Wolkite University

College of Social Science and Humanities

Department of Geography and Environmental
Studies
course title: Cultural and Social Geography
Credit Hours/ECTS: 3/5
by Haile D.(Msc.)
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Chapters contents
1.Definition of Culture & cultural Geography
2.Scope of cultural and Social Geography
3.Basic Themes in Cultural and Social Geography

4.Cultural Regions
1.Material Folk Culture regions
2.Indigenous Culture regions
3.Vernacular Culture Regions
5.Culture Diffusion
6.Cultural Ecology
7.Cultural Integration
8.Cultural Landscape
9.Indigenous Ecology
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 Definition of Culture and Cultural
Geography
To understand the scope and meaning of cultural geography,
it is better to understand what culture means first.
Different scholars defined culture differently.
Thus, some scholars about culture.

Cultural geographer, Jordan defined culture as learned

behavior as opposed to instinctive (inborn) behavior.

Zimolzak defined culture as a historically derived system of

standardized types of behavior, which is acquired by each
individual as a member of cultural group
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Hobele, an anthropologist, on the other hand,
has defined culture as an integrated system of
learned behavioral patterns, which are the
characteristics of the members of a society and
which are not the result of biological inheritance.

In general, culture is the complex whole which

includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, laws,
customs, music, art, literature and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as
member of the society.

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Culture, the total way of life that characterizes a group
of people, is one of the most important things that
geographers study.
There are literally thousands of cultures on Earth today
and each contributes to global diversity
Because a culture consists of numerous cultural
elements such as
Language, religion, ethnicity, race etc. that vary
from one culture group to the next.
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For example, language is a cultural component.
While some cultural communities use English,
others speak Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, or
another of the thousands of languages spoken
today.
Likewise, there is a world of cultural differences
with respect to religion, technology and
agricultural activity, and modes of architecture
and transportation.
Moreover, cultural communities may differ in
their dress, music, food, dance, sport, and other
cultural components.
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Basic Characteristic Features of Culture
Culture has several distinguishing characteristics.
Some of these are the following

A. Culture is a learned behavior; It means culture has

nothing to do with instinct, inborn or genetics.
While people biologically inherit many physical traits
and behavioral instincts, culture is socially inherited and
transmitted.

Through the process of socialization, deliberate

indoctrination or teaching and personal experiences man
learns culture.
So that learning of culture is a lifelong process from
birth to death. 7
B. Culture is characterized by a continuous process of
change. I.e. culture is dynamic but its transformation is
gradual (not sudden).

C. Culture is a shared human behavior.

Since culture is the result of social invention and is
transmitted and maintained through communication
and learning people in the same society share common
behaviors and ways of thinking through culture.

D. Culture has spatial expression.

It focuses on describing; analyzing and explaining the
ways language, religion, ethnicity, economy,
government and other cultural components vary or
remain constant from one place to another.
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 Introduction to Culture and Cultural Geography

Cultural geography, a branch of human geography is, at the heart of

human diversity.
It focuses on describing and analyzing the ways language, economy,
religion, government and other cultural phenomena vary or remain
constant from one place to the other.
Geographers have long been involved in trying to understand the
manifestations and impacts of culture on geography and of geography
on culture.
•In general, Cultural geography, which is part of human geography,
involves all phases of human social life in relation to the physical
earth.

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 Scope of cultural and Social Geography
Culture has spatial expression, which is one reason why
geographers study it.
It is the study of spatial variations of culture diversity among
cultural groups and the spatial functioning of society.
It focuses on describing; analyzing and explaining the ways
language, religion, ethnicity, economy, government and
other cultural components vary or remain constant from one
place to another.

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It also explains how humans function spatially.

It, therefore, bridges the social and earth sciences by

seeking an integrative view of humankind in its physical
environment.

Cultural and social geography is also the study of the

impact of human culture on the landscape.

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• While anthropologists are concerned with the ways in
which culture is created and maintained by human groups,
• Geographers are interested not only in how place and space
shape culture but also the reverse- how culture shapes place
and space.

