Prof. FEDERICA BURINI, Università di Bergamo
Prof. CAROLINE DESBIENS, Université Laval Québec
2
Course Time Table
Monday  1– 4 p.m.
Wednesday  11a.m – 2p.m.
Room 55 - Via Salvecchio
3
Course Bibliography
ATTENDING STUDENTS:
TIMOTHY OAKES and PATRICIA PRICE, The Cultural Geography Reader
(London and New York : Routledge 2008), (only parts 2,5,6,7) pp. 200
NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS:
TIMOTHY OAKES and PATRICIA PRICE, The Cultural Geography Reader
(London and New York : Routledge 2008), (only parts 1,2,3,5,6,7) pp. 300
* Other readings will be distributed in class
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Course Syllabus
1ST PART – FEDERICA BURINI
1. COURSE INTRODUCTION: FROM HUMAN TO CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY – EMERGENCE OF A
DISCIPLINE
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
NO SUCH THING AS CULTURE ? THE “NEW” CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
CARTOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION FOR INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE
COLLABORATIVE MAPPING IN AFRICA AND IN EUROPE
TERRITORY, ETHNICITY, RACE
FROM “ROOTS” TO “ROUTES”
2ND PART – CAROLINE DESBIENS
1. BEYOND CULTURE : GENDER, CLASS AND PUBLIC SPACE
2. LANDSCAPE AS A SEMIOTIC SYSTEM : GEOGRAPHIES OF EXCLUSION
3. INDIGENOUS GEOGRAPHIES
4. ABORIGINAL TOURISM
ARUC TETAUAN – COMITÉ PARITAIRE ESSIPIT
INTRODUCTION: FROM HUMAN TO
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY: EMERGENCE
OF A DISCIPLINE
Friedrich Ratzel
Anthropogeographie
Paul Vidal de la Blache
Possibilisme
Genre de vie
Carl Otwin Sauer
Morphology of landscape
1.
Emergence of cultural geography
2.
The German school
3.
The French school
4.
The American school
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1. EMERGENCE OF CULTURAL
GEOGRAPHY AS A DISCIPLINE
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.
*
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.
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CONTEXT : THE AGE OF « DISCOVERY »
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Encounter with new cultures poses a series of philosophical questions to Western society…
* Timucua Indian men meeting settlers in Florida
(circa 1562)
*
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.
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“Amerigo Vespucci Awakens a Sleeping America”
Johanes Stradanus (1600)
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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…
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BRITISH HIGH IMPERIALISM (19TH CENTURY)
« The White man’s burden »
Rudyard Kipling 1899
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
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WORLD MAP OF EMPIRES AND COLONIES IN 1914
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonialism
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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.
Friedrich Ratzel
(1844-1904)
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?
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3. The French school
Paul Vidal de la Blache
(1845-1918)
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…
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Paul Vidal de la Blache
(1845-1918)
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)
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Paul Vidal de la Blache
(1845-1918)
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 TETAUAN – COMITÉ PARITAIRE ESSIPIT
Paul Vidal de la Blache
(1845-1918)
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)
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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.
4. The American school
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. »
Carl Otwin Sauer
(1889-1975)
The Morphology of Landscape, 1925
MORPHOLOGY OF LANDSCAPE (Physical)
Carl Otwin Sauer
(1889-1975)
Factors
Time
Forms
Natural Landscape
Geology
Climate
Vegetation
Etc.
Tertiary
Jurassic
Précambrian
Etc.
Earth
Surface
Valley
- Soil
- Drainage
Etc.
- Minerals
Sea and coast
Vegetation
Etc.
Mountain
Lakes
Adapté from The Morphology of Landscape, 1925
MORPHOLOGY OF LANDSCAPE (Human)
Carl Otwin Sauer
(1889-1975)
Factor
Time
Shapes
Cultural Landscape
Culture
Prehistory
Middle-age
Modernity
Etc.
Population
Long lot
- Density
Hacienda
- Mobility
Terroir
Housing
Rice field
- Plan
Pasture
- Structure
Etc.
Production
Communication
Etc.
Adapted from The Morphology of Landscape, 1925
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 components of that system.
THE HUMAN FACTOR : Humans transform the
landscape. Humans fragilise the landscape.
Carl Otwin Sauer
(1889-1975)
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
Carl Otwin Sauer
(1889-1975)
Through culture, humans exploit natural forms, alter them and,
in many cases, can go as far as to destroy them.
NO SUCH THING AS CULTURE?
INTERCULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
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THE « NEW » CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
“New” cultural geography
Don Mitchell
Culture as semiotics
Clifford Geertz James Duncan
Peter Jackson
1.
Challenges to early concepts
2.
Superorganicism and its critics
3.
Culture as power
4.
Culture as a semiotic system
NO SUCH THING AS CULTURE?
INTERCULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
ARUC TETAUAN – COMITÉ PARITAIRE ESSIPIT
THE « NEW » CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
1. CULTURE AND GEOGRAPHY : CHALLENGES TO EARLY CONCEPTS
i) Modernisation
*
The tools with which humans transform the environment
are changing due to mechanisation.
*
Environmental adaptation through techniques can no
longer explain the diversity of human presence and diffusion across
the globe.
*
The idea of cultural centers (foyers) and diffusion is
complicated by new modes of cultural transmission.
NO SUCH THING AS CULTURE?
INTERCULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
ARUC TETAUAN – COMITÉ PARITAIRE ESSIPIT
THE « NEW » CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
1. CULTURE AND GEOGRAPHY : CHALLENGES TO EARLY CONCEPTS
ii) Urbanisation
*
The genre de vie approach is not quite suitable to
analyse urban environments.
*
« Ethnographic » societies are disappearing across the
globe thanks to their increasing exchanges with and presence in
the city.
New analytical concepts are needed…