INTRODUCTION: FROM HUMAN TO CULTURAL ...Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845-1918) April 13 2012 HOLISM:...

ARUC

TETA

UAN –

COMI

TÉ PA

RITA

IRE E

SSIP

IT

April 13 2012

Master’s Degree in Planning and Management of Tourism Systems

INTRODUCTION: FROM HUMAN TO CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY: EMERGENCE OF A DISCIPLINE

INTERCULTURAL GEOGRAPHY (M-GGR/01) PROFESSOR: CAROLINE DESBIENS

1.  Emergence of cultural geography

2.  The German school

3.  The French school

4.  The American school

Carl Otwin Sauer

Friedrich Ratzel Paul Vidal de la Blache

Anthropogeographie

Genre de vie Possibilisme

Morphology of landscape

ARUC

TETA

UAN –

COMI

TÉ PA

RITA

IRE E

SSIP

IT



1. EMERGENCE OF CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY AS A DISCIPLINE

* 15th to 17th century : Period of intense exploration of the world by European powers

* Made possible by improvements in technology : better ships, navigation tools, mapping techniques, etc.

* Accounts from distant lands and maps spread with the help of the new printing press, ushering a new age of scientific and intellectural inquiry.

CONTEXT : THE AGE OF « DISCOVERY »

The CANTINO WORLD MAP (1502) incorporates new geographical information based on four series of voyages: Columbus to the Caribbean, Pedro Álvarez Cabral to Brazil, Vasco de Gama followed by Cabral to eastern Africa and India, and the brothers Corte-Real to Greenland and Newfoundland.

April 13 2012

ARUC

TETA

UAN –

COMI

TÉ PA

RITA

IRE E

SSIP

IT



CONTEXT : THE AGE OF « DISCOVERY »


April 13 2012

ARUC

TETA

UAN –

COMI

TÉ PA

RITA

IRE E

SSIP

IT




* Culture : The idea that the humanity of human beings is expressed in the distinctive practices that they adopt as solutions to the challenges of existence, and of their environment.

* There are infinite varieties of solutions to the challenges posed by human existence.

* Paradox of englightment : Human dignity is understood to be rooted in the universal human capacity for reason. Yet when people engage in cultural practices that are unfamiliar or disturbing to the European observer, they appear irrational and thus undeserving of recognition and respect.

Encounter with new cultures poses a series of philosophical questions to Western society…

* Timucua Indian men meeting settlers in Florida (circa 1562)

April 13 2012

ARUC

TETA

UAN –

COMI

TÉ PA

RITA

IRE E

SSIP

IT




“Amerigo Vespucci Awakens a Sleeping America” Johanes Stradanus (1600)

April 13 2012

ARUC

TETA

UAN –

COMI

TÉ PA

RITA

IRE E

SSIP

IT



WORLD MAP OF COLONIALISM IN 1800


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism

* Enlightenment and the challenge of cultural pluralism : Tension between universalistic concepts such as human rights and the realities of cultural diversity.

* Liberalism : All individuals share a capacity for reason and self-government. The theory of developmental history, however, modifies this universalism with the notion that these capacities only emerge at a certain stage of civilization .

* Colonialism : The White Man’s Burden…

April 13 2012

ARUC

TETA

UAN –

COMI

TÉ PA

RITA

IRE E

SSIP

IT




« The White man’s burden »

Take up the White man’s Burden Send forth the best ye Breed Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives’ need To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild Your new caught sullen peoples Half devil and half child

Rudyard Kipling 1899

BRITISH HIGH IMPERIALISM (19TH CENTURY)

April 13 2012

ARUC

TETA

UAN –

COMI

TÉ PA

RITA

IRE E

SSIP

IT



WORLD MAP OF EMPIRES AND COLONIES IN 1914


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism

April 13 2012

ARUC

TETA

UAN –

COMI

TÉ PA

RITA

IRE E

SSIP

IT

April 13 2012


2. The German school


* From (physical) geography to anthropogeography

* Naturvölker / kulturvölker : “natural” races and “cultural” races are set apart by their historical progress.

* Links with the evolutionary ecology of Charles Darwin (1859)

* Environmental determinism : Idea that the environment (soil, landforms, climate, etc.) determines the patterns of human culture and societal development. An area's physical characteristics are believed to have a strong impact on the psychological outlook of its inhabitants. These varied outlooks spread throughout a population and define the behavior and culture of a society.

Related to the idea of…

•  Lebensraum (Living space) : A people that successfully adapted to one location would proceed naturally to another. This expansion to fill available space was a natural and necessary feature of any healthy species.

CAN BIOLOGY AND POLITICAL RATIONALITY BE LINKED IN THIS WAY?

Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904)

ARUC

TETA

UAN –

COMI

TÉ PA

RITA

IRE E

SSIP

IT

April 13 2012


3. The French school


Like Ratzel, he recognizes the impact of the environment on human societies but takes a different approach…

* Premise to his work: there is a strong correlation between a social fact and a geographical fact. The task of the cultural geographer is to study this system of relations.

Key concepts…

Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845-1918)

ARUC

TETA

UAN –

COMI

TÉ PA

RITA

IRE E

SSIP

IT





HOLISM: The distinctive contribution of geography is that it tackles geographical and social phenomena as a whole.

