Chapter 1

Introduction to
Geography
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this section, the student will be able to:
1. Discuss the importance of maps and some tools used to create them.
2. Explain the concept of places and how they are characterized from a spatial
perspective.
3. Describe the various types of diffusion.
4. Connect the discipline of geography with other academic disciplines.

INTRODUCTION
Geography is a diverse discipline that has some sort of connection to most every
other academic discipline. This connection is the spatial perspective, which essentially
means if a phenomenon can be mapped, it has some kind of relationship to geography.
Studying the entire world is a fascinating subject, and geographical knowledge is
fundamental to a competent understanding of our world. In this chapter, you will learn what
geography is as well as some of the fundamental concepts that underpin the discipline.
These fundamental terms and concepts will be interwoven throughout the text, so a sound
understanding of these topics is critical as you delve deeper into the chapters that follow. By
the end of the chapter, you will begin to think like a geographer.

WHAT IS GEOGRAPHY?
The Greek word geographos from which geography is derived, is literally translated
as writing (graphos) about the Earth (geo). Geography differs from the discipline of geology
because geology focuses mainly on the physical Earth and the processes that formed and
continue to shape it. On the other hand, geography involves a much broader approach to
examining the Earth, as it involves the study of humans as well. As such, geography has
two major subdivisions, human (social science) and physical (natural science). This
text focuses primarily on human geography, but because the physical aspects affect
humans and vice versa, physical geography will not be completely excluded, but will receive
less emphasis.

Geography is the study of the physical and environmental aspects of the world, from
a spatial perspective. As geographers study the Earth, the one element that binds the
discipline of geography and makes it unique is studying the Earth from a spatial perspective.
The spatial perspective means that the phenomenon you are studying can be displayed on a
map, so geography focuses on places around the world. Geography, then, is a physical (or

1
natural) and social science that asks the fundamental questions, “What is where, and why?”
Human geography is a social science that focuses on people, where they live, their ways of
life, and their interactions in different places around the world. A simple example of a
geographic study in human geography would be where is the Hispanic population
concentrated in the U.S., and why? A physical geography research endeavor might ask
where do most hurricanes strike the U.S. coastline, and why? In addition, because the Earth
is dynamic, geographers also look at how places change through time, and why, so there is
a natural connection with history.

Geography and its relationship to other disciplines

Not only is there a connection between geography and history, but geography is also
related to a broad range of other academic disciplines (Figure 1.1). If you examine Figure
1.1, you may find your own major on the outside margin of the circle, with the corresponding
sub discipline in geography on the interior of the circle. Again, if a phenomenon can be
depicted on a map and studied from a spatial perspective, it is geographical. A basic
example would relate to the health sciences or medical geography, the subfield of
geography that focuses on the spatial patterns of various aspects of health. For example,
when the spread of a disease from its source area is mapped, medical professionals can get
a better idea of the causes of a disease and the mechanisms of its transmission. Often, the
understanding of cultural practices or the environmental conditions (such as the habitat for
a mosquito-borne disease) can shed light on the process of how the disease operates.
Another example of how geography relates to other disciplines is in economic geography,
the subfield that examines the different economic activities in various places, and how
places interact economically. A fundamental concept in economic studies is that the location
of a business is often important to the success of that business. If the business is located in
close proximity to its clientele, for example, the customers might be more likely to visit that
restaurant, store, etc. on a regular basis. A business owner would be wise to consult maps of
both transportation networks as well as the population of the customers to which they
intend to cater.

Political Author | Corey Parson

Demograph Science Source | Original
y Geology Work
opulation Political License | CC BY-SA
Geography Geomorphology
Geography 4.0
eorology P
Sociology and
Climatology Anthropology
Cultural
Met Geology

Geograph

GEOGRAPHY
Marine y
Marine Geograph
Economics
Economic
eScienc

y
Biogeograph
Behavioral y
Geograph
Ps Biology
ychology
y
Historical Medical
Geograph Geography

y Urban Health
Histor Sciences
y
Geography 2
Planning and
Urban Studies
 Figure 1.1 | Geography Relationships

MAPPING THE WORLD

Maps are fundamental to the discipline of geography and have been used by humans
since before 6,000 B.C. Today’s maps are much more sophisticated, complex, and precise,
and are used by many people who employ GPS mapping systems in their vehicles. This
technology allows motorists to navigate from placeto-place with relative ease, but the
process by which these digital and other maps are created is exceptionally complex.
Essentially, a map, which is a flat presentation of a place on Earth, is actually
depicting a curved surface. The Earth, which looks like a sphere, is technically an oblate
spheroid, which means that the “middle” of the Earth, around the equator, is slightly wider,
and the north/south pole axis is slightly shorter, than a perfect sphere. When any curved
surface is depicted on a flat surface, that process is known as projection, and many types
of map projections exist. A fundamental characteristic of all maps is they involves
projections, and all projections have some sort of distortion inherent in them. The size,
shape, distance, and direction of objects are distorted to various degrees on maps. The
reason this distortion occurs can be
visualized by simply imagining
peeling an orange, and trying to
flatten the peel on a table. If you
drew the continents on that orange
before peeling it, the continents
would most certainly be distorted
when you try to flatten the peel on
the table. This analogy does not
precisely describe how projections
are created; the process is much
more involved. However, the
underlying principle still applies. An
example of distortion is shown on
the map of the globe below (Figure
1.2). Note, for example, in this
Mercator projection that Greenland
Figure 1.2 | World Map
appears to be larger than South World Map with Mercator Projection.
America, although it is, in fact, much smaller.
Author | User “Strebe”
Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | CC BY-SA 3.0

Besides projections, another important characteristic of maps is the scale. The scale
of a map is a ratio of the length or distance on the map versus the length or distance on the
Earth or ground (actual). The amount of detail shown on a map will vary based on the scale.
For example, a map with a scale of 1:100,000 (which means 1 in/cm on the map equals
1,000,000 in/cm on the ground) would show much less detail than a map at a scale of
1:10,000 (Figure 1.3). Besides showing scale as a ratio, it can also be presented as a bar
graph or as a verbal statement. Scale can also mean the spatial extent of some kind of

3
phenomena. For example, one could examine migration at the global, national, state, or
local scale. By either definition, however, each refers to the level of detail about the place
that the geographer is researching. Examining the world from different scales enables
different patterns and connections to emerge.

Figure 1.3 | Comparison of Map Scales

Author | Corey Parson, Google Maps
Source | Google Maps
License | © Google Maps. Used with Permission.

WHERE IN THE WORLD AM I?

One of the most important pieces of information that maps provide is location.
Knowing precisely where a place is in the world is fundamental to geography.
While one can define a location simply by using a street address, not all places on Earth
have such an address. Therefore, one of the basic ways to pinpoint a location on the Earth is
using the geographic grid. The geographic grid is comprised of meridians and parallels,
which are imaginary lines and arcs crisscrossing the Earth’s surface. Meridians are half
circles that connect the north and south poles, and longitude refers to the numbering
system for meridians. Parallels are circles that encompass the Earth and are parallel to the
equator, and the numbering system for these circles is known as latitude (Figure 1.4).
Where meridians and parallels intersect at precise locations (points) on the Earth on the
geographic grid, a location can be known by its latitude and longitude.
Author | User
“Djexplo” and
Corey Parson
Source | Wikimedia
Commons
License | CC 0

4
Figure 1.4 | Longitude and Latitude
A few meridians on Earth are of particular importance, one being the Prime Meridian
located at 0o longitude, which passes through Greenwich, England. The other important
meridian, called the International Date Line, follows roughly along 180 o longitude, and
this meridian is on the opposite side of the world from the Prime Meridian (Figure 1.5).
When a traveler crosses the International Date Line, the day of the week instantaneously
changes. When moving westward, the day moves forward, and when traveling eastward, the
date jumps backward one day. Fortunately, the International Date Line is in the middle of
the Pacific Ocean, so disruptions to the daily calendar are minimal for most people in the
world. Moreover, the International Date Line does not precisely follow the 180 o longitude
line, and this accommodation allows countries and territories consisting of islands that
straddle 180 o longitude to share the same calendar date.

HOW DO I DESCRIBE WHERE I AM?

Defining a
location by using the
geographic grid is
only part of the
process of describing a
place. Geographers
are primarily
concerned with two
ways of describing a
place: site and
situation. Site refers to
the physical
characteristics, such as
the topography,
vegetative cover, Figure 1.5 | Time Zones
climatic conditions,
Author | Central Intelligence Agency
and the like. Source | Wikimedia Commons
Situation, on the License | Public Domain
other hand, refers to
the area surrounding the place, and is sometimes referred to as relative location. In other
words, where is this place relative to other places, and how is it connected to its
surroundings via transportation networks? New Orleans provides an excellent example of
site versus situation. The site of New Orleans is not ideal for a city, as it lies below sea level
and is prone to flooding. However, the situation of New Orleans is much better in that New
Orleans is connected to large portion of the Mississippi River’s network of navigable
waterways while also being close to the Gulf of Mexico and convenient to coastal traffic.
Hence, the situation of New Orleans is why the city has not long since been abandoned,
despite catastrophic flooding such as during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. As we examine
various places around the world, both site and situation are key considerations in
determining the “why” of where a place is located.

5
Regions
While site and situation can help describe a place, a broader view of the world and
the connections between places can be derived from the concept of regions. A region is an
area that shares some sort of common characteristic that binds the area into a whole.
Geographers use regions to help one understand the interconnections between places and
simplify a complex world. Two major types of regions are formal and functional. Formal
regions are characterized by homogeneity or uniformity in one or a number of different
characteristics. These characteristics can be both human and physical-related, so regions
could be defined by climate or vegetation types, in the sense of physical geography, or they
could be defined by language or ethnicity, in the sense of human geography. One example
of a map that includes formal regions would be a map of the states in the US. In this map,
each state could be considered a formal region because each state is governed in a common
or unique way, and hence portrays homogeneity.

A functional region, which is sometimes called a nodal region, is an area that

contains a central node or focal point to which other places in the region are connected by
some activity. Functional regions can be seen in cities where the central area of the city
might serve as the focal point for the rest of the metropolitan area. At a smaller scale, a Wi-
Fi hotspot could be considered the focal point of a functional region that extends to the
range of the Wi-Fi signal. Even the delivery area for the local pizza restaurant would be a
functional region with the restaurant as a central node.
Regions are devised and not absolute, so whether or not a particular place fits within
a region is sometimes a matter of dispute. For example, scholars disagree on the exact
extent of the American South as a formal region. What defines this region? It depends on
what characteristics one uses to define the region, be they food, dialect, political affiliation,
historical affiliation in the Civil War, or any other element the mind conjures up when one
thinks of the South as a relatively homogeneous formal region. Most geographers see Texas
as a part of the South, but West Texas is much different from East Texas, and Florida is
likewise diverse. Extreme southern Florida is vastly different from the panhandle of Florida in
ethnic make-up and political affiliation. The opinion on what constitutes the Southern region
varies based on personal viewpoints. The Southern region, then, may be thought of as a
vernacular (or perceptual) region because the boundaries of these types of regions depend
on the perspectives or mental maps of different groups of people who live both outside or
inside that region. Hence, the concept of regions and their definition is not a straightforward
process and involves generalities and varying opinions.

GEOGRAPHIC DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

In order to analyze and develop regions, describe places, and conduct detailed
geographic analysis, two important tools have been developed that are of particular value to
geographers. The first is remote sensing, or the acquisition of data about the Earth’s
surface from aerial platforms such as satellites, airplanes or drones. Images taken from
these airborne machines can provide a wealth of valuable information about both the human
and physical characteristics of a place. For example, satellite imagery can depict the extent
of human impact on rainforests in the Amazonian rainforest of Brazil (Figure 1.6). Imagery
can also depict information that humans cannot see with the naked eye, such as the
temperature of the Earth’s surface. One example is a thermal infrared image, which can
show warm temperatures in red tones and cooler temperatures in blue tones (Figure 1.7).

6
Figure 1.6| Deforestation Figure 1.7 | Thermal Imaging
Author | NASA Author | NASA
Source | Earth Observatory Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | Public Domain License | Public Domain

Digital imagery like the one in Figure 1.9 is in a format that can be entered into
Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the second important tool employed by
geographers. GIS combines computer hardware and software in a system that stores,
analyzes and displays geographic data with a “computer mapping” capability. Geographic
data is stored in layers, and these layers of data can be queried in a number of sophisticated
ways to analyze some aspect of an area. Each data point in a GIS is georeferenced to a
precise location on the Earth’s surface (latitude and longitude, for example), and these data
points have different attributes corresponding to the data layer they are associated with.
Data layers can represent a myriad of characteristics about that data point, such as
elevation, soils, the presence of water, per-capita income, ethnicity, etc. Overlaying the data
layers can provide incredible insights into the connections between characteristics/ factors
in places, such as the connection between per-capita income and ethnicity or the links
between soil types and vegetative cover. GIS also has a vast suite of other capabilities such
as least-cost path for transportation, lineof-sight
perspectives from a particular location, or 3-D
models of urban areas. Because of their multi-
faceted capacity to present geographic
information, businesses and government
agencies around the world use GIS to answer
questions, plan development, chart delivery
routes, and even monitor crime and first
responder activity (Figure 1.8). It is not
surprising that one of the fastest growing job
markets is in GIS technology, as GIS jobs exist at
the local, state, and national level as well as in
many businesses in the private sector. Even the
U.S. Census Bureau maintains an extensive GIS
database known as Topologically Integrated
Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER).
Data layers in a Geographic Information System (GIS).
Author | US Government Accountability Office

7
CHANGES IN PLACES: DIFFUSION
Thus far, we have examined the Earth in a rather static fashion by learning about
places and regions, how maps are created, and how geographic information is gathered and
analyzed. However, the Earth is dynamic and constantly changing, and one of the reasons
places change is because of diffusion. Diffusion is the spread of ideas, objects, inventions,
and other practices from place to place. As people migrate or move to a new area, they
bring their ideas, objects, and the like with them in a process call relocation diffusion.
Another diffusion process involves the spread outward from a core area that contains the
idea, cultural practice, etc. This type of diffusion is expansion diffusion, and this type of
diffusion can occur from person-to-person contact (as with a contagious disease) or through
a hierarchy, or stratified condition, where the idea might originate in a major city, spread to
medium-sized cities, and so on to smaller cities.

THE HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT RELATIONSHIP

The process of spatial diffusion can be profoundly affected by the physical terrain,
such as is the case with a mountain range. Because migration and transportation over
mountain ranges can be limited, diffusion can be slowed or even stopped by these physical
barriers. This example is but one instance of the relationship between humans and their
environment. The environment can significantly affect human activities, and vice versa,
humans can shape and change the Earth’s surface and its atmosphere. Two major
perspectives on the human environment relationship in the field of geography are
environmental determinism, which has been largely rejected, and possibilism.
Environmental determinism is the idea that the natural or physical environment shapes
and creates cultures; in other words, the environment essentially dictates culture. For
example, environmental determinists in the 1920s thought that people who lived in the
tropics were slothful and backward because finding food in the tropics was thought to be
rather easy. In contrast, Europeans, who lived in “stimulating” climates with a sharp change
in seasons were more industrious and inventive. The racist undertones of this sort of
perspective is clear, but modern geographers still recognize the definitive impact of the
environment on societies, as can be seen, for example, in the theorized demise of the
Anasazi people in the American Southwest because of extended drought.

Chapter 2

Population and
health
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this section, the student will be able to:
1. Discuss the spatial organization of the human population;

8
 2. Explain the dynamics of population as they are reflected in fertility, morbidity,
and mortality;
3. Describe the relationship between population and other spatial phenomena
such as living standards, agriculture, and health;
4. Connect: development, migration and population as a fluid self-balancing
system.

INTRODUCTION
“You are one in a million, there are 1700 people in China exactly like you.”
In this chapter we will look at the human population. We’ll look at the size of it, and
whether it may be growing or shrinking. We’ll explore the role of scale. We’ll look at
differences between countries. And we’ll do all of this through the lens of spatiality.
The human population is at 7.5 billion, an all-
18 World growth scenarios
time high. In the space of a few centuries it has gone Population
from less than one billion to more than seven, with 15 in Billions High
projections of several billions more in the relatively near Data fromUN
future (Figure 2.1). 12
Medium
At the global level we can talk about population
without consideration of migration, since the earth is a 9
Low
closed system in regard, but when we discuss countries,
it is useful to separate the natural increase for the 6
1800-2015
future of human population.1 rate—the rate of estimates
population change only Author | User “Bdm25” 3
accounting for births and deaths—from the effect of Year
0
migration. A full discussion of migration occurs in
1800 1900 2000 2100
Chapter Three. The following map shows a choropleth
map of countries of the world categorized by population
(Figure 2.3). Notice Bangladesh, the small country nearly surrounded by India. Now look at
Russia.

9
 Author | David Dorrell
Source | Original Work
License | CC BY-SA 4.0

Although they are vastly different in size, the population of Bangladesh is almost 20 million
larger than Russia. Not only that, but the population of Russia is shrinking and the
population of Bangladesh is growing!
As Figure 2.3 showed there are some spatial patterns that present themselves, but
there is a great deal of noise in the signal. Many of the countries with large populations are
physically large themselves. Places like China and India have had comparably large
populations for a long time. Very often, explorations of population growth are short circuited
by discussions of religion or levels of development. Although religion and development are
not irrelevant, they are not as important as is often assumed. Individual characteristics have
come to mean less than they have in the past.
The most obvious characteristic that often leads to higher population growth is
poverty. There are many reasons for this, two of which were mentioned previously, but there
are others. The
effect of infant mortality drives some people to have Rank Country Population as of July
a large number of children in the forlorn hope that 2016
some of them survive to adulthood. Another is the 1 China 1,382,323,332
effect of migration, which can boost incomes by 2 India 1,326,801,576
sending some population to other countries to work, Unites
but depopulate the places that are sending migrants. 3 States 324,118,787

4 Indonesia 260,581,100
209,567,920
In almost all countries, the rate of population 5 Brazil
growth has slowed. Two countries, China and India, 6 Pakistan 192,826,502
account for 36 percent of the world’s population. Any 7 Nigeria 186,987,563
change in these two places will have a large impact 8 Bangladesh 162,910,864
on the values for the entire planet. According to the
9 Russia 143,439,832
World Bank for 2013, the population of China is 10 Mexico 128,632,004
growing .5 percent per year, India is growing 1.2
percent per year, the United States is growing by .7 percent per year, and Indonesia is
growing by 1.2 percent per year. The rates for all these countries have been falling for
decades, even Indonesia and India.
The populations of the countries of Japan, Russia, Germany, Spain, and Ukraine are
all shrinking whereas the populations of Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq,
and Kenya are expanding rapidly. In developed countries, population decline has
implications for social programs such as retirement, which is funded by a shrinking pool of
workers. In very advanced societies, a worker shortage is driving rapid development of
robotics. In poorer places rapid population growth can trigger large-scale migration and
social disruption.
Why is it so difficult to find one characteristic that explains the population dynamics
of a particular country? Because places matter. Each place is a unique combination of
factors, and their interactions.

THINKING ABOUT POPULATION

The Greeks and Ecumene

10
 No discussion of population is complete without a brief history of the philosophical
understanding of population. This discussion starts as it often does, with the ancient Greeks.
The Greeks considered that they lived in the best place on Earth. In fact, they believed in the
exact center of the habitable part of the Earth. They called the habitable part of the Earth
ecumene. To the Greeks, places north of them were too cold, and places to the south were
too hot. Placing your own homeland in the center of goodness is common; many groups
have done this. The Greeks decided that the environment explained the distribution of
people. To an extent, their thinking persists, but only at the most extreme definitions. Many
places that the Greeks would have found too cold (Moscow, Stockholm) too hot (Kuwait City,
Las Vegas) too wet (Manaus, Singapore) or too dry (Timbuktu, Lima) have very large
populations.

Modern Ideas About Population

Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) “Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical

ratio.” 4
Ester Boserup (1910-1999) “The power of ingenuity would always outmatch that of
demand.” 5
Modern discussions of population begin with food. From the time of Thomas Malthus
(quoted above), modern humans have acknowledged the rapidly expanding human
population and its relationship with the food supply. Malthus himself was a cleric in England
who spent much of his time studying political economy. His views were a product not only of
his time, but also of his place. In Malthus’ case his time and place were a time of social,
political, and economic change.
Karl Marx (1818–1883) took issue with Malthus’ ideas. Marx wrote that population
growth alone was not responsible for a population’s inability to feed itself, but that
imbalanced social, political, and economic structures created artificial shortages. He also
believed that growing populations reinforced the power of capitalists, since large pools of
underemployed laborers could more easily be exploited.
The post-World War II period saw a flurry of books warning of the dangers of
population growth with books like Fairfield Osborn’s Our Plundered Planet and William Vogt’s
Road to Survival. Perhaps most explicit was Paul and Anne Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb.
These books are warnings of the dangers of unchecked population growth. Malthus
wrote that populations tend to grow faster than the expansion of food production and that
populations will grow until they outstrip their food supplies. This is to say that starvation,
war, and disease were all predictions of Malthus and were revived in these Neo-Malthusian
publications. Some part of the current conversation of environmentalism regards limiting the
growth of the human population, echoing Malthus.
A common theme of these books is that they all attempt to predict the future. One of
the advantages we have living centuries or decades after these books is the opportunity to
see if these predictions were accurate or not. Ehrlich’s book predicted that by the 1970s,
starvation would be widespread because of food shortages and a collapse in food
production. That did not happen. In fact, the global disasters predicted in all these books
have yet to arrive decades later. What saved us?
Perhaps nothing has saved us. We have just managed to push the reckoning a bit
further down the road.
If we have been saved, then the assumptions inherent in the predictions were wrong.
What were they?

11
 1. Humans would not voluntarily limit their reproduction.
2. Farming technology would suddenly stop advancing.
3. Food distribution systems would not improve.
4. Land would become unusable from overuse.
All of these assumptions have proven to be wrong, at least so far. Only the most
negative interpretation of any particular factor in this equation could be accepted.
One the other hand, Ester Boserup, an agricultural economist in the twentieth century,
drew nearly the opposite conclusion from her study of human population. Her reason for
doing so were manifold. First, she was born one and one -half centuries later, which gave
her considerably more data to interpret. Second, she didn’t grow to adulthood in the center
of a burgeoning empire. She was a functionary in the early days of the United Nations. Third,
she was a trained as an economist, and finally, she was a woman. Each one of these factors
was important.

Let’s Investigate Each One of These Assumptions

In preindustrial societies, children are a workforce and a retirement plan. Families
can try to use large numbers of children to improve their economic prospects. Children are
literally an economic asset. Birth rates fall when societies industrialize. They fall dramatically
when women enter the paid workforce. Children in industrialized societies are generally not
working and are not economic assets. The focus in such societies tends to be preparing
children through education for a technologically-skilled livelihood. Developed societies tend
to care for their elderly population, decreasing the need for a large family. Developed
societies also have lower rates of infant mortality, meaning that more children survive to
adulthood.
The increasing social power of women factors into this. Women who control their own
lives rarely choose to have large numbers of children. Related to this, the invention and
distribution of birth control technologies has reduced human numbers in places where it is
available.
Farming technology has increased tremendously. More food is now produced on less
land than was farmed a century ago. Some of these increases are due to manipulations of
the food itself—more productive seeds and pesticides, but some part of this is due to
improvements in food processing and distribution. Just think of the advantages that
refrigeration, freezing, canning and dehydrating have given us. Add to that the ability to
move food tremendous distances at relatively low cost. Somehow, during the time that all
these technologies were becoming available, Neo-Malthusians were discounting them.
Some marginal land has become unusable, either through desertification or erosion,
but this land was not particularly productive anyway, hence the term marginal. The loss of
this land has been more than compensated by improved production.
At this point, it looks like a win for Boserup, but maybe it isn’t. Up to this point we
have been mixing our discussions of scale. Malthus was largely writing about the British
Isles, and Boserup was really writing about the developed countries of the world. The local
realities can be much more complex.
At the global scale there is enough food, and that has been true for decades. In fact,
many developed societies produce more food than they can either consume or sell. The local
situation is completely different. There are developed countries that have been unable to
grow food to feed themselves for over a century. The United Kingdom, Malthus’ home, is one
of them. However, no one ever calls the U.K. overpopulated. Why not? Because they can buy
food on the world market.

