Ethnic Geography Part Ii

Culture regions

Ethnic regions Cultural diffusion and ethnicity Ethnic ecology Ethnic cultural integration Ethnic landscapes

Migration and ethnicity

Chain migration is usually involved An individual or small group decides to migrate

to a foreign country These “innovators” are natural leaders who

influence others, especially family and friends to migrate with them

Word spreads to nearby communities starting a sizable migration from a small district

All gather in a comparably small area or neighborhood in the destination country


Chain migration is usually involved The first to opt for emigration often

rank high in the social order as hierarchical diffusion comes into play

The decision to migrate spreads by both hierarchical and contagious diffusion

Actual migration represents relocation diffusion


Chain migration is usually involved Chain migration continues as migrants

write letters back home extolling the virtues of their new life and imploring others to join them

Letters written from the United States became known as America letters


Chain migration caused movement of people to become channelized Linked a specific source region to a particular

destination Neighbors in the old country became neighbors

in the new country It started three centuries ago and still operates

today Example of the recent mass migration of Latin

Americans to Anglo-America Different parts of the Southwest draw upon

different source regions in Mexico


Involuntary migration contributes to ethnic diffusion and formation of ethnic culture regions in the United States Refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam

immigrated Guatemalans and Salvadorans fled political

repression in Central America Forced migrations often result from policies of

“ethnic cleansing” — countries expel minorities to produce cultural homogeneity in their populations

Newly independent country of Croatia has systematically expelled its Serb minority — ethnic cleansing


Following forced migration, relocated groups often engage in voluntary migration to concentrate in some new locality

Cuban political refugees, scattered widely in the 1960s then reassembled in South Florida

Vietnamese continue to gather in southern California and Texas

Return migration — involves the voluntary move of a group back to their ancestral native country or homeland


Large-scale channelized return migration of African-Americans to their Black Belt ethnic homeland in the South has occurred since 1975 Over two-thirds of the migrants “follow well-worn

paths back to homeplaces or other locations where relatives have settled”

Seven percent of blacks in Los Angeles County, California, moved away between 1985 and 1990

Many went to the American South By the year 2000, the dominantly-black-South-

Central district of Los Angeles became largely Hispanic


Many of the about 200,000 expatriate Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians left Russia and former Soviet republics to return to newly independent Baltic home countries in the 1990s, losing their ethnic status in the process

Simplification and isolation

In theory, migrant groups that become ethnic in a new land could introduce, by relocation diffusion, the totality of their culture

Instead of introducing their total culture overseas a cultural simplification occurs Happens in part because of chain migration Only areal fragments of a culture diffuse

overseas Some simplification occurs at the point of

departure


Instead of introducing their total culture overseas a cultural simplification occurs Only selected traits are successfully

introduced Other traits undergo modification before

becoming established in the new homeland Absorbing barriers prevent the diffusion of

many traits Permeable barriers cause changes in many

other traits simplifying the migrant culture


Instead of introducing their total culture overseas a cultural simplification occurs Choices that did not exist in the old home

become available They can borrow alien ways or modify them

from groups they encounter. They can invent new techniques better suited

to the adopted place Most ethnic groups resort to all these devices,

in varying degrees


If remote, how an ethnic group’s new home affects their culture Diffusion of traits from the Old World is

more likely Rare contact with alien groups allow for

little borrowing of traits Allows preservation in archaic form of

cultural elements that disappear from their ancestral country


If remote, how an ethnic group’s new home affects their culture Language and dialects offer examples of

preservation of the archaic Germans living in ethnic islands in the Balkan

region preserve archaic South German dialects better than in Germany

Some medieval elements of Spanish are still spoken in the Hispano homeland of New Mexico

Irish Catholic settlers in Newfoundland retain far more of their traditional Celtic culture than did fellow Irish who colonized Ontario

Culture regions


Cultural preadaptation

Defined — involves a complex of adaptive traits possessed by a group in advance of migration that gives them the ability to survive, and a competitive advantage in colonizing a new environment

Most often results from groups migrating to a place environmentally similar to the one they left

Results in what Zelinsky called the first effective settlement allowing them to perpetuate much of their culture


In most cases the immigrants chose a colonization area physically resembling their former home

Examples in the state of Wisconsin Finns — from a cold, thin-soiled glaciated, lake-

studded, coniferous forest zone, settled the North Woods

Icelanders — from a bleak, remote island in the North Atlantic, located their only Wisconsin colony on Washington Island, an isolated outpost surrounded by Lake Michigan


Examples in the state of Wisconsin The English — used to good farmland,

generally founded ethnic islands in the better agricultural districts of southern and southwestern Wisconsin

Cornish miner — from the Celtic highland of western Great Britain sought out lead-mining communities in the southwestern part of the state


Wheat growing Russian-Germans from open steppe grasslands of south Russia Settled the prairies of the Great Plains Established wheat farms like those of their east

