Geography · Ch 1 — Human Geography: Nature and Scope
Nature of Human Geography
Nature of Human Geography
Human geography studies the inter-relationship between the physical environment and the socio-cultural environment created by human beings through their mutual interaction with each other. The physical environment consists of elements you have already studied: landforms, soils, climate, water, natural vegetation, and diverse flora and fauna. On the stage provided by this physical environment, human beings have created a vast array of elements through their activities — houses, villages, cities, road-rail networks, industries, farms, ports, and all items of our daily use. These are all part of material culture, created using resources from the physical environment. While humans have greatly modified the physical environment, it has also, in turn, impacted human lives.
Naturalisation of Humans and Humanisation of Nature
Human beings interact with their physical environment with the help of technology. What matters is not just what humans produce and create, but with the help of what tools and techniques they do so. Technology indicates the level of cultural development of a society. Humans were able to develop technology only after they developed a better understanding of natural laws. For example, understanding friction and heat helped us discover fire; understanding DNA and genetics helped us conquer many diseases; and we use the laws of aerodynamics to develop faster planes. Knowledge about nature is extremely important to develop technology, and technology loosens the shackles of the environment on human beings.
Environmental Determinism
In the early stages of their interaction with the natural environment, humans were greatly influenced by it. They adapted to the dictates of nature because the level of technology was very low and human social development was primitive. This type of interaction between primitive human society and the strong forces of nature is termed environmental determinism. At this stage of very low technological development, we can imagine the presence of a naturalised human — one who listened to nature, was afraid of its fury, and worshipped it.
The textbook illustrates this with the story of Benda, a member of a primitive tribe in the Abujh Maad area of central India. Benda lives in a village of three huts deep in the wilds. He practices shifting cultivation, burning small patches of forest to clear them and using the ash as fertiliser. He thanks the spirit of the forest, Loi-Lugi, for allowing him to drink from a stream. He chews succulent leaves and roots, and collects special plants like Gajjhara and Kuchla to barter at the tribal fair. When outsiders come searching for them, Benda and his friends disappear into the thick canopy, becoming one with the spirit of the forest. This story represents the direct relationship of an economically primitive society with nature — nature is a powerful force, worshipped, revered, and conserved. There is a direct dependence on nature for resources, and the physical environment becomes "Mother Nature."
Possibilism
With the passage of time, people begin to understand their environment and the forces of nature. With social and cultural development, humans develop better and more efficient technology. They move from a state of necessity to a state of freedom. They create possibilities with the resources obtained from the environment. Human activities create a cultural landscape. The imprints of human activities are created everywhere — health resorts on highlands, huge urban sprawls, fields, orchards and pastures in plains and rolling hills, ports on the coasts, oceanic routes on the oceanic surface, and satellites in space. Earlier scholars termed this possibilism. Nature provides opportunities, and human beings make use of these; slowly, nature gets humanised and starts bearing the imprints of human endeavour.
The textbook illustrates this with the story of Kari, who lives in Trondheim, where winters mean fierce winds, heavy snow, and dark skies for months. Kari drives to work in the dark at 8 am with special winter tyres and headlights on. Her office is artificially heated at 23 degrees Celsius, and the university campus is built under a huge glass dome that keeps snow out in winter and lets sunshine in during summer. Even though fresh vegetables don't grow in such harsh weather, Kari keeps an orchid on her desk and enjoys tropical fruits like banana and kiwi, flown in from warmer areas. With a click of the mouse, she networks with colleagues in New Delhi, and frequently takes a morning flight to London, returning in the evening. At fifty-eight, she is fitter and looks younger than many thirty-year-olds elsewhere. It is technology that has allowed the people of Trondheim to overcome the constraints imposed by nature.
Neodeterminism (Stop and Go Determinism) …
| Period | Approaches | Broad Features |
|---|---|---|
| Early Colonial period | Exploration and description | Imperial and trade interests prompted the discovery and exploration of new areas. An encyclopaedic description of the area formed an important aspect of the geographer's account. |
| Later Colonial period | Regional analysis | Elaborate description of all aspects of a region were undertaken. The idea was that all the regions were part of a whole, i.e. (the earth); so, understanding the parts in totality would lead to an understanding of the whole. |
| 1930s through the inter-War period | Areal differentiation | The focus was on identifying the uniqueness of any region and understanding how and why it was different from others. |
| Late 1950s to the late 1960s | Spatial organisation | Marked by the use of computers and sophisticated statistical tools. Laws of physics were often applied to map and analyse human phenomena. This phase was called the quantitative revolution. The main objective was to identify mappable patterns for different human activities. |