SEQUENT OCCUPANCE AND THE LANDSCAPE:

A Unit Plan
Unit Title: Sequent Occupance and the Cultural Landscape

Authors: Rosalind Beckstead, Christopher Hall, Eileen Taylor

Author Info:
Beckstead - Fairfield Junior High, Kaysville, Utah
Hall - Woods Cross High School, Woods Cross, Utah
Taylor - West High School, Salt Lake City, Utah

Grade: AP Geography, or any second-year or advanced human geography course

Key Words: Cultural Geography, Cultural Landscape, Historical Geography, Humanized Landscape, Landscape, Sequent Occupance, Toponyms.

Time Needed: 1 to 2 weeks

Overall Objectives:
Students will:
a. define "sequent occupance" and examine examples
b. explain the cultural landscape and analyze specific examples

Included in this unit:
I. Notes, Ideas, and Background Information for the AP instructor (Hall)
II. Lessons
A. Landscape and Occupance - Housescape and Occupants (Hall)
B. Reading Cultural Landscapes (Beckstead)
C. Changes in the Landscape: Using Topographic Maps (Taylor)
D. Names on the Land: Toponyms (Taylor)
E. It All Started With Moa Hunters: The Sequent Occupance of New Zealand (Beckstead)












INTRODUCTION: Notes, Ideas, and Background Information for the AP Human Geography Teacher
Sequent occupance is an old term associated with cultural and historical geography. The purpose of what follows is to provide some background and supplementary material to teachers of Human Geography. These notes, ideas, and background information consist of six parts as follows.

Part I: A summary of some of the significant geographic writings related to sequent occupance.

Part II: One example of how a "sequent occupance" model could be
described and initially presented to students in the classroom.

Part III: A brief description of how sequent occupance is treated in three major college texts with suggestions for the instructor on when and how this subject might be taught.

Part IV: Some examples of actual sequent occupance landscapes described in the major texts and other notable books written using the model.

Part V: Suggestions for teaching sequent occupance.


PART I: "CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE GREAT GEOGRAPHERS"

Derwent Whittlesey
The term "sequent occupance" was coined in 1929 by American geographer Derwent Whittlesey to describe the process by which a landscape is gradually transformed by a succession of occupying populations, each of which modifies the landscape left by the previous groups. Whittlesey insisted that it was the historical element of landscape study, he called it the "dyamanic character" which was of major importance. ". . . spatial concepts remain purely descriptive . . . unless they are treated dynamically, i.e. unless the time factor is cognized. This view of geography as a succession of stages of human occupance established the genetics of each stage in terms of its predecessor."

He spoke in terms of "genetics"; that is, that any landscape has roots in a previous landscape and that it is "linked [both] to its forbear and to its offspring". Whittlesely theorized that unique landscapes were created because of "mutations" in elements of natural and cultural characteristics. He made this sort of biologic analogy even stronger when he compared the evolving landscape to plant succession in botany. He introduced geomorphological comparisons when he compared the elimination of landscape elements to erosion. For Whittlesely the important thing was the evolutionary and dynamic nature of the landscape as shaped by successive cultures and populations.


Paul Vidal de la Blache
One of the greatest contribution made to geography by the French school of geography was the concept of "possiblism." In response to geographic determinism, de la Blache asserted that the constraints the environment placed on man's activity, and on culture, allowed for a range of options, or possibilities. Although it was recognized that certain harsh climates or extremes of topography more or less greatly limited man's choices, there are vast expanses of territory in which mankind has had immense possibilities to interpret the natural situation and adapt it and/or himself in a plethora of ways. De la Blache is credited with coining the term "geographic personality" in reference to the distinctive and unique character which a landscape developed through this process of possibility and creativity. The notion of sequent occupance adopted this idea that various cultures could and would decide to use the same site in differing ways and therefore create contrasting landscapes signatures.


Carl Sauer
In 1925, Carl Sauer published his enormously influential "The Morphology of Landscape" in which he defined a geography based on the study of the physical and cultural landscape. He clearly described sequent occupance.

