Ch01 Human Geography Nature - Test Papers
CBSE Test Paper 01
Mention two branches of Political Geography.
Which are the six subfields of human geography?
Who proposed the concept of Neo-determinism?
Name the geographers who advocated 'Environmental Determinism.'
What is the meaning of environmental determinism? How did naturalisation of humans lead to the development of this concept?
Differentiate between Humanistic or Welfare School of Thought and Behavioural School of Thought.
How have people living in Trondheim and other similar places overcome nature?
How is human geography related to other social sciences?
How did man develop and expand proper technology?
Which examples have been described in the context or "Humanisation of Nature” and ‘'Naturalisation of Humans”?
CBSE Test Paper 01
Ch-1 Human Geography Nature and Scope
Answer
Two branches of Political Geography are:
- Electoral geography.
- Military geography.
The six sub-fields of human geography are:
- Geography of resources
- Geography of agriculture
- Geography of industries
- Geography of marketing
- Geography of tourism
- Geography of International trade
Griffith Taylor proposed the concept of Neo-determinism.
Enviornmental determinism rose to its prominent stage in modern geography beginning in the late 19th century when it was revived by the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel and became the central theory in the discipline. Ratzel’s theory came about following Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species in 1859 and was heavily influenced by evolutionary biology and the impact a person’s environment has on their cultural evolution. Envionmental determinism then became popular in the US in the early 20th century when Ratzel’s student Ellen Churchill Semple, a professor at Clark University in Worchester, Massachusetts, introduced the theory there. Semple’s were also influenced by evolutionary biology.
The concept of environmental determinism explains that human is a passive agent, influenced by the environmental factors that are physical factors like climate, flora, fauna, etc which determine the attitude of decision-making and lifestyle of human beings. When technology was not well developed, humans were afraid of nature's fury and worshipped it.
For instance, the Eskimos of Tundra adapted to the extremely cold climate. This type of interaction was between primitive human society and nature. At the time, forces of nature were stronger and humans struggled to survive in that environment. This gave rise to the term environmental determinism.Welfare School of Thought: Welfare School of Thought was mainly concerned with the different aspects of social well-being of the people. These included aspects such as housing, health and education. This thought was the result of rapid changes that happened after Second World War because this war gave birth to many human problems, therefore to solve these problems, welfare or humanistic thought has developed. The welfare geography approach deals with the issues related to inequality and injustice. the basic emphasis of welfare geography is on who gets what, where and how. The ‘who’ suggests a population of an area under review (a city, region or nation). The ‘what’ refers to various facilities and handicaps enjoyed and endured by the population in the form of services, commodities, social relationships, etc. The ‘where’ refers to the differing living standards in different areas and ‘how’ reflects the process by which the observed differences arise.
Behavioural School of Thought: In 1950-60, on the basis of psychological researches through qualitative and other methods many humanitarian aspects like human race, caste and religion 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 region, etc. The behaviouristic approach is largely inductive, aiming to build general statements out of observations of ongoing processes. The essence of behavioural approach in geography lies in the fact that the way in which people behave is mediated by their understanding of the environment in which they live or by the environment itself with which they are confronted.
The people living in Trondheim and other similar places have overcome nature through technology. For example, during 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. 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.
Human geography attempts to explain the relationship between all elements of human life and space. In this way, human geography assumes a highly interdisciplinary nature. Human geography deals with the interaction of human beings with the environment. Since no human action can possibly be viewed in isolation, the discipline of human geography, inevitably, had to establish close interlinks, and often overlaps, with other sister disciplines of social sciences.
Human beings were able to develop proper technology using his knowledge and intelligence. It has taken man a long time to reach at the present level of technology. In primitive age when the level of technology was very low man was bound to follow the dictates of nature. In those times man was a slave of nature, scared of its powerful force and used to worship nature to make it happy. In these conditions the state of cultural development was also primitive. However, the process was gradual but man developed technology and it is also to be noted that man has been able to utilise this technology only after understanding the various laws of nature. For example; understanding of laws of friction gave birth to many inventions. Similarly after understanding secrets of DNA and laws of genetics, man has overcome many diseases and aeroplanes could be invented only after understanding the laws of aerodynamics.
Today the level of technology is touching the heights of sky through which man seems to get free from the natural forces. Earthquake, cyclones, landslides, volcanoes and other natural disasters keep reminding man that he is still a slave to nature.. Technology helped in reducing the harshness of labour, increased labour efficiency and provided leisure to human beings to attend to the higher needs of life. It also increased the scale of production and the mobility of labour.
Naturalisation of Humans: In context of naturalisation of humans the following example has been taken: There was a man called Benda who lived in the wilds of the Abujh Maad area of central India. His village consisted of three huts deep in the wilds. Not even birds or stray dogs that usually crowded villages could be seen in these areas. Wearing a small loin cloth and armed with his axe he slowly surveyed the penda where his tribe practiced a primitive form of agriculture called shifting cultivation. Benda and his friends burnt small patches of forest to clear them for cultivation. The ash was used for making the soil fertile. Benda used to feel lucky to be born in such beautiful natural surroundings. When he used to take palmful of water, he remembered to thank Loi-Lugi, the spirit of the forest for allowing him to quench his thirst. He chewed on succulent leaves and roots. The boys used to collect Gajjhara and Kuchla, from the forest. These are special plants that Benda and his people used. He hoped the spirit of the forest would be kind and lead him to these herbs. These are needed to barter in the Madhai or tribal fair coming up the next full moon. He closed his eyes and tried hard to recall what the elders had taught him about these herbs and the places they were found in. He wished he had listened more carefully. Suddenly there was a rustling of leaves. Benda and his friends knew it is the outsiders who had come searching for them in the wilds. In a single fluid motion Benda and his friends disappeared behind the thick canopy of trees and became one with the spirit of the forest.
Humanisation of Nature: In this context the following example has been takens. Winters in the town of Trondheim meant fierce winds and heavy snow. The skies were dark for months. Kari used to drive to work in the dark at 8 am. She had special tyres for the winter and kept the headlights of her powerful car switched on. Her office was artificially heated at a comfortable 23 degrees Celsius. The campus of the university she worked in was built under a huge glass dome. This dome kept the snow out in winter and let in the sunshine in the summer. The temperature was controlled carefully and there was adequate lighting. Even though fresh vegetables and plants didn’t grow in such a harsh weather, Kari kept an orchid on her desk and enjoyed eating tropical fruits like banana and kiwi. These were flown in from warmer areas regularly. With a click of the mouse, Kari could network with colleagues in New Delhi. She frequently took a morning flight to London and returned in the evening in time to watch her favourite television serial. Though Kari was fifty-eight years old, she looked fitter and younger than many thirty-years-old people.