European source area Used varieties of grain brought from their

semiarid homeland Ukrainians in Canada chose the aspen belt

Mixture of prairie, marsh, and scrub forest Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta because

it resembled their former European home


Ethnic niche-filling has continued to present day Cuban in southernmost Florida because

it has a tropical savanna climate identical climate to that in Cuba

Vietnamese settled as fishers on the Gulf of Mexico, especially in Texas

Ethnic environmental perception Some immigrant groups had an accurate

environmental perception of the new land Generally immigrants perceived the new

ecosystem to be more like their old home than it actually was Perhaps the search for similarity resulted from

homesickness May have resulted from an unwillingness to admit

migration brought them to an alien land Maybe growing to adulthood in a particular kind of

physical environment retards one’s ability to accurately perceive a different ecosystem

Ethnic environmental perception

Distorted perception occasionally caused problems for ethnic farming groups Trial and error was often necessary to

come to terms with New World environment

If economic disaster resulted, and the ethnic island had to be abandoned, maladaptation is said to have occurred


Examples of groups who picked rural settlement sites different from the homeland Germans and Czechs consistently chose

the best farmland Findings of geographer Russel Gerlach

who researched German communities in the Ozarks

Appalachian southern settlers chose easy-to-work sandy and bottom- land soil


Findings of geographer Russell Gerlach who researched German communities in the Ozarks

Germans often chose superior soils that were harder to work

In Lawrence County, Missouri, Germans were latecomers, but still obtained the best land by picking dark-soiled prairie land avoided by earlier Anglo-American settlers

“A map showing the distribution of Germans can also be a map of the better soils in the region”


Ability to select choice soils can be detected among Czechs in Texas

Texas has the largest rural population of Czechs in the United States

Czech farming communities are concentrated in tall-grass prairie regions underlain by dark, fertile soils

Anglo-Texans tended to avoid open prairies as farming sites

Ecology of ethnic survival

Many groups become ethnic only when their ancestral home districts are conquered and surrounded by invading people Examples — American Indians, Australian

Aborigines, and Scandinavian Sami Owe their survival to an adaptive strategy

that allows occupancy of a difficult physical environment where invaders proved maladapted

Ecology of ethnic survival

Distribution of Indian groups in Latin America Indian population clustered in mountainous

areas, many above 10,000 foot elevation European invaders never adjusted well to high

altitudes Many other factors are involved in the

differential survival of American Indians Terrain, climate, and indigenous adaptive

strategy play a role in survival

Culture regions


Introduction

Ethnicity is firmly integrated into the fabric of culture

One aspect of culture acts on and is acted on by all other aspects

Integration never happens exactly the same way in any two groups that results in an unique ethnic distinctiveness

Introduction

Ethnicity plays a role in determining role in many facets of cultural integration What the people eat, religious faith

practiced, how they vote Also influenced is whom they marry, how

they earn a living, and ways they spend leisure time

Ethnoburbs influence spatial distribution of diverse cultural phenomena

Introduction

Geographer Hansgeorg Schlichtmann’s views Speaks of economic performance,

meaning level of success “in making a living and accumulating wealth”

Ethnic groups exhibit contrasts in economic orientation

Ethnicity and business activity

Differential ethnic preferences give rise to distinct patterns of purchasing goods and services

These differences are reflected in the business types and services offered in different ethnic neighborhoods of a city

Keith Harries made a detailed study of businesses in the Los Angeles urban area comparing three different ethnic neighborhoods


East Los Angeles Chicano neighborhoods Reflects dominance of small corner grocery

stores and fragmentation of food sales among several kinds of stores

Large number of eating and drinking places is related to Mexican custom of gathering in cantinas, where much social life is centered

Abundant small barbershops provide one reason why personal service establishments rank so high

Ethnic Business:East Los Angeles

This Latino/Chicano neighborhood has a prevalence of restaurants, food stores, auto repair shops, immigration and other services.

This restaurant specializes in carnitas – pork.

Ethnic Business:East Los Angeles

Pictured on one door is the Virgen de Guadalupe, paramount saint in Mexico.

Los Angeles is the capital of Joel Garreau’s “MexAmerica” and East LA is home to more than one million Mexican Americans.


Black south Los Angeles Secondhand shops are very common No antique or jewelry stores Only one book-stationery shop The distinctive African-American

shoeshine parlor is found only in south Los Angeles


Anglo neighborhoods Rank high in professional and financial service

establishments, such as doctors, lawyers, and banks

Professional and financial establishments are much less common in non- Anglo neighborhoods

Furniture, jewelry, antique, and apparel stores are also more numerous

Full-scale restaurants are also more common


Contrasts can also be found in rural and small-town areas

Example of an ethnic island in southwestern Michigan Settled by Dutch Calvinists in the mid-

nineteenth century Their descendants adhered to a strict moral

code Tended to regard non-Dutch Calvinists world as

sinful and inferior Adherence to precepts of their church was

main manifestation of their ethnicity


Example of an ethnic island in southwestern Michigan Dutch language had died out in the area Impact of Calvinist code of behavior on

business activity As recently as 1960, no taverns, dance

halls, or movie theaters existed No business activity was permitted on

Sunday Because they believe leisure and

idleness are evil, most present- day farmers work at second jobs during slack farming seasons