12
 Local-scale famines happen because poorer places cannot produce enough food for
themselves and then cannot or will not buy food from other places. Places that are politically
marginalized within a country can also experience famines when central governments
choose not to mobilize resources toward the disfavored. Politically unstable places may not
even have the necessary infrastructure to deliver free food from other parts of the world.
This is assuming that food aid is even a good idea (a concept revisited in the agriculture
chapter). These sorts of problems persist to this day and they have an impact of population,
although often in unpredictable ways, such as triggering large-scale migration or armed
conflict.
To recap, at the global level, population has not been limited by food production.
However, people do not live at the “global level.” They live locally with whatever
circumstances they may have. In many places the realities of food insecurity are paramount.
Although discussions of population tend to start with food, they cannot end with it.
People have more needs than their immediate nutrition. They need clothing and shelter as
well. They also have desires for a high standard of living- heating, electricity, automobiles
and technology. All of these needs and desires require energy and materials. The pressure
put on the planet over the last two centuries has less to do with the burgeoning population
and more to do with burgeoning expectations of quality of life.

POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT

We can return to the diverging ideas of Malthus and Boserup. Does population growth
spur innovation or starvation? Is population growth good or bad? Population growth has
spurred innovation, but interestingly enough, not usually in the places that are experiencing
that growth right now. If population growth is dramatically higher than economic growth, the
result will not be new technologies and paradigm shifts; it will be emigration or civil unrest.
A country like Russia with a large land mass and a relatively small population may be
underpopulated compared to its neighbor, China. Having large tracts of uninhabited land has
historically invited the attention of outsiders. Under population is not normally the problem
that most people would associate with population. When we think of population problems,
we generally think of overpopulation. What is overpopulation? Like so many other questions
we have asked so far, the answer depends. Overpopulation means an inability to support a
population with the resources available

The crude death rate is more nuanced (Some countries on the map, for example,
Chad, have a high crude death rate due to a high rate of infant and child mortality. Russia,
on the other hand, has a rapidly aging population and a partially collapsed social security
network.
The replacement level of a population refers to the number of births that are
necessary to offset deaths. This is often referred to in terms of average fertility of women. In
modern societies, on average, women need to produce 2.1 children in a lifetime to keep a
place demographically stable. This number is derived by counting a mother and her partner,
and accounts for those who never reproduce.
Places with a fertility rate below 2.1 will shrink over time. Those places above that
will grow, and those well above that will grow quickly. The preceding graphic demonstrates
that in the same way that many places are growing very rapidly, many places are at or
below replacement. The United States is below replacement. It is demographically buoyed
by immigration.

13
 What kinds of places are growing fastest? These are places that are poor or
economically or politically unstable. This may seem counterintuitive. Why would people have
children in places that are already so poor? Remember that individual families have children.
Children can seem like a mechanism for surviving bad situations. What kinds of places are
declining? This is more complicated, but in general the more educated and empowered the
female population is, the lower the birth rate. This isn’t a perfect, linear relationship, but it’s
useful as a start. Why is there so much variability? Because places matter. Uganda has a
government advocating population growth, while Afghanistan and Somalia have little
governance at all. Russia and Australia have similar fertility rates, and few other similarities.
General measurements of population are useful, but often if is useful to know the age
and gender structure of a population. This is shown using a population pyramid. A
population pyramid breaks the population into groups sorted by age ranges, called cohorts,
as well as by sex. The resulting shape tells you a great deal about the population dynamic of
the country. If the shape is actually a pyramid, then the country has a high birth rate and a
high death rate. Countries with stable populations look like a column. Some countries even
have their greatest population in the older cohorts with comparably few young people. Some
examples of estimated future populations are shown in.
First, it is important that you understand that all these numbers are estimates.
Current population numbers are good enough for general comparison. As you can see, the
differences between places becomes more pronounced as we look toward the future. The
world population increases by over two billion people, but what is interesting are the shifting
dynamics between countries. China shrinks by more than 30 million, the US grows by 64
million, and Niger- a poor Saharan country grows by 52 million, more than double its current
size! One of the most useful measures of population is doubling time, which is how much
time it would take at current levels of population growth for a population to double.
According most of human history saw very slow growth with doubling times measured in
centuries. During the 19th and 20th centuries, doubling time at the global level fell to as
short as 35 years.
This has numerous implications. At the global level, those extra billions will need food
and water, houses and clothing. That is to say that they will require resources. They will also
have desires that require even more materials and energy expenditure. In places like Niger,
this will be very difficult, if not impossible, to meet.
In places like China, a completely different problem presents itself. These populations
are both shrinking and aging. Life expectancy, the average lifespan in a country, has been
increasing for decades in developed and some developing countries. At the same time, birth
rates have fallen for a variety of reasons. This means that as time passes, the elderly portion
of the population has grown. Many countries will see their population’s age until large
percentages will be unable to work. Societies for the past several centuries have prepared
themselves for population growth, and much of modern society is predicated on it.
Population growth is what has paid for social security for the elderly. Few places have
prepared themselves for fewer workers in the future (although robotics may address this
problem). This change will not happen at once, but the effects will be tremendous.
Another characteristic that must be acknowledged is population momentum. When
much of your population is older than 45, it isn’t reasonable to expect that population will
continue to grow quickly. Countries with young populations should expect that their
populations will grow when the large pool of young people have children of their own.
The dependency ratio is simply the number of people within a society who do not
work compared to the number who do work. There are two main components of the

14
dependency ratio- children under 15 years old and the elderly over 65 years old, although
the degree to which either group is dependent is variable. Children need care and schooling,
but generally produce little of economic value. Elderly populations can be too infirm to work
and are the part of the population with the highest medical costs. Where does the wealth
come from to take care of these two groups? It comes from the people working and
producing wealth. If the dependency ratio is high, then each worker can be responsible for a
large number of dependents and less wealth will be left for the workers. Although the
dependency ratio is used to compare places, this particular ratio can be somewhat
misleading. In many less developed places, children are not dependent. They are not in
school and they are employed. They are not consuming a family’s resources, but are instead
contributing to them. In other places, the elderly may still be in the workplace. The
dependency ratio informs decisions regarding the future. Will a country need more schools
or assisted living centers. What does this mean for retirement or pensions? Perhaps more
importantly, will the supply of workers increase or decrease? Comparing China, Niger, and
the U.S. shows you that different places have different options and challenges.

THE DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION

Geographers have modeled the population dynamics of places for decades. The
result of these models is called the Demographic Transition model (Figure 2.4). It describes
a series of stages that societies pass through as they develop and industrialize. These
models represent the general demographic conditions that countries experience.

In Stage One, which is pre-modern, birth rates are high, and death rates are high. As
a result of these two factors, the population remains low, but stable.
By Stage Two as the society industrializes food becomes more steadily available,
water supplies get cleaner and sanitation and medical care improves. Death rates fall,
particularly infant mortality rates. However, there is a lag in the decline in birth rates. It
takes time for people to adjust to the new reality of urban industrial life. Since the birth rate
is still high and the death rate is low, population grows very rapidly.
Stage Three is characterized by a falling birth rate as the society begins to find an
equilibrium between birth and deaths. The birth rates are still higher than death rates and

15
population continues to increase. This continuation of population increase is known as
population momentum. The end of Stage Three is characterized by the general balance
between births and deaths.
Stage Four shows a return to population stability, but at a much greater number of
people.

MEASURING THE IMPACT OF POPULATION

Remember the earlier comparison of Russia and Bangladesh? This is the section
where we discuss the different ways of calculating the pressure that populations put onto
the land that they inhabit. You’ll recall that we began by looking simply at people per
country. This is a good way to start, but the limitations are fairly obvious. Countries that are
physically larger can hold more people. We need to use a method that changes from a
measure of overall population to some kind of per capita measure. There are many of these
and each has its merits.
Arithmetic density is the simplest one. It is simply the number of people divided by
the area of the country. The area is usually measured in square kilometers, since most of
the world uses the metric system.
Physiological density has the same numerator (population), but the denominator is
different. Instead of using all the land in a country, it only accounts for arable (farmable)
land (Figure 2.18). Places that are not used for agriculturedeserts, lakes, mountaintops and
similar places - are subtracted from the land total. This is useful for demonstrating how
much pressure is being put on the farmland that is available. Be aware that food that is
gathered or hunted from nonagricultural land is not considered in this number.
Agricultural density has the same denominator as physiological density, but has a
different numerator. Instead of using the entire population, it only uses farmers. This
provides a number that is a good measure of development, or rather it’s a good measure of
underdevelopment. Developed countries have mechanized agriculture and few farmers per
capita. Each farm tends to be large in order to generate a sufficient income. Places with high
agricultural densities have more farmers per hectare, meaning that farms will likely produce
less revenue. Of course, an underlying assumption of this number is the idea that people are
growing food to earn a living. If they are eating the produce directly, outside the cash
economy, then the comparison is less valid.
Related to food production is the concept of carrying capacity. Carrying capacity is
simply how many people can live from a given piece of land. However, it’s not really that
simple. Carrying capacity is not static throughout time. Not only do environmental
characteristics change (due to desertification, for example) but technology changes as well.
The carrying capacity of land in wealthy developed countries has expanded tremendously
due to the application of technology. These technologies could be something as simple as
irrigation ditches to something as complex as genetic modification of the plants and animals
themselves. Carrying capacity is snapshot taken at a particular time.

FUTURE POPULATION
When we looked at the population pyramids we considered both the current
population conditions and the projected population pyramids. When we looked at the first
graph in the chapter, it didn’t stop at the current year. It provided three different estimates
of the near future. Estimating future populations is important, both at the global level and
the national level, but also at the local level as well. Societies large and small attempt to
plan their futures in terms of resource allocation and economic development. Population

16
projections are difficult. They attempt to take current circumstances and use them to plot
the likeliest future.
The problem is that the future may not be like the present. A disease that is
suppressing fertility may be cured. The climate may change more than expected. We could
experience another world war. Any number of unexpected large scale events could occur
that completely invalidate the reasoning behind a projection. Nicholas Talib calls these Black
Swan events. They are things that you don’t know about until you do know about them.
Irrespective projections will be made because they are necessary.

GEOGRAPHY OF HEALTH
Although the health of populations has been considered in most sections of this
chapter, there are some aspects that can be addressed most appropriately on their own. The
geography of health or medical geography is the study sickness or health across space. In
the same way that it is possible to compare places by their population characteristics, it is
possible to compare places by their health characteristics. Also in the same way that
societies tend to pass through the stages of demographic transition, they also tend to pass
through an epidemiological transition. The demographic transition and epidemiological
transition are somewhat related. The improvements in food supply and better sanitation that
lead to larger populations also lead to healthier populations. They are not exactly the same
thing however. Epidemiology is the study of diseases themselves and the way that they
function. The epidemiological transition is a way of representing the relationship between
development and disease. In less developed places, infant mortality is high and infectious
disease is the greatest threat. In more developed societies, the health threats tend to be
chronic afflictions- cancer, diabetes, or heart disease. One of the reasons for the difference
between the developed and less developed places is the fact that in developed countries
people tend to live longer. Countries in which people die in their forties will not have a
problem with Alzheimer’s disease.

Mortality refers to death and morbidity refers to sickness. We can look at different
rates of mortality and morbidity to gain some insight into the health of a population.
Diabetes was once related to development, but the relationship is weakening. As
obesity becomes a greater problem in developing countries, so does diabetes. On the other
hand, malaria is a disease of poor countries, or at least it is a disease of poor places. The
poorer parts of developing countries will likely have malaria problems, while the wealthier
parts may not. One of the changes that has occurred in medical geography is that the
differences between the developed and less developed countries have been narrowing.
Obesity was once considered fully within the sphere of developed world problems, but the
obesity crisis has diffused into many parts of the developing world now. In the same way,
infectious diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C have become problems in developed
countries.
Due to the work of numerous organizations, a number of diseases in many parts of
the world have been reduced and some have been eradicated. Smallpox no longer exists in
the wild and Dracunculiasis (Guinea worm) has gone from millions of cases thirty years ago
to single digits in recent years. Other diseases have been dramatically reduced. Polio once
infected millions of people per year across the world, but through vaccination programs, its
range has been reduced to just two countries.
There is now even a category of diseases known as re-emerging diseases. These are
diseases that were previously thought to be eradicable but are now returning to populations

17
that had previously been largely free of them. Re-emerging diseases are diseases like
tuberculosis and diphtheria that had been declining for decades that have begun to increase
in prevalence.

Chapter 3

Migration
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this section, the student will be able to:
1. Discuss definitions of migration and associated significant terms;
2. Explain the geographic patterns of migration within and between countries as
influenced by economic, socio-cultural, political, and environmental factors in
the contemporary historical period;
3. Describe the general relationship between demographic factors and migration
across time;
4. Connect factors of globalization to recent trends in migration

MIGRATION AND GEOGRAPHY: A (VERY) BRIEF HISTORY

For most of human history, people did not move very far away from where they were
born. Migration (a permanent move to a new location) over long distances was so
dangerous, unpredictable, and risky that humans remained in a relatively small area of
Eastern Africa until only about 65,000 years ago. At that time, some brave soul (or most
likely many) set off on an adventure that would take tens of thousands of years to complete
– the mass movement of humans to all corners of the ecumene (inhabited areas of earth).
Scientists continue to disagree about the specific time periods (some studies suggest that
the big move started 120,000 years ago!) and reasons that our ancestors finally decided to
take flight, but significant evidence suggests that periodic climate change may have played
a major role. The earliest evidence of human remains in the North America dates to
approximately 13,000 years ago, when humans are hypothesized to have crossed an ice
bridge from Eastern Russia into Alaska during the last Ice Age, before spending the next
several thousand years spreading throughout North and South America and The Caribbean.
Regardless of the time period, modern humans have been on the move for a very long time
—a trend that has accelerated in recent years owing to cheap transportation and easier
access to information by potential migrants.
Migration is also central to the formation of the world’s largest religions. The spread
of Christianity, for example, was facilitated by the massive movement of people within the
Roman Empire along well-traveled transportation routes connecting modern Israel and
Palestine with Turkey, Greece, Italy, and other parts of the empire where new ideas, cultures
and beliefs were shared. Many of the most significant stories from Christianity and Judaism
recount the experience of “foreigners” (sojourners) who are traveling to new lands.
Similarly, Islam’s prophet migrated from his city of birth, Mecca, to Medina in the seventh

18
century, and religious ideas were spread as soldiers, merchants, and traders moved across
North Africa and eventually into Europe and to Southeast Asia. Migration, in many ways, has
been the most impactful of all human activities on the planet. Had humans never taken the
journey, we all would still be in East Africa, just daydreaming about the rest of the earth! To
learn more about humans’ earliest journeys, you can click the link below:
https://psmag.com/why-and-when-didearly-humans-leave-africa-c1f09be7bb70#.p0wpltf4t

DEFINITIONS AND DATA

Migration can be interregional (between regions), intraregional (within a region), or
international (across national borders). Those moving in are immigrants, and those moving
out are emigrants. Net migration is the difference between the number of immigrants
and the number of emigrants in any given year. The United Nations provides data and
analysis on immigration and emigration annually, but such figures depend largely upon
government sources that are more reliable in some cases than in others. For example, the
United States (US) maintains databases on immigrants of all types including guest workers
(those given permission to enter the country legally for a specific job and for a specific
period of time), students, tourists, asylum seekers (those seeking sanctuary from political,
religious, gender, or ethnic persecution), and undocumented migrants (those inside of a
country without proof of residency). However, the US does not maintain or report data on
those that have emigrated, except in those notable cases where individuals have denounced
citizenship. Meanwhile, countries like Mexico and the Philippines track their overseas citizens
regularly, acknowledging the realities of dual citizenship or residency. Return migration (a
permanent return to the country of origin) also represents a significant flow of people, but is
often underreported. For example, up to one quarter of Europeans that migrated to the US in
the late nineteenth century eventually returned to Europe. In recent years, more people
have migrated back to Mexico from the US than from Mexico to the US. The process of
migration, then, is a complicated nexus of movement rather than a simple one-way,
permanent, single-directional move from place A to place B.
In spite of the complex patterns and processes of migration, some general
characteristics of migration and migrants were articulated by British demographer Ernst
Ravenstein (1885), characteristics known as the laws of migration. Many of them still hold
true 135 years later. Can you decide which are still true today?
1. Most move only a short distance.
2. Each migration flow produces a counter-flow of migrants.
3. Long-distance migrants tend to move to major cities.
4. Rural residents are more migratory than those in towns.
5. Females are more migratory than males.
6. Economic factors are the main reason for migration.

In short, each of the “laws” generally hold true in 2018 with the notable exception of
number five. Slightly more men moved internationally than women, but the truth is much
more complicated. In fact, Ravenstein’s estimates of female migration proved incorrect as
large-scale migration to North America increased in the early twentieth century, during
which time most immigrants were men seeking land, wealth, and opportunity in the “New
World.” A variety of non-government organizations, research groups, and humanitarian
entities also track the movement of people across borders and within countries in order to
provide a deeper understanding of the causes and effects of migration locally, regionally,
nationally, and globally. For example, the Migration Information Source

19
(https://www.migrationpolicy.org) offers a wealth of reports, analysis, and data visualization
that dramatically enhance our geographic understanding of migration. The Pew Research
Center (http://www.pewresearch.org/topics/migration) conducts regular polls often focused
on Latino populations in the US. Other non-profit organizations track the effects of
immigration in the US and publish regular reports, but often they lack objectivity or editorial
oversight, as the intent of such efforts is to achieve policy change to reduce immigration
levels. For example, the Federation for American Immigration-FAIR (https://fairus. org) is an
organization motivated by the explicit desire to reduce the number of immigrants and to
secure the traditional cultural heritage of European Americans. Likewise, the Center for
Immigration Studies (CIS) presents data to support its stated vision “of an America that
admits fewer immigrants” and to reduce immigration of all kinds in the twentieth century
(https://cis.org/About-CenterImmigration-Studies).
Geographers have identified general trends in global migration, also known as North-
South migration, in which most emigrants originate in poorer, developing countries and
most destinations have traditionally been wealthier, developed countries. For most
Americans and Canadians, this pattern is very familiar, as recent decades have seen
unprecedented numbers of Latinos immigrate to the US for the purpose of finding higher-
paying jobs and better opportunities and escaping structural poverty in the developing
world. Similarly, the recent patterns in Europe have seen record numbers of Eastern
Europeans move west and north to earn higher wages than those available in the home
country. However, such wage differentials do not tell the whole story. For example, wages in
Chicago tend to be much higher than those in other parts of Illinois, but not everybody
leaves rural Illinois just because they can earn a higher wage. Wages, though significant,
only tell part of the story. Unless you are reading this text in Manhattan or Paris or Hong
Kong, you could most likely move tomorrow and find a job elsewhere that pays more than
what you earn now (if you are working). Geographers recognize that attachment to place,
cultural factors, desire to stay close to family/friends, and other factors play a powerful role
in the decision to move or stay.
Another pattern that has remained consistent over time is that of highly skilled
migrants, who tend to enjoy a much greater freedom of movement than those with lower
levels of education and fewer skills. For example, computer software engineers, database
managers, and a host of other highly-demanded skills lead to efforts by countries and
corporations to attract the best and the brightest minds to immigrate in order to bring those
skillsets into a country where they are in short supply. Countries often offer travel visas
(temporary permission to enter a country) to those with highly demanded skillsets.
Countries like Australia, Canada, and New Zealand utilize a points system to determine
which of the highly-skilled applicants will be granted permission to enter. The brain drain
refers to the conceptual idea that when a wealthy country recruits the ‘best brains’ from a
poorer country, it can be damaging to the sending country, as many of the most qualified
and talented groups of people are poached away by higher-paying opportunities. As such,
the term brain gain refers to the benefits received by a country that receives all those
“brains” without having to produce them from scratch! Recently, countries have also
acknowledged the concept of brain waste, in which receiving countries fall short in utilizing
the full range of human capital inherent in many immigrant populations. For example, nearly
half of all immigrants into the US from 2011-2015 held at least a bachelor’s degree, but
more than 2 million immigrants with college degrees continue to work low-skilled jobs
because employers or governments do not recognize foreign-held degrees. Similarly, a
brain-drain/brain-gain phenomenon occurs within some countries, such as the US. California

20
and New York, for example, continue to draw the most highly-trained and qualified people
away from other states. Governments that wish to keep the highly skilled at home take such
transfers of educated and highly skilled people very seriously.
Framing migration as a loss or gain, however, also does not tell the whole story. Most
countries that send migrants also receive them. The US receives large numbers of
immigrants, but it also is a country of emigration, whereby retirees choose to live outside of
the US, or long-term migrants (who usually are US citizens) choose to return to their home
country in retirement. Migration is neither inherently good nor bad; rather, it is complicated.
This chapter seeks to tease out some (but not all) of the important characteristics of
migration in the twenty-first century to help you gain a better understanding of a topic that
too often is used by politicians to gain votes or credibility. Let us put those simplistic
debates aside for a few minutes to consider the basic elements of migration around the
world.

GLOBAL, NATIONAL, REGIONAL, AND Europe 76 million

LOCAL PATTERNS Asia 75 million
North America 54 million
Global Patterns
Africa 21 million
Though geopolitical and global
Latin America/Carribean 9 million
economic forces change over time, it is
Oceana 8 million
useful to understand contemporary global,
national, and regional patterns of migration as processes that vary by geography. The vast
majority of people do not migrate internationally, yet migration makes a powerful impact
globally. Just imagine what our world would look like if nobody ever moved! Latin America
would have no coconut trees, the American Midwest would still be dominated by buffalos,
and most humans would look very much alike—how boring! Instead, migrants across the
globe diffuse new ideas, new genetic footprints, new diseases, new cooking styles, and new
sports. While a small number of countries receive large numbers of newcomers each year,
only 3.4 percent of the world’s population live outside of their birth country, so most places
in the world are not significantly impacted directly by international migration. However, the
dynamics of migration are undergoing a significant transformation, and the future is very
difficult to predict. Humans have been on the move for over 60,000 years, so it is unlikely to
come to a halt anytime soon.
The number of international migrants worldwide reached 244 million in 2015,
representing a 44 percent increase since the year 2000. During the same period, global
population grew by just 20 percent, so cross-border migration seems to be accelerating in
many parts of the world as more people have access to information, infrastructure, and
communication—all elements that facilitate the large-scale movement of people. In 2015,
nearly 70 percent of all migrants originated in either Europe or Asia, with the largest
numbers coming from India, Mexico,
Russia, and China. Meanwhile, those countries hosting the most immigrants were the
US (47 million), followed by Germany (12 million), Russia (12 million), and Saudi Arabia (10
million) . Generally speaking, migrants tend to move awa y from low/middle income
countries into high income countries because the most common driving force is economic
opportunity. Most migrants move for better jobs, higher incomes, and better opportunities
overall. It is worth noting, however, that about one third of international migration takes
place between lower income countries (e.g. from Bangladesh to India or from Afghanistan to
Iran).

21
 It is also important to note that patterns can change very quickly, depending upon
economic or political conditions. Spain, for example, was a major recipient of immigrants
from 2000-2008, but when its economy dipped and job opportunities decreased, people
began to leave en masse. In every year since 2011, more people have left Spain than have
arrived. Ireland, on the other hand, experienced mostly net emigration from the mid 1800’s
until the late 1990’s, when large numbers of Irish and descendants returned “home” and
new immigrants began to choose Ireland as a popular destination due to its improved
economic opportunities under the European Union.

