The pacific realm
Using the Five Themes Location
Download 0.82 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- Human/Environment Interaction
- Region
- Australia and Oceania
- Unit 10
- New Zealand
Using the Five ThemesLocationMany of the countries of the Australia, Oceania, and Antarctica culture region are spread out across 70 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean. PlaceThe culture region of Australia, Oceania, and Antarctic is very unevenly populated. Human/Environment InteractionMost people in the Australia, Oceania, and Antarctica region live in urban areas that have developed in fertile coastal areas. MovementLong distances and rugged terrain have isolated many South Pacific cultures. RegionThe Australia, Oceania, and Antarctica culture region contains animals and vegetation found nowhere else in the world. Australia and Oceania Did You Know? Every piece of land in this world region has been a colony at one time or another. In effect, some remain colonies today. Australia is a major producer of coal, copper, iron ore, nickel, manganese, tin, titanium, tungsten, zinc, and zircon. Its mines bring up large quantities of gold, silver, and diamonds. Australian mines also produce most of the world’s high-quality opals. About 1 percent of Australia’s population is Aborigines, descendants of Australia’s first settlers. Ancestors of the Aborigines migrated from Asia thousands of years ago. The island of Tahiti is one of an island group called the Society Islands. The Society Islands, in turn, are part of the island groups that comprise French Polynesia. Australia was once part of Antarctica but sailed free long ago when the tectonic plates spread apart. The interior of Australia includes occasional “billabongs” – slang for ponds in otherwise dry streambeds. “Kiwis” is a nickname for New Zealanders. Even in the cities of New Zealand, crime is rare. Although independent, Australia belongs to the Commonwealth of Nations, an association of countries formerly under British rule. Although French is the official language of Tahiti, Tahitians prefer their own language and their own alphabet of only 13 letters. Unlike some Pacific islands, Tahiti has a literacy rate almost equal to Australia’s 98.5 percent. One coconut product in Tonga is not eaten but worn. Tongans use coconut-fiber ropes to secure ta’oavalas – traditional garments made from the leaves of a Pandanus tree-around their waist. Captain Cook and his botanists did not find all the new species in the South Pacific. Fiji’s crested iguana, one of the rarest reptiles, was not discovered until 1979. Australia ranks fifth in the world in the number of automobiles per capita. Coral reefs harbor more species of fish than any other marine environment. Australia and OceaniaWays of the WorldAustralians are famous for their home entertaining. One of their favorite family-and-friends festivities is the backyard Barby, or barbecue. Like their American counterparts, Australian barbecuers grill a variety of meats, fish, and vegetables for delectable dining. Aboriginal Religion: The Aborigines’ religion links them closely to the land and nature through ancestral beings. According to Aboriginal beliefs, these beings created the world during ancient time called the Dreamtime. The beings never died but merged with nature. The beings live again in sacred beliefs and rituals, through which the Aborigines can renew their ties with the Dreamtime. Dinner guests in New Zealand always take a gift; flowers, a potted plant, a box of chocolates. Houseguests also leave a gift with their host family. A bure, the traditional Fiji home, is one large room built of local hardwoods, a tightly thatched roof, and woven floor coverings. The four doors, one in each wall, are usually kept open for circulation. A bure has little, if any furniture; Fijians don’t consider it necessary. In Samoa, it is impolite to speak to someone in a home while standing. When visiting the homes of any of the islands’ ethnic groups, a guest expresses general admiration and appreciation of the host’s home or family. Guests avoid admiring a specific item, however, the host will be made to feel duty-bound to offer the item as a gift. MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES OF THE AUSTRAL REALM Australia and New Zealand constitute a geographic realm by virtue of territorial dimension, relative location, and dominant cultural landscape. Despite their inclusion is a single geographic realm; Australia and New Zealand differ physiographically. Australia is marked by a vast, dry, low-relief interior; New Zealand is mountainous. Australia and New Zealand are marked by peripheral development – Australia because of its aridity, New Zealand because of its topography. The populations of Australia and New Zealand are not only peripherally distributed by also highly clustered in urban centers. The realm’s human geography is changing – in Australia because of Aboriginal activism and Asian immigration, and in New Zealand because of Maori activism and Pacific-Islander immigration. The economic geography of Australia and New Zealand is dominated by the export of livestock products (and in Australia by wheat production and mining). Australia and New Zealand are being integrated into the economic framework of the western Pacific Rim, principally as suppliers of raw materials. MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES OF THE PACIFIC REALM The Pacific Realm’s total area is the largest of all geographic realms. Its land area, however, is the smallest, as its population. The island of New Guinea, with 7.2 million people, alone contains over 80 percent of the Pacific Realm’s population. The Pacific Realm, with its wide expanses of water and numerous islands, has been strongly affected by United Nations Law of the Sea provisions regarding states’ rights over economic asserts in their adjacent waters. The highly fragmented Pacific Realm consists of three regions: Melanesia (including New Guinea), Micronesia, and Polynesia. Melanesia forms the link between Papuan and Melanesian cultures in the Pacific. The Pacific Realm’s islands an cultures may be divided into volcanic high-island cultures and coral-based low-island cultures. In Micronesia, U.S. influence has been particularly strong and continues to affect local societies. In Polynesia, local cultures are nearly everywhere severely strained by external influences. In Hawaii, as in New Zealand, indigenous culture has been largely submerged by Westernization. Indigenous Polynesian culture continues to exhibit a remarkable consistency and uniformity throughout the Polynesian region, its enormous dimensions and dispersal notwithstanding. 
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND Unit 10Map SkillsPhysical regions of Australia – Use pp. 678, 679, 680, 681, 693, 704, 713, 729, A24. Label the following places on your physical map of Australia. You may develop a key. Remember to shade mountains in brown, deserts in yellow, and use blue for water features. Tasman Sea Pacific Ocean Coral Sea Gibson Desert Gulf of Carpentaria Tasmania Torres Strait Indian Ocean Mt. Kosciusko Bass Strait Great Australian Bight Australian Alps Murray River Darling River Great Artesian Basin Great Dividing Range Great Barrier Reef Flinders Range Great Victoria Desert MacDonnell Ranges Ayers Rock (Uluru) Kimberly Plateau Great Sandy Desert Cape York Peninsula Political Places of Australia – Label the following places on your political map of Australia. Show capitals with a star and circle, cities with dots, remember to underline your capital. Capital Territory – (Canberra*) Western Australia – (Perth), Derby South Australia – (Adelaide), Kangaroo Island New South Wales – (Sydney) Victoria – (Melbourne) Northern Territory – (Darwin), Alice Springs, Melville Island Queensland – (Brisbane), Cairns, Cooktown Tasmania – (Hobart) *National Capital
Cook Strait Pacific Ocean Political Places of New Zealand – Label the following places on your political map of New Zealand. Show the capital with a star and circle, cities with dots, remember to underline your capital. North Island – (Wellington), Auckland South Island - Christchurch The information on Australia and New Zealand will be shown on the same map. One physical map and one political map. 
ANTARCTICA Download 0.82 Mb. Share with your friends:
|