GEOGRAPHY

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GEOGRAPHY

• History and Basic Concepts

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What is Geography?

• Geography is the science that studies the
  distribution of and relationships between
  features found on the earths surface places
  where we live or travel".
• The central issue in Geography evolves around the
  character of places, their similarities, and
  differences
• Erastothenes, an Ancient Greek Scholar first
  coined the term "Geography

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Why is Geography unique among the subjects we
study in college?..1

• It is primarily concerned with how things are
  distributed over the earths surface.
• It uses graphics (maps, pictures, photography
  graphs) and taxonomy (classification of things)
  approach in its studies.
• It plays a part in understanding the contemporary
  world unlike that of any other field of study.

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Why is Geography unique among the subjects we
study in college?..2

• Geography is not defined by its subject matter
  (the things it studies) but rather the method it
  adopts to study those materials.
• Geographers adopt an interdisciplinary (holistic)
  approach to study things processes on the earth
• Geographic Study focuses on the
  inter-relationships between various phenomena
  found on the earths surface

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Human habitat Geographic studies

• The human habitat is made up of
• A natural environment comprising natural
  features e.g. trees, rivers, weather, etc.
• A cultural environment consisting of products of
  human civilization e.g. schools, cities, cars,
  computers and buildings.

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Major sub-disciplines in Physical Human
Geography

• Geography integrates a wide variety of subject
  matter.
• Almost any area of human knowledge can be
  examined from a spatial perspective
• The main divisions are Physical and Human
  Geography

PHYSICAL HUMAN
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Holistic Synthesis

• Geographic studies involves a holistic synthesis.
  
• Holistic synthesis connects knowledge from a
  variety of academic fields in both Human and
  Physical Geography.

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The Holistic Approach strengths and weaknesses

• The holistic nature of Geography is both a
  strength and a weakness.
• Geography's strength comes from its ability to
  connect functional interrelationships that are
  not normally noticed in narrowly defined fields
  of knowledge.
• The holistic approach is weak because holistic
  understanding is often too simple and misses
  important details.

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Historical development of Geography

• The first truly geographical studies occurred
  more than 4,000 years ago when explorers began
  traveling to new lands.
• The Chinese, Egyptian, and Phoenician
  civilizations were beginning to explore the
  places and spaces within and outside their
  homelands.
• The earliest evidence of geographic explorations
  comes from the archaeological discovery of a
  Babylonian clay tablet map that dates back to
  2300 BC.

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Early Greek Geographers1

• The Greeks were the first civilization to
  practice a form of Geography that was more than
  mere map making
• Greek philosophers and scientists were interested
  in learning about spatial nature of human and
  physical features found on the Earth.

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Early Greek Geographers2

• Ancient Greek scholar Eratosthenes first coined
  the word "Geography".
• The term Geography is composed of two Greek
  words
• Geo Earth and
• Graphien to write.
• The Greeks defined Geography as Description of
  the Earth

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Early Greek Geographers3

• Eratosthenes (circa 276 - 194 BC) calculated the
  equatorial circumference of the earth to be
  40,233 kilometers using simple geometric
  relationships.
• This primitive calculation was unusually
  accurate. Measurements of the Earth using modern
  satellite technology have computed the
  circumference to be 40,072 kilometers.
• Eratosthenes coined the term Geography

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Early Greek Geographers - 4

• Aristotle (circa 384 - 322 BC) hypothesized and
  scientifically demonstrated that the Earth had a
  spherical shape using evidence from observations
  of lunar eclipses.
• Herodotus (circa 484 - 425 BC) wrote a number of
  volumes that described the Human and Physical
  Geography of the various regions of the Persian
  Empire.

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Early Roman Geographers

• Greek accomplishments in Geography were passed on
  to the Romans.
• Strabo (circa 64 BC - 20 AD) wrote a 17 volume
  series called "Geographia in which he described
  the Cultural Geographies of various societies
  found from Britain to as far east as India, and
  south to Ethiopia and as far north as Iceland

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Early Roman Geographers

• Ptolemy (circa 100 - 178 AD) published
  Geographike hyphegesis or "Guide to Geography"
  that summarized much of the Greek and Roman
  geographic knowledge
• Ptolemy also made 3 important contributions to
  modern Geography
• created three different methods for projecting
  the Earth's surface on a map,
• calculated coordinate locations for some 8,000
  places on the Earth, and ...
• developed the concepts of geographical latitude
  and longitude

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Early World map based on Ptolemys techniques

• This early world map was constructed using
  techniques developed by Ptolemy. The map is
  organized with crisscrossing lines of latitude
  and longitude.

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Renaissance German Geographers

• Benhardus Varenius (1622-1650) published an
  important geographic reference titled Geographia
  generalis (General Geography 1650). He used
  direct observations and primary measurements to
  present new ideas about geographic knowledge.
• Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) also divided Geography
  into a number of sub-disciplines. He recognized
  the following six branches Physical,
  Mathematical, Moral, Political, Commercial, and
  Theological Geography.

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Renaissance German Geographers

• Alexander von Humboldt published Kosmos (1844)
  which examines the Geology and Physical Geography
  of the Earth.
• Fredrich Ratzel theorized that the distribution
  and culture of the Earth's various human
  populations was strongly influenced by the
  natural environment.
• Carl Ritter (1780-1859) developed the concept of
  Regional Geography

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Basic Concepts Environmental determinism

• Environmental Determinism explains that human
  beings are the products of the environment where
  they live. The environment determines the future
  of people. E.g. coastal people become fishermen,
  those who live in forested areas become loggers
  farmers etc.
• Geographers who supported the Environmental
  determinism concept included
• German scholars - Carl Ritter Friedrich Ratzel
  
• American scholar - Ms. Ellen Churchill Semple.

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Basic concepts - Possibilism

• Possibilism explains that the environment does
  not dictate what people would become. Rather, the
  environment offers opportunities for people to
  become what they choose to be.
• The French Geographer Paul Vidal de la Blanche
  and others opposed the determinism idea. Instead,
  they suggested that human beings were a dominant
  force shaping the environment.
• The idea that humans were modifying the physical
  environment was championed in the United States
  by George Perkins Marsh who wrote - Man and
  Nature or The Earth as Modified by Human Action,
  first published in 1864.

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Four Traditions of Geography

• In 1964, William Pattison suggested that
  modern Geography was composed of four academic
  traditions
• Earth Science Tradition the study of natural
  phenomena from a spatial perspective. This
  tradition is best described as Physical Geography
  
• Culture-Environment Tradition the geographical
  study of human interactions with the environment.
  
• The Location Tradition Geography study of the
  spatial distribution of natural and cultural
  features on the earths surface
• Area Studies (analyses) Tradition the
  geographical study of an area on the Earth at
  either the local, regional, or global scale.

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Jobs for Geographers

• Teaching Geography or Social Studies
• Working as a Surveyor,
• Employed in the Foreign Service.
• Environmental Scientist at DEP
• Town, City, Urban and/or Regional Planner.
• Marketing researcher
• Travel Agents or Tour Guides.
• Cartographer,(USGS) or Defense Mapping Agency,
• Enumeration Officer.
• Officer in the Navy, Army of Air force
• Resource Managers
• GIS Specialists
• Professor in a University
• Consultant (on environmental, landscape issues)