Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Economic activities
are all of the ways that people the world over make a living. Obviously,
a complete listing plus descriptions would be encyclopedic. To simplify matters, and as a first
step toward geographical analysis of livelihoods, geographers commonly characterize eco-
nomic activities as a four-part scale whose components — primary, secondary, tertiary, and
quaternary activities — become progressively more complex and detached from the natural
environment.
Primary activities
Primary activities involve harvesting the Earth or extracting raw materials from it. Examples include
agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining (Figure 15-1). In each case, the relationship with the envir-
onment is intimate and location-specific — meaning that you can't grow bananas, catch tuna, or mine
coaljustanywhere. Instead, youcanonlyextract resources wheretheyoccuror,inthecase ofagricul-
ture, grow particular crops where conditions are right. As a result, location options for many primary
activities are limited.
Secondary activities
Secondary activities
change the form of raw materials in ways that add to their value. Examples in-
clude processing and manufacturing. Thus, a cheese maker may transform milk into cheddar, which
has a different form and higher price than its raw material. Similarly, an automobile manufacturer
might bring together headlights, tires, upholstery, spark plugs, and so forth at an assembly plant and
transform them into a vehicle that has a different form and higher cost than the sum of its parts.
As these examples illustrate, the raw material required by a secondary activity could be either a nat-
ural substance (milk) or products of previous processing or manufacturing (tires). Those secondary
activities that require natural raw materials usually are located close to relevant primary activities in
order to minimize transportation costs. In contrast, those secondary activities that require processed
or manufactured raw materials are less intimately tied to the natural environment and have more loc-
ation options.
