Forum: Cultural Geography and Cultural Studies

This forum discusses linkages between cultural geography and allied ‘cultural’ disciplines. A symposium on this topic – held at the 2005 conference of the Institute of Australian Geographers in Armidale – was triggered by the targeted inclusion of geography in a cross‐disciplinary network funded by the Australian Research Council. Although non‐geographers in the network have articulated strong interest in and an enthusiasm for geography, their knowledge of, and everyday participation in its disciplinary travails have been limited. Given this, the papers in the forum review geography's long and dynamic consideration of the relations between place and culture, and raise a set of key issues for geographers to consider: how we might interact with other disciplinary debates about the ‘cultural’, retain distinctiveness as the home of intellectual inquiry around issues of space and place, and leverage opportunities to forge more permanent connections to geographers working not in our traditional institutional settings, but in a range of research centres, schools and disciplinary homes.     

旧志"分野"考--评古代中国人的地理文化观

“分野”是旧志编纂中的重要组成部分,是指天象星宿与疆土州国的对应,是古代中国人的一种地理化观念。以星宿定位州国的宇宙观在我国古代典籍中有众多记载,被赋予特殊丰富的内涵,对研究古代中国的历史地理有较大价值。     

Cultural Geography and the Upper Great Lakes Region

The Upper Great Lakes region often is interpreted as a cultural mosaic of ethnic groups identified with marginal farming, forestry and mining settlements. Despite its early history of a large, foreign-horn population, many of the region's pioneer settlers can be identified with an international source region, neither truly American nor truly Canadian, the upper St. Lawrence Valley. Forest-fringe agriculture, seasonal work for cash wages and employment in large-scale resource extraction were part of the way of life brought from the St. Lawrence district to the northern portions of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The southern limit of the so-called “Cutover” region coincides with a transition toward a preponderance of settlers from western New York, who brought traditions of wheat and dairy farming, compact settlements and democratic institutions to the upper Middle West.     

Cultural Geography of American Foodways: An Annotated Bibliography

Despite recent interest in indigenous knowledge, few studies have linked it with indigenous beliefs system and its role in environmental stewardship. This link is important to cultural geographers interested in the study of small-scale cultural groups and how they relate to the environment. It also helps us understand the cultural dimensions of environmental stewardship and resource conservation. Based on a study of a monkey sanctuary in Ghana, West Africa, this paper argues that indigenous belief systems form an essential part of indigenous knowledge and that they can serve as a very effective tool for the protection of sacred groves and isolated patches of rainforests that have fallen victim to development as a result of increasing globalization, population pressures, and the spread of Christianity. The paper concludes that indigenous beliefs are not just a relic of the past but something that is needed today and may be needed in future for the conservation of natural resources in indigenous societies.     

《史地学报》及其文化立场

《史地学报》是《学衡》的兄弟刊物．在“古史辨”运动中所持的是“信古”的文化守旧立场。柳诒徵和竺可桢分别是历史学、地学的导师．他们打造了南京高等师范学校东南大学的史地学的基础．并在师生中形成强烈的群体意识。其文化保守主义倾向融入了大学的人文传统之中。     

Country Music and the South: A Cultural Geography Perspective

Cultural geographers have failed to examine one of the most significant culture items unique to the American South— country music. Examination of the history, folklore, and sociology literature provides data on the area of origin and diffusion routes of the vocal and instrumental characteristics of early country music. The mixing of musical cultures in the South led to the origin and evolution of seven substyles of country music during the twentieth century: traditional, singing cowboy, western swing, honky tonk, bluegrass, country pop, and country rock. Despite recent cultural homogenization in the United States, country music continues to maintain its regional association with the American South.