Cultural Geography

Cultural Geography
Culture is the specialized behavioral patterns, understandings, and adaptations that summarize the way of life of a group of people. Cultural traits combine to shape integrated culture complexes. Together, traits and complexes in their spatial patterns create human landscapes, define culture regions, and distinguish culture groups.

Interaction of People and Environment.The interrelations of people with the environment of a given area, their perceptions and use of it, and their impact on it are associated themes of geography. They are the special concerns of cultural geology, the study of the relationship between a culture group and the natural environment it occupies.

Environments as controls.
Environmental determinism
Possibilism
Human impactsSubsystem of culture
The technological subsystem, the sociological Subsystem, The Ideological Subsystem
Technological: when geographers refers to technological subsystem they focus in the instruments and tools people use in the daily cycle of existence, like how to get to work in car or bicycle? shop for food or grow their own?. In technologically advanced countries incomes tend to be high as well aseducation, nutrition, life expectancies and medical services, which in less advanced countries is all the opposite.
Sociological: it is related to the technological system, focus in the religious, political, education and other institutions, which regulate how the individual functions relative to the group, whether it is family, church or state.
Ideological: consists in beliefs, ideas, andknowledge as well as the way we express these things in our speech and other forms of communication.

Culture change, recurring theme of cultural geography is change. These changes within culture are induced by innovation diffusion and acculturation.
Innovation: changes to a culture that results from ideas created within the social group and adopted by the culture
Diffusion: is the process by which aconcept, a practice an innovation, or a substance spreads from its point of origin to new territories.
Acculturation: is the process by which one culture group undergoes a major modification by adopting many of the characteristics of another.

Cultural diversity 
Language is an organized system of speech by which people communicate with each other with mutual comprehension, is the mostimportant medium by which culture is transmitted; language therefore can be both a cause and a symbol of cultural differentiation.

Religion varies in its cultural role dominating in some societies, unimportant, rejected or even repressed in others and affect all the aspects of a culture.
We can classify religion in Ethnic religions and Tribal religions.
Ethnic religions: have strong territorial andcultural group identification. These religions don't usually attempt to convert nonbelievers. Ethnic religions examples are: Judaism, Indian Hinduism or Japanese Shinto 
Tribal religions or traditional: this religions distinguished by their small size, unique identity with localized culture groups not yet fully absorbed into modern society, and their close ties to nature. Some examples areAnimism is the beliefs that life exists in all objects, from rocks and trees to lakes and mountains or that such objects are the abode of the dead of spirits and of gods. Shamanism this form of tribal religion that involves community acceptance of a shaman, who through special powers, can intercede with and interpret the spirit world. 
Language and Religion are both transmitter of culture andidentifying traits of separate culture groups.
Between the principal religions, we have the Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Judaism belief in a single God laid the foundation for both Christianity and Islam. 

Judaism is an Abraham religion -- a faith which recognizes Abraham or Jacob as a Patriarch, the Thora (law and scriptures) and the traditions of the culture and the faith and the...