The City in Space and Time

1. The City in Space and Time The Human Mosaic Chapter 10

2. Introduction • Imagine humankind’s sojourn on Earth as a 24-hour day • Settlements of more than a hundred people are only about a half-hour old • Towns and cities emerged only a few minutes ago • Large-scale urbanization began less than 60 seconds ago

3. Introduction • Urbanization in the last 200 years has strengthened links between culture, society, and the city • “Urban explosion” has gone hand in hand with the industrial revolution • Estimates demonstrate the world’s urban population more than doubled since 1950 • Urban population doubled again by 2000 • Over 50 percent of Earth’s population live in cities

4. Urbanization: Sao Paulo, Brazil

5. Urbanization: Sao Paulo, Brazil • Sao Paulo epitomizes the dynamics of urbanization, especially capitalism. Starting as a coffee exporting center, it had less than 32000 inhabitants by 1872. Today metropolitan Sao Paulo is a primate city of more than 20 million. Economic development and flat land engendered population increase and sprawl, rising land costs in the center, and a boom in construction.

6. Urbanization: Sao Paulo, Brazil • Economic success is denoted by the high-rises which are a mix of industrial, commercial and professional office blocks, as well as apartment complexes. City planning is only a recent phenomenon. Rural to urban migration is a serious problem and the city’s rapid growth has outstripped its ability to provide jobs, housing and adequate services.

7. Culture regions • Urban Culture Region • Origin and Diffusion of the City • Evolution of Urban Landscapes • The Ecology of Urban Location • Cultural Integration in Urban Geography

8. Problem of recognizing urban regions • Urbanized population—percentage of a nation’s population living in towns and cities • Striking urbanization difference between countries • Some close to 90 percent • Others less than 20 percent • Culture regions can be based on varying rates of urbanization • We have a pattern of “urban” versus “rural” countries

9. Problem of recognizing urban regions • Within each nation, we can delimit formal and functional culture regions separating urban and rural domains • There is no agreed-upon international definition of what constitutes a city • India defines an urban center as 5,000 inhabitants, with adult males employed primarily in nonagricultural work • The United States Census Bureau defines a city as a densely populated area of 2,500 people or more • South Africa counts as a city any settlement of 500 or more people

10. Problem of recognizing urban regions • Some countries revise definitions of urban settlements to suit specific purposes • China revised its census definitions with criteria that vary from province to province causing their urban population to swell by 13 percent in 1983

11. Generalizations • Generalizations made about the differences in the world’s urbanized population • Highly industrialized countries have higher rates of urbanized population than do less-developed countries • Developing countries are rapidly urbanizing • Caused by massive migration away from the country • People flock to the cities searching for a better life

13. Generalizations • Developing countries are rapidly urbanizing • City migration is often driven by desperation, as rural supply systems collapse • For newcomers to the cities, unemployment rates are often over 50 percent • One of the world’s ongoing crises will be this radical restructuring of population and culture as people move into the cities

14. Generalizations • Urban growth comes from two sources • Migration of people to the cities • Higher natural population growth rates for recent migrants • Because employment is unreliable, large families construct a more extensive family support system • Increases the chances of someone getting work • Smaller families when a certain dimension of security is ensured • Smaller families often occur when women enter the work force

15. World cities • Cities over 5 million in population • Over half of the world’s 20 largest cities are in the developing world • Thirty years ago, the list of world cities was dominated by Western, industrialized cities • Now the list is even more dominated by the developing world

16. World cities • Mexico City’s growth is linked to Mexico’s oil industry • Some countries are trying to regulate urban growth • Problems with transportation, housing, and employment • Failure or success of these policies will influence city size in the next ten to twenty years • China closely regulates urban growth

17. World cities • Accurate population projections are evasive because they depend on variables • Primate city — a settlement city that dominates the economic, political, and cultural life of a country • The target for much urban migration • Rapid growth expands its primacy, or dominance • Example of Mexico City — far exceeds Guadalajara, the second-largest city in Mexico, in size and importance • Many developing countries are dominated by a primate city, which was often a former center of colonial power • Primate cities are also found in developed countries —London and Paris

18. Culture regions • Urban Culture Region • Origin and Diffusion of the City • Evolution of Urban Landscapes • The Ecology of Urban Location • Cultural Integration in Urban Geography

19. The first cities • In seeking explanation for the origin of cities, we find a relationship between: • Areas of early agriculture • Permanent village settlement • The development of new social forms • Urban life • Early people were nomadic hunters and gatherers who constantly moved

