Basic Concepts in Geography Vocabulary and examples Human

Basic Concepts in Geography Vocabulary and examples

Human Geography – The Why of Where… • The study of where and WHY human activities are located where they are. HG examines the relationships between people and the places they live using a variety of scales (from local to global) • What are some topics a human geographer might address? • What would you be curious to know?

Physical Geography • Geography literally means , “to describe the Earth” The study of why natural forces occur where they do ▫ Human interest in geography – maps from early on… Why were maps important to ancient peoples? Most people did not travel more than 20 miles from their place of birth before the invention of the automobile. Are maps as important today? Why or why not?

Maps… • Maps are tools that are used for a variety of reasons ▫ Examples…? ? • Maps are imperfect however ▫ Projection – transferring locations on the Earth’s surface to a flat map. Leads to distortion of images in regards to shape, distance, direction or size

Different types of projection • Robinson – shows information across oceans, with less distortion there • Mercator – the poles are the area of greatest distortion • Goode homolosine projection – interrupted map that preserves angles and scale, most distorted around Asia.

Various types of maps • Thematic Maps – may be broken down in a variety of ways and will show a particular feature that may be: Economic, Social, Agricultural, Cultural, Political, etc…. ▫ Thematic Maps are used to show a specific feature, like, “cattle populations worldwide, ” or “number of registered Democrats in the Northeast” ▫ Can be used to draw generalizations and to compare items from two different maps

Choropleth (“multiple regions”) Maps • Special type of thematic map that uses shading or different colors to show a proportion or particular measurement in an area

Geography in History • Remind me, from time to time, that this is NOT a history class (otherwise I may not move on…) • Ancient cultures have been mapping out locations well before the advent of modern technologies like the GPS

Example – Polynesian Stick Charts • Used to track wave patterns around specific island(s) • Made by men from roots or coconut fronds • Concentrated on the swells of the waves and the refractions the waves made after hitting land • Example of how ancient maps were a reflection of a particular culture’s values and resources

Ancient traditions • 700 BCE – Turkish city of Miletus was known as a center for geography and cartography ▫ Thales – first applied geographic concepts to measuring land area ▫ Anaximander – map of the world from the anecdotes of sailors. Thought Earth was cylindrical. • Greeks continued… ▫ Herodotus – map of the world ▫ Aristotle – Earth was spherical (~400 BCE) ▫ Eratosthenes – Calculated circumference of the Earth by measuring the angle of the summer solstice in two places

More historical geography • Ptolemy - (~100 CE) Compiled the records of the Roman empire to create an 8 volume series on geography of the world • Chinese mapmaker Phei Hsiu (Pei Xiu) used a consistent grid system that was already in place in China well before his cartography career began. Records from China have not been as well preserved as early European efforts ▫ Chinese use magnetic compass around 260 CE

Muslims • Revived map-making and geography after Middle Ages – Muhammad al-Idrisi ▫ Wrote various books on geography, economics, botany and zoology. ▫ Used and emulated by Europeans for centuries • Expanded on the Greek astrolabe to help guide sailors – determines latitude by star position