception and to get away from their problems.
Hence, expressing religion in space is not limited to the form of sacred spaces and
sites of pilgrimage. Within the context of our country which is dominantly Roman
Catholic, the following is the list of instances where religion shapes space.
1. Building religious buildings and infrastructures helps people have a place
where they can worship and pray peacefully. It also indicates what
religious affiliations are present in different spaces.
2. Religious traditions also help shape spaces since there are instances where
people modify the place so they can perform these traditions efficiently.
3. The mass of different religious affiliations and other religious observance
also contributes to how spaces are developed. It can be attributed to the
first instance where people build their own worship place and also alter its
surroundings so members can get there safely.
4. Public protests where religious affiliations are considered in decision-
making also contribute to how spaces are shaped by religion. The
importance of religions in this matter may only involve how their moral
values and other concerns, such as tradition and churches, are being
affected by those protests.
5. Communal tensions also contribute to how religion shapes space with the
introduction of their values and belief systems that can serve as a basis for
how people build their place using architectural features manifesting those
values.
6. Violence and riots related to religion also contribute to the development of
space since people are using their religious beliefs and consider their
values in every decision-making their body performs.
7. Cultural beliefs also have a role in how religion shapes space since
modifying space must also cater to their cultural beliefs to avoid offending
other people.
8. The allowable foods that the member is allowed to eat in accordance with
their religious system also shape space since local vegetation can be
modified and influenced by this.
9. Marriage and childbirths also contribute to the shaping up of spaces since
religious affiliations are building different buildings or offices that offer
these services.
10. The slaughterhouses are also placed away from different religious
buildings since there are instances some of their values do not coincide
with the actions performed in slaughterhouses.