Name: 什麼是人文地理學？Crash Course Geography #28 (What is Human Geography? Crash Course Geography #28)
Uploaded: 2025-12-17T00:42:19.000Z
Duration: 10 min 11 s

Do you ever think about words and why something has a certain name?

你是不是有想過，為什麼東西會有特定的名字呢？

Like, this is a plant, or my nails are blue and we're filming this in Miami.

像是，這是一株植物，或是我的指甲是藍色的，我們現在正在邁阿密拍片。

For a lot of words, we probably don't think about where they come from too often.

很多時候，我們大概不太會去想這些詞是從哪裡來的。

They let us talk about things and share ideas and even build identities.

它們讓我們能談論事物、分享想法，甚至建立認同感。

By now we know geography is so much more than just knowing state names and capitals and memorizing locations.

到現在我們都知道，地理學不只是要知道州名、首都和死記位置而已。

But I'll admit, geographers do often know where a lot of places are and what they're called.

但我得承認，地理學家確實常常知道很多地方在哪裡，以及它們叫什麼名字。

It turns out knowing what the capital of Indonesia is or which country first declared a glacier dead often happens as we learn about how social and physical systems interact together.

結果發現，知道印尼的首都是什麼，或是哪個國家最早宣佈冰川死亡，這些往往是我們在學習社會和地理景觀如何互動時學到的。

From growing bananas and potatoes to the potential effects of natural hazards we've seen, humans and our environment are always interacting together.

從種植香蕉和馬鈴薯，到自然災害的潛在影響，人類和我們的環境一直都在互動。

We create rich cultures, navigate economic systems, and organize ourselves through politics.

我們透過政治創造豐富的文化、駕馭經濟體系並組織自己。

We like to build physically and metaphorically, and

我們喜歡在物理和比喻上進行建構，

a lot of what we build comes from and impacts the environments around us.

而我們建構的許多東西都來自周遭的環境，並對其產生影響。

So for the next half of the series, we'll look at how people, power and economics combine in the world, impacting the human and non human alike.

所以接下來的系列，我們將探討人們、權力和經濟如何在世界上結合，進而影響人類和非人類。

I'm Alize Carrer, and this is Crash Course Geography.

我是 Alize Carrer，這裡是 Crash Course Geography。

Human geography uses a combination of spatial, physical and social science to tell a complex story of the world.

人文地理學結合了空間、物理和社會科學，講述一個複雜的世界故事。

This story focuses on the spatial patterns of people and how we've made sense of the places we inhabit, explore, or create, like, by giving them names.

這個故事聚焦於人們的空間模式，以及我們如何理解我們居住、探索或創造的地方，例如透過為它們命名。

And as human geographers, we try to answer questions that pay special attention to the way people, power, money, buildings, and

而作為人文地理學家，我們會試圖回答特別關注人們、權力、金錢、建築物以及

so much more are distributed in the world.

世界上其他許多事物分佈方式的問題。

Like, what are the processes that shape where humans move across space?

例如，塑造人類在空間中移動的過程是什麼？

Why do humans build and trade and consume and create where they do?

為什麼人類會在特定的地方建造、交易、消費和創造？

And why do those traits change across space?

為什麼這些特徵會隨著空間而改變？

Why aren't all people and places just the same?

為什麼不是所有的人和地方都一樣？

We've actually already used human geography tools when we've considered things like the economics of banana plantations or.

我們其實已經用過人文地理學的工具了，像是我們在考慮香蕉園的經濟學時。

Or the relationships between people or groups of people, where one person or group has influence over another.

或者人與人之間、群體與群體之間的關係，其中一個人或群體對另一個人或群體擁有影響力。

This political power shows up when we talk about water access or the motivations for building in floodplains, for example.

這種政治權力體現在我們討論水資源取得或在洪泛區建造的動機時。

we could use a few more tools to fully tackle human geography.

我們需要更多工具來全面探討人文地理學。

In addition to tools like maps and remote sensing or soil and vegetation surveys that give us data on what makes up our physical landscapes.

除了像地圖、遙感或土壤與植被調查這類提供我們地理景觀構成數據的工具之外。

The tools we'll need moving forward are actually concepts that help guide our thinking, like the idea of place or the meaning we give a location, and

我們未來需要的工具其實是能引導我們思考的概念，像是地點的概念，或是我們賦予位置的意義，

the sense of belonging we derive from constructing a place physically and in our minds.

我們從實際和心理上建構一個地點所產生的歸屬感。

Machu Picchu or the Great Wall or Long Wall of China or the Yucatan Peninsula, or whatever name we give a place is called atoponem, and

馬丘比丘、長城、中國的萬裡長城、猶加敦半島，或是我們賦予任何地點的名稱，都叫做地名，

it's an important part of how we think about the place.

