ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that regional geographers should pay more attention to the human and humanistic aspects of regional geography, region-building, and regionalisation and engage more in methodological issues in fieldwork. It briefly discusses the more recent literature on cultural approaches to the region. The chapter presents an important element to the debate, maps and mappings, which should not be regarded as boundary and border markers and makers, but as powerful methodological tools to understand regional worldviews. Visual memory can be disclosed by simultaneously drawing maps and drawing on maps. The emphasis is not on cartographic representations themselves, but on how people engage cartographically with their geographies, histories, and identities and how they express their ideas, values, and emotions. Finally, the chapter presents a case study from Northeast Brazil that is considered as an empirical example of cultures of regional perception and conception.
