PRINCIPLES OF CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

Term: Spring 2008

Course Number: GEO 2420-562 & 566

Meeting Times GEO 2420-566 - Monday &Wednesday @12:00-1:50 and Location: Final Exam: Monday, April 28, 1:00 – 2:50.

GEO 2420-562 – Monday & Wednesday @ 1:30-2:45Final Exam: Wednesday, April 30, 11:00 – 12:50.

Please note the date and time of Final Exam – make plansaccordingly.

Course Description No prerequisites. and Prerequisites:

The course is intended to provide students with an introduction to the basic principles of cultural (or human) geography. Traditionally, geography (literally, earth writing) has been subdivided into several categories of analysis -- first, into the study of the physical world (the land) and the human or cultural domains; and, second, it has been split into the study of phenomena distributed globally or located regionally. Human or cultural geography, as used in this course, involves the analysis of cultural elements at a global scale – seeking to identify similarities and differences among culture groups as they are found across the earth. Attempts are made to identify factors that help explain the current distribution patterns and account for cultural similarities and difference.

It is unfortunate that we live in an era that has thrown the Baconian (or Scientific) method away as an inconvenience. It is far easier to substitute opinion for fact, in order to justify a given belief system. Perhaps it is for this reason that Dr. Michael Crichton, M.D. [author of Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, and most recently, State of Fear] has been led to criticize science and scientists in recent years. References to Crichton’s criticism, as well as those of others are found below. Yet for this reason our sections of Cultural Geography will review Bacon’s method and seek answers to how and why, in the current milieu, opinion has displaced fact as a basis for both private decisions and public policy formulation. And to examine the abandonment of the scientific method and the rise of ‘moral relativism’ as potential sources for much of the expression of hatred and violence in the world today.

Instructor: Louis A. Woods

Office Hours: Monday &Wednesday @ – 10:30 to 12:00; and by appointment.

Phone: [904] 620-2641

E-mail: lwoods@unf.edu

Required Texts: Fellmann, Getis and Getis.2007. Human Geography: Landscapes of Human Activities, Tenth Edition. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill-Higher Education.

Outside Readings: In addition to the assigned reading material in the text, each student is expected to read a total of ten (10) articles (not editorials or book reviews) from scholarly journals over the term. Time, Businessweek, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, etc. are all popular periodicals and DO NOT qualify as scholarly journals. Several examples of scholarly journals are: Journal of Geography, Journal of Cultural Geography, Geographical Review, Economic Geography, Journal of Developing Areas, Land Economics, Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Each of the articles should be reviewed, summarized or outlined as a written report on 5" x 8" note-cards. Reviews must be headed with the appropriate bibliographic heading:

Author. Year. “Title,” Journal, Vol. ?? , No. ? (Month), pages; --

for example:

Hermann Hauser. 2000. “Entrepreneurship in Europe,” Business Strategy Review, 11, 1 (Spring). 1-9.

These reports are to be turned in on a weekly basis, beginning the week of January 23rd.

Additional Each student is expected to be well informed on current social and economicRequirements: issues -- both domestic and international -- by reading a reliable newspaper or

internet source, including the editorial pages (such as the Wall Street Journal; and/or by viewing a reliable television news source (if that’s possible) on a daily basis.

In the lecture materials, the text and other materials that you read in this course there may be words that are unfamiliar to you. Purchase a 5” X 8” spiral bound notebook and write them down. At an opportune time, look each word up in a dictionary and write out the word’s definition(s). Write a sentence using the word. On the cover of the notebook write ‘Dr. Woods’ Words and Definitions.’ You will be required to hand in the notebook at the time of each quiz: “No notebook, no quiz!”

Course Outline and Schedule:

January 7 Introduction/background/housekeeping

Jan. 9 - Introduction to geography, the examination of the meaning of the words, Feb. 3 ’culture’ and ‘cultural’ and the identification of various cultural realms. In

the 1930s and again in the late 1950s, Richard Hartshorne [1959. Perspective on the Nature of Geography] defined geography employing the German tradition’s philosophy of the subject. This tradition dates back to the 16 th Century. Hartshorne described geography as “the study of the earth, as the home of man or humanity” or as “the study of man-land relationships.” Many young Turks in the 1960s, embracing a single article written by Fred K. Schaefer [“Exceptionalism in Geography: A Methodological Examination,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 43 (1953) 226-49], rebelling against the existing approaches to the discipline, replaced the German-tradition (the idea of ‘uniqueness’ of place, person and activity), with a quest for general principles or laws governing geography and geographic distributions, and declaring a paradigm shift. Abstract theory replaced description and analysis, as the use of higher mathematics and statistics became the mark of a ‘well-educated’ geographer. In the process of emulating neo-classical economists, geographers came to believe that ‘human action’ and human behavior could be reduced to an equation. [In similar fashion, a Marxist Indian economist maintained that the entire economy of India was contained in two equations that he developed!]

In some ways this focused around semantics (“…it depends on what the meaning of is, is….”), much akin to and about as rewarding as the Scholastics’ arguing over the number of angels that could dance on the head of a pin.

