Human Geography - Nature and Scope (PDF)

You have already studied ‘Geography as a Unit-I Discipline’ in Chapter I of the book, Chapter-1 Fundamentals of Physical Geography (NCERT, 2006). Do you recall the contents? This chapter has broadly covered and introduced...

You have already studied ‘Geography as a Unit-I Discipline’ in Chapter I of the book, Chapter-1 Fundamentals of Physical Geography (NCERT, 2006). Do you recall the contents? This chapter has broadly covered and introduced you to the nature of geography. You are also acquainted with the important branches that sprout from the body of geography. If you re-read the chapter you will be able to recall the link of human geography with the mother discipline i.e. geography. As you know geography as a field of study is integrative, empirical, and practical. Thus, the reach of geography is extensive and each and every event or phenomenon which varies over space and time can be studied geographically. How do you see Human Geography the earth’s surface? Do you realise that the earth comprises two major components: nature Nature and Scope (physical environment) and life forms including human beings? Make a list of physical and human components of your surroundings. Physical geography studies physical environment and human geography studies “the relationship between the physical/natural and the human worlds, the spatial distributions of human phenomena and how they come about, the social and economic differences between different parts of the world”.1 You are already aware of the fact that the core concern of geography as a discipline is to understand the earth as home of human beings and to study all those elements which have sustained them. Thus, emphasis is on study of nature and human beings. You will realise that geography got subjected to dualism and the wide-ranging debates started whether geography as a discipline should be a law making/theorising (nomothetic) or descriptive (idiographic). Whether its subject matter should be organised and approach of the study should be regional or systematic? Whether geographical phenomena be interpreted theoretically or through historic- institutional approach? These have been issues for intellectual exercise but finally you will appreciate that the dichotomy between physical and human is not a very valid one because nature and human are inseparable elements and should be seen holistically. It is interesting to note that both physical and human 1 Agnew J. Livingstone, David N. and Rogers, A.; (1996) Blackwell Publishing Limited, Malden, U.S.A. p. 1 and 2. Reprint 2024-25 phenomena are described in metaphors using have already studied the elements of physical symbols from the human anatomy. environment in class XI in the book entitled We often talk of the ‘face’ of the earth, ‘eye’ Fundamentals of Physical Geography (NCERT of the storm, ‘mouth’ of the river, ‘snout’ (nose) 2006). You know that these elements are of the glacier, ‘neck’ of the isthmus and ‘profile’ landforms, soils, climate, water, natural vegetation of the soil. Similarly regions, villages, towns and diverse flora and fauna. Can you make a list have been described as ‘organisms’. German of elements which human beings have created through their activities on the stage provided by geographers describe the ‘state/country’ as a the physical environment? Houses, villages, cities, ‘living organism’. Networks of road, railways road-rail networks, industries, farms, ports, items and water ways have often been described as of our daily use and all other elements of material “arteries of circulation”. Can you collect such culture have been created by human beings terms and expressions from your own using the resources provided by the physical language? The basic questions now arises, can environment. While physical environment has we separate nature and human when they are been greatly modified by human beings, it has so intricately intertwined? also, in turn, impacted human lives. Naturalisation of Humans and Human Geography Defined Humanisation of Nature “Human geography is the synthetic study Human beings interact with their physical of relationship between human societies and environment with the help of technology. It is earth’s surface”. Ratzel not important what human beings produce and create but it is extremely important ‘with the Synthesis has been emphasised in the help of what tools and techniques do they above definition. produce and create’. “Human geography is the study of the Technology indicates the level of cultural changing relationship between the unresting development of society. Human beings were man and the unstable earth.” able to develop technology after they developed better understanding of natural laws. For Ellen C. Semple example, the understanding of concepts of friction and heat helped us discover fire. Dynamism in the relationship is the keyword Similarly, understanding of the secrets of DNA in Semple’s definition. and genetics enabled us to conquer many “Conception resulting from a more diseases. We use the laws of aerodynamics to synthetic knowledge of thephysical laws develop faster planes. You can see that governing our earth and of the relations knowledge about Nature is extremely important between the living beings which inhabit it”. to develop technology and technology loosens the shackles of environment on human beings. Paul Vidal de la Blache In the early stages of their interaction with their Human geography offers a new conception natural environment humans were greatly of the interrelationships between earth and influenced by it. They adapted to the dictates human beings. of Nature. This is so because the level of technology was very low and the stage of human social development