National Geography Research Articles

The Study on “Modern and Contemporary National Geography View” from the “National Geography View” in the Pre-Qin Period of China from the Perspective of Geography

Combing the “Historical Records”, “Local Records” and “Travel Notes” in the pre-Qin period in ancient China, and combining with the previous research results, the concept of ethnic geography in the pre-Qin period mainly expresses the orientation correspondence between the ethnic groups in the Central Plains and the surrounding ethnic groups, and views the surrounding ethnic groups with the Central Plains and China as the main body, and compares the “other culture” with the “standard culture”. The most representative view of ethnic geography in pre-Qin period is the Five-Party Pattern Theory in Book of Rites and Imperial System. This paper emphasizes that under the restriction of geographical environment, ethnic geography has changed in living, clothing, food, utensils, etc. These changes have changed the character and culture of the nation (ethnic group). Inspired by the Five-Party Pattern Theory in The Book of Rites, Imperial System, the modern and contemporary national geographical view is to understand the national culture from the cultural holders themselves, and it is an explanation of the integrity, humanity and differentiation of the geographical environment. Reflect the national geographical view, that is, the information carrier, through the aspects of food, clothing, housing and transportation. According to the cognitive level, there are three forms of ethnic geography: religious ethnic geography, theoretical ethnic geography and empirical ethnic geography. From the perspective of geography, ethnic geography also has temporal and regional characteristics.

Infrastructural nature.

The assertion that ‘ecosystems are infrastructure’ is now common in conservation science and ecosystem management. This article interrogates that claim, which we argue underpins diverse practices of environmental investment focused on the strategic management of ecosystem functions to sustain and secure human life. We trace the genealogies and geographies of infrastructural nature as a paradigm of investment that coexists (sometimes in tension) with extractivist commodity regimes. We draw links between literatures on the political economy of ecosystem services and infrastructure and highlight three themes that hold promise for future research: labor, territory, and finance.

Cosmographical Novelties in French Renaissance Prose (1550–1630): Dialectic and Discovery by Raphaele Garrod

Reviewed by: Cosmographical Novelties in French Renaissance Prose (1550–1630): Dialectic and Discovery by Raphaele Garrod Véronique Duché Garrod, Raphaele, Cosmographical Novelties in French Renaissance Prose (1550–1630): Dialectic and Discovery (Early European Research, 9), Turnhout, Brepols, 2016; hardback; pp. x, 389; 12 b/w illustrations, 7 b/w tables; R.R.P. €100.00; ISBN 9782503550459. This impressive book explores how cosmological and cosmographical 'novelties' were explained and presented in early modern France—at a time when Tycho Brahe discovered new stars, Copernicus and Kepler observed comets, and Galileo invented the telescope, we can understand the epistemic 'trouble' it created. Situated at the intersection of intellectual history and the history of science, this book investigates 'the role of dialectical invention in the textual shaping and popularization of some of the major epistemic changes of the early modern period' (p. 14). Focusing on cosmology (the study of the universe as a whole), and cosmography, 'the description of the earth within the greater system of the world' (p. 212), the author studies the 'rhetorical and poetic fabric' of five French Renaissance prose texts. She shows how language shaped the scholarly view of the natural worlds and describes how 'the loci of dialectical invention actually contributed to the articulation, dissemination, and assessment of new cosmological and cosmographical representations' (p. 10) not only in scientific but also in vernacular genres. After a copious introduction ('Cosmographical Novelties: Unravelling the Dialectical Fabric of French Prose', pp. 1–36), the first chapter ('Dialectic and Natural Philosophy: An Early Modern Panorama' pp. 37–97) outlines the history of dialectic—'the art of debating about probable issues' (p. 38), according to Aristotle—and its links with natural philosophy, the study of the heavens, from antiquity to the sixteenth century. It also explores the loci—or argument structures—used to construct a probable demonstration, such as 'from similars', 'from testimony', and 'from description'. After this introductory chapter, the book is divided in two parts, Part I covering the cosmological ('Natural-Theological, Sceptical, and Revolutionary Subversions', Chapters 2 and 3) and the cosmographical novelties ('Inventing the New World and National Geographies', Chapters 4 to 6). All the texts quoted in French are carefully translated. Chapter 2 ('Natural Theology and Cosmological Novelties: The Huguenot Encyclopaedia and the Jesuit Miscellany', pp. 101–50) [End Page 221] focuses on a Protestant encyclopedia (Pierre de La Primaudaye's Troisième tome de l'Académie Françoise, 1590) and a Jesuit textbook (Étienne Binet's Essay des merveilles de nature et des plus nobles artifices, 1621), highlighting in particular how the use of the loci 'from similars' and 'from authority' informed the discussion of novelties about the heavens. Chapter 3 ('Cosmological Fictions: Sceptical and Revolutionary Uses of the Loci', pp. 151–207) examines Montaigne's Essais, ii. 12—the 'Apologie de Raimond Sebond' (written between 1572 and 1592)—and Descartes's heliocentric cosmological fable Le Monde, ou Traité de la lumière, written between 1630 and 1633. Garrod shows how both thinkers, while openly critiquing dialectic and condemning 'the excessive reliance on arguments "from authority" though in different ways' (p. 153), still rely on the use of rhetorical loci in their essays in their efforts to comprehend the heavens. After these works dedicated to cosmology, the author turns to cosmography. Chapter 4 ('Early Modern Cosmography: Definitions and Tensions in Contemporary Scholarship', pp. 211–24) briefly offers some background, clarifying for instance the terms 'cosmography', 'geography', and 'chorography'. Chapter 5 ('The Locus from Authority in Cosmography and Geography', pp. 225–57) and Chapter 6 ('Loci in Cosmography and Geography: Probable Disciplines. Defining Novelties, Inventing National Geographies', pp. 259–311) explore François de Belleforest's Cosmographie universelle de tout le monde (1575), 'a patriotic geographical summa' (p. 5), translated into French from Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia universalis (1550). Through a close study of text and illustrations, the author analyses the use of the loci 'from the parts' and 'from authority' as well as of 'from notation', and how they 'inform the debates of the cosmographical revolution in a variety of ways' (p. 310). She shows how Münster and Belleforest build a political 'consensus about national identity' (p. 260). The short conclusion ('Dialectical...

