THE HUMAN LANDSCAPE 3 cr. (SBD)
Prof. Richard Wilkie office: Morrill 4, room 261 tel: 545-2078
office hours: Mondays 2
to 3, Fridays 11 to 12 ; or by arrangement
Teaching Assistants: Mirela Newman ( in Morrill 4-room
254D—opposite Prof. Wilkie’s office
and Don Sluter (in Morrill 4-room 263)—to the east side of
Prof. Wilkie’s office
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COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course explores
the ways humans perceive, organize, and shape the built world of cultural
landscapes, which they transform out of natural landscapes. Emphasis is on the role that places and
landscapes play in the lives of humans--both now and historically--and how and
why some people and cultures are attracted to particular kinds of environments
and landscapes while others feel at home in totally different kinds of
places. The course involves both problem-based
learning components, experiential-learning during several field trips to
examine the cultural and historical landscapes of the Pioneer Valley region,
several introductory computer mapping labs, and the use of selected videos and
films to enhance visual literacy about the world.
To be more specific, various
elements of the course concentrate on how humans “image” the environment, on
how and why different subgroups are attracted to particular kinds of places for
home, recreation, or travel, and how humans adjust into new environmental settings,
respond to natural hazards, and make other environmental choices that
contribute to the evolution of cultural
landscapes. While this course
explores examples from throughout the world, special emphasis this semester is
on “sense of place” in New England and the United States. Other examples
of cultural landscapes focus on how they are shaped and reshaped by human
environmental attitudes and behavior, as well as by other historical,
political, and socio-economic forces that operate within unique subculture
regions of the world. Underlying these
cultural landscapes, of course, are a wide variety of physical regions and
natural ecological regions that offer contrasting opportunities for resource
development and human settlement. Much
of his course explores the interface between the forces of human behavior and
the natural world.
This is a problem-based course that is organized not only
to explore the nature of problems from different perspectives, but also to
attempt to work out alternative strategies for overcoming the way humans in
different cultures and regions shape their landscapes and alter their physical
worlds.
Finally, a related theme will focus on how geographers
use maps and graphics to help understand these patterns and relationships. A number of lab sessions will be used to
work with maps, to learn to interpret the cultural and natural landscape
through maps, and even to create
some computer maps of a
region that each student will select.
Each
new theme (Unit) will begin on Tuesdays in Morrill 136 at 1pm where Professor
Wilkie will lecture and present the theme for the week to the full class. (Generally these problem-based themes are linked and one Unit
flows into the next Unit.) Labs on Tuesdays will follow one of three
formats:
Format One:
After an initial discussion of the theme or problem the class will break
into two smaller groups of students. Group
one will stay in the main lecture room with Prof.
Wilkie to have an interactive
exercise. Group two will
go into either:
(a) the Geography Lab to do a separate exercise—perhaps to view and discuss slides or view a short video as part of a case study, to do a map-reading exercise, or to have a small group discussion on the theme that is being discussed that day, or
(b) they will go to the GIS Computer Lab to work on related exercise using simple mapping
techniques
or locating information from selected internet sites. In these GIS mapping labs
I want everyone to become
comfortable with using mapping software on an introductory level.
Format Two: The
class for three weeks will go on field trips in the area to learn
experientially about things that we have discussed in class. We will go in department vans, leaving at 12:45.
ABBREVIATED LIST OF TOPICS FOR THE HUMAN LANDSCAPE
COURSE (Spring 2001):
1. Sept. 11: Introduction
& Course Overview
2. Sept. 18: Field Trip 1: The Pioneer Valley as a Place
3. Sept. 25: Developing a Global “World View”
4. Oct. 2: Diversity of World Cultural Landscapes and
Balancing human needs with their impact on the with
their impact on the environment
5. Oct. 9: A Framework for Understanding World Climates
and Ecological Regions
6. Oct. 16: Field Trip 2: Catamount Mountain
7. Oct. 23:
The Global Growth of Human Population & History of Human Settlement
8. Oct. 30: Role-Playing
Game – Settlers in Kansas
9. Nov. 6: The Human Migration Process
10. Nov. 13: NATURE, WATER, and RELIGION
11. Nov. 20: Territoriality and Global Conflicts over
Resources
12. Nov. 27: Growth of Urban Places and the Hierarchy of
Cities
13. Dec. 4: Field Trip 3: Holyoke and Northampton
14. Dec. 11: Course
Conclusion: Media and Place and the Art
of Seeing
During the semester we will take the following three
field trips:
a.
Settling the New England
Landscape – with focus on the Connecticut River Valley:
Here we look at early settlement of the New England landscape—native American, early European settlers between the 1650s and late 1800s. In the first 120 years--between the 1650s and the 1770s, this valley experienced frontier clashes between the English and some native American tribes, as well as problems with the Dutch in the lower Hudson river country and conflicts with the French coming down from Canada. Major events took place in this valley—especially during King Phillip’s War, and we will visit these often forgotten sites to discuss the evolution of the Connecticut River cultural landscape. Prior strategic sites are not necessarily the sites that are strategic today.
During this field trip, we will discuss as well much
earlier periods of history in this region—the era of dinosaurs in the valley
(200 million to 65 million years ago), and Glacial Lake Hitchcock as it slowly
receded 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.
b.
Catamount Mountain in
Colrain: This is an opportunity to visit a remnant settlement
landscape that has gone back to forest.
