South Asia, Second Edition

George Childs Pomeroy, John Benhart

Description

This eBook introduces readers to the geography of South Asia, covering the culture region as a whole rather than individual countries. The volume emphasizes the region's people and their various ways of life, considering how they have adapted to, used, and changed the natural environments in which they live.

Like other titles in the 10-volume Modern World Cultures set, South Asia, Second Edition explores the geographical features, climate, and ecosystems; population, settlement, and culture; and the history and economy of the region at hand. Also covered are the region’s diversity, challenges, and prospects.

Illustrated with full-color maps and photographs, and accompanied by a chronology, glossary, and further readings, these accessible titles offer an ideal starting point for research on the culture regions of the world.

Sujets

• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Lifestyle
• South Asia
• Geography
• Demography
• Politics
• Anthropology
• History
• Asia
• Social
• Culture

Informations

• Publié par: Infobase Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438199504
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

South Asia, Second Edition
Copyright © 2021 by Infobase
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information, contact:
Chelsea House An imprint of Infobase 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001
ISBN 978-1-4381-9950-4
You can find Chelsea House on the World Wide Web at http://www.infobase.com
Contents Chapters Introducing South Asia Physical Geography Historical Geography Population and Settlement Geography Cultural Geography Political Geography Economic Geography Regional Geography South Asia Looks Ahead Support Materials Glossary Chronology Bibliography Further Reading About the Authors and Series Editor Index
Preface

Geography provides a key that unlocks the door to the world's wonders. There are, of course, many ways of viewing the world and its people, places, and environments. In this series—Modern World Cultures—the emphasis is on people and their varied ways of life. As you step through the geographic door into the 10 world cultures featured in this set, you will come to better know, understand, and appreciate the world's mosaic of peoples and how they live. You will see how different peoples adapt to, use, and change the natural environments in which they live. And you will be amazed at the vast differences in thinking, doing, and living practiced around the world. The Modern World Cultures series was developed in response to many requests from librarians and teachers throughout the United States and Canada.

This is what the Earth looks like at night. This image is a composite of hundreds of pictures made by orbiting satellites. Human-made lights highlight the developed or populated areas of the Earth's surface.
Source: NASA.
As you begin your reading visits to the world's major cultures, it is important that you understand three terms that are used throughout the series: geography, culture, and region. These words and their meanings are often misunderstood. Geography is an age-old way of viewing the varied features of Earth's surface. In fact, it is the oldest of the existing sciences! People have always had a need to know about and understand their surroundings. In times past, a people's world was their immediate surroundings; today, our world is global in scope. Events happening half a world away can and often do have an immediate impact on our lives. If we, either individually or as a nation of peoples, are to be successful in the global community, it is essential that we know and understand our neighbors, regardless of who they are or where they live.
Geography and history are similar in many ways; both are methodologies—distinct ways of viewing things and events. Historians are concerned with time, or when events happened. Geographers, on the other hand, are concerned with space, or where things are located. In essence, geographers ask: "What is where, why there, and why care?" in regard to various physical and human features of Earth's surface.
Culture has many definitions. For this series and for most geographers and anthropologists, it refers to a people's way of life. It includes everything we possess because we are human, such as our ideas, beliefs, and customs, including language, religious beliefs, and all knowledge. Tools and skills also are an important aspect of culture. Different cultures, after all, have different types of technology and levels of technological attainment that they can use in performing various tasks. Finally, culture includes social interactions—the ways different people interact with one another individually and as groups.
Finally, the idea of region is one geographers use to organize and analyze geographic information spatially. A region is an area that is set apart from others on the basis of one or more unifying elements. Language, religion, and major types of economic activity are traits that often are used by geographers to separate one region from another. Most geographers, for example, see a cultural division between Northern, or Anglo, America and Latin America. That "line" is usually drawn at the U.S.-Mexico boundary, although there is a broad area of transition and no actual cultural line exists.
The 10 culture regions presented in this series have been selected on the basis of their individuality, or uniqueness. As you tour the world's culture realms, you will learn something of their natural environment, history, and way of living. You will also learn about their population and settlement, how they govern themselves, and how they make their living. Finally, you will take a peek into the future in the hope of identifying each region's challenges and prospects. Enjoy your trip!
Entry Author: Gritzner, Charles F.
Chapters
Introducing South Asia

South Asia is a region of breathtaking natural features, colorful and exotic cultural landscapes, and dynamic economic changes. It is a land of physical extremes, including the world's highest and wettest spots. Culturally, few places in the world can match South Asia's rich diversity in ways of life. Languages, religious beliefs, foods, and levels of human well-being vary greatly throughout the region. Sharp differences often occur even between villages separated by only a short distance.