Polacos in Argentina: Polish Jews, Interwar Migration, and the Emergence of Transatlantic Jewish Culture by Mariusz Kałczewiak

Reviewed by: Polacos in Argentina: Polish Jews, Interwar Migration, and the Emergence of Transatlantic Jewish Culture by Mariusz Kałczewiak Amy Kerner (bio) Polacos in Argentina: Polish Jews, Interwar Migration, and the Emergence of Transatlantic Jewish Culture. By Mariusz Kałczewiak. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2020. 301 pp. The establishment of the Second Polish Republic in 1918 was a turning point for Jewish immigrants in Argentina and a climactic moment in Mariusz Kałczewiak's new monograph, Polacos in Argentina: Polish Jews, Interwar Migration, and the Emergence of Transatlantic Jewish Culture. This book belongs to a growing body of scholarship on interwar Polish-Jewish cultural contacts with Argentina. Based on research in Yiddish, Spanish, and Polish, and particularly on transnational Yiddish-language press reports and travelogues, the book argues that interwar migration gave rise to a category of "subethnic" Polish-Jewish belonging—the world of the Polacos—which depended on the existence of transnational ties between Jews in Poland and Argentina. The Poylisher Farband, a Jewish immigrant homeland association formed in Buenos Aires in 1916, exemplifies the allegiance to and identification with Poland among Jewish immigrants in Argentina captured by the book's title. The Farband aspired to represent all Polish Jews in Argentina. Its members cultivated an image of Jewish Argentine middle-class respectability, spearheaded communication with Poland's ambassador to Argentina, and protested antisemitism in Poland. To be a "Good Polish Jew" meant participating in its social and philanthropic projects. The author argues that the Farband was also an "ethnic training room" for immigrants to learn about Argentine cultural practices, such as picnicking in popular middle-class destinations like the forests of the Olivos neighborhood (143). Its members were influential and active in other Jewish Argentine institutions, especially ones that aimed to reinvigorate Yiddish-language culture in Argentina, including the Yiddish Scientific Institute, the secular Yiddish school network, and the post-WWII publishing project Dos Poylishe Yidntum [Polish Jewry], which contributed to the legacy of "Polish Jewry" as an entity. The concept of "subethnic identity" would benefit from a clear definition (10). While the framing of the book emphasizes Poland as a center of global Yiddish culture, not all characters in the book were Polish-speaking, had lived in Poland, or self-identified as "Polish Jews." As the author argues, Polacos were united not by Poland only, but by a constellation of concerns: "the independence of Poland, there-centered Zionism [Bundism], and Yiddish-centered nationalism" (11). This definition of shared concerns is at once broader and less nationally-determined than the proposition that a "Polish Jewish subethnicity" emerged in Argentina (14). Pinie Wald, for example, was a committed internationalist [End Page 299] who came to Argentina in 1906 and never joined the Farband (146). For Katz, Buenos Aires existed in relation to at least three other Yiddish centers: New York, Moscow, and Warsaw. Jacobo Botoshansky was a "citizen of the Yiddishland" who placed activism for the Yiddish language above Polish-Jewishness (83). While the fate of Poland and of the Jews living there mattered deeply to many Jewish immigrants in Argentina, the author may overstate the importance of Poland's political boundaries to the self-conceptions of Polish Jews beyond the Farband, especially considering the relatively more expansive global geographies of Yiddishism and Jewish diaspora nationalism in the 1920s and 1930s. Polacos also encompasses the cultural choices that awaited new immigrants who "made America" to Argentina. The "new Polish immigrants" or "argentiner yidn [Argentine Jews]" of the 1920s and 1930s saw themselves as Jews and Yiddish speakers foremost, and their "Argentineness was a specific cultural idiosyncrasy of their Jewishness" (111). They composed essays, stories, and poems in Yiddish depicting urban life in Buenos Aires, idealism and disillusionment, tango music and mate, a traditional Argentine drink, and poverty in the conventillos (tenements). They lived alongside "israelitas argentinos" [Jewish Argentines] who, having arrived decades earlier or been born in Argentina, expressed their Jewishness in Spanish, joined ethnic Jewish clubs like the Sociedad Hebraica, or the Liga Israelita pro-Argentina (a Jewish group that opposed immigration), participated in parliamentary politics, and translated Yiddish literature into Spanish. An original and important contribution to the history of one of the lesser...