Perhaps the most essential characteristic of geography is the recognition that the ‘discredited’ idea that the ‘character’ (visual and structural) of the earth’s landscapes (climate, vegetation, topography, economies, and land use patterns) vary from place to place. This ‘spatial variation’ [or, as some have called it, ‘areal differentiation’ (see: Richard Hartshorne’s .1959. Perspective on the Nature of Geography; especially Chapter IX. “Is Geography Divided Between ‘Systematic’ and ‘Regional’ Geography?, 108-45)] provides the basis for the geographic mode of analysis: the identification of regions of the earth’s surface that possess some measurable, unique or differentiating characteristic or set of characteristics that are meaningful, e.g., in physical geography it is possible to use the ideas formulated by a Nineteenth Century German-speaking botanist, Wladimir Köppen (1846-1940) [father-in-law of the progenitor of the theory of ‘plate techtonics’ and ‘continental drift’ – Alfred L. Wegener (1880-1930)] to identify portions of the earth surface that have similar annual temperature-rainfall regimes, associate natural vegetation patterns and distribution of soil types. In his conceptualization of the world’s climates as zone, Köppen was anticipated by the Greek Pre-Socratic philosopher, Parmenides (circ. 515 B.C.). For further information about Wladimir Köppen, see:

http//geography.about.com/od/physicalgeography/a/koppen.htm.

For additional information about Alfred Wegener, see:

www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/wegener.html.

and

//Pangaea.org/wegener.html.

For more information on ‘continental drift’ and ‘plate techtonics’ (including an animated visual representation), see:

www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/anim1.html.

It is unfortunate that many so-called researchers and sciences have abandoned any pretense of adherence to the Baconian Method in a most shameful way, with its requirement of an ‘open-mind’, the use of empirical data, and the testing of hypotheses. It is imperative that every attempt be made to become aware of the abuses of the ‘scientific method’ and to re-capture this lost ground. Below are several sources that you should briefly review:

Sir John Maddox. 1972. The Doomsday Syndrome. [Sir John Maddox (1925 - ) served as the editor of the prestigious scientific journal, Nature, for twenty-two (22) years – 1966-73 and 1980-95)]

Julian Simon. 2000. Hoodwinking the Nation.[Julian Simon (1932-98) was a University of Chicago-trained economist who served as a constant gad-fly to the practitioners of ‘junk science’ – or as Wired called him: ‘Doomslayer’.]

Dr. William Grey, PhD. 2005. “The Role of Science in Environmental Policy Making,” Statement before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, September 28. Available @:

www.epw.senate.gov/hearing_staements.cfm?id= 246768.

[William Grey, PhD. Professor, Department of Atmospheric Science, ColoradoState University has MORE than fifty (50) years experience in “… studying

and forecasting weather and climate…” His specialty “… has been tropical meteorology and tropical cyclones.” In this statement, Dr. Grey provides empirical evidence of academic FRAUD in global warming research focusing on sloppy scientific methodologies, including misuse “… by those wishing to make gains from the exploitation of ignorance on this subject (human-induced global warming)].”

And, finally:

Dr. Michael Crichton, M.D. 2005. “The Role of Science in

Environmental Policy-Making.” Statement before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, September 28. Available @:

www.epw.senate.gov/hearing_staements.cfm?id= 246766.

[Here, too, Dr. Crichton calls into question the ‘scientific methodology’ of the global warming crowd. His major criticism is that: “A striking feature of

climate science is that it’s permissible for raw data to be ‘touched,’ or modified, by

many hands. Gaps in temperature and proxy records are filled in. Suspect values are deleted because a scientist deems them erroneous. A researcher may elect to

use parts of existing records, ignoring other parts…. the fact the data has been modified in so many ways inevitably raises the question of whether the results of a given study are wholly or partially caused by the modifications themselves.” At the heart of Crichton’s discussion is the issue of ‘independent’ verification of results (replication of results).]

Other significant analysis by Dr. Crichton, include:

____________. 2003. “Aliens Cause Global Warming,” Lecture California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, January 17.Available at, under speeches:

www.crichton-official.com

__________. 2003. “Environmentalism as Religion,” Speech to the

Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, CA, September 15. Available at, under speeches:

www.crichton-official.com

To assure an understanding of the ‘Baconian Method’, review the following web sources and prepare an outline/review and contrast of each by January 16

“What is Science?” www.thingsrevealed.net/science1.htm.

“The scientific method <the habit of truth>,” www.geowords.com/histbooknetscape/b10.htm.

and:

“In Defense of Bacon,” www.uno.edu/~phil/bacon.htm.

Readings from text:

Chapter 1, “Introduction: Some Background Basics,” 3-29.

A ‘spatial viewpoint’, core concepts and maps. Ed Ullman and spatial interaction – an old economic idea, rediscovered by geographers – Henry C. Carey and the ‘gravity model’. Spatial patterns of distribution, ‘near-neighbor analysis’ and botany. Regions and regionalization. The geographic grid system and earth-sun relations.

The tilt of the earth’s axis to the plane of the ecliptic (23½o) is an important factor in explaining the earth’s grid, the distribution of insolation, the patterns of the earth’s temperatures and rainfall, as well as the distribution and seasonal migration of its wind systems, and the patterns of its climates. In Goode’s World Atlas, study the map of ‘World Precipitation,’ pages 16-17.

Read the following material Goode’s World Atlas:- Introduction, vi-xii;

-- Five Themes, vi; -- Map data, vi-viii; -- Map scale, viii; -- Map projections, ix; --- Mercator (Kramer or Cramer) Projection --- Goode’s Interrupted Homolosine; -- Important characteristics of the global grid, xi; -- Earth-sun relations/Time zones, xii.Outline/review of this material from Goode’s by January 23.

The newest tool in the geographer’s toolkit is ‘geographical information systems.Imagination, Imagineering and mental maps.

Jan. 9 Last day for Drop/Add

Jan. 21 Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday – University Holiday

Chapter 2, “The Roots and Meaning of Culture: Introduction,” 35-61.

