Assignment
Write a 300-400 word response to the lecture on Oct. 24 class by Dr. Ken Mulliken, director of SOU Honors College. What did you learn about South Africa that piqued your curiosity from a geographers standpoint? Consider the following chapters in our text book study of Human Geography:
• Population
• Migration
• Culture (folk, local, popular)
• Language
• Religion
• Ethnicity
• Political Geography
Identify at least three of the five themes of Geography that were illustrated in his talk.
Movement, Region, Human Environment Interaction, Location, and Place. You might want to read the "sense of place" handout (associated with Cultural Observation) when considering what to write in your response.
NOTE: THIS FIELD WORK IS DUE AT 5 P.M. ON SUNDAY . (This is two weeks from now. It would normally be assigned during chapter 4 but since we are not meeting again in person.
Geographic fieldwork can give us insight into questions about how a "sense of place" is formed by observation of the cultural landscape. Field work means that you are going out into the "field" to see what people are doing, observe people's action and reactions as they vary across space and time. For this assignment, you'll observe the cultural landscape of one part of your community or region. Read the handout from class about "sense of place." Also attached is Carl Sauer's (Geographer who coined the term "Cultural Landscape") diagram that expresses a flow about how the environment and culture TOGETHER make up the cultural landscape.
Step 1. Select your fieldwork observation site. . You can choose a location that represents popular, local, or folk culture (e.g., mall, student union, coffee shop, grocery store, Ashland or Medford park, festival, music or theater event, street fair, or tourist trap) Use your imagination and go somewhere there will be some action and interaction of people and place
Step 2: Go to this location, prepared to take notes or do drawings or map. Observe for at least one hour. Take notes on what you observed, including a description of the place (man-made and natural) at this scene. Who is there? How many, what ages, gender? What are they doing? Why? What aspects of culture are represented by actions? How are humans interacting with the environment?
Think about the five themes of Geography:Location, Place, Region, Human-Environment Interaction, Movement. Do you observe examples of these themes?
Step 3: Write a 400-500 word description of what you observed and your place description. Include a summary of your "sense of place" for that location.
Attachment:- Class-handouts.pdf