Mail, Rail, and Legwork: State and Nation Building through Postal Service in France and Great Britain, 1830–1914

AbstractA comparative spatial history using GIS, this article examines the similar and differing effects of railway expansion on the growth of postal communications in Great Britain and France from 1830 to the eve of the Great War. It argues that the modern Postal Age in Great Britain and France began in the 1830s. In Britain in 1839, the Parliament obligated private railway companies to convey the Royal Mail throughout the kingdom at reasonable rates. Thereafter, the expansion of postal services and railway networks went hand in hand. Over the years, thousands of new post offices were established and were closer to rail stations than before. As the years wore on the geography of postal communication expanded greatly and by 1914 the majority of rural districts became part of the system of regular, daily mail. In France, a country four or five times larger than England and Wales with a relatively vast rural population, the task of modernizing postal service was a greater challenge. The inauguration of a “rural service” in 1829 employed some 5,000 men as postal carriers to deliver and collect mail throughout the countryside. Thereafter, their numbers grew as new post offices were established to serve villages and small towns with mail deliveries every other day. In the 1880s, under the Third Republic, the state greatly expanded the postal service, deeming it a national mission. It was then that the growing rail network came to shape the national geography of postal service. Hence, at the turn of the century the patterns British and French postal expansions converged.

Reconstituting the Cultural Geography in Zimbabwe: Place Renaming in Zimbabwe’s ‘New Dispensation’

ABSTRACT Regime changes and power transfers usually engender an extensive reordering of the cultural geography. Incoming political regimes usually reconfigure commemorative landscapes to symbolically dismantle icons and landmarks of the previous political regimes and herald their arrival on the political scene. The new regime in Zimbabwe that assumes power in November 2017 reconstituted the commemorative space according to its sociopolitical logics, commemorative priorities, and assumptions of power. This article uses the textual approach to the politics of place naming to interrogate the varied ways the Mnangagwa regime used to reinscribe the cultural landscape producing a new memorial landscape in the aftermath of the upstaging of Robert Mugabe in November 2017. The new regime symbolically constructed the imaginative national geography in a relational manner that differed from the one instituted by the Mugabe regime. The main observation in this article is that place renaming is not merely as a reflection of, but also integral to, the politics of ‘transformation’ in post-Mugabe Zimbabwe. The new place names are saturated with messages that indicate official versions that prescribe new rules on the reading of the past. The new toponymic order symbolically replaced the Mugabe political hegemony with the Mnangagwa one, increased the visibility of women, commemorated a new set of heroes, including those that had suffered systematic exclusion in nationalist discourses, and renamed ‘unusual’ places that the previous regime never considered in the process of recasting the cultural geography. The memorial project involved a highly politicised nomination process that served the interests of the ruling political elites. It is, therefore, problematic that most critical enquiries into this phase in the Zimbabwean political landscape have not focussed on these cultural transformations.

