KEY GEOGRAPHICAL CONCEPTS and TERMS

1. KEY GEOGRAPHICAL CONCEPTS and TERMS

2. Culture • Culture trait • Culture region • Formal • Functional • Vernacular • Cultural diffusion • Expansion diffusion • contagious expansion diffusion • hierarchical expansion diffusion • Relocation diffusion

3. What is Culture? • Culture is the set of learned behaviors and symbolic systems transmitted through socialization, as well as the set of material artifacts and systems used by a social group. • You are to your culture as a fish is to water: normally it is so thoroughly ubiquitous that you have no way of recognizing it; you can only know of its existence by temporarily leaping out (through thought or intercultural encounters) • “It's frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself. It seems unfair. You can't assume the responsibility for everything you do -or don't do.” • Simone De Beauvoir

4. What is culture? • Pervasive • Difficult to perceive from “inside” • Learned • Transmitted through socialization • Shared • What makes “us” different from “them” • Contested • Culture includes forms of social control and oppression that are resisted and negotiated by those in the subordinate position • Contestation may lead to occasional shifts in cultural norms

5. CULTURE TRAITS

6. Three types of culture traits • Traits are the essential elements of culture • artifacts (material) • mentifacts (symbolic) • sociofacts (organizational) • These three types of culture traits are interrelated: a trait like the can opener implies the can (artifact), which implies a market-based economy (sociofact), which implies the idea of money (mentifact), etc…

7. Tiny, fancy shoes • What sociofacts and mentifacts might go along with these artifacts?

8. Tiny, fancy shoes • What sociofacts and mentifacts might go along with these artifacts? http://www.dynastyantiques.com/

9. Tiny, fancy feet! • Feet like this were considered pretty for over 1000 years in China

10. Sociofacts: Confucianism Children are expected to be subservient to adults Women are expected to be subservient to men Status is displayed visually Mentifacts: Tolerance for odd-smelling feet Physical impairment is a sign of prestige In the “best” families women are dependent and helpless Part of Culture Complex

11. Does Western culture include deformation of the body?

12. An artifact • A shape-altering device found as early as 3000 BC in Crete • Later used by aristocratic US & European women • Popularized in 19th c. • Narrowed waist to 15 inches or less causing health problems • Shortness of breath • Fainting • Back problems

13. Sociofacts linked to the use of the corset • Women needed help out of seats, up stairs, etc. • Women were unable to engage in strenuous movements like sports • Women made to be “delicate” and dependent

14. Mentifacts linked to use of the corset • A class-based body-image of the body • women without wasp-waists were seen as unfeminine, lazy, or immoral • middle & upper class parents and girls saw corsets as necessary despite the pain & physical problems it caused

15. From an 1883 diary • While we were waiting for mother we witnessed [another teen] being most harshly laced by two other corseteriers, while she grasped an overhead bar they leveraged her laces almost brutally despite her painful groans... after brief pauses this process was repeated three times until her mother granted approval.. although her waist was wonderfully narrowed she clearly was in pain having to be assisted to a seat... http://corsethome.eu.org/diary2.html

16. More than 50% of American girls in their teens see themselves as overweight 63% of American girls in their teens have dieted Only 14% are happy with their body size and shape

17. Why sell corsets? • When you can market thousands of weight-loss products? • In other words, these are the body-deforming artifacts that match our form of social organization (American sociofacts)

18. What other body-deforming artifacts in American culture can you identify?

21. A “rite of passage” • "Many kids will get them on when they're 10 or 11, and they'll be getting them off when they're starting to hit 13," Dr. Baarsvik said. "It's a real rite of passage. It kind of prepares them for the teen years." http://www.s-t.com/daily/10-99/10-12-99/c01he206.htm#cut

22. What sociofacts and mentifacts are associated with braces?

23. CULTURE REGION

24. Types of Culture Regions • Formal • Area where one or more traits can be found or is dominant • Functional • Area tied together by a coordinating system (law, monetary system, roads, etc.) • Vernacular • Area that ordinary people (non-geographers) recognize as a region (e.g. New England)

25. What links a culture trait to a particular formal culture region? • people in the region possess, believe, or do something particular • all of them, most, some, any? • is Austin part of Texas’ Hispanic culture region? • is New Braunfels part of Texas’ German culture region?