Jan. 23 First of the Article reviews (notecards) is due. One will be due each week for the next ten weeks, with the exception of the week of Spring Break (March 13-20). The final review will be due on April 3.

Chapter 3, “Spatial Interaction and Spatial Behavior,” 66-93.

Jan. 25 Last day to petition to add a course

Chapter 4, “Population: World Patterns, Regional Trends,” 98-129.

See: “Human Population,” on my homepage –

http://www.unf.edu/~lwoods/

If there is any area that has been more abused by the rejection of the Baconian

Method it has been in the fields of population, the environment and resources

use (conservation); or as one scholar has defined it: L/P or land/population (see: Scott Gordon. 1958. “Economics and the Conservation Question,” Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 1, 110-21). In this context, it is important to remember that geography has been defined as ‘the man-land relationship’.

Read the following material Goode’s World Atlas:

-- Population Density, 22-23.-- Age/Sex Composition, bottom, 25.-- Births and Deaths, 26. -- Life Expectancy, 31.

Write a summary/outline/description of the patterns that you are able to identify by January 25. Use material from the text to help you explain what is going on.

Chapter 8, “Livelihood and Economy: Primary Activities,” 254-89.

The reason for jumping to Chapter 8, before considering Chapters 5, 6 and 7 is based on the need to understand the L in Scott Gordon’s ratio L/P. The land (L) has the capacity to support a given sized population (P), depending upon the technology that that population (P) has available to it. The problem with this Malthusian Doctrine, named after the Rev. Thomas Malthus, is that he and others assume that population would grow geometrically: 1, 2, 4, 8,16, 32,…., ad nausium ; while simultaneously permitting the products of the land (food and other resources) to grow only at an arithmetic rate: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,….! While such a relationship may have been a reasonable approximation to the real world before the so-called Industrial Revolution (1760 or so), this has not been the case after that. [Review: Figure 4.1 “World population numbers and

projections,” 99 – notice that axes are both expressed in arithmetic values. In order to understand the implications of such nonsense you should read Edward S. Deevey’s 1960 article, “Human Population,” Scientific American, (September), 195-204 – the need for logarithms and a ‘log/log’ graph. Note: that Deevey was the curator of the Florida Museum of Natural History at the U of F in Gainesville].

Labor productivity (output per worker per unit of time) had remained constant from the First Agricultural (or the Neolithic) Revolution through the middle of the 18th Century. It began to rise only after the Industrial Revolution (1760) and Watt’s improvement of the steam engine as a substitute for animate power (humans, horses, oxen, etc.). The increases in labor productivity served to support a growing population. To improve understanding of these issues, it would be a good idea to read the sarcastic article:

Scott Gordon. 1958. Economics and the Conservation Question,” Journal of Law and Economics, 1 (October), 110-21.

Importantly, the text omits an explanation for the levels of population, levels of economic output and the failure of Malthus’ dire predictions (as well as those of others) to occur over the past two and a half centuries. This is precisely the problem with rejecting the Baconian (‘scientific’) method. What Malthus and others have done, using their model, is to permit population to grow through time (t0 → t250), while holding technology essentially constant. It is no coincidence that the Industrial Revolution is also known as the Scientific Revolution (the application of scientific knowledge to production processes). This application of science to production (technology) increases output per unit of other factor inputs (including labor and capital), i.e., improves productivity. This reveals the flaw in the Malthusian case and nonsense touted by environmentalist such as Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb (1968), in which he claims, on the first page:

… the battle to feed all of humanity is over…. In the 1970s and the 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash program embarked upon now. [Emphasis added]

This is the same ‘Paul Ehrlich’ that Michael Crichton has singled-out for criticism in his 2003 speech, “Aliens Cause Global Warming.”

Crichton, after expressing his youthful respect for science, has written:

… I am not pleased with the impact of science … Rather than serving as a cleansing force, science has in some instances been seduced by the more ancient lures of politics and publicity.Some of the demons that haunt our world in recent years are invented by scientists.

He is addressing the issue of the replacement of scientific fact with personal opinion. As an initial example he cites the Drake equation which had been put forward by Frank Drake in 1960 to launch the SETI project ….

N = N*fp ne fl fi fc fi

where:

N = number of stars in the Milky Way;fp = fraction of stars with planets;ne = number of stars capable of supporting life;fl = fraction of planets where life evolved;fi = fraction where intelligent life evolved;fc = fraction that communicates; andfL = faction of planet’s life during which

communicating civilization lives.

This equation is definitional and that is the extent of its validity. As Crichton rightly points out:

… none of the terms can be known, and most cannot even be estimated. The only way to work the equation is to fill [it] in with guesses. [Emphasis added]

Now, that’s real science! Guesses! So, here is where the silly notion that opinions can trump facts. Clearly, such an equation lacks the critical elements necessary for ‘scientific’ inquiry … it cannot be tested, nor can the results be verified. Hence, Crichton concludes that such an approach to science requires ‘belief’ rather than ‘scientific proof’ and, therefore, is a ‘religion’ rather than a‘science’. Perhaps, more importantly. Crichton concludes:

The fact that the Drake equation was not greeted with serious outrage similar to the screams of outrage that greet each Creationist new claim, for example – means that now there isa crack in the door, a loosening of the definition of what constituted legitimate scientific procedures. And soon enoughpernicious garbage began to squeeze through the cracks.[Emphasis added]

Some of the ‘pernicious garbage’ began in a major way with the pseudo-science of estimating the global impacts of a nuclear exchange during the ‘Cold War’ concocted by the anti-nuclear crowd. Crichton observes that a 1983 paper by Carl Sagan in the journal Science declaring the outcome to be ‘Nuclear Winter’.

