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AP Human Geography Unit 1 Notes โ By understanding human geography, you can almost understand the world โ What goes into human geography: โ โ Think about space in geographic terms โ Is there a spatial pattern to the locations of Starbucks โ โ Essential questions of human geography: โ Where?: simple location
โ Why: The explanation of where โ Where do most young, talented African soccer players end up playing professionally? โ Why do they play in Europe? โ Why do many first go to smaller leagues before England, Italy, or Spain? โ 5 Themes of Geography: โ Location โ Place โ Human-Environment Interaction โ Movement โ Regions โ The Six Essential Elements: โ โ Location: โ Absolute vs. Relative: โ Absolute location: basically like an address (latitude and longitude) โ Useful for determining distance and direction โ Relative location: is compared to other physical and human features of the landscape โ Much more useful for human geography โ Place: โ Distinguishing human and physical characteristics that make a specific locality unique โ Placelessness is the loss of uniqueness that comes with standardization of landscapes โ Most geographically descriptive words are place related (Rocky Mountains) โ Human-Environment Interaction:
โ Ideas and inventions radiated out from these cultural hearths โ Culture Hearths are Not Civilizations: โ But all civilizations have a culture hearth โ Civilizations have impacts far beyond their source points, affecting other cultures over long periods of time โ Historically, agricultural and urban revolutions were inspired by well- known civilizations โ Recently, industrial and technological revolutions have originated in other areas โ Cultural Diffusion: โ The spread of an idea or innovation from its source area to other cultures is diffusion โ Often, these historical routes can be isolated and mapped โ However, two diverse, distant areas with a similar trait might not have made contact โ Independent invention describes the unique development of like ideas of separate people โ Types of Diffusion: โ Two categories: expansion and relocation โ Expansion diffusion: traits develop in a source area and remain there while spreading outward โ This spread can be contagious , going in every direction and affecting nearly all nearby; โ Hierarchical : moving from point to point or from larger to smaller units of population; โ Or due to a stimulus , where the trait is not adopted exactly, but instead promotes the adaptation of a similar trait locally (Mac vs. PC) โ Relocation Diffusion: โ When populations are unstable and moving, relocation (or migrant) diffusion often occurs โ Ideas are carried along with the movement of the people to be introduced into a distant area โ When one culture dominates another, acculturation results. โ If the submissive group is totally absorbed by acculturation, they are said to be assimilated โ Cultures that meet on equal terms undergo transculturation โ Time-distance decay refers to the weakening of diffusion due to these obstacles โ Toblerโs First Law of Geography: โ Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things
โ Cultural Perception: โ Not just the landscape but the overall impression of an area โ Be careful of a โsingle storyโ defining a place โ We may look at Africa as simplistic and poor; they might see us as greedy and wasteful โ Cultural Environment: โ Environment affects clothing, housing, recreation, languages, etc. โ 2 competing theories attempt to explain our interaction with the environment ( Cultural Ecology ) โ Determinism says that human behaviors is dictated by our physical surroundings and resources (Friedrich Ratzelโs organic theory) โ Possibilism holds that the environment merely limits our development, but that we can overcome many of those challenges and adapt (Carl Sauer) โ Map Basics: โ Cartography is map making โ As old as geography itself โ Maps that lie flat are a LIE โ Earth is rounded and cannot be perfectly displayed on a flat surface โ Size, shape, and distance can be distorted โ Types of Maps โ Reference Maps: show absolute locations and physical features โ Thematic Maps: tell stories โ How many people are there in China โ How did Christianity spread across the globe โ Where do most Mexicans migrate to in the US โ Thematic maps are almost always generalizations and cannot show all variations โ Map Scale: how much of the Earth the map shows โ A ratio between distance on the map and actual distance on the ground (in., cm, miles) โ Inversely proportional to size โ Large-scale map shows a small area (small numbers) โ Small-scale map shows a large area (large numbers) โ Scale can also be thought of as the spatial extent of something: global, regional (part of the world), national, regional (within a country), and local โ Projection: how the image of the Earth is being transferred onto the surface of the map โ A grid serves as the framework for projection โ Latitude: lines (parallels) run E-W at 10 degree intervals โ Longitude: line (meridians) runs N-S at 15 degree intervals
