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fandomhigh2005-11-15 07:25 pm
notjustacabbie.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2005-11-15 07:25 pm
Human geography #5
This week we will begin looking at the effect of humans (or any other sentient beings) on their environment and start to explore cultural geography.
A study of human geography generally looks individually at the components of culture as systems. These systems, such as interaction with the environment, religion, agriculture, politics, social interactions, economics, music, language, architecture, and all that is culture, are then assessed collectively to define a culture. Culture, as a collective character of human beings, is learned and propagated through these systems.
A cultural bias can be percieved in as straightforward an item as a map.
Maps are political. For entirely natural reasons they are often distorted by being generous with the area whence the mapmaker comes, which is shown in detail, exaggerated in size, and usually placed centrally on the image, whilst as one moves out from that area, they are distorted in the opposite way, with sizes and distances being increasingly underestimated and more and more detail omitted. This is true even of modern maps. For example, wall maps of the world sold in Britain have Europe in the middle, Americas in the west, and the Far East in the far east – note the label, attached by people who evidently lived around the other side of the world, in what they took to be the centre of it when they named that region. The ancient Chinese, of course, made maps which called China the ‘Middle Kingdom’. Other things are more subtle; for example, we prioritize ‘north’, and the compass points may be marked simply by the N, leaving the viewer to work out which way are S, E and W. The Chinese, who invented the magnetic compass, prioritize south.
Discuss the emergence of parades and other forms of street demonstrations. What motivations are behind these festivals? How do they continue to play a role in community identity today?
And to see what has been taken in - Please take this quiz
A study of human geography generally looks individually at the components of culture as systems. These systems, such as interaction with the environment, religion, agriculture, politics, social interactions, economics, music, language, architecture, and all that is culture, are then assessed collectively to define a culture. Culture, as a collective character of human beings, is learned and propagated through these systems.
A cultural bias can be percieved in as straightforward an item as a map.
Maps are political. For entirely natural reasons they are often distorted by being generous with the area whence the mapmaker comes, which is shown in detail, exaggerated in size, and usually placed centrally on the image, whilst as one moves out from that area, they are distorted in the opposite way, with sizes and distances being increasingly underestimated and more and more detail omitted. This is true even of modern maps. For example, wall maps of the world sold in Britain have Europe in the middle, Americas in the west, and the Far East in the far east – note the label, attached by people who evidently lived around the other side of the world, in what they took to be the centre of it when they named that region. The ancient Chinese, of course, made maps which called China the ‘Middle Kingdom’. Other things are more subtle; for example, we prioritize ‘north’, and the compass points may be marked simply by the N, leaving the viewer to work out which way are S, E and W. The Chinese, who invented the magnetic compass, prioritize south.
Discuss the emergence of parades and other forms of street demonstrations. What motivations are behind these festivals? How do they continue to play a role in community identity today?
And to see what has been taken in - Please take this quiz