Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the northeastern United States. Each of these theories
can be classifi ed as
environmental determinism,
which
holds that human behavior, individually and col-
lectively, is strongly affected by, even controlled or
determined by, the physical environment.
For a time, some geographers attempted to explain
the location of major cultural hearths as solely a func-
tion of environment. Quite soon, however, certain
geographers doubted whether these sweeping general-
izations were valid. They recognized exceptions to the
environmental determinists' theories. For example, the
Maya civilization in the Americas arose in a tropical cli-
mate that most assumed was incapable of complex cul-
tures. They argued that humanity was capable of much
more than merely adapting to the natural environment.
The many environmentally determinist theories that
explain Europe as “superior” to the rest of the world
because of the climate and location of the region ignore
the fact that for thousands of years, the most techno-
logically advanced civilizations were found outside of
Europe in North Africa, Southwest Asia, Southeast
Asia, and East Asia.
Chipping away at deterministic explanations helped
move the geographic study of the relationships between
human society and the environment in different direc-
tions. Everyone agrees that the natural environment
affects human activity in some ways, but people are the
decision makers and the modifi ers-not just the slaves of
environmental forces. People and their cultures shape
environments, constantly altering the landscape and
affecting environmental systems.
environment, has been supplemented by interest in
polit-
ical ecology
, an area of inquiry fundamentally concerned
with the environmental consequences of dominant political-
economic arrangements and understandings (see Chapter
13). The fundamental point is that human societies are
diverse and the human will is too powerful to be deter-
mined by environment.
Today's Human Geography
Human geography today seeks to make sense of the spa-
tial organization of humanity and human institutions on
Earth's surface, the character of the places and regions
created by people, and the relationships between humans
and the physical environment. Human geography encom-
passes many subdisciplines, including political geography,
economic geography, population geography, and urban
geography. Human geography also encompasses cultural
geography, which incorporates a concern with cultural
traits such as religion, language, and ethnicity.
Cultural geography is both part of human geogra-
phy and also its own approach to all aspects of human
geography. Cultural geography looks at the ways culture
is implicated in the full spectrum of topics addressed in
human geography. As such, cultural geography can be
seen as a perspective on human geography as much as a
component of it.
To appreciate more fully the vast topics researched
by human geographers, we can examine the multitude of
careers human geographers pursue. Human geographers
have titles such as location analyst, urban planner, diplo-
mat, remote sensing analyst, geographic information sci-
entist, area specialist, travel consultant, political analyst,
intelligence offi cer, cartographer, educator, soil scientist,
transportation planner, park ranger, and environmental
consultant. All of these careers and more are open to
geographers because each of these fi elds is grounded in
the understanding of places and is advanced through spa-
tial analysis.
Possibilism
In response to environmental determinism, geographers
argued that the natural environment merely serves to limit
the range of choices available to a culture. The choices that
a society makes depend on what its members need and on
what technology is available to them. Geographers called
this doctrine
possibilism
.
Even possibilism has its limitations, partly because it
encourages a line of inquiry that starts with the physical
environment and asks what it allows. Human cultures,
however, frequently push the boundaries of what is “envi-
ronmentally possible” through their own ideas and inge-
nuity, and advances in technology. In the interconnected,
technologically dependent world we live in today, it is
possible to transcend many of the limitations imposed by
the natural environment.
Today, much research in human geography focuses
on how and why humans have altered environment, and
on the sustainability of their practices. In the process, the
interest in
cultural ecology—
an area of inquiry concerned
with culture as a system of adaptation to and alteration of
Choose a geographic concept introduced in this chapter.
Think about something that is of personal interest to you
(music, literature, politics, science, sports), and consider
how whatever you have chosen could be studied from a
geographical perspective. Think about space and location,
landscape, and place. Write a geographic question that
could be the foundation of a geographic study of the item
you have chosen.
