Population, Gender, and Disparity - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 62

Sea of
Japan

East
China Sea

Pacific Ocean

South
China Sea

Bay of
Bengal

Arabian Sea

One dot represents
100,000 people.

Indian Ocean

0
0

500 1000 mi

500 1000 km

Figure 3-2
Population distribution. Compare this map with the one of physical features. Note the relation-
ship between population, plains and basins, and the significance of rivers. W orld Regional Geogra-
phy: A Development Approach , 8th edition, © 2004. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Reprinted by
permission.

and important migration destinations. Most of Asia' s
dominant cities grew dramatically during this period.
T Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Calcutta (Kolkata),
Bombay (Mumbai), Bangkok, Singapore, and Jakarta
are some of these.
Core areas were critical to population growth and
distribution in Asia. In fact, every country except for
Laos is based on one or more core areas. However, there
is more to the story . The landscape of population, like
any other landscape, is socially constructed; landscapes
are made by people in their particular life-world context.
Social organization is especially significant in the devel-
opment of Asian landscapes.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GROUP
Population growth and expansion were founded on in-
tensive agriculture based on human labor. This is an un-
dertaking requiring cooperative land management and
production systems. Cooperation is encouraged because
in Asia, the family is central and the group is more im-
portant than the individual. Established settlements were
(and continue to be) nucleated; dwellings were clustered
in villages Figure 3-4).
People and animals function in daily and seasonal
routines of movement to and from their village and sur-
rounding farmland. Cooperation is particularly important