Regional Migration Flows: Asia

Migration within Asia is difficult to summarize given the massive size and scope of a
region with 4.4 billion people! However, if you revisit the world migration map
(https://www.iom.int/world-migration), you will notice that even the largest countries in the
world (China and India) contain relatively-few foreign born people compared to those in
Europe and North America. Can you think of reasons why this might be the case? The first
explanation is simple. Large-scale human settlement and political development occurred
much earlier than in Europe or in North America. Early Chinese civilizations had already
emerged more than 5,000 years ago, and many in Asia can trace ancestral lineages back
thousands of years as well. As such, Asia (for the most part) wasn’t “discovered,”
conquered, or colonized during the time of European imperialism. Apart from a small
number of missionaries, entrepreneurs, and adventurers, Asia did not become a major
destination for those from foreign lands (there are several notable exceptions, particularly in
the case of the British Empire). Second, most Asian countries simply do not allow for
permanent immigration, except in the case of marriage (which also can be a very slow and
tedious process). Nonetheless, in the age of globalization and migration, more people are on
the move in Asia in the twenty first century than ever before.
With a population of 1.3 billion and a fast-growing economy, China tends to dominate
the East Asia region. The Chinese Diaspora is a term that refers to the 46 million people
that identify themselves as Chinese but live outside of China, with the largest number
making their homes in Southeast Asia and others in Australia, North America, or Europe.
Many fled China during times of political instability before and after WWII and under early
communist rule, but today, many of those who leave China are wealthy and educated and
do so because their skills are in demand in other parts of the world. The most significant
movement of people anywhere in the history of the world has been taking place recently
inside both China and India as rural farmers have been leaving the countryside and moving
into cities. Nearly 200 million people have left the interior of China to re-settle and seek
work in China’s dynamic cities, mostly located along the eastern part of the country. While
they do not cross international borders, the distance and socioeconomic differences
between rural and urban areas in China are very similar to an international move for many.
The motivation is largely economic in that farmers can barely earn a few dollars a day in
rural areas; new manufacturing jobs in coastal cities pay several times that.

DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION, MIGRATION, AND POLITICAL POLICY

What is the relationship between population structure and migration?

Even though people generally migrate to find/make a better life for themselves and
for their families, the benefits and pitfalls of migration affect different countries and regions

22
in very different ways. Demography (age structure) has a lot to do with understanding how
such a differentiation occurs. (Hint: You may need to go back to Chapter 2 to review your
understanding of the demographic transition model or click here):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/population/
population_change_structure_rev4.shtml.
The demographic transition model explains how countries experience different stages
of population growth and family sizes, but the model also works well to understand sources
and destinations for migrants. Before the explanation continues, take a look at the model to
see if you can predict the stages during which you would expect large-scale emigration
versus immigration. Do you feel confident in your guesses? Why or why not?
Geographers note that countries of emigration tend to be late in stage 2 or early
stage 3, while countries of immigration tend to be late stage 4 or stage 5 countries. Let’s
think about this for just a moment. At what age are people most likely to take the risk to
move to a completely different country to seek their fortune? Would you move to Slovenia
next year, if you could earn triple your current salary? Most international migrants tend to
be relatively young (18-35) during the prime of their working years. Countries that tend to
have an abundance of working-age people also tend to be early in stage 3 of the model.
Countries like Mexico, Guatemala, the Philippines, and India had large families a generation
ago. As those children enter their working years, there are not enough jobs created due to
an “oversupply” of laborers. Meanwhile, countries in late stage 4 find that because of low
fertility rates a generation earlier, the economy now faces a shortage of working-age
residents to do all kinds of jobs. Birth rates were high during the 1950’s in the US, but as
women had fewer children in subsequent generations, fewer workers were entering the
workforce every year. Unsurprisingly, young workers from Mexico, El Salvador, Jamaica, etc.,
began to immigrate as the demand for their labor increased. In Europe, the same pattern
occurred as those from higher fertility countries like Turkey migrated to lower fertility
countries like Germany.

Why do some countries benefit from migration while others do not?

Demographic realities can be push factors or pull factors that serve to push people
away from a place or pull them towards a place as explained in the previous paragraph.
Push and pull factors can be cultural, economic, or ecological. Baptists might be “pulled”
towards the American South, and Mormons might be “pulled” to Utah for cultural reasons.
Meanwhile, the devastation of Hurricane Maria (2017) “pushed” hundreds of thousands of
Puerto Ricans off the island. The most common destination for Puerto Ricans was Florida for
economic (jobs), ecological (warm weather), and cultural (existing Spanish speakers)
reasons. When the push factors and pull factors fit together nicely, migration can benefit
both the sending and receiving regions.
Very often in the case of forced migration, however, migration does not benefit both
parties. Those migrants who flee their country based upon claims of danger based upon
race, religion, nationality, or other pertinent identifiers are known as asylum seekers. They
seek a country willing to take them in permanently for fear of imprisonment, retribution, or
death in their country of origin. When asylum seekers have satisfactorily demonstrated a
claim in court, their status changes to refugee. Under international agreement, refugees
cannot be forced to return to any country where they are deemed to be in danger, so
refugee status provides displaced people with a legal protection against deportation. The
number of refugees worldwide at the end of 2016 was 22.5 million, the highest total of

23
refugees since the end of WWII. There were also 40.3 million people uprooted within their
own country, known as internally displaced people (IDP), bringing the total number of
displaced people to an all-time high of nearly 63 million. In recent years, large numbers of
asylum seekers have left Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan, Cuba,
Venezuela, and Myanmar (formerly Burma) as wars and political conflict have endangered
millions. During previous wars, wealthier countries in Europe, North America, and Australia
accepted large numbers of asylum seekers, but anti-immigrant sentiments have risen in
many parts of the world, leaving the majority of would-be refugees without refuge.
Opponents of resettlement argue that the cost is just too great, and they fear that accepting
refugees would encourage more unwelcome immigration in the future, so this has
significantly reduced the number of migrants that countries are willing to accept.
Though twenty-first century anti-immigrant sentiment remains high in countries like
the US, Australia, and the U.K., the benefits for receiving countries are well documented.
Apart from the demographic advantages already described, employers and consumers tend
to benefit markedly from the low-cost, readily available supply of labor provided by
immigrants. Everything from the cost of fruit, construction, fast food, and lawn care tends to
be cheaper owing to an immigrant labor force. Evidence also indicates that wages in low-
skilled jobs may be suppressed by immigrants, but the overall economic benefit is widely
reported by economists to be favorable when unemployment rates are low. Immigrants have
higher rates of employment, are more likely to start businesses and are less likely to commit
crimes than the native-born population in the US Sending countries also tend to benefit from
emigration in two ways. First, emigration provides an opportunity for young workers who
cannot find employment at home. Second, emigrants tend to send home the majority of
their overseas earnings. Money sent home by overseas workers is called remittances.
Countries that send large numbers of workers overseas benefit from the large infusion of
foreign capital into the local economy, which tends to spur new investment opportunities.
When migration is working smoothly, both sending and receiving countries can benefit.
Besides low-skilled workers and refugees, a third category of immigrant has
increased dramatically under globalization. Highly-skilled immigrants represent a unique
contradiction. On the one hand, countries seek to increase border security, limit asylum
seekers, and build walls. On the other, those same countries actively recruit and seek to
attract immigrants with specific skills, training, and educational levels. Most commonly,
wealthy countries like the U.K. regularly recruit nurses, scientists, and engineers from poorer
countries to meet the needs of an aging population. As British residents have fewer children
and society gets older, there is more demand specifically for healthcare workers of all kinds.
As such, the best and brightest minds from poorer countries become attracted to the much
higher wages outside of their countries and they leave—resulting in a brain drain. Nearly
sixty percent of all doctors born in Ghana and eighty-five percent of nurses born in the
Philippines have left the country to work elsewhere! Wealthy countries reap the benefits of
this brain gain. Although highly-skilled and educated individuals and families that emigrate
for higher pay undoubtedly benefit from emigration, the countries that experience brain
drain persistently lose a very valuable resource. Besides losing most of its doctors, Ghana
also now faces a major shortage of those qualified to teach the next generation of medical
professionals, so the negative effect crosses multiple generations.

24
 CULTURE, GLOBALIZATION, AND ECONOMICS OF MIGRATION IN THE
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

What is the connection between globalization and increased international

migration?

Globalization is defined as the set of forces and processes that involve the entire
planet, making something worldwide in scope. Although 246 million people live outside of
their birth country, more than 96 percent of the world’s people do not ever move outside of
their birth country, so in the case of migration, globalization might not be as powerful as
once believed. While geographers try to understand where people move and why, a more
significant question might be why so many people do not move. If you live in one of the
places on Earth where you interact with people from all over the globe on a regular basis,
then it might seem to you that globalization is operating at full speed. Yet, the vast majority
of humans don’t leave their home country and have limited interactions with people from
other places, even if the products they consume and produce might be worldwide in scope.
As we entered the new millennium in 2000, scholars were convinced that a new age
was upon us. Some went so far as to say that geography was “dead” and hat place didn’t
matter. A best-selling book written by Thomas Friedman, The World Is Flat (2005), decreed
that humanity was becoming more connected all the time to the point that it didn’t matter if
you were in the streets of Bombay or in a classroom at Harvard. The best minds and the
best ideas would always rise to the top, regardless of their origin. Inherent in this argument
was the assumption that more people would be on the move, and international migration
would accelerate as people and products would just zoom across the “flat earth” at lightning
speed.
In 2017, however, geography has re-emerged to re-stake its claim. While more
people than ever are, in fact, living outside of their birth countries, there is a growing
resistance across the planet to “outsiders.” In response to the attacks of September 11,
2001, President George W. Bush firmly asserted that “every nation in every region now has
a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” Perhaps that is the
moment in which the earlier hope of a fullyintegrated world with open borders and full
mobility was deemed too optimistic. In the years since that speech, western nations have
taken a collective stance against immigration often based upon religious or ideological
grounds. In 2017, for example, Donald Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of
Muslims entering the United States” in response to a shooting in San Bernadino, California.
Meanwhile, Britain moved to cut immigration levels dramatically as it exited the European
Union and took a more isolationist position, and Australia moved to prevent refugees from
arriving on its shores.

How is migration in the twenty-first century different from that of the twentieth
century?
While the percent of those who migrate has not increased significantly in the twenty-
first century, the destinations and origins of immigrants have shifted dramatically, so that
more people are migrating to and from more places than ever before. Such a statement may
sound confusing at first, but one need look no further than college campuses throughout the
world to understand this dynamic. Georgia Gwinnett College in suburban Atlanta, for
example, is the most ethnically-diverse college in the American South. In a typical

25
geography class at that school, thirty-three percent speak a language other than English at
home. A recent survey of the author’s students (n=115) from just one semester found that
students (or their families) came from Mexico, El Salvador, Peru, the Philippines, Laos, China,
Colombia, Korea, Haiti, Jamaica, Vietnam, Ukraine, Dominican Republic, Liberia, Latvia,
Romania, India, Pakistan, Scotland, and Paraguay. While past waves of migration were
dominated by a small number of sending countries and a small number of receiving
countries, migration in the twenty-first century is much less predictable.
Australia offers another example, as thousands of prospective immigrants have been
traveling thousands of miles by land and sea to seek refuge in the small continent. The
government eventually made the difficult decision to intercept would-be immigrants at sea,
but it still faces a complex dilemma of where to redirect those who have risked their lives to
make the perilous journey. For now, they are being taken to remote islands of Papua New
Guinea, Christmas Island, and Nauru for resettlement, resulting in an odd mix of refugees
and South Pacific Islanders living side by side. Unpredictability is now the rule rather than
the exception as twenty-first century technology allows for a rapid flow of information. Those
wishing to move can now find out much more quickly about opportunities, transportation
options, and routes to take than has ever been the case before. Geography does not
represent nearly as formidable of a barrier to travel than it did in the twentieth century.
Other than asylum seekers, most immigrants are far more likely to travel by plane than by
boat in the twenty-firs century, and they may or may not seek permanent residence.
The final way in which migration is different today relates to the concept of
transnationalism (exchanges and interactions across borders that are a regular and
sustained part of migrants’ realities and activities that transcend a purely “national” space).
Those traveling to the US in 1900 were leaving everything behind to seek a new homeland,
learn a new culture, and often to speak a new language. Migrants of today, however, are not
forced to fully disconnect from “home.” Even after a long-distance migration, people can
stay connected to friends, family, news stories, and relationships across the world. A journey
that took several months in 1900 today takes less than half a day. Meanwhile, apps like
Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Skype allow newcomers to stay intimately involved in
the lives of those left behind—for free! Transnational families contain members that are
living in multiple countries simultaneously, speak multiple languages, and are ready to move
in a moment’s notice, based upon market conditions in any given place at a particular time.
Critics argue that immigrants of today do not assimilate as readily as those from the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but in that era, people simply had no other choice.
Transnationalism is a feature of twenty-first century immigrants that is here to stay as
immigrants to new places have the option to live their lives in more than one world, carry
more than one passport, and move more seamlessly from place to place than at any time in
human history. Take note that the term appears again in this textbook (section 11.4,
Political Geography) in that corporations also operate within and between multiple countries,
depending upon various factors. An important distinction exists, however, from the concept
of supranationalism (Section 8.3, Political Geography) in that supranationalist organizations
do not officially reside under the direction of any single state (country), while
transnationalism involves moving between countries – not operating outside of them.

THE FUTURE OF HUMAN MOVEMENT AND CONCLUSION

The future dynamics of migration are very difficult to predict, but certain geographic
realities provide clues for where patterns are likely to change. In those parts of the world
where societies are quickly aging and fertility rates continue to decline, we can expect rates

26
of immigration to increase. Certain countries have experienced and will continue to
experience dramatic population decline (most notably Germany, Italy, Russia, and Japan),
and the demand for young, working aged immigrants will certainly continue to draw more
people to those places. Japan and China represent unique cases because both are aging and
yet have been resistant to allowing outsiders to become citizens or permanent residents. In
spite of cultural preferences for ethnic homogeneity, it would seem likely that the culture
will shift and become more accepting of outsiders, as the country needs them to take care of
the elderly, pay taxes, and provide an infusion of energy into the respective countries.
Meanwhile, people living in places without sufficient opportunities will continue to
move away in search of jobs and better circumstances, regardless of the attempts made by
wealthy nations to keep them out. Source countries and destinations will continue to shift,
as they always have. More Mexicans have returned than have left the US in recent years,
and it is no longer the leading sending source country of migration to the US. Rather, more
people are now coming from Central America. The demographic pressures in many African
countries will absolutely drive more working-aged people out of the continent in search of
better opportunities even as the journey becomes increasingly dangerous. As the Internet
becomes more pervasive on that continent, more people will find the information that they
need in order to plan their emigration. Finally, the highly-skilled people of the world will
continue to be increasingly mobile and largely unaffected by borders or increased security.
Computer programmers, nurses, doctors, engineers, and high-tech workers of all sorts will
use the globe to their advantage and seek out places that best fit their desires. Television
shows like “House Hunters International” demonstrate how the vast numbers of people who
work online or in highly-skilled careers can virtually live anywhere. Wealthy people from
across the globe are leaving their passport countries by the millions, as Wi-Fi networks are
now available across the world. The poor and wealthy alike will continue to move about the
planet, reconstituting the human geography of our world well into the twenty-first century
but for very different reasons and with very different experiences.

Chapter 4
Folk Culture and Popular
Culture
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Understand: the origins and diffusion of culture and globalization;
2. Explain: how culture changes across space and time;
3. Describe: popular and folk culture, diffusion and the changing pace of
globalization;
4. Connect: globalization and cultural conflict.

27
INTRODUCTION
What is culture? When some people speak of culture, they are thinking of
high culture (e.g. ballet or opera). Others may think of current, prominent topics
(i.e. pop culture). Academic settings, though, are referring to something else.
Culture is a learned behavior and a human construct. Culture exists to answer
questions. Some of the questions that are answered are philosophical or ideological,
for example, “Where did we come from?” or “What is acceptable behavior?” Other
questions revolve around daily life. “How do we secure shelter, clothe ourselves,
produce food, and transmit information?” Culture provides us with guidance for our
lives. It both asks and answers questions. Children, from an early age, start asking
“What is my place in the world?” Culture helps to answer that.
The word culture itself comes the Latin word cultura, meaning cultivation or
growing. This is precisely what humans do with both their material and abstract
cultural components. Humans, since early childhood, learn to shape, create, share,
and change their culture. Culture is the very vehicle we use to navigate through our
environments. Culture is a form of communication and it evolves. And as a type of
compass, it leads.

Components of Culture
At the most simplistic levels, culture can be either concrete and tangible, or
abstract. Either way, culture is used to express identity for both individuals and
groups. And whether it is concrete or abstract, again it is a human construct used as
a way to create a sense of belonging. People convey culture through various outlets
such as festivals, food, and architecture. They are able to meet their worldwide
fundamental needs while maintaining individual group qualities. Culture can be
classified into three different categories: mentifacts (ideas or beliefs), artifacts
(goods or technology), and sociofacts (forms of social organization).
All cultures have underlying beliefs and thought processes. but go far
beyond that. These beliefs can be expressed through various avenues, using a
variety of auditory, visual, and tactile means. For example, nationalism can be
expressed through song, cuisine, dress, and public events. You can hear nationalism
in the form of an anthem, see it in the form of a flag, taste it when you eat a dish
that represents a group of people, and feel it in the form of a piece of jewelry.
Technology is a human construct. From our earliest inventions (fire,
weapons) to a supercomputer, the things that people build are products of their
perceived needs, their technical abilities and their available resources. Technology
includes clothing, foods and housing. Another name for technology is material
culture. Think of material culture as the material that archaeologists study. The
materials that we use are often left behind for later people to study, like the clay
tablets the Sumerians used to record their writing or the remnants of an Iroquois
longhouse used for shared living. Other components of culture (like ideas) leave
fewer traces. We can find material culture related to burial practices that date back
millennia but may not always have the material evidence to show how people
grieve.

28
 Lifestyle is a component of culture that can be overlooked, but it is vitally
important. In many cultures, a family is a very large unit and people can tell in great
detail their exact relationship to everyone else in a place. In the modern context, a
family could consist of a single parent and a child and it is possible to live in a
neighborhood filled with unrelated people and not know the name of a single
neighbor.
Culture can be seen either through the lens of a microscope or through that
of a telescope. Folk culture is local, small and tightly bound to the immediate
landscape. Popular culture is large, dispersed, and globalizing. These two forms of
culture are not totally separated. They are related and both currently exist in the
world. Prior to about 2008, most people on Earth lived in rural communities, often
practicing a folk culture. The world as a whole is moving toward popular culture.

Cultural Reproduction
As human beings, we reproduce in two ways: biologically and socially.
Physically we reproduce ourselves through having children. However, culture
consists solely of learned behavior. In order for culture to reproduce itself, it has to
be taught. This is what makes culture a human creation. How is culture transmitted?
Human beings are natural mimics. This is the way we learn to speak, and it is the
way we learn the rest of our culture as well. We learn through observation and,
subsequently, through practice. At another scale, mimicry is the mechanism that
drives cultural diffusion. Human beings copy the things we like. The old line
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” perfectly describes the human desire to
incorporate successful adaptations.
How people have shared culture has changed drastically over time. This can
partly be attributed to the channels in which we share culture. In the past, culture
was shared orally and in person. Words eventually became written, the written
became electronic, and we now have access to things from anywhere at any time.
The debate over authenticity has also become a topic of debate. If culture is
created, recreated, and is fluid, how can we define authenticity? Has culture
become placeless? Placelessness or the irrelevance of place has become a central
topic in the contemporary philosophy of geography. Can people have an All-
American dining experience in the heart of Madrid, Spain? Can they experience
Spanish street-food at a historic theme park in Copenhagen, Denmark? As the
following pictures show, icons representing other places are now common in the
landscape.

Culture Hearths
Human beings have always had learned behaviors, it’s one of the defining
characteristics of human beings. Cultural evolution describes the increasing
complexity of human societies over time. Our earliest cultures were simple. We
lived in small groups, ranged across fairly large areas, and lived off the natural
landscape. Human impact on the environment is less than it is now, but there was
an impact. Earlier peoples burned forests to clear land and flush game, and in some

29
places hunted the megafauna to extinction. Recognizable cultures have places of
origin. The word culture refers to cultivation or growing. We care for something, we
nurture an idea as it grows. All cultural elements have a place of origin. Some
places have been responsible for a great deal of cultural development. We call
these places culture hearths. Culture hearths provided many of the cultural
elements (technologies, organizational structures, and ideologies) that would diffuse
to other places and later times. Cultural hearths provide operational scripts for
societies.
Culture hearths are closely associated with the foods that they
domesticated. food is an important cultural element due to the fact that it is both a
technology as well as form of expression. Although the preceding map shows areas
of ancient civilization, these are not the only places that have contributed to
contemporary cultures. Ideas can arise anywhere, but ancient ideas collected in
these places.
Cultures incorporate pieces of other cultures. Some recognizable themes in
creation myths are stories of great floods or other cataclysmic events, and these
types of stories recycled through history. Languages without writing will often reuse
another language’s writing system. Once again, desirable characteristics get
copied.

THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

Cultures’ beings rely on natural
resources to survive. In the case of
rural cultures, those resources tend to
be local. For urban cultures, those
resources can either be local, or they
can be products brought from great
distances. Either way, cultures
influence landscapes and in turn
landscapes influence cultures.

The physical landscape consists of places like the Appalachian Mountains that
stretch across a large portion of North America, the Mongolian-Manchurian
grasslands, the Amazon river basin, or any other environment. These are
landscapes that have been formed over thousands, if not millions of years by forces
of nature. In order to live in places a different as these, humans have needed to
adapt their lifestyles. The relationship between people, their culture, and the
physical landscape is known as human-environment interaction. This relationship is
reciprocal; culture adapts to a particular place, and that place is changed by people.

30
Cultural ecology refers to the types of landscapes created by the interaction of
people and their physical environment.
Humans have been thinking about the relationship between people and their
environments for a considerable amount of recorded history. In the book On Airs,
Waters, and Places, the Greek philosopher Hippocrates wrote that different climates
produced different kinds of people. He believed that cold places produced
emotionally distant people, and hot climates produced lazy, lethargic people. The
ideal place (which coincidentally was his own place) was in the middle of the known
world and produced the best kind of people. These ideas would now be considered
environmentally deterministic. Remember that Environmental determinism is the
idea that a particular landscape necessarily produces a certain kind of people. Ideas
like this were still fashionable into the twentieth century. The problem with the idea
is that it’s simplistic and reductionist. A cold environment doesn’t force people to be
aloof. It forces them to invent warmer clothes. Technology is the difference, not
behavior. Instead of determinism, the more common term to use is now possibilism.
Physical landscapes set limits on a group of people that may or may not require a
large adaptation, or a large modification of the environment itself. Humans can now
survive in very inhospitable environments, most notably, the International Space
Station.
Landscapes are cultural byproducts. The way that we use the local resources
generates the visible landscape. Architecture, economic activities, clothing and
entertainment are all visible to anyone interested in looking at a place. Because the
physical landscape varies across space, and because culture varies across space,
then the cultural landscape is variable as well. Different people can have different
adaptations to similar places. Conversely, places far from one another may have
similar adaptations to climate or other factors.
Cultural landscapes can be considered as both history and narrative. Power is
written into the landscape. We make statues to commemorate the wealthy and the
politically connected in rich places. We place garbage dumps and airports in poor
places. Looking at the landscape as a record of history, power, and representation is
known as landscape-as-text. The landscape can be read in the same that a book
can be read.
The largest differences between landscapes that we see now are the
differences between the rural and the industrial and between places that are less
integrated with the rest of the world and those that are heavily integrated
(globalized). Global places are becoming homogenized.

Cultural Change
A sensible question to ask might be “Where did all the
cultures come from?” As people moved into new places,
they adapted and changed, and the new places were
changed in turn. People change over time as well.
Circumstances change in a place. Groups who move into a

31
forest will need a to adapt if they cut down all the trees.
Groups that adopt a new crop will see their lives change.
Divergence could be as simple as borrowing a word to
describe an invention. All cultures change.