When it is time to discuss the economic structures of a nation’s economy, Colin Clarke (late 1940s and early 1950s proposed the sub-division of economic activity into three basic categories:

Primary activities – those activities in closest contact with or bound to the land;

Secondary activities – those converting materials from the Primary sector into intermediate or final goods; and

Tertiary activities – those activities most closely associated withthe final consumer.

Subsequently, others have proposed other categories, such as:

Quaternary activities – those activities involving the acquisition and provision of information, research and technology; and

Quinary activities – those activities associated with executive decision making processes.

Clearly, the ‘primary activities’ include gathering activities; agriculture (including various plantation systems); silva culture (forestry); mining, fishing (including fish farming). ‘Secondary activities’ involve ‘the mechanical and/or transformation of raw or semi-processed materials (inputs) into semi-processed and/or final products.’ The major activity groups include: construction; manufacturing; and electrical generation. The ‘tertiary sector’ involves the provision of final goods and services to the consumer. They include such activities as: transportation; warehousing; wholesale and retailing; personal and business services; healthcare and educational services.

Here it is important to note that the Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises has stated emphatically in his classic work: Human Action: A Treatise of Economics (1998):

Economics is not about goods and services, it is about theactions of living men….

Competitive prices are the outcome of a complete adjustment of the sellers to the demand of the consumer….The whole economic process is conducted for the benefit of the consumers. There is no conflict between the interests of the buyers and thoseof the sellers, between the interests of the producers and those ofthe consumers. (354)

The ‘quaternary activities’ involve the newly emerged, highly specialized services of research and development (R & D), information services, management and government. Finally, the ‘quinary activities’ involve those engaging in ‘decision-making’ in all of their ramifications – both private and public sector.

Feb. 6 FIRST QUIZ

Feb. 8 - Chapter 5, “Language and Religion: Mosaics of Culture,” 136- Mar. 13 173.

Chapter 6, “Ethnic Geography: Threads of Diversity,” 178-211.

Chapter 7, “Folk and Popular Culture: Diversity and Uniformity,”

216-247.

Society is produced by our wants, and Government by our wickedness ….

Thomas Paine. 1776. Common Sense.

In a popular Cultural Geography textbook by Knox and Marston (2007), HumanHuman Geography: Places Geography: Places and Regions in Global Contextand Regions in Global Context, the authors employ a typical ‘traditional cultural geography’ framework to introduce ‘specific aspects of culture’ – i.e., ‘special traits’ -- which they define as “distinctive styles of dress, dietary habits, and styles of architecture.” They specify, turgidly:

A culture trait is a single aspect of the complex of routine practices that constitute a particular cultural group. For example, dietary law for Muslims prohibits the consumption of pork. This avoidance may be said to be a cultural trait of Muslim people. Additionally, in their religious iconography, Muslims have prohibitions against displaying human faces. This too, is considered a cultural trait. (177-8, emphasis added)

Sadly, the italicized and underlined statement demonstrates extreme naiveté… All one needs do is to view the artwork displayed at: “Popular Devotional Art of Indian Muslims Looking for The Syncretic Symbols,” @ www.ektaramusic.com/popart/ gallary.html. Notice the captioning ... “Devotional Art”! Clearly, some Muslims in their ‘religious iconography’ do display human faces! Equally, in Pakistan, advertising bill-boards carry human faces, even the faces of ‘unveiled’ women! Knox and Marsdon continue:

… there are certainly other cultural groups (such as Hindus and Jews) that avoid pork in their diet. (178)

And I thought that Hindus avoided beef! Next, Knox and Marsdon address the issue of rites of transformation from one stage of life to another, the so called ‘rites of passage’ that characterize various culture groups. Perhaps the single best example of cross-cultural analysis of ‘rites of passage’ and their ‘deep’ cosmological/religious meaning are to be found in the writings of the Romanian

collector of folklore and historian of religion, Mircea Eliade (1907 – 1986). Eliade provides a single-best examination of rites in his book, Rites and Symbols of Initiation: The Mysteries of Birth and Death (1958). Eliade was the founder of the Department of the History of Religion at the University of Chicago and the founder/editor of Journal of the History of Religion. His short book, Myth and Reality provides additional materials on the ‘rites of passage’ of the Australian aboriginal population. There is an excellent examination of Eliade and his works on Wikipedia. There have been several well done episodes on the National Geographic channel entitled ‘Taboo’, which have chronicled scarification (in one case, to make the back of the initiate appear to be like the back of a crocodile), as a rite of passage to adulthood for both men and women in sub Saharan Africa.

The traditional view is one of additive, layered combinations of ‘cultural traits’ which characterize a particular group of people, giving rise to what has come to be referred to as a ‘cultural complex.’ In aggregate, it is the additive nature of ‘culture traits’ into ‘culture complexes’ that serves to differentiate one culture group from another! However, there is a danger in this approach, since ‘culture groups’ often consciously and voluntarily to adopt ‘traits’ from other culture groups. In extremis, one group may be forced by conquest to adopt the ‘culture traits’ of the conquering people. So the analysis of ‘culture complexes’ must be undertaken with care. The predominance of a set of ‘culture complexes’ over some geographic space gives rise to what has been termed ‘culture regions.’ Knox and Marston have described ‘culture regions’ in the following terms:

A culture region is an area where certain cultural practices, beliefs, or values are more or less practiced by the majority of the inhabitants. (182, emphasis in original)

Notice that the authors describe the ‘cultural region’ as being defined by the ‘traits’ and the ‘complexes’ of “the majority of the inhabitants.” It appears that the ‘traits’ and ‘complexes’ of numerically less numerous groups become submerged in the ‘culture’ of the dominant group. Clearly there is a tension that always will exist under such circumstances, unless there is ‘forced’ adoption or race purification through genocide … Hitler and the Nazis (or Stalin and the Bolsheviks) were not the first nor will the be the last group to good down this path less traveled.