was also primitive. This type of interaction between primitive NATURE OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY human society and strong forces of nature was termed as environmental determinism. At Human geography studies the inter-relationship that stage of very low technological development between the physical environment and socio- we can imagine the presence of a naturalised cultural environment created by human beings human, who listened to Nature, was afraid of through mutual interaction with each other. You its fury and worshipped it. 2 Fundamentals of Human Geography Reprint 2024-25  human beings on nature for resources which The Naturalisation of Humans sustain them. The physical environment for such societies becomes the “Mother Nature”. Benda lives in the wilds of the Abujh Maad area of central India. His village consists of The people begin to understand their three huts deep in the wilds. Not even birds environment and the forces of nature with the or stray dogs that usually crowd villages can passage of time. With social and cultural be seen in these areas. Wearing a small development, humans develop better and more loin cloth and armed with his axe he slowly efficient technology. They move from a state of surveys the penda (forest) where his tribe necessity to a state of freedom. They create practices a primitive form of agriculture called possibilities with the resources obtained from shifting cultivation. Benda and his friends the environment. The human activities create burn small patches of forest to clear them cultural landscape. The imprints of human for cultivation. The ash is used for making the soil fertile. Benda is happy that the activities are created everywhere; health resorts Mahua trees around him are in bloom. How on highlands, huge urban sprawls, fields, lucky I am to be a part of this beautiful orchards and pastures in plains and rolling universe, he thinks as he looks up to see hills, ports on the coasts, oceanic routes on the the Mahua, Palash and Sal trees that have oceanic surface and satellites in the space. The sheltered him since childhood. Crossing the earlier scholars termed this as possibilism. penda in a gliding motion, Benda makes Nature provides opportunities and human his way to a stream. As he bends down to being make use of these and slowly nature gets scoop up a palmful of water, he remembers to thank Loi-Lugi, the spirit of the forest for humanised and starts bearing the imprints of allowing him to quench his thirst. Moving human endeavour. on with his friends, Benda chews on succulent leaves and roots. The boys have been trying to collect Gajjhara and Kuchla, Humanisation of Nature from the forest. These are special plants that Benda and his people use. He hopes Winters in the town of Trondheim mean fierce the spirits of the forest will be kind and lead winds and heavy snow. The skies are dark him to these herbs. These are needed to for months. Kari drives to work in the dark at barter in the madhai or tribal fair coming up 8 am. She has special tyres for the winter the next full moon. He closes his eyes and and keeps the headlights of her powerful car tries hard to recall what the elders had taught switched on. Her office is artificially heated him about these herbs and the places they at a comfortable 23 degrees Celsius. The are found in. He wishes he had listened more campus of the university she works in is built carefully. Suddenly there is a rustling of under a huge glass dome. This dome keeps leaves. Benda and his friends know it is the the snow out in winter and lets in the sunshine outsiders who have come searching for them in the summer. The temperature is controlled in the wilds. In a single fluid motion Benda carefully and there is adequate lighting. Even and his friends disappear behind the thick though fresh vegetables and plants don’t grow canopy of trees and become one with the in such harsh weather, Kari keeps an orchid spirit of the forest. on her desk and enjoys eating tropical fruits like banana and kiwi. These are flown in from warmer areas regularly. With a click of the The story in the box represents the direct mouse, Kari can network with colleagues in relationship of a household belonging to an New Delhi. She frequently takes a morning economically primitive society with nature. Read flight to London and returns in the evening in about other primitive societies which live in time to watch her favourite television serial. complete harmony with their natural Though Kari is fifty-eight years old, she is environment. You will realise that in all such cases fitter and looks younger than many thirty- nature is a powerful force, worshipped, revered year- olds in other parts of the world. and conserved. There is direct dependence of Human Geography: Nature and Scope 3 Reprint 2024-25  Can you imagine what has made such a life style possible? It is technology that has Welfare or humanistic school of thought in allowed the people of Trondheim and others to human geography was mainly concerned with overcome the constraints imposed by nature. Do the different aspects of social well-being of the you know about some other such instances? people. These included aspects such as Such examples are not difficult to find. housing, health and education. Geographers A geographer, Griffith Taylor introduced have already introduced a paper as Geography another concept which reflects a middle path of Social well-being in the Post Graduate (Madhyam Marg) between the two ideas of curriculum’. environmental determinism and possibilism. Radical school of thought employed Marxian He termed it as Neodeterminism or stop and theory to explain the basic cause of poverty, go determinism. Those of you who