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Date:         Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:30:15 -0500
Reply-To:     mcneely4@COX.NET
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@COX.NET>
Subject:      Re: Places in the SW to camp in March
Comments: To: "Mark L. Hineline" <hineline@OCOTILLOFIELD.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <D298E8A8-1AE8-462B-843C-2FAF87CB2345@ocotillofield.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

---- "Mark L. Hineline" <hineline@OCOTILLOFIELD.NET> wrote: > You mean like D. W. Meinig, geographer and author of the four-volume > The Shaping of America (Yale University Press) and The Southwest? As > well as the National Geographic Historical Geography maps? Including > the one for the Southwest? > > The Southwest is defined by the presence of three cultures: Native > American, Spanish/Hispanic, and Anglo. Native American is mostly > missing from the Trans Pecos region. > > But Texans like to tell it a different way.

Mark, for your edification, here are a handful of references of official entities (plus one commercial outfit) that include the Trans Pecos in the SW:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/589288/Texas

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/556966/Southwest

http://biology.usgs.gov/luhna/chap9.html

http://www.fws.gov/southwest/

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/southwest-national-park-tours-17918.html

http://www.swd.usace.army.mil/

Of course, there are multitudes more. A geographic definition given by a cultural geographer is not the only way to divide up the world into regions.

I have been active in the Southwestern Association of Naturalists (SWAN), a scholarly organization that is dedicated to study the ecology and natural history of the Southwest, since I was an undergraduate. The organization's definition of the Southwest is a bit broader than that of most, since it includes all of North America west of the Mississippi River and south of the 40th parallel, but that should be enough to tell you that there are other ways of thinking than your way that don't have to do with someone being a "rube." The academicians who participate in SWAN include members of your own university, as well as others such as University of Texas at Austin, University of Arizona, University of California at Berkeley, among others. The Ph.D. candidate from UC San Diego who won last years prize for the best student paper presentation on Southwestern flora or fauna gave an excellent talk on cave phalangids from caves in Texas and New Mexico in which he demonstrated that what had previously been thought to be taxonomically meaningful morphologies were actually convergent adaptations to their cave habitats. The point is that this group of scholars considered his study of these critters to be appropriate for inclusion in the program, given their geographic affinity.

Take care, mcneely


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