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PRINCIPLES OF GEOGRAPHY GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT BACHELORS OF SCIENCES HONS IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE BSSI 11033 FIRST YEAR FIRST SEMESTER Ms. Chinthani Senavirathna...

PRINCIPLES OF GEOGRAPHY GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT BACHELORS OF SCIENCES HONS IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE BSSI 11033 FIRST YEAR FIRST SEMESTER Ms. Chinthani Senavirathna B.A. (Sp) in Geography, M.Sc. in DRRD Department of Indigenous Social Sciences Faculty of Indigenous Social Sciences and Management Studies GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE © INTRODUCTION - COURSE  Name of the course: Principles of Geography (BSSI 11033)  Lessons: 08  Status: Core  Credit: 03  Learning Hours: 45  Independent Learning Hours:105  Assessment Criteria: Continuous Assessment 60% Final Written Examination 40% GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE © CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT  1. Quiz – 15th May 2024  II. Field Trip – 03rd May 2024  III. Exhibition – 5th June 2024 / Presentation  IV. Classroom Write-Up – 10th July 2024 GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE © INTRODUCTION - COURSE  Aim: To give an acute understanding of the principles of Geography  Outcomes:  At the end of this course unit, students will be able to; - Understand the history of Geography. - Understand the basic concepts of Geography. - Identify the weather and climate systems. - Identify how the landform process has been developed. - Identify the natural resources and its usage. - Identify the population and its characteristics. - Understand the development and its consequences. - Understand the main sectors which support to Gross Domestic Product (GDP)  Objective: The main objective of this unit is to understand the progress of sciences, especially geography, during the ancient, medieval and modern period. GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE ©  GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT  Geography has a genealogy that can be traced back to ancient times and much before the development of any other sciences.  The history of geographical ideas is the account of human efforts to gain more logical and useful information about their habitat and their spread over the surface of the earth.  In earlier times, geography developed due to explorations, mapping of unknown areas and speculations about the resources allocated.  Archaeological evidences suggest that various civilizations contributed to the development and diffusion of geographical knowledge according to their physical and geographical surroundings.  Geography as a field of learning in the Western world had its beginnings among the scholars of ancient Greece. GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE ©  GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF GEOGRAPHY  The contribution of Geographers can be studied in three different time periods: 1. Ancient Nature of the time period 2. Medieval 3. Modern Scholarly Contribution GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE © GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE © VIDEOS  https://www.google.com/search?q=Video+of+Prehistoriacal+era&oq=Video+of+Prehistoriacal+era&aqs=chrome.. 69i57j33i10i160l2j33i10i22i29i30l2.21305j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF- 8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:e6c72441,vid:rLFGra2TiTE  https://happylearning.tv/en/the-ancient-age/  https://www.google.com/search?q=Medieval+age&biw=1280&bih=601&tbm=vid&ei=Y3hIZNTtCuCx4-EPnq- tuAc&ved=0ahUKEwiUq933rMb- AhXg2DgGHZ5XC3cQ4dUDCA0&uact=5&oq=Medieval+age&gs_lcp=Cg1nd3Mtd2l6LXZpZGVvEAMyBQgAEIA EMggIABCKBRCRAjIICAAQigUQkQIyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIICAAQ igUQhgMyCAgAEIoFEIYDOgcIABCKBRBDOgcIABCABBAKOgkIABCKBRAKEEM6CwgAEIAEELEDEIMBOgsIAB CKBRCxAxCDAToICAAQgAQQsQNQ6glY9CZgwChoAXAAeASAAf0BiAHrGJIBBjAuMTYuMpgBAKABAbABA MABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz-video#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:520f8f32,vid:yHughcfloZM GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE © ANCIENT TIME PERIOD  This is the time period largely dominated by scholars who dominated the knowledge world during the development of different civilizations like the Greeks, Romans and so on. All scholars have contributed to a great extent to the growth of geographical knowledge by propounding certain important aspects which formed the base for the development of scientific knowledge in present times.  ANCIENT CLASSICAL PERIOD (ABOUT 1200 B.C. - 500 A.D)  Contribution of the Greeks  Contribution of Romans GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE ©  CONTRIBUTION OF GREEKS  The Egyptian developed ways to measure land areas to collect taxes and identify field boundaries obliterated by the Nile floods.  Among the ancient Greek scholars, we can trace two distinct traditions of geographical studies: (i) The mathematical tradition. (ii) The literary tradition.  The Greek scholars produced topographical descriptions of places in the known world, discussing both natural conditions and the culture and the way of life of the people living there (Holt-Jensen 1981, p. 9).  Greeks, surrounded by such diverse physical features, were able to make tremendous advancements in the fields of geomorphology, climatology and oceanography.  Eratosthenes and Hipparchus made their observations about the size, shape and circumference of the earth. GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE ©  CONTRIBUTION OF ROMANS  The Romans produced very little of their own in the field of geography.  But Strabo’s monumental work on geography was found almost intact with only few minor parts missing. Fortunately, the first part of Strabo’s writing is a review of the works of other geographers since the time of Homer.  