Human Geography 4e Places and Regions in Global Context Authors Paul L Knox Sallie A Marston PowerPoint Author Keith M Bell Chapter 5 Cultural Geographies What is culture We use the term so often it seems to describe almost everything Culture as a shared set of meanings that are lived through the material and symbolic practices of everyday life this shared set of meanings can include values beliefs practices and ideas about religion family language gender sexuality and other important identities Cultural Geography Cultural geography focuses on the ways in which space place and landscape shape culture AND The ways in which culture shapes space place and landscape Culture as an ever changing process Cultural Geography Can we look at a map and discover what the culture is Might it also be the case that culture is contested and always changing Think of culture as a process Culture Place and Identity There are ways in which certain groups assert their identity by making claims to geographic space For example Subaru has gay friendly ads in many gay neighborhoods like Dupont Circle in D C The LGBT community is a good example of how a cultural group carves out a space to assert itself Sexuality and Space LGBT groups are now recognized as a powerful economic force which shapes the geography of places when businesses cater to that lifestyle LGBT groups would rather vacation in San Francisco or Amsterdam than a traditional family place like Disneyworld Sexuality and Space The Safe Space marker as changing the culture of UGA Space and Gender Gender isn t something that we just are gender is also something that we do Gender performativity It s Pat from SNL http www youtub e com watch v VwT The University as a cultural setting Sexuality Gender and Culture A central position held in cultural geography is that our identities sexuality gender race etc are learned and performed through standard taken for granted practices that most people tend to take as normal or natural The body as an important scale in geography Race From PBS Race The Power of an Illusion Race Race The idea that race isn t biological goes against one of our most fundamental assumptions that there are meaningful natural divisions between groups of people Certainly people look different but as it turns out appearances can be deceiving Racialization The process through which racial identities are constructed How does a group of people with different backgrounds and histories become a race Space and racialization The idea that Chinese is a race enables and perpetuates the creation of separate Chinatowns Place becomes a physical marker of racial difference Whiteness Whiteness as an example of racialization Whiteness is produced as the norm or unexceptional racial group In other words all other races become measured against whiteness How does racialization take place