Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The same is true of other traits. You, for example, speak one or more languages and may practice a
certain religion. Chances are good, however, that none of these traits originated right where you live,
but rather, like those foodstuffs, diffused from somewhere else. The manner of their diffusion may
have varied, but probably has something in common with one or more of the three generally recog-
nized modes of diffusion (see Figure 13-2): relocation, contagious expansion, and hierarchical.
Relocating one's culture
Relocation diffusion
is synonymous with migration (Figure 13-2a). When people move, they take
their “cultural baggage” with them. As a result, the geography of culture may change because mi-
grants impart their particular cultural characteristics to an area where perhaps it was not previously
present.
Figure 13-2 a, b,
and c:
The three
standard modes
of cultural diffu-
sion.
Virtually every large American city, for example, has distinctive ethnic neighborhoods that exist be-
cause of the relocation diffusion of peoples from a foreign land. Small towns may also exhibit the
same effect, and so, too, rather rural parts of America. Chances are good that an example or two are
near you wherever you live. Indeed,
you
may be an example.
Coming down with culture
In
contagious expansion diffusion,
the geography of a trait expands because people who did not pre-
viously possess it, adopt it. Typically, this results from contact or direct exposure (hence, contagious)
to the trait (Figure 13-2b). Thus, a farmer might “look over the fence” to see a neighbor growing
some new kind of crop, and adopt it as well.
That is not a far-fetched scenario. Efforts to increase food production, for example, often are an exer-
cise in cultural diffusion, as when an
agronomist
or crop scientist seeks to encourage local farmers to
discontinue a traditional way of producing foodstuffs and do something different. But whether they
live inKenyaorKansas, farmers tendtostick withthingsthat workandtrysomething newonlywhen
the likelihood of success is high.
