Settlement Geography

Settlement geography was defined by Fred Kniffen and Henry Glassie as “the interpretable record of the historical events and cultural processes imprinted on the land” and by Kirk Stone as “the description and analysis of the distribution of buildings by which people attach themselves to the land.” Settlement not only has been studied independently but is also included as a component of human/cultural, historical, or population geography. The study of settlement geography historically has chiefly been anthropocentric and was concerned with rural buildings, especially dwellings that offer a snapshot of the cultural background, place, and time of construction.

More recently, the study of settlement has evolved into the interaction of humans with the physical and ecological world. This more holistic study is concerned with sustainability and seeks to better understand the present landscape and plan the future.

Panoramic view of Liausson, a small village in France

Source: Fanelie Rosier/iStockphoto.

Settlement geography has been and continues to be studied far more in European universities. The Germans and the French spearheaded European study a century ago by examining rural farmstead and village patterns. The focus capitalized on the long-lasting European cultural hegemony and impact in world affairs and the rich architectural styles that intertwined over time in the complex patterns that settlement deciphers.

American settlement geography adopted the architectural and spatial pattern concepts of European studies. Settlement geography in America flourished during the time of Carl Sauer's cultural geographic perspective. American settlement studies have generally been either regionally based or mapped on European ethnic groups in America.

Settlement geography has depended on the rural landscape for its subject matter. Rural vernacular farm buildings have been studied for patterns, functions, origins, and relationships to agricultural production. Shapes and functions often reflect cultural preadaptation (competitive traits possessed by an ethnic group) and simplification (modifying, inventing, or borrowing new traits). The arrangement of land survey systems and roads has also created patterns to be interpreted by settlement. Over time, as America became more urban, the rural landscape evolved into progressively larger urban sites from hamlets to the metropolis. The study of settlement geography remained concentrated on rural settlement patterns, while urban geographers deal with city patterns.

American geographic study reached its apex from the 1920s through the 1970s, during which Isaiah Bowman, Fred Kniffen, Loyal Durand Jr., Glen Trewartha, and Kirk Stone wrote about the topic. Henry Glassie, Terry Jordan, Karl B. Raitz, and William Wyckoff more recently contributed to the field in the United States. Beginning in the 1920s, Isaiah Bowman studied pioneer farming settlement to identify global areas of potential colonization. This type of settlement study is seldom practiced today, having given way to the more historical and European-like study of house types, barns, and agricultural outbuildings. In the 1930s, Sauer's student Fred Kniffen began to study folk housing in Louisiana and then across the Midwest. Louisiana State University carries [Page 2537]forth his methods to interpret vernacular culture research in the Gulf South. Durand, Trewartha, and Stone worked in settlement geography at the University of Wisconsin. Loyal Durand was an economic geographer who studied rural agricultural production of milk from the 1940s through the 1960s and as a by-product studied the shapes of barns throughout the midwestern milk shed. Allen Noble and John Fraser Hart continued regional barn studies into the 1980s.

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