live in cities deprivation and social inequality. Contemporary and those who have visited a city, might have social problems were related to the development seen that traffic is regulated by lights on the of capitalism. cross-roads. Red light means ‘stop’, amber light provides a gap between red and green lights ‘to Behavioural school of thought laid great get set’ and green light means ‘go’. The concept emphasis on lived experience and also on the shows that neither is there a situation of perception of space by social categories based absolute necessity (environmental determinism) on ethnicity, race and religion, etc. nor is there a condition of absolute freedom (possibilism). It means that human beings can conquer nature by obeying it. They have to Fields and Sub-fields of Human Geography respond to the red signals and can proceed in their pursuits of development when nature Human geography, as you have seen, attempts permits the modifications. It means that to explain the relationship between all elements possibilities can be created within the limits of human life and the space they occur over. which do not damage the environment and there Thus, human geography assumes a highly is no free run without accidents. The free run inter-disciplinary nature. It develops close which the developed economies attempted to interface with other sister disciplines in social take has already resulted in the green house sciences in order to understand and explain effect, ozone layer depletion, global warming, human elements on the surface of the earth. receding glaciers and degrading lands. The With the expansion of knowledge, new sub- neo-determinism conceptually attempts to fields emerge and it has also happened to bring a balance nullifying the ‘either’ ‘or’ human geography. Let us examine these fields dichotomy. and sub-fields of Human Geography (Table 1.2). Table 1.1: Broad Stages and Thrust of Human Geography Period Approaches Broad Features Early Colonial Exploration and Imperial and trade interests prompted the discovery and period description exploration of new areas. An encyclopaedic description of the area formed an important aspect of the geographer’s account. Later Colonial Regional analysis Elaborate description of all aspects of a region were period 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. 4 Fundamentals of Human Geography Reprint 2024-25 1930s through the Areal differentiation The focus was on identifying the uniqueness of any inter -War period region and understanding how and why it was different from others. Late 1950s to the Spatial organisation Marked by the use of computers and sophisticated late 1960s 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. 1970s Emergence of Discontentment with the quantitative revolution and humanistic, radical its dehumanised manner of doing geography led to and behavioural the emergence of three new schools of thought of schools human geography in the 1970s. Human geography was made more relevant to the socio-political reality by the emergence of these schools of thought. Consult the box below to know a little bit more about these schools of thought. 1990s Post-modernism in The grand generalisations and the applicability of geography universal theories to explain the human conditions were questioned. The importance of understanding each local context in its own right was emphasised. Table 1.2: Human Geography and Sister Disciplines of Social Sciences Fields of Sub-fields Interface with Sister Human Disciplines of Social Sciences Geography Social — Social Sciences – Sociology Geography Behavioural Geography Psychology Geography of Social Welfare Economics Well-being Geography of Leisure Sociology Cultural Geography Anthropology Gender Geography Sociology, Anthropology, Women’s Studies Historical Geography History Medical Geography Epidemology Urban — Urban Studies and Planning Geography Political — Political Science Geography Electoral Geography Psephology Military Geography Military Science Population — Demography Geography Settlement — Urban/Rural Planning Geography Human Geography: Nature and Scope 5 Reprint 2024-25  Economic — Economics Geography Geography of Resources Resource Economics Geography of Agriculture Agricultural Sciences Geography of Industries Industrial Economics Geography of Marketing Business Studies, Economics, Commerce Geography of Tourism Tourism and Travel Management Geography of International International Trade Trade EXERCISES 1. Choose the right answer from the four alternatives given below. (i) Which one of the following statements does not describe geography? (a) an integrative discipline (b) study of the inter-relationship between humans and environment (c) subjected to dualism (d) not relevant in the present time due to the development of technology. (ii) Which one of the following is not a source of geographical information? (a) traveller’s accounts (b) old maps (c) samples of rock materials from the moon (d) ancient epics (iii) Which one of the following is the most important factor in the interaction between people and environment? (a) human intelligence (c) technology (b) people’s perception (d) human brotherhood (iv) Which one of the following is not an approach in human geography? (a) Areal differentiation (c) Quantitative revolution (b) Spatial organisation (d) Exploration and description 2. Answer the following questions in about 30 words. (i) Define human geography. (ii) Name some sub-fields of human geography. (iii) How is human geography related to other social sciences? 3. Answer the following questions in not more than 150 words. (i) Explain naturalisation of humans. (ii) Write a note on the scope of human geography. 6 Fundamentals of Human Geography Reprint 2024-25