Culture Regions

We can sort the world into regions based on

cultural characteristics. A region is an area
characterized by similarity or a cohesiveness that
sets it apart from other regions. Regions are
mental constructs, the lines between places are
imaginary. When someone talks about the FOLK
CULTURE
The term folk tends to evoke images of what we
perceive to me traditional costumes, dances, and music. It
seems that anything with the prefix folk refers to
something that somehow belongs in the past and that is
relegated to festivals and museums. The word folk can be
traced back to Old Norse/English/Germanic and was used
to refer to an army, a clan, or a group of people. Using
this historic information, folk culture (folktales, folklore,
etc.) can be understood as something that is shared first
among a group of people and then with the more general
population. It is a form of identification. Folk is ultimately
tied to an original landscape/geographic location as well.
Folk cultures are found in small, homogeneous groups.
Because of this, folk culture is stable through time, but
highly variable across space.
Folk customs originate in the distant past and change
slowly over time. Folk cultures move across space by
relocation diffusion, as groups move they bring their
cultural items, as well as their ideas with them.
Folk culture is transmitted or diffused in person.
Knowledge is transmitted either by speaking to others, or
through participating in an activity until it has been
mastered. Cooking food is taught by helping others until
an individual is ready to start cooking. Building a house is
learned through participating in the construction of
houses. In all cases, folk cultures must learn to use the
resources that are locally available. Over time folk
cultures learn functional ways to meet daily needs as well

32
as satisfy desires for meaning and entertainment. Folk
cultures produce distinctive ways to address problems.
Houses tend to be similar within a culture area,
since once a functional house type is developed,
there is little incentive to experiment with something
that may not work. Food must be grown or gathered
locally. People prefer variety, so they produce many
crops, plus relying on only a few foods is dangerous.
Clothing is made from local wool, flax, hides, or other
materials immediately available. Local plants serve as the
basis of folk medicinal systems. People are entertained by
music that reinforces folk beliefs and mythologies, as well
as reflects daily life. Folktales or folklore exists as
foundational myths, origin stories or cautionary tales.
Holidays provide another form of entertainment.
Special days break the monotony of daily life. A holiday
such as Mardi Gras, which has its roots in the Catholic
calendar provides an occasion to flout cultural norms and
relieve tension. Another way of providing escape from
monotony is provided by intoxicants. Although often not
considered when discussing culture, human beings have
been altering their own mental states for millennia. The
production of alcohol, cannabis, tobacco or coca
demonstrates that folk cultures understood the properties
of psychoactive substances. Later these substances would
be commercialized into modern products.
As folk cultures have receded there has been a return
to valuing the folk. The Slow-food movement and the
growth of cultural tourism has largely been driven for
the desire experience elements of folk culture. As early as
the German Grimm Brothers (19th Century Germany)
people have wanted to preserve and promote folk culture.
John Lomax (1867-1948) traveled the United States trying
to record as many folk songs and folk tales (including
slave narratives) as they faded from human memory.
Folk culture can also be expressed as craftsmanship
versus factory work. Hand production of goods requires a
great amount of knowledge to select materials, fabricate
components, assemble and finish a product. Contrast this
with industrial production in workers need to know very
little about the final product, and have little relationship
with it. This difference in modes of production was first
discussed by Ferdinand Tönnies and Gemeinschaft and
Gesellschaft. These two words denote the relationship

33
 between people and their communities, and by extension,
their landscapes. Gesellschaft is the way life is lived in a
small community. Gemeinschaft is the way that life is
lived in a larger society.

English-speaking world or Latin America, they are

referring to culture regions.

FOLK CULTURE

The term folk tends to evoke images of what we perceive to me traditional

costumes, dances, and music. It seems that anything with the prefix folk refers to
something that somehow belongs in the past and that is relegated to festivals and
museums. The word folk can be traced back to Old Norse/English/Germanic and was
used to refer to an army, a clan, or a group of people. Using this historic
information, folk culture (folktales, folklore, etc.) can be understood as something
that is shared first among a group of people and then with the more general
population. It is a form of identification. Folk is ultimately tied to an original
landscape/geographic location as well. Folk cultures are found in small,
homogeneous groups. Because of this, folk culture is stable through time, but highly
variable across space.

Folk customs originate in the distant past and change slowly over time. Folk
cultures move across space by relocation diffusion, as groups move they bring their
cultural items, as well as their ideas with them.
Folk culture is transmitted or diffused in person. Knowledge is transmitted
either by speaking to others, or through participating in an activity until it has been
mastered. Cooking food is taught by helping others until an individual is ready to
start cooking. Building a house is learned through participating in the construction
of houses. In all cases, folk cultures must learn to use the resources that are locally
available. Over time folk cultures learn functional ways to meet daily needs as well
as satisfy desires for meaning and entertainment. Folk cultures produce distinctive
ways to address problems.
Houses tend to be similar within a culture area, since once a functional house
type is developed, there is little incentive to experiment with something that may
not work. Food must be grown or gathered locally. People prefer variety, so they
produce many crops, plus relying on only a few foods is dangerous. Clothing is
made from local wool, flax, hides, or other materials immediately available. Local
plants serve as the basis of folk medicinal systems. People are entertained by music
that reinforces folk beliefs and mythologies, as well as reflects daily life. Folktales or
folklore exists as foundational myths, origin stories or cautionary tales.
Holidays provide another form of entertainment. Special days break the
monotony of daily life. A holiday such as Mardi Gras, which has its roots in the

34
Catholic calendar provides an occasion to flout cultural norms and relieve tension.
Another way of providing escape from monotony is provided by intoxicants.
Although often not considered when discussing culture, human beings have been
altering their own mental states for millennia. The production of alcohol, cannabis,
tobacco or coca demonstrates that folk cultures understood the properties of
psychoactive substances. Later these substances would be commercialized into
modern products.
As folk cultures have receded there has been a return to valuing the folk. The
Slow-food movement and the growth of cultural tourism has largely been driven
for the desire experience elements of folk culture. As early as the German Grimm
Brothers (19th Century Germany) people have wanted to preserve and promote folk
culture. John Lomax (1867-1948) traveled the United States trying to record as
many folk songs and folk tales (including slave narratives) as they faded from
human memory.
Folk culture can also be expressed as craftsmanship versus factory work.
Hand production of goods requires a great amount of knowledge to select materials,
fabricate components, assemble and finish a product. Contrast this with industrial
production in workers need to know very little about the final product, and have
little relationship with it. This difference in modes of production was first discussed
by Ferdinand Tönnies and Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. These two words denote
the relationship between people and their communities, and by extension, their
landscapes. Gesellschaft is the way life is lived in a small community. Gemeinschaft
is the way that life is lived in a larger society.

POPULAR CULTURE

Popular culture is culture that is bought. Think about your daily life. You work
to buy food and clothing, pay your rent, and entertain yourself. The origin of each
ingredient in your food could be hundreds or even thousands of miles in either
direction. Your clothing almost certainly wasn’t made locally, or even in this
country. Your house might look just like any house in any subdivision in North
America, placeless and with little connection to local resources.
Popular culture is driven by marketing. Entire industries exist to convince us
that our desires and needs will be best met through shopping. Why is this? Because
without sales, the companies that produce pop culture will go bankrupt.
Popular culture industries must continuously reinvent themselves. Being
popular today is not a guarantee of longevity. In order to convince consumers that
last year’s t-shirt is now unacceptable, it is necessary to promote fashion. Fashion
is not just a concept related to clothing. It is the reason that automobile companies
make cosmetic changes to their products every year. It is why fast food restaurants
continually change some parts of their menus. Without the cachet of fashion,
consumers may feel socially disadvantaged. This explains why some people with
very limited incomes will spend money on expensive luxuries.

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 In terms of popular culture holidays are simply reasons to sell merchandise.
The commercialization of Christmas has been increasing for over a century in
western countries. Now it is possible to see Christmas displays in Japan or China,
places with few Christians, but many available consumers. The same sort of
marketing can be seen in the expansion of Halloween globally, and in the growth of
Cinco de Mayo in the United States.
Hierarchical diffusion plays prominently in popular culture diffusion. Larger
places tend to generate many of pop culture’s hit songs, clothing styles, and food
trends. Diffusion in popular culture is highly related to technology. Although it
wasn’t invented as such, the internet has become a venue for advertisement.
Clickbait headlines and ad revenue have created an atmosphere where every
conversation is a sales pitch.
This hierarchical diffusion means that innovations tend to diffuse from large,
well-connected places to other large-well-connected places first, then trickle-down
to smaller and smaller places. The gap in time that it takes for a new idea or
product is known as cultural lag. In some places, there is almost no cultural lag. To
very remote places, some innovations take a very long time to arrive. Bear in mind
that there are places in the United states that still have no internet service.
Popular culture covers large populations with access to similar goods and
services, but the pressing need to sell drives almost incessant modification,
generally at a superficial level. Because of this we usually describe pop culture as
stable across space, but highly variable across time.
The commodification of folk intoxicants mentioned earlier has had a decided
effect on the modern world. Low alcohol beers have a minimal effect on the human
body compared to commercial distilled spirits. The opium poppy, dangerous enough
in its raw form, can be processed into heroin. The same can be said of coca (now
used to produce cocaine) or tobacco. In folk form, these substances tended to be
used for ritual purposes. In the context of popular culture, they are used in great
quantity. Nevertheless, old folk patterns are still visible in the pop culture
landscape. Italians still drink wine, a product they have produced for centuries, only
now it might be bought from somewhere else. The Russian climate was good for
producing grain and potatoes, which eventually was distilled into vodka.
Selling culture goes well beyond just food and clothing. Popular music and
other forms of entertainment (video games, movies, etc.) are huge commercial
entities marketing products well outside their places of origin. Movies made in the
United States are often being made with the understanding that their international
box office sales will be larger than their domestic sales. This is also true of other
mass media products. These products are often related to other pop culture
products. Companies rely on the familiarity consumers will have with a movie
character in order to sell clothing, toys, video games, conventions and more movies
in that series. When Marshall McLuhan wrote that “The medium is the message” he
meant that television would be able to sell itself. The same expression could be
expanded to pop culture in general.

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GLOBAL CULTURE
Globalization is the integration of the entire world into a single economic unit.
This is associated with frictionless movement of money, ideas, and (to a lesser
extent) people. This growing reality has created a newer type of popular culture,
global culture.
Historically, popular culture was restricted to areas the size of States, or at the
very most areas within culturally related spheres (e.g. the English-speaking world).
United States culture was defined by a set of characteristics (language, law, settler
colonial history, etc.) that translated to a few other places, such as Canada or
Australia, but mostly remained place bound. This is no longer the case. As was
mentioned previously, video games are designed in one country to appeal to a
global market. The same is true of music, movies, clothes, smartphones and office
productivity software.
At a superficial level at least, the components of life are becoming more
homogeneous across large parts of the world. National popular culture producers
are merging into international producers, and these international producers have
global ambitions. Any sizable popular culture content distributor (EMI Records,
Sony, Vivendi Universal, AOL Time Warner and BMG) is a transnational corporation.
In fact, the five listed global record labels account for 90% of global music sales.
Starbucks, Toyota, Wyndham and others have helped reduce the friction of
distance by reducing spatial variation. They aren’t doing this to help people, or to
hurt them. Although they will cater to local needs to some degree, they are not in
the business of promoting local flavors.
William Gibson wrote “The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.”
In terms of globalization, he was correct. There are still people living in remote
areas practicing something similar to a paleolithic lifestyle. On the other end of the
scale there are people with great wealth who have access to powerful technologies
and are able to live anywhere they desire.
Sometimes globalization even has an effect on folk culture. In many places,
economic realities have forced people to perform religious activities of relive special
events for tourist dollars. Attending luaus in Hawaii or watching voladores in
Veracruz in a quest for authenticity is in itself changing the folk culture that is the
center of attention.
This assessment may seem particularly bleak for folk culture, but it isn’t
necessarily completely bad. People survive, and they try to keep the practices that
are most valuable to their lives. Folk cultures have a much longer timeline than pop
cultures, and have proven to be resilient.

RESISTANCE TO POPULAR CULTURE

Although popular culture has been expanding rapidly at the expense of folk
culture, it is not without resistance. Although it is not strictly-speaking true, global
culture is perceived as largely corporate, secular, and western. Each of these
aspects have their own critics.

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 Anti-globalists fall into two main groups. The first are leftists who oppose the
power that has accumulated to corporations and the authoritarian state. The other
group are rightists who prefer that power be centered at the state level, and who
fear that globalization naturally undermines state sovereignty.
In some places, globalization is the same thing as modernization is the same
thing as westernization which is perceived as secular (or even atheistic),
materialistic and corrupt. Movements such as Al-Qaeda or Islamic State are violently
opposed to popular culture, although they would not have a problem if their idea of
the ideal culture were to become fully global. Rejecting modern popular culture
often also involves elevating a nostalgic, often imaginary golden age as the only
acceptable model of society.
Many people feel that symbols and representations of popular culture are
erasing the very personality of regional cultures. Resistance to popular culture can
come in many forms. Let us revisit the concept of fundamental needs, which are
universal, and how they vary geographically. Locally sourced food products,
customs, and recipes are pitted against global fast-food giants that provide
inexpensive and easy access to ready-made food products. There has been an
uprising of farm-to-table businesses, the Slow Food movement, and an emphasis on
fair-trade products.

CHAPTER 5
THE GEOGRAPHY OF LANGUAGE
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this section, the student will be able to:

1. Understand: the differing bases of ethnic identity

2. Explain: the relationship between ethnicity and personal identity
3. Describe: the degrees of relevance of ethnicity in a society
4. Connect: ethnicity, race and class as they relate to political power

INTRODUCTION
Language is central to daily human existence. It is the principal means by which
we conduct our social lives at home, neighborhood, school, work place and
recreation area. It is the tool we use to plan our lives, remember our past, and
express our cultural identity. We create meaning when we talk on the cell phone,
send an e-mail message, read a newspaper and interpret a graph or chart. Many
persons conduct their social lives using only one language. Many others, however,

38
rely on two languages in order to participate effectively in the community, get a job,
obtain a college degree and enjoy loving relation- ships. We live in a discourse world
that incorporates ways of speaking, reading and writing, but also integrates ways of
behaving, interacting, thinking and valuing. Language is embedded in cultural
practices and, at the same time, symbolizes cultural reality itself.

CLASSIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF LANGUAGES

This second section will facilitate your understanding of the
dimensions of language across geographic areas and cultural landscapes.
Three main questions are addressed in this section:

1. How are languages classified with respect to issues of national

identity and genealogical considerations?
2. What are the major language families of the world and how many
speakers make use of the respective languages?
3. How does language use vary in the United States with respect to
dialects of English and multilingualism?

Diffusion of Languages
Language, like any other cultural phenomenon, has an inherent
spatiality, and all languages have a history of diffusion. As our
ancestors moved from place to place, they brought their languages
with them. As people have conquered other places, expanded
demographically, or converted others to new religions, languages
have moved across space. Writing systems that were developed by
one people were adapted and used by others. Indo-European, the
largest language family, spread across a large expanse of Europe and
Asia through a mechanism that is still being debated. Later, European
expansion produced much of the current linguistic map by spreading
English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian far from their
native European homelands.
Language is disseminated through diffusion, but in complex ways.
Relocation diffusion is associated with settler colonies and conquest,
but in many places, hierarchical diffusion is the form that best
explains the predominant languages. People may be compelled to
adopt a dominant language for social, political or economic mobility.
Contagious diffusion is also seen in languages, particularly in the
adoption of new expressions in a language. One of the most obvious
examples has been in the current convergence of British and
American English. The British press has published books 1 and articles2
decrying the Americanization of British English, while the American
press has done the same thing in reverse3. In reality, languages
borrow bits and pieces from other languages continuously.

39
 The establishment of official languages is often related to the
linguistic power differential within countries. Russification and
Arabization are just two implementations of processes that use
political power to favor one language over another.

Classification of Languages

There is no precise figure as to the total number of languages

spoken in the world today. Estimates vary between 5,000 and 7,000,
and the accurate number depends partly on the arbitrary distinction
between languages and dialects. Dialects (variants of the same
language) reflect differences along regional and ethnic lines. In the
case of English, most native speakers will agree that they are
speakers of English even though differences in pronunciation,
vocabulary and sentence structure clearly exist. English speakers
from England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and United States of
America will generally agree that they speak English, and this is also
confirmed with the use of a standard written form of the language
and a common literary heritage. However, there are many other
cases in which speakers will not agree when the question of national
identity and mutual intelligibility do not coincide.
The most common situation is when similar spoken language
varieties are mutually understandable, but for political and historical
reasons, they are regarded as different languages as in the case of
Scandinavian languages. While Swedes, Danes and Norwegians can
communicate with each other in most instances, each national group
admits speaking a different language: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian
and Icelandic. There are other cases in which political, ethnic,
religious, literary and other factors force a distinction between similar
language varieties: Hindi vs. Urdu, Flemish vs. Dutch, Serbian vs.
Croatian, Gallego vs. Portuguese, Xhosa vs Zulu. An opposite situation
occurs when spoken language varieties are not mutually understood,
but for political, historical or cultural motives, they are regarded as
the same language as in the case of Lapp and Chinese dialects.
Languages are usually classified according to membership in a
language family (a group of related languages) which share
common linguistic features (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar) and
have evolved from a common ancestor (proto-language). This type
of linguistic classification is known as the genetic or genealogical
approach. Languages can also be classified according to sentence
structure (S)ubject+(V)erb+(O)bject, S+O+V, V+S+O). This type of
classification is known as typological classification, and is based
on a comparison of the formal similarities (pronunciation, grammar or
vocabulary) which exist among languages.

40
 Language families around the world reflect centuries of geographic
movement and interaction among different groups of people. The
Indo-European family of languages, for example, represents nearly
half of the world’s population. The language family dominates nearly
all of Europe, significant areas of Asia, including Russia and India,
North and South America, Caribbean islands, Australia, New Zealand,
and parts of South Africa. The Indo-European family of languages
consists of various language branches (a collection of languages
within a family with a common ancestral language) and numerous
language subgroups (a collection of languages within a branch that
share a common origin in the relative recent past and exhibit many
similarities in vocabulary and grammar.

Indo-European Language Branches and Language Subgroups

Germanic Branch
Western Germanic Group (Dutch, German, Frisian, English)
Northern Germanic Group (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic,
Faeroese)

Romance Branch
French, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, Provençal, Romansh, Italian,
Romanian)

Slavic Branch
West Slavic Group (Polish, Slovak, Czech, Sorbian)
Eastern Slavic Group (Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian)
Southern Slavic Group (Slovene, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Bulgarian)

Celtic Branch
Britannic Group (Breton, Welsh)
Gaulish Group (Irish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic)

Baltic-Slavonic Branch
Latvian, Lithuanian

Hellenic Branch
Greek
Thracian-Illyrian Branch
Albanian

Armenian Branch
Armenian

41
Iranian Branch
Kurdish, Persian, Baluchi, Pashto, Tadzhik

Indo-Iranian (Indic) Branch

Northwestern Group (Panjabi, Sindhi, Pahari, Dardic)
Eastern Group (Assamese, Bengali, Oriya)
Midland Group (Rajasthani, Hindi/Urdu, Bihari)
West and Southwestern Group (Gujarati, Marathi, Konda, Maldivian,
Sinhalese)

Other languages spoken in Europe, but not belonging to the Indo-

European family are subsumed in these other families: Finno-Ugric
(Estonian, Hungarian, Karelian, Saami, Altaic (Turkish, Azerbaijani,
Uzbek) and Basque. Some of the language branches listed above are
represented by only one principal language (Albanian, Armenian,
Basque, Greek), while others are spoken by diverse groups in some
geographic regions (Northern and Western Germanic languages,
Western and Eastern Slavic languages, Midland and Southwestern
Indian languages).

Major Language Families of the World by Geographic Region

Europe
Caucasian Family
Abkhaz-Adyghe Group (Circassian, Adyghe, Abkhaz)
Nakho-Dagestanian Group (Avar, Kuri, Dargwa)
Kartvelian Group (Kartvelian, Georgian, Zan, Mingrelian)

Africa
Afro-Asiatic Family (Arabic, Hebrew, Tigrinya, Amharic)
Niger-Congo Family (Benue-Congo, Adamawa, Kwa)
Nilo-Saharan Family (Chari-Nile, Nilo-Hamitic, Nara)
Khoisan Family (Sandawe, Hatsa)

Asia
Sino-Tibetan Family (Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese)
Tai Family (Laotian, Shan, Yuan)
Austro-Asiatic Family (Vietnamese, Indonesian, Dayak, Malayo-
Polynesian) Japanese (an example of an isolated language)

Pacific
Austronesian Family (Malagasy, Malay, Javanese, Palauan, Fijian)
Indo-Pacific Family (Tagalog, Maori, Tongan, Samoan)

42
Americas
Eskimo-Aleut Family (Eskimo-Aleut, Greenlandic Eskimo)
Athabaskan Family (Navaho. Apache)
Algonquian Family (Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Mohican,
Choctaw)
Macro-Siouan Family (Cherokee, Dakota, Mohawk, Pawnee)
Aztec-Tanoan Family (Comanche, Hopi, Pima-Papago, Nahuatl,
Tarahumara)
Mayan Family (Maya, Mam, Quekchi, Quiche)
Oto-Manguean Family (Otomi, Mixtec, Zapotec)
Macro-Chibchan Family (Guaymi, Cuna, Waica, Epera)
Andean-Equatorial Family (Guahibo, Aymara, Quechua, Guarani)

The number of language families distributed around the world is

sizable. The linguistic situation of specific member groups of the
language family might be influenced by diverse, interacting factors:
settlement history (migration, conquest, colonialism, territorial
agreements), ways of living (farming, fishing, hunting, trading) and
demographic strength and vitality of the speaker groups. Some
languages might converge (many local varieties becoming one main
language), while others might diverge (one principal language evolves
into many other speech varieties). When different linguistic groups
come into contact, a pidgin type of language may be the result. A
pidgin is a composite language with a simplified grammatical system
and a limited vocabulary, typically borrowed from the linguistic
groups involved in trade and commerce activities.
Tok Pisin is an example of a pidgin spoken in Papua New Guinea
and derived mainly from English. A pidgin may become a creole
language when the size of the vocabulary increases, grammatical
structures become more complex and children learn it as their native
language or mother tongue. There are cases in which one existing
language gains the status of a lingua franca. A lingua franca may
not necessarily be the mother tongue of any one speaker group, but it
serves as the medium of communication and commerce among
diverse language groups. Swahili, for instance, serves as a lingua
franca for much of East Africa, where individuals speak other local
and regional languages.
With increased globalization and interdependence among nations,
English is rapidly acquiring the status of lingua franca for much of the
world. In Europe, Africa and India and other geographic regions,
English serves as a lingua franca across many national-state
boundaries. The linguistic con- sequence results in countless numbers
of speaker groups who must become bilingual (the ability to use two

43
 languages with varying degrees of fluency) to participate more fully in
society.
Some continents have more spoken languages than others. Asia
leads with an estimated 2,300 languages, followed by Africa with
2,138. In the Pacific area, there are about 1,300 languages spoken
and in North and South America about 1,064 languages have been
identified. Europe, even with its many nation-states, is at the bottom
of the list with about 286 languages.

SUMMARY
Language is a mental capacity that allows members of a speech community to
produce and understand countless number of utterances which include grammatical
elements like words, phrases and sentences.
Language as a means of communication makes use of different communicative
acts (orders, questions, apologies, suggestions) performed during conversational
situations across varied social contexts. Language is a symbol of social identity and
serves to express ideas, beliefs and attitudes shared by a cultural group. It is
reflected in cultural stereotypes, notions about different languages, and behaviors
during speech situations which presuppose the use of cultural schemata and
cultural scripts.
Languages are commonly classified according to membership in a language
family such as Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Indo-Pacific, Mayan, Niger-Congo.
Members within a family are further subdivided into branches (Germanic, Slavic,
Finno-Ugric, Indo-Iranian) and the branches into subgroups (English in the Germanic
branch; Spanish in the Romance branch).
The distribution of languages around the world is influenced by numerous
factors: settlement history, demographic strength, ways of living and contact with
other ethnolinguistic groups. Some languages become more dominant and as a
result displace others that may eventually become extinct, leading to language
death. The world’s ten most widespread languages include Chinese, Spanish,
English, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Japanese, and Javanese.
The number of dialects or varieties of American English have changed over time
due to settlement histories, political changes (Louisiana Purchase, Mexican
American War, Spanish-American War, territory annexation). Language diversity
and multilingualism continue to be prevalent in the United States. Recent 2015
Census data reveal extensive language diversity in states like California, Texas,
New Mexico, New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois and
Massachusetts.
Place names provide us with cultural insights about the significance of
geographic locations, important features of the landscape, the recognition of
famous personalities, and local reference to distant places and times. Diverse forms
of advertisement are used to inform and convince customers that the products and
services offered are the worthiest in the marketplace.

