1 Unit 1: Introduction: Thinking Geographically, Basic Concepts 38:180 Human Geography What does it mean to think like a geographer? • Memorizing places? – Countries, capital cities, rivers, etc… – “School Geography” (or “Jeopardy” Geography) • Detour – Pareidolia
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Unit 1: Introduction:Thinking Geographically,
Basic Concepts
38:180 Human Geography
What does it mean to think like a geographer?• Memorizing places?
– Countries, capital cities, rivers, etc…– “School Geography” (or “Jeopardy”
Geography)• Detour – Pareidolia
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Pareidolia
Sleeping Giant
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What does it mean to think like a geographer?
The Meaning of Geography
Roots of the word:• ‘geo’ = world / earth• ‘graphei’ = write• so Geography is writing about the worldIs that too broad?
More specifically, geography is about how and why things differ from place to place on the surface of the earth.
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The Meaning of Human Geography
Geography encompasses both physical and human dimensions (or the natural and cultural worlds)
Human Geography is the study of people and places
• ‘where?’ ‘why?’ ‘why there?’ and ‘so what?’ of human phenomena on the earth
The Meaning of Human Geography
A complex discipline:• “The human world is not in any sense
preordained” (p. xxiv)• “It is the … product of … human beings …
working within human and institutional frameworks…” (p. xxiv)
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The Meaning of Human Geography
“The central subject matter of human geography is human behavior” (p. xxvii)• always a ‘spatial’ perspective• ‘pattern’ and ‘process’
– spatial variation and changeGeography is about “trying to make sense of the world” (Lewis 2002, in text p. xxvii).
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(Human) Geography as an Applied (Social) Science
Dr. Snow’s London cholera map, 1854
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(Human) Geography as an Applied (Social) Science
Dr. Snow’s London cholera map, 1854, with Thiessen polygon GIS overlay
The Evolution of (Human) Geography• …is really the evolution of what and how
we (humankind) know about the earth• Several distinct periods:
– Preclassical– Classical– 5th to 15th centuries– Age of exploration– ‘Geography rethought’– Institutionalization (as an academic discipline)– 20th century / contemporary geography
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The Evolution of (Human) GeographyPreclassical• first civilizations, first ‘maps’• limited, local geographic knowledge
Nippur (Mesopotamia)14th – 13th C, BCE
The Evolution of (Human) GeographyClassical• Greek civilization• geographically mobile, more extensive