The works of man express themselves in the cultural landscape. There may be a succession of these landscapes with a succession of cultures. They are derived in each case from the natural landscape, man expressing his place in nature as a distinct agent of modification . . . The cultural landscape then is subject to change either by the development of a culture or by the replacement of cultures . . .
Sauer was always careful to stress the important role which the natural environment played in the process as it affected the decisions which people made as they modified the landscape. His model describes the "site," or natural environment, as the medium, culture as the agent, and the cultural landscape as the result. He saw culture and physiography as independent elements which overlap, interrelate, and coevolve. The physical manifestation of the overlap is the humanized landscape. When the time element is introduced a process begins - voila' - "morphology." He believed that the introduction of new cultures to a site (sequent occupance) actually "rejuvenated" the cultural landscape.













Donald W. Meinig

Meinig has written extensively on the subject of historical geography and landscape. His approach is overtly regional and at the core is his concept of the dynamic area, "a culture, society and nation ever changing in areal extent, structure, functions and content . . . an areal phenomenon that can be traced from its tiny and complex origins to its present enormous and complex macrocultural dimensions." His view of geographic history is clearly rooted in the concept of sequent occupance.

In "The Beholding Eye: Ten Versions of the Same Scene," one of his briefest and most readable works, Meinig explains several of the ways in which people experience landscape. He makes it clear that one way geographers may "read" a landscape is "to see landscape as History." He calls the landscape a "complex cumulative record of the work of nature and man" and refers to "layers" of history which may be distinct and separate from one another or "more often complexly interwoven." He notes that "every landscape is an accumulation." Importantly, he notes that the landscape is likely not a full record of history - much has been obliterated (Whittlesely might have said "eroded"). (Geographers realize that what has been purposefully removed by a culture is as important is what was left intact and what was modified.) Meinig is careful to point out that when landscape is seen in this way it is a process.


Pierce Lewis
An axiom, of course, is a rule. Pierce Lewis' "Axioms for Reading the Landscape: Some Guides to the American Scene" were published in 1979. This discussion provides a methodology for looking intelligently at the landscape and several of its "axioms" relate directly to sequent occupance.

Most important to the cultural geographer who is considering the sequent occupance is the fourth of the axioms - the so-called "historic axiom." It states that "in trying to unravel the meaning of contemporary landscapes and what they have to 'say' . . . history matters. . . [A] large part of the common American landscape was built by people in the past, whose tastes, habits, technology, wealth, and ambitions were different than ours today.

Lewis continues with a very significant corollary - "The corollary of historical lumpiness." Most major cultural change does not occur gradually, but instead in great sudden historic leaps, commonly provoked by such great events as wars, depressions, and major inventions. Although he does not mention the replacement of one dominant culture by another, its appropriate consideration as a part of this "corollary" is clear.



PART II: A SIMPLE VISUAL MODEL (with ideas for presenting it to students)

William Norton has suggested a very simple diagram which may help students to visualize and remember the term. Figure 1a distinguishes between the pre-human and humanized landscape. Figure 1b shows the current condition of the landscape; that is, the contemporary landscape overlays the historic landscape (or landscapes) which in turn overlays the pre-human (or natural) landscape. Consider each part of the diagram as it relates to students of the Human Geography Course:

1a. Students should be expected to know, or be able to surmise, what the original landscape of a region would have been like. Their previous study of physical geography - of landforms, climates, and vegetational patterns - should allow them to do this.

1b. As far as historic landscapes are concerned, the textbooks will provide some examples and discussion (see below) and the instructor should provide additional discussion of regions with which he is familiar, or perhaps of the region in which he teaches (and with which students will likely be familiar). Students could also be assigned to research the different groups which have dominated diverse regions and created "historic landscapes".

As far as the study of the contemporary landscape is concerned, students should be able to recognize and interpret the remnant elements of past landscapes and have some sort of framework, or model, which could guide them to understand and interpret the landscape as a whole. The article by Pierce Lewis (discussed above) or the "possible emphases" (described below) might serve the teacher as a guide.

1c. Norton calls the elements in this part of his diagram "characteristics" of the evolving, material landscape. Students should be challenged to discuss and extend and further subdivide each of them to create their own framework for examining the landscape.