The terminology and content of ‘cultural complexes’ has been broadened to embrace what are referred to as ‘cultural systems,’ which Knox and Marston describe as:

… a collection of interacting components that, taken together, shape a group’s collective identity. A culture system includes traits, territorial affiliation, and shared history, as well as, other, more complex elements, such as language. (183, emphasis in original)

… Christianity unites all Protestant religions (as well as Catholic ones),

yet the practices of particular denominations ….. vary.

It would seem that ‘Catholic ones’ are an after thought, and, curiously, there is no mention of the Orthodox faiths (Greek, Russian, Ethiopian)! The text continues by noting that:

Two key components of a cultural system for most of the world’s people are religion and language. Religion is a belief system and a set of practices that recognizes the existence of a power higher than humans. (183)

In many regards there is a current belief system that ‘Nature’ is that power “higher than humans.’ This has been addressed by Michael Crichton in a speech – “Environmentalism as Religion” – given to the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, CA, September 15, 2003. Ignoring the obvious implications of the rise of ‘secularism’ and ‘environmentalism’ as quasi-religious movement, based on ‘belief systems,’ Knox and Marsdon write:

Although religious affiliation is on the decline in some parts of the world’s core regions, it still acts as a powerful shaper of daily life, from eating habits and dress codes to coming-of-age rituals and death ceremonies in both the core [developed] and periphery [underdeveloped]. (183, material in brackets added)

Loss of a sense of ‘religious affiliation’, expressed as an archetype (psychic content) must be replaced by something else in a person’s being and society’s focus. This is revealed in the opening statement in Crichton’s speech:

I have been asked to talk about what I consider the most important challenge facing mankind, and I have a fundamental answer. The challenge greatest facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda. Perceiving the truth has always been a challenge, but in the information age (or as I think of it, the age of disinformation) it takes on special urgency and importance. (emphasis added)

This is the challenge confronting each and every one of you! The question is: “How do we distinguish ‘reality’ from ‘fantasy,’ and ‘truth’ from ‘propaganda’? The best advice that I can give is: First, always approach an issue with the Baconian Scientific Method in mind. Next, know the sources of the information being presented. What are their backgrounds? Do they have a stake in the outcomes? What have been their positions and the results of their past positions on issues? Then, think logically (not emotionally) about what is being presented – is it logical? What does the science behind it have to say about it? Finally, just because a person is well-known in one field, does that qualify him/her to speak to the issue at hand? Know your data sources! Go check the data (the facts), not the opinion of others.

An excellent example of the origin and spread of a non-material element of culture is music, and a great place to start in the examination of such a

phenomenon is Carney’s work on country/western music:

Carney, George O. 1974. “Bluegrass Grows All Around: The Spatial Dimensions of Country Music Styles,” Journal of Geography, 73 (4), 34-55.

__________. 1980. “Country Music and the South: A Cultural Geographic Perspective,” 1, Journal of Cultural Geography, 16-33.

__________. 1998. Fast Food, Stock Cars and Rock ‘n’ Roll: Place and Space

in American Popular Culture. Lanham, MD.: Rowan and Littlefield.

__________. 2003. The Sounds of People and Places: A Geography of American Music: From Country to Classical, 4th Ed. Lanham, MD.: Rowan and Littlefield.

A great source for American cultural research is available on the net @ American Ethnic Geography,

www.valpo.edu/geonet/geo/courses/geo200/bib10.html.

This link may or may not work, but search: ‘Carney geography country music’ to find the link and that should work.

In his study of ‘rites-of-passage’, ‘initiation rites’ or ‘transformation rites’ Eliade has frequently compared the paucity of such rites in modern industrial societies with their preservation and continuing power in ‘traditional societies.’ In Rites and Symbols of Initiation, he begins his book by observing:

It has been said that one of the characteristics of the modern world is the disap-pearance of any meaningful rites of initiation. Of primary importance in traditional societies, in the modern Western world significant initiation is practically non-existentTo be sure, the several Christian communities preserve, in varying degrees, vestiges of a mystery that is initiatory in structure. Baptism is essentially an initiatory rite; ordination to the priesthood comprises an initiation….

Modern man’s originality, his newness in comparison with traditional societies, lies precisely in his determination to regard himself as a purely historical being, inhis wish to live in a basically desacralized cosmos. (ix)

Perhaps this desire by modern man to explain human existence in purely physical terms, ignoring and/or denying a sense of wonder in non-material realities account for his sense of purposelessness and disregard for his fellow beings and the natural state.

