Geography studies the mutual relationship between environment and man."Elaborate this statement.
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Answer:
The concept of geography as the study of man and environment relationship is quite old.
The environmental causation continued throughout the 19th century. Humboldt asserted that the mode of life of the inhabitants of the mountainous countries of the Andes mountains differ from that of the people of Amazon basin, coastal plains and islands like Cuba and West Indies. Ritter attempted to establish the cause variations in the physical constitution of body, physique and health of people living in the different physical environmental conditions.
The idea of defining geography in terms of man and environment relationship developed on scientific lines in the later part of the 19th century after the publication of Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin. This seminal work gave a new direction to the discipline of geography. The theory of evolution held that all living species have evolved from pre-existing forms. His geological observations and theories had one thing in common: the idea that things in nature change with time.
He also believed that the face of the earth also changes with the change in environment over the period of time. In this book, Origin of Species, Darwin presented his idea that species evolve from more primitive species through the process of natural selection. In his account of natural selection occurs, known as Darwinism, he pointed out that not all individuals of a species are exactly the same but have variations and some of these variations make their bearers better adapted to particular ecological conditions.
He theorized that well-adapted individuals of a species have more chance of surviving and producing young than do the less adapted, and that over the passage of time the latter are slowly weeded out. Through his theory Darwin showed how the multitude of living things in our world could have come into being without any recourse to a divine master plan, in a plain, causal, naturalistic way. Darwin argued that a struggle for existence must take place; it followed that those who survived were better adapted to their environment than competitors. This means that relatively superior adaptations increase while relatively inferior ones are steadily eliminated.
The Darwin’s concept of man and environment relationship may be summarized as under:
1. Organisms vary, and these variations are inherited (at least in part) by their offspring.
2. Organisms produce more offspring than can possibly survive.
3. On an average, offspring that vary most strongly in direction favoured by the environment will survive and propagate.
The Darwin’s theory had a far-reaching impact on the growth and development of geography. It assumed that variations in animals were random. In this way, the older teleological conception (the religious belief that God has a plan and every phenomena of the earth have been created to perform certain functions for man) of nature was profoundly challenged.
Darwin’s book upset many established patterns of thought, contradicted firmly held religious tenets (teleological concept) and brought in focus the concept that humans are one species among many that have evolved more primitive one. In his subsequent book, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), Darwin provided evidence of human evolution from one primitive species and discussed the role of sexual selection in evolution.
The concept of defining geography in terms of relationship became quite popular in Germany. The work of Darwin influenced Friedrich Ratzel, who published Anthropogeography in two volumes in 1882 and 1891 respectively.
Ultimately, geography as the science of relationship appeared in the form of environmental determinism. Environmental determinism is the doctrine according to which the human activities are controlled by the physical environment. The environmentalists considered natural environment as the ‘geographic factor’ and their geography was known as ‘pure geography’. In the opinion of environmental determinists, human geography is the study of influence of physical environment on man.
While examining the lifestyle and history of the people in the different regions of the world, it may be said that there is a close relationship between the environment and the mode of life of the people. Undoubtedly, terrain, topography, temperature, rainfall, natural vegetation and soils have a direct bearing on the culture, economy and society of the people, yet the role of man as the transforming agent of his physical surroundings cannot be ignored. In fact, works of man reveal many facts for which environmental forces alone can give no satisfactory explanation. For example, similar locations may not lead to similar mode of life.