Introduction to World Cultures and Geography
World Cultures and Geography
Senior Consultants
Sarah Witham Bednarz
Ines M. Miyares
Mark C. Schug
Charles S. White
McDougal Littel
Evanston, Illinois & Boston & Dallas
Copyright 2003 McDougall Littell, a division of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Used by persmission of McDougall Littell, a division of Houghton Mifflin Company.
Senior Consultants
Sarah Witham Berdnarz is associate professor of geography at Texas A&M University, where she has taught since 1988. She earned a Ph.D. in educational curriculum and instruction in 1992 from Texas A&M University and has written extensively about geography literacy and education. Dr. Bednarz was an author of Geography for Life: National Geography Standards, 1994. In 1997 she received the International Excellence Award from the Texas A&M University International Programs Office.
Inés M. Miyares is associate professor of geography at Hunter College-City University of New York. Born in Havana, Cuba, and fluent in Spanish, Dr. Miyares has focused much of her scholarship on Latin America, immigration and refugee policy, and urban ethnic geography. She holds a Ph.D. in geography from Arizona State University. In 1999 Dr. Miyares was the recipient of the Hunter College Performance Excellence Award for excellence in teaching, research, scholarly writing, and service.
Mark C. Schug is director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Economic Education. A 30-year veteran of middle school, high school, and university classrooms, Dr. Schug has been cited for excellence in teaching by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Minnesota Council on Economic Education. In addition to coauthoring eight national economics curriculum programs, Dr. Schug has spoken on economic issues to audiences throughout the world. Dr. Schug edited The Senior Economist for the National Council for Economics Education from 1986 to 1996.
Charles S. White is associate professor in the School of Education at Boston University, where he teaches methods of instruction in social studies. Dr. White has written and spoken extensively on the role of technology in social studies education. He has received numerous awards for his scholarship, including the 1995 Federal Design Achievement Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, for the Teaching with Historic Places project. In 1997, Dr. White taught his Models of Teaching doctoral course at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador.
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ISBN 0-618-16841-9
Printed in the United States of America
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Learning About the World
Place • The five fields of learning in social studies are well represented in daily life.
Social studies is a way to learn about the world. It draws on information from five fields of learning, geography, history, economics, government, and culture. Each field looks at the world from a different angle. Consider the approaches you might use if you were starting at a new school. Figuring out how to get around would be learning your school's geography. Asking other students where they come from is learning their history. Making choices about which school supplies you can afford to buy is economics. Learning the school rules is learning about its government. Clubs, teams, styles of clothing, holidays, and even ways of saying things are part of the school's culture.
History and Geography
Knowing history and geography helps orient you in time and space.
Vocabulary
- orient:
- to become familiar with a situation
A VOICE FROM TODAY
How can we know who we are and where we are going if we don't know anything about where we have come from and what we have been through, the courage shown, the costs paid, to be where we are?
David McCullough, Historian
The Five Themes of Geography
Digging Into the Past
Archaeologists are scientists who study artifacts to learn about people's culture and history. Artifacts include pots, tools, artworks, and even food remains. Using special techniques and tools, archaeologists carefully remove artifacts from underground or underwater. Then they use their knowledge about the place and people they are studying to figure out how the artifact was used.
Place • Israel has a dry climate in the south, and a wetter climate in the north, with prosperous farms and thriving cities.
Region • Israel is part of southwest Asia.
Location • Israel is on the southwest shore of the Mediterranean.
Human-Environment Interaction • Irrigation systems supply Israel's dry climate with water.
Movement • Immigrants arrive in Israel.
Location tells where a place is. Several countries that have features in common form a region. Place considers an area's distinguishing characteristics. Movement is a study of the migrations of people, animals, and even plants. Human-environment interaction considers how people change and are changed by the natural features of Earth.
Government
Every country has laws and a way to govern itself. Laws are the rules by which people live.
Local, state, and national governments provide much-needed services, such as schools, parks, electricity, and roads.
