[Sigia-l] The Nine Nations of North America

[Lucie Melahn]

Ben,

I didn't intend to present this as a scholarly work.

At 03:54 AM 4/20/2002 -0500, Ben Henick wrote:
>It appears to have eighth-graders specifically, and grades 7-12 generally,
>as its audience.  Perhaps I am too harsh in my judgement, but the thrust
>of the content and its lack of depth tend to support this opinion.


As a matter of fact, I did read it when I was in high school. Of course at 
the time I wasn't as sophisticated and worldly (ha) as I am now, and one 
quick look at Garreau's boundaries shows some serious flaws.  The book is 
messy, it makes broad generalizations, and it's basically a first stab at 
delineating regions.

But there are some good things about the book. I do think it's legitimate 
to talk about cultural regions. Are there nine? More? Less? We could argue 
about it for weeks. But I think the book is a starting point. For one thing 
it's the only book I know that talks about subregions in North America. If 
someone knows a better one I'd love to know about it.

>...And while Garreau's book as presented by this site (which was never
>mentioned - much less referenced - in any of my course material as a
>Geography major in the mid '90's) does a passable job of ignoring
>political boundaries to the benefit of describing of North America's
>cultural geography, I for one am appalled at the generalizations made,
>and concepts ommitted in the map alone.


I have no problem with ignoring political boundaries to describe cultural 
geography.

> > (while that doesn't fit the official definition of New England, it does
> > make a certain cultural sense).
>
>...If your cultural heritage is Anglo-Saxon.  Those of Gallic or Latin
>origin (who settled the Maritimes while the English were settling Mass.,
>R.I., and Conn.) might not necessarily prefer the appellation "New
>England."

As a matter of fact, I am of French Canadian origin (see my first name), 
grew up in New England, and have visited the Maritimes many times. I have 
no problem putting the Maritimes in New England. The cultural links are 
indeed very strong, in my view.

I have a much bigger problem putting agricultural Upstate New York as part 
of the "Foundry" with a cultural capital of Chicago. I lived there for over 
five years, and we had no cultural relationship with Chicago that I ever 
detected. I'm sure everyone on this list will also have a problem with at 
least one area of the map.