1. KEY TOPICS in CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
The field of cultural geography is wide-ranging and comprehensive. To organize it,
geographers focus on six prominent areas of study and research. The first is cultural
landscape. The cultural landscape is the composite of artificial features (buildings &
roads) and intangible qualities (“atmosphere”) of a place. Cultural landscapes range from
the very primitive to ….

2. …. the very modern, dominated by skyscrapers and high population densities.

3. Religion, as a cultural trait, is a dominant
feature of most cultural landscapes.

4. The cultural landscape culminates in the “townscape”and/or “cityscape,” which is very
distinctive from one culture region to another.

5. Closely related to cultural landscape is sequent occupance. This refers to an area that
has been inhabited, and transformed, by a succession of residents, each of them leaving
a lasting imprint.

6. CULTURE HEARTHS
In the course of human history, some communities have thrived, while others have
stagnated or declined. Culture hearthswere the sources of civilizations, where ideas,
innovations, and ideologies radiated outward and changed the world. Did all culture
hearths become great civilizations? What great breakthrough did all the ancient
culture hearths achieve?

7. Two great civilizations that did emerge from ancient culture hearths were ancient Egypt
and ….

8. …. the Native American civilizations in Latin America, including the Aztecs, Incas, and
Mayans.

9. Explain the phenomenon of human sacrifice as a cultural trait of the Incas and the other two
great civilizations of Latin America, including the Aztecs and Mayans.

14. CULTURAL DIFFUSION
The ancient culture hearths were focal points of innovation & invention. These ideas and
stimuli radiated outward, reaching distant peoples, and quickly adopted and often
modified or refined; others fell on barren ground. The process of dissemination from its
source area to other cultures is known as cultural diffusion.
Describe the phenomenon of independent invention (Mayan v. Egyptian artifacts).

15. EXPANSION DIFFUSION
Expansion diffusion occurs when an
innovation or idea develops in a source
area and remains strong at the source
while spreading outward. Provide some
examples of this phenomenon.
Expansion diffusion takes several forms,
including contagious diffusion,
hierarchical diffusion, and stimulus
diffusion.

16. A good application of expansion diffusion is “America’s pastime,” baseball, to other
geographic regions.

17. Contagious diffusion is a form of expansion diffusion in which what is diffusing spreads
outward from a node or epicenter in wave-like fashion. Spatially contagious diffusion
emphasizes the frictional force of distance in explaining the spread of things in time and
space. Provide some examples of this form of diffusion.

18. Hierarchical diffusion occurs when the main channel of diffusion is some segment of those
who are susceptible to (or adopting) what is being diffused. The idea, innovation, or
disease may not always spread throughout a fixed population. Provide some examples of
this type of diffusion.
Explain the third form of expansion diffusion, stimulus diffusion. And provide some
examples of this phenomenon.

19. RELOCATION DIFFUSION
Relocation diffusion involves the actual movement of individuals who have already adopted the idea.
Thus, people move the idea, not the idea moving itself as in expansion diffusion. Describe and
provide an example of migrant diffusion. Identify the forces working against diffusion and provide
examples.

20. CULTURAL IMPERIALISM
Related to the process of diffusion and creating
controversy in a growing number of countries is
the phenomenon of cultural imperialism.
Cultural imperialism occurs when a more dominant
culture diffuses into weaker and/or less
developed cultures, and begins to dominate it.
American culture has done this
worldwide, whether intentionally or
unintentionally. Foreigners are concerned about
the pervasiveness of American culture in their
countries.

22. The U.S.-led war on terrorism in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, where U.S. forces have achieved
regime change and are in the process of nation-building, appears to many around the world as blatant
American cultural imperialism.

23. CULTURAL PERCEPTION
Although architecture – even simple dwellings in remote areas – dominates the cultural
landscape, other aspects of daily life also contribute to the character of places. Identify
and describe other characteristics that help us define a place.

24. PERPCEPTUAL REGIONS
Perceptual Regions: Our perceptions of our own community and culture may differ quite
sharply from those of other people in other cultures. They are believed to exist as part
of a specific cultural identity. Such regions emerge from concepts that people use
informally in daily life, rather than from scientific models. How do you know when you
cross over a perceptual region boundary? Do geographers agree entirely on their
boundaries? Do they agree on their impact?

25. ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISM
Human cultures exist in a long-term accommodation with their physical environments,
seizing opportunities presented by those environments and suffering from the limitations
and extremes they sometimes impose. Explain the doctrine of environmental
determinism.

26. Of all the environmental factors, which one is the most critical, according to this
doctrine? Explain possibilism as a counter-argument to environmental determinism.
Will all countries enjoy the same potential for possibilism? What would you identify
as the biggest factor?