People on the Land

1. People on the Land Chapter 2 – Part II The Human Matrix

2. AIDS cases per 100,000

3. AIDS cases per 100,000

4. Disease diffusion • AIDS • Most widely accepted theory on where AIDS began • HIV-1 – in east-central Africa • HIV-2 – in the upper Niger River country in the Guinea highlands of West Africa • Apparently originated in the local monkey population • Passed on to humans through the local cultural practice of injecting monkey blood as an aphrodisiac

5. Disease diffusion • HIV-2 • Most similar to the simian type • Has had less impact on humans in its source region • Has not spread as widely beyond Africa as HIV-1

6. Probable diffusion of AIDS

7. Disease diffusion • Diffusion after humans became infected • Apparently moved throughout central and western Africa • Followed transport routes and spread through growing urban areas • Haitians working at civil service posts in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) carried disease back to the Caribbean in the early 1960s • Europeans visiting central Africa diffused AIDS back to Europe

8. Disease diffusion • American male homosexuals vacationing in Haiti likely contracted the virus and spread it throughout the gay communities in the United States • Americans falsely believed the virus was exclusively linked to homosexual behavior • Western Europe became a secondary diffusion area

9. Disease diffusion • Not all diseases spread by contagious diffusion • Relocation diffusion – tourism, temporary migration • Hierarchical diffusion – disease spread by persons affluent enough to participate in international tourism

10. Population ecology • Cultural ecology is quite relevant to the study of population geography • Successful adaptive strategy • Permits a people to exist and reproduce in a given ecosystem • Population size and growth offer an index to successful adaptation • Maladaptive strategies can lead to dwindling number, even extinction

11. Population ecology • Preadaption – to what extend did a groups’ ways of living precondition them for success in a new land? • Successful cultural adaptation • Can lead to catastrophe if it causes significant environmental alteration and destruction so as to undermine livelihood • The key is sustainability • Adaptive strategy must allow many generations to use the land in more or less the same manner

12. Population ecology • Environmental influence on population densities • Greatest in mid-latitudes where terrain is level, climate is mild and humid, the soil is fertile, mineral resources abundant, and accessible to the sea • Lower where there is excessive elevation, aridity, coldness ruggedness of terrain and a distance from the coast

13. Sweden

14. Climatic factors affect where people settle

15. Population ecology • Some climates are considered to have a “defect” of some kind and are mostly avoided by humans • Human remain creatures of the humid and subhumid tropics, subtropics or mid-latitudes • Small populations of Inuit (Eskimo), Sami (Lapps), and others live in cold or dry areas • In avoiding cold places, we may reveal even today the tropical origin of our species

16. Population ecology • Most mountain ranges in middle and higher latitudes have sparse population • Inhabitants of the tropics often prefer to live at higher elevations • For dense clusters in mountain valleys and basins • Escape the humid, not climate of tropical lowlands • More people live in the Andes Mountains than in the nearby Amazon lowlands • Many tropical and subtropical national capitals lie in the mountain areas above 3000 feet

17. Population ecology • Human tendency to live on or near seacoasts • Eurasia, Australia, and South America resemble hollow shells – majority of population clustered around the rim of each continent • Partly stems from trade and fishing opportunities

18. Hollow shell

19. Population ecology • Continental interiors tend to be regions of climatic extremes • Australia’s interior is a land of excessive dryness and heat • Desert regions lack water and people cluster together where it is available from rivers (Nile), or oases

20. Water in the desert

21. Population ecology • The factor of disease in population location • Malaria depopulated Italy’s coastal regions after Romantimes • Diseases attack domestic animals, depriving people of food and clothing • Sleeping sickness in parts of East Africa • Particularly fatal to cattle, but not humans • Cattle represent wealth and provide food • Serve a religious function in some tribes • Its spread caused entire tribes to migrate from infested areas

22. Disease can influence settlement

23. Population ecology • Environmental perception and population distribution • Different cultural groups often “see” the same physical environment differently • European Alps shared by German and Italian speaking people • Cultural groups can change its perception of an environment over time

24. Population ecology • Main reasons for American interregional migration • Mild winter climate and mountainous terrain • Diverse vegetation including forests, and mild summers with low humidity • Presence of lakes and rivers • Nearness to seacoasts • Where?

25. Population ecology • Immigrants to Arizona reveal a preference for its sunny, warm climate • Immigrants to Florida cite attractive environment as the dominant factor • Different age and cultural groups often express different preferences as reasons for migrating interregionally in the United States • All are influenced by their perception of the environment • Misinformation is at least as important as accurate impressions • People often form strong images of an area without ever visiting it

26. Quartzsite, Arizona

27. Aging and Environmental Preference • Landscapes of the elderly become especially noticeable in societies with aging populations – those with low birth rates and long life expectancy. • Many North American retirees become part of a migratory population known as “snowbirds.” • Traveling northward in summer and southward in winter, they frequently follow specific circuits of places and events.