這也是我們思考地點時很重要的一部分。

Sort of like how my name is an important part of me.

就像我的名字對我很重要一樣。

And if we dig into the history of a toponym, we'll learn the history of the location itself and see how it's changed over time and how different political and cultural forces are work to create the place's identity.

而如果我們深入研究一個地名的歷史，我們就能瞭解該地點本身的歷史，並看到它如何隨著時間改變，以及不同的政治和文化力量如何作用來塑造該地點的身份。

Like how I got my name and how it's changed, or what nicknames I've gotten can tell a part of the history of me.

就像我的名字的由來和演變，或是我的綽號，都能講述我的一部分歷史。

In fact, studying place names is an important part of cultural geography, which is one of the many subfields of human geography.

事實上，研究地名是文化地理學的重要一環，而文化地理學是人文地理學的眾多分支之一。

It examines how markers of our identity are visible across space, like names, language, religion, art, and

它探討我們身份的標記如何在空間中顯現，像是名字、語言、宗教、藝術，以及

Like let's look at the highest point in North America.

像是讓我們來看看北美洲的最高點。

It's a mountain reaching just over 6,190 meters high, notes known by some as Mount McKinley in what we now call Alaska.

這座山高約 6,190 公尺，有些地方稱它為麥金利山，位於我們現在稱為阿拉斯加的地方。

Even if we didn't know much else about this place or the space it's in, the toponym Mount McKinley already gives us some historical and cultural context.

即使我們對這個地點或它所在的空間瞭解不多，地名「麥金利山」本身就已經提供了一些歷史和文化背景。

It's a reference to the 25th President of the United States, which signals this is also a place in the US or we could draw on another conceptual the concept of scale or the relationship a place has to the rest of the world.

這是對美國第 25 任總統的提及，這表明這裡也是美國的一個地方，或者我們可以運用另一個概念——規模的概念，或是一個地點與世界其他地方的關係。

This mountain got the name Mount McKinley from a gold prospector from Ohio who wrote about it in the New York sun newspaper in 1897, just before McKinley won the presidency.

這座山之所以被命名為麥金利山，是因為一位來自俄亥俄州的淘金者，他在 1897 年的《紐約太陽報》上寫到了它，就在麥金利贏得總統任期之前。

Other places in Alaska were also given names based on political figures from Ohio, other US States and the UK which were published widely in articles and used in official maps made by people not from Alaska.

阿拉斯加的其他地方也被命名為紀念來自俄亥俄州、其他美國州和英國的政治人物，這些名字被廣泛刊登在文章中，並被非阿拉斯加本地人製作的官方地圖所使用。

A few Years later, in 1901, the Board on Geographic Names, which is a division of the United States Geological Survey, officially named the mountain Mount McKinley.

幾年後，在 1901 年，美國地質調查局的一個部門——地理名稱委員會，正式將這座山命名為麥金利山。

And this was one of many name changes across Alaska, the US and around the world that moved the power to name the place from residents at the local scale to to people with power at national and global scales without representing local residents.

這是阿拉斯加、美國和世界各地眾多更名中的一個，它將命名地點的權力從地方層級的居民轉移到國家和全球層級的有權力者手中，而沒有代表當地居民。

That being said, as we'll see throughout the rest of this series, power has a way of changing hands a lot.

話雖如此，正如我們在本系列接下來的內容中將看到的，權力經常易手。

And local residents aren't always united.

而且當地居民並非總是團結一致。

But this majestic mountain already had a name.

但這座雄偉的山已經有了名字。

The Athabascans who've lived in and around the Upper Kuskokwim River.

居住在科斯科奎姆河上游及其周邊地區的阿薩巴斯卡人。

Often called it Denali, which reportedly means the tall one or the high one.

經常稱它為 Denali，據說意思是「高大的那一個」或「高高的那一個」。

And as early as 1906, there were writings that supported renaming this place Denali.

早在 1906 年，就有記載支持將這個地方重新命名為 Denali。

But other indigenous nations who lived there had other names, and

但居住在那裡的許多其他原住民部落有不同的名字，

so did people descended from what we now call Russia who also lived in this place.

還有那些現在被稱為俄羅斯人的後裔，他們也居住在這個地方。

Names can also indicate power, as pop culture has explored many times, from urban legends to wizarding worlds.

名字也能代表權力，這在流行文化中已經被探討過很多次，從都市傳說到魔法世界。

And in some cultures, like the Athabascans, you do not name places or things after people, because place names are a way to describe the land and remember important details like resources or hunting techniques.

在某些文化中，例如阿薩巴斯卡人，你不會用人名來命名地方或事物，因為地名是描述土地並記住重要細節（如資源或狩獵技巧）的一種方式。

Ultimately, the people advocating to put back the name Denali had less power and influence and could be ignored.

