Scratching the Surface: How geology shaped American culture

https://www.chronicle.com/article/scratching-the-surface

by Petiver • 2 years ago

29 9 2 years ago

chronicle.com

mettamage2• 2 years ago

Geology shapes culture in many places.

Simple example: the Netherlands and bikes or dried up lakes and the way Dutch people hold meetings

goodlinks• 2 years ago

Okay i get the flat is good for bikes.. but meetings, curious about that one?

gsf_emergency• 2 years ago

I suspect he was referring to

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polder_model#Historical_backgr...

nilawafer• 2 years ago

https://archive.is/X1y0r

skygazer• 2 years ago

That link lacks the article text, as do archive.is’ other snapshots of it.

kjellsbells• 2 years ago

I could not read the article either, but one example is the Alabama Black Belt. Geologically that part of the deep South and its neighboring states is chalk, which over time has become covered in incredibly rich black soil. Perfect for growing things like cotton. Which, back in the not very recent past, was brutally made the responsibility of slaves. When the slaves were emancipated after the Civil War, many freedmen stayed on and ended up as sharecroppers, ultimately maintaining a deep well of Black American culture that persists to this day.

Edit: unpaywalled article on the human history[1], wikipedia[2], and geology[3]

[1] https://southernspaces.org/2004/black-belt/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Belt_in_the_American_Sou...

[3] https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/black-belt-region-...

Scratching the Surface: How geology shaped American culture

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