In many regards there is a current ‘belief system’ that ‘Nature’ is that power “higher than humans.’ This has been addressed insightfully by Michael Crichton in a speech – “Environmentalism as Religion” – given to the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, CA, September 15, 2003. Ignoring the obvious implications

of the rise of ‘secularism’ and ‘environmentalism’ as quasi-religious movement, Knox and Marsdon have noted:

Although religious affiliation is on the decline in some parts of the world’s core regions, it still acts as a powerful shaper of daily life, from eating habits and dress codes to coming-of-age rituals and death ceremonies in both the core [developed] and periphery [underdeveloped]. (183, material in brackets added)

Loss of a sense of ‘religious affiliation’ must be replaced by something else in a person’s being and in society’s focus. Eric Hoffer, in his short book -- The True Believer, observed that this loss is at the heart of most mass-movements and gives rise to the ‘fanatic’. This is revealed in the opening statement in Crichton’s speech:

I have been asked to talk about what I consider the most important challenge facing mankind, and I have a fundamental answer. The challenge greatest facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda. Perceiving the truth has always been a challenge, but in the information age (or as I think of it, the age of disinformation) it takes on special urgency and importance.(emphasis added)

This is the challenge confronting each and every one of you! The question is: “How do we distinguish ‘reality’ from ‘fantasy,’ and ‘truth’ from ‘propaganda’? The best advice that I can give is: First, always approach an issue with the Baconian Scientific Method in mind. Next, know the sources of the information being presented. What are their backgrounds? Do they have a stake in the outcomes? What have been their positions and the results of their past positions on issues? Then, think logically (not emotionally) about what is being presented – is it logical? What does the science behind it have to say about it? Finally, ask yourself: “Just because a this person is well-known or ‘expert’ in one field, does that qualify him/her to speak to the issue at hand? Know your data sources! Go check the data (the facts), not the opinion of others.

Back to Religion

And, more pointedly, back to Michael Crichton:

I studied anthropology in college, and one of the things I learned was certain human social structures always reappear. They can’t be eliminatedfrom society. One of those structures is religion. Today, it is said that we live in a secular society in which many people – the best people, the most enlightened people – do not believe in any religion. But I think that you cannot eliminate religion from the psyche of mankind. If you suppress it in one form, it merely re-emerges in another form. You can not believe in God, but you still have to believe in something that gives meaning to your life, and shapes your sense of the world. Such a belief is religious.

Crichton’s observations are not new – Cardinal (Joseph Alois) Ratziner [now,

Pope Benedict XVI], who had served as the Protector of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1981-2005) long ago described Communism as merely ‘a Christian heresy’ (1985. The Ratzinger Report). Even earlier, Carl G. Jung writing about ‘archetypes’ commented on ‘theistic ideas’ and their power in the human psyche:

… The archetype behind a religious idea has like every instinct, its specific energy, which it does not lose even if the conscious mind ignores it. ….

The reprėsentations collectives have a dominating power, so it is not surprising that they are repressed with the most intense resistance. When repressed, they do not hide behind any trifling thing but behind ideas and figures that have already become problematical for other reasons, and intensify and complicate their dubious nature….contents of extreme tension which are not apperceived in consciousness and can therefore become perceptible only through projection. (“Concerning the Archetypes, with Special Attention to the Anima Concept,” Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious,” 63)

Eliade has stated in the ‘Foreword’ to Patterns of Comparative Religion, that:

This book deals with a twofold problem: first, what is religion and, secondly, how far can one talk of the history of religion? As I doubt the value of beginning with a definition of the religious, I am simply going to examine various ‘hierophanies’ – taking that term in its widest sense as anything which manifests the sacred.

… given the aims I have set myself in this book – I mean the sort of treatise that starts with the most elementary hierophanies (mana, the unusual, etc.), going on to totemism, fetishism, the worship of nature and spirits, thence to gods and demons, and coming finally to the monotheistic ideas of God. (xiv, emphasis added)

Earlier, Eliade had described ‘hierophanies’ as “…anything which manifests the sacred.” (xiv) The term comes from the Greek: hieros – sacred or holy; and phainein – to show. Then, there is the hierophant – an interpreter of sacred mysteries or esoteric principles; a priest or priestess. The importance of Eliade’s use of the concept of ‘hierophany’ and its role in creating ‘livable’ space, will help in evaluating the textbook’s analysis in “Interpreting Places and Landscapes” (Chapter 6). He opens Chapter I (“Approximations: The Structure and Morphology of the Sacred”) in Patterns of Comparative Religion with the following:

1. ‘Sacred’ and ‘Profane’All the definitions given up till now of the religious phenomenon have one thing in common: each has its own way of showing that the sacred and the religious life are the opposite of the profane and the secular life.… before you attempt anydefinition of the phenomenon of religion, you must know where to look for the evidence, and, first and foremost, for those expressions of religion that can be seen in the ‘pure state’ – that is, those which are ‘simple’ and as close as possible to their origins. (1)

… Every hierophany we look at is also an historical fact. Every manifestation of the sacred takes place in some historical situation…. (2)

The fact that a hierophany is always a historical event (that is to say, always occurs in some definite situation) does not lessen its universal quality. Some hierophanies have a purely local purpose; others have, or attain, world-wide significance. … that hierophany is not only of a certain time (as every hierophany must be), but also of a certain place. (3)

Several pages later, Eliade develops the notion of the ‘dialectic of hierophanies’ which separates space into two categories – the ‘sacred’ and the ‘profane’. An aspect of this may be seen in the following statement:

In fact, this paradoxical coming-together of sacred and profane, being and non-being, absolute and relative, the eternal and the becoming, is what every hierophany, even the most elementary, reveals. … This coming-together of the sacred and profane really produces a kind of breakthrough of the various levels of existence. It is implied in every hierophany whatever, for every hierophany shows, makes manifest, the coexistence of contradictory essences: sacred and profane, spirit and matter, eternal and non-eternal and so on. … (29)

Eliade then goes so far as to declare:

… One might even say that all hierophanies are simply prefigurations of the Incarnation, that every hierophany is an abortive attempt to reveal the mystery of the coming together of God and man. (29)