Teorías geográficas, técnicas cartográficas y diplomacia: Hans Steffen, un geógrafo prusiano en los Andes Australes

Hans Steffen, un destacado geógrafo prusiano (1865-1936) fue contratado por el Gobierno de Chile en 1889 como profesor de geografía para trabajar en el por entonces recientemente formado Instituto Pedagógico. A finales del siglo XIX, cuando Steffen ya había consolidado su posición profesional en Santiago, Chile y Argentina decidieron someter el litigio limítrofe sobre los Andes a un arbitraje internacional. En ese contexto, Steffen se involucró activamente en la preparación del documento que el gobierno chileno llevaría al diferendum. Esta presentación analiza las ideas, las teorías y las prácticas geográficas desarrolladas por Steffen para la conceptualización y la demarcación de la frontera entre Argentina y Chile a partir de los textos que produjo (diarios, libros didácticos, declaraciones diplomáticas, conferencias publicadas), las imágenes (mapas, fotos, bocetos, esquemas y notas de campo).

Conjunctive Adverbials Used in Popular Scientific Articles

Cohesion is an essential component of discourse that will help the readers comprehend the articles’ flow idea. Conjunctive adverbial is one of the cohesive devices that is commonly used in academic proses. This research aims to observe the forms, the sentential positions, and the cohesive meaning of conjunctive adverbials. Popular scientific articles are chosen to be data sources. The articles were downloaded from scientific magazines. Eighteen articles were from National Geography, and forty-six articles were from Psychology Today. Corpus linguistics is used as the approach of this study. The data are processed using Wordsmith 4 apps. The data selected are tabulated in Ms. Excel and analyzed using cohesion theory suggested by Halliday and Hasan (1976). The results show that conjunctive adverbials are dominated in word forms and followed by phrase forms in both magazines. The sentential positions of conjunctive adverbials are most frequently placed in an initial position followed by the magazines’ medial positions. The end position of conjunctive adverbials is not found. The most frequent conjunctive adverbial function is adversative, and the least frequent is causal in both magazines.

Swedish 12–13-year-old students’ conceptions of the causes and processes forming eskers and erratics

This study investigates students’ conceptions of the causes and processes that form eskers and erratics, types of glacial and glaciofluvial landforms which to date have been little researched in geoscience education. The data collected for the study included 134 responses to an assignment completed by 12- to 13-year-old students in the Swedish national geography test in 2013. The responses were sampled and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The findings show that many of the students held alternative conceptions regarding the causes of these landforms, which included landslides, meteor impacts and human activity. Although some students were able to give a scientific explanation that considered the possible causes and relevant processes involved in the formation of erratics, many students did not give a full account of these processes. Furthermore, only a few students were able to describe the relevant processes involved in the formation of eskers and were more likely to discuss alternative or glacial processes rather than glaciofluvial processes. Given the lack of research on students’ understanding of glacial processes and landforms in geoscience and geography education, this study contributes with new knowledge of students’ conceptions of eskers and erratics and makes a theoretical contribution to research on students’ alternative conceptions and understanding of sequential and emergent processes in geoscience. The findings provide specific insights for teachers and are useful in the design of classroom practices that can change alternative conceptions and strengthen scientific conceptions.