44
 The use of different social media technologies (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
Snapchat, among others) allows for online interaction between many senders and
receivers. Users can create and share information, ideas, photos, career interests,
and other concerns via virtual communities and networks.
Geographic mapping of the use and users of web-based technologies (desktop
computers, smart phones and tablet computers) is unattainable at this time.
Research methods from the social science (questionnaires, oral interviews, focus
group sessions) may reveal some insights about the pervasive ways individuals,
communities and organizations communicate in the virtual world.

CHAPTER 6

RELIGION
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this section, the student will be able to:

1. Understand: the significance of religion as a historical spatial phenomenon

2. Explain: the significance of sacred spaces and places to understandings of
culture locally, regionally, and globally
3. Describe: the hearths and diffusion patterns of the major religions of the
world
4. Connect: religious belief and values to trade, colonialism, and empire

INTRODUCTION

“I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your
church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the Spirit.”
- Khalil Gibran

This chapter is an exploration of the geography of religion. Like language and

ethnicity, religion is a cultural characteristic that can be closely bound to individual
identity. Religion can provide a sense of community, social cohesion, moral
standards, and identifiable architecture. It can also be a source of oppression, social
discord, and political instability. Religion is more than metaphysics- magical
explanations for natural phenomena; it is also a governing philosophy of behavior
and an organizing cosmology of the universe.

45
 The following pie chart gives us an idea of the relative size (in terms of
adherents) of the world’s major religions (Figure 6.1). Bear in mind that these
numbers are estimates; there is no world governing body collecting detailed
statistics of religion. Christians and Muslims make up over half of the world’s
population. The next category, the unaffiliated, are a large but diffuse body
containing people who do not identify with any religion. Hindus, who cluster in the
Indian subcontinent, are the next largest group. The category of Folk religion is
similar to that of

Figure 6.1 | Global Religious Percentages1

This pie chart shows the relative distributions of the World’s Major Religions.
Author | David Dorrell
Source | Original Work
License | CC BY SA 4.0
Unaffiliated-it is a large group of religions that are bound into one category solely
for logical consistency. Folk religions may consist of ancestor worship in China,
animism in central Africa, or any other number of indigenous, local religions. The
Other category contains newer religions that are just gaining their footholds and
other religions that may be fading in the contemporary milieu. Judaism is included
in the chart, although it has comparatively few adherents. It is included for two
reasons. First, it provided the cultural spoor for both Christianity and Islam, and
second, it is the predominant religion of the modern state of Israel.
In some places, religion can be considered a separate element of civil society,
but in many others, religion cannot be meaningfully separated from daily life or
governance.

46
 Charts such as this can be somewhat misleading, as can maps of religion. All
these methods of tabulating religion rely on estimates with varying degrees of
accuracy. One problem is determining the predominance of a particular religion.
Does predominance require over fifty percent? What if no religion in a country has a
majority? In the case of this map, if no religion has a majority, but there are two
large religions (for example Christianity and Islam in Nigeria) then the country is
split between the two. If there are numerous fragmented groups, then the group
with a plurality is used.
In some parts of the world, some forms of religious expression are discouraged
or banned outright. For example, in North Korea, the state ideology is known as
Juche, which is not a traditional religion with supernatural elements. The practice of
Buddhism or Christianity in North Korea must necessarily be circumspect. In other
places, religion has reached the status of being nominal (in name only) in which
people identify with a religion, but the practices of that religion have little impact on
their daily lives.

State religions are religions that are recognized as the official religion of a
country. In some places with a state religion, such as Denmark or the United
Kingdom, the official status of one religion has little effect either on the practice of
other religions or on the society at large. In places like Saudi Arabia or Pakistan,
however, the official religion is closely connected to the power of the state, most
obviously in the form of blasphemy laws which allow for state penalties (including
death) for violations of religious statutes.
Maps such as this one can be very misleading in the sense that they present
homogeneous, religious landscapes by country. This is, of course, untrue and it
represents one of the problems with mapping anything- the level of aggregation. As
any spatial phenomenon is aggregated into larger and larger groups, the details of
those groups are often lost. An example of the importance of scale is seen in the
following graphic. Although Mormons make up 88 percent of Utah County, Utah,
they are only 61% of the state of Utah, and a mere 1.6% of the United States.

Religions in History

The current religious map of the world is best thought of as a snapshot. The
religious landscape has been continuously changing throughout human history and
will continue to change in the future. New religions are founded and old ones die
out.
New religions are often made using pieces of older religions; Christianity and
Islam deriving in part from Judaism and Buddhism deriving from Hinduism are not
aberrations, but instead are examples of a common occurrence.
Within the relatively recent past, it has been possible to watch the creation and
diffusion of several new religions just within the United States. Mormonism, the
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventism, and Scientology are all religions that
were founded in the U.S. in the relatively recent past.

47
OVERVIEW OF MAJOR RELIGIONS
Types of Religions
We often break religions into one of two basic types: ethnic and universalizing.
Ethnic religions are associated within one group of people. They make little to no
effort at proselytizing (converting others), although that possibility may exist. The
largest ethnic religion is Hinduism. Judaism is another well-known ethnic religion.
Through migration, both of these religions have become dispersed around much of
the world, but they are closely tied to their own ethnic groups.
Universalizing religions seek to convert others. For some religions, it is a
requirement for practitioners to spend part of their lives in missionary work
attempting to convert others.
Another way of dividing religions is into the categories of polytheistic (many
gods) and monotheistic (one god). Although the difference between monotheistic
religions and polytheistic religions seems unbridgeable, there are religions that
have managed to combine elements of polytheism and monotheism into the
same religion. For example, in Voudon (Voodoo), entities that had previously
represented African gods are recast as Catholic saints, who themselves are
semidivine in the Catholic cosmology. Combining two religions to create a new
religion is known as syncretism.

Brief Description of the Major ReligionS

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus

of Nazareth. It dates to some time in the first century AD since the Western world
uses the Christian calendar. Christianity began as an offshoot of Judaism, and
includes the Hebrew Bible (known to Christians as the Old Testament) as well as the
New Testament as its canonized scriptures. It has three main branches: Catholic,
Orthodox, and Protestant. Catholic and Orthodox Christianity split roughly one
thousand years ago, while the Protestant/Catholic Schism began in the sixteenth
century. The split between the Orthodox and Catholic hierarchies centered around
whose authority in the church was final. The split between Protestantism and
Catholicism mostly centered on practices conducted by the Catholic Church that the
future Protestants did not believe were suitable for a religious organization.
The three branches of Christianity have their own spatiality, with a great deal of
overlap between them. Orthodox Christianity is mostly seen in Russia, Eastern
Europe, and Southern Europe with notable examples in Africa (Ethiopia) and in
places where large numbers of people from these places have migrated (the United
States, Canada). Catholic Christianity is seen in a wider range of places. It largely
formed around the historic Roman Empire, then spread to the north and west of
Europe. Catholicism did not stop there, however. The age of colonial expansion
transplanted Catholicism to such widespread places as the Philippines, much of the

48
Americas and Caribbean, and large parts of Africa. Protestantism is the most
recently developed Christian branch, but it has also diffused widely. The initial
Protestant countries were in northern Europe, but again due to colonialism,
Protestant Christianity was exported to places like the United States, South Africa,
Ghana, and New Zealand. The current expansion of Christianity, particularly in Asia,
is largely due to the growth of Protestantism.
Each Christian branch has developed a distinct appearance in the landscape.
Orthodox churches are meant to invoke a sense of the divine. Buildings are
elaborate, both inside and outside. Catholic churches also tend to be elaborate, in a
similar vein to Orthodox churches, but with a different architectural tradition. This is
understandable due to the fact that these two branches of Christianity arose in
different places with different ideas of architectural grandeur and beauty. Protestant
churches as a collective are less elaborate that their close relatives. This is a
reflection of the early history of Protestant churches, which were often specific
rejections of the elaborate ceremony and ostentatious display of the Catholic
Church.

Islam

Islam is a monotheistic religion originating with the teachings of Muhammad

(570-632), an Arab religious and political figure. The word Islam means
“submission”, or the total surrender of oneself to God. An adherent of Islam is
known as a Muslim, meaning “one who submits (to God).” Both Islam and
Christianity inherited the idea of the chain of prophecy from Judaism. This means
that figures such as Moses (Judaism) and Jesus (Christianity) are considered
prophets in Islam. Muslims believe that Muhammad is the very last in that chain of
prophecy. Islam has two main branches, and many smaller ones. Of the two main
branches -Sunni and Shi’a, Sunni is much larger, comprising roughly 80% of all
Muslims. The split between the two largest branches of Islam centered around the
question of succession, that is to say, who would be the rightful leader of the
Muslim world. Currently, there is no single voice for the global Muslim community.
Other forms of Islam include Sufi (mystical) Islam and Ahmadi Islam. India is the
number three Muslim country, but there are five times as many Hindus in India as
there are Muslims.
The Muslim world is somewhat more contiguous than the Christian world. This is
mostly due to the fact that the Muslim expansion did not occur in two phases in the
same way that Christianity did. As can be seen in the following map, Sunni and Shi’a
countries are somewhat spatially separated. Only the countries of Iran, Iraq,
Azerbaijan, and Bahrain are majority Shi’a. There are sizable minority Muslim sects
in the world. Many of these groups, such as the Ahmadiyya, are subject to
discrimination by other Muslim populations and/or governments. The world’s most
theocratic governments are Muslim, particularly those of Iran and Saudi Arabia. This
is notable in that these two countries are also regional rivals and the two most
powerful states in the Muslim world.

49
Buddhism

Buddhism is an offshoot of Hinduism that dates to the fifth century BCE. It was
founded by Siddhartha Gautama near the modern border between Nepal and India.
The three largest branches of Buddhism are Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana.
The main differences between the branches are their approaches to canonized
doctrine.

Hinduism
Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent. Its
origins can be traced to the ancient Vedic civilization (1500 BCE), a product of the
invasion of Indo-European peoples. A conglomerate of diverse beliefs and traditions
that assembled organically over a period of centuries, Hinduism has no single
founder. Due to its concurrent growth with Indian civilization, Hinduism has
historically been tightly bound to the caste system, although the modern Indian
state has worked to ameliorate the more damaging effects of this relationship.

Chinese Religions
Not strictly located in China, Chinese religions are closely tied to Daoism (a
nature religion), Confucianism (a philosophy of living), and ancestor worship.
Chinese religious structures are associated with people of Chinese descent within
and external to China. Because of the diversity of religious practices and beliefs,
this category is best thought of as a complex of beliefs, rather than a defined set of
beliefs and practices.

Sikhism

Sikhism is a 15th Century amalgamation of Islam and Hinduism. It is in many

ways emblematic of syncretic religions. Syncretic religions are created by the
combination of two or more religions, with the addition of doctrinal elements to
create cohesion between the disparate pieces. Founded by Nanak Dev Ji (1469 –
1539) Sikhism reconciles Hinduism and Islam by recasting Hindu gods as aspects of
a single god, in a manner similar to the Catholic Trinity. Although heavily associated
with the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, Sikhism has spread widely
through relocation diffusion. It has about 26 million adherents.

Judaism
Judaism is a monotheistic religion originating in the Bronze Age in the eastern
Mediterranean. Although it has no single founder, it holds the Torah as its holy book.
In the modern context of Judaism, there are three major forms— Orthodox,
Conservative and Reform—each with their own set of interpretations of correct
practice. Judaism, as the initial Abrahamic religion, influenced other religions
(particularly Christianity and Islam).

50
Animism, Jainism, Bahai, Shinto and Others

This catch-all category combines together religions that are all quite different.
They are here due to their similar ties to places or ethnicities, not because they
share any doctrinal or historical connections. Before continuing on a discussion of
the following religions, it is important to make a point clear. It is possible to practice
more than one religion. Many people in the world practice two or more religions with
no sense of contradiction. In many parts of the world, pre-Christian or pre-Islamic
beliefs persist alongside the newer religions.
Animism is a broad category, found in a variety of environments. The
underlying theme is the idea that almost anything in the environmentpeople,
mountains, rivers, rain, etc. is alive and worthy of recognition as such. Animism is
frequently practiced with other ideologies or philosophies.
Baha’i was founded by Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri (1817-1892) in 1863. Baha’i was an
offshoot of another religion, Babism, that in itself was a derivative of Islam.
Although traditional Muslims believe that Muhammad was the last of the prophets
(the seal of the prophets) many religions have been founded on the idea that there
could be other, later people who also spoke for god. Baha’is believe that new
messengers would be sent to humanity to remind people of their universal
relationship to god and one another. The late date and historic context of this
religion informed a religion that explicitly rejected racism and nationalism. One of
the notable characteristics is that although Baha’is are not one of the larger
religions on Earth, they have a temple on every permanently inhabited continent.
Jainism is another ancient religion that arose in India. It is best known for its
concept of ahimsa, or nonviolence.
Shinto, the ethnic religion of Japan is often practiced in conjunction with
Buddhism. It is polytheistic and dates back centuries. The most important
consideration of Shinto is that the rituals are so ingrained in Japanese national
identity that the religion can either be considered vibrant and relevant, or moribund
and ritualistic, depending on the perspective of the viewer.

Syncretic Religions

Syncretic religions are formed by the combination of two or more existing

religions to produce a new religion. Some of the larger syncretic religions have
already been mentioned, such as Baha’i or Sikhism.
Cao Dai is a religion founded in twentieth century Vietnam. It has strains of
Taoism and Buddhism and represents an attempt to reconcile many diverse
religious traditions into a single religion.
Voodoo arose in French Caribbean colonies as a combination of Catholicism and
the beliefs of another set of West African peoples, the Ewe and the Fon.
Practitioners speak to God using intercessors called loa that function as saints do in
both the Catholic and Sufi worlds.

51
 Candomble is a syncretism formed from many West African religious traditions
and Catholicism. It has existed in Brazil for centuries. It believes in a creator god
(Oludumare) and a series of demi-gods (Orishas).

New Religions
Much like any other human phenomena, new religions are formed continuously.
They are usually adaptations or combinations of existing religions. It is impossible to
list the most recent arrivals. This category includes such religions as Scientology,
the Unification Church, Seicho no Ie and Wicca.

What about the Nonreligious?

Sometimes the nonreligious are considered a religion unto themselves. This is
generally not true. The nonreligious category is amorphous. There are no
documents of beliefs that all nonreligious people must abide by. There is no
overarching nonreligious creed. It is another catch-all category that contains a
large, diverse population with divergent beliefs and practices. Within these
categories, however, there are notable manifestations. First, there are those places
which are officially atheistic or non-religious. This label is problematic. It provides
only the perspective of the government of these places. In many places that
officially have no religions, practitioners simply do not advertise their religious
affiliations. In other places, religious attendance has declined to a point that many
people have no connection to a particular religious tradition. The label agnostic
refers to the idea that the existence of a higher power is unknowable. It is important
to point out that religions do not necessarily require the existence of a god-like
force. Daoism relies on nature as its driving force.

DIFFUSION OF MAJOR RELIGIONS

Religion uses nearly all forms of diffusion to reproduce itself across space.
Hierarchical diffusion generally involves the conversion of a king, emperor, or other
leader who then influences others to convert. Relocation diffusion, often through
missionary work, brings “great leaps forward” by crossing space to secure footholds
in far-away places. Contagious diffusion is most often seen in a religious context as
the result of direct proselytizing. All these forms of diffusion produce patterns of
diffusion that are complex. It is impossible to know why certain religions have
appeal in particular times or places, but they do, and that appeal can wear off over
time.
Another important thing to remember is that the religious landscape is just a
snapshot. In the same way that it has always changed, it will continue to do so.
These maps can reinforce this idea in that they demonstrate the historical nature of
current religious distributions. Remind yourself that these religious expansions
occurred at different times. This will help explain why some places will become
Buddhist or Christian at one point in history, but become Muslim at another.

52
The Diffusion of Buddhism
Buddhism originated near the current Nepalese-Indian border. Like many other
religions, it spread in other directions, particularly to the south and east Due to its
position as the oldest large, universalizing religion, Buddhism is a good example of
the lifecycle of a religion. From its origins, the religion spread across what is now
India and Nepal. It spread in all directions but looking at a current religious map
reveals that the process did not end 1500 years ago. Much of its territory on the
Indian subcontinent would become mostly Hindu or Muslim. To the east and south,
however, the religion continued and expanded. It is not unusual for a religion to
prove popular far from its place of origin. In fact, that is the key to a successful
universalizing religion.

The Diffusion of Christianity

Christianity was founded in the eastern Mediterranean, although much like

Buddhism, its greatest successes were found in other parts of the world. Christianity
initially grew in areas dominated by the Roman Empire, but it would adapt and
thrive in many places. With the collapse of the Empire, Christianity became the only
source of social cohesion in Europe for centuries. Later, Christianity was promoted
through the process of colonialism, and as such, it was modified by the process that
distributed it. The spread of Christianity helped drive the process that created the
modern world.

The Diffusion of Islam

The most recent of the world’s largest religions, Islam is also the one that is
expanding the fastest. This is not necessarily through conquest or conversion, but
mostly through current demographics. Islam provides a blueprint for most aspects
of life and as such, has often been associated with rapid expansion driven by
military conquest. Although military conquest occurred in the past, military
campaigns have been rare since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The relative
distributions of Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims have in fact changed little in half
a millennium. Although there has been some migration of Muslims into western
Europe, the percentages of Muslims in each country is small. France has the largest
percentage of Muslims at 7.5%. To keep this in perspective, that is much lower than
the percentage of Muslims in Spain in 1492.

RELIGIOUS CONFLICT
Human beings have struggled against one another for a variety of reasons.
Religious disagreements can be particularly intense. Sectarian violence involves
differences based on interpretations of religious doctrine or practice. The struggles

53
between the Catholic and Orthodox churches, or the wars associated with the
Protestant Reformation and Counter Reformation, are examples of this form of
conflict. The current violence seen between Sunni and Shia Muslims is also in this
category. Closely associated with this kind of conflict is religious
fundamentalism. Religious fundamentalism rests on a literal interpretation and
strict and intense adherence to the basic principles of a religion. The conflict arises
when religious fundamentalists see their coreligionists as being insufficiently pious.
Extremism is the idea that the end of a religious goal can be justified by almost any
means. Some groups that are convinced that they have divine blessing have few
limits to their behavior, including resorting to violence.
Another form of religious violence is between completely different religions. Wars
between Muslims and Christians or Hindus and Buddhists have been framed as wars
for the benefit or detriment of particular religions. What is described as religious
strife, however, is often not. Although some religions are fighting over doctrinal
differences, most conflict stems from more secular causes- a desire for political
power, a struggle for resources, ethnic rivalries, and economic competition.
The Israel/Palestine conflict is a struggle over territory, resources, and political
recognition. The Rohingya crisis in Myanmar has less to do with religion and more to
do with differences in ethnicity, national origin, and post-colonial identity. Massacres
in Sahelian Africa are better framed as farmers versus herders. The long running
violence between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland is better framed as a
violent dispute between one group who holds allegiance with the Republic of Ireland
and the other who holds allegiance with the United Kingdom.
This is not to say that religious violence does not exist. It does. The most obvious
example of this in recent years has been the emergence of Islamic State. This
organization carries all the worst examples of religious extremism- sectarianism
toward other Muslims (the Shi’a), attempted genocide of religious minorities (Yazidis
and Christians), and brutal repression through the apparatus of the state.

CHAPTER 7
ETHNICITY AND RACE
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this section, the student will be able to:

1. Understand: the differing bases of ethnic identity

2. Explain: the relationship between ethnicity and personal identity
3. Describe: the degrees of relevance of ethnicity in a society
4. Connect: ethnicity, race, and class as they relate to political power

54
WHAT ARE ETHNICITY AND RACE?
A common question asked in introductory geography classes is “What is
ethnicity and how is it different than race? The short answer to that question is that
ethnicity involves learned behavior and race is defined by inherited characteristics.
This answer is incomplete. In reality, both race and ethnicity are complex elements
embedded in the societies that house them. The relationship between race,
ethnicity and economic class further complicates the answer.
Other students have asked, “How is this geography? Ethnicity and race have
strong spatial dimensions. Both races and ethnicities have associated places and
spatial interactions. A person’s ability to navigate and use space is contingent upon
many factors- wealth, gender, and race/ethnicity. Anything that sets limits on a
person’s movement is fair game for geographic study. Numerous geographic
studies have centered on the sense of place. Race and ethnicity are part of a place.
Signs are written in languages, houses have styles, people wear clothing (or not!)
and all of these things can indicate ethnicity.

The Bases of Ethnicity

Ethnicity is identification through language, religion, collective history, national

origin, or other cultural characteristics. A cultural characteristic or a set of
characteristics is the constituent element of an ethnicity. Another way of thinking of
an ethnicity is as a nation or a people. In many parts of the world, ethnic
differences are the basis or political or cultural uprisings. For example, in almost
every way the Basque people residing on the western border between France and
Spain are exactly like their non-Basque neighbors. They have similar jobs, eat
similar foods, and have the same religion. The one thing that separates them from
their neighbors is that they speak the Basque language. To an outsider, this may
seem like a negligible detail, but it is not. It is the basis of Basque national identity,
which has produced a political separatist movement. At times, this movement has
resorted to violence in their struggle for independence. People have died over the
relative importance of this language. The Basques see themselves as a nation, and
they want a country.
The ethnicities of dominant groups are rarely ever problematized. Majority
ethnicities are considered the default, or the normal, and the smaller groups are in
some way or another marginal. Talking about ethnicity almost always means talking
about minorities.
There are three prominent theories of Ethnic Geography: amalgamation,
acculturation, and assimilation. These theories describe the relation between
majority and minority cultures within a society. Amalgamation is the idea that
multiethnic societies will eventually become a combination of the cultural
characteristics of their ethnic groups. The best-known manifestation of this idea is

55
the notion of the United States as a “melting pot” of cultures, with distinctive
additions from multiple sources.
Acculturation is the adoption of the cultural characteristics of one group by
another. In some instances, majority cultures adopt minority cultural characteristics
(for example the celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day), but often acculturation is a
process that shifts the culture of a minority toward that of the majority.
Assimilation is the reduction of minority cultural characteristics, sometimes to
the point that the ethnicity ceases to exist. The Welsh in the United States have
few, if any, distinct cultural traits.
When we looked at the previous chapters- Language, Religion, and now
Ethnicity, we have explored subjects that are often the core of a person’s identity.
Identity is who we are and we, as people, are often protective of those who share
our collective identity. For example, ethnicity, and religion can be closely tied, and
what can appear as a religious conflict may be in fact a politicized ethnic
disagreement or a struggle over resources between ethnicities that has become
defined as a religious war. Muslim Fula herders and Christian farmers in Nigeria
aren’t battling over religious doctrine; they’re two different peoples fighting for the
same land and water resources.
One of the enduring ideas of modern political collectives is that we consider
everyone within the boundaries of our country as “our group.” The reality has not
lived up to that concept, however. Many modern countries are wracked by ethnic
struggles that have proven remarkable resistant to ideas of ethnic or racial equality.

Race

The central question around race is simple: “Does race even exist?” Depending
on how the question is framed, the answer can be either yes or no. If race is being
used in a human context in the same way that species is used in an animal context,
then race does not exist. Humans are just too similar as a population. If the question
is rephrased as, “Are there some superficial differences between previously
spatially isolated human groups?” then the answer is yes. There are genetic,
heritable differences between groups of people. However, these differences in
phenotype (appearance) say very little about genotype (genetics). Why is that? The
reality is that human beings have been very mobile in their history. People move
and they mix with other groups of people. There are no hard genetic lines between
different racial categories in the environment. As a consequence of this, racial
categories can be considered socially constructed.

