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


Migration and ethnicity : 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


Migration and ethnicity : Migration and ethnicity 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


Migration and ethnicity : Migration and ethnicity 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


Migration and ethnicity : Migration and ethnicity 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


Migration and ethnicity : Migration and ethnicity 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


Migration and ethnicity : Migration and ethnicity 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


Migration and ethnicity : Migration and ethnicity 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


Migration and ethnicity : Migration and ethnicity 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 : 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


Simplification and isolation : Simplification and isolation 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


Simplification and isolation : Simplification and isolation 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


Simplification and isolation : Simplification and isolation 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


Simplification and isolation : Simplification and isolation 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: Culture regions Ethnic regions Cultural diffusion and ethnicity Ethnic ecology Ethnic cultural integration Ethnic landscapes


Cultural preadaptation : 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


Cultural preadaptation : Cultural preadaptation 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


Cultural preadaptation : Cultural preadaptation 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


Cultural preadaptation : Cultural preadaptation 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


Cultural preadaptation : Cultural preadaptation 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 : 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 : 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


Ethnic environmental perception : Ethnic environmental perception 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


Ethnic environmental perception : Ethnic environmental perception 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”


Ethnic environmental perception : Ethnic environmental perception 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 : 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 : 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: Culture regions Ethnic regions Cultural diffusion and ethnicity Ethnic ecology Ethnic cultural integration Ethnic landscapes


Introduction: 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: 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: 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 : 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


Ethnicity and business activity : Ethnicity and business activity 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: 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: 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.


Ethnicity and business activity : Ethnicity and business activity 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


Ethnicity and business activity : Ethnicity and business activity 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


Ethnicity and business activity : Ethnicity and business activity 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


Ethnicity and business activity : Ethnicity and business activity 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 : 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


Ethnicity and type of employment : Ethnicity and type of employment 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


Ethnicity and type of employment : Ethnicity and type of employment 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


Ethnicity and type of employment : Ethnicity and type of employment 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 : 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 : 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: Culture regions Ethnic regions Cultural diffusion and ethnicity Ethnic ecology Ethnic cultural integration Ethnic landscapes


Introduction: 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 : 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


Finnish landscapes in America : Finnish landscapes in America 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


Finnish landscapes in America : Finnish landscapes in America 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 : 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


Ethnic settlement patterns : Ethnic settlement patterns 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


Ethnic settlement patterns : Ethnic settlement patterns 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: 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: 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 : 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


Urban ethnic landscapes : Urban ethnic landscapes 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


Urban ethnic landscapes : Urban ethnic landscapes 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