Video Guide
Geography A Voyage of Discovery
National Geographic Society
1987
Dr. M Mustoe Geography Eastern Oregon
University
Overview
The Voyage of Discovery, is produced
by the National Geographic Society. It describes the travels of
a geographer, "Franklin Shaw" from the 1800s who, through
his diary, shares some of the observations and insights he has
made of both the physical and human realms of the earth. He describes
the diversity of the cultures and human political systems in terms
which, he perceives as being both positive and negative; the positive
side being human culture's ability to live productively and surviving
all manner of hardship, and the "darker" side being
the potential it has to segregate itself sometimes into a state
of conflict.
The video weaves images of modern warfare
and the plague of current conflicts within Shaw's writings; making
his diary out to be an almost unbelievable insight into the future.
After a slide of an atomic cloud fades from the screen, the viewer
is directed to the image of the earth rising over the moon. This
Apollo picture sets the scene for Shaw to project his thoughts
into the future and suggest maybe when we as humans finally see
our earth separate, as one connected whole, and surrounded by
space, as one planet, maybe then we as humans will finally gain
a sense of the dependencies we have to it and each other.
Terms
1. The Five Themes of Geography
2. Absolute and Relative Location
3. Place
4. Region
5. Movement
6. Human Environmental Interaction
Places
Islands the World
Concepts
The five themes of geography were originally presented as a part
of the efforts to reinstate a stronger geography component into
the social science curriculum. (Joint Committee on Geographic
Education (From: 1984). Guidelines for geographic education: Elementary
and secondary schools. Association of American Geographers and
National Council for Geographic Education.) Very quickly they
were adopted by teachers as a means of defining geography for
students....and five theme geography took off; even finding itself
in textbooks. However, The Five themes of geography ARE REALLY
NOT ....although they exhibit components of the characteristic
research which is a part of academic geography, these themes are
really superfluous to a great degree because of their ability
to be applied to any of the social sciences. In other words, the
five themes of geography could just as well be the five themes
of history or social studies or archeology. So the shift since
their inception has been toward a perspective that suggests that
the themes in themselves do not define geography Harper, Robert
(1990). "The new school geography: A critique." Journal
of Geography 89(January/February): 27-30. But rather are a means
of considering the structure of a study in geography.
Questions to Consider
How has the advent of new locational technologies (that provide
humans with the ability of defining absolute location with incredible
precision) changed the nature of the spatial order of society?
Can the character of place be presented in more than one dimension
of the human senses?
How is regionality defined within the social structure of the
landscape you are most familiar with?
Your Notes