3 How are ethnicity and race different?

People tend to have difficulties with the distinctions. Let’s start with the easiest
racial category in the United States- African American. Most people understand that
the origin of the African American or Black population of the United States is
African. That is the race part. Now, the ethnic part appears to be exactly the same

56
thing, and it almost is, but only for a particular historical reason. If Africans had
been forcibly migrated by group, for example large numbers of BaKongo or Igbo
people were taken from Africa and brought to Virginia and settled as a group, then
we would be talking about these groups as specific ethnicities in the same way we
talk about the Germans or Czechs in America. The Germans and Czechs came in
large groups and often settled together, and preserved their culture long enough to
be recognized as separate ethnicities.
That settlement pattern did not happen with enslaved Africans. They were
brought to the United States, sold off effectively at random, and their individual
ethnic cultures did not survive the acculturation process. They did, however, hold
onto some general group characteristics, and they also, as a group, developed their
own cultural characteristics here in the United States. Interestingly, as direct African
immigration to the United States has increased, the complexity of the term
African American has increased, since it now includes an even larger cultural range.

Specifically Ethnic

The United States is a multiethnic and multiracial society. The country has
recognized this from the very beginning, and the U.S. Census has been a record of
ethnic representation for the U.S. since 1790. Here are the current racial categories
(Figure 7.1).

Two or
more races
percent Native Hawaiian
and Pacific
Islander

Asian
5.7%
American
Indian and
Alaska Native

Black or
American
13.3%
White
76.9

Figure 7.1 | U.S. Racial Makeup according to the United States Census of
2016 1

57
 Author | David Dorrell
Source | Original Work
License | CC BY SA 4.0
There are many ethnicities in the United States, and data are collected to a granular
level, but in many ways, the ethnic categories are subsets of the racial categories.
The idea is that race is a large physical grouping, and ethnicity is a smaller, cultural
grouping. Thinking about the data this way helps understand why African American
is both an ethnicity and a race (Remembering that there are African-Americans who
come directly from Africa). Another, more complete example is the numerous
ethnicities within American Indian. Within the race category of American Indian and
Alaska Native are dozens of individual nations.

RELEVANCE OF RACE AND ETHNICITY IN THE UNITED STATES

The importance of race and ethnicity is variable both across space and across
time. Historically, divisions in the United States along ethnic or racial lines have
been the norm. but now these divisions based on race or ethnicity are not as
prevalent as they have previously been. From the earliest days of the country and
codified in the US Constitution, slavery created a profoundly divided society,
particularly between the free, white population and the enslaved Black population.
Free people of color provided a small degree of linkage between the groups.
These were not the only divisions in the US, however. The dominant group were
people of English descent. In geographical terms, we refer to them as a charter
group. The charter group does not refer to the first people to come to a place; they
are people with the first effective settlement. This is an academic way of saying
that they are the first group with political dominance. English settlers produced laws
that furthered their own interests. They promoted their own language (English),
religion (Protestant Christianity) and governance. Groups coming in later found
themselves in a place where many of the cultural questions had already been
answered. The pressure to assimilate in the United States applies to everyone.
There can be political pressure; for example, during World War One German
Americans largely stopped speaking German. The pressure can be social; for
example, young children at school can feel isolated when they cannot speak the
majority language. Particularly, the pressure can be economic. Without conforming
to general social (majority) norms, it can be difficult to navigate the employment
market. A lack of English, unawareness of the norms of formal dress or behavior, or
just the inability to recognize social cues can make life difficult for those who have
not acculturated.
The charter group also changed. For example, the definitions of “whiteness” and
“blackness” have not been historically constant. Consider the history of the United
States. Initially, the U.S. population was made largely of Protestant British white
people and African black people. Adding people from other places required that
definitions be amended.

58
 Would Catholic Italians be considered “White?” In the past, many Americans
would have said no. For that matter, neither would the Irish (because of their
Catholicism) or Jews (because they aren’t Christian), but over time, these groups
were generally included into the white category. Whiteness broadened to include
more people. It became less of an ethnic category and more of a racial category.
Definitions of blackness evolved as well. In the American South, there eventually
arose a legal framework that defined blackness as having any African ancestry. It
would be possible (and relatively common) to be phenotypically white and legally
black. Historically, mixed-race Creole people in Louisiana did not consider
themselves to be black or white; they were another category altogether.
People attempting to emigrate from Asia, particularly China, were subject to
their own set of exclusionary laws, which severely limited their migration to the
United States. As late as World War II, it was considered acceptable for the
government to intern (imprison) American citizens of Japanese descent over
questions of their racial origins and loyalty.
One of the current interesting ethnic questions in the United States is the status
of Hispanic people in the existing racial categories. Since Hispanic is not itself a
racial category, people within this ethnicity can choose what label they feel is most
appropriate. It appears now that Hispanics are identifying themselves as white in
the U.S. census. This has an impact on projections for the future U.S. population. If
Hispanics identify as white, then the U.S. will remain majority white for quite some
time. If they do not, the U.S. will have no racial majority in a few decades.
Although race and ethnicity in the U.S. were largely associated with
statemandated identification, restrictive laws, and onerous obligations, today both
race and ethnicity are self-identified for the census. Whereas at one time being Irish
could be enough to deny someone employment, now it is a slogan to place on your
welcome mat and celebrate once a year in March.

Racial Identifiers

The language used to identify racial groups has changed as well. For example, in
broad terms of ethnicity, people of Asian descent who were born in the United
States are now referred to as Asian Americans, although the census racial category
is still Asian. The term Asian implies a relationship with Asia and no relationship with
America. Asian American explicitly ties this group to America.
People who trace their ancestry to Africa have a different problem. This problem
is a function of American history. The first census label for this group was simply
Black. Over time other labels were used, such as Negro (which means black), and
eventually the term African American was adopted. This term is meant to provide a
relationship between a population of people and a place of origin. In other words, it
explicitly ties a group to their ancestral origin.
Although Native American is used in common speech in the U.S., the Census
category is still American Indian, which is not the same as Indian-American (peoples

59
associated with South Asia). The continued use of American Indian is somewhat
outside the trend toward more descriptive categories.

Racism in the United States

Although racism and ethnic discrimination are similar, they are not the same
thing. Although ethnic markers (generally) diminish over time, physical differences
do not.
Exclusionary racial policies existed in the United States from the very beginning
and have continued beyond the Jim Crow era of the twentieth century. From the US
Constitution that counted slaves as 3/5 of a person to restrictive housing covenants
in the 1960s, the country has had a history of racism that did not end in the Civil
Rights era. This exclusion has not solely been limited to African Americans. Many
groups have been subject to racist laws and acts. The indigenous people of the
United States were not fully considered citizens until 1924. In the past, voting
rights, access to housing and even union membership had racialized politics
directed at many marginalized groups.
This is not to say that ethnically-based discrimination does not exist. Such
discrimination has been prevalent in United States history, but it tends to subside as
the host population absorbs the immigrant population.

Housing

Historically, ethnic groups tended to live near one another in spatially contiguous
areas. Many cities have a Chinatown or Little Italy. These are known as ethnic
enclaves. There are many reasons why groups cluster; some reasons are voluntary
and some are not. In the United States, it was not uncommon for cities to restrict
where African American citizens could live. These restrictions were either through
the force of law, or through unwritten behavioral norms that resisted renting or
selling houses to African American families outside of certain areas. This residential,
spatial segregation was accompanied with educational, social, and economic
segregation. African American communities were often known as ghettos, places
where a certain population is forced to live. The word ghetto is older than the United
States itself. Ghetto was an Italian name for the area that Jews were forced to live
in. Although the word is Italian, the idea of forcing minority populations to live in
designated areas has unfortunately had wide historical appeal. Legal housing
segregation ended in the United States in 1968, but behaviors change more slowly
than laws.
Many ethnic communities have arisen from less coercive means. There are
numerous reasons that an ethnic community would choose to live close together.
Mutual support networks, the ability to develop schools and businesses catering to
their own needs, a sense of safety, and the ability to retain their own cultural
connections are examples of positive reasons. Institutionalized poverty,

60
marginalized political representation, and active discrimination are negative
reasons.

Environmental Justice

One of the spatial manifestations of racism and ethnic discrimination is the

difference in levels of political representation. Another one is the location of
unpleasant environmental activities. Landfills and airports tend to be built in places
inhabited by less-powerful groups, while dominant groups rarely if ever have to
organize to prevent such things being built in their neighborhoods. Some groups
find their economic situations limited by underfunded schools or inadequate
infrastructure. The idea that different groups should have access to decent places to
live called environmental justice.

Ethnic diversity in the United States

Like all predominantly immigrant countries, the United States is ethnically
diverse, but the range of ethnicities has varied over time as new groups arrive and
previous groups acculturate and eventually assimilate. A male of Italian descent in
the United States will sometimes just say, “I’m Italian.” This may be a person who
speaks no Italian, isn’t Catholic, and never been in Italy in his entire life. What then,
does this statement mean? It just signals an historic connection with an ethnicity,
even if the connection has faded over time. This isn’t to single out ItalianAmericans.
Generally, as groups assimilate, their distinctive ethnic markers fade. Comparing
Polish-Americans with Mexican-Americans may involve people who speak the same
language (English), have the same Catholic religion, and live very similar lifestyles.
The label has faded to a marker, with food being the one of the last cultural
elements.

Foodways

One of the ways groups demonstrate ethnicity is through food. One of the most
obvious hallmarks of the arrival of an ethnicity into the United States, or any other
country, is the diffusion of a food from the group of origin. Pizza in the United
States, curry in the United Kingdom, and doner kebab in Germany all exemplify the
degree to which a food brought by immigrants can reach the status of adopted
national cuisine. Food is also the cultural element that is most accessible to
outsiders. Foodways are used to construct a spatial sense of one location as a
reflection of the entire world.
Foodways refer to the types of food that people eat, the ways they are
prepared, and the cultural factors that surround and contextualize the food. Food is
the most resilient cultural artifact. In countries undergoing language unification,
foods can define ethnic groups. In mostly monolingual countries like the United
States, foods may indicate geographical origins or social class. Food is easily

61
bought, tried and accepted, or rejected. As such, it is the most accessible cultural
element.
In many ways, the consumption of a food and its production have been divorced
from its roots by the modern restaurant industry and international food
conglomerates. Americans have eaten foods they consider Chinese or Mexican for
generations, while few know the histories of said foods. Questions of whether or not
a food is authentic are difficult to answer when the cooks in a restaurant are of a
completely different ethnicity from the stated cuisine.
We can compare foodways between places and groups. Quantities of food, the
ratio of prepared foods, and consumption of tobacco and alcohol all help us get
inside the lives of people in different places, at different states of technological
development, and different socioeconomic classes.

The Ethnic Landscape

Urban ethnic landscapes are often immediately recognizable. Signs in other
languages advertising exotic products, ethnic architecture, and even local tourism
reveal the ethnic fabric of a place. Most people in the US do not live in large cities
with obvious ethnic architecture. The majority of Americans, including many
ethnicities, live in the suburbs and smaller towns. Instead of obvious population
clusters, ethnic populations here can be widely dispersed. Instead of living within
walking distance of their local store or religious structure, people will simply drive to
such a place. Ethnicity has sprawled along with the rest of America. Waves of
migration to U.S. cities and suburbs have created landscapes of tremendous ethnic
difference embedded in architectural homogeneity.

Ethnic Festivals and the Idealized Homeland

One of the ways that ethnicities represent themselves is through festivals.

People wear traditional clothing, play music from the old country, eat food
previously reserved for holidays, dance the old dances, and promote their culture to
others. Festivals are a way of reproducing a sense of home in emigrant
communities. They are also a way of keeping children participating in activities that
would otherwise forget.
Places represented in ethnic festivals in the United States are often not
representative of those places now. Traditional Czech clothing at a Kolache Festival
in Oklahoma represents a place/time that no longer exists, except perhaps to
market “Czech-ness” to tourists.

RELEVANCE OF RACE AND ETHNICITY IN OTHER PLACES

Although the social implications of race or ethnicity in the United States have
eroded over time, this does not mean that that is no longer relevant. It also does
not mean that ethnicity is not relevant anywhere else. In many places, it is still very
important. In much the same way as race defined the early United States, it defined

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South Africa, Brazil and other settler colonies. There were important differences
between these places. Whereas white people who made up the racial majority ruled
the United States, South Africa was ruled by a white racial minority. In order to
preserve power for themselves, South African whites developed a system known as
apartheid, which divided the population into a number of legally-defined categories.
Similar to the U.S. development of Indian reservations, the South African state also
developed ethnically-based “Homelands” which were used as a means of denying
citizenship to black South Africans.
Sustaining such a system required the use of a police state that eventually
became unsustainable. In 1994, full and open elections were held, and the black
majority gained political power. The state policy of separating people ended, but
this did not immediately transform South Africa into a new kind of state. It has
continued to negotiate the relationship between the outside world and internal
political and economic struggles between differing factions in the country.
Brazilian society was far more racially mixed from the beginning. This simply
changed the social equation from a binary black/white relationship to a society
stratified by skin tone and migration status. As was the case in many colonies,
people born in the colonizing state (in this case, Portugal) continued to enjoy
elevated social standing well after the colonial era ended. In the same manner of
the United States and South Africa, social standing was related to being part of the
charter group.
In other places, purely ethnic differences have had violent consequences. In the
1990s in Rwanda and in Yugoslavia, ethnic tensions flared into open warfare and
genocidal massacres. A new term was coined—ethnic cleansing—which denoted
an attempt to complete expunge traces of another population from a place. In both
of these places, it would have been difficult for an outsider, and sometimes even a
local, to tell the differences between the two groups. Remember that ethnic
differences can be based on historical groups that may now be very similar.
It should be noted that the massacre of opposing ethnicities and the
appropriation of their territories was not a product of the twentieth century. The
colonial phase of world history was largely defined by the massacre and
marginalization of indigenous people around the world by people of European
descent.

Ethnicities and Nationalities

Some countries have only one ethnicity and are called nation-states (remember
that an ethnicity can also be called a nation) Most places are not like this and
contain many ethnicities. Some ethnicities are minorities solely by a political
boundary. Many groups have found themselves on the wrong side of an imaginary
line. Sometimes this is due to outside forces imposing a boundary, for example the
Hausa in Nigeria and Niger, but sometimes it is a product of state creation itself.
When the state of Germany was created, there were pockets of ethnic Germans

63
scattered all over Europe. It would have been impossible to incorporate them all,
since they were spatially discontinuous.
In the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), attempts were made to
make political boundaries match ethnic boundaries. Kazakh people had the Kazakh
SSR, Uzbek people had the Uzbek SSR, and so forth. It was an idea based on ease of
administration, but it wasn’t based on the actual distribution of the ethnic groups.
The distributions were far too messy to draw clear, neat lines between them. This
didn’t matter as long as the USSR was still functioning, but when it collapsed, it
created another landscape of minorities on the wrong side of a boundary.
Irredentism is when your ethnic group has people on the wrong side of a boundary,
and it’s necessarily destabilizing. The following chapter on political geography will
go into greater detail regarding this, but suffice it to say that split nations do not
like being split.
Some ethnicities are numerous, but find themselves minorities in several
countries. Kurds, Balochs, and Sami are all nations who are distributed across
several countries. Such groups often harbor strong desires to create their own
independent political entities to the detriment of currently existing states.
As places unify politically and develop industrially, ethnicity often declines.
Moving populations into cities and stirring them around in schools, militaries, and
jobs fosters intermarriage and acculturation to the larger, national norms. Rural
places tend to be more diverse, and somewhere like Papua New Guinea is probably
the most diverse, due to the fact that smaller villages still predominate. Somewhere
like South Korea, which was already relatively ethnically homogenous, has become
almost fully so due to economic

Is Diversity Good?
Diversity in developed countries is often promoted as a self-evident benefit, but
there are some downsides to increasing diversity. Studies have shown that ethnic
diversity decreases political participation. This is likely due not only to factors such
as difficulties in communication, but also simple mistrust of other groups of people,
known as xenophobia. This mistrust can apply to all parties in the relationship.
There are places in the world with very low levels of diversity. South Korea, Japan
and Finland are all highly productive economies with very little cultural or ethnic
variability and high levels of social cohesion.
There are benefits to diversity. Aside from the benefits to genetic diversity (a
reduction in recessive-gene disorders) ethnic diversity opens citizens to a wider
range of experiences. Without pizza, sushi, tacos, stir-fry, or hamburgers, the United
States would be a cultural wasteland forced to subsist on our British inheritance of
boiled lunch and steak and kidney pie. Diversity has made our lives more pleasant,
and it has made our ability to relate to others broader.

Immigration and Ethnicity

64
 The United States is not the only place to receive immigrants or to have ethnic
diversity. In fact, many places have far more ethnic diversity, even places that have
little history of immigration. India, China, and Russia are all countries that have had
diverse populations speaking different languages and living different lifestyles for a
very long time.
In many ways, the impact of immigration on the ethnic fabric in Europe is the
same as it has been in the United States. Due to the relative strength of their
economies, European countries have been receiving large numbers of immigrants
for some time. These immigrants are usually culturally distinct from the host
population. In many instances, the immigrants come from places that had
previously been colonies of European powers. The increase in immigrants with
backgrounds dissimilar to the host country has triggered a rise in nationalistic or
xenophobic activities, and in some places, a rise in political parties dedicated to
reducing immigration or even repatriating current immigrants. The separate
category of guest worker has created an even more complicated ethnic relationship.
Guest workers are temporary workers who are contracted for a set period of time
with the understanding that they will leave when the period of work has ended. By
and large, that is not what happens due to the economic realities of short-term
employment. People are reluctant to return to poverty.

Models of Ethnicity

Different places have different conceptions of ethnicity. In the United States, we

separate race from ethnicity, and we have exhaustive lists of ethnicities collected
by the census. France collects neither racial nor ethnic data, under the belief that
every French citizen is ethnically French. This doesn’t include linguistic minorities
such as the Bretons, the Basques or the Alsatians, all of whom are indigenous to
France and whose ideas about their own ethnicities are different from that of the
state.
In other places, ethnic identity is the most significant impediment to state
cohesion. In Nigeria, no less a person than Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka wrote,”
There is no such thing as a Nigerian.” He wasn’t saying that Nigerians are a figment
of the imagination. He was stating that in his country, few people would identify first
as a Nigerian, but instead as Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa or many others.
This is another concept that will be addressed in the next chapter.

CHAPTER 8

AGRICULTURE AND FOOD

65
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this section, the student will be able to:

1. Understand: the origin and evolution of agriculture across the globe

2. Explain: the environment-agriculture relationship, market forces,
institutions, agricultural industrialization, and biorevolution versus
sustainable agriculture
3. Describe: agricultural regions, comparing and contrasting subsistence
and commercial agriculture
4. Connect: the factors of global changes in food production and
consumption

INTRODUCTION
Before the invention of agriculture, people
obtained food from hunting wild animals, fishing, and
gathering fruits, nuts and roots. Having to travel in small
groups to obtain food, people led a nomadic
existence. This remained the only mode of
subsistence until the end of the Mesolithic period, some
12,000-10,000 years ago. Then, agriculture gradually
replaced the hunting and gathering system,
constituting the spread of the Neolithic revolution. Even
today, some isolated groups survive as they did before
agriculture developed. They can be found in some remote
areas such as in Amazonia, Congo, Namibia,
Botswana, Tanzania, New Guinea, and the Arctic
latitude, where hunting dominates life.
The term agriculture refers to the cultivation of
crops and the raising of livestock for both sustenance
and economic gain. The origin of agriculture goes back to prehistoric time, starting
when humans domesticated plants and animals. The domestication of plants and
animals as the origin of agriculture was a pivotal transition in human history, which
occurred several times independently. Agriculture originated and spread in different
regions (hearths) of the world, including the Middle East, Southwest Asia,
Mesoamerica and the Andes, Northeastern India, North China, and East Africa,
beginning as early as 12,000 – 10,000 years ago. People became sedentary, living
in their villages, where new types of social, cultural, political, and economic
relationships were created. This period of momentous innovations is known as the
First Agricultural Revolution.

AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES

66
 Agriculture is a science, a business, and an art. Spatially, agriculture is the
world’s most widely distributed industry. It occupies more area than all other
industries combined, changing the surface of the Earth more than any other.
Farming, with its multiple methods, has significantly transformed the landscape
(small or large fields, terraces, polders, livestock grazing), being an important
reflection of the two-way relationship between people and their environments. The
world’s agricultural societies today are very diverse and complex, with agricultural
practices ranging from the most rudimentary, such as using the ox-pulled plow, to
the most complex, such as using machines, tractors, satellite navigation, and
genetic engineering methods. Customarily, scholars divide agricultural societies into
categories such as subsistence, intermediate, and developed, words that express
the same ideas as primitive, traditional, and modern, respectively. For the purpose
of simplification, farming practices described in this chapter are classified into two
categories, subsistence and commercial, with fundamental differences between
their practice in developed and developing countries.

Subsistence Agriculture
Subsistence agriculture replaced hunting and gathering in many parts of the
globe. The term subsistence, when it relates to farming, refers to growing food
only to sustain the farmers themselves and their families, consuming most of what
they produce, without entering into the cash economy of the country. The farm size
is small, 2-5 acres (1-2 hectares), but the agriculture is less mechanized; therefore,
the percentage of workers engaged directly in farming is very high, reaching 50
percent or more in some developing countries. Climate regions play an important
role in determining agricultural regions. Farming activities range from shifting
cultivation to pastoralism, both extensive forms that still prevail over large regions,
to intensive subsistence.

Shifting Cultivation
Shifting cultivation, also known as slash-and-burn agriculture, is a form of
subsistence agriculture that involves a kind of natural rotation system. Shifting
cultivation is a way of life for 150-200 million people, globally distributed in the
tropical areas, especially in the rain forests of South America, Central and West
Africa, and Southeast Asia. The practices involve removing dense vegetation,
burning the debris, clearing the area, known as swidden, and preparing it for
cultivation. Shifting cultivation can successfully support only low population
densities and, as a result of rapid depletion of soil fertility, the fields are actively
cultivated usually for three years. As a result, the infertile land has to be abandoned
and another site has to be identified, starting again the process of clearing and
planting. The slash-and-burn technique thus requires extensive acreage for new
lots, as well as a great deal of human labor, involving at the same time a frequent
gender division of labor. The kinds of crops grown can be different from region to
region, dominated by tubers, sweet potatoes especially, and grains such as rice and
corn. The practice of mixing different seeds in the same swidden in the warm and

67
humid tropics is favorable for harvesting two or even three times per year. Yet, the
slash-and-burn practice has some negative impacts on the environment, being seen
as ecologically destructive especially for areas with vulnerable and endangered
species Pastoralism
Involving the breeding and herding of animals, pastoralism is another
extensive form of subsistence agriculture. It is adapted to cold and/or dry climates
of savannas (grasslands), deserts, steppes, high plateaus, and Arctic zones where
planting crops is impracticable. Specifically, the practice is characteristic in Africa
[north, central (Sahel) and south], the Middle East, central and southwest Asia, the
Mediterranean basin, and Scandinavia. The species of animals vary with the region
of the world including especially sheep, goats, cattle, reindeer, and camels.
Pastoralism is a successful strategy to support a population on less productive land,
and adapts well to the environment.
Three categories of pastoralism can be individualized: sedentary, nomadic, and
transhumance.
Sedentary pastoralism refers to those farmers who live in their villages and
their herd animals in nearby pastures. A number of men usually are hired by the
villagers in order to take care of their animals. Equally important is the practice in
which the hired men gather the animals (cattle especially) in the morning, feed
them during the day in the nearby pasture, and then return them to the village
early in the evening. This is the typical pattern for many traditional European
pastoralists.
Nomadic pastoralism is a traditional form of subsistence agriculture in which
the pastoralists travel with their herds over long distances and with no fixed
pattern. This is a continuous movement of groups of herds and people such as the
Bedouins of Saudi Arabia, the Bakhtiaris of Iran, the Berbers of North Africa, the
Maasai of East Africa, the Zulus of South Africa, the Mongols of Central Asia, and
other groups. The settlement landscape of pastoral nomads reflects their need for
mobility and flexibility. Usually, they live in a type of tent (known as yurt in Central
Asia) and move their herds to any available pasture. Although there are
approximately 10-15 million nomadic pastoralists in the world, they occupy about
20 percent of Earth’s land area. Today, their life is in decline, the victim of more
constricting political borders, competing land uses, selective overgrazing, and
government resettlement programs.
Transhumance is a seasonal vertical movement by herding the livestock (cows,
sheep, goats, and horses) to cooler, greener high-country pastures in the summer
and then returning them to lowland settings for fall and winter grazing.
Herders have a permanent home, typically in the valleys. Generally, the herds
travel with a certain number of people necessary to tend them, while the main
population stays at the base. This is a traditional practice in the Mediterranean and
the Black Sea basins such as southern European countries, the Carpathian
Mountains, and the Caucasus countrie. In addition, near highland zones such as the
Atlas Mountains (northwest Africa) and the Anatolian Plateau (Turkey), as well as in
Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East countries, and Central Asia, the pastoralists

68
have to practice another type of transhumance, such as the movement of animals
between wet-season and dry-season pasture.