Main Trends in the Transformation of the Ethnic Space of the Central Asian Macroregion from 1897 to 2017

The main trends in the ethnic transformation of the post-Soviet space were set long before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The most striking example of this is the ethnic transformation in the macroregion, including the territory of young Central Asian states (Kazakhstan and the republics of the Soviet Central Asia). The aim of the study is to reveal the main trends in the transformation of the ethnic space of the Central Asian macroregion over a 120-year interval. For this, a set of ethnic indicators are used (ethnic mosaicity, homogeneity, concentration, etc.), calculated based on the results of censuses and population counts, as well as methods created in national cultural geography. Within the study period, two stages were identified, characterized by directly opposite trends in the transformation of the ethnic space of the macroregion. The first stage lasted until the late 1950s. It was characterized by a decrease in the share of the titular nations of the republics as a result of significant migration inflow from outside the macroregion, which led to an increase in the polyethnicity of the territory. Since the 1960s, the share of titular nations of the republics began to grow, which resulted from the demographic explosion of the indigenous population and migration outflow of nontitular nations of the republics; the concentration of titular ethnic groups within their republics increased. The most significant ethnic restructuring throughout the period was experienced by Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan. At the second stage, the ethnic structure of the population of all large cities of the macroregion underwent a radical transformation.

Trump, Zuma, Brexit: anti-Black racism and the truth of the world

ABSTRACT “Trump, Zuma, Brexit” aims to articulate a new theory of the “world historical” reversing the relationship of north and south – of “universal knowledge” and “raw fact” – instead establishing a theoretical ground from the southern hemisphere and toward the north. The echoes and parallels of the current political, economic, and social moment across the distinct national geographies of South Africa, the US, and the UK, suggest two things: one, that white supremacy, neoliberal capitalism, and extreme inequality are foundational to the current world order; and two, that South Africa offers a very particular perspective. The paradox of anti-Black racism in South Africa – the fact that Black people remain the primary extractive targets of racial capitalism despite the country’s democratic transition – begins to show how intractable the problem of racial capitalism is both in its geographical extent and given its historical reach from the moment of the rise of Atlantic capitalism into the present.

Revisiting geographies of nationalism and national identity in Bangladesh

On 15 August 1947, the subcontinent of undivided India was partitioned into India and Pakistan (West and East Pakistan) using the two-nation theory. However, approximately 24 years after, Bangladesh was carved out of East Pakistan. The key purpose of this study is to revisit the geographies of nationalism and national identity in Bangladesh, which emerged at the cost of colossal sacrifice during its 1971 Liberation War against Pakistani forces when its people derived gargantuan inspiration from ‘creole nationalism’ stemming from their language and culture. There is a severe dearth of literature by geographers on nationalism in Bangladesh. Hence, this study deploys a collage of both rich and grey literature from interdisciplinary subjects, including geography. Following the independence of Bangladesh, Bengali nationalism and Bengali identity were enshrined in the Constitution. Nevertheless, both nationalism and national identity based on ‘creole nationalism’ were shifted within four years of the Liberation War and were transformed into Bangladeshi nationalism and Bangladeshi national identity. This new nationalism was a product of the renewed form of ‘two-nation theory’, separating Bangladeshis from other Bengalis, especially those living in the state of West Bengal, India. Besides, Bangladeshi nationalism emphasized ‘Muslim identity’ of Bengali Muslim instead of Bengali identity. Although the current Awami League government has reinstated Bengali nationalism into the Constitution, the false dichotomy between Bengali and Bangladeshi constructed by the ruling elites continues in current Bangladesh. Bengali language and culture are an integral part of independent Bangladesh. Simultaneously, Muslim identity and the identity of the indigenous population remains intrinsic in the current context of the country. This study argues that geographies of inclusiveness remain paramount in addressing nationalism and national identity in Bangladesh.

Local culture and locally produced ELT textbooks: How do teachers bridge the gap?

The Ministries of Education in different countries have established that ELT materials would play an important role to provide learners in state-funded schools access to English language education. Nonetheless, the discussion concerning local culture and ELT materials has not yet reached textbooks designed for children in their first years of English language learning. This study aims to explore whether the ELT materials used in the first two years of compulsory English language education in Chile, 5th- and 6th- grades, include representations of the local culture, and whether these materials are being localised by the teachers. Through a content analysis of a corpus of four ELT materials approved and distributed in public schools from 2013 to 2016 and from 2017 to 2019 and the examination of 63 teachers’ perceptions on localisation of ELT coursebooks, the article argues that the ELT materials analysed include representations of local culture specifically associated with ‘national geography’ and ‘stereotypes and national identity’. Although teachers reported that they were unsure about whether the cultural representations of the materials facilitated learning, they claimed to include representations of local references when adapting the textbooks. The article concludes by suggesting that the ELT materials locally produced demand urgent review.