Source: Infobase.
Among the 10 culture regions featured in the Modern World Culture set, South Asia is the region with the largest population as well as the one most densely populated. South Asia is undergoing a huge cultural transition as well. Millions of its people are moving from a traditional, largely self-sufficient folk culture to a modern, urban, popular culture. South Asia has more people living in poverty than any other region, but it also has millions of people entering the middle class and becoming a part of the global economy. The way of life in South Asia sets it apart from the world's other cultural regions, and the geographic region itself comprises incredible diversity and complexity. Here is a sampling of features that make South Asia unique: Nepal's Mount Everest, towering 29,035 feet (8,850 meters) above sea level, is the world's highest peak, yet the sprawling lowland formed by the Ganges (Ganga) River at the southern foot of the Himalaya Mountains is among the world's flattest and most featureless plains.

Mount Everest, also known as Mount Qomolangma, is located on the border of China's Tibet Autonomous Region and Nepal. At 29,035 feet (8,850 m), it is the highest mountain in the world.
Source: Luca Galuzzi. Wikimedia Commons. http://www.galuzzi.it. Cherrapunji, located in eastern India's Assam Hills, is the world's wettest inhabited place, but portions of western India and adjacent Pakistan are lifeless areas of desert and rank among the world's driest places. India and its eastern neighbor, Bangladesh, are home to the world's densest concentration of people. If on a globe a person places a thumb on the city of Lahore in Pakistan and the small finger of the same hand on Dhaka in Bangladesh, more than 10 percent of the world's population lives in the area under the palm of that hand! In contrast, there are huge areas of rugged mountains and parched deserts elsewhere in the region that support no human population. No country in the world has a greater number of languages spoken or religions practiced than does India, South Asia's largest country. "Diversity amid unity" is a theme that often is applied when this region of the world is described. India remains a dominantly rural country, but it has several cities that rank among the world's largest. In fact, fast-growing Delhi, with over 30 million people, is among the world's five largest urban agglomerations. South Asia is rapidly becoming connected to the global economy. When Americans call for some services, such as car rentals, credit card processing, or computer assistance, they often speak to someone in India. These call centers employ well-educated Indians who are able to compete with Americans for jobs in a new global economy. This region is home to the world's largest middle class. Although South Asia has many of the world's poorest people, it also has 300 million people who are well educated and financially secure enough to be included in the economic middle class. This number is equivalent to the population of the entire United States. With more than one billion people of voting age, India is the world's largest democratic country. Because of the huge number of voters, elections are conducted in stages, region by region. Both India and Pakistan possess nuclear weapons, making them two of the world's small number of (estimated 9) nuclear powers. A bitter rivalry between these two states has existed for more than 70 years. Because each now possesses these powerful weapons, the tension between them is more dangerous than ever before.
How did South Asia become a culture region? Unique cultures most often develop in areas that are semi-isolated from outside ways of thinking and living. Geographically, South Asia is somewhat isolated from the rest of the world. It is bordered on the west, north, and east by a broad arc of mountains and elsewhere by the sea. Thus, the region possesses not only cultural unity, but it also is a natural physical region that functions as an economic sphere. Given the region's history as a cultural hearth, the massive numbers of people that inhabit it, and its economic potential, this region rivals any other in significance.
Spanning 2,000 miles from east to west and the same from north to south, the landmass of South Asia is anchored to the southern rim of the Asian continent. The region is the product of the world's greatest collision—the crashing of what is now South Asia into the rest of Asia millions of years ago. The crumpling of Earth's crust from this