20. The first cities • As they became increasingly efficient in gathering resources, their campsites became semi-permanent • As quantities of domesticated plants and animals increased settlement became more permanent • The first cities appeared in the Middle East • Developed about ten thousand years ago • Farming villages modest in size, rarely with more than 200 people • Probably organized on a kinship basis

21. The first cities • The first cities appeared in the Middle East • Probably organized on a kinship basis • Jarmo, one of the earliest villages • Located in present-day Iraq • Had 25 permanent dwellings clustered near grain storage facilities • Lacked plows, but cultivated local grains — wheat and barley • Domestic dogs, goats, and sheep may have been used for meat • Food supplies augmented by hunting and gathering

22. The first cities • In agricultural villages, all inhabitants were involved in some way in food procurement • Cities were more removed, physically and psychologically, from everyday agricultural activities • Food was supplied to the city • Not all city dwellers were involved in actual farming • Another class of city dwellers supplied services — such as technical skills, and religious interpretation

23. The first cities • Two elements were crucial to this social change • Generation of agricultural surplus prerequisite for supporting nonfarmers • Stratified social system • Meaning the existence of distinct elite and lower classes • Facilitates the collection, storage, and distribution of resources • Well-defined channels of authority that exercise control over goods and people • These two set the stage for urbanization

24. Models for the rise of cities • Technical • The hydraulic civilization model, developed by Karl Wittfogel • Large-scale irrigation systems as prime mover behind urbanization • Higher crop yields resulted • Food surplus supported development of a large nonfarming population • Strong, centralized government, backed by an urban-based military • Farmers who resisted new authority were denied water

25. Models for the rise of cities • Technical • The hydraulic civilization model, developed by Karl Wittfogel • Power elite needed for organizational coordination to ensure continued operation of the irrigation system • Labor specialization developed • The hydraulic model cannot be applied to all urban hearths • Urban civilization blossomed without irrigation in parts of Mesoamerica • The question of how or why a culture might first develop irrigation

26. Models for the rise of cities • Religious • Paul Wheatley suggests religion was the motivating factor behind urbanization • Knowledge of meteorological and climatic conditions was considered to be within the domain of religion • Religious leaders decided when and how to plant crops • Successful harvests led to more support for this priestly class • Priestly class exercised political and social control that held the city together • In this scenario, cities are religious spaces functioning as ceremonial centers • First urban clusters and fortification seen as defenses against spiritual demons or souls of the dead

27. Models for the rise of cities • Multiple factors • Distinction between economic, religious, and political functions were not always clear • A king may have functioned as priest, healer, astronomer, and scribe • In some ways secular and spiritual power was fused • Attempting to isolate one trigger to urbanization is difficult, if not impossible • It would be wiser to accept the role of multiple factors behind the changes leading to urban life • Technical, religious, and political forces were often interlinked

28. Urban hearth areas • Where the first cities appeared, for example: • Mesopotamia • The Nile Valley • Pakistan’s Indus River Valley • The Yellow River valley (or Huang Ho) in China • Mesoamerica • Next slide gives general dates of urban life emergence for each region

30. Urban hearth areas • Generally agreed first cities arose in Mesopotamia • River valley of the Tigris and Euphrates in what is now Iraq • Cities, small by current standards, covered one-half to two square miles • Populations rarely exceeded 30,000 • Densities could reach 10,000 per square mile —comparable to today’s cities • Early cities, also called cosmomagical cities, exhibited three spatial characteristics

32. Urban hearth areas • Early cities, also called cosmomagical cities, exhibited three spatial characteristics • Great importance accorded the symbolic center of the city, which was thought to be the center of the known world • Often demarcated by a vertical structure of monumental scale representing the point on Earth closest to the heavens • This symbolic center, or axis mundi, took different forms • The ziggurat in Mesopotamia • The palace or temple in China • The pyramid in Egypt and Mesoamerica • The Stupa in the Indus Valley

33. Cosmomagical City: Beijing, China

34. Cosmomagical City: Beijing, China • This is the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the most important ceremonial building in Beijing’s Forbidden City. The hall is set upon an auspicious number of three tiers. From the Gate of Supreme Harmony, the emperor would be carried on his palanquin above the “dragon pavement,” carved with his dragon and other auspicious symbols such as waves, mountains and clouds.