67 Airway Skills in Paediatrics: Infants are Not Just Little Children

Abstract Background Airway skills such as intubation and bag-valve-mask ventilation (BVM) have historically been considered necessary skills for all general paediatricians. Recently, evidence has driven practice toward goals of reduced invasive respiratory intervention and support. While patient outcomes have improved, implications include reduced airway skill training opportunities for paediatric residents, and possibly challenges in maintaining proficiency for practicing paediatricians. From postgraduate and continuing professional educational perspectives, the specific airway skill needs for Canadian paediatricians in contemporary practice are unclear. Objectives Identify those airway skills that are critical to general paediatric practice in Canada, and whether the skill needs differ by patient age. Design/Methods Data on general paediatric procedural practice was collected in 2018 via a one-time survey through the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program. A database was created from the 938 collected responses. The survey asked paediatricians to indicate the frequency of performance, opinion of importance, and challenges in maintaining proficiency of various airway procedures. Data was analyzed descriptively, and questions discriminating infant (age < 2y) vs. child (age ≥ 2y) were compared by chi-square or Fisher’s exact test, as appropriate. Results In total, 481 (51.3%) respondents worked ≥ 50% in general paediatrics and formed the main analysis group. Responses represented broad ranges of career duration, national geography, and practice settings. BVM of infants was the most commonly performed procedure, with 196 (40.8%) performing this monthly. Infant intubation was performed monthly by 58 (12.1%). A total of 355 (73.8%) and 402 (83.6%) reported never performing laryngeal-mask airway insertion and tracheostomy tube exchange respectively. Both BVM and intubation were performed significantly more frequently in infants than in children (p < 0.001). While many respondents considered BVM and intubation of children as essential skills, significantly more rated performing these skills on infants as essential to their practice (p < 0.001). Of those paediatricians that performed procedures as part of their practice, 68/309 (22.0%) and 192/304 (63.2%) reported difficulty in maintaining proficiency in the skills of infant BVM and intubation respectively. Conclusion Although variably utilized, airway skills in infants and children remain a core aspect of practice for many general paediatricians. Specifically, skills related to infants were performed more frequently and were more often rated as essential. Most respondents felt it was challenging to maintain proficiency in several airway skills. Accordingly, airway skills, especially those involving infants, should be emphasized in paediatric residency programs and continuing professional development activities.

Perspectives on geography education in the Czech National Curriculum

The geography curriculum at primary and secondary schools in Czechia is undergoing a revision. This study aims to identify aspects of the current curriculum that may assist in the formulation of recommendations in the revised curriculum. We use a deductive content analysis approach based on Catling’s typology of perspectives on geography education. This typology follows in the tradition of geographical thought and describes, for example, the following categories: Globalist, Earthist, Interactionist, Placeist, and Environmentalist. The findings show inconsistencies and misalignment between the stipulated objectives of geography education and the attainment of targets in the analyzed documents. The Czech geography curriculum exhibits (a) frequent occurrences of the Globalist perspective at secondary-level schools, which emphasizes a simple and non-relational approach to teaching; (b) low congruence between the perspectives stipulated in the curriculum at individual school levels; and (c) low congruence between the perspectives stipulated in the objectives of geography education and in the expected outcomes for individual school levels. Our results attempt to provide implications for the implementation of a new national geography curriculum in Czechia.

Iran Linguistic Atlas Project (ILA): Past and Present

Iran Linguistic Atlas (ILA), funded by the Research Institute for Cultural Heritage and Tourism (RICHT), is a research project for mapping the linguistic diversity of Iran. The project is aimed at recording unified and comparable data from every spoken dialect of Iran’s rural areas and producing self-organized colored maps of this diversity using a specialized software program. Its initial phase began around the mid-1970s in the form of a joint project by the then Iranian Academy of Language and the National Geography Organization. In 2001, the documented data was handed over to the Cultural Heritage Organization, to be saved and expanded. The Iran Linguistic Atlas has now been redefined as an automatic linguistic atlas with the capability of producing self-organizing colored maps according to the operator’s choices. In this article, the ILA, its background and the state of its current phase is introduced. The nature of its data, its earlier and recent field methods, its audiotapes, digital databases and computer databases of phonetic transcriptions are described. In addition, ILA software program is presented and its capability for creating automatic colored maps is discussed thoroughly.