Eliade raises the thorny issue of what factors separate modern man and the people of earlier societies – and, by extension, the secularization of modern cultures and the ‘religiosity’ of fundamentalists:

Indeed one of the major differences separating the people of the early cultures from people to-day is precisely the utter incapability of the latter to live their organic life (particularly as regards sex and nutrition) as a sacrament. …. For the modern they are simply physiological acts, whereas for primitive man they were sacraments, ceremonies by means of which he communicated with the force which stood for Life itself. … this force and this life are simply expressions of ultimate reality, and such elementary actions for the primitive become a rite which will assist man to approachreality, to, as it were, wedge himself into Being, by setting himself free from merely automatic actions (without sense or meaning), from change, from the profane, from nothingness. (31-2)

… the rite always consists in the repetition of an archetypal action performed in illo tempore (before ‘history’ began) by ancestors or by gods, man is trying, by means of the hierophany, to give ’being’ to even his most ordinary and insignificant acts. By its repetition, the act coincides with its archetype,and time is abolished. We are witnessing, so to speak, the same act that was performed in illo tempore, at the dawn of the universe. Thus, by transforming all his physiological acts into ceremonies, primitive man strove to ‘pass beyond’, to thrust himself out of time (and change) into eternity…. it [ritual] is

the normal tendency of the primitive to transform his physiological acts into rites, thus investing them with spiritual value…. A real religious experience, indistinct in form, results from this effort man [primitive] makes to enter the real, the sacred, by way of the most fundamental physiological acts transformed into ceremonies. (32)

Perhaps more importantly for 21st Century societies, Eliade makes note of man’s need to guard themselves against ‘the meaningless, nothingness’:

Then, too, the religious life of any human group at the ethnological stage will always include certain elements of theory (symbols, ideograms, nature- and genealogy-myths, and so on). … such ‘truths’ are held to be hierophanies by primitive peoples – not only because they reveal modalities of the sacred, but because these ‘truths’ help man to protect himself against the meaningless, nothingness; to escape, in fact, from the profane sphere. …. An act only had meaning in so far as it repeated a transcendent model, an archetype. The object of that repetition was able to ensure the normality of the act, to legalize it by giving it an ontological status.: it only became real in so far as it repeated an archetypes. (32-3, emphasis in the original)

So, then, there we have the essence of Eliade’s notions the origins of the sacred and the use of ‘ritual’ (repetition of ‘real’ actions that occurred in illo tempore defining them as archetypes) serving to abolish time and protect against ‘nothingness’ and ‘meaninglessness’ of the profane – both time and place. The remainder of his book describes the various divisions of life into sacred and profane realms through hierophanies and their association with ‘saving’ rituals. He begins with the ‘sacredness of the sky’ and of the sun and the moon – with their ceremonies to cult gods and goddesses overseeing hunting, cultivation and, even, kingship. This is followed by consideration of water and sacred stones (especially those with ‘holes’ or ‘omphalos’ and their connection with the ‘Centre of the World’ or the ‘World’s Navel’. He follows with consideration of the earth’s association with women and fertility and the ancient association of women with agriculture. Vegetation and the rites associated with various vegetative forms (“The Cosmic Tree”, “Tree of Life and of Knowledge”) and their use as symbols of ‘regeneration’. This analysis is formally extended to include agriculture and the fertility cults. The next two chapters are perhaps the most illuminating: Sacred Places – Centers of the World and their association with Temples and Palaces; and Sacred Times and the Myths of the Eternal Return (rebirth) – of particular significance is the idea of the ‘restoration of mythical time’ and the ‘regeneration or renewal of time’ with the ceremonial ‘yearly repetition of the creation’. Finally, Eliade addresses myths – their morphology and their function; and the structure of symbols.

The persistence of religious motifs, rites and ceremonies may be seen in the writings of Cardinal Ratzinger, as well as the speeches of Michael Crichton. In his speech, “Environmentalism as Religion,” presented at the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, on September 15, 2004, Crichton chronicles the adoption of “… traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths” by the environmental

movement. He recounts:

There’s an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with nature, there’s a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a result of our actions there is a judgment day coming for us all. We are all energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment. Just as organic food is the communion, that pesticide wafer that the right people with the right beliefs, imbibe. [Emphasis added]

So there you have it! A self-designated ‘intellectual’ elite, seeking to instill fear and loathing on ordinary folks, and failing to induce a voluntary conversion to their faith, and willing to employ the monopoly power of the state to force an involuntary conversion to their belief system! Remember, these are the same folks that ridicule fundamentalist Christians for their beliefs and their faith in the literal interpretation of the Scriptures! Crichton continues his analysis:

Eden, the fall of man, the loss of grace, the coming doomsday --- these are deeply held mythic structures. They are profoundly conservative beliefs. They may even be hard-wired in the brain, for all I know. Icertainly don’t want to talk anybody out of them, as I don’t want to talk anybody out of a belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God who rose from he dead. But the reason I don’t want to talk anybody out of these beliefs is that I know that I can’t talk anybody out of them. These are not facts that can be argued. These are issues of faith. [Emphasis added]

And so it is, sadly, with environmentalism. Increasingly it seems facts aren’t necessary, because the tenets of environmentalism are all about belief. It’s about whether you are going to be a sinner, or saved. Whether you are going to be one of the people on the side of salvation, or on the side of doom. Whether you are going to be one of us, or one of them.

Am I exaggerating to make a point? I am afraid not. Because we know a lot more about the world than we did forty or fifty years ago. And what we know now is not so supportive of certain core environmental myths, yet the myths don’t die.

