ETHNIC GEOGRAPHY
Chapter Outline
Introduction
• How do you define “ethnic”?
• How does one become “ethnic”? (birth-migration)
• The census is partly responsible for creating ethnic identities
• Host Culture
• What does “race” mean then?
The Good and The Bad
• Keep alive cultural traditions and maintain group cohesion
• Family, kinship, courtship, friendship
• Recreation, political power, business
• Suspicion, distrust, clannishness and violence
Merge now...
• Acculturation -adoption of enough host culture ways to blend in economically and socially
• Assimilation - complete blending and loss of distinctive ethnic traits.
– Marriage the most effective assimilative tool
• Many groups have not assimilated by force and by choice.
Chinatown (fig)
Ethnic Regions
• Ethnic Groups arrange themselves or are arranged in a variety of patterns on the landscape that can be mapped.
• Many formal ethnic regions still exist in the US today
• May be in homelands or in enclaves
Homelands
• Extensive areas that ignore political boundaries
• Long record of occupance by specific group
• Generally group has political control
• Land may be considered “sacred”
• Strengthens conviction of righteousness
Ethnic Homelands in North America?
• Acadiana
• Mex-America
• Navajo lands
• French Canada
• Deseret

• Penn-Dutch
• Black Belt
• both experiencing decline and decay as in and out migration continue
Francophone Louisiana (fig)
Ethnic Homelands (fig)
Ethnic Islands
• Much smaller than a “homeland”
• May be only a county or town
• Often rural
• All over the upper Midwest
American Ethnic Regions (fig)
Midwestern Ethnic Island (fig)
Ethnicity and Borders (fig)
Ethnic Island Landscapes (fig)
Amish and Circle (fig)
Ethnic Substrate
Is some akin to an extinct ethnic homeland or a huge assimilated ethnic island.
The German feel to the upper Midwest is an example.
No one really seems too German, but there is a lot of beer and brats.
Why would such a place die out?
Urban Ethnic Neighborhoods and Ghettos
Ghetto vs. Ethnic Neighborhood
Ancient history and globality
Difficulties with definition
Slums vs. ghetto
Discriminatory housing practices include redlining, steering and block busting
Suburban Ghettos?
Ghetto Typology (fig)
Detroit (fig)
Charlotte (fig)
Houston (fig)
Why live in a ghetto?
Support
Defense and Safety
Preservation
Attack
Competition Theory
• Says essentially that once an ethnic group has reached the economic and social mainstream, then they begin to look for their “roots”
Who are our “Ethnics”?
In 1840s- Germans, Chinese and Irish came in large numbers
Italians, Poles, and Eastern European Jews came in the latter half of the 19thc
Intra-American migration brought Blacks and hillbillies into the city
Later still: Puerto Ricans and other Latin Americans, Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.
Cities have Ethnic “specialties”
New York and ____________
Miami and _____________
DC and ___________________
Providence and __________________
Boston and _______________
Little Havana (fig)
There goes the neighborhood…
Most ethnic neighborhoods grow and change. Eventually they lose their character and acquire a new one.
Migrating
Urban
Ethnic
Islands (fig)
Invasion Succession (fig)
We’re not the only ones…
• Each country has a different ethnic mix. It is what makes for the national character of a country. One of the main reasons that the United States and Canada are different is our different ethnic mixes.
Cultural Diffusion and Ethnicity
Migration is what makes many “ethnic”
chain migration
channelized migration
return migration
Chain Migration (fig)
Chain Migration (fig)
Chain Migration (fig)
Simplification and Isolation
• Only parts of the old culture make their way to the new lands.
• Some traits prevented from coming, some are altered, some are left at the dock, some are replaced by new traits, some new ones are invented on arrival.
• Isolation
• Archaic survivals
Ethnic Ecology
Cultural Preadaptation
Doctrine of First Effective Settlement
Ethnic Environmental Perception
maladaptation
Ethnic Ecology
(fig)
Ethnic Ecology (fig)
Ecology of Ethnic Survival
Some groups become ethnic only after they are overrun by a conquering group
Survival dependent upon their ability to adapt to new environments, or harsher versions of old environments.
Ethnic Cultural Integration
• Ethnicity is everywhere and in everything.
Ethnoburbs
Schlichtmann’s Economic performance
Ethnicity and Business Activity
Different groups have different levels of entrepreneurial spirit.
Some groups who remain poor are not necessarily lazy, but may not prioritize life toward business
Ethnicity and Business
or Morality? (fig)
Ethnicity and Type of Employment
Ethnicities often specialize in a handful of business practices.
• Irish and __________
• Chinese and __________
• Koreans and ____________
• Italians and _____________
• Jews and ____________
• others?
Ethnicity and Employment (fig)
Ethnicity and Farming Practices
German vs. Anglo farmers
Link to cultural preadaptation?
Hmong in California
Chinese in NYC
Acculturation or not? (fig)
Ethnic Food Regions (fig)
Ethnicity and Disease (fig)
Ethnic Landscapes
There are a great variety of clues to the ethnicity (current or vestigial) of any location
Houses, cemetery markers, recreational amenities
Ethnic Settlement Patterns
The layout of towns and villages often recall an ethnic past or present
Germanic Landscape Values (fig)
German or Scots-Irish? (fig)
Urban Ethnic Landscapes
Some of the easiest places to see these items is in the city, but frequently you can be fooled because of the rapid ethnic turnover of cities.
Sal’s Pizzeria
Water Street
Color preferences
Urban Ethnic Landscapes (fig)
Hispanic Mural (fig)
We’re Proud of Our Heritage...
• Please Spend lots of money in our quaint overpriced shoppes.