Miss Linda's Humanities MA Final Comprehensive Timed Essay #1

     Carl O. Sauer writes in “The Morphology of Landscape”: “We select those qualities of landscape in particular that are or may be of use to us” (Sauer 1925, 325). Selecting good fertile land (space and place) is a privilege that is not available to everyone in the world due to social and economic inequalities. The rich and powerful are able to choose where they want to be, and claim by force where they will reside. In our current landscape, Russia is attempting to overtake Ukrainian land by force in order to obtain their rich land resources and become more powerful in the process, which would enable them to obtain even more spaces and places in the future. The acquisition of this land gives them the power to make decisions, laws, and give rights to their people, or take rights away. Living in a particular space and place may seem like a simple thing, but it is more complicated than it might first appear.

     Carl O. Sauer writes in “The Morphology of Landscape” about various ways to observe and document landscape, and tells us that attempting to pin down an accurate term for Geography is tricky, because it involves so many factors, which have fluctuated over time. He speaks about the need for a systematic approach, which would also incorporate the nuances of humankind’s influence on the environment, and the environment’s influence on humankind. He emphasizes the need to bring different aspects of study together such as history, the relation of phenomena, the migration of people and their effect on the land, and cause and effect (with an emphasis on climate) as a cohesive unit to portray a broader perspective of what Geography encompasses. The rich and powerful are able to live in the most hospitable regions of our planet, while the poor are left with the “unchosen” places, the leftovers, the spaces and places with the harshest weather conditions, which will only get worse with climate change. The wealthy are able to live in places with the greatest chance of human survival when the going gets tough; the poorest people will not have the same choices of livable land that the wealthy will have.  

     “Introducing Cultural Geography” and “The Tradition of Cultural Geography” by William Norton speaks on different groups of people, identifying landscapes, dominant cultural identities, nature, social sciences, the history of Geography, and the Landscape School created by Carl O. Sauer: “The landscape school developed on the premise that culture, operating on physical landscapes through time, was responsible for the transformation of those landscapes into cultural landscapes” (Norton 2014, 11). As people live and inhabit a particular landscape, they build their cultural and social identity there, and leave their own particular imprint on the space and place itself. Using the example of Russia overtaking land and resources from Ukraine, not only are the Russians displacing the Ukrainian people from their space and place, they are changing and destroying the cultural and social imprint of the Ukrainians and attempting to replace it with their own; the Russians believe they have the right to do this because of their power and domination tactics, and the belief that their own cultural identity is more important or valuable than the Ukrainian people.

     Wilbur Zelinsky’s “Process” from The Cultural Geography of the United States speaks on the ways culture affects landscape. Culture separates human beings from the rest of the “natural world” and is most dominant in creating change. Objectivity is a necessary element in observing culture as a science. The United States is a specific culture region with a unique identity, as Russia and Ukraine also possess their own unique identities.

     National identity is bigger than the sum of its individual local parts. Raymond Williams’ “Culture” from Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society speaks on the shared meanings of English culture, the relationship between words and social and cultural change, and the dynamic quality of meaning. Culture and society are constantly changing, and this is reflected in language. Old meanings linger; the overlap of meanings flows through space and place as one culture transitions from one thing into something else, like Russia into Ukraine, potentially back into Russia.

     The Battle of Algiers, directed by Gillo Pontecorvo in 1966 portrays the uprising of the Algerian people against their French Colonizers from 1954 to 1962. The film reveals how painful it was to be overtaken and colonized by a foreign government, stripping the Algerians of their sovereignty and forcing them to live in certain areas of their own country while the French reigned supreme. This resembles what is currently happening in Ukraine, although the space and place are different, it is still the more powerful insinuating itself on the less powerful in order to overtake and gain more power and control.

     John Hutchinson writes in “The Question of Definition” in Nationalism regarding a nation experiencing a common suffering: “National sorrows are more significant than triumphs because they impose obligations and demand a common effort” (17). The people of Algeria do just that, secretly forming the FLN (National Liberation Front), communicating through the passing of notes on the street, and incorporating everyone’s help including women and children to fight the common enemy, the French occupiers. The Algerian people are bound together by the love of their country, and their fear is overcome by their anger and their will to be free. I see commonalities in Ukraine, with women taking up arms to protect their country, and the sheer will of the people to fight off the Russian army to protect the land that they love, which is more than just a space and a place; it contains their identity, their family, their roots, and their home.   

     The Ukrainian people are definitely experiencing “national sorrows” right now, which are reverberating outside of their country into other spaces and places; the world is with them, and rooting for them, to fight off the dominant overlord who wants to tear them away not only from their land, the place they inhabit, but from their cultural identity and who they are at their core. Hopefully, with the help of other dominant powers aiming for justice, they will win their fight to retain their place in the world.

 

 

Hutchinson, John. 1994. “The Question of Definition.” Nationalism. Fontana Press, 1994.

 

Norton, William. 2013. “Introducing Cultural Geography” and “The Tradition of Cultural Geography”. Cultural Geography: Environments, Landscapes, Identities, Inequalities. Oxford University Press, 2013.

 

Pontecorvo, Gillo. 1966. The Battle of Algiers.

 

Sauer, Carl O. 1925. “The Morphology of Landscape”. 1925.

 

Williams, Raymond. 2014. “Culture.” Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Oxford University Press, 2014.

 

Zelinsky, Wilbur. 1992. “Process.” The Cultural Geography of the United States. Pearson, 1992.