Class

Geography 12th

Chapter 1

Human Geography -
' Nature & Scope
 Geography : Mother of all sciences ( links & influences with other scientific fields
including biology, mathematics etc. Encompasses a wide range of
disciplines &considered foundational to many other areas to study . study
of earth's physical features its climate & its habitants.

(Integrative, empirical, practical.)

Two Major components of earth: Nature ( physical environment ) and life forms including
. human beings. Or atmosphere and hydrosphere.

Physical geography: physical environment

Human geography: Relationship between physical & human worlds, the spatial ( land
area) distribution of human phenomena social & economic
differences between different parts of the world.

Dualism:- Exist in two different forms

(Law making theorising or descriptive
' Regional or systematic approach)

Metaphors used for geography: Face of the earth, eye of the storm, mouth of the river,
shout of the glacier, neck of the isthmus and profile of
the soil.
Definition of human geography by different geographers:
Ratzel ( German geographer )
Human geography as the synthetic study of relationship between human societies and
earth surface,
Ellen [Link]( American geographer )
Human ereography is the study of the changing relationship between the unresting man
and the unstable earth.
Paul Vidal de la blache ( French geographer )
Conception Resulting from a moew synthetic knowledge of the physical laws
governing our earth and of the relations between the living beings which inhabit it.

Nature of Human Geography

Inter -relationship between the physical environment and socio- cultural environment .
. Elements of physical environment - landforms, soils, climate, water, natural
vegetation and diverse flora ( all the plants growing in a particular region) and fauna
(all the animals of an area).

Technology
Indicates level of cultural development of society
Better understanding of natural laws.
e.g. Understanding concept of friction & heat, secrets of DNA and genetics , laws of
aerodynamics

Naturalisation of humans ( Change according to nature )

The naturalisation of humans refers to the process by which humans adapt to, and
become part of , natural environments.

Environmental Determinism : (Friedrich Ratzel) ( one of the

Low level of technology. methods to explain the
Primitive human social Development. connection b/w humans and
Interaction between primitive human society and the environment)
strong forces of nature.
 e.g countries located in hotter climates

How physical environment becomes the "mother nature"?

Ans Human being was directly dependent on nature for his survival and called it " mother
nature".
On the basis of attained knowledge, technology and industries , man has been able to
develop cultural landscape. People began to understand environment and the forces of
nature with the passage of time .
(German geographer Alferd
Possibilism Hettner)
The concept that the natural environment places constraints(barriers ,restrictions)
on human activity, but humans can adapt to some environmental limits while
modifying others using technology.

Examples :
Agricultural advancement ,industrial revolution , technological
revolution
Nature provides opportunities and humans make use of these and
slowly nature gets humanised and starts bearing the imprints of
human endeavour.' Justify
With the passage of time humans are able to innovate and develop
the technology which can help to social and cultural development.
Create new possibilities with the resources obtained.
Examples health resorts,orchards, pastures, sattelite in space.
Humanisation of nature
The process by which humans transform the natural environment to meet their needs
and desires.

Example health resorts ,orchards , sattelites in space etc

Neo Determinism (Griffith Taylor )

Middle path ( madhyam marg) between the two ideas of environmental
determinism and possibilism..
Neo determinism or stop and go determinism.

There is no free run without accidents. Justify

The thought of possibilism in which man was taken as free, uncontrolled and
master of unlimited powers has been criticised because as a consequence of
free run of developed economies many problems are being faced today like
green house effect , ozone layer depletion , global warming etc.

Human geography through the

(CUET)
corridors of time.
human geography through the corridors of time has evolved to encompass a
broad ' range of topics and approaches. It examines the spatial aspects of
human activity, including settlement patterns, migration, cultural
transformations, and interaction with the environment.
 Travellers and explorers used to disseminate info. about areas.
Colonial period provided impetus( stimulus) to further explorations in
order to acces the resources of the regions.

Welfare or humanistic school

Different aspects of social well being of the people .
Include housing , health, and education .

. Radical school
Employed marxian theory ( justifies and predicts the emergence of a stateless and
classless society without private property) to explain causes of poverty ,social in
equality.

Social problems were Related to the development of capitalism .

Behavioural School
Emphasis on lived experience.
Perception of space by social categories based on ethinicity, race, religion etc.

Broad stages and thrust of Human

geography
Early colonial period (Exploration and description)
Imperial and trade interest ( exploration of new areas .)
 An encyclopedia (imp. aspect of the geographer’s
account.)

Later colonial period ' (Regional analysis)

Elaborate description Of a region were undertaken.

Regions were part of a whole i.e. the earth.

1930s through the inter war period (Areal differentiation)

.
Focus on identifying the uniqueness of any region.
Identify why they are different .

Late 1950s to the late 1960s (Spatial organisation)

Law of physics on map
Quantitative revolution ( significant shift in the field of geography
From regional geography into a spatial science. )
('Emergence of humanistic, radical and behaivoural
1970s
schools)
Human geography was made more relevant to the social political reality by
the emergence of these school of thought.

1990s (Post modernism in geography)

Importance of understanding each local context in its own right was
emphasised.
Fields and sub fields of Human
Geography
Relationship between all elements of human life and the space they occur over.
Interface with other sister disciplines in social sciences .