In seeking explanations for spatial cultural diversity,

geographers must consider a wide array of causal factors.
Some of these involve the diverse physical environment
like terrain, climate, natural vegetation, wildlife, variation
in soil, and the patterns of landscapes inhabited by
different cultural groups.
We cannot understand culture removed from its physical
habitat.
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Is Cultural and social geography
different from Anthropology?
Cultural and social geography should not to be confused with
Anthropology science
which studies man both as an animal and as living in society,
his origins, development, distribution, social habits, cultures,
etc.
They vary in that cultural geography adds location, spatial
variation of culture and landscape to Anthropologic study.

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 Culture is made up of four major components.
These are culture trait, culture complex, culture system
and culture region.
a Cultural trait. It is a single attribute of a culture or
the smallest distinctive and fundamental element of
culture.
b. Cultural complex. It is a separate combination of
traits exhibited by a particular culture such as keeping
cattle for different purposes.
For instance, Maasai in Kenya and Tanzania are keeping
cattle. It is noted that cattle keeping is a culture trait.

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The personal wealth of these people in East Africa is
determined by the number of cattle they owned, their
diet contains milk and blood of cattle and they disdain
for labor unrelated to herding.
A combination of these culture traits related to cattle
keeping is a culture complex.
c. Culture system. It is culture complexes with traits in
common that can be grouped together such as ethnicity,
language, religion, and other cultural elements.
d. cultural region. Cultural traits and complexes or
systems have spatial extent, which is called Cultural
region.
It is the area within which a particular culture system
prevails.
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Basic Themes in Cultural and Social Geography

The discipline of cultural Geography is generally made

up of five major themes (subjects):
Cultural region,
Cultural diffusion,
Cultural ecology,
Cultural integration, and
Cultural landscape.

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1. Cultural region,
A region is a grouping of similar places or the
functional union of places to form a spatial unit.
Though there are several types of regions based on
different criteria.
however, share some common characteristics in
relation to space:
It have locations: the location is often expressed in
the regional name selected
It have spatial extent: this is recognized territories.
It have boundaries: based on the real spread of the
features selected for study.
It are hierarchically arranged: that is, regions vary
in their scale type, and degree of generalization.
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 Cultural geographers have so far identified
three major modes of cultural regions:
Formal regions
Functional regions, and
Vernacular regions.
A. Formal regions is a physically uniform are inhibited by
people who have one or more cultural elements (traits) in
common.
 It is possible, for example, to draw the territory of each of the 80
or more language regions in Ethiopia,

which refer to areas where each of these languages is spoken.

 In the same fashion, wheat farming region describes those parts

the world where wheat is a major crop.
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•Functional regions
 This is an area, which has been organized to function
politically, socially or economically.
 Unlike formal culture region, which is more abstract
and reflects cultural heterogeneity.
 A city, an independent state, and a market area are all
examples of functional cultural regions.
 Examples of such nodes are city halls, national
capitals, factories, banks etc.

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C. Vernacular regions
 This is a region, which is neither formal nor functional
but perceived to exist by inhabitants.
 It is a region that is drawn on the minds of people.
 There is a problem in clearly drawing the boundaries
of vernacular regions, as they are imaginations of
people.
•However, it is still possible to haphazardly define vernacular
cultural regions on the basis of like economic, political, historical,
and physical environmental factors.
•For example Gojjam -Teff, Kaffa- Coffee, Scotland - Whisky
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2. Cultural diffusion
 Cultural diffusion is the spatial spread of cultural
traits, innovations and ideas from places of their origin
to other areas or
 From one individual or group to another across
space.
 Generally, there are two ways by which cultures
spread from one place to another. These include.
 Expansion diffusion and
 Relocation diffusion

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2. Cultural diffusion
A. Expansion Diffusion
 This is the way by which ideas spread throughout a
population.
 Here, the idea or innovation develops in a source area
and remains strong there while simultaneously
spreading outwards.
 In expansion diffusion, information about an
innovation may spread throughout a society, perhaps
aided by local or mass media advertising. 22
2. Cultural diffusion
B. Relocation Diffusion
 This sort of cultural diffusion occurs when individuals
or groups with a particular idea or innovation move
physically from one place to another spreading the
innovation to their new homelands.
 Religions are mostly spreading in this manner.
Migration also remains the other important example
for relocation diffusion.

