variety of cultureregionsand culturallandscapes, elements affectingcultural
identityand the emergence ofcultural hearths, and for articulating adaptive strat-
egies that influencecarrying capacityandsustainable development.
The work of the cultural ecology school has become quite influential in the
larger context of cultural geography, with several branches of thought emerging
from the basic concepts of cultural ecology. Possibilists continue to view the envi-
ronment as playing a key part in the evolution and character of culture, although
many acknowledge that technological innovation has in many cases come to over-
shadow the impact of the physical conditions of a location. Some scholars, while
acknowledging the importance of the dynamic between environment and culture,
emphasize that the way humans perceive their environment may be as important
as the actual conditions they encounter, and that the adaptations they engage in
are strongly shaped by these perceptions. Moreover, human perceptions of the
environment are not entirely accurate and contain distortions and misconceptions,
frequently in regard to casual agents in the environment. Cultural adaptation is
therefore conditioned not simply by the environmental factors that exist, but also,
and perhaps more so, by how those factors are viewed in the society and such
forces originate. Such perception may be an essential part of how religious beliefs
form and evolve, for example.
Cultural Identity
Almost all human beings live in groups. What identifies one as a member of a group
may be a physical characteristic such as skin color or gender, or the criteria may
consist of shared attitudes, rituals, language, religion, and values. These are all ele-
ments of culture, and a group membership derived from these elements is said to
be one’s cultural identity. Unlike physical qualities, cultural identity is an acquired
identity, and a child born in one culture but raised in a separate culture will have
the identity of the latter. This is because he or she has gone throughacculturation
in the process of acquiring the cultural identity he or she claims, and all other mem-
bers of the culture have also experienced the same training, so to speak. That is, the
individual has acquired a command of the group’s common language or dialect, and
typically speaks it as a first language. He or she also follows the religious perspec-
tive that members of the group support. But knowledge of the language and shared
faith are seldom sufficient to qualify one as sharing a cultural identity, because lan-
guages can be learned, sometimes to a level of native fluency, by outsiders, and
many religions allow for conversion from other faiths. Shared values, customs, atti-
tudes, and mores are also imprinted on each member, further solidifying the identity.
Cultural Identity 85