Final Review
Geography 101
Spring Semester 2007
David Snyder
The following are a set of
questions for you to answer on your own to prepare yourself for the final
exam. Answers to the questions can be
found in the Knox & Marston textbook, the course lectures and the following
assigned readings: Time and Chance;
Empire of Uniformity; Axioms for Reading the Landscape.
Writing out answers to these questions in full sentences and paragraphs is a good way to organize your thoughts and will help you to retain the information. The in class part of the final exam consists of multiple choice or short answer questions and one essay question (with options given).
Don’t forget that the Landscape Analysis paper will serve as a take home part of this exam (worth half the exam grade).
Also remember that there is an optional extra credit assignment that you can turn in anytime listed on the website: www.alaskageography.com.
Society, Technology
and Nature
1. What is nature?
2. Nature, technology and society are all interrelated. How might natural conditions affect technological developments? How might natural conditions affect and a society’s perspectives of nature? How might technological developments affect the natural world? How might technological developments affect a society’s perspectives of nature? How might a society’s perspective of nature affect technological development? How might a society’s perspective of nature affect the natural world?
3. Trace the development of environmental philosophies in European civilization. Consider pre-Enlightenment Judeo-Christian views, the continuation of Judeo-Christian perspectives after the Enlightenment into the age of Capitalism, the development of Romanticism and Transcendentalism, and the more modern Conservationist and Preservationist ideas. What explains the development of each of these philosophies? How have these philosophies manifested themselves in the landscape (through human economic and political actions)?
4. How did Paleolithic human societies affect the environment?
5. How did Neolithic human societies affect the environment?
6. What were some early environmental problems caused by humans prior to the rise of capitalism? How did some of these problems affect early civilizations?
7. How did the expansion of
European culture through colonialism and imperialism affect the
environment? What was the effect of the
transfer of biological species between the
8. How have climatic changes affected some human societies over history?
9. Recently, humans have altered the natural environment more than ever before. This has happened principally through changes in energy usage and changes in land use patterns. Discuss some of the benefits and problems created by using energy from hydrocarbons, nuclear energy, hydropower, wind and solar energy. Discuss some of the issues involved with deforestation, desertification, and the filling in of wetlands.
10. Discuss the issues of atmospheric pollution, such as acid rain, global warming and the ozone hole.
11. What is ‘the tragedy of the commons’ and how does it created many of the environmental issues we face today? How have human societies begun to resolve this problem?
12. What is meant by the term, ‘environmental sustainability’? Why is this an issue of concern? How might human societies create sustainable environments?
13. According to the article, Time and Chance, why did human societies first develop agriculture? How does this article explain the interrelationship between society, technology and nature in early agricultural societies? How does it explain the interrelationship in the last 2000 years?
Cultural Geography
1. What is culture? What are some ways in which cultures can differ? What is meant by terms such as cultural trait, cultural complex, cultural region and cultural system? Think of some examples of each.
2. What is the difference between folk culture and popular culture? Why might these two types of culture occasionally come into conflict? Why might “alternative” cultures arise within an area influenced by popular culture.
3. How do cultures evolve from within? What are some theories of cultural evolution? Which ideas are von Humboldt and Marx associated with?
4. What is the age-area principal of cultural diffusion?
5. What are some methods of cultural diffusion? Think of some examples of each of these methods.
6. What are some ways in which cultures remain stable, not undergoing much change? Think of some examples of these.
7. What roles does religion play in cultural systems? The major world religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam have diffused from a small region to larger areas. Where did they diffuse from, why did they diffuse and how did the diffusion occur?
8. How is language integral to cultural systems? How and why do languages diffuse?
9. What is race? How are race and place related? How has race been used as a rationalization for oppression?
10. Why do people attempt to impose their culture upon others? How geographies of cultural exclusion created? Why do some cultures deliberately segregate themselves from other cultures?
11. What is globalized culture? What are its material manifestations and its ideals? How do cultures change in the face of a globalized culture? What are some of the visible and invisible ways in which cultures change?
12. In the article “Empire of
Uniformity”, the author ponders why
Space, Place and Landscape
1. Why can we read a landscape as if it were a text? How do we gain insights concerning the local culture and economy from reading a landscape? How would a postmodernist use landscape imagery to interpret a culture?
2. What are some ways in which we can use the following features of a landscape to interpret the local politics, culture and economy?
a) agricultural and pastoral patterns
b) urban patterns, including shopping malls
c) sacred places
d) symbolic imagery and architecture
e) the nearby natural environment
f) landscapes of politics, power, and conflict
3. Why might some landscapes become symbolic? What are some examples of landscapes that have become symbolic?
4. What is meant by the idea of Modernity? How has Modernism affected the landscape in the last 100 years? Why might there be a backlash against Modernity?
5. How has globalization increased the sameness of places?
6. What is meant by the idea of Postmodernity (in the context of geography)? How is Postmodernity reflected in the material culture? How is the visual culture important to Postmodernity?
7. Places are now marketed and consumed more than ever before. Why has this occurred? What are some examples?
8. In Pierce Lewis’ Axioms for Reading the Landscape, he lists many different ways of approaching the landscape as a key to understanding the culture of a certain time and place. While there is no need to memorize all the axioms and their corollaries, be sure to incorporate some of his ideas into the Final Paper.