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Cultural Diffusion Barriers

• The commonly known cultural barriers are

• Physical barrier,
• Cultural barrier, and
• Economic barrier.
 Physical barrier: consists of characteristics of the
natural environment such as oceans, deserts, mountain
ranges, dense forests, and frigid climates that inhabit
the spread of culture.
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Cultural Diffusion Barriers
• Economic barriers: lack of necessary infrastructures
such as computers, reads etc. limit cultural diffusion
across space.

• Example, there should be mobile network in order to

diffuse mobile technology.

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3. Cultural ecology
Ecology is the study of the relationship between an
organism and its physical environment.
The study of the interaction between culture and
environment and its spatial variation is called cultural
ecology
Cultures do not exist in an environmental vacuum.
Thus, there is always interaction between people and
nature i.e., cultures interact with the environment.
Cultural geographers study this interaction to
understand spatial variations in culture.

This study, which is called cultural ecology 26

Through years, cultural geographers have developed
various perspectives on the spatial interaction between
human beings and the land.

To this effect, four schools of thought have been found

to be very important;
 Environmental determinism

 Environmental Possibilism

 Environmental perception

 Humans as modifier of the earth

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a. Environmental Determinism

The advocators of this doctrine believe that the physical

environment, especially the climate and terrain are the
active forces in shaping cultures.

That is, humankind was essentially a passive product of

his physical surroundings.

• The physical environment is the only one of many forces

affecting human cultures and is never the sole
determinant of behavior and beliefs.
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b. Environmental Possibilism
Since the 1920s, environmental determinists have
gradually weekend and possibilists took over their
place.
Possibilists reflect an opposite view with environmental
determinists.
They claim cultural heritage to be equally important as
the physical environment in affecting human behavior.
Possibilists believe that people are the prime architects
of their own culture than do environmental factors.

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c. Environmental Perception
This theory was derived from the field of psychology.
It focuses on the variation in human perception of
nature.

Supporters of this philosophy claim that each person

and cultural group has mental images of the physical
environment shaped may be by ignorance, knowledge,
experience, values or emotions.

The possibilists see humankind as having a choice of

possibilities in a given physical setting.
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The environmental perceptions, on the other hand,
declare that the choices people make will depend on
what they perceive the environment to be than on the
actual character of the land.

As result, most people cannot perceive their

environment with exact accuracy and decisions and thus
they end up in distorting the reality.

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D. Humans as Modifier of the Earth

This theme is opposite to environmental determinism.

Whereas determinists proclaim that nature molds human

being, those cultural geographers who study the human
impact on land assert that humans rather mold nature.

If the term modification is synonymous with change,

humans can definitely modify their environments for
good and bad i.e. positively and negatively.

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4. Cultural Integration
Cultures are complex wholes rather than series of
unrelated traits.
They are integrated systems in which the parts fit
together causally.
Cultural integration suggests that the immediate causes
of some cultural phenomena are other cultural
phenomena,
For a change in one element of culture requires
accommodating changes in others.
For example, religious beliefs have the potential to
influence a group’s voting behavior, diet, type of
employment and use of contraceptive etc.
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5. Cultural Landscape

This is a humanized landscape that cultural groups

create by in habiting the earth.

Cultures have shaped their own landscape and each

uniquely reflects the culture that created it.

In other word, landscapes mirror culture and cultural

geographer can learn much about a group of people by
carefully observing the landscape.

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In addition, cultural landscape contains valuable
evidences about the origin, spread and development of
cultures.

It reflects different attitudes concerning modifications of

earth by people.

It also reveals about the culture presently occupying the

area, as well as those that came before.

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6. Indigenous ecology.
It is concerned with the relationship of living beings (including
human) with their traditional groups and with their
environment.
The result of indigenous and other traditional
knowledge of local resources.

Indigenous ecology refers to "a cumulative body of

knowledge, belief, and
practice, evolving by accumulation and handed down through
generations through traditional songs, stories and beliefs.
It is important to note that indigenous knowledge is not
a universal concept among various societies, but is
referred to a system of knowledge traditions or practices
that are heavily dependent on "place“.
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 End of chapter one
Thank you for your attention

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