26. From the New Braunfels c.o.c. website …

27. Culture complexes • a culture complex is a closely related set of culture traits • Some links are historical • Germanic language  Protestant religion • Romance language  Catholic religion • Some links are causal • urban culture  tolerance of lifestyle diversity

28. Multiple traits define overlapping culture regions (formal)

29. Edges of culture regions • exceptions to general pattern of culture complexes • transition zones • areas of conflict • areas of diffusion

30. CULTURAL DIFFUSION

31. Some Gallic Inspiration… • “An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.” • Victor Hugo, 'Histoire d'un crime,' 1852

32. Cultural Diffusion Defined • An increase in the spatial extent of a particular culture trait or culture complex either through movement of people through space (migration) or through the adoption of a culture trait by other groups.

33. PIZZA • What was required before frozen pizza could become popular in the US? • saturation of market with electrical refrigeration • dependence on the car for shopping trips • demand for fast food • women in the workforce • changing attitudes about gender roles • small families • etc.

34. Map example: diffusion of religion

35. Types of Diffusion

36. Factors affecting diffusion • barriers to diffusion • different culture • different language • different religion • etc. • lack of necessary infrastructure • where are computers least likely to diffuse? • where are large grocery stores least likely to diffuse?

37. Factors affecting diffusion • cultural receptivity to diffusion • same culture • same language • same religion • etc. • necessary infrastructure • affluence • what else?

38. What is flowing today thanks to the Internet and other technologies? • Ideas & information • Values & beliefs • Money • People • Goods • People

39. Diffusion and culture • What kinds of innovations are Americans most receptive to? • What elements of our culture accelerate diffusion? • What kinds of innovations are Americans least receptive to? • What elements of our culture constitute barriers to diffusion?

40. Editorial: No need for cell phone law • Amarillo Globe-News • Web posted Sunday, February 20, 20004:37 a.m. CT • Cellular telephones admittedly can be a nuisance - and even a potential threat to motorists and pedestrians. But is the potential threat deserving of another law on the books? Hardly. • We prefer a stepped-up public education initiative to advise people of the hazards of operating a cell phone while at the same time operating a two-ton motor vehicle. • To date, only three states - California, Florida and Massachusetts - have laws limiting cell phone use in cars. No state prohibits cell phone use. Several other states, including Texas, have considered such legislation. • Our own view is that such a law starts the state down the proverbial slippery slope. What activity does the state prohibit next? Lighting a cigarette off the car lighter? Reloading a cassette tape or compact disc player? Switching channels on the car radio? • Make no mistake about the dangers inherent in using cell phones while driving a car. Traffic records are replete with incidents involving people losing control of their car while operating a phone. • Motorists should use discretion in dialing up a cell phone. Common sense would seem to dictate that using a phone in heavy traffic is a risky endeavor. • A new law, however, isn't the answer to forcing people to behave responsibly while driving a car.

41. Opponents of laws regulating the use of cell-phones in moving vehicles argue that cell-phones are only associated with about 6% of vehicular accidents so they should not be regulated • If that ratio applies to fatal accidents that means over 2,500 people die every year as a result of cell phone use • Compare this to 978 deaths so far in Iraq, or the 3000 killed on September 11 • Conclusion: Americans are highly receptive to technological diffusion and concerned about corporate profits that • Americans are much more accepting toward technological hazards than towards military or economic threats

43. Question • Aside from receptivity to technological innovations, what do you think are some other factors affecting the diffusion of cell phones worldwide? • Per capita cell phones in US was around 50% in 2002 • Per-capita use is highest in Finland (84.5), Iceland (90%), Italy (92%), Israel (95%), Luxembourg (101%!), Taiwan (106%!) • Why? • Economic and industrial location factors: Nokia in Finland, prepaid phone cards in Italy • Youth culture and text messaging in Taiwan • Luxembourg ease of national service coverage (???)