最終，主張恢復 Denali 這個名字的人們權力和影響力較小，可以被忽略。

In 1917, the area around Denali became Mount McKinley National park, years before, Alaska even became a US state, which redefined the place and happened because of exactly the kind of uneven power dynamics human geographers study today.

1917 年，Denali 周邊地區成為麥金利山國家公園，這比阿拉斯加成為美國州還要早幾年，這重新定義了這個地方，並且正是因為人文地理學家今天研究的那種不均等的權力動態所致。

All over the world, we can see the way that power is distributed across space, in part by the toponyms we give places.

全世界我們都能看到權力如何在空間中分配，這部分可以從我們給地方的地名看得出來。

The names and landmarks that are revered tell us a lot about who has the power to name and create an image of a place.

受人尊敬的名字和地標，能告訴我們很多關於誰有權力命名和塑造一個地方的形象。

So what we call a place matters because it sets up the way we imagine the space, like who owns it or what the culture should be.

所以我們稱呼一個地方是什麼很重要，因為這決定了我們如何想像這個空間，像是誰擁有它，或是應該有什麼樣的文化。

As Europeans settled throughout North America, they made strong efforts to claim the space as their own by renaming places and erasing the cultures and impacts of existing groups on the landscape.

隨著歐洲人定居北美，他們透過重新命名地方，並抹去現有族群的文化和對地理景觀的影響，來強烈地宣稱這片空間是他們的。

In fact, there's a third conceptual tool we can use to understand this place, the idea of a region, which is a way of grouping and classifying similar places.

事實上，我們還有第三個概念工具可以用來理解這個地方，那就是「區域」的概念，這是一種對相似地方進行分組和分類的方式。

And there are different types of regions, like many of the administrative regions or regions with legal boundaries within Alaska were imposed over existing boundaries of the nations who already lived there.

而區域也有不同的類型，就像阿拉斯加許多行政區域或有法律邊界的區域，都是強加在原本就居住在那裡的族群的邊界之上。

And for Denali, or the renaming of many places known to indigenous peoples, the new name signifies a new perceptual region, or a region that's united by how people think about or see it.

對於 Denali，或是許多原住民熟知的地方被重新命名，新名字象徵著一個新的感知區域，或是一個由人們如何思考或看待它而連結起來的區域。

Like a region that's unified around the language or cultural slang it uses, or the team or cultural group it's a part of.

就像一個以其使用的語言或文化俚語，或是它所屬的團隊或文化群體來統一的區域。

The new name created a relationship between Ohio and Alaska.

新的名字在俄亥俄州和阿拉斯加之間建立了一種連結。

It brought the mountain and Alaska into the imagination of people in the continental US and possibly evoked a sense of patriotism by connecting Alaska to US politics, even though President McKinley had no connection to that place.

它將這座山和阿拉斯加帶入了美國本土人們的想像中，甚至可能透過將阿拉斯加與美國政治連結，激發了愛國情懷，儘管麥金利總統與那個地方毫無關聯。

Whereas at the time, the name Denali created the perception this place has a culture and history, foreign or other, to most European Americans, who held a lot of the political and cultural power.

然而當時，對大多數擁有政治和文化權力的歐洲裔美國人來說，「迪納利」這個名字讓人覺得這個地方有著一種外來的文化和歷史。

但重新命名的舉動本身也具有力量。

That struggle that all humans feel to see their identity reflected back to them in their landscape is what motivated Alaska Natives and non indigenous allies alike to work for decades to change the name.

所有人類都渴望在景觀中看到自己的身份被映照出來，這種掙扎正是促使阿拉斯加原住民和非原住民盟友們數十年來致力於更改名稱的原因。

Back in 2015, that hard work paid off and this place was renamed Denali to reflect the peoples who have an ancestral connection to the we looked at the Denali name change and then rechange as cultural geographers.

早在2015年，多年的努力終於有了回報，這個地方被重新命名為「迪納利」，以反映那些與這片土地有著祖傳聯繫的人們。作為文化地理學家，我們檢視了「迪納利」這個名稱的更改與再更改。

But there are other big parts of human geography we could also use to explore this place and space.

但人文地理學還有其他重要的面向，我們可以藉此探索這個地方和空間。

Political geography studies the way that power shapes the landscape, like how here in Denali there was an uneven power between those in Ohio and Washington D.C.

政治地理學研究權力如何塑造景觀，就像在「迪納利」這裡，俄亥俄州和華盛頓特區的權力與阿拉斯加的權力之間存在著不均等的關係。

And if we zoom all the way out to a global scale, similar tensions over toponyms can be found in many other places, especially those that have been colonies or part of empires at some point in their history.

