EC2017 02 Ryan 2010 Ch02 Place, Space & Geography.

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Place, Space, and Geography

1. The Interplay bet. Culture and Physical Environment

! Ambient (environmental) influences shape human culture: climate, soil quality,
available building materials, ...
! Culture influences its spacial location: It changes landscape and imposes
meanings: it s values, ideas, needs, etc.

Migratory
Community Types Urban Communities
Communities
Resources Scarce Greatly available
Settlement Tempo rary More permanent
W/ no physical
Institutions Institutions w/ particular buildings
shape
T ribalism, Laws, courts, markets, government
Means of Civility
patriarchy, & buildings, community baths, military
Maintenance
custom barrack s

Chanted or
Cultural
spoken songs, A writing system; schools; religion
Transmission
t ales, ...

2. Cultural Geography
! The interplay between culture and location is always two-ways.
! What kind of community develops in response to an environment affects t he
kinds of cultural practices the community engages in, and those practices in
turn shape and reshape the physical environment, turning it into a
human-made landscape (p. 13).
Q: How do we humans put (translate) meaning, politics, and ideas into
physical shape when we modify the physical world?

3. Spatial influences (on Cultures): Space enables o r restrains:

3.1. Geographic distribution of populations.
3.2. Transmission of information:
" [Ex.] The new religious ideology brought by the settlers has replaced t he
indigenous one.
3.3. Power relations: One regions will can be impo sed on another region.
3.4. Ways of life to develop: [ex.] Urban Caribbeans in N.Y. vs. rural Indians
3.5. A mapping mechanism: [ex.] Stop signs, gesture, dress, words, ... & their
meanings;
" [ex.] Rambo (i) heroic western male successfully exercises violence against
Asian nemeses vs. (ii) heroic fighter against oppressors [different
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meanings from different perspectives]

3.6. A common economic system:
" Internatio nal Monetary Fund loans to count ries like Jamaica mandate that
local onion farmers must accept competition from lo w-cost corporate
producers like Dole (p. 14). > Small farmers disappear...

4. Cultural influences (on Spaces): Culture:

4.1. impose[s] civility o n a natural world that is inherently uncivil, violent, and
meaningless. (p. 14).
4.2. provides meaning to the landscape,1) so it becomes like a book or text (p. 15),
and embodies the builders intentions reflecting cultural ideals or ideas.
" [Ex.] A shopping mall (instead of an urban downtown area) (p. 15).
So... is it good to go to and use a shopping mall?
4.3. Spacially embodied meanings are historical, social, economic, ideological or
philosophical, political: I.e., cultural. 2)

4.4. Divisions in human communities3) are embodied in cultural landscapes.

" [Ex.] Greek houses: Positioned in inner realms, hidden from the public
street world. restrictions on women; embodying a political power relation
between the genders (p. 16): Gender divisio n (social, ideological meaning).
Is this sexism acceptable?
" [Ex.] Downtown Philadelphia (wealthy whites) vs. uptown north Philadelphia
(poor blacks): Income division (social, economical meaning)

4.5. Cultural histo ry has its marks in landscapes.

! [Ex.] American superhighway system (built in the 1950s, by conservative
business people, who preferred profitable car production to the more
useful but much less profitable public transportatio n) > US became a
cult ure of cars (p. 16). The European public transportation system was
preferred by socialists.
To whom did the American decision beneficial: the powerful business
people, or the public?
! [Ex.] American urbanization & indust rializatio n: The farmland aro und the
cities was eaten up by suburban housing developments first, then later by

1) Landscape is a distillate of culture. (p. 14). A landscape comes to have

meaning. We need to decipher it, and translate it into ideas, which are interpreted via
cultural concepts behind them.
2) Such meanings are artifacts we have made with our minds; part of our ways of life;
objects of our creation that serve our needs as members of a particular human
community (p. 15)!
3) [H]uman communities are divided by gender, race, income, and belief. (p. 15).
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large industrial parks (p. 16).

! [Ex.] Gent rification4) in America preserves residues of old culture (like
ornate and purely deco rative details) and adds up gent rified equivalents (like
clean lines, efficient and profitable use of materials like sheets of cheap
metal).
4.6. Cultural influences on landscapes are layered.
" [Ex.] Buildings around Back Bay St atio n, Boston, Massachusetts

Table 2 Types of Buildings aro und Back Bay Station, Boston, Massachusett s
Red Brick Building The Modern Style The Postmodern5)
Periods 19th C Mid.-End, 20th C Until now
Multiple diverse
Straight tall glass
Material Red bricks, ... architectural
buildings
element s & motifs
An economic boom T remendous growth
Economic Strong US
from industrial of US economy after
Basis economy(?)
revolution WW2
Several styles;
decorative motifs
Simple & functio nal from t he past w/o it s
(sharp straight lines, values
Style &
Christian crosses: efficient looking Contemporary
Religious
Religious virtues design): Secular, postmodern culture:
Value
rationality, (i) a variety of
o rganization disco urses; (ii) de-
centered character of
cont. existence
[Then] Single-family
homes for the newly
Office buildings for
wealthy
Function o rganized & Probably, the same?!
[Now] Multi-family
routinized work
apartments for urban
professio nals

" What meaning was impo sed on the World Trade Center?

