What is Cultural Geography
Cultural Geography is a relatively recent subject, emerging in the late twentieth century. Despite this, the field continues to grow, with recent additions being made all the time. Basically, cultural geography deals with the study of cultures and nations outside of a specific nation or region. A common definition of cultural geography map would be a political and cultural map created by analyzing cultural entities from various nations or regions around the world.
The subject matter of cultural geography has been studied at length since the early nineteenth century, long before the concept of human geography was even conceived. In fact, it was Sir Henry Dale Parkinson who is credited with developing the term “geography”. Originally, he used the term “geo-galactic” to describe the field. Later, other scholars use the term to form the definition of cultural geography map.
Importance Of Studying Cultural Geography
As defined, cultural geography entails studying the cultural entities of various nations or regions while using the same geographic information system (GIS) to represent the entities. For instance, using Google Maps, you can type in “Mali” and have on the map a satellite image of the area. This shows a satellite image of the area of central Africa with all of its languages labeled in Arabic, French, German, and English. The language label is an example of cultural information.
Cultural studies is also a subset of cartography. Cartographers deal with the arrangement and organization of geographical information systems. Cultural cartographers, however, study cultural entities outside of traditional cartography, such as musical works or literature. This makes them a subtype of cartographers who focus more on the cultural and societal aspects of the physical landscape.
An important part of this emerging field is the application of social science and humanities research into geographic information systems. Cultural studies have a rich tradition of studying human interaction and psychology at the local level. Human geography draws from this tradition by studying cultural practices at the individual level of communities, villages, and families. Applied anthropologists and cultural ecologists use the local studies to understand the connections between physical landscapes, cultural demography, and social spaces at the regional or national level.
Cultural mapping can be used for a variety of purposes, ranging from studying tourism in a foreign country to the political economy of an indigenous community to analyze water pollution in the Pacific Ocean. A popular application of cultural mapping is the application of digital technology to create visual maps of cultural spaces.
By creating images from satellite images, users can create a visual representation of cultural spaces that transcend conventional cultural boundaries. This allows users to see the cultural boundaries as if they were actual physical objects in the real world. In addition, digital mapping is useful in scientific research. A popular technique applied to the study of global warming is cultural mapping, whereby researchers show how different cultural regions are responding to climate change by looking at how different people interact with each other in digital spaces such as social networks and search engines.
Cultural geography can also be used to help us understand relationships among places. Geo-cultural space does not simply deal with space and time, but the way that people relate to each other and to the surrounding space. By examining cross-cultural interactions at the interpersonal level, we can learn about the dynamics of prejudice and stereotyping that shape cultural spaces. For instance, it has been shown that the spatial representation of race in online communities such as Facebook creates barriers among members of varying racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Yet, by carefully looking at the representations of race by online users and by looking more closely at the cultural norms of various racial groups, we can see how these barriers are being challenged and how they are being overcome.
Cultural Geography is a dynamic field which is constantly being reshaped by new developments in the field of anthropology. As a result, it offers a rich variety of opportunities to scholars, social scientists, artists, and anyone else engaged in cultural studies. It is important to remember however that cultural geography is not the same as cultural identity, ethnicity or nationalism.
Cultural geography cannot be understood merely from the context of science, technology and society. Rather, it is a comprehensive approach to studying human interaction in the humanities and in the physical world at large. The study of culture depends upon an understanding of human nature, a recognition of cultural boundaries and a lens through which we can view the larger world.