而且如果我們將視野拉到全球尺度，在許多其他地方，尤其是在歷史上曾是殖民地或帝國一部分的地方，也能發現類似關於地名的緊張關係。

Like in 1995 when Uluru Kata Tchuda national park in Australia was made official, ending the British name of Ayres Rockmount Olga National Park.

就像1995年，澳洲的烏魯魯-卡塔丘塔國家公園正式啟用，結束了英國人命名的「艾爾斯巖」和「奧爾加山」國家公園。

Each place is complex, but as geographers, we look for how places are connected.

每個地方都很複雜，但作為地理學家，我們會尋找地方之間的連結方式。

There are similar political and economic forces at work that help those in power show they have control over the identity of the place they're in.

政治和經濟力量也在作用，幫助掌權者展現他們對所在地的身份認同的控制力。

So restoring the names of places is an important part of identity and cultural geography, and

是以，恢復地名是身份認同和文化地理學的重要部分，也是

important political work on the local scale as a way to push against regional and global powers.

在地方層級重要的政治工作，藉此對抗區域和全球的權力。

Or in economic geography, we study the uneven movement of economic opportunity, like the way some opportunities, like Alaskan gold mines, don't end up making the people living near those mines wealthy.

或者在經濟地理學中，我們會研究經濟機會的不均等流動，像是阿拉斯加的金礦等機會，並沒有讓住在礦區附近的人們變得富有。

Or the way the tourist economy may change throughout the national park depending on environmental, cultural, or political factors.

或者觀光經濟可能因應環境、文化或政治因素，在國家公園內有所變化。

And finally, in urban geography, we study the way humans build cities, like what influences create the housing and industry patterns, or the ways we can plan spaces to maximize walkable communities and the relationships between urban and rural spaces, which is still an important field in Alaska.

最後，在都市地理學中，我們會研究人類建造城市的方式，像是哪些因素影響了住宅和工業的格局，或是我們如何規劃空間來最大化適合步行的社區，以及城市和鄉村空間之間的關係，這在阿拉斯加仍然是一個重要的領域。

As cities within the US grow, Alaska could have an important role as America's last frontier.

隨著美國境內的城市不斷發展，阿拉斯加可能扮演著美國最後邊疆的重要角色。

Denali is just one example of a growing movement of indigenous and marginalized groups asserting their cultural understanding of the places they have spiritual, cultural, and

迪納利只是原住民和邊緣化群體日益增長的運動中的一個例子，他們正在主張他們擁有精神、文化和

法律權利的這些地方的文化理解。

There's power in how we define regions, what's in versus out, and

地理區域的劃分、哪些納入哪些排除，以及

who it includes and who it excludes, which is why we see struggles over place names all over the world.

包含誰、排除誰，都蘊含著力量，這也是為什麼我們能在世界各地看到關於地名的爭奪。

我們的名字塑造了我們的身份，

efforts to learn about the places we call home and their histories is part of the cultural and political work we can do to recognize who has been harmed by colonization and conquest.

學習我們稱之為家的地方及其歷史，是我們能做的文化和政治工作的一部分，藉此認可誰曾遭受殖民和征服的傷害。

Learning more about economics, technology, language, religion, power and how they all move lets us tell fuller, richer stories of the earth, which we'll do more of next time when we explore cultural landscapes.

深入瞭解經濟、科技、語言、宗教、權力及其運作方式，能讓我們講述更完整、更豐富的地球故事，這也是我們下次探索地理景觀時會更深入探討的。

Many maps and borders represent modern geopolitical divisions that have often been decided without the consultation, permission or recognition of the land's original inhabitants.

許多地圖和邊界代表著現代的政治劃分，這些劃分往往是在未經土地原住民諮詢、許可或認可的情況下決定的。

Many geographical place names also don't reflect the Indigenous or Aboriginal peoples languages, so we at Crash Course want to acknowledge these people's traditional and ongoing relationship with that land and all the physical and human geographical elements of it.

許多地理地名也沒有反映原住民或在地民族的語言，是以我們 Crash Course 希望在此承認這些民族與該土地及其所有地理景觀和人文地理元素之間，傳統且持續的關係。

We encourage you to learn about the history of the place you call home through resources like Nativeland CA and by engaging with your local indigenous and Aboriginal nations through the websites and resources they provide.

我們鼓勵你透過 Nativeland CA 等資源，以及透過你所在地的原住民和在地民族提供的網站和資源與他們互動，來瞭解你稱之為家的地方的歷史。

Thanks for watching this episode of Crash Course Geography, which is filmed at the Team Sandoval Pier Studio Studio and was made with the help of all these nice people.

感謝觀看這集 Crash Course Geography，本集在 Team Sandoval Pier Studio Studio 拍攝，並在這些優秀人士的協助下完成。

If you want to help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever, you can join our community on Patreon.

如果你想幫助 Crash Course 永遠免費提供給所有人，你可以加入我們的 Patreon 社群。