Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
modifying and reinforcing the social relations that create the places where they
work and live.
Rarely do the social relations that create gendered divisions of labor focus only
on gender. The social relations in a place also create boxes for other identities. In this
chapter, we focus on gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality. We examine how people
and society construct identities, how place factors into identity, and how geography
refl ects and shapes power relationships among different groups of people.
Key Questions
For Chapter 5
1.
What is identity, and how are identities constructed?
2.
How do places affect identity, and how can we see identities in places?
3.
How does geography refl ect and shape power relationships among groups?
WHAT IS IDENTITY, AND HOW ARE
IDENTITIES CONSTRUCTED?
A man gets off the airplane, walks to the baggage car-
ousel to fi nd his suitcase, and is greeted by dozens of black
suitcases. He walks to the parking garage to fi nd his car
and sees a sea of black cars that all look the same. The nar-
rator intones, “Maintain your identity. Drive a Saab.”
Identities are marketed through cars, clothing, club
memberships, jewelry, and houses. Advertisements often
convey the impression that we can purchase our identity.
Yet, identity is much more personal than what we drive,
wear, belong to, or where we live. Geographer Gillian
Rose defi nes
identity
as “how we make sense of ourselves.”
How do each of us defi ne ourselves? We
construct
our own
identities through experiences, emotions, connections, and
rejections. We work through derivations and delineations
to fi nd an identity that meshes with who and where we are
at any given time. An identity is a snapshot, an image of
who we are at that moment. Identities are fl uid, constantly
changing, shifting, and becoming. Place and space are inte-
gral to our identities because our experiences in places and
our perceptions of places help us make sense of who we are.
In addition to defi ning ourselves, we defi ne others and
others defi ne us. One of the most powerful ways to construct
an identity is by
identifying against
other people. To iden-
tify against, we fi rst defi ne the “Other,” and then we defi ne
ourselves in opposing terms. Edward Said wrote thought-
fully about how Europeans, over time, constructed an image
of regions that are now commonly called the Middle East
and Asia. He described the circumstances that led Europe-
ans to defi ne this area as the “Orient,” a place with suppos-
edly mystical characteristics that were depicted and repeated
in European art and literature. In a similar vein, geographer
James Blaut wrote eloquently about how Europeans came to
defi ne Africans and Americans as “savage” and “mystical.”
Through these images of the “Other,” which developed
during periods of European exploration and colonialism,
Europeans defi ned themselves as “not mystical” or “not sav-
age” and, therefore, as “civilized.” These ideas are still part
of our vernacular speech even today, as seen in references to
“the civilized world” or a time “before civilization” Phrases
such as these invariably carry with them a sense of superior-
ity in opposition to an “Other.”
One of the most powerful foci of identity in the mod-
ern world is the state. State nationalism has been such a
powerful force that in many contexts people think of them-
selves fi rst and foremost as French, Japanese, or American.
Nationalist identities are a product of the modern state sys-
tem, so we defer consideration of this form of identity to
the chapter focused on the rise of the state system (Chapter
8). But nationalist identities coexist with all sorts of other
identities that divide humanity—identities that can trump
state nationalism in certain contexts and certain scales of
interaction. Language and religion can function as foci of
identity, and we will turn to these in the next two chapters.
This chapter takes up several other important foundations
of identity—those based on race, gender, ethnicity, and sex-
uality. We look at issues of identity construction, place, and
scale by way of an analysis of race. We examine ethnicity and
sexuality as identities that are shaped by and that shape place.
Our concluding discussion in this chapter looks at power
relationships through the lenses of gender and ethnicity.
Race
Race
provides an excellent example of the ways in which geo-
graphic context shapes axes of identity. The various “races”
to which people refer are the product of ways of viewing
minor genetic differences that developed as modern humans
spread around the world. The physical attributes that are
seen as signifi cant have changed across time and space. In
