THE FIVE THEMES OF GEOGRAPHY
To specifically serve the teacher population, a publication entitled Guidelines
for Geographic Education was published in 1984 and its contents became known
popularly as the "Five Themes of Geography." These themes are:
· LOCATION
o Relative Location
o Absolute Location
· PLACE
o Human Characteristics
o Physical Characteristics
· HUMAN-ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTION
o Humans adapt to the environment
o Humans modify the environment
o Humans depend on the environment
· MOVEMENT
o People
o Goods
o Ideas
· REGIONS
o Formal
o Functional
o Vernacular (perceptual)
NOTES ON THE FIVE THEMES
The five themes served as a framework upon which the content of geography can be
taught and served the K-12 population until the national geography standards
were published in 1994. Since the six elements of the national standards embrace
the five themes, they remain a valuable tool for students to use in developing a
"geographic perspective," while the standards strengthen instructional planning.
LOCATION
"Where are we?" is the question that the theme Location answers. Location may be
absolute or it may be relative. These locations, whether relative or absolute,
may be of people or places.
An absolute location is a latitude and longitude (a global location) or a street
address (local location).
Florence, AL is 34o46' North latitude and 87.40' West longitude
Paris, France is 48o51' North latitude and 2.20' East longitude
Marshall Islands are 10o00' North latitude and 165o00' East longitude
Relative locations are described by landmarks, time, direction or distance from
one place to another and may associate a particular place with another.
PLACE
What kind of place is it? What do you think of when you imagine China? Japan?
Russia? Saudi Arabia?
Places have both human and physical characteristics, as well as images.
Physical characteristics include mountains, rivers, soil, beaches, wildlife,
soil. Places have human characteristics also. These characteristics are derived
from the ideas and actions of people that result in changes to the environment,
such as buildings, roads, clothing, and food habits.
The image people have of a place is based on their experiences, both
intellectual and emotional. People's descriptions of a place reveal their
values, attitudes, and perceptions.
How is your hometown connected to other places? What are the human and physical
characteristics of Florence? How do these shape our lives?
HUMAN/ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTION
How do humans and the environment affect each other? We change the environment
and then sometime Mother Nature changes it back. For example, floods in the
mid-West, Hurricane Emily (Hatteras), and earthquakes and mudslides in
California.
There are three key concepts to human/environmental interaction:
Humans adapt on the environment.
Humans modify the environment.
Humans depend to the environment.
People depend on the Tennessee River for our water and transportation. People
modify our environment by heating and coolings buildings for comfort. People
adapt to the environment by wearing clothing that is suitable for summer and
winter; rain and shine.
All places on Earth have advantages and disadvantages for human settlement. One
person's advantage may be another person's disadvantage. Some like the
excitement of large cities whereas others prefer remoteness. Environment is not
just trees, spotted owls, and rain forests. Environment is a feeling. What is
the environment of a big city? Boston? Los Angeles? Dallas?
Given the choice, where would you live? Why? What is the environment? How do
people interact with the environment? How do the physical features affect us?
How have we adapted to or changed our landscape? For example, in the Sudan even
though everything is seemingly barren, the land sustains farmers and nomadic
herders. People and animals have adapted to a hot, dry climate.
MOVEMENT
The movement of people, the import and export of goods, and mass communication
have all played major roles in shaping our world. People everywhere interact.
They travel from place to place and they communicate. We live in a global
village and global economy.
People interact with each other through movement. Humans occupy places unevenly
on Earth because of the environment but also because we are social beings. We
interact with each other through travel, trade, information flows (E-Mail) and
political events.
Not only do humans move but also ideas move; fashions move; fads move. What is
an example of an idea that moves? Fashion? Fad? How do we depend on people in
other places? How would our lives change if our movement options changed? What
would happen if we traveled by camel or horse? How do we move from place to
place? How do we actually get food?
REGION
A region is the basic unit of study in geography. A region is an area that
displays a coherent unity in terms of the government, language, or possibly the
landform or situation. Regions are human constructs that can be mapped and
analyzed.
There are three basic types of regions.
Formal regions are those defined by governmental or administrative boundaries
(i. e., United States, Birmingham, Brazil). These regional boundaries are not
open to dispute, therefore physical regions fall under this category (i. e., The
Rockies, the Great Lakes States).
Functional regions are those defined by a function (i. e., TVA, United Airlines
Service area or a newspaper service area). If the function ceases to exists, the
region no longer exists.
Vernacular regions are those loosely defined by people's perception (i. e., The
South, The Middle East).
What region do we live in? What type of region is it? What are its
characteristics? South, North Alabama, the Shoals, the University community?
What states do you define as the South? The Northeast? The Bible Belt? What
characteristics and perceptions go along with these regions?
EASY DEFINITIONS
LOCATION - Where is
it?Position on the Earth's Surface -- Absolute and relative location are two
ways of describing the positions of people and places on the earths surface.
PLACE - What is it like there?Physical and Human CharacteristicsAll
places on the earth have distinctive tangible and intangible characteristics
that give them meaning and character and distinguish them from other places.
Geographers generally describe places by their physical or human
characteristics.
MOVEMENT - How are people and places connected?Humans Interacting on the
Earth -- Human beings occupy places unevenly across the face of the earth. Some
live on farms or in the country; others live in towns villages or cities. Yet
these people interact with each other: that is, they travel from one place to
another, they communicate with each other or they rely upon products
information, and ideas that come from beyond their immediate environment. The
most visible evidence of global interdependence and the interaction of places
are the transportation and communication lines that link every part of the
world. These demonstrate that most people interact with other places almost
every day of their lives. This may involve nothing more than a Georgian eating
apples grown in the state of Washington and shipped to Atlanta by rail or truck.
On a larger scale, international trade demonstrates that no country is
self-sefficient.
HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION-- How do people interact with the
environment?Humans and Environments -- All places on the earth have advantages
and disadvantages for human settlement. High population densities have developed
on flood plains, for example, where people could take advantage of fertile
soils, water resources, and opportunities for river transportation. By
comparison, population densities are usually low in deserts. Yet flood plains
are periodically subjected to severe damage, and some desert areas, such as
Israel, have been modified to support large population concentrations.
REGIONS -- What makes it like other areas?How they Form and ChangeThe
basic unit of geographic study is the region, an area that displays unity in
terms of selected criteria. We are all familiar with regions showing the extent
of political power such as nations, states, lander, countries, provinces, or
cities, yet there are almost countless ways to define meaningful regions
depending on the problems being considered. Some regions are defined by one
characteristic such as a governmental unit, a language group, or a land form
type, and others by the interplay of many complex features. For example, Indiana
as a state is a governmental region, Latin American as an area where Spanish and
Portuguese are major languages can be a linguistic region, and the Rocky
Mountains as a mountain range is a land form region. A geographer may delineate
a neighborhood in Minneapolis by correlating the income and educational levels
of residents with the assessed valuation or property and tax rate, or
distinguish others by prominent boundaries such as a freeway, park, or business
district. On another scale we may identify the complexity of ethnic, religious,
linguistic, and environmental features that delineate the Arab World from the
Middle East or North Africa.