Intensive Subsistence Agriculture

Intensive subsistence agriculture, characteristic of densely populated
regions especially in southern, southeastern, and eastern Asia, involves the
effective and efficient use of small parcels of land in order to maximize crop yield
per acre. The practice requires intensive human labor, with most of the work being
done by hand and/or with animals. The landscape of intensive subsistence
agriculture is significantly transformed, including hillside terraces and raised fields,
adding the irrigation systems and fertilizers. As a result, intensive subsistence
agriculture is able to support large rural populations. Rice is the dominant crop in
the humid areas of southern, southeastern, and eastern Asia. In the drier areas,
other crops are cultivated such as grains (wheat, corn, barley, millet, sorghum, and
oats), as well as peanuts, soybeans, tubers, and vegetables. In both situations, the
land is intensively used, and the milder climate of those regions allows double
cropping (the fields are planted and harvested two times per year).
In recent decades, as the result of the introduction of higher-yielding grain
varieties such as wheat, corn, and rice, known as Green Revolution, tens of
millions of subsistence farmers have been lifted above the survival level. The
spread of these new varieties throughout the farmlands of South, Southeast, and
East Asia, and Mexico greatly improved the supply of food in these areas. Equally
important was the use of fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, and new machines. Today,
China and India are self-sufficient in basic foods, while Thailand and Vietnam are
two of the top rice exporters in the world. Although hunger and famine still persist
in some regions of the world, especially in Africa, many people accept that they
would be much worse without using these innovations.

Commercial Agriculture

Commercial agriculture, generally practiced in core countries outside the

tropics, is developed primarily to generate products for sale to food processing
companies. An exception is plantation farming, a form of commercial agriculture
which persists in developing countries side by side with subsistence. Unlike the
small subsistence farms (1-2 hectares/2-5 acres), the average of the commercial
farm size is over 150 hectares/370 acres (178 ha/193 acres U.S.) and, being
mechanized, many of them are family owned and operated. Mechanization also
determines the percentage of the labor force in agriculture, with many developed
countries being even below two percent of the total employment, such as Israel, the
United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, Canada, Norway, Denmark, and
Sweden. Moreover, as the result of industrialization and urbanization, many
developed countries continue to lose significant areas of agricultural land. North
America, for example, had 28.3 percent agricultural land out of the total land area
in 1961 and 26 percent in 2014. The European Union decreased its agricultural land

69
from 54.7 percent to 43.8 percent for the same period, during which some countries
recorded outstanding decreases, such as Ireland from 81.9 to 64.8 percent, the
United Kingdom from 81.8 to 71.2 percent, and Denmark from 74.6 to 62.2 percent
to mention only a few. In addition to the high level of mechanization, in order to
increase their productivity, commercial farmers use scientific advances in research
and technology such as the Global Positioning System (autonomous precision seed-
planting robot, intelligent systems for animal monitoring, savings in field vegetable-
growing through the use of a GPS automatic steering system), and satellite imagery
(finding efficient routes for selective harvesting based on remote sensing
management).
Climate regions also play an important role in determining agricultural regions.
In developed countries, these regions can be individualized as six types of
commercial agriculture: mixed crop and livestock, grain farming, dairy farming,
livestock ranching, commercial gardening and fruit farming, and Mediterranean
agriculture.

Mixed Crop and Livestock

Mixed crop and livestock farming extends over much of the eastern United
States, central and western Europe, western Russia, Japan, and smaller areas in
South America (Brazil and Uruguay) and South Africa. The rich soils, typically
involving crop rotation, produce high yields primarily of corn and wheat, adding
also soybeans, sugar beets, sunflower, potatoes, fruit orchards, and forage crops for
livestock. In practice, there is a wide variation in mixed systems. At a higher level, a
region can consist of individual specialized farms (corn, for example) and service
systems that together act as a mixed system. Other forms of mixed farming include
cultivation of different crops on the same field or several varieties of the same crop
with different life cycles, using space more efficiently and spreading risks more
uniformly. The same farm may grow cereal crops or orchards, for example, and
keep cattle, sheep, pigs, or poultry

Grain Farming
Commercial grain farming is an extensive and mechanized form of agriculture.
This is a development in the continental lands of the mid-latitudes (mostly between
30° and 55° North and South latitudes), in regions that are too dry for mixed crop
and livestock farming. The major world regions of commercial grain farming are
located in Eurasia (from Kiev, in Ukraine, along southern Russia, to Omsk in western
Siberia and Kazakhstan) and North America (the Great Plains). In the southern
hemisphere, Argentina, in South America, has a large region of commercial grain
farming, and Australia has two such areas, one in the southwest and another in the
southeast. Commercial grain farming is highly specialized and, generally, one single
crop is grown. The most important crop grown is wheat (winter and spring), used to
make flour. The wheat farms are very large, ranging from 240 to 16,000 hectares
(593-40000 acres). The average size of a farm in the U.S. is about 1000 acres (405

70
hectares). In these areas land is cheap, making it possible for a farmer to own very
large holdings.

Dairy Farming
Dairy farming is a branch of agriculture designed for long-term production of
milk, processed either on a farm or at a dairy plant, for sale. It is practiced near
large urban areas in both developed and developing countries. The location of this
type of farm is dictated by the highly perishable milk. The ring surrounding a city
where fresh milk is economically viable, supplied without spoiling, is about a 100-
mile radius. In the 1980s and 1990s, robotic milking systems were developed and
introduced in some developing countries, principally in the EU. There is an
important variation in the pattern of dairy production worldwide. Many countries
that are large producers consume most of this internally, while others, in particular
New Zealand, export a large percentage of their production, some from the organic
farms.

Livestock Ranching

Ranching is the commercial grazing of livestock on large tracts of land. It is

an efficient way to raise livestock to provide meat, dairy products, and raw
materials for fabrics. Contemporary ranching has become part of the meat-
processing industry. Primarily, ranching is practiced on semiarid or arid land where
the vegetation is too sparse and the soil too poor to support crops, being a vital part
of economies and rural development around the world. In Australia, like in the
Americas, ranching is a way of life. In the United States, near Greeley, Colorado,
there is the world’s largest cattle feedlot, with over 120,000 head, a subsidiary of
the food giant ConAgra. The largest beef-producing company in the world is the
Brazilian multinational corporation JBS-Friboi. Argentina and Uruguay are the world’s
top per capita consumers of beef. China is the leading producer of pig meat while
the United States leads in the production of chicken and beef.

Commercial Gardening and Fruit Farming

A market garden is a relatively smallscale business, growing vegetables, fruits,
and flowers. The farms are small, from under one acre to a few acres (.5-1.5
hectares). The diversity of crops is sometimes cultivated in greenhouses,
distinguishing it from other types of farming. Commercial gardening and fruit
farming is quite diverse, requiring more manual labor and gardening techniques. In
the United States, commercial gardening and fruit farming is the predominant type
of agriculture in the Southeast, the region with a warm and humid climate and a
long growing season. In addition to the traditional vegetables and fruits (tomatoes,
lettuce, onions, peaches, apples, cherries), a new kind of commercial gardening has
developed in the Northeast. This is a non-traditional market garden, growing crops
that, although limited, are increasingly demanded by consumers, such as
asparagus, mushrooms, peppers, and strawberries. Market gardening has become

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an alternative business, significantly profitable and sustainable especially with the
recent popularity of organic and local food.

Mediterranean Agriculture
The term ‘Mediterranean agriculture’ applies to the agriculture done in those
regions which have a Mediterranean type of climate, hot and dry summers and
moist and mild winters. Five major regions in the world have a Mediterranean type
of agriculture, such as the lands that border the Mediterranean Sea (South Europe,
North Africa, and the Middle East), California, central Chile, South Africa’s Cape, and
in parts of southwestern and southern Australia. Farming is intensive, highly
specialized and varied in the kinds of crops raised. The hilly Mediterranean lands,
also known as ‘orchard lands of the world,’ are dominated by citrus fruits (oranges,
lemons, and grapefruits), olives (primary for cooking oil), figs, dates, and grapes
(primarily for wine), which are mainly for export. These and other commodities flow
to distant markets, Mediterranean products tending to be popular and commanding
high prices. Yet, the warm and sunny Mediterranean climate also allows a wide
range of other food crops, such as cereals (wheat, especially) and vegetables,
cultivated especially for domestic consumption.

Plantation Farming
Plantations are large landholdings in developing regions designed to produce
crops for export. Usually, they specialize in the production of one particular crop for
market laid out to produce coffee, cocoa, bananas, or sugar in South and Central
America; cocoa, tea, rice, or rubber in West and East Africa; tea in South Asia;
rubber in Southeast Asia, and/or other specialized and luxury crops such as palm oil,
peanuts, cotton, and tobacco. Plantations are located in the tropical and subtropical
regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America and, although they are located in the
developing countries, many are owned and operated by European or North
American individuals or corporations. Even those taken by governments of the
newly independent countries continued to be operated by foreigners in order to
receive income from foreign sources. These plantations survived during
decolonization, continuing to serve the rich markets of the world.
Unlike coffee, sugar, rice, cotton and other traditional crops, exported from large
plantations, other crops can be required by the international market such as flowers
and specific fruits and vegetables. These represent the nontraditional
agricultural exports, which have become increasingly important in some
countries or regions such as Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, and Central
America, to mention a few. One important reason for sustaining nontraditional
exports is that they complement the traditional exports, generating foreign
exchange and employment. Thus, plantation agriculture, designed to produce crops
for export, is critical to the economies of many developing countries.

GLOBAL CHANGES IN FOOD PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION

72
Commercial Agriculture and Market Forces
Farming is part of agribusiness as a complex political and economic system that
organizes food production from the development of seeds to the retailing and
consumption of the agricultural product. Although farming is just one stage of the
complex economic process, it is incorporated into the world economic system of
capitalism (globalized). Most farms are owned by individual families, but, in this
context, many other aspects of agribusiness are controlled by large corporations.
Consequently, this type of farming responds to market forces rather than to feeding
the farmer. Using Von Thünen’s isolate state model, which generated four
concentric rings of agricultural activity, geographers explain that the choice of crops
on commercial farms is only worthwhile within certain distances from the city. The
effect of distance determines that highly perishable products (milk, fresh fruits, and
vegetables) need to be produced near the market, whereas grain farming and
livestock ranching can be located on the peripheral rings.
New Zealand, for example, is a particular case of a country whose agriculture
was thrown into a global free market. More specifically, its agriculture has changed
in response to the restructuring of the global food system and, at the same time, is
responding to a new global food regime. For New Zealand to remain competitive,
farmers have to intensify production of high added value or more customized
products, also focusing on nontraditional exports such as kiwi, Asian pears,
vegetables, flowers, and venison (meat produced on deer farms). The New Zealand
agricultural sector is unique in being the only developed country to be totally
exposed to the international markets since the government subsidies were
removed.

Biotechnology and Agriculture

Since the 19th century, manipulation and management of biological organisms
have been a key to the development of agriculture. In addition to Green Revolution,
agriculture has also undergone a Biorevolution, involving agricultural
biotechnology (agritech), an area of agricultural science involving the use of
scientific tools and genetic engineering techniques to modify living organisms (or
part of organisms) of plants and animals with the potential of outstripping the
productivity increases of the Green Revolution and, at the same time, reducing
agricultural production costs. Within the agricultural biotechnology process, desired
traits are exported from a particular species of crop or animal to the different
species obtaining transgenic crops, which possess desirable characteristics in terms
of flavor, color of flowers, growth rate, size of harvested products, and resistance to
diseases and pests (BT corn, for example, can produce its own pesticides).
By removing the genetic material from one organism and inserting it into the
permanent genetic code of another, the biotech industry has created an astounding
number of organisms that are not produced by nature. It has been estimated that
upwards of 75 percent of processed foods on supermarket shelves – from soda to

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soup, crackers to condiments – contain genetically engineered ingredients. So far,
little is known about the impacts of genetically modified (GM) foods on human
health and the environment. Consequently, it is difficult to sort the benefits from the
costs of their increasing incorporation into global food production. The United States
is the leader not only for the number of the genetically engineered (GE) food crops
but also for the largest areas planted with commercialized biotech crops. Many
countries, in Europe, for example, consider that the genetic modification has not
been proved safe, the reason for which they require all food to be labeled and
refuse to import GM food. Yet, in the United States, genetic modification is
permitted, taking into consideration that there is no evidence yet supporting that it
is dangerous. Many people instead consider that they have the right to decide what
they eat and, consequently, in their opinion, labeling of GM products must be
mandatory. Protests against GMO regulatory structures have been very effective in
many counties including the United States.
Currently, over 60 countries around the world require labeling of genetically
modified foods, including the 28 nations in the European Union, Japan, Australia,
Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa, China, and other countries. The debates regarding
labeling certainly will continue. Since no one knows whether GM foods are entirely
bad or entirely good, regulatory structures are crucial, protecting human health and
the environment.

Food and Health

Since the end of World War II, the world’s technically and economically feasible
food production potential has significantly expanded. As a result, today, there is
more than enough food to feed all the people on the Earth. Yet, the major issue is
the access to food, which is uneven, the reason for which millions of individuals in
both the core and the periphery are affected by poverty, preventing them from
securing adequate nutrition.

Hunger, chronic (long-term) or acute (short-term), therefore, is one of the most

pressing issues facing the world today. Chronic hunger, also known as
undernutrition, is an inadequate consumption of the necessary nutrients and/ or
calories. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
considers necessary at least 1,800 kcal/day for an individual to consume in order to
maintain a healthy life. The world average consumption is 2,780 kcal/day, but there
is a significant difference between developed countries, with an average of 3,470
kcal/day (3,800 kcal/day in the U.S.), and developing countries, recording an
average of 2,630 kcal/day (even less in sub-Saharan countries). FAO estimates that
currently about 800 million people are undernourished globally, significantly less
than in the early 1990s, but the majority continue to be counted in southern Asia
and sub-Saharan Africa. One form of hunger is famine, an acute starvation caused
even by a population’s command over food resources, natural disasters (e.g.,
drought, Ethiopia in 1984-1985), or wars. In contrast, in North America, the United
States especially, where the food is abundant and inspected for quality, overeating

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is a national problem, the reason for which the general condition of the population is
reflected more by obesity.
Nutritional vulnerability is conceptualized in terms of the notion of food security.
According to FAO, food security exists when all people, at all times, have access to
food for an active and healthy life. Related to food security is the concept of food
sovereignty, which is the right of people, communities, and countries to define
their own agricultural policies. One factor connected with food in general and food
sovereignty especially is the fact that more cropland is redirected to raising
biofuels, fuels derived from biological materials. They not only have a significant
and increasing impact on global food systems but also result in evictions of small
farmers and poor communities.

Sustainable Agriculture
Alongside the emergence of a core-oriented food regime especially of fresh
fruits and vegetables, a new orientation in agriculture is sustainability. According
to the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI), “sustainable agriculture is
the efficient production of safe, high quality agricultural products, in a way that
protects and improves the natural environment, the social and economic
conditions of farmers, their employees and local communities, and safeguards the
health and welfare of all farmed species” (SAI Platform 20102018) . More
specifically, sustainability in agriculture is the increased commitment to organic
farming, the principles and practices for sustainable agriculture developed by SAI
being articulated around three main pillars: society, economy, and environment.
Although organic food production is not the primary mode of the agricultural
practice, it has already become a growing force alongside the dominant
conventional farming. Yet, unlike conventional farming, which promotes
monoculture on large commercial farms and uses chemicals and intensive hormone-
practices, organic farming, which puts small-scale farmers at the center of food
production, does not use genetically modified seeds, synthetic pesticides,
herbicides, or fertilizers. Thus, sustainable agricultural practices not only promote
diversity and healthy food but also preserve and enhance environmental quality.

CONCLUSION

Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization,
domesticating species of plants and animals and creating food surpluses that
nurtured the development of civilization. It began independently in different parts of
the globe, both the Old and New World. Throughout history, agriculture played a
dynamic role in expanding food supplies, creating employment, and providing a
rapidly growing market for industrial products. Although subsistence, self-sufficient
agriculture has largely disappeared in Europe and North America, it continues today
in large parts of rural Africa, and parts of Asia and Latin America. While traditional
forms of agricultural practices continue to exist, they are overshadowed by the

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global industrialization of agriculture, which has accelerated in the last few decades.
Yet, commercial agriculture differs significantly from subsistence agriculture, as the
main objective of commercial agriculture is achieving higher profits.
Farmers in both the core and the periphery have had to adjust to many changes
that occurred at all levels, from the local to the global. Although states have
become important players in the regulation and support of agriculture, at the global
level, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has significant implications in
agriculture. Social reactions to genetically engineered foods have repercussions
throughout the world food system. Currently, the focus is especially on the option
that a balanced, safe, and sustainable approach can be the solution not only to
achieve sustainable intensification of crop productivity but also to protect the
environment. Therefore, agriculture has become a highly complex, globally
integrated system, and achieving the transformation to sustainable agriculture is a
major challenge.

CHAPTER 9
INDUSTRY
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this section, the student will be able to:

1. Understand: the origins and diffusion of industrial production

2. Explain: the impact of industry on places
3. Describe: the industrial basis of modern cultures
4. Connect: industrialization, technology, the service sector and
globalization

INTRODUCTION
We live in a globalized world. Products are designed in one place, assembled in
another from parts produced in multiple other places. These products are marketed
nearly everywhere. Until a few decades ago, such a process would have been
impossible. Two hundred years ago, such an idea would have been beyond
comprehension. What happened to change the world in such a way. What
eventually tied all the economies of the world into a global economy? Industry did.
The Industrial Revolution changed the world as much as the Agricultural Revolution.
Industry has made the modern lifestyle possible.

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 During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, something very peculiar happened.
Candidates from both major parties (Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton) agreed over
and over again on one thing (and only one thing). The U.S. needed to create and/or
bring back manufacturing jobs. Both candidates promised, if elected, to create new,
well-paid manufacturing jobs. This was an odd shift, because for the previous 40+
years Republicans typically embraced free trade that allows manufacturers to
choose where and what to produce (and many chose to move operations outside of
the U.S.), while Democrats claimed to be working for the interests of blue-collar,
working class people, whose jobs and wages had diminished since the 1980s period
of de-industrialization both in the U.S. and throughout the
developed/industrialized world. In the U.S. manufacturing provided jobs to 13
million workers in 1950, rising to 20 million in 1980 but by 2017 that number was
back to 12 million – similar to levels last seen in 1941. A similar story can be found
in Great Britain where jobs in manufacturing in 2017 were half of what they were in
1978 and output that once was 30% of GDP accounts for only 10% in 2017. Similar
stories can be found in Germany, Japan, and other ‘industrialized’ economies. You
may ask yourself, “Where did all of those jobs go?” But if you think about it, you can
probably come up with your own answers.
It’s important to note that even as jobs declined, manufacturing output in most
industrialized countries continued to increase, so fewer people were producing more
things. The first and simplest explanation for this is automation. For years, science
fiction writers have warned us that the robots are coming. In the case of
manufacturing technology…they’re already here! Workers today are aided by
software, robots, and sophisticated tools that have simply replaced millions of
workers. Working at a manufacturing facility is no longer simply a labor-intensive
effort, but one that requires extensive training, knowledge, and willingness to learn
new technologies all the time. The second explanation is the relocation of
manufacturing from wealthy countries to poorer ones because of lower wages in the
latter.
As discussed earlier in this chapter, most countries have moved away from the
protectionist model of development, allowing corporations to choose for themselves
the location of production. No better example of this shift can be found than
Walmart, which in the 1970’s advertised that the majority of all of the products it
sold were made in the USA. Thirty years later, it would be difficult for to find ANY
manufactured product that was still ‘made in the USA’. A third reason for the
decline in manufacturing jobs is a decrease in demand for certain types of items.
Steel production in the U.S. and England dropped precipitously during the period of
deindustrialization (since the 1980’s) not just due to automation or cheaper wages
elsewhere, but also because demand for steel also declined. During the 20 th century
the U.S., Europe, and Japan required enormous amounts of steel in the construction
of bridges, dams, railroad, skyscrapers, and even automobiles. Building of such
items in the 21st century has slowed down, not because those countries are in
decline, but because there is a limit as to how many bridges and skyscrapers are
needed in any country! Demand for steel in a country diminishes as GDP per capita

77
reaches about $20,000. Meanwhile, demand for steel will continue to rise in Japan
and India for several years as they (and other industrializing countries) continue to
expand cities, rail lines, and other large-scale construction projects. Such a decline
in steel production does NOT mean that a country is in decline, but rather that there
has been a shift in the type of manufacturing that occurs. The U.S., Germany, and
Japan all continue to increase manufacturing output, even as their share of global
output continues to decline.

Another significant shift in manufacturing relates specifically to the

geography of production and is best understood in the consideration of 2 different
modes of production: 1) Fordism 2) Post-Fordism. Fordism is associated with the
assembly line style of production credited to Henry Ford, who dramatically
improved efficiency by instituting assembly line techniques to specialize/simplify
jobs, standardize parts, reduce production errors, and keep wages high. Those
techniques drove massive growth in manufacturing output throughout most of the
20th century and brought the cost of goods down to levels affordable by the
masses. Nearly all of the automobile assembly plants located in and around the
Great Lakes region of North America adopted the same strategies, which also
provided healthy amounts of competition and new innovation for decades, as North
America became the world’s leading producer of automobiles. Post-Fordism begins
to take hold in the 1980’s as a new, global mode of production that seeks to
relocate various components of production across multiple places, regions, and
countries. Under Fordism, the entire unit would be produced locally, while Post-
Fordism seeks the lowest cost location for every different component, no matter
where that might be. Consider an optical, wireless mouse for a moment. The optical
component may come from Korea, the rubber cord from Thailand, the plastic from
Taiwan, and the patent from the U.S. Meanwhile, all of those items are most likely
transported to China, where low-wage workers manually assemble the finished
project and an automated packing system boxes and wraps it for shipping to all
corners of the world. Global trade has been occurring for hundreds of years, dating
back to the days of the Silk Road, Marco Polo, and the Dutch East India Company,
but PostFordism, in which a single item is comprised of multiple layers of
manufacturing from multiple places around the world, is a very recent innovation.
The system has reconfigured the globe, such that manufacturers are constantly
searching for new locations of cheap production. Consumers tend to benefit greatly
from the system in that even poor middle school students in the U.S. can somehow
afford to own a pocket computer (smart phone) that is more powerful than the most
advanced computer system in the world from the previous generation. This is kind
of a miracle. On the other hand, manufacturing jobs that once were a pathway to
upward economic mobility, no longer assure people of such a decent standard of
living as they once did.

