Human Geography Population Geography Cultural Geography Languages and

Human Geography Population Geography Cultural Geography Languages and Religions

Studying Population • Want to understand the relationship between populations and their environments • Demography: statistical study of human populations. – Help us to forecast future population trends – Use statistics to understand population changes and potential impact on the world. – Used in city planning

Population Study Tools • Population Density: average number of people living in an area. Usually expressed as persons per square mile – Reflect size of country, size of population, and environmental conditions – Vary for each country (Canada 8 per sq mile, Bangladesh 2, 324 per sq mile) • Population Distribution: Where do people live and why? – 90% of world’s population live in N. Hemisphere (60% of those live in middle latitudes) – People tend to live in areas favorable for settlement. – Four great population clusters: East Asia, South Asia, Europe, North America

Density

Distribution

Population Study Tools • Population Change: The number of people in any place is a result of three major factors: – Birthrate: # births per year for every 1, 000 people – Death rate: # of deaths each year for every 1, 000 people – Migration: people moving from one place to another • Emigrants vs. Immigrants – Can have major implications on a country • Push and Pull factors – used in study of migration • Refugees: people forced to leave and cannot return to their homes

Population Study Tools • Natural Increase: based on just births and deaths , migration is not taken into account. – Subtract birth from death rate (expressed as a %) – USA is 0. 6% natural growth rate – Highest rates are found in Africa and Southwest Asia, averaging about 3% – Italy and Russia have negative rates – 3% increase can lead to doubling of population in 23 years – “doubling time”

World Population Trends • Current world population is 6. 8 billion – USA 300 million • Increasing by nearly 80 million a year • 220, 000 people a day • Historically: – Population year 1 AD – 300 million. – By 1600 doubled to 600 million – By 1850 doubled to 1. 2 billion – By 1930 doubled to 2. 4 billion – By 1975 doubled to 4. 6 billion – By 2000 to 6 billion – Estimated to reach 9 billion by 2042!!!!! • Growing at a rate of 1. 2%

Cultural Geography • Culture: All of the features of a people’s way of life. It is learned and passed down through teaching, example, and imitation. – Includes a group’s language, economics, religion, architecture, clothing, family life, food, and government

Culture Traits • These are activities and behaviors that people often take part in. – Some such as learning to read and do math are almost universal – Others vary: USA we eat with a fork and knife, Chinese eat with chopsticks, Ethiopians use their fingers or bread to scoop food • Each trait is considered correct where it is practiced.

Culture Regions • An area in which people have many shared culture traits is called a culture region. – Some countries have one culture regions (Japan) while others have many culture regions (Africa, USA) or ethnic groups • An ethnic group is a population that shares a common culture or ancestry • Country borders can disrupt or separate ethnic groups. – Kurds of Western Asia (Iran, Iraq, Turkey)

Culture Change • Cultures are changing all the time (fashion, music, food, communication, etc) • When an individual or group adopts some of the traits of another culture the process is called acculturation – Immigrants to the USA provide perfect examples • New language, customs, practices - assimilation • Innovation – new ideas that a culture accepts – Can last or fade (baseball starts in USA & spreads) • Diffusion – when an idea or innovation spreads from one group to another. – Jazz starts in New Orleans, spreads around the world – Shared languages can help diffusion – Types of diffusion: expansion, relocation, hierarchical

Culture Change – 80’s

Culture Change – 90’s

Culture Change – 2000’s

Assimilation

Culture Change • Globalization: The process, in which connections around the world increase and cultures become more alike – Cultures blending together: cultural convergence – USA ideas, music, fashion spread through the world. Imports to the USA also change us. Spread of products and food are examples (STARBUCKS) • Traditionalism: following longtime practices and opposing many modern technologies and ideas. – Opposite of globalization – Tied to fundamentalism – Cultural divergence: process of cultures becoming separate and distinct

Languages • Language is important to culture because it is the main means of communication • As many as 6500 languages spoken around the world – Broken into language families that are ten broken into branches (page 101 of text) • English is a language in the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family. • About 50% of the world speaks an Indo-European language • Most spoken language is Mandarin Chinese • Dialect: is a regional variety of language – British English and American English are dialects of same language • Lingua Franca: a language of trade and communication – English is the main language of globalization – Millions speak as a second language

Religion • It is a key culture trait that binds many societies together and gives meaning to people’s lives – Geographers are interested in the cultural traits, landscapes, and conflicts produced by religion • Geographers identify 3 types of religions – Ethnic Religion: one ethnic group and has not spread. Do not seek to convert others. Hinduism, Confucianism, Judaism, and Taoism are all examples. – Animist Religion: believe in the presence of spirits and forces of nature. Closely tied to polytheism. – Universalizing Religion: seek followers. Hope to appeal to the masses. More than 50% of world follow this type of religion. Tied to monotheism. Christianity and Islam are examples.