UNIT 5 Cultural and Political Geography Unit Overview Learning Objectives ➢ Understand 5.1 Introduction the existence of 5.2 Cultural Realms of the World cultural diversity 5.3 Races and cultural traits 5.4 Tribal Distribution of the World around the world. 5.5 Political Geography - Concept of ➢ Describe the world Nation and State distribution of the tribes. 5.5.1 Frontiers and Boundaries ➢ Explain the concept of nation and state. 5.5.2 Geopolitics: Global Strategic views ➢ Distinguish between Boundaries and 5.5.3 21st Century Geopolitics of the Frontiers Multipolar World Order ➢ Understand political relevance of Heartland theory and Rimland theory 5.1. Introduction to the present world. An interesting traditional Chinese custom says that a husband should carry his bride Culture is the total way of life that over a pan of burning coals before crossing the characterises a group of people. Th ere are threshold of their home as husband and wife. According to tradition, the ritual ensures that thousands of cultures existing today and the wife will have an easy and successful labour. each contributes to global diversity. Th ere are Fire walking is also performed by some Chinese so many ways that people can be culturally people as a means to prevent natural disaster’. diff erent. Specifi cally, a culture consistsf o ‘In Cypriot culture, do not give white lilies numerous cultural components that vary as they are used at funerals. It is polite to from one culture group to the other. Some of nish everything on your plate. If you have the cultural parameters are religion, language, not nished eating, cross your knife and fork architecture, cuisine, technology, music, dress, on your plate with the fork over the knife’. gender roles, law, education, government, It indicates you have nished eating by agriculture, economy, sport, values, and many laying your knife and fork parallel across the more. right side of your plate’. Do you know some interesting custom practiced in our culture? 86 TN_GOVT_XII_Geography_chapter 05.indd 86 1/30/2020 2:21:34 PM Culture Region (iii) An “associative cultural landscape” which A culture region is a portion of Earth may be valued because of the “religious, that has common cultural elements and has artistic or cultural associations of the distinct cultural authority from other regions. natural element”. Any number of cultural components may be Cultural Interaction used to define culture regions. A map of world Cultural interaction focuses on the religions, for example, includes a shaded area in relationships that often exist between cultural South Asia where Hinduism is dominant. components that characterize a given Culture regions differ greatly in size. community. Different factors interact with each Some are exceedingly large, like the Islamic other and give rise to prevalent trait. culture region that encompasses millions of What language do you speak? What dress square km of North Africa and Southwest Asia. do you wear? What food do you like? What is Some are very small, like Spanish Harlem, the structure of the house you live in? For the which encompasses about three square km of above question by searching the answer we can Manhattan. Many others are of intermediate learn the culture of a human society. size, like the Corn Belt, which occupies a portion of the mid western United States. Culture shapes our identity and influences our behaviours. Culture refers to the sharing language, Cultural Diffusion beliefs, values, norms, behaviours and material Cultural diffusion is the spread of cultural objects, which are passed from one generation beliefs and social activities from one group of to the next generation. Cultural geography is the people to another. Mixing of world culture branch of human geography which deals about through different ethnicities, religions and the areal organization of various cultural aspects nationalities has only increased with advanced in relation to total environment. Some of the communication, transport and technology. cultural aspects are as follows: Cultural Landscape Language Cultural Landscapes have been defined Language plays great force in socialization by the World Heritage Committee as “cultural and historical transmission, which is the properties representing the combined works of primary instrument for transmitting culture. nature and of man”. Human can bind any group of people through the network of interaction. Languages are in The World Heritage Committee has written or oral form. India (780) has the world's identified and adopted three categories of second highest number of languages, after cultural landscape. The three categories Papua New Guinea (839). extracted from the Committee’s Operational Guidelines, are as follows: Customs Custom in law is the established pattern of (i) “A landscape designed and created behavior that can be objectively verified within intentionally by man”. a particular social setting. .Habit is a similar (ii) An “organically evolved landscape” which word which is adopted by an individual and it may be a “relict (or fossil) landscape” or has been adopted by most of the people of the a “continuing landscape”; ethnic group or society. 87 Cultural and Political Geography TN_GOVT_XII_Geography_chapter 05.indd 87 1/30/2020 2:21:34 PM Norms and Archaeological remains), Natural Norms refers to attitude and behaviours Environment (Rural landscapes, Coasts and that are considered normal, typical or average shorelines, agricultural heritage) and Artefacts within the group. Cultural norms are the (Books & Documents, Objects, and Pictures). standards we live by. They are the shared Cultural diversity expectations and rules that guide behaviour Cultural diversity refers to having different of people within social groups. Cultural cultures, respect to each other differences. norms are learned and reinforced from Cultural diversity is important; because of parents, friends, teachers and others while work place and show increasingly consist of growing up in a society. Norms often differ various cultural, racial and ethnic groups. across cultures, contributing to cross-cultural We can learn from one another but first we misunderstandings. must have a level of understanding. Cultural Values diversity exists in many countries around the world, but it can be challenging and, at Values refer to intangible quality or beliefs times, problematic. Through this lesson, you accepted and endorsed by a society. A culture's will learn how to define cultural diversity and values are its ideas about what is good, right, explore some of the ways in which it influences fair, and just. Sociologists disagree, however, society. on how to conceptualize values. Conflict theory focuses on how values differ between Cultural Traits groups within a culture, while functionalism A cultural trait is a characteristic of focuses on the shared values within a culture. human action that's acquired by people Cultural Heritage socially and transmitted via various modes of communication. Cultural traits are things that Cultural Heritage is an expression of the allow for a part of one culture to be transmitted ways of living developed by a community to another. There are millions of culture traits, and passed on from generation to generation, a trait can be an object, a technique, a belief including customs, practices, places, objects, or an attitude. Culture traits are interrelated artistic expressions and values. Cultural with each other, their collective function forms Heritage is often expressed as either Intangible culture complex. or Tangible Cultural Heritage. As part of human activity Cultural Heritage produces 5.2 Cultural Realms of the World tangible representations of the value systems, Cultural realm refers to a type of cultural beliefs, traditions and lifestyles. As an essential region. Cultural region is a continuous part of culture as a whole, Cultural Heritage, geographical area characterized by cultural contains these visible and tangible traces form homogeneity. It may be classified into three antiquity to the recent past. categories as macro, meso and micro region. Cultural Heritage types Cultural realm is classified based on the attitude, religious belief, language, racial Cultural Heritage can be distinguished in: group, technological development, etc. There Built Environment (Buildings, Townscapes, are twelve Cultural realms in the modern world. Let us discuss some of them briefly. XII Geography 88 TN_GOVT_XII_Geography_chapter 05.indd 88 1/30/2020 2:21:34 PM Occidental Realm part of the occidental culture as a result of Occidental culture is the culture of conversion of tribes into Christianity. The the European society. It is influenced, to a colonial languages, Spanish and Portuguese, great extent, by Christianity. It has regional have become the state languages. Regional modifications on the basis of varying levels architecture has been influenced by the of industrialisation, political and economic Spanish and Portuguese styles. Practically all thought, colonisation, commercialisation, countries maintain economic, cultural and urbanisation, and development of transport social ties with the Mediterranean countries. system, land development of social, political and economic institutions. Islamic Cultural Realm The Islamic Cultural Realm is influenced In many parts of the occidental culture, by Islamic values. It covers a vast geographical the impact of non-religious factors, particularly area from Morocco in the west to Pakistan in the effect of modernisation,