Final answer:
The identity of a place is influenced by its architectural style, ethnic neighborhoods with unique businesses and art, and religious buildings. Cultural landscapes, both urban and rural, are filled with human-altered elements that hold societal symbolism.
Step-by-step explanation:
Aspects of the built environment significantly contribute to the identity of a place. From the distinctive businesses in ethnic enclaves to public art and residential ornamentation, these elements provide insight into cultural values and the communal identity. Architecture constructed by one group and inhabited by another can lack indicators of the minority's culture, leading geographers to seek understanding through other aspects such as use of public space and artistic expressions.
Religious buildings form a part of this, with their sacred nature differentiating them from profane spaces. Cultural landscapes, whether urban or rural, include a myriad of human-altered elements like buildings and streets in cities or fields and barns in the countryside, symbolic of societal norms. Meinig's notion of landscapes such as The New England Village or the California Suburb exemplify deeply ingrained societal symbolism that impacts our collective understanding of places.