Cultural soil

Map with partition in 10 cultural parts of the earth

According to the definition of the German geographer Albert Kolb from 1962, a cultural part of the earth is "a space of subcontinental dimensions [...], whose unity is based on the individual origin of culture, on the special, unique combination of landscape-shaping natural and cultural elements, on the independent, intellectual and social This term is also used by the German geographer Jürgen Newig and - to a limited extent comparable - by Spencer and Thomas in 1978 (cultural worlds) . From a didactic point of view , the concept of cultural earth parts for interdisciplinary teaching found its way into the curricula of some German federal states and was taken up , for example, by the Klett school book publisher.

A space (a region) with at least subcontinental dimensions is regarded as a cultural part of the earth, which develops an individual identity that can be clearly demarcated from its neighboring spaces , which arises from the interactions between the natural elements and the creative activities of people and which is constantly changing. A cultural part of the world has its own economic systems and structures that have arisen through adapted (or often non-adapted) human actions and continue to change. In a cultural part of the world, human economic activity results in forms of coexistence as a space-defining social order with systems of rulership of an independent character. To secure the political systems of rule , intellectual foundations ( religions or ideologies ) are created in a whole cultural part of the world or adapted to one's own circumstances.

In contrast to this controversial division, it is common in ethnology to subdivide into cultural areas that indicate the (historical) distribution areas of ethnic cultures . European ethnology ( folklore ) uses the term cultural area (see European cultural area ), while the earlier term cultural area was dropped because of its national socialist appropriation.

Classifications

There are around 10 different cultural parts of the earth:

1. Angloamerica ( Canada and USA )
2. Latin America (all countries south of the United States, from Mexico in the north to Chile in the south)
3. (Western) Europe
4. Eastern Europe / Russia
5. Orient ( North Africa , Arabian Peninsula , some Gulf States, their neighbors, as well as the Islamic part of Central Asia)
6. Sub-Saharan Africa (formerly "Black Africa")
7. South Asia ( India , Nepal , parts of Pakistan , neighboring countries)
8. Southeast Asia ( e.g. rear India , Malaysia , Indonesia )
9. East Asia ( China , Mongolia , Japan , Korea )
10. Australia / Oceania

The assignment of a state to a cultural part of the world is not always clear and can also change over time. Cultivated parts of the earth can be separated by transitional areas, but can also be based on natural boundaries such as mountains or seas.

criticism

Within geography, the concept of cultural soil, as represented by Jürgen Newig, among others, is considered controversial: cultural soil is criticized as being constructed in the same way as other abstract classifications that are only created under certain points of view and thus evade evidence of their existence.

Civilizations to Huntington

Huntington's division of the world into "civilizations"

The American political scientist Samuel P. Huntington represented in 1993 in his theory of the " clash of civilizations " (clash of civilizations) a conditionally comparable division of the world regions in global cultural areas (in the English original civilizations , even regions ). These are dynamic, without sharp limits, and continue to develop. Every civilization has a core state that represents the power center of the respective culture. Huntington was then an advisor to the US State Department.

literature

• Eckart Ehlers: Cultures - Cultural Earth Parts - Clash of Civilizations. Plea for a contemporary cultural geography. In: Geographical Rundschau. Volume 48, No. 6, 1996, ISSN  0016-7460 , pp. 338-344.
• Samuel P. Huntington : Clash of Cultures. The reshaping of world politics in the 21st century . Goldmann, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-442-75506-9 (original: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York 1996)

Web links

• Jürgen Newig : The concept of the cultural soil. In: kulturerdteile.de. Own website, May 2013, accessed on May 27, 2014 (collection of materials for use in school lessons). 
• Jürgen Newig : Cultural earth parts - a different picture of the world. (PDF; 97 kB) In: schleswigholstein.erdkunde.com. Verband Deutscher Schulgeographen , Landesverband SH, July 8, 2005, accessed on May 27, 2014 (11 pages; farewell lecture at the Institute of Geography at Kiel University; additional graphics as PDF file; 7.7 MB; 32 pages ). 
• Margit Colditz: The cultural earth part concept in geography lessons in Saxony-Anhalt. State Institute for Teacher Training, Teacher Training and Teaching Research of Saxony-Anhalt (LISA), 1992, archived from the original on January 2, 2010 ; Retrieved on May 27, 2014 (extensive text, with references). 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Albert Kolb : The geography and the cultural parts of the earth. In: A. Leidlmair (ed.): Hermann von Wissmann-Festschrift. Geographical Institute of the University of Tübingen, 1962, p. 46.
2. ↑ JNE: Dictionary of Geography: Culture continents. In: Spektrum.de. Spectrum of Science , 2001, accessed May 27, 2014 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Christine Reinke: Information sheet on cultural soil. In: Geography Information Center. Ernst Klett Verlag , May 26, 2012, accessed on May 27, 2014 (based on Jürgen Newig ). 
4. ^ Herbert Popp : Kulturwelten, Kulturerdteile, Kulturkreise - To deal with geography with a structure of the earth on a cultural basis. A way into the crisis? In: H. Popp (Hrsg.): The concept of the cultural earth parts in discussion - the example of Africa. Bayreuth, 2003, pp. 19-42.