Between the 1730s and the 1920s, more than 80 families eked out
agricultural livelihoods or from sheep grazing on this rolling hilltop of
rugged rock outcrops, caves, waterfalls, and a lake. Only the remnants and cellar holes of their homesteads remain,
but we have records of whom these families were, where they were from
originally, copies of some of the poems and thoughts they had, as well as some
information about where they ultimately moved.
This is a personalized field trip into the American past, which we will
do at the peak of the foliage season.
c.
An Urban Field Trip to
Holyoke and Northampton—a contrast between a 19th century
mill town and a late 20th century education/arts & crafts /high
tech community: This
is an opportunity to contrast the structure of two American—New England urban
places. The history of the development
of Holyoke in the 1840s is an important part of the history of the industrial
revolution in America, and ultimately to the world. Holyoke is also the site off innovation and invention, ranging
from the first commercial telephone line between two cities (Holyoke and
Chicopee in 1879) to the invention of volleyball in 1895. Northampton, on the other hand, is shaping
the image of the livable small American city prototype of the late 20th
and early 21st centuries.
REQUIRED BOOKS: (purchase from the
Jeffery Amherst College Store):
(behind the Jefferey Amherst Bookshop, 55
South Pleasant St., Amherst --opposite the town common)
1. Menzel, Peter and Charles Mann, Material World: A Global Family Portrait,
San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1995
(paper).
2. Hoeg,
Peter, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Dell/Bantam Doubleday, 1993 (paper).
3. Chatwin, The Songlines, Viking 1987 (paper)
4. Allen, John, Student Atlas of World
Geography, Dushkin/McGraw-Hill,
1999 (paper)
Plus other assorted
handouts throughout the semester.
Wilkie, Richard (Edited), The Human Landscape Reader: Handouts for each class.
Geo. 102: The Human Landscape page
4
GOALS and GRADING POLICY FOR THE COURSE:
One goal for this course is that I want
you to learn to think about important issues in a larger context, and to
constructively bring some of those thoughts into your life and into your ever
expanding “world view.” --In other
words, to learn to think for yourself in a larger context than just your own
micro-ethnocentric-world and to begin to make you more geographically
literate. Geography is a holistic,
integrative way of thinking about and viewing the world. Geographers learn to see the world through
multi-layered lenses. I hope that each
of you will begin develop the ability to change scales of reference, to
integrate often contrasting sets of forces, to understand some aspects of the
processes of change, and to expand the accuracy of one's own "world
view." Most academic disciplines
tend to look inward to know more and more about a particular subject, but
geography—much like history and anthropology—cut across many complex dimensions
to integrate different perspectives into a greater understanding of the whole. History does this within particular eras or
times, anthropology does it within particular cultures, and geographers do it
within particular places, regions, or environmental settings. In combining those three disciplines, one can become an historical cultural geographer—which
I am.
Many of the things that we will examine in the course do
not necessarily have “right” or “wrong” answers, although some of your grade
will come from how well you learn some basic geographic knowledge. In the long run, however, I am more
interested in how well you can reason, analyze and think about these issues in
the context of a rapidly changing world.
Academic “truths” have very short lives, as more complete and complex
understanding constantly help shape and reshape those “truths.” If students
develop the tools of how to begin to understand the processes of change they
will never become obsolete. These ideas
are at the heart of my view of education--that education is a lifelong
adventure—and that each of us needs constantly to readjust our “world view”
based on new information. Your
education at the university is the time when you learn how to see problems,
where to find relevant information to use in your analyses of problems, and
finally, it is where you develop the intellectual tools to come up with
creative solutions to problems.
The discipline of geography is a very good home for those who want these kinds of academic challenges. In this course, short essay questions, papers, and discussions are some of
the ways to measure this type of learning. Those who get involved with the topics and work at finding solutions will do well in the course; those who just want to coast along wanting the professor to solve the problems so you can feed them back to him on the exams will not do as well. Involvement, commitment and a willingness to explore a range of solutions and perspectives are all elements that can help to open doors to intellectual growth.
In this process, hopefully each of you will develop some
basic tools for thinking about human landscapes, places and environments in
both the world at large and in the places in which you want to be living. By
contrasting different cultural attitudes, perceptions, and ways of looking at
the world, we begin to understand both others and ourselves with regard to
environmental and spatial choices, and to be knowledgeable about different
points of view even when we disagree with them. In doing so, you need to
recognize that your attitudes and preferences probably will change and evolve
during your life cycle--just as the global environment and the cultural
landscapes around you will change.
There is no way to test for this kind of long-term personal growth of
knowledge, although that is the most important tool that this course can help
you to develop.
Geo. 102: The Human Landscape page
5
It is worth noting here the
new Massachusetts Learning Standards for Geography, even though in my
course we will have to focus down to a smaller number of these issues:
and their physical and
biological characteristics; they will be able to visualize and map oceans and
continents; mountain chains and rivers; forest, plain, and desert; resources
both above and below ground; and conditions of climate and seasons.
In addition, there are other hidden dimensions of "Geographic Literacy" that I hope to help students uncover. For a description of nine additional aspects see Day 1 (Sept. 11) of the course outline.
Class attendance is very important.
Every day you will have a chance to pick up points,
so if you miss class frequently, your grade will go down
accordingly.
Finally: Grades
will be determined by:
1. Two exams during the semester
2.
Class attendance &
participation
3.
One or two short book
reviews
4.
Short assignments analyzing
or discussing aspects of the three
Field Trips
5.
Four short written assignments or computer mapping
projects during the semester
Lab Links: