syllabus Mount Sac

Cultural Geography
Syllabus
Mount Sac
Summer 2008
TWTH
1:20-4:00pm
June 24th-August 3rd 2008
Email: kofi_peprah_@hotmail.com
: Peprah.kofi@gmail.com



Geography by its nature is a spatial science. Geographers therefore study space in order to locate the distribution of people and objects. Geographers ask two main questions, “where” and “why.”

Text Material:
An Introduction to Human Geography. The Cultural Landscape, 9th Edition
By James. M. Rubenstein

Course Objectives:
Over the course of the semester students will be provided with information to enable them understand the cultural elements of geography.
At the end of the semester students will be able to:
Define geography and explain its importance in education
Think geographically
Understand the elements of population growth and why population is increasing at different rates in different countries
Explain why people migrate, where are migrants distributed and why do people migrate within a country
Define folk and popular culture, where do folk and popular culture originate and diffuse
Distinguish between language and dialects, why do people preserve local languages
Define what is religion? Where are religions distributed and why are religions distributed where they are
Define ethnicity and understand why do ethnicities clash?
Understand the concept of political geography
Understand what is Development

Dates Topics chapter
06/24/08 Syllabus/Introduction
06/25/08 Introduction to Geography Intro. Chapter 1
06/26/08 Population chapter 2
07/1/08 Population chapter 2
7/2/08 Migration chapter 3
7/3/08 Migration chapter 7/4/08 No Classes
7/8/08 mid term 1/folk and Popular culture chapter 4
7/9/08 folk and popular culture chapter 47/10/08 Language chapter 5
7/15/08 Language chapter 5
7/16/08 Midterm2/Religion chapter 6
7/17/08 Religion chapter 6
7/22/08 Religion chapter 6
7/23/08 Ethnicity chapter 7
7/24/08 Ethnicity chapter 7/29/08 Midterm3/Development chapter 9
7/30/08 Development
7/31 Finals

P.S. I reserve the right to alter the reading, exams, and assignments to improve the quality of this course

Assignments due dates

Explain the difference between physical and human geography
Due July 1th

Why does globalization of popular culture cause problem?
Due July 15th

Explain the causes of the conflict in Rwanda between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Explain whether the conflict was genocide or ethnic cleansing
Due: July 30thth

Attendance
Class attendance is mandatory. A student missing 3 days in a row or more than 20% of a course shall be automatically dropped, this is college policy. Be silent, and turn off your noise making devices. Do not interfere with the ability of others to hear or participate in class. Students who are absent or disruptive risks losing points on their final grade for poor class participation

Grading system
The point system will be used

3 Midterm exams each 50x3 points = 150
Finals examination = 60
Assignments 3x20 = 60
Positive attendance = 20
Total = 290

Points scale
290pts-261pts = A
260pts-232pts =B
231-203pts = C
202-174points =D
173+- = F

Remaining notes

http://www.culturalgeog2.blogspot.com/

Population 2

Demographic transition model
The "Demographic Transition" is a model that describes population change over time.
Once a country moves from one stage to the next, it does not revert to an earlier stage.
Stage 1
Stage 1- High stationary stage (low growth)
-High fertility ( birth)
-High mortality (death)
-Characterizes a variable large, but short term population growth
- Due to agricultural revolution/war and diseases
-No country remains in this stage

Stage 2
Early Expansive stage (high growth)
High fertility and declining mortality
Occurred in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
Result of the industrial revolution (mass production, steam engine)
Countries in Europe and US entered this stage in 1800, but Asia, Africa reached this stage in the 1950s
due to medical revolution –immunization against small pox

Stage 3
late expanding stage (moderate growth)
-With declining fertility Due to changes in social customs-decision to have fewer children
-People begin living in cities to work in offices, shops or factories,
Most countries in Asia are in this stage while most African countries remain in stage 2

Stage 4
Stage 4 -Low Stationary Stage (low growth)
-Low fertility and low mortality and very low growth rate
-Zero population growth
-More women enter into the labor force
-changes in lifestyle, entertainment and leisure
-Most Eastern European countries experience negative natural increase rate

Population structure
Population structure refers to the way in which the population is made up of groups of differing age and sex.
Developing countries have higher birth rates but much higher infant and childhood death rates.
Developed countries at present is characterized by an almost static overall total, but with an ageing population (Uk)

Population composition
This consist of the distribution of the people across age categories and the number of men relative to the number of women

Age and Sex are the most considered aspects of population composition
Other aspects include:
household income level,
marital status,
level of education etc
Age and Sex: Key indicators of Population composition
Age and sex composition are represented by Age-sex pyramid
Age-sex pyramids display the percentage or actual amount of a population broken down by gender and age. The Most important measurement is the Dependency Ratio. , which is the number of people who are too young or too old to work compared to the number of people in their productive years

Age distribution
Three broad age groups are used
0-14years (percentage below age 15)
15-64years ( working group)
65 and above ( dependent)

Sex Ratio
It is the number of males per hundred females in the population
In general slightly more males than females are born, but males have higher death rates
In Europe and North America the ratio of men to female 95:100 ( 95 men for 100 females)
Globally 102 males:100 females
In the US males under 15 exceed females 105:100. women starts out numbering men about age 30 and females comprise 60% of the population above 65.

Population Pyramid
The Shape of a pyramid is determined primarily by the fertility rate in the community
There are three basic types of population pyramid
Types of Population Pyramid
Expansive
Constrictive
Stationary

Expansive population pyramid
Show larger numbers or percentages of the population in the younger age groups. Ex Latin American and many developing countries

Constrictive
CONSTRICTIVE population pyramids display lower numbers or percentages of younger people.
The age-sex distributions of the United States fits into this type of pyramid.

Stationary Pyramid
STATIONARY or near-stationary population pyramids display somewhat equal numbers or percentages for almost all age groups.
European countries, especially Scandinavian ones, tend to fall into this category.

Uses of population pyramids
They show the number of economic dependents being supported in a particular population
They predict changes in the age structure of the population over the next fifty or so years so that plans can be introduced to cope with the predicted changes.

Aging Population????
The number of people who are above 60 years.
It is predicted that by the year 2050, the number of people over 60years will increase by more than 230%.
Population pyramid will become top heavy

US Aging Population
The U.S. population age 65 and over is expected to double in size within the next 25 years.
By 2030, almost 1-out-of-5 Americans (72 million people) will be 65 years or older.
The age group 85 and older is now the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population.

What will be the Challenges of US’s Aging population?
Economics
Social
Political
Challenges
Increase in pension and medical care
Younger adults must provide taxes to carter for the aged ( increased in tax burden on the working population)
Increase retirement age at which benefits will be paid
Production towards goods and materials for young will require dramatic shift to production for the aged

Why Might the world face an over population problem?
Thomas Malthus
He was a British. He published “an essay on the principles of population as it affects the future improvement of society” in 1798
Between 1803-1826, he predicted that Britain’s population growth will be checked by hunger
His Observations:
World population growing faster than food supplies: population growth rate: exponential
Food production growth rate; Arithmetical

Was Malthus right?
Challenges of Malthus’ theory
His concept referred to closed society ( Britain)
Issues of migration and colonization
Technological improvement: increased in acreages, hybrid seeds, fertilizer application
Supporters of Malthus are known as Neo-Malthusian
How can we account for Switzerland and Japan? Few resources ( less land) but highly developed

population 1

Population
What is Population?
Where is the world’s population distributed
Where has the world’s population increased
Why is population increasing at different rates in different countries?
Why might the world face an overpopulation problem?

What is population?
The total number of inhabitants in a specified area.
Demography is the scientific study of population characteristics.
Population geography focuses on the spatial aspects of demography

Cartogram
Cartogram depicts the size of countries according to population rather than land area.

Where is the World Population Distributed

Two-thirds of the world’s inhabitants are clustered in four regions
East Asia
South Asia
Southeast Asia
Western Europe

Highest population concentration
East Asia
One-fifth of the world’s population live in East Asia.

South Asia
The Second largest population concentration
The capacity of the region to support its people have almost been exceeded
India,
Bangladesh,
Island of Sri Lanka
India is the second most populous country in the world
Southeast Asia
Indonesia (consist of 13,677 islands) is the fourth most populous country

Southeast Asia
The largest concentration is on the Island of Java (100million)
0nly 30% of the population reside in towns and cities
More than half of the world’s total population live here, but live on less than 10% of the earth’s land area

Europe
Total population is over 700million
Densed population extends from the British Isles into Russia, includes part of Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Belarus.
The population concentration reflects the orientation of its coal-fields.
Not closely related to terrain and environment
¾ of Europe’s inhabitants live in cities and less than 20% are farmers
Other Populous clusters

North America
Major cluster lies in the urban complex along the eastern seaboard
from Boston to Washington, which includes, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore

Other Regions
About 2% of the world’s people live in West Africa
650 million cluster in west Africa
Half of West Africa’s population live in Nigeria (130million),
South America - 360 million

Sparsely populated Regions
Dry lands
Wetlands-too much precipitation( near the equator)
Cold lands- permafrost ( north and south pole)
Highlands (too steep), except in Africa and Latin America
Ex. Mexico city, one of the largest city is located at an elevation of 2,243 meters ( 7,360 feet)


Measurement of Population Density
Population Density
It is the measure of the number of people per unit area.
Help geographers to describe the distribution of people in comparison to resources

Arithmetic density
Physiologic density
Agricultural density


Arithmetic density
Is the measure of the number of people per unit area.
Ex total land area of US = 3,717,427 divided by 285.4 million in 2002= 77per square mile or 29.6 per square kilometer.
Uses
Compares the number of people trying to live on a given piece of land in different regions of the world.

Physiological density
USES
It provides insights into the relationship between the size of a population and the availability of resources in a region

Agricultural density
Agricultural density is the ratio of the number of farmers to the amount of arable land.
Most developed country have low agricultural density.
Why?

Demography
Demography is the statistical study of human populations.
Demographic Change
Refers to a change in the age and structure of a population
Four conditions determine demographic changes
Birth (B)
Death (D)
Immigration (I)
Out migration (Om)
Original Population (op)
TP=OP+B-D+I-om
TP=total population
OP= Original population
Globally Natural Increase= Birth-Death
Locally= OP+B-D+I-om

Population change
Refers to whether the population number has decreased or increased
Measurement of Population change
Crude birth rate (CBR)
Crude death rate (CDR)
Natural Increase rate (NIR)

Crude Birth rate (CBR)
It is the total number of live birth in a year for every thousand people alive in the society.
Ex.A crude birth rate of 20 means that for every 1000 people in a country, 20 babies are born over a one-year period

Crude death rate
It is the total number of deaths in a year for every 1000 people alive in the society.

Natural Increase Rates

Doubling time
It is the number of years needed to double a population, assuming a constant rate of natural increase.The rate of natural increase affect the doubling time.

How do you explain the differences in population growth rates?
Fertility
Total fertility rate is the average number of children a woman will have throughout her child bearing years ( roughly 15 through 49)

Mortality
Infant mortality and life expectancy are two important measures of mortality

Discussion
Why does the United States, with its extensive system of hospitals and physicians, have a higher crude death rate than Mexico and every country in central America?

Introduction to Geography

Introduction to Geography

Thinking Geographically

How do geographers describe Where things are?
Why is each point on earth unique?
Why are different places similar

What is geography….?
Eratosthenes- An ancient Greek scholar coined the word from two Greek words, geo meaning Earth and graphy meaning to write

Geography is the scientific study of the location of people and activities across the Earth, and the reasons for their distribution

Branches of Geography
Geography is divided broadly into two branches

1. Human Geography
2. Physical geography

Human Geography
Human geography studies where and why human activities are located as they are.

Examples?
.................................................................

................................................................

...............................................................

Physical Geography
Physical geography studies where and why natural forces occur as they do

Examples

.............................................

.............................................

Geographers ask four simple questions:

Where,
why,
how,
what?

The ‘Where’ of geography
this relates to the location of phenomenon in space. This involves the use of:

1. Map
2. GIS
3. Remote Sensing

Map
A map is a two-dimensional or flat-scale model of the earths surface, or a portion of it. Cartography is the science of map making .

Two important uses of Map

1. A tool for storing reference materials
2. A tool for communicating geographic information

Contemporary tools
Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems are the two contemporary tools used by geographers to explain the why and where of phenomena

Remote Sensing
The acquisition of data about earth’s surface from a satellite orbiting earth or from other long-distance method

Geographic Information System(GIS)
A computer-based system designed to collect, store, integrate, manipulate, analyze & display data in a spatially referenced environment.

The ‘Why’ of geography??
Why each point on the earth surface is unique?
Why different places are similar?

Two basic concepts help geographers to explain why each point on earth is unique:
Place and Region

Place:
Unique location of a feature
Regions:
Areas of unique characteristics

Place : Unique location of a feature
Geographers identify the location of something in four ways by;

1. Place-name
2. Site
3. Situation
4. location

Place-name
Geographers call the name given to a portion of Earth’s surface its TOPONYM

Site
Site is the physical characteristics of a place

Climate:
is the average weather condition of a place observed over a long period of time (30years)
Water sources
Soil
Vegetation

Situation
It is the location of a place relative to other places

Location
There are two general types of locational information:

1. Relative location
2. Absolute location.

Relative location defines a place in relationship to other places
Absolute location is also known as mathematical location.The use of coordinate systems.The most common coordinate systems on maps are Latitudes and Longitudes

Region
A region is an area of Earth defined by one or more distinctive characteristics
Properties of Regions

Area
Boundaries
Location
Homogeneity

Types of Regions
There are three types of regions namely;

1. Formal
2. Functional
3. Vernacular

Formal Region
Formal region is also called a uniform region or a homogeneous region.

Functional Region
Functional region also called a nodal region.It is an area organized around a node or focal point.

Vernacular Region
Also referred to as perceptual region, a place that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity.

Space
Geographers try to understand why people and activities are distributed across space as they are.

Three main properties of distribution across Earth

1. Density
2. Concentration
3. Pattern

Density
The frequency with which something occurs in space.

Types of density

1. Arithmetic density is the total number of objects in an area.
2. Physiological density: is the number of persons per unit area suitable for agriculture

Concentration
The extent of a feature’s spread over space

1. Clustered objects in an area are close together
2. Dispersed objects are far apart

Patterns
The ways in which features are organized. Some features are organized geometrically, others are distributed irregularly geographic

Five Themes of Geography

1. Location
2. Region
3. Place
4. Human-environment relation
5. Movement

The nature of Geography
Continental Drift occurs when the continents change position in relation to each other.
Alfred Wegener (1880-1930), a German meteorologist and geologist, was the first person to propose the theory of continental drift.

200 million years ago the continents were originally joined together, forming a large super continent called Pangaea, meaning "All-earth". The southern part of this supercontinent was Gondwana of which Africa formed the core

Evidence of continental drift

1. Glossopteris, a fern, was found on the continents of South America, Africa, India, and Australia
2. Rock sequences in South America, Africa, India, Antarctica, and Australia show remarkable similarities
3. The rift valley in Africa, for example, demarcates the zones where plate movement occurs.

Syllabus

Cultural Geography

Syllabus

Summer 2008

Jun 16, 2008-Jul 18, 2008

Instructor: Ebenezer “Kofi” Peprah

Email: epeprah@lbcc.edu
kofi_peprah_@hotmail.com

Geography by its nature is a spatial science. Geographers therefore study space in order to locate the distribution of people and objects. Geographers ask two main questions, “where” and “why.”

Text Material:

An Introduction to Human Geography. The Cultural Landscape, 9^th Edition

By James. M. Rubenstein

Course Objectives:

Over the course of the semester students will be provided with information to enable them understand the cultural elements of geography.

At the end of the semester students will be able to:

1. Define geography and explain its importance in education
2. Think geographically
3. Understand the elements of population growth and why population is increasing at different rates in different countries
4. Explain why people migrate, where are migrants distributed and why do people migrate within a country
5. Define folk and popular culture, where do folk and popular culture originate and diffuse
6. Distinguish between language and dialects, why do people preserve local languages
7. Define what is religion? Where are religions distributed and why are religions distributed where they are
8. Define ethnicity and understand why do ethnicities clash?
9. Understand the concept of political geography
10. Understand what is Development

Day/dates Topics chapter

Mon. June 16^th Introduction/ syllabus

Tues. June 17^th Introduction to geography 1

Wed. June 18^th Population 2

Thurs. June 19^th Population 2

Fri. .June 20^th Migration 3

Mon. June 23^rd Migration 3

Tues. June 24^th Midterm 1

Wed. June 25th Folk and Popular culture 4
Thurs. June 26^th Folk and Popular culture 4

Fri. June 27^th Language 5

Mon. June 30^th Language 5

Tues. July 1^st Midterm 2

Wed. July 2^nd Religion 6

Thurs. July 3^rd Religion 6

Fri. July 4^th Independence Day

Mon. July 7^th Ethnicity 7

Tue. July 8^th Ethnicity 7

Wed. July 9^th Midterm 3

Thur. July 10^th Political Geography 8

Fri. July 11 Political Geography 8

Mon. July 14^th Documentary Review

Tues. July 15h Development 9

Wed. July 16^th Development 9

Thurs. July 17^th Revision

Friday July 18^th Finals

P.S. I reserve the right to alter the reading, exams, and assignments to improve the quality of this course

Assignments and due dates

1. Explain the difference between physical and human geography

Due:June 20^th

2. Why does globalization of popular culture cause problem?

Due: June 30^th

3. Explain the causes of the conflict in Rwanda between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Explain whether the conflict was genocide or ethnic cleansing

Due: July 17^th

Attendance

Class attendance is mandatory. A student missing 3 days in a row or more than 20% of a course shall be automatically dropped, this is college policy. Be silent, and turn off your noise making devices. Do not interfere with the ability of others to hear or participate in class. Students who are absent or disruptive risks losing points on their final grade for poor class participation

Grading system

The point system will be used

3 Midterm exams each 50x3 points = 150

Finals examination = 60

Assignments 3x20 = 60

Positive attendance = 20

Total = 290

Points scale

290pts-261pts = A

260pts-232pts =B

231-203pts = C

202-174points =D

173+- = F