Chorology
The chorology ( Greek χώρα Chora , "Land, matter, space" and λόγος, lógos , "word, doctrine") or Synchorologie or complex customer is the doctrine of the space or the spatial distribution of objects to a scientific discipline.
The doctrine of space
Just as chronology represents the study of time , chorology (also known as chorography ) is generally a method of scientific phenomenology with the aim of investigating spatial aspects of phenomena . But because the general physics , the theory of space and time , and other scientific disciplines on specific areas related (such as geology of the earth's crust, or "-geografie" to the "space" of the earth's surface ), the name only familiar to some subject areas.
Chorology in various sciences
geography
In geography there are various competing spatial concepts that can be distinguished according to this scheme:
- A materialistic spatial concept as an absolute space of traditional and chorological geography,
- an idealistic spatial concept based on George Berkeley , Immanuel Kant ; in geography e.g. B. Sphere of action according to Benno Werlen's social geography ,
- a step- by- step concept of "landscape" as it is e.g. B. Alfred Hettner represents,
- a historical-materialistic conception of space as spatial practice (after Henri Lefebvre ) with the further development of the American geographer David Harvey .
biology
Chorology in biogeography is the study of the geographical distribution of organisms or individual species and systematic clans.
The area is the distribution area of a species. The chorology describes and classifies the connections between living beings and their occurrence . She deals with the current situation as well as with the circumstances of the past and documents their change. It serves as an aid to taxonomy , but especially as the descriptive part of ecology (the study of living beings and their environment).
It deals with the typing of areas and the causal analysis that led to the areas
- historical-genetic : "Is the distribution limit a migration limit?"; see animal migration
- Up-to-date : "Is the distribution limit a performance limit?"
Area diagnosis is available as a working method . Because plants, due to their restricted mobility, enable particularly clear room allocation, the flora analysis in particular has been developed.
It is of particular importance in the context of ecology.
Cultural studies
In the broad field of cultural studies , which ranges from the historical analysis of cultural-political activities to literary studies , space appears in the field of tension between geographical conditions and cultural (or political) interpretation that overrides them ( cultural space formation).
In sociology the term is used as a social space e.g. B. an object of urban and architectural sociology .
Since the late 1980s, there has been an increased interest in spatial phenomena in the cultural and social sciences . This turn to spatial issues is referred to as the spatial turn , "topological turn" or, more rarely, "space-critical turn".
archeology
In archeology , chorology describes a method of finding a relative chronology , it is also called horizontal stratigraphy or occupancy chronology . A chorological analysis tries to understand the systematic occupancy or the systematic growth of a site or a burial ground, with the aim of working out largely simultaneous areas and their chronological sequence.
For example, grave fields often grow from the inside outwards like an onion from the oldest burials. If one maps similar finds ( types ) on the burial ground or settlement plans , their distribution patterns trace the growth zones. With many such maps, the growth zones can be reconstructed by comparison. Despite the fact that this process is sometimes called horizontal stratigraphy , it is not an archaeological stratigraphy and does not have its strong evidential value.
literature
Geography:
- Ute Wardenga: Geography as Chorology. On the genesis and structure of Alfred Hettner's construct of geography. Steiner, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-515-06809-0
Archeology:
- Gabriele Ulrike Perner: Chorology. Paths of knowledge and limits of knowledge in archeology. Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 2005, ISBN 3-631-46138-0
