Cultural Differences
Cultural differences refer to the variations in beliefs, customs, traditions, and behaviors among different groups of people. These differences can be influenced by factors such as language, religion, social structure, and historical experiences. In the context of geography, cultural differences are important to understand as they shape the unique identities and ways of life of different societies around the world.
6 Key excerpts on "Cultural Differences"
- Nuala C. Johnson, Richard H. Schein, Jamie Winders(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
...Although cultural geography developed historically and intellectually in relation to other areas of human geography, such as cultural ecology and social geography, it also has developed in relation to its practical and institutional contexts. Cultural geography means different things in different places and is enacted in different ways, especially between its North American and British variants (see, for example, Audrey Kobayashi’s discussion of this phenomenon in relation to geographic treatments of race in Chapter 9). Where cultural geography is performed, and where cultural-geographic research is produced, then, shapes what cultural-geographic scholarship looks like as much as does the widening array of spaces and places that cultural geographers now study. In all these ways, cultural geography, as a body of work, is as unruly as ever in its wanderings into other subdisciplines and disciplines, is as spatial as ever in the different strands of theories and writings that coexist as cultural geography in different places, and is as foundational as ever to the field of human geography in its interrogation of the relationship between the spatial and the social, landscape and cultural processes, past and present. The chapters commissioned for this new companion to cultural geography take up the difficult task of sorting through the unruliness, spatiality, and continuing centrality of contemporary cultural geography. The chapters are written by scholars who self-identify as cultural geographers and by geographers who write about cultural themes from the perspective of other subdisciplines. Thus, this companion reflects on the field of cultural geography from within and from without. While this approach might problematize the notion of a coherent subdiscipline, it also makes a claim about the continuity and relevance of cultural geography as a way of looking at the world, from the past to the future. That claim is especially salient today...
eBook - ePub- Melanie K. Smith(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...CHAPTER 3 The geography of cultural tourism Fanfares for ‘cultural diversity’ have come just when most of it has gone. May (1999: 84) Introduction This chapter analyses the geography of cultural tourism. This includes looking at the cultural resources of the main regions and countries of the world, including their built, natural, intangible and indigenous heritage. Every country has its own culture(s), and some may seem more global or traditional than others. Although we cannot generalise about whole regions, many countries within a region share similar characteristics and resources. This can include their natural landscape, architectural style(s), religion, traditions and customs. It is, therefore, sometimes difficult for them to differentiate themselves and to promote their uniqueness to visitors, whose cultural awareness may be relatively limited. This chapter is complemented by Chapter 4, which discusses the way in which different historical and political trajectories have shaped the development of culture. Some countries are blessed with beautiful scenery, whereas others have wonderful architecture or rich folk cultures. Some countries have all of these, whereas others have very few. This means it can be difficult for some countries to develop widespread cultural tourism. This chapter provides an overview of these resources and attractions. An overview of global cultural tourism distribution It is well-documented that certain countries of the world are more heavily visited than others, and that France and Spain frequently top the tourism charts. This has often been more to do with sun, sea and sand than cultural attractions, but increasingly visitors are attracted to not only built heritage attractions, but also the lives and lifestyles of local people. For example, many visitors are exploring the villages of France, Spain, Italy and Greece. This may be combined with gastronomic tourism (e.g...
eBook - ePubSeeing Cities Change
Local Culture and Class
- Jerome Krase(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Cultural landscapes can range from thousands of acres of rural land to homesteads with small front yards. They can be man-made expressions of visual and spatial relationships that include grand estates, farmlands, public gardens and parks, college campuses, cemeteries, scenic highways, and industrial sites. Cultural landscapes are works of art, texts and narratives of cultures, and expressions of regional identity. They also exist in relationship to their ecological contexts” (2009). The Geographer Carl O. Sauer had perhaps the greatest impact on a broad spectrum of social and cultural studies by emphasizing the power of humans to modify the visible features of the Earth’s surface and in the process create cultural landscapes. For early German geographers, the term Landschaft (landscape) was an area identified by visible, physical, and cultural features. The work of Sauer and others at the Berkeley School of Cultural Geography expanded the scope of geography by reducing the environmental determinism that had dominated the study of landscapes by geographers. Historically, the study of Cultural Landscapes was essentially a national project that focused especially on the lasting effects of founding cultural groups. In the United States the founding groups were its earliest Anglo-Saxon settlers. As a result, the search for the quintessential “American” character showed an historical small town and rural bias. Later immigrants, especially those who came to America after the middle of the nineteenth century, were seen as environmental interlopers and their impact on America’s Cultural Landscape was generally viewed as a mere modification of that which was already established. However, except perhaps for those of Native Americans, all of America’s building traditions have come from abroad...