Ethnicity and type of employment

In many urban ethnic neighborhoods, some groups gravitated early to particular kinds of jobs

Because of advancing acculturation job identification lessened as time passed


Ethnic group and job type is sufficiently strong to produce stereotyped images in the American popular mind Irish police Chinese launderers Korean grocers Italian restaurant owners Jewish retailers


Certain groups proved highly successful in marketing versions of their traditional cuisines to the population at large Chinese, Mexican, and Italian Each dominates a restaurant region far

larger than their ethnic homelands, islands, or neighborhoods


Italians in northeastern United States still control the terrazzo and ceramic tile unions

Czechs dominate the pearl button industry In many cases, job identities were related to

occupational skills developed in the European homeland

More recently Basques from Spain serve as professional jai alai players in southern Florida

Earlier Basques concentrated in sheep ranching areas of the American West where they were herders

Ethnicity and farming practices

Study of Alabama’s German farmers in the 1930s done by Professor Walter Kollmorgen German-Americans practiced a more

diversified agriculture Had a higher income More often owned land than Anglos

Ethnicity and farming practices

One example of a recently arrived Asian immigrant group, the Hmong — and the introduction of intensive gardening to America From Laos, 50,000 of whom now live in California Cultivate their distinctive gardens in and around

cities such as Chico and Redding Utilize interstate highway easements and other

odd parcels of land Americans would never think of using

Typical Hmong gardens includes mustard greens, bitter melon, chili peppers, and other crops needed for their traditional cuisine

Culture regions


Introduction

Many rural areas bear an ethnic imprint on the cultural landscape

Often the imprint is subtle, discernible only to those who pause and look closely

Sometimes the imprint is quite striking, flaunted as an “ethnic flag”

Finnish landscapes in America

The Sauna from Finland Small steam bathhouses used by the

Finns in cold weather After a steam bath they would often

take a naked romp in the snow An important element in the cultural

landscape of Finland


Matti Kaups and Cotton Mather made a study of this Finnish landscape feature in Minnesota and Michigan Excellent visual indicator of Finnish-American

ethnic islands In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, 88 percent

of all Finnish-American residences had a sauna behind the house

In northern Minnesota, 77 percent of Finnish houses had saunas adjacent

Only 6 percent of non-Finnish residences in the same district had saunas


Cultural landscapes can lie or at least distort reality Professor Kaups discovered a sizable element,

the so-called “Red fins” Those with leftist political affiliations Essentially invisible Very numerous in mining and logging towns of

Upper Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota Left almost no landscape trace Kaups found the Communist hammer-and-sickle

carved on gravestones One must always look for the subtle as well as

overt in cultural landscapes

Ethnic settlement patterns

The imposed government survey system did not deter ethnic groups from having their own distinctive cultural settlement pattern Example of Germans and non-Germans in the

Missouri Ozarks German-American farmsteads much less

frequently lie on public roads then non-German farms

In many cases their farmhouses are a half-mile from the nearest public road


The imposed government survey system did not deter ethnic groups from having their own distinctive cultural settlement pattern Example of Russian-German Mennonites in the

prairie provinces of Canada Created clustered street villages in a

rectangular survey area Duplicated their villages in Russia Wanted to be close to others like themselves Other farmers in the area lived on dispersed

farmsteads


Example of the Mescalero Apache Indians of New Mexico Federal government tried to make

them live in dispersed settlements After 100 years they still cluster into

villages matrilocally “Continue to display vestiges of the

precontact heritage”

Ethnic Landscape:Rotorua, New Zealand

This dwelling symbolizes both Maoritanga, the Maori way of life, and cultural integration.

It is a non-Maori house type with Maori décor and it is this décor that is an ethnic flag.

Maoris comprise eight percent of the New Zealand population and are two-thirds urban.

Ethnic Landscape:Rotorua, New Zealand

Like this house, most are of mixed origins.

Carving is the supreme indigenous art. Carvings record history, mysteries, legends, and ancestral achievements.

The degree of adornment on a house reflects the status of the occupants.

The tekoteto at the front is a symbol of defiance traditionally employed around village palisades.

Urban ethnic landscapes

Ethnic cultural landscapes appear in both neighborhoods and ghettos

Example of wall murals found in Mexican-American neighborhoods in the southwestern United States Began to appear in Los Angeles in the 1960s Exhibit influences rooted in both Spain and the

Indian cultures of Mexico Found on a variety of wall surfaces from

apartment houses and store exteriors to bridge abutments


Subjects range from religious motifs to political ideology, and from statements of historic wrongs to urban zoning disputes

Many are specific to the site heightening sense of place and ethnic “turf”

Many contain no written message, relying on sharpness of image and vividness of color to make a statement


Some ethnic groups have color preferences that can be revealed in their landscape Red is a venerated and auspicious color to the

Chinese Light blue is a Greek ethnic color, derived from their flag

Greeks avoid red, perceived as the color of their ancient enemy, the Turks

Green, an Irish Catholic color, also finds favor in Muslim neighborhoods

Technology

Ethnic Geography Part Ii