« [L]es plantes s'organisent physiologiquement pour s'accommoder aux influences ambiantes d'après l'altitude, les intempéries, la sécheresse, la chaleur humide. Non seulement elles modifient […]leurs organes extérieurs, mais elles se combinent entre elles de façon à se répartir l'espace. Dans ces groupements, qui sont […] la physionomie du paysage, chaque plante s'est arrangée avec ses voisines pour avoir sa part de sol, de lumière, de nourriture. Les êtres viennent s'associer et s'unir, trouvant avantage et profit dans les conditions déterminées par la présence des autres. » « Plants get organized physiologically to adapt to the ambient influences according to elevation, weather, drought, humidity. Not only do they modify their outer features, they harmonize between one another so as to divide up and occupy space. In these groupings, which are the face of the landscape, every plant has settled with its neighbours to have its part of ground, light, food. Beings come to join and to unite, finding advantage and profit in the conditions determined by the presence of the others. » Des caractères distinctifs de la géographie (1913)

April 13 2012

ARUC

TETA

UAN –

COMI

TÉ PA

RITA

IRE E

SSIP

IT





April 13 2012

HOLISM: The distinctive contribution of geography is that it tackles geographical and social phenomena as a whole.

« Une forêt est une sorte d'être collectif où coexistent, dans une harmonie provisoire et non à l'épreuve des changements, des arbres, des végétaux de sous-bois, des champignons et une foule d'hôtes également attitrés, insectes, termites, fourmis. Ainsi les choses se présentent à nous en groupes organisés, en associations régies par un équilibre que l'homme dérange incessamment ou, suivant les cas, redresse, en y portant la main. L'idée de milieu, dans ces expressions diverses, se précise comme corrélative et synonyme d'adaptation. Elle se manifeste par des séries de phénomènes qui s'enchaînent entre eux et sont mis en mouvement par des causes générales. C'est par elle que nous sommes incessamment ramenés à ces causes de climat, de structure, de concurrence vitale, qui donnent le branle à une foule d'activités spéciales des formes et des êtres. » Des caractères distinctifs de la géographie (1913)

ARUC

TETA

UAN –

COMI

TÉ PA

RITA

IRE E

SSIP

IT




POSSIBILISM : In opposition to determinism. Counters a linear, theleological view of human « progress » and « development. » There are many possible outcomes to the interaction between human societies and their environment…

« A geographical unit does not result from simple considerations of geology and climate. It is not an object that is already given by nature. We must begin with this idea that a region (contrée) is a reservoir where various potentials lay dormant : if their seed was deposited by nature, the use of these potentials depends on Man. It is he who, molding these energies, brings out a region’s individuality. He establishes links between scattered features. To the fluctuating effects of local circumstances, he substitutes a systematic arrangement of strengths. The result is that the region acquires its specific character and becomes, in the long run, like a medal imprinted with the image of a people. » La personnalité géographique de la France (1941)


April 13 2012

ARUC

TETA

UAN –

COMI

TÉ PA

RITA

IRE E

SSIP

IT

April 13 2012




GENRE DE VIE (related concept : « terroir »)

Mode of subsistence developed over time from the resources of the local environment that is occupied and used by a human population. Collective organization with the aim of producing and maintaining the social, economic and religious life of a group in a given geographical space.

* « Tableau de la géographie de la France » : Establishes regional geography and regional monographs as a key contribution of cultural geography.

* Political dimensions of his work : Diversity of landscapes is not a threat to political unity. These various traits are brought together to shape the contours of a nation.

April 13 2012


4. The American school


Carl Otwin Sauer (1889-1975)

Son of German immigrants. Taught at the University of California Berkeley. Strongly influenced by the work of European geographers. Referring to the work of Vidal de la Blache : « The regional monographs that proceeded from his school expressed far more adequately than had been done before the full form content and structural relation of the landscape, finding in the cultural landscape the culminating expression of the organic area. In these studies, the position of man and his works explicitly is that of the last and most important factor and forms in the landscape. »

The Morphology of Landscape, 1925 ��

April 13 2012





Factorsàà Timeàà Formsàà Natural Landscape��Geology Tertiary Earth Mountain��Climate Jurassic Surface Valley��Vegetation Précambrian - Soil Lakes��Etc. Etc. - Drainage Etc.��

- Minerals�� Sea and coast�� Vegetation�� Etc.��

Adapté from The Morphology of Landscape, 1925

MORPHOLOGY OF LANDSCAPE (Physical)

April 13 2012





MORPHOLOGY OF LANDSCAPE (Human) Factoràà Timeàà Formesàà Paysage Culturel��Culture Prehistory Population Long lot��

Middle-age - Density Hacienda�� Modernity - Mobility Terroir �� Etc. Housing Rice field�� - Plan Pasture�� - Structure Etc. �� Production�� Communication�� Etc.��

Adapted from The Morphology of Landscape, 1925

April 13 2012





MORPHOLOGY OF LANDSCAPE

CHOROS : Unity between life and landscape.

LANDSCAPE : It is a system that humans are part of.

METHOD : Geographers must explain the relations and hierarchy between the different componentfs of that system.

THE HUMAN FACTOR : Humans transform the landscape. Humans fragilise the landscape.

April 13 2012





LEGACY OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL FOR CONCEPTUALISING THE RELATIONS BETWEEN PEOPLE AND PLACE…

A HUMANIST AND CRITICAL APPROACH

« A good deal of the meaning of area lies beyond scientific regimentation. The best geography has never disregarded the aesthetic qualities of landscape, to which we know no approach other than the subjective. » AN ENVIRONMENTAL APPROACH

Through culture, humans exploit natural forms, alter them and, in many cases, can go as far as to destroy them.

INTRODUCTION: FROM HUMAN TO CULTURAL ...Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845-1918) April 13 2012 HOLISM:...

Documents

Transcript of INTRODUCTION: FROM HUMAN TO CULTURAL ...Paul Vidal de la Blache (1845-1918) April 13 2012 HOLISM:...