Cultural Landscapes Characteristics (College Board AP® Human Geography)
Study Guide
Written by: Kristin Tassin
Reviewed by: Jacque Cartwright
What are Cultural Landscapes?
Cultural landscape refers to the forms superimposed on the physical environment by the activities of humans
It is the visual manifestation of culture
Streetlights, rice fields, churches, cemeteries, and houses are all part of the cultural landscape
The cultural landscape, also often referred to as the built environment, includes:
physical features
agricultural and industrial practices
religious and linguistic characteristics
evidence of sequent occupance
traditional and modern architecture
land use patterns
Examiner Tips and Tricks
The AP Exam may ask you to describe aspects of a cultural landscape to access the skill of photo analysis. You can practice looking at images of both cities and rural areas and identify how many aspects of a cultural landscape you can find. Then, think about how your findings can be analyzed to make educated guesses about the religion, language, economy, political system, etc. of the location. Practice with the Worked Example below.
Worked Example
In this first image, you can see a Christmas tree and angels, in addition to multiple tall office buildings. You can guess that this image is from a major city, which is likely to have high economic development. It also has modern architecture. You can also guess that the society is majority Christian since the society has set up this large Christmas display.
In this image, we can identify several things about both the location and the people. Both men and women are in the image, which implies they have generally equal rights in the society, or at least that this street location is not a gendered space. Everyone is wearing modern, casual clothing, rather than traditional attire. The buildings are large and well-maintained, but probably older, which would lead us to believe that this is a well-established location. The crosswalk is extremely busy, which implies that this is a location with a large population. You may also notice that the decorations use the colors of the Mexican flag as well as imagery from Aztec culture.
Expressions of Culture
Place and placemaking are expressions of the cultural landscape
Place refers to a location’s physical and cultural characteristics
Placemaking is the process by which a community or cultural group comes together to plan the use of public space. Their plans will be an expression of what the culture values
Language can influence toponyms and forms of communication, such as
gendered expression
slang
levels of formality
Ethnicity can influence the goods and services available in a particular location, language dialects, architecture, or where people live, creating ethnic enclaves
Religion can also influence toponyms, architecture, and who lives in a location
Sequent occupance refers to the idea that successive cultural groups leave their impact on a particular place
For example, modern Mexican culture includes the effects of classical Mesoamerican civilizations, Spanish imperialism, and modern cultural phenomena
In images, sequent occupance can often be identified by different architectural types
Athens has evidence of sequent occupance because modern apartment buildings can be observed near Ancient Greek temples
Image: Modern building surround an ancient Greek Temple in Athens
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