eBook - ePubDiversity and Organizational Development
Impacts and Opportunities
- Jennifer Kuklenski(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Emerald Publishing Limited(Publisher)
...Chapter 4 Cultural Diversity Jennifer Kuklenski The Concept of Culture As discussed in Chapter 3, there is a distinction between trivial differences, such as our tastes in food or music, and differences that represent a much deeper layer of how we understand ourselves and the world around us. Several scholars have sought to analyze and explain this deeper layer of differences in terms of Cultural Differences. The definition of culture is as dynamic as culture itself. Benedict (1934) describes it as a common bond between men based on ideas and standards. To Margaret Mead (1937), the concept of culture means human culture and can be understood as the “complex whole of traditional behavior which has been developed by the human race and is successively learned by each generation” (p. 27). To Clifford Geertz (1973), culture denotes a “historically transmitted pattern of meaning embodied in symbols” through which people communicate, develop knowledge, convey attitudes, and ultimately make sense of the world (p. 89). Geertz, like Mead, emphasized the transfer of meaning from one generation to another. According to McLean (2013), the symbols to which Geertz referred can be thought of as vehicles through which meaning is conveyed between members within a given culture. Culture can be understood from a sociological framework as a “set of attitudes, beliefs, mores, customs, values, and practices” shared by any group (Throsby, 2001, p. 4). Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov (2010) define culture as the “unwritten rules of the social game,” or the “collective programming of the mind” that help people distinguish members of one group from members of another (p. 6). Culture is therefore a collective phenomenon because it is shared among people who live or have lived within the same social environment (Hofstede et al., 2010)...
eBook - ePub- J. Andrew Hubbell, John C. Ryan(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...What we come to know or believe derives from our perceptions and actions in a specific place. As an example of the geohumanities in action, the Welikia Project aimed to reconstruct, in digital form, the original landscape of New York City circa 1609 when Dutch settlers first arrived. Studying this reproduction can give us an understanding of what the first European settlers perceived and how their actions turned that space into a meaningful place for themselves. For more information on the endeavor, see this chapter’s Weblinks section. Waypoint 5.1 Keywords in space and place studies Bioregionalism : the design of community structures according to bioregions usually defined by the boundaries of watersheds Globalization : the global-scale, capital-driven, free market economy in which economic, commercial, political, and other activities no longer adhere to national boundaries Livelihood : a concept outlined by cultural theorist Raymond Williams that opposes the nature–culture opposition and encourages a sustainable approach to making a living from the physical world Mobility : the ways in which humans, more-than-humans, technologies, ideas, and ideologies move between spaces and places Non-place: a concept proposed by anthropologist Marc Augé to describe places of excessive information and space, such as supermarkets, airports and motorways Place : the space that someone identifies with as meaningful and imbued with memories shared by individuals and communities Placelessness : a term coined by geographer Edward Relph to refer to the substitution of places of character with homogenized landscapes that lack identity, such as malls Sense of place: the distinctive feeling we have for particular places as experienced through our senses, bodies, minds, and memories; a sense of place is essential for a sense of belonging and identity Space : a location that lacks social connection, value, and...
eBook - ePub- Sherin Wing(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 11 Geography and Space DOI: 10.4324/9781315798226-11 A little known fact amongst non-geographers is that geography began as an enquiry into religion: it investigated spatial relationships linking cosmology, religious beliefs, and people. 1 As it developed into an independent academic discipline, scholars began exploring secular aspects of geography, focusing on the relationship between human behavior and sites. 2 Over time, secular geographical inquiries replaced religious ones. Subfields like cultural geography developed, which examine human perceptions of geography. 3 Others dedicated themselves to describing the “cultural landscape.” 4 Such studies are furthered by anthropologists and psychologists delving into “reactions to density and crowding, privacy and territoriality,” 5 that result in clashes over community and national boundaries. During this time, studies on religion have languished. Because secular inquiries have become the focus of geography, rigorous and refined analyses are reserved for it alone; all other investigations are portrayed in broad generalizations. 6 Religious spaces have become one of those broadly portrayed disciplines. Once their sacrality is identified, religious spaces are seen as inherently and forever transcendent. 7 In other words, geographically designated sacred spaces remain permanently sacred. 8 In short, they are merely territories that require safeguarding. 9 Other geographers view religious spaces as endlessly relative, in which religious practitioners project multiple meanings onto spaces they consider inherently sacred. 10 Recent geographers only see dynamism in religious pilgrimages. 11 Such studies are more concerned with religious practice primarily as it shapes the movements and migration of people rather than religious spaces as they interact with people. 12 What they all ignore about religious geography is that interpretations and meanings result from interactions between people and space...
