Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Hoebel's emphasis on communication and learning antic-
ipated the current view of culture as a system of meaning,
not just a set of acts, customs, or material products.
Clifford Geertz advanced this view in his classic work,
The
Interpretation of Cultures
(1973), which has infl uenced
much recent work in human geography. Hence, human
geographers are interested not just in the different pat-
terns and landscapes associated with different culture
groups, but in the ways in which cultural understandings
affect both the creation and signifi cance of those patterns
and landscapes.
Cultural geographers identify a single attribute of a
culture as a
culture trait
. For example, wearing a turban
is a culture trait in certain societies. Many men in the
semiarid and desert areas of North Africa, Southwest Asia,
and South Asia wore turbans before the birth of Islam.
The turbans protected the wearers from sunlight and also
helped distinguish tribes.
Not all Muslim men wear turbans, but in some
Muslim countries, including Afghanistan, wearing tur-
bans is popular because either religious or political lead-
ers (in the case of Afghanistan, the Taliban) prescribe it
for men. Today, turbans often distinguish a man's status
in society or are worn as a sign of faithfulness to God. In
many Muslim countries, including Egypt and Turkey,
men rarely wear turbans. The appearance of turbans in
other Muslim countries varies a great deal. For instance,
in Yemen men who cover their heads typically wear
kalansuwa, which are caps wrapped in fabric. In
Palestine, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, men who cover
their heads typically wear kaffi yeh, which are rectangular
pieces of cloth draped and secured on the head.
Wearing turbans is not a cultural trait limited to
Muslims. In the United States, most men who cover their
heads with a turban are Sikhs, which is a separate religion
from Islam. In the Sikh religion, men are required to keep
their hair uncut. The common practice is to twist the hair
and knot it on top of one's head and then cover it with a
turban. The Sikh religion began in the 1500s, and in the
late 1600s, the tenth guru of the religion taught that
wearing a turban was a way to demonstrate one's faithful-
ness to God. As the turban example exhibits, culture traits
are not necessarily confi ned to a single culture. More than
one culture may exhibit a particular culture trait, but each
will consist of a discrete combination of traits. Such a
combination is referred to as a
culture complex
. In many
cultures, the herding of cattle is a trait. However, cattle
are regarded and used in different ways by different cul-
tures. The Maasai of East Africa, for example, follow their
herds along seasonal migration paths, consuming blood
and milk as important ingredients of a unique diet. Cattle
occupy a central place in Maasai existence; they are the
essence of survival, security, and prestige. Although the
Maasai culture complex is only one of many cattle-keep-
ing complexes, no other culture complex exhibits exactly
the same combination of traits. In Europe, cattle are
milked, and dairy products, such as butter, yogurt, and
cheese, are consumed as part of a diet very different from
that of the Maasai.
A
cultural hearth
is an area where cultural traits
develop and from which cultural traits diffuse. Often a
cultural trait, for example the religion of Islam, can be
traced to a single place and time. Muhammad founded
Islam in the 500s
(current era) in and around the cities
of Mecca and Medina on the Arabian Peninsula. Other
culture traits, such as agriculture, can be traced to several
hearths thousands of years apart. When such a trait devel-
ops in more than one hearth without being infl uenced by
its development elsewhere, each hearth operates as a case
of
independent invention
.
c.e.
Connectedness through Diffusion
Geographer Carl Sauer focused attention on how ideas,
specifi cally the innovation of agriculture, spread in
Agricultural Origins and Dispersals
. Based on geography and
archaeological evidence, Sauer established that MesoAmerica
independently invented agriculture, adding it to the
hearths of agriculture in Europe, Africa, and Asia. When
ideas, people, or goods move across space, this process of
dissemination is called
cultural diffusion
.
In 1970, Swedish geographer Torsten Hägerstrand
published pioneering research on the role of time in the dif-
fusion process. Hägerstrand's research revealed how time,
as well as distance, affects individual human behavior and
the diffusion of people and ideas. Sauer and Hägerstrand's
fascinating research attracted many geographers to the
study of diffusion processes. Geographers are still using
principles of diffusion to model movement and diffusion
through GIS and other geographic techniques.
Whether diffusion of a cultural trait occurs depends,
in part, on time and distance from the hearth. The farther
a place is from the hearth, the less likely an innovation will
be adopted. Similarly, the acceptance of an innovation
becomes less likely the longer it takes to reach its potential
adopters. In combination, time and distance cause
time-
distance decay
in the diffusion process.
Not all cultural traits or innovations diffuse.
Prevailing attitudes or cultural taboos can mean that cer-
tain innovations, ideas, or practices are not acceptable or
adoptable in particular cultures. Religious teachings may
prohibit certain practices or ideas, such as divorce, abor-
tions, or contraceptive use, on the grounds of theology or
morality. Some cultures or religions prohibit consump-
tion of alcoholic beverages, and others prohibit consum-
ing certain kinds of meat or other foods. Prescriptions
cultures make about behavior act as
cultural barriers
and can pose powerful obstacles to the spread of ideas or
innovations.