4) refurbishing houses to attract wealthy renters or buyers

5) Postmodern Americans: We no longer strive to be moral people in a small social context
overseen by a church community and defined by others opinions of our actions. Our
identities are more fluid and multiple, less localized in one single cultural model. Our
identities ar e no longer linked to clear, bounded ethnic cultural traditions. We engage in
many cultural traditions. We no longer only marry solely within our own ethnic group or
raise our children in one ethnic cultural tradition (p. 18).
Q: How much would you agree to this statement if it wer e about the contemporary
Korean situation?
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Table 3 Meanings of the World T rade Center Towers

Nations Americans Arabs, Muslims

Beauty, grace, human The US imperialism reaching into their
Meanings
achievement countries and cultures

! (i) The US supported Israel, not Palestine; (ii) it overthrew democratic

governments in countries like Iran and installed pro-US dictatorships t hat made
oil more available; (iii) it stationed armies in Arab countries (just like t he
Crusades).
Q: Is it more clear why did Al Qaeda att ack the to wers of the World Trade
Center?

5. Questions in Cultural Geo graphy: Cult ural geo graphers raise questions on t he
co rrelations between power dynamics and geographic regio ns: In a particular
region:
Who had po wer in the past and who has power now?
What languages are spoken in a geographic regio n?
What laws and institutions exist?
How do people relate to their environment?

5.1. The meaning of landscape can ... be changed dramatically and intentio nally.
" [Ex.] The Yellowstone River Valley: From a place of religious adoration to
the local indigenous people; to a national park, a tourist attraction to new
settlers.
" Mystic, Connecticut

Figure 1 A Meaning change of Mystic, Connecticut

Indiginous A Housing
1637 Pequots revival thru
Pequots Development
Massacre gambling business
Settlement

a site of a morally dubious

a site of white settler military
event that harmed a local
triumph to be celebrated and
population whose feelings
momorialized
should be taken into account
" Stoningto n Borough
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Figure 3 Stonington Boro ugh: Many forms in t he same place

- 100 or so old homes
- home to Port uguese fishermen
- of sea eco nomys wealth
- small religious society building
- annual Blessing of the Fleet
- the old school building ------>
a local net work of lived
relations
- increasingly, home to
weekenders from N.Y.
- no grocery stores, meat shops
- restaurants
- small religious society building
- annual Blessing of the Fleet
- desolate winter weekends
- ---> co ndominiums
a co nnectedness wit h distant
lives & places

5.2. Power relations are more directly embodied geographically.

Table 4 Power Relations Embodied in Places

The City of New London Masons Island

# Rental properties owned by pat rons
of the bar
# largely inhabited by ethnic
minorities
# in apartments from old buildings
# mostly, no cars; take buses
# no sense of easy wealt h or leisurely
life
# no good teachers, no good
education
# difficult to pro vide cultural nurture
# some children -> drug dealing,
prisoned, or murdered
# during the day, streets full of the
homeless, the jobless
# The Court House, busy with many
small claims cases
# mostly inhabited by doctors, owners
of car dealers, landscape architects
# of a great physical beauty;
surrounded by water
# ho uses far apart & well-designed
# gated community
# exclusiveness > a sense of
richness & special class
membership
# co unt on ones friends (class
relations)
# By controlling the pricing and
wage-setting mechanism of the
unregulated market economy, the
wealthy inhabitants of the island assure
that they will take mor e of the total
social resources than others (p. 23).

Cultural Geography
How do we humans put (translate) meaning, politics, and ideas into physical
shape when we modify the physical world?
What meanings do geographic objects/landscapes have?
How are their meanings related to politics (or power relations)?
How are their meanings related to cultural ideals o r ideas?
How are divisions in human communities related to regional divisions?
Who had power in the past and who has power now?
What languages are spoken in a geographic regio n?
What laws and institutions exist?
How do people relate to their environment?
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Thoughts abo ut Ryan (2010, Ch. 2) Place, Space and Geography

1. Purpose (goal, objective):

! To sho w the relations between culture and place/space/geography.
2. Question at issue (problem, issue): See above
How does space influence culture?
How does culture influence space?
3. Info rmation (data, facts, observations, experiences):
" Spread of religious ideolo gy, political will, ways of life
" Expansion of an economic system: International Monetary Funds practices
" Regionally different mechanisms mapping different meanings
" Examples: (i) Shopping malls vs urban do wntowns, (ii) location of Greek
ho uses, (iii) Downtown Philadephia vs uptown north Philadelphia; (iv) t he
American superhighway system vs the European public transportation system;
(v) changes by urbanization/industrialization and gentrification; buildings
around Back Bay Station, Boston, MA; meanings of the World Trade Center;
meaning changes with the Yello wstone River Valley, Stonington Borough;
power relations shown by the City of New London and Masons Island.
4. Interpret atio n and Inference (conclusions, solutions)
" A place/space/geography is like a book or text and needs to be
translated/decoded/deciphered into meanings, which are to be translated
further to power relations o r cultural ideals/ideas.
5. Concepts (theories, definitions, axioms, principles, models)
" Cultural Geography: meaning-imposition, embodiment; place, space,
geography; Christian/modern/postmodern styles and religious values;
gentrification, urbanization/industrialization, ...
6. Assumptions (presupposition, taking for granted)
" Inter-play between cultures and geo graphy.
" Meanings are shaped by power relations.
7. Implicatio ns and Consequences
" We need to be conscious of such cultural relationships, perhaps struggling
with questions like the follo wing:
So... is it good to go to and use a shopping mall?
Was the Greek sexism acceptable?
To whom did the American decision beneficial: the powerful business
people, o r the public?

8. Point of View (frame of reference, perspectives, orientation)

" Cultural Geography, Cultural Studies