Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Hierarchical
Stimulus
Relocation Diffusion
Human Environmental Interaction
The ways in which humans manipulate, alter, and explain their environment
Region
All areas can be grouped into areas based on a variety of qualities
Formal region
o Bounded by common physical or cultural characteristics
Functional region
o Bounded by common activity or action
Perceptual or vernacular regions
o i.e. Southside of Chicago, the Midwest
Human-Environmental Impact
o Resource management and areas of environmental stress
Water conservation in the Middle East and Central Asia
Effects of deforestation
Air, Ground, and Water Pollution
Global Warming Threats and Agreements
The Cultural Landscape
o Culture is composed of cultural traits (individual aspects of culture) and cultural complexes (the
collection of several cultural traits)
o The cultural landscape is the blending of human activity with the natural environment creating a
unique sense of place.
o The cultural landscape has changed over time and conveys information about all previous
inhabitants.
o Sequent occupance
The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place. Each
contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.
Geographic Perspectives
o 4 General Traditions (Refer to W.D. Pattison outline)
An earth-science tradition
Focus on natural and physical geography
Important Founder: Aristotle
A man-land tradition
Focus on the relationships between human societies and natural environment
Important Founder: Hippocrates
A spatial tradition
Focus on location
Important Founder: Ptolemy
An area-studies tradition
Focus on the study on how humans create regions of distinct activity, function,
and behavior
Important Founder: Strabo
o Changes to the Geographic Perspective Over Time
Environmental Determinism
Provided the basis for explaining geographic differences for much of human
history.
Posits that physical characteristics of the environment create different types of
behavior and determine destiny.
Fallen out of favor due to the fact that it overly ascribes stereotypical behaviors
to groups of people based on their physical environment and that it is highly
western-centric.
Possibilism
Emerged as a critique of ED in the early twentieth century.
Posits that physical characteristics of the environment limit the potential for
certain types of human development.
Cultural Ecology