The Study of Human Geography

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The Study of Human Geography
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Focus

• Why is population density distributed unevenly
  around the world?
• What are some possible effects of population
  growth?
• What are some of the elements of culture?
• How do cultures change?

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Key terms

• Culture
• Population density
• Birthrate
• Immigrant
• Emigrant
• Urbanization
• Rural
• Culture hearth
• Cultural convergence
• Diffusion
• Cultural divergence

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Where people live

• 6 billion people live on earth
• Population density the average number of people
  in a square mile or square kilometer
• What factors affect where people live?
• Natural obstacles harsh deserts, rugged
  mountains, bitterly cold climates
• People live where there is fertile soil, water is
  plentiful, mild climate

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Where people live

• 6 Billion people now live on earth
• Adapting their way of life to their surroundings
• Human activity has altered the earths physical
  landscape
• Calculating population density
• divide the total population of a region by the
  regions land area
• arable land area vs. total land area

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Population Growth

• Factors contributing to population growth
• Technology
• Medical Care
• Effects of Growth
• Negative
• Increase in famine and disease
• Increase in diseases
• Natural resource depletion
• Positive
• Increase in levels of technology
• Increase in creativity

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Population Growth

• Comparing growth rates
• World population growth is uneven
• Birthrate the number of live births each year
  per 1000 people
• Death rate the number of deaths each year per
  1000 people
• Immigrants people who move into a country
• Emigrants people who leave a country to move to
  another place
• Zero population growth occurs when immigration
  and the birthrate equals the death rate and
  emigration.

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Population Growth

• Patterns of Settlement
• Densest concentrations of people are in East
  Asia, South Asia, Europe and North America.
• Metropolitan areas central cities surrounded by
  suburbs
• Urbanization the growth of city populations
• Urban populations are growing twice as fast as
  rural (countryside) populations.

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The Nature of Culture

• Differences in population patterns are
  reflections of differences in culture
• Overtime culture changes very slowly
• Culture is reflected in 2 ways
• Material clothing, architecture, arts, crafts,
  technology
• Nonmaterial religion, language, patterns of
  behavior, spirituality, government systems,
  education systems, attitudes toward gender roles.

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Culture Hearths

• A place where important ideas begin and from
  which they spread to surrounding cultures
• Used for areas where major traits of human
  culture developed in ancient times
• China in East Asia
• Olmecs, Mayans, and Toltecs in Mexico and Central
  America

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Language and Religion

• Language is the cornerstone of culture
• All cultures have language, but not all have
  written language
• Reflects a cultures identity
• Many societies contain people who speak a variety
  of different languages
• Religion helps people answer basic questions
  about the meaning and purpose of life
• Supports values
• Beliefs vary around the world
• Struggles over religious differences are a
  problem in many countries

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Culture

• Cultural Landscape As people in different
  cultures use the technology and natural resources
  available to them they produce unique cultural
  landscapes
• Social Organizations
• Meant to help people of a culture work together
  to meet their basic needs.
• Family is the most important unit of social
  organization
• Most cultures rank people in order of status
• Money
• Occupation
• Education
• Ancestry
• Past vs. Present
• In the past a person was born into a certain
  class and stayed there for life
• In the present, people have the opportunity to
  move social classes based on education, economic
  achievement, and political action

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Culture

• Social mobility is restricted in many cultures
• Women and Minorities
• Discourage from assuming roles in positions of
  power
• Women encouraged to disfigure bodies
• Economic measures used to discriminate
• Denied high paying jobs
• Denied best agricultural lands
• Property seized by government
• Forced to live in a restricted area

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Cultural Change

• Cultures are changed internally and externally
  through new discoveries and ideas and advances in
  technology
• Cultural Convergence skills, arts, ideas,
  habits and institutions of one cultural come in
  contact with those of another culture.
• Diffusion Process by which a culture element is
  transmitted across some distance from one group
  or individual to another.
• Migration
• Trade/ exchange of goods and ideas
• Cultural divergence the restriction of a
  culture from outside cultural influences
• Governments seek to control communication and
  transportation
• Fall of communist governments