History of Industrialization

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 Industrialization was not a process that emerged, fully-formed in England in the
eighteenth century. It was the result of centuries of incremental developments that
were assembled and deployed in the 18th century. Early industrialization involved
using water power to run giant looms that produced cloth at a very low cost. This
early manufacturing didn’t use coal and belch smoke into the sky, but it initiated an
industrial mindset. Costs could be reduced by relying on inanimate power (first
water, then steam, then electricity), converting production to simple steps that
cheap low-skilled laborers could do (Taylorism), getting larger and concentrated in
an area (economy of scale), and cranking out large numbers of the same thing
(Fordism). This is industry in a nutshell. The advantage of industry was that a
company could sell a cheaper product, but at a greater profit.
As this mindset was applied to other goods, and then services, the world was
changed forever. Places which had been producing goods for millennia suddenly
(really suddenly) found themselves competing with a product that was far cheaper.
Economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the term “creative destruction” to describe
the process in which new industries destroy old ones. Hand production of goods for
the masses began to decline precipitously. They quickly became too expensive in
comparison to manufactured goods. Today, hand produced goods are often
reserved for the wealthy.
A contemporary example of the industrial mode of production is fast food.
Looking inside the kitchen of a fast food restaurant will reveal industrially prepared
ingredients prepared just in time for sale to a customer. It is not the same process
that you would use at home.
In the abstract, companies do not exist to provide jobs or even to make things.
Companies exist to produce a profit. If changing the method of making a profit is
necessary, then the company will do that in order to survive. If it cannot, then it will
go away. For example, many companies today are highly diversified, for example
Mitsubishi produces such unrelated products as cars and tuna fish. What is the
connection between the two. They both produce profit.

Industrial Geography

How is industry related to geography? For one thing, industrial societies have
more goods in them. Since the goods are cheaper, people just have more things.
For another, the means of production, the factories, shipping terminals, and
distribution centers are visible for anyone to see. The lifestyles of industrialized
people are different. Pre-industrialized societies are not regulated by clocks, for
example, people wear lass-produced similar clothing. They listen to globally
marketed music. If it seems like you already read this in the chapter on pop culture,
you have. Pop culture is a function of industry. Geography is concerned with places
and industry changed the way the world operates. It changed the relationships
between places. Places that industrialized early gained the ability to economically
and politically dominate other parts of the world that had not industrialized.

79
Something as simple as having access to cheap, mass produced guns had impacts
far beyond mere trade relationships.
Over time industrial production changed from one that disrupted local
economies to one that completely changed the relationship that most human
beings had with their material culture, their environment, and with one another.
Industry has improved standards of living and increased food production on one
hand and it has despoiled environments and promoted massive inequality on the
other.
Industrialization is about applying rational thought to production of goods.
Specifically, this form of rational thought refers to discovering ways to reduce
unnecessary labor, materials, capital (money), and time. In the same way that
factories changed how things were produced, it also changed where things were
produced. Locational criteria are used to determine where a factory even gets built.

GLOBAL PRODUCTION
Hegemony and Economic Ascendency
At times industrialization has propelled countries to great economic heights.
Britain, The United States and Japan all rode an industrial wave to international
prominence. In those countries and others, a (largely mythical) golden age centers
around a time when low-skilled workers could earn a sufficient wage to secure
economic security. This is more-or-less what the “American Dream” was.
Deindustrialization has changed the economic trajectories of these countries and
the people living in these countries. However, it must be noted that post-industrial
countries that have not seen rapid increases in poverty. Wages have been largely
stagnant for decades, but they have not generally gone down. The largest
difference has to do with relative prosperity for industrial and post-industrial
countries. Countries such as Japan, the UK or the US are no longer far wealthier than
their neighbors. In the same way that flooding a market with a particular product
reduces the value of that product, flooding the world with industrial capacity lowers
the relative value of that activity. Developing countries function as appendages to
the larger economies in the world. The poor serve the needs of the wealthy.
Unindustrialized countries buy goods from developed countries, or they license or
copy technology and make the products themselves.

Space and Production

In the context of a globalized market, a factory built in one market may not built
in another. This is not to say that producing goods is a zero-sum game, but there
are limits to the amount of any good that can be sold. It’s a valid question to ask
why transnational corporations (TNCs) have bought into China at rates far greater
than in Cuba, Russia, or other Communist or formerly Communist (to varying
degrees) countries? There is only so much spare capacity for production in the
world. If one giant country (China) is taking all the extra capacity, then there will be

80
none left for others. FDI is simply easier in China, since there is more bang for the
buck. This is largely a function of population. The population of China is roughly two
times the population of Sub Saharan Africa. And China has a single
political/economic running class, as opposed to 55 different sets of often fractious
political classes. If the industrialization of Africa happens at all, it will occur after
China and its immediate neighbors who have been drawn into its larger economic
functioning have largely finished their own industrializing. An example of this
proximate effect is seen in the shift of some industries from China to Vietnam and
Indonesia.
China’s industrialization had to do with promoting itself as a huge cheap labor
pool, and as a gigantic market for goods. It successfully leveraged both of these
characteristics to attract foreign investment, and to gain foreign technology from
the companies that have invested in producing goods there. Industrialization overall
seems to have slowed. The speed at which China industrialized has not been
matched by other countries following China. One current idea is that the world is in
a race between industrial expansion and rapid over capacity of production. In other
words, the reason that industrialization isn’t expanding as rapidly as before is that
we are already making enough goods to satisfy demand. Remember that goods
require demand. Unsold goods don’t produce any income. If the factories in the
world are already producing enough, or even too much, then new factories are
much less likely to be built. Technological advances and the massive
industrialization of China might have ended the expansion of industry.
It also appears that the highest levels of manufacturing income are well in the
past. According to economist Dani Rodrik, the highest per capita incomes from
manufacturing occurred between 1965 and 1975, and has fallen dramatically since
then. This is even considering inflation. Many countries industrializing now only see
modest improvements in income. This is related to supply and demand. When there
are fewer factories, they make comparatively more money. When factories are
everywhere, they are competing with everyone.

Trade

Even more than expansion of industrial production, the world has seen an
expansion of trade. Global trade has produced an intricate web of exchanges as
products are now designed in one country, parts are produced in 10 others,
assembled in yet another country, and then marketed to the world. Consider
something as complex as an automobile. The parts of a car can be sourced from
any of dozens of countries, but they all have to be brought to one spot for assembly.
Such coordination would have been impossible in the past.
Individuals can buy directly from another country on the internet, but most
international trade is business-to-business. TNCs are able to conduct an internal
form of international trade in goods that can be moved and produced in a way that
is most advantageous for the company. Tax breaks, easy credit and banking privacy
laws exist to siphon investment from one place to another.

81
 Because of global trade, improvements in communication and transportation
have enabled some companies to enact just in time delivery, in which the parts
need for a product only arrive right before they are needed. The advantage of this is
that a company has less money trapped in components in a storage facility, and it
becomes easier to adjust production. Once again, such coordination at a global
scale was not possible even in the relatively recent past.

Deindustrialization

Historically industrialized countries were the wealthy countries of the world.

Industrialization, however, is now two centuries old. In the last decades of the
twentieth century, deindustrialization began in earnest in the United Kingdom, the
United States, and many other places. Factories left and the old jobs left with them.
Classical economics holds that such jobs had become less valuable, and that
moving them offshore was a good deal for everyone. Offshored goods were cheaper
for consumers, and the lost jobs were replaced by better jobs. The problem with this
idea is that it separates the condition of being a consumer from the condition of
being a worker. Most people in any economy are workers. They can only consume
as long as they have an income, and that is tied to their ability to work. Many
workers whose jobs went elsewhere found that their new jobs paid less than their
old jobs.

What Happens After Deindustrialization?

The simple answer to the above question is this. The service economy happens!
As manufacturing provides fewer jobs, service industries tend to create new jobs.
This is a very delicate balance, however. If you are a 50-year old coal miner whose
job has been eliminated by automation, it is very difficult for you to simply change
jobs and enter the ‘service sector’. This transition is very damaging to those without
the right skills, training, education, or geographic location. Many parts of the
American Midwest, for example, have become known as the “rust belt” as industrial
facilities closed, decayed, and literally rusted to the horror of those residents who
once had good jobs there. The city of Detroit, for example, lost nearly half of its
urban population from 1970-2010. Meanwhile the state of Illinois loses one resident
every 15 minutes as job growth has weakened in the post-industrial age. However,
job growth and productivity in the service economy have strengthened and provide
more job opportunities today than the industrial era ever did in the U.S.
There are 3 sectors to every economy:

1. Primary (agriculture, fishing, and mining)

2. Secondary (manufacturing and construction)
3. Tertiary (service related jobs)

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 The vast majority of economic growth in the post-industrialized world comes in
the tertiary sector. This doesn’t mean that all tertiary jobs pay well. Just ask any
fast-food worker if the service sector is making them rich! However, service sector
jobs are very dynamic and offer tangible opportunities to millions of people around
the world to earn a living providing services to somebody else. We can further break
down the service sector into 1) public (the post office, public utilities, working for
the government) 2) business (businesses providing services to other businesses) 3)
consumer (anything that provides a service to a private consumer e.g. hotels,
restaurants, barber shops, mechanics, financial services). Traditionally, service
sector jobs worked very much like manufacturing jobs in that employees worked
regular hours, earned benefits from the employer, gained raises through increased
performance, and went to work somewhere outside of their home. Many service
jobs in the 21st century, however, have been categorized as the gig economy, in
which workers serve as contractors (rather than employees), have no regular work
schedules, don’t earn benefits, and often work in isolation from other workers rather
than as a part of a team. Examples of ‘jobs’ in the gig economy include private
tutor, Uber/Lyft driver, AirBNB host, blogger, and YouTuber. Work, in this economy,
is not necessarily bound by particular places and spaces in the way that it did in
manufacturing. Imagine a steel worker calling in to tell his/her boss that they’re just
going to work from home today! Even public schools have adapted to this model in
the following manner. As schools cancel class due to weather, the new norm is to
hold class online, whereby students do independent work submitted to the teacher
even though nobody is at school. As such, some workers are freed up from the
traditional constraints of time and place and can choose to live anywhere as long as
they maintain access to a computer and the Internet. Services like fiverr. com
facilitate a marketplace for freelance writers compose essays for others or for
graphic artists to sell their design ideas directly to customers without every meeting
one another.
The global marketplace continues to be defined as a place where the traditional
relationships between employer and employee are changing dramatically. A word of
caution is necessary here, however. As many choose to celebrate the freedom that
accompanies flexible work schedules, there is also a darker side in that the
traditional ‘contract’ and social cohesive element between workers and owners is
very much at risk. One defining factor of the 20th century was the development of
civil society that fought for and won a host of protective measures for workers, who
otherwise could face abusive work conditions. Child labor laws, minimum wage,
environmental safety measures, overtime pay, and guards against discrimination
were all based upon an employer-employee relationship that seems increasingly
threatened by the gig economy. Uber drivers can work themselves to exhaustion
since they are not employees. AirBNB hosts can skirt environmental safety
precautions since they do not face the same safety inspections required at hotels.
These are just a few examples, but they are very worth consideration. Regardless of
the positives and negatives, the new service economy is having a transformative
effect upon all facets of society. Although, the authors of this textbook are all

83
geography professors with PhD’s from a variety of universities, perhaps the next
version of this textbook will simply draw upon the gig economy to seek the lowest
cost authors who are willing to write about all things geographical. Will you be able
to tell the difference? (We hope so!!!)

SUMMARY
Industrial production changed the relationship of people to their environments.
Folk (pre-industrial) cultures used local resources and knowledge to hand-produce
goods. Now the productions of goods and the provisioning of services can be split
into innumerable spatially discrete pieces. Competition drives the costs of goods
and services downward providing relentless pressure to cut costs. This process has
pushed industrialization into most corners of the world as companies have looked
further and further afield to find cheaper labor and materials and to find more
customers. Industrialization has fueled a change in lifestyle, as goods have become
cheaper, they have become more accessible to more people. Our lives have
changed. We now live according to a schedule dictated by international production.

CHAPTER 10
HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this section, the student will be able to:

1. Discuss the similarities and differences between rural and urban

2. Explain urban origins and how the earliest settlements developed
independently in the various hearth areas
3. Describe the models of rural and urban structure, comparing and
contrasting urban patterns in different regions of the world
4. Connect the nature and causes of the problems associated with over
urbanization in developing countries.

RURAL SETTLEMENT PATTERNS

There are many types of rural settlements. Using as classification criteria the
shape, internal structure, and streets texture, settlements can be classified into two
broad categories: clustered and dispersed.

Clustered Rural Settlements

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 A clustered rural settlement is a rural settlement where a number of families live
in close proximity to each other, with fields surrounding the collection of houses and
farm buildings. The layout of this type of village reflects historical circumstances, the
nature of the land, economic conditions, and local cultural characteristics. The rural
settlement patterns range from compact to linear, to circular, and grid.

Compact Rural Settlements

This model has a center where several public buildings are located such as the
community hall, bank, commercial complex, school, and church. This center is
surrounded by houses and farmland. Small garden plots are located in the first ring
surrounding the houses, continued with large cultivated land areas, pastures, and
woodlands in successive rings. The compact villages are located either in the plain
areas with important water resources or in some hilly and mountainous depressions.
In some cases, the compact villages are designed to conserve land for farming,
standing in sharp contrast to the often isolated farms of the American Great Plains or
Australia (Figure 12.1).

Figure 12.1 | A Compact

Village in India
Author | User “Parthan”
Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | CC BY SA 2.0
Linear Rural Settlements
The linear form is comprised of buildings along a road, river, dike, or seacoast.
Excluding the mountainous zones, the agricultural land is extended behind the
buildings. The river can supply the people with a water source and the availability to
travel and communicate. Roads were constructed in parallel to the river for access to
inland farms. In this way, a new linear settlement can emerge along each road,
parallel to the original riverfront settlement (Figure 12.2).

85
Figure 12.2 | Linear Village
of Outlane
Author | Mark Mercer
Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | CC BY SA 2.0

Circular Rural Settlements

This form consists of a central open space surrounded by structures. Such

settlements are variously referred to as a Rundling, Runddorf, Rundlingsdorf,
Rundplatzdorf or Platzdorf (Germany), Circulades and Bastides (France), or Kraal
(Africa). There are no contemporary historical records of the founding of these
circular villages, but a consensus has arisen in recent decades. The current leading
theory is that Rundlinge were developed at more or less the same time in the 12th
century, to a model developed by the Germanic nobility as suitable for small groups
of mainly Slavic farm-settlers. Also, in the medieval times, villages in the Languedoc,
France, were often situated on hilltops and built in a circular fashion for defensive
purpose (Figures 12.3 and 12.4).
Although far from the German territory, Romania has a unique, circular German
village. Located southwestern Romania, Charlottenburg is the only round village in
the country. The village was established around 1770 by Swabians who came to the
region as part of the second wave of German colonization. In the middle of the
village is a covered well surrounded by a perfect circle of mulberry trees behind
which are houses with stables, barns, and their gardens in the external ring. Due to
its uniqueness, the beautiful village plan from the baroque era has been preserved
as a historical monument (Figure 12.3).

Figure 12.3 |
Bastide in France

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Author | User “Chensiyuan”
Source | Wikimedia Commons

Figure 12.4 | Kraal - A circular village in Africa Figure 12.5 | Charlottenburg, Romania
Author | User “Hp.Baumeler” Author | German Wikipedia user
Source | Wikimedia Commons “Eddiebw”
License | CC BY SA 4.0 Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | CC BY SA 3.0

Dispersed Rural Settlements

Dispersed Rural Settlements

A dispersed settlement is one of the main types of settlement patterns used to
classify rural settlements. Typically, in stark contrast to a nucleated settlement,
dispersed settlements range from a scattered to an isolated pattern (Figure 12.6).
In addition to Western Europe, dispersed patterns of settlements are found in many
other world regions, including North America.

Linear
Dispersed
Nucleated

Isolated

Figure 12.6 | Settlement Patterns2

Author | Corey Parson
Source | Origina Work
License | CC BY SA 4.0

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 Scattered Rural Settlements
A scattered dispersed type of rural settlement is generally found in a variety of
landforms, such as the foothill, tableland, and upland regions. Yet, the proper
scattered village is found at the highest elevations and reflects the rugged terrain
and pastoral economic life. The population maintains many traditional features in
architecture, dress, and social customs, and the old market centers are still
important. Small plots and dwellings are carved out of the forests and on the upland
pastures wherever physical conditions permit. Mining, livestock raising, and
agriculture are the main economic activities, the latter characterized by terrace
cultivation on the mountain slopes. The sub-mountain regions, with hills and valleys
covered by plowed fields, vineyards, orchards, and pastures, typically have this type
of settlement.

Isolated Rural Settlements

This form consists of separate farmsteads scattered throughout the area in which
farmers live on individual farms isolated from neighbors rather than alongside other
farmers in settlements. The isolated settlement pattern is dominant in rural areas of
the United States, but it is also an important characteristic for Canada, Australia,
Europe, and other regions. In the United States, the dispersed settlement pattern
was developed first in the Middle Atlantic colonies as a result of the individual
immigrants’ arrivals. As people started to move westward, where land was plentiful,
the isolated type of settlements became dominant in the American Midwest. These
farms are located in the large plains and plateaus agricultural areas, but some
isolated farms, including hamlets, can also be found in different mountainous areas
(Figures 12.7 and 12.8).

Figure 12.7 | Isolated Horse

Author | Randy Fath Source | Unsplash

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License | CC 0

Figure 12.8 | Undredal, Norway

Author | Micha L. Rieser
Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | © Micha L. Rieser. Used with permission.
12.3 URBANIZATION
12.3.1 Urban Origins

Figure 12.9 | Five Hearths of Urbanization

Author | User “Canuckguy” and Corey Parson Source |
Wikimedia Commons
License | CC BY SA 4.0

The earliest towns and cities developed independently in the various regions of
the world. These hearth areas have experienced their first agricultural revolution,

Figure 12.10 | Fertile Crescent

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 Author | User “NormanEinstein”
Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | CC BY SA 3.0
characterized by the transition from hunting and gathering to agricultural food production

Five world regions are considered as hearth areas, providing the earliest evidence
for urbanization: Mesopotamia and Egypt (both parts of the Fertile Crescent of Southwest
Asia), the Indus Valley, Northern China, and Mesoamerica. Over time, these five hearths
produced successive generations of urbanized world-empires, followed by the diffusion of
urbanization to the rest of the world.
The first regions of independent urbanism were in Mesopotamia and Egypt from around
3500 B.C. Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was the eastern
part of the so-called Fertile Crescent,From the Mesopotamian Basin the Fertile Crescent
stretched in an arc across the northern part of the Syrian Desert as far west as Egypt, in
the Nile Valley. In Mesopotamia, the significant growth in size of some of the agricultural
villages formed the basis for the large fortified citystates of the Sumerian Empire such as
Ur, Uruk, Eridu, and Erbil, in present-day Iraq. By 1885 B.C., the Sumerian city-states had
been taken over by the Babylonians, who governed the region from Babylon, their capital
city. Unlike in Mesopotamia, internal peace in Egypt determined no need for any defensive
fortification. Around 3000 B.C. the largest Egyptian city was probably Memphis (over
30,000 inhabitants). Yet, between 2000 and 1400 B.C., urbanization continued with the
founding of several capital cities such as Thebes and Tanis.

About 2500 B.C, large urban settlements were developed in the Indus Valley (Mohenjo-Daro,
especially), in modern Pakistan, and later, about 1800 B.C., in the fertile plains of the Huang He
River (or Yellow River) in Northern China, supported by the fertile soils and extensive irrigation
systems. Other areas of independent urbanism include Mesoamerica (Zapotec and Mayan
civilizations, in Mexico) from around 100 B.C. and, later, Andean America from around A.D. 800
(Inca Empire, from northern Ecuador to central Chile). Teotihuacan (Figure 12.11), near modern
Mexico City, reached its height with about 200,000 inhabitants between A.D. 300 and 700.

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Figure 12.11 | Teotihuacan,
Mexico
Author | User “BrCG2007”
Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | Public Domain
The city-building ideas eventually spread into the Mediterranean area from the Fertile
Crescent. In Europe, the urban system was introduced by the Greeks, who, by 800 B.C.,
founded famous cities such as Athens, Sparta, and Corinth. The city’s center, the “acropolis,”,
was the defensive stronghold, surrounded by the “agora” suburbs, all surrounded by a
defensive wall. Except for Athens, with approximately 150,000 inhabitants, the other Greek
cities were quite small

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 by today’s standards (10,000-15,000 inhabitants). The Greek urban system, through
overseas colonization, stretched from the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea, around the
Adriatic Sea, and continued to the west until Spain. Although the Macedonians
conquered Greece during the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great extended the
Greek urban system eastward toward Central Asia. The location of the cities along
Mediterranean coastlines reflects the importance of long-distance sea trade for this
urban civilization.
With the impressive feats of civil engineering, the Romans had extended towns
across southern Europe, connected with a magnificent system of roads. Roman
cities, many of them located inland, were based on the grid system. The center of
the city, “forum,” surrounded by a defensive wall, was designated for political and
commercial activities. By A.D. 100, Rome reached approximately one million
inhabitants, while most towns were small (2,000-5,000 inhabitants). Unlike Greek
cities, Roman cities were not independent, functioning within a wellorganized system
centered on Rome. Moreover, the Romans had developed very sophisticated urban
systems, containing paved streets, piped water and sewage systems and adding
massive monuments, grand public buildings (Figure 12.15), and impressive city
walls. In the 5th century, when Rome declined, the urban system, stretching from
England to Babylon, was a well-integrated urban system and transportation network,
laying the foundation for the Western European urban system.

Figure 12.14 | Roman Empire and its Colonies Figure 12.15 | Colosseum in Rome, Italy
Author | User “Cresthaven” Author | User “Diliff”
Source | Wikimedia Commons Source | Wikimedia Commons

Dark Ages

Although urban life continued to flourish in some parts of the world (Middle East,
North and sub-Saharan Africa), Western Europe recorded a decline in urbanization
after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century. During this early
medieval period, A.D. 476-1000, also known as the Dark Ages, feudalism was a
rurally oriented form of economic and social organization. Yet, under Muslim
influence in Spain or under Byzantine control, urban life was still flourishing. As

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Rome was falling into decline, Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Roman
Empire to Byzantium, renaming the city Constantinople (current Istanbul, Turkey).
With its strategic location for trade, between Europe and Asia, Constantinople
became the world’s largest city, maintaining this status for most of the next 1000
years (Figure 12.16).

Figure 12.16 | Byzantine

Empire
Author | User “Tataryn”
Source | Wikimedia Commons
License | CC BY SA 3.0

Most European regions, however, did have some small towns, most of which were
either ecclesiastical or university centers (Cambridge, England and Chartres,
France), defensive strongholds (Rasnov, Romania), gateway towns (Bellinzona,
Switzerland), or administrative centers (Cologne, Germany). The most important
cities at the end of the first millennium were the seats of the world-empires/
kingdoms: the Islamic caliphates, the Byzantine Empire, the Chinese Empire, and
Indian kingdoms.

City-Size Distribution
Most developed countries have a higher percentage of urban people, but
developing countries have more of the very large urban settlements (Table 1,
Figure 12.17). In 1950, out of the world’s 30 largest metropolitan areas, the first
three metropolitan areas were in developed countries: New York (U.S.), Tokyo
(Japan), and London (UK), two of which (New York and Tokyo) had more than 10
million inhabitants. After 30 years, in 1980, a significant change was recorded.
Although metro New York increased from 12.3 million to 15.6 million, Tokyo, with
28.5 million inhabitants, became the largest metropolitan area in the world, a
position which the city still maintains. In addition, except for Osaka, the second
metropolitan area from Japan, two large metropolitan areas in developing countries
were added, Mexico City (Mexico) and Sao Paulo (Brazil). The number of large
metropolitan areas continued to increase after 2010, adding more developing
countries such as India (Delhi and Mumbai/Bombay), China (Shanghai and Beijing),
Bangladesh (Dhaka), and Pakistan (Karachi) from Asia; and Egypt (Cairo), Nigeria
(Lagos), and Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa) from Africa. Each of these

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metropolitan areas is expected to have over 20 million inhabitants after 2020,
adding Delhi and Shanghai to the largest metropolitan areas with over 30 million
inhabitants. In the United States, New York-Newark is the largest metropolitan area,
in which the population was constantly increasing from 12.3 million in 1950 to 15.6
million in 1980 and 18.3 million in 2010, having the potential to reach 20 million in
2030. Yet, unlike the developing countries, characterized by a very fast urban
growth rate, the developed countries had recorded a moderate urban growth rate.

REFERENCES:

Introduction to Human Geography

(David Dorrell, Joseph Henderson. Todd Lindley, Georgeta Connor)

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