Ancient geography came to an end with the monumental work of Ptolemy who lived in the second century after Christ. GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE ©  MEDIEVAL TIME PERIOD  This period has largely been dominated by contributions from Arab scholars. Most of the Arab scholars tried to change the version given by earlier scholars and few of them gave birth to many new concepts as well. This period is also called the period of the Dark Ages.  This era can be divided into two period Early Medieval Period Late Medieval Period  Major Arab scholars during this period namely Al-Biruni, Ibn Sina, Al-Idrisi, Al-Masudi, Ibn Batuta and Ibn Khaldun. Then, in the late medieval period came the period of discovery and renaissance marked by contributions of scholars like Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Captain Cook, Amerigo Vespucci and William Jansz. This period was marked by great scientific and technological developments. GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE © MEDIEVAL TIME PERIOD (BEGAN AROUND 476 A.D) Early Medieval Period:  Middle Ages, starting after the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the Renaissance.  In general, medieval times especially in Europe were a dark period for the development of science and geographical ideas.  However, the tradition of geographical scholarship flourished in the Muslim and Chinese worlds during these times.  Ptolemy’s geocentric model of the universe remained the accepted model of the universe for many centuries and this model was propagated by the Church as well. Ptolemy’s works became more popular during the medieval period and many of his ideas were accepted as the standard of scholarly knowledge. GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE ©  MEDIEVAL TIME PERIOD (BEGAN AROUND 476 A.D) Early Medieval Period: Some of the popular notions regarding world geography as well as astronomy during the middle ages are provided below:  The medieval Christian world witnessed the gradual deterioration of mapping as the period lost the viability of showing alignments and boundaries with precision and accuracy.  Everyone understood that the Earth is a sphere, and the ancient estimates of its diameter of about 15,000 km were generally accepted (actual diameter is about 13,000 km.).  The globe was divided into 5 climatic zones: the Arctic and Antarctic, the temperate zones and a torrid zone along the equator, which was generally thought to be so hot it was uninhabitable.  Maps were not intended to be geometric representations with correct scale and one of the most common world maps was a “T-O map” with a T inside an O. GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE © MEDIEVAL TIME PERIOD (BEGAN AROUND 476 A.D)  According to John Buridan, since an arrow shot straight up returns to its starting point rather than falling behind its starting point due to the rotation of the Earth, this proves that the Earth is not rotating.  Nicole Oresme (Paris, ca. 1350) also noted that one sees only relative motion in astronomy. He refuted Buridan’s objection, noting that on a moving ship the arrow would come back to its starting point also. Here is a first awareness of relative motion and velocity components. He finally chose faith over reason citing Psalm 92: “God has established the world which shall not be moved”.  The Polo brothers and Marco Polo (who was the son of one of the Polo brothers) did make valuable contributions to the Christian world about the Asian landmass.  The Polo brothers visited China and stayed there from 1260 and 1269. They went across the great voyages; the Polo brothers touched the shores of Java and Sumatra and then continued to Ceylon and Southern India. GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE ©  MEDIEVAL TIME PERIOD (BEGAN AROUND 476 A.D) Late Medieval Period:  William of Corches presented some remarkably logical ideas about the heating of the atmosphere from below and the formation of clouds by the cooling of the air.  In early 15th century Cardinal Pierre d’ Ailly published a book- “Tractatus de Imago Mundi”, which represented a summary and review of the period.  In 1414, he used the Latin translation of Ptolemy’s Geography and accepted the smaller estimate of the earth’s circumference.  The Portolano charts became standard quipment for the sea captains.  The famous Catalan Map of the World made in 1375 incorporated the material for numerous Portolano charts.  “This was the first map ever to give a proper outline of Ceylon and the Indian peninsula” (Kimble 1938, p. 193).  The map-makers were a vital necessity in the field of navigation and thus most of the map-makers were working for the merchants and sailors though there were differences of opinion regarding the land beyond equator. GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE ©  ARAB GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT  Geography in the Christian world was basically confined to the translation of the earlier Greek and Roman works, and deductions were made purely on theoretical grounds.  But the geographical explorations and Voyages of the European definitely widened and broadened their geographical outlook.  Earlier Muslim scholars had a fascination towards the works of Ptolemy and his wrong notion about an enclosed Indian ocean which persisted until the mid 200 century, when that erroneous idea was discarded.  The Muslim geographers made valuable contributions to climatology and geomorphology and some of the notions still hold relevance.  Muslim scholars also travelled wide in the Arab world and collected facts from observations which also discarded the Greek concept of habitability.  Muslim geographers are identified as having drawn attention especially to man-environment relations vis-à-vis environmental determinism. GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE © TO BE CONTINUED… Thank you GAMPAHA WICKRAMARACHCHI UNIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS MEDICINE ©