Class12-

Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
NATURE AND SCOPE

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Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• You have already studied ‘Geography as

a Discipline’ in Chapter I of the book,
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.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• 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.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

How do you see the earth’s surface? Do

you realise that the earth comprises two
major components: nature (physical
environment) and life forms including
human beings?

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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”.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• 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.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• 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?

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• Whether geographical phenomena be

interpreted theoretically or through historic
institutional approach?

• 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.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• It is interesting to note that both

physical and human phenomena are
described in metaphors using symbols
from the human anatomy.

• We often talk of the ‘face’ of the earth,

‘eye’ of the storm, ‘mouth’ of the river,
‘snout’ (nose) of the glacier, ‘neck’ of
the isthmus and ‘profile’ of the soil.
Similarly regions, villages, towns have
been described as ‘organisms’.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• German geographers describe the

‘state/country’ as a ‘living organism’.
Networks of road, railways and water
ways have often been described as
“arteries of circulation”.

• The basic questions now arises, can we

separate nature and human when they
are so intricately intertwined?

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Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

NATURE OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

Human geography studies the inter-

relationship between the physical environment
and sociocultural environment created by
human beings through mutual interaction with
each other.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• elements of physical environment: landforms,

soils, climate, water, natural vegetation and
diverse flora and fauna.

• elements which human beings have created

Houses, villages, cities, road-rail networks,
industries, farms, ports.

• While physical environment has been greatly

modified by human beings, it has also, in
turn, impacted human lives.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

Naturalisation of Humans and Humanisation

of Nature

Human beings interact with their physical

environment with the help of technology.

It is not important what human beings produce

and create but it is extremely important ‘with the
help of what tools and techniques do they
produce and create’.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

Human beings were able to develop technology

after they developed better understanding of
natural laws.

For example, the understanding of concepts of

friction and heat helped us discover fire.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• Similarly, understanding of the secrets of

DNA and genetics enabled us to conquer
many diseases.

• We use the laws of aerodynamics to develop

faster planes.

• You can see that knowledge about Nature is

extremely important to develop technology
and technology loosens the shackles of
environment on human beings.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• In the early stages of their interaction with

their natural environment humans were
greatly influenced by it. They adapted to
the dictates of Nature.

• This is so because the level of technology

was very low and the stage of human
social development was also primitive.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• This type of interaction between primitive

human society and strong forces of nature
was termed as environmental
determinism.

• At that stage of very low technological

development we can imagine the
presence of a naturalised human, who
listened to Nature, was afraid of its fury
and worshipped it.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

The Naturalisation of Humans

Benda lives in the wilds of the Abujh Maad

area of central India.

His village consists of three huts deep in

the wilds. Not even birds or stray dogs that
usually crowd villages can be seen in these
areas.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• Wearing a small loin cloth and armed with his

axe he slowly surveys the penda (forest)
where his tribe practices a primitive form of
agriculture called shifting cultivation.

• Benda is happy that the Mahua trees around

him are in bloom. How lucky I am to be a part
of this beautiful universe, he thinks as he
looks up to see the Mahua, Palash and Sal
trees that have sheltered him since
childhood.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• As he bends down to scoop up a palmful of

water, he remembers to thank Loi-Lugi, the
spirit of the forest for allowing him to
quench his thirst.

• Moving on with his friends, Benda chews on

succulent leaves and roots. The boys have
been trying to collect special plants that
Benda and his people use. He hopes the
spirits of the forest will be kind and lead him
to these herbs.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

These are needed to barter in the madhai or

tribal fair coming up the next full moon. Suddenly
there is a rustling of leaves.

Benda and his friends know it is the outsiders

who have come searching for them in the wilds.
In a single fluid motion Benda and his friends
disappear.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

The story represents the direct

relationship of a household belonging to
an economically primitive society with
nature.

You will realise that in all such cases

nature is a powerful force, worshipped,
revered and conserved.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

There is direct dependence of human

beings on nature for resources which
sustain them. The physical environment
for such societies becomes the “Mother
Nature”.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• The people begin to understand their

environment and the forces of nature with the
passage of time.

• With social and cultural development,

humans develop better and more efficient
technology. They move from a state of
necessity to a state of freedom.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• They create possibilities with the resources

obtained from the environment. The human
activities create cultural landscape.

• The imprints of human activities are created

everywhere; health resorts on highlands,
huge urban sprawls, fields, orchards and
pastures in plains and rolling hills, ports on
the coasts, oceanic routes on the oceanic
surface and satellites in the space

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

The earlier scholars termed this as possibilism.

Nature provides opportunities and human being

make use of these and slowly nature gets
humanised and starts bearing the imprints of
human endeavour.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

Humanisation of Nature

Winters in the town of Trondheim mean fierce

winds and heavy snow. The skies are dark for
months. Kari drives to work in the dark at 8 am.

She has special tyres for the winter and keeps

the headlights of her powerful car switched on.
Her office is artificially heated at a comfortable
23 degrees Celsius.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

The campus of the university she works in is

built under a huge glass dome. This dome keeps
the snow out in winter and lets in the sunshine in
the summer. The temperature is controlled
carefully and there is adequate lighting.

Even though fresh vegetables and plants don’t

grow in such harsh weather, Kari keeps an
orchid on her desk and enjoys eating tropical
fruits like banana and kiwi. These are flown in
from warmer areas regularly.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

With a click of the mouse, Kari can network with

colleagues in New Delhi.

She frequently takes a morning flight to London

and returns in the evening in time to watch her
favourite television serial.

Though Kari is fifty-eight years old, she is fitter

and looks younger than many thirtyyear- olds in
other parts of the world.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• A geographer, Griffith Taylor introduced

another concept which reflects a middle path
(Madhyam Marg) between the two ideas of
environmental determinism and possibilism.

• He termed it as Neodeterminism or stop and

go determinism.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• you might have seen traffic lights Red light

means ‘stop’, amber light provides a gap
between red and green lights ‘to get set’ and
green light means ‘go’.

• The concept shows that neither is there a

situation of absolute necessity (environmental
determinism) nor is there a condition of
absolute freedom (possibilism). It means that
human beings can conquer nature by obeying
it.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• They have to respond to the red signals and

can proceed in their pursuits of development
when nature permits the modifications.

• It means that possibilities can be created

within the limits which do not damage the
environment and there is no free run without
accidents.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• The free run which the developed economies

attempted to take has already resulted in the
green house effect, ozone layer depletion,
global warming, receding glaciers and
degrading lands.

• The neo-determinism conceptually attempts

to bring a balance nullifying the ‘either’ ‘or’
dichotomy.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

Fields and Sub-fields of Human Geography

Human geography, as you have seen, attempts

to explain the relationship between all elements
of human life and the space they occur over.
Thus, human geography assumes a highly inter-
disciplinary nature.

With the expansion of knowledge, new subfields

emerge and it has also happened to human
geography.

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Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

Fields and Sub-fields of Human Geography

• Welfare or humanistic school of thought in

human geography was mainly concerned with
the different aspects of social well-being of the
people. These included aspects such as
housing, health and education.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• Radical school of thought employed Marxian

theory to explain the basic cause of poverty,
deprivation and social inequality. Contemporary
social problems were related to the development
of capitalism.

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

• Behavioural school of thought laid great

emphasis on lived experience and also on the
perception of space by social categories based
on ethnicity, race and religion, etc.

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Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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 Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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Class12-
Class Contemporary
12 -Human Geography
Politics South
Nature
Of Planned Asia
and Scope
Development

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