Alexander von Humboldt’s Travel Through Russia and His Role in the Development of National Geography

The 250th anniversary of the birth of Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), the great geographer, traveler, honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society was widely celebrated in 2019. Special emphasis is placed on the famous travels of the German scientist to Ural, Siberia, and to the Caspian Sea in 1829. An analysis is made of A. Humboldt’s expedition which promoted the achievement of the planned targets. Among them are a highly skilled accompaniment and support from local authorities in regions of Russia, a good transport and route support, a careful preparation of objects for study, a gratuitous availability of samples and cartographic data, command of the German language by most of the respondents, and a wealth of expedition experience by A. Humboldt and his fellow-travelers. The main results of the travel promoting the development of national science and education are considered.

Elsewhere

FQ columnist Bilal Qureshi reflects upon the significance of Bong Joon-ho's Parasite's Oscar victory over the presumed favorite, Sam Mendes' World War I drama 1917 for both the film industry and the culture at large. In keeping with the premise of his column “Elsewhere,” which explores the ways in which cinematic works are activated and reframed by the national, cultural, and aesthetic geography of where they are experienced, Qureshi offers a fresh perspective on these two films based upon his experience of watching 1917 in Dubai, with Arabic subtitles and an ethnically diverse audience. Viewed in this Middle Eastern context, a film dismissed as passé and traditional by U.S. critics revealed itself as urgent and resonant, transcending differences of language and geography to offer a potent reminder of why the pain and loss of war still matters.

Killing the joy, feeling the cruelty: Feminist geographies of nationalism in Azerbaijan

Feminist political geographies complicate our understanding of nationalisms, unraveling the gendered, racist, sexualized and classed logics that enable and legitimize nationalist projects and experiences. Scholarship on the “national intimate” usefully re-centers those feminized and trivialized mundane practices, bodily experiences, subjects and spaces that in fact powerfully reproduce nationalist sentiments. I draw on this reframing here, demonstrating the insights of a feminist geographic critique of national enjoyment in Azerbaijan. In particular, I mobilize Sara Ahmed’s figure of the feminist “killjoy” to unmask how national enjoyment obscures and yet reproduces patriarchal, heterosexist and racist narratives and mundane bodily encounters. Examining national enjoyment around men’s football, women’s beauty, smoking and heterosexual marriage, I attend to the oft-ignored but vital embodied sites and objects involved in reproducing enjoyment in national meaning. I show the conditions that are necessary for different bodies to gain access to national enjoyment, and the emotional, bodily and economic investments that are necessary to navigate heteronormative, patriarchal and racialized alignments in enjoying the nation. Feminist, critical race and queer theory has unequivocally demonstrated that nationalisms depend on—indeed cannot be separated from—the workings of patriarchy, misogyny, racism and heterosexism. As geographers, moving forward, it is vital that we attend to this work if we are to better understand the ordinary power of national enjoyment.

Investigating Cultural Dimensions in EFL Textbook by Using Byram Checklist

The present study is a content analysis that aims to investigate cultural dimension in an English textbook prescribed for senior high school in Indonesia which is officially published by the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2017. The data include 11 conversations, 17 reading texts, and 83 visual elements that are analysed qualitatively by employing Byram’s checklist. The findings show that stereotypes and national identity dominate the cultural dimensions with 28.05% and followed by social interaction and socialisation and life cycle with 15.9%. The occurrence of national geography is significant with 12.2%. However, social identity and social group, belief and behaviour, national history and social and political institutions are prescribed with less than 10%. The inclusion of various cultural dimensions has certain purposes. The inclusion of national identity, for instance, is pivotal for learners since the textbook is prescribed for senior high school students who are tremendously curious to determine their characters. This idea is aligned with the aim of the curriculum to facilitate the development of students with good character, good behaviour and strong nationality. It is concluded that the English textbook in Indonesia is on the way to its perfection in terms of proportionally represented cultural dimensions. However, the presence of various cultural aspects of the target culture and international target culture is also important to help students develop cultural competence and a certain level of respect as well as tolerance for others. Keywords: Textbook, cultural dimensions, cultural competence, national identity