INTRODUCTION
Geography is primarily concerned with understanding Earth as the home of humans. It examines all factors that help sustain human life on Earth. The subject highlights the relationship between nature and human beings.
Geography
Physical Geography
- Earth and its structure
- Oceans
- Continents
- Landforms
- Atmosphere
- Solar radiation
- Water
- Climate
Human Geography
- Social Geography
- Population
- Political Geography
- Human Settlements
- Economic Geography
Human Geography Defined
- Ratzel
- Ellen C. Semple
- Paul Vidal de la Blache
Ratzel's Definition:
“Human geography is the synthetic study of relationship between human societies and earth’s surface”.
Ellen C. Semple's Definition:-
“Human geography is the study of the changing relationship between the unresting man and the unstable earth.”
Paul Vidal de la Blache's Definition:
“Conception resulting from a more synthetic knowledge of the physical laws governing our earth and of the relations between the living beings which inhabit it”.
NATURE OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
Human geography studies the inter-relationship between the physical environment and socio cultural environment created by human beings through mutual interaction with each other.
Houses, villages, cities, roads, railways, industries, farms, and ports are all created by humans using natural resources.
physical environment has been greatly modified by human beings, it has also, in turn, impacted human lives.
Naturalisation of Humans
Humanisation of Nature
Naturalisation of Humans
Humans interact with the physical environment using technology. It is not just what humans create but what tools and techniques they use that matter.
Role of Technology:
- Technology shows the cultural progress of a society.
- Better understanding of natural laws helped humans develop technology.
Examples:
- Learning about friction and heat led to the discovery of fire.
- Understanding DNA and genetics helped in curing diseases.
- Knowledge of aerodynamics led to the invention of faster planes.
- Technology loosens the shackles of environment on human beings.
- Early humans were greatly influenced by natural environment due to low technology.
- They adapted to the dictates of Nature as their social development was primitive.
- Interaction between primitive human society and strong forces of nature is called environmental determinism.
- At that stage of very low technological development we can imagine the presence of a naturalised human, who listened to Nature, was afraid of its fury and worshipped it.
Humanisation of Nature
- The people begin to understand their environment and the forces of nature with the passage of time.
- Social and cultural development leads to better and more efficient technology.
- Humans move from a state of necessity to a state of freedom.
- They create possibilities using resources from the environment.
- Human activities leave imprints on the environment, shaping the cultural landscape.
Examples of human imprints:
- Health resorts on highlands
- Huge urban sprawls
- Ports on the coasts
- Oceanic routes on the oceanic surface
- Satellites in space
- Earlier scholars termed this process as possibilism.
- Nature provides opportunities, and humans utilize them to modify the environment.
- Nature gets humanised over time, reflecting human endeavour.
- The environment gradually transforms due to continuous human interaction.
Neodeterminism
Griffith Taylor introduced the concept of Neodeterminism or Stop and Go Determinism. It represents a middle path (Madhyam Marg) between Environmental Determinism and Possibilism. Those of you who live in cities and those who have visited a city, might have seen that traffic is regulated by lights on the cross-roads. Red light means ‘stop’, amber light provides a gap between red and green lights ‘to get set’ and green light means ‘go’.
The concept shows that neither is there a situation of absolute necessity (environmental determinism) nor is there a condition of absolute freedom (possibilism).
This means humans can conquer nature by obeying it. Human actions must respect natural limits to ensure sustainable development.
A free run without restrictions has caused:
- Greenhouse effect
- Ozone layer depletion
- Global warming
- Degrading lands
The neo-determinism conceptually attempts to bring a balance nullifying the ‘either’ ‘or’ dichotomy.
Fields and Sub-fields of Human Geography
human geography assumes a highly inter-disciplinary nature. It develops close interface with other sister disciplines in social sciences in order to understand and explain human elements on the surface of the earth. With the expansion of knowledge, new sub fields emerge and it has also happened to human geography.