Limited and Unlimited Governments
In a limited government, everyone, including those in charge, must obey the laws. Some of the laws tell the government what it cannot do. Democracy is a form of limited government. In a democracy the people have the authority to make the laws, either directly or through their elected representatives. The governments of the United States, Mexico, and India are examples of democratic governments.
Rulers in an unlimited government can do whatever they want without regard to the law. Totalitarianism is a form of unlimited government. In a totalitarian government the people have no say. Rulers have total control.
Vocabulary
- totalitarian government:
- a government in which the rulers have total control
Citizenship
A
Movement • One way people become American citizens is by participating in a naturalization ceremony.
Vocabulary
- naturalization:
- the process of becoming a citizen
Economics
Looking at the long list of flavors at the ice cream store, you have a decision to make. You have only enough money for one cone. Will it be mint chip or bubble gum flavor? You will have to choose.
Some economists claim that people's desires are unlimited. Resources to satisfy these desires, however, are limited. These economists refer to the conflict between people's desires and their limited resources as
Resources
Economists identify three types of resources: natural, human, and capital. Natural resources are gifts of nature, such as forests, fertile soil, and water. Human resources are skills people have to produce goods and services. Capital resources are the tools people make, such as machines and equipment, to produce goods and services.
Amartya Sen (b. 1933)
Amartya Sen (ah•MART•yah•sen) was born in India. As a professor at Trinity College in Cambridge, England, he taught and studied economics. An important part of his research was to look at catastrophes, such as famine, that happen to the world's poorest people. By showing governments that food shortages are often caused by social and economic conditions, he hoped to prevent famines in the future. In 1998, Sen won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his research in welfare economics.
Kinds of Economics
Blue jeans are a product. Who decides whether to make them and how many to make and what price to charge? In a command economy, the government decides. In a market economy, individual businesses decide, based on what they think consumers want.
A. Contrasting
How does a market economy differ from a command economy?
Levels of Development
Different countries and regions have different levels of economic development. In a country with a high level of development, most people are well educated, have good health, and earn decent salaries. Services such as clean running water, electricity, and transportation are plentiful. Technology is advanced, and businesses flourish.
A country with a low level of development is marked by few jobs in industry, poor services, and low literacy rates. Life expectancy is low. These countries are often called developing countries.
Vocabulary
- literacy:
- ability to read and write
- life expectancy:
- average number of years people live
Citizenship in Action
High Tech for the Developing World Mae Jemison is a former astronaut and the first African-American woman to orbit Earth. In 1992, she left the space program and set up the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries. This organization uses space program technology to help developing countries.
One project uses a satellite-based telecommunication system to improve health care in West Africa. Another project is an international science camp for students ages 12 to 16.
Culture
Some people wear saris. Others wear T-shirts. Some people eat cereal and milk for breakfast. Others eat pickled fish. Some people go to church on Sunday morning. Others kneel and pray to Allah five times a day. All these differences are expressions of
Religion is part of most cultures; so is a shared language. The ways people express themselves through music, dance, literature, and the visual arts are important parts of every culture; so are the technology and tools they use to accomplish various tasks. Each kind of food, clothing, or technology, each belief, language, or tool shared by a culture is called a
B. Recognizing Important Details
What are thre characteristics that can define a culture?
Section 1 Assessment
Identify:
2. Use a chart like this one to list the five themes of geography and their characteristics.
Glossary
- citizen
- a legal member of a country
- culture
- the beliefs, customs, laws, art, and ways of living that a group of people share
- culture trait
- something shared by members of a culture, such as a kind of food, clothing, or technology, a belief, language, or tool
- economics
- the study of how people manage their resources by producing, exchanging, and using goods and services
- geography
- the study of people, places, and the environment
- government
- the people and groups within a society that have the authority to make laws, to make sure they are carried out, and to settle disagreements about them
- history
- a record of the past
- life expectancy
- average number of years people live
- literacy
- ability to read and write
- orient
- to become familiar with a situation
- naturalization
- the process of becoming a citizen
- scarcity
- in economics, the conflict between people's desires and their limited resources
- totalitarian government
- a government in which the rulers have total control