HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
[Link] College
Geography Minor 1st Semester
NATURE AND SCOPE OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
MEANING: Human geography concerned with human activities over the earth
surface. In other words ,human geography studies the build enviroment or
human made space or structure in which people live, work and recreate such
as houses, roads, canals, temples, playgrounda and stadia. Etc
DEFINITION:
Vidal-de-Lablache who is known as founder of Human Geography . According
to him human geography is a new branch of the geographical science in which
mutual relationship of the earth and man is studied. The relationship of man
and nature is the subject matter of human geography.
Huntington in his book “Principle of Human Geography’ defines human
geography as “the study of relation of geographical enviroment to human
activities.”
Friedrich Ratzel who wrote the book ‘Anthropogeography’ defines human
geography as the “synthetic study of relationship between human societies
and earths surface.”
Elen Churchill defined human geography as the study of the changing
relationship between the unresting man and the unstable earth.”
Albert Demangeon defined it as “the study of human groups and societies in
their relationship to the physical environment.’’
According to the above definition human geography is the spatial study of
human and human activities in relation to physical environment. It means the
spatial pattern of landscape created by human in various physical conditions as
both active as well as passive agent.
Nature of human geography
Human geography is interdisciplinary where its studies the spatial organisation
of human responses to the physical setting or enviroment in terms of social,
cultural, demographic, economic, and political activities over the earth surface
and its enviroment.
The nature of human geography is that it studies the interaction of both active
human beings and unstable earth surface where physical enviroment has
several limitations offering possibilities for opportunities to human beings and
in response human beings modify the natural enviroment and adjust within
the enviroment. This relation keeps changing with the changing nature of
physical enviroment and human progress.
It is a unique field of knowledge as it provides spatial and temporal ( changing
over time)description of various aspects of human activities and their effects
on the enviroment. Human geography can be defined as the study of the
spatial organization of human beings and their interdependence with the
physical , social and cultural enviroment. Therefore, human geography is
regarded as a bridge between the social sciences and the natural sciences, as
itstudies human activities (human behaviour) in the context of the relationship
betwwn man and nature (enviroment).
Scope of human geography
The scope of human geography is mostly centre around the humans activities
related to social, cultural, economic and political spheres over the earth
surface in relation to enviromental land physical conditions, that are varied
and dynamically changing. There are various branches and subject matter of
Human Geography, these branches are the following -
Population Geography-Human geography embrace the study of human race,
the growth, distribution and density of population of the various parts of the
world, their demographic attributes and migration pattern; and physical and
cultural differences between human group and economic activities.
Settlement Geography-Human geography also takes into account the mosaic
of culture, language, religion, customs and tradition; types and patterns of
rural settlement, the site, size, growth and functions of urban settlements, and
the functional classification of towns.
Economic Geography-The study of spatial distribution of economics activities,
industries, trade, and modes of transportation and communication are
influenced by the physical enviroment are also the important topics of human
geography.
Cultural Geography- Human geographers study the processes through which
human cultures are formed and shaped by the physical enviroment. It includes
the study of the man made enviroment ( cultural landscape), language, religion
and other cultural aspects.
Political Geography- Political Geography study the geo politics of the country
including political system, administration, boundary and frontier, sovereignty.
It studies how the political system effects the distribution of power and
resources across the region.
Social Geography- Social geography study man as a member of a society but
their study area is not an abstract man or not a biological man but men,
women and children who are members of social groups including the relation
of man with his social life. It also studies social identity, class and gender. It
also study impact of globalization on social and cultural landscape of cities and
town
Environmental Geography-It deals with the study of relationship of man and
the natural environment. It studies the impact of natural environment on
human activities and human behaviour. It also deals with the syudy of climate
change, environmental degradation and its conservation.
Thus,Human geography is an interdisciplinary study that draws on ideas
(concept) and methods used in various disciplines, including anthropology,
sociology, economics and environmental science. The multidisciplinary
approach enables human geographers to study human activities (and human
behavior) and the environment from a holistic perspective, taking into account
the complex relationships established between human and nature.
