I. Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives
A. Geography as a field of inquiry
1- Geography is divided into 2 categories- human geography and physical geography.
2- Human geography studies where and why human activities are located as they are.
3- Geography is broken down to 5 themes
a. Location- Every point on Earth has a specific location that is determined by an imaginary grid of lines denoting latitude and longitude. Parallels of latitude measure distances north and south of the line called the Equator. Meridians of longitude measure distances east and west of the line called the Prime Meridian. Geographers use latitude and longitude to pinpoint a place’s absolute, or exact location.
b. Place- The local human and physical characteristics that uniquely define a place and impart meaning to its inhabitants. Physical characteristics include such elements as animal life. Human characteristics of the landscape can be noted in architecture, patterns of livelihood, land use and ownership, town planning, and communication and transportation networks. Languages, as well as religious and political ideologies, help shape the character of a place. For example, a well-known place is Antarctica and the South Pole. What are some of the characteristics that distinguish this place from another cold place? These are the types of questions this theme of geography deals with.
c. Region- An area on the earth’s surface that is defined by certain unifying characteristics. The unifying characteristics may be physical, human, or cultural. Similar places and locations form common regions. Different types of physical regions are deserts, mountains, grasslands, and rain forests. In a city or town, there may be commercial or business regions and then residential regions. What are some cultural regions?
d. Movements- The flow of people, money, ideas, or materials between locations near and far. This theme of geography is not just about people moving from one place to another in cars and airplanes. Movement also deals with how and why people travel from one place to another. Some people travel for career, others to be close to family, and some move to escape war or religious persecution. Geographers also study how products and resources are transported from one region or place to another. This includes manufactured products, crops, and oil.
e. Human-Environment Interaction- The ways in which human society and the natural environment affect each other. In studying human/environment interaction, geographers look at all the effects—positive and negative—that occur when people interact with their surroundings. Some examples of this geography theme are damming a river, polluting the air, building highways or railroads, and even watering lawns and gardens. Human behavior such as planting trees is a positive interaction with the environment where creating landfills is a negative interaction.
