Cultural geography entails studying how humans interact with the land in which they live. Religion, language, economic analysis, medicine and entertainment are but some of the outstanding issues in cultural geography. It also focuses on the functioning of human beings spatially. Cultural studies as well as environmental issues too form a critical part of the cultural geography studies (Geert, 1973).
Journal of cultural Geography came into existence due to the effort of Ray in association with his wife, Pat Brown as early as 1960. At that time, American studies were believed to be based mainly on an elite culture and Ray saw this and purposed to alter this. In their effort, Ray and Pat Brown encountered serious challenge since the earlier and more common subjects of music, literature and films had not in the first place received much attention.
At that time, Ray was an outstanding professor at the Bowling Green State University (BGSU). There was no close relation between cultural studies and geography but the coming of two associations, PCA and ACA helped boost this connection more. In 1979, Ray and Pat engaged Alvar Carlson, who was a professor of geography at as the editor in charge of the journal of cultural geography at the BSGU. It was in the next year that the journal was first published. The editing of this journal remained in the hands of Alvar Carlson until 1996 when he retired and the responsibility was passed on to Lou Seig, at the Oklahoma State University.
Publication however, remained under Popular Press, at the BSGU for more than the next two decades. It was in December 2001 when popular press was closed down by BSGU and the Geography department within Oklahoma State University took over the management of this journal. For at least six years since 2002 however, editing of the journal has been under Alyson Greiner who took over, Lou Seig having stepped down.
There are many issues each year with most recent issues receiving great attention. In this journal, several methodologies have been employed. The approach of humanistic has been used extensively. This approach emphasizes on how human values are crucial in the interpretation of cultural landscape and what meanings can be attached to these cultural landscapes. It is important that cultural landscapes be interpreted correctly and the right interpretations be attached to it (Domosh, 2000).
The humanistic approach basically lays major emphasis on evaluating the importance of a landscape to the life of human beings (Doel, 1999).
The other approach used is the feminist theory. In this approach, the relation between gender and the existing identity politics is exposed in which case there is an emphasis on the ability of women to actively engage in administrative matters. The feminist approach is mainly applied in emphasizing their participation in issues pertaining to overall gender balance. (Harraway, 1991).
The other approach employed is the materialist approach in which case there is analysis of old time literature and most English literary works. This approach gives the evaluation of major technical perspectives associated with English work, particularly old literature. Post- structuralism on the other hand highlights the combination of most of the approaches mentioned above. It attaches meaning of various cultural perspectives to the life of humans (Butimmer, 1990).
An article on the rising number of Mexican restaurants around Omaha Nebraska has attempted to relate several studies that have conducted as regards the efforts to preserve the identities of individual groups. Ethnic focus has been through cultural media particularly food varieties offered. There has been a constant rise in the number of Mexican restaurants along and around Omaha Nebraska. In this article, it comes out that a food variety called Tex-Mex, of one particular ethnic group gains fame amongst other ethnic groups thereby the number of restaurants increase in Omaha as a result. This article mainly focuses on identifying how long it takes for an ethnic type of food to transform from ‘exotic ethnic’ to becoming ‘common American’. It stands out that the period taken for this transition is quite long. (Jackson, 1995).
There is also an article relating to ‘River cities’. This article takes a critical look at the countries that are next to Missouri and Mississippi rivers. There is a focus on how frequency analysis is used to measure the various levels of community attachments that have their orientation in rivers. These river-related terms employed give a highlight on a particular enterprise whose location is in 213 U.S. Due to the nature of the place, remote sensing proves to be a worth-while method. This method engages use of real-time sensing in obtaining information from very technical and hard-to-reach areas. There is adjustment of the population of the place such that it is called ‘Great River’, ‘big river’ for accuracy and effectiveness (Glenn, 2001).
Another article focuses on how most English song ballads came to be discovered. This is named ‘Appalachian song catcher’. This is a narrative which lays great emphasis on the American folk-music with the roots of the old English ballads within the mountains of Kentucky. These ballads were very crucial in the release of two films by the Rigas Entertainment. The major approach here is the materialist approach which explains English literature and other old material. The old English material can be accurately analyzed such that in the film formation, the materialistic approach gives a clear analysis on the various literature forms including the film and the American music (Krim, 2001).
Another article yet focuses on graves as being tourist attractions forming pilgrimage in Israel. The graves are termed as being holy graves. This falls under the religious branch of cultural geography. The major emphasis in this article is the analysis of Jewish characteristics as pilgrims visiting the holy graves in present times. An analysis of the pilgrimage phenomenon is carried out and to ascertain the fact that this activity forms a major part in the tourism sector, various methods are employed. Data collection is done by mainly use of questionnaires and also interviews such that various sites are engaged.
Also, there is the use of observation in the collection of data. A favorite approach in this case is use of humanist as well as post-structuralism. These have the ability of explaining major occurrences and connectivity as in the cultural context of pilgrimage. (Noga, 2005).
The other article is on Choctaw beer. The Choctaw beer used to be an Indian drink previously and it was made up of various components; tobacco, barley, fish berries and some part of alcohol. Later, many miners who came to work in 1880 at Choctaw nation took on this drink as their favorite drink. The miners noted the fact that this beer helped them in keeping their health stable. The beer gained so much fame and even the government’s attempt to prevent the manufacture as well as its distribution was met with much resistance (Sewell, 2006).
References
Domosh, S. (2000). Geographies and Consumption, London: Sage.
Doel, A. (1999).Poststructural Geographies, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Harraway (1991). The fiction of science and the environment Chicago: Mark &Wycliffe publishers.
Butimmer (1990). DLSU Dialogue Manilla: One Man.
Geertz, C. (1975). Culture interpretation analysis and the materialistic values attached Michigan: Basic books.
Glenn, R. (2001). Modern Cultural Policy, New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Krim, A. (2001). Appalachian song catcher Ohio: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Noga, C (2005). Graves attractions for pilgrimages in Israel New York: Pub. Group.
Sewell, L. (2006). Choctaw beer New York: Independent Publishers.
Jackson, B (1995). Cultural landscapes New Jersey: McGraw-Hill.