And the reason that the myths don’t die, is that they have co-opted and re-worked the ancient archetypes, which are, as so aptly described by Eliade, “The Structure and Morphology of the Sacred”!

Crichton continues his argument:

Let’s examine some of those beliefs [‘environmental myths].

There is no Eden. There never was. What was that Eden of the wonderful mythic past? Is it the time when infant mortality was 80%, when four children in five died of disease before the age of five? When one woman in six died in childbirth? When the average lifespan was 40, as it was in America a century ago. When plagues swept across the planet, killing millions in a stroke. Was it when millions starved to death? Is that when it

was Eden?

It seems that humanity has always looked backward to a ‘Golden Age’ (Plato’s ‘The Statesman,’ for example, as well as, Ovid, Macrobius, and earlier still, Hesiod’s Works and Days), a period of perfection (utopian) when all wealth was held in common and there were no distinction between ‘freedom and slavery.’ In the Western tradition the ‘Golden Age’ (Paradise or the Garden of Eden) was followed by disobedience/sin and man’s expulsion from this idealic state. In the Biblical context, the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, where the four rivers found their source, is represented as the ‘Fall of Man from Divine Grace.’ While these examples have been drawn from early Western Mediterranean cultures, similar myths are to be found in the ancient Near East (Sumerians), replicated in the ‘creation accounts’ of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, as well as in the religious and philosophical traditions of the Far East. A particularly revealing case is to be found in the Vedic (ancient Hindu) writings. In the Vedic tradition, as was true for the ancient Greeks, there were four ‘stages of man’ which followed a cyclical pattern, made up of yudas (alternating periods of dark and golden ages) in the Hindu tradition, these were: (i) the ‘kali’ yuda, or iron age; (ii) the ‘dwapara’ yuga, or bronze age; (iii) the treat yuga, or silver age; and, finally, (iv) the ‘satya’ yuga, of golden age.

Chapter 9, “Livelihood and Economy: From Blue Collar toGold Collar,” 294-325.

Mar. 13 SECOND QUIZ

March 17- Spring Break 21

Mar. 24 – Chapter 10, “Patterns of Development and Change,” 330-359. April 25 Chapter 11, “Urban Systems and Urban Structures,” 366-407.

Chapter 12, “The Political Ordering of Space,” 412-445.

Chapter 13, “Human Impacts on Natural Systems,”452-484.

In order to place the contents of Chapter 13 in its proper perspective, it will be necessary to review the following materials

Michael Crichton, M.D. 2003. “Aliens Cause Global Warming,” Lecture California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA., January 17.Available at, under speeches:

www.crichton-official.com

__________. 2003. “Environmentalism as Religion,” Speech to the

Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, CA., September 15. Available at, under speeches:

www.crichton-official.com

“The Inductive (Scientific) Method,” @

www.batesville.k12.in.us/Physics/PhyNet/AboutScience/Inductive.html

“Francis Bacon and the Scientific Method @

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/STL/ideas/bacon.html.

“The scientific method <the habit of truth>,”

www.geowords.com/histbooknetscape/b10.htm.

Scott Gordon. 1958. Economics and the Conservation Question,” Journal of Law and Economics, 1 (October), 110-121.

April 25 LAST DAY OF CLASSES

April 26 - FINAL EXAMS May 2.

GEO 2420-566 - Monday &Wednesday @12:00-1:50Final Exam: Monday, April 28, 1:00 – 2:50.

GEO 2420-562 – Monday & Wednesday @ 1:30-2:45Final Exam: Wednesday, April 30, 11:00 – 12:50.

Grading: Three, equally weighted quizzes will comprise 86% of the final grade. The remaining 14% of the final grade will be determined by the outside

readings and summaries. The following aggregate grading scale will be used:

350 to 323 (100% to 93%) ............... A322 to 298 (92% to 86%) ................. B297 to 270 (85% to 77%) ................. C269 to 242 (76% to 70%) ................. D Less than 242 (69%) ..................... F

Library Scholarly journals may be located in the periodical section of the library Assignments: (The Third Level).

Written The individual article summaries will comprise one of the written Communication communication requirements in this course. Please note that the cards=

Requirements: format, particularly the Bibliographic material, should conform to those found in the Chicago Manual of Style.

Oral Class participation constitutes the demonstration of oral Communication communication skills. At all times, class discussion and class Requirements: participation is strongly encouraged.

Computer Use of the Internet for data searches, articles from scholarly journals Applications: and data manipulation are encouraged. The need for students to access the

instructor=s home page to download syllabi, class materials, and project

instructions serves as an additional set of computer applications.

International Geography is, by definition, international. Lectures and Coverage: handouts are used to augment the international component of this course.

Environmental One of the earliest modern definitions of geography is ‘the study man/Issues Covered: land relationships’ – or man’s use of the land. Several of the major issues

addressed specifically in this course are: the so-called ‘population problem’ and human-induced ‘global warming’.

Ethical Issues Ethical issues related to human use of the land and ‘pollution’ as an Covered: externality (both positive and negative) will be discussed where and as

appropriate.

Academic Integrity: Each student is expected to do his/her own work on assigned activities and on all quizzes. An understanding of what constitutes plagiarism and abuse of copyright >fair use= laws is expected of each student.

Students With Students with a disability, as defined under the Americans with Disabilities: Disabilities Act (ADA), who may require special classroom

accommodations, should inform the instructor of any special needs during the first week of class. Students should also contact the Office of Disabled Services Programs (620-2769) immediately.