The Notion of Landscapes and Regions Natural Landscape

The Notion of Landscapes and Regions

Natural Landscape • Physical characteristics of a locale 2

Cultural Landscape • Visible expression of human activity on the landscape • Created by Carl Sauer • Successive occupiers bring own tech. and cultural traditions & transform the landscape 3

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Cultural Landscape cont… • Sequent Occupance – – Layers of imprints reflect years of differing human activity – When an area has been occupied and transformed by successive residents – Area remains imprinted which creates the cultural landscape 5

Sequent Occupance Athens, Greece ancient Agora surrounded by modern buildings 6

Sequent Occupance The human layers over Williamsburg 7

Regions: Areas of Unique Characteristics • Defined by certain unifying characteristics • All have boundaries which are sometimes evident but are determined by point of view or perception of the definer 8

Formal/Uniform Region • Areas where specific characteristics are uniform across space – Physical • Tibet – Cultural • Francophone World 9

Formal Region (con’t…. ) -- Economic • European Union 10

Functional/Nodal Regions • Specific social/economic relationships tie area together • Usually a “core” and “periphery” – Metropolitan area 11

Perceptual/Vernacular Regions – Ideas in our minds, based on accumulated knowledge of places and regions, that define an area of “sameness” or “connectedness” e. g. “The South” or the “Bible Belt” – Could also be determined by local residents and may not be recognized by outsiders 12

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9 Nations of North America 14

Regions Video 15

Environmental Determinism • Theory that human behavior, individually and collectively, is strongly affected byeven controlled or determined by- the physical environment; climate is the critical factor in how humans behave 16

Possibilism • When the natural environment merely serves to limit the range of choices available to a culture. 1. Choices a culture makes depends on their needs and levels of technology 2. Environmental constraints less binding as a culture increases its level of technology 17

Example of Possiblilism 18

VOCAB. QUIZ #1 • Define the following words in detail: • • • globalization absolute location contagious diffusion environmental determinism formal region 19