28. Aging and Environmental Preference • Here in the desert, a giant swap meet and lapidary festival is held in February. • Close to a million individuals, mainly retirees attend. • More than 50,000 winter in Quartzsite but in summer as temperatures rise, the resident population drops to about 3000 and snowbirds head for more comfortable climes

29. Population ecology • Population density and environmental alteration • Through adaptive strategies people, especially where population density is high, can radically modify their habitats • Can happen even in low density areas where the environment is fragile • The carrying capacity of Earth varies greatly from one place to another

30. Population ecology • We are facing a worldwide ecological crisis • Partly because at present densities many adaptive strategies are not sustainable • Close relationship between population explosion and ecological crisis • Haiti • Rural population pressure particularly severe • Most available biomass (humus) now being used in small intensively cultivated kitchen gardens • Surrounding fields and pastures becoming increasingly denuded

31. Population ecology • Overpopulation can precipitate environmental destruction • Yields a downward cycle of worsening poverty • Many cultural ecologists believe attempts to restore balance of nature will not succeed until we halt or reverse population growth • Adaptive strategy is as crucial as density • Population pressure can lead to more conservational land use • Rural China offers supportive evidence

32. Population ecology • Vegetation changes in western and central Europe • Farmers cleared vast forests during the Middle Ages • These fertile agricultural districts became densely populated • During population declines the forests expanded again

33. Population ecology • Worldwide ecological crisis is not just a function of overpopulation • Relatively small percentage of Earth’s population controls much of the industrial technology • Absorbs a gargantuan percentage of the world’s resources each year • Americans (US), who make up less than 5% of the world’s population, account for about 40% of the resources consumed each year

34. Cultural integration and population patterns • Cultural factors • Basic characteristics of a group’s culture influence the distribution of people • Rice domestication influenced high population growth in Southeast Asia • In environments similar to Southeast Asia where rice was not grown, populations did not reach such densities

35. Cultural factors • In the 1700s, the introduction of the potato to Ireland allowed a great increase in rural population • It yielded much more food per acre than traditional Irish crops • In the 140s, failure of the potato harvests reduced Irish population through starvation and emigration.

36. Cultural factors • France – first place in the world where sustained fertility decline took root • Did not keep pace with nearby lands of Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom • Was the most populous of these four countries in 1800 • Became the least populous after 1930 and still is • During the years between 1800 and 1930 millions of Germans, British, and Italians emigrated overseas

37. Cultural integration • Few French left their homeland • French Canadians in Quebec continued to favor large families • About 10,000 people left France between 1608 and 1750 • Today, Quebec’s population of about 7 million does not include those that migrated to New England and other areas • Some unknown cultural factor worked to produce demographic decline in France

38. Cultural integration • Why some cultural groups differ in their tendency to migrate • Religious ties bind some to traditional homelands • Travel outside sanctified bounds of the motherland considered immoral • Responsibilities to tend ancestral graves and perform rite at parental death kept many Chinese in China • Navajo Indians bury the umbilical cord in the floor of the hogan at birth, which seems to strengthen attachment to the house • Some groups consider migration a way of life • Poverty stricken Ireland proved so prone to migration that today Ireland’s population is about half the total of 1840

39. Political factors • Governments can restrict voluntary migration • Haiti and Dominican Republic share island of Hispanola • Haiti supports 620 people per square mile • The Dominican Republic has only 440 people per square mile • Government restrictions on migration into the Dominican Repluc make migration form Haiti difficult • If Hispanola were one country its population would be more evenly distributed

40. Haiti-Dominican Republic

41. Political factors • All cultures have laws based in the political system to maintain order within society • Laws, especially those concerning inheritance, can affect population density • In Europe, the code derived from Roman law requires that all heirs divide the land and other property equally. Farms fragment as generations pass. Rural population density increases • In Germany, primogeniture is favored – inheritance of all land passes to the firstborn son. But in south Roman law was practiced and severe rural overpopulation occurred in mid-nineteenth century

42. Economic factors • In the past 200 years, industrialization has caused the greatest voluntary migration in world history as people have clustered in manufacturing regions • Agricultural changes can have a similar effect with less impact on population distribution

43. Economic factor • Mechanization of cotton and wheat cultivation in 20th century America • Allowed crops to be raised by a much smaller labor force • Resulted in profound depopulation • Many small towns ceased to exist

44. Cultural integration • Research often produces negative results that are enlightening • Experts long assumed vegetarianism in India, based on Hindu belief, led to protein deficiency, malnutrition, and resultant health problems • Study revealed no spatial correlation between vegetarians and consumption of animal protein • Nonvegetarians also eat little or no meat • Greatest protein deficiency occurs in areas where rice, rather than wheat bread accounts for the greater part of cereal consumption

45. Malnutrition in India

46. Gender and geodemography • Gender frequently interacts with other factors to influence geodemographic patterns and migrations • Women from specific countries are viewed as “desirable” immigrants • 19th century Irish females often found work as domestic servants

47. Gender and geodemography • James Tyner studied Philippine migration • Female “entertainers” made up 95% of migrants to Japan • In part poverty provided the “push” factor • Pull factor – Japanese males see Filipinas as highly desirable, exotic sex objects • Japenese males also see Filipinas as culturally inferior and “willing victims”

48. Gender and geodemography • Migration for purposes of marriage – India • Parts of rural north and west India there is a tradition of marriage taking place between persons from different villages. Women move to their husband’s village. 1/5th or fewer live in the village of their birth • South, west, and far north Kashmir females are far less likely to marry outside their village. Some parts of India have matrilineal societies. Even in patrilineal south communitie.s marriage within villages prevails. Marriage migration is uncommon

49. Marriage migration – India

50. The settlement landscape • Farm villages • Where many farming people group themselves together in clustered villages • Nucleated settlements fro a few dozen to several thousand inhabitants • In the village, farmstead are the house, barn, sheds, pens, and garden • Fields, pastures and meadows lie out in the country