PART III: THE MAJOR TEXTBOOKS

Sequent Occupance as treated in the major texts
 None of the major suggested textbooks for AP Human Geography provides a very extensive treatment of sequent occupance specifically; but each discusses it, even if only tangentially, in their discussion of landscape and/or culture. Most teachers will probably want to work it into their course in this context. Below is a brief description of "sequent occupance" in each of the texts with a suggestion of how it might be incorporated into the course.

Human Geography: Culture, Society, and Space (de Blij)
Included in Chapter 18 (Culture on the Land) under the sub-topic of "The Cultural Landscape". The term is defined and a brief description of Swaziland (a region ) and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (a city ) is given. The cultural landscape and culture regions are also treated in this chapter and the two following. There is, however, no real effective discussion of landscape or the effect of a series of dominant cultures upon it. Most teachers will simply want to expand upon the information presented in Chapters 18, 19, and 20 of this book.

An Introduction to Human Geography (Rubenstein)
Never formally treated in the text, the closest approach is made in Chapter 6 (Social Customs on the Landscape). The historical approach to geography is examined through the use of the diffusion of housing types on pages 262-66. Because a discussion of sequent occupance is an important part of historical/cultural geography and landscape interpretation, it should be introduced here and would make a powerful and important contribution to the chapter. Most teachers will want to point out the lack of consideration this textbook gives to historical analysis of landscape and give special attention to it themselves.

The Human Mosaic (Jordan and Rowntree)
The term is introduced and defined on page 31 in the first chapter of the text as an example of a cultural historical method. A very brief description of the sequent occupance of California is provided, however there is no examination of how this type of geography can be used to interpret the landscape. Because this textbook often refers to "landscapes", teachers could supplement the text during their examination of this first chapter and refer back to it often. Sections of later chapters could also (or instead) be used to examine and develop the model, for example "Evolution of Urban Landscapes" (pp. 341-66) and "The City as Palimpsest" (pp. 406-07) or "Landscapes of Popular Culture" (pp. 282-90).







PART IV: EXAMPLES OF SEQUENT OCCUPANCE


The various textbooks provide "quickie" examples sequent occupance. These might be summarized to students as in the diagrams below:

Tanzanians (Africans)
Americans Asians (Indians)
Mexicans the Europeans British
Spaniards the Bantu Germans
prehistoric Indians the San Arabs
-------------- ------------- -------------
CALIFORNIA SWAZILAND DAR ES SALAAM
(Jordan and Rowntree, p. 31) (de Blij, p. 221)

None of the texts discusses important examples which have actually been thoroughly researched and articulated by scholars, some of which might even be familiar to students. A few are listed below and could be either described to students, suggested as supplementary readings, or studied and summarized by the instructor.

_ Walter Prescott Webb's The Great Plains
Webb discusses the natural landscape of the plains, the culture and occupance of the native American tribes, and then the arrival and dominance of Americans in this landscape. Webb is a historian but the book makes use of literature, geography, sociology, and psychology as it discusses the reaction of the Indians and the Europeans.

_ Donald W. Meinig's Southwest and Imperial Texas
Unlike Webb, Meinig is a geographer. Both of these books make clear distinctions of the influence of the various occupying groups on the geography of the region. Both look for geographic patterns and relationships and have wonderful maps which the instructor could make use of. A simple examination of the table of contents of either book provides a good example of how a historical geographer might interpret and use the basic principle of sequent occupance.

_ James Michener
Michener is well known for his extensively researched historical novels. David Lanegran, a geographer at Macalester College in Minnesota, has gone so far as to call Michener "the greatest exponent of the geographic method of sequent occupance the world has yet known." His books include Centennial (Colorado), Chesapeake , Hawaii , Alaska , The Covenant (South Africa), and The Source (the Middle East). Students' parents will likely be most familiar with these books and students could be asked to discuss with them in order to see how people are naturally interested in sequent occupance.