35. Cosmomagical City: Beijing, China • The Forbidden City marked the inner sanctum of the Imperial city, a model of harmony and moral order expressing the Will of Heaven. • Ritual and cosmic correctness was imbued in city form through divination and orientation; cardinal axiality and concentricity; and, square configuration defined by walls and gates.

36. Urban hearth areas • Early cities, also called cosmomagical cities, exhibited three spatial characteristics • In Mesopotamia, this area was known as the citadel and housed the elite who lived in relative luxury • Streets were paved, drains and running water were provided • Private sleeping quarters, bathtubs, and water closets were provided • Privileges did not extend to the city as a whole

38. Urban hearth areas • Early cities, also called cosmomagical cities, exhibited three spatial characteristics • The city was oriented toward the four cardinal directions • Geometric form of city would reflect the order of the universe • Walls around the city delimited the known and ordered world from the outside chaos • Attempt to shape the form of the city according to the form of the universe • Thought essential to maintain harmony between human and spiritual worlds • Example of Ankor Thorn in India

39. Urban hearth areas • Life in Mesopotamia’s early cities from archaeological evidence • Dense housing, located just outside the citadel, was one or two stories tall composed of clay brick, and contained three or four rooms • Narrow unsurfaced streets had no drainage, and served as the community dump • At Ur, excavations show that garbage levels rose so high, new entrances were cut into second stories of the houses • Just inside the city wall, huts of mud and reed housed the lower classes

40. Urban hearth areas • Early cities of the Nile were not walled, suggesting a regional power structure kept cities from warring with each other • In the Indus Valley, Mohenjo-Daro was laid out in a grid that consisted of 16 large blocks • The most important variations in living conditions occurred in Mesoamerica • Cities were less dense and covered large areas • Cities arose without benefit of the wheel, plow, metallurgy, and draft animals • Domestication of maize compensated for technological shortcomings • Maize yields several crops a year without irrigation in tropical climates

42. The diffusion of the city from hearth areas • The two hypotheses of how cities spread in prehistoric times • Cities evolved spontaneously as native peoples created new technologies and social institutions • Preconditions for urban life are too specific for most cultures to invent without contact with other urban areas • People must have learned these traits through contact with city dwellers • This scenario emphasized the diffusion of ideas and techniques

43. The diffusion of the city from hearth areas • Diffusionists believe ideas and techniques from Mesopotamia were shared with people in the Nile and the Indus River valley • Archaeological evidence documents trade ties between the three regions • Soapstone objects made in Tepe Yahyã, 500 miles east of Mesopotamia, have been found in ruins of both Mesopotamia and Indus Valley cities • Indus Valley writing and seals have been found in Mesopotamian urban sites • An alternate view is that trading took place only after these cities were well established

44. The diffusion of the city from hearth areas • There is evidence of contacts across the oceans between early urban dwellers of the New World and those of Asia and Africa • Unclear if this means urbanization was diffused to Mesoamerica • Maybe some trade routes existed between these peoples

45. The diffusion of the city from hearth areas • Little doubt diffusion is responsible for the dispersal of the city in historical times • City used as vehicle for imperial expansion • Urban life is carried outward in waves of conquest as empires expand • Initially, military controls newly won lands and sets up collection points for local resources • As collection points lose some military atmosphere they begin to show the social diversity of a city • Native people are slowly assimilated into the settlement as workers and may eventually control the city • The process repeats itself as the empire pushes outward

46. The diffusion of the city from hearth areas • Imposition of a foreign civilization on native peoples was often met with resistance • Examples of imperial city building dot history • Alexander the Great established at least 70 cities • The Roman Empire built literally thousand of cities, changing the face of Europe, North Africa, and Asia minor • The Persians, the Maurya Empire of India, the Han civilization of China, and the Greeks performed the same city-spreading task • In more recent times, European empires have used city resources to expand and consolidate their power in colonies in the Americas, Africa, and Asia • Expansion diffusion has been critical in dispersing urban life over the surface of the Earth

48. Culture regions • Urban Culture Region • Origin and Diffusion of the City • Evolution of Urban Landscapes • The Ecology of Urban Location • Cultural Integration in Urban Geography

49. Introduction • Patterns seen in the city today are a composite of past and present cultures • Two concepts underlie our examination of urban landscapes • Urban morphology — physical form of the city, which consists of street patterns, building sizes and shapes, architecture, and density • Functional zonation — refers to the pattern of land uses within a city, or existence of areas with differing functions