PART V: FURTHER SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING SEQUENT OCCUPANCE
TIES TO ANTHROPOLOGY
Cultural geography has closer ties to anthropology than any other sub-discipline of geography. Insofar as the study of the cultural landscape and the sequent occupance of an area deal with the specific culture of the dominant "occupants," students may be introduced to some anthropological concerns. Discussions of how different cultures view nature differently will be instructive. Cultural geographers have written extensively on this topic and the control it has had over determining what kind of imprint humans will make on any given environment (possiblism). Instructors may wish to explore this issue with their students:

  1. Do the Chinese see nature differently than Americans?
  2. Do poor people see the environment differently than the rich?
  3. Do New Englanders modify the landscape differently than Southwesterners?

Although some may feel these questions are easily answered, others may disagree, and it is always the "why" which becomes most interesting. To students in an introductory course, it is probably enough simply to identify that these questions exist and leave the answering of the questions for their college years.

PROCESS IN GEOGRAPHY
Sequent occupance produces patterns which identify the extent of the regions which share the same history. Patterns are clearly geographical and as such are easily mapped. Sequent occupance itself, however, is not a pattern but a model on which various processes are hung or into which they are inserted. Remember, one culture may replace another culture violently and suddenly, as by war - gradually and peacefully, through immigration and diffusion, or the initial culture may simply abandon their humanized landscape only to have it later reoccupied and modified. All of these method -invasion, immigration, diffusion, and abandonment are processes. The student of historical/cultural geography and landscape deals with process as much as with pattern.

  1. In a teacher-led discussion, students could recall regions where the following processes occurred:
    a. a people abandoned their land (the Maya)
    b. a people were conquered and dominated by invaders (Islamic expansion)
    c. a culture was gradually supplanted (ethnic neighborhoods in America)
  2. Students could brainstorm other possible scenarios by which dominant cultures are replaced - disease kills off the population, politics change dramatically, colonial powers withdraw, etc.

DOING HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY
Historical geography is usually defined as the recreation of past landscapes. When one considers that as the process of sequent occupance takes place, that is when one culture supplants another, it will likely obliterate some of the previous landscape. Certainly what it chooses to remove is as important (that is, says as much about the culture and society) as what it merely modifies and what it preserves intact, even though only the latter two categories can be "read" from the actual landscape. Historical research will be needed in order for students to identify the missing elements of previous landscapes. This recreation of past landscapes is, by its most simple definition, historical geography.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lanegran, David. "Communication." In Geography's Inner Worlds: Pervasive themes in Contemporary American Geography , eds. Ronald Abler, Melvin Marcus, and Judy M. Olson. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1992

Lewis, Pierce. "Axioms for Reading the Landscape: Some Guides to the American
Scene." In The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes: Geographical Essays , ed. Donald W. Meinig, 11-32. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.

Meinig, Donald W. "The Continuous Shaping of America: A Prospectus for Geographers and Historians," American Historical Review 83: 1186-1205.

---------- "The Beholding Eye". In The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes: Geographical Essays , ed. Donald W. Meinig, 33-48. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.

---------- Southwest: Three Peoples in Geographic Change, 1600-1970 . New York:
Oxford University Press, 1971.

---------- Imperial Texas . Austin: University of Texas Press, 1969.

Norton, William. Explorations in the Understanding of Landscape: A Cultural Geography , New York: Greenwood Press, 1989.

Sauer, Carl O. "The Morphology of Landscape," University of California Publications in Geography 2: 19-54, 1925.

Webb, Walter Prescott. The Great Plains . Boston: Ginn and Company, 1931.

Whittlesley, Derwent. "Sequent Occupance," Annals of the Association of American
Geographers, Volume XIX, Sept. 1929, Number 2.

TEXTBOOKS

de Blij, Harm J. Human Geography: Culture, Society, and Space (5th ed.). New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1996.

Jordan, Terry G. and Lester Rowntree. The Human Mosaic: A Thematic Introduction to Cultural Geography (5th ed.). New York: Harper and Rowe, 1990.

Rubenstein, James M. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996.


OTHER GEOGRAPHERS WHOSE WORK SHOULD BE CONSIDERED

Karl W. Butzer, Denis Cosgrove, Henry Glassie, John Brinkerhoff Jackson, Terry Jordan, Fred Kniffen, David Lowenthal, Yi Fu Tuan, and Wilbur Zelinsky.

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