Human Geography: Nature and Scope (Overview) Video Lecture | Geography CUET Preparation - Humanities/Arts

hi welcome to this new series where I'll
be putting up videos of fundamentals of
human geography class 12 NCERT this is
chapter 1 human geography nature and
scope although this chapter is about
human geography but let me just give you
an overview about geography as an
academic discipline geography is divided
into two branches that is physical
geography and human geography physical
geography or sometimes we call it as
physiographic focuses on geography as an
earth science it aims to understand the
physical problems and the issues of
Earth now Earth consists of lithosphere
hydrosphere atmosphere hydrosphere flora
and fauna patterns which means biosphere
all of this combines to form earth on
the other hand human geography is a
branch of geography that focuses on the
study of patterns and processes that
shape the human society it includes the
human political cultural social and
economic aspects now these two branches
have subcategories as well I will not go
into the detail of each category
I will broadly tell you what they are
just as a general information physical
geography includes biogeography
climatology and meteorology coastal
geography environmental management
geomorphology hydrography oceanography
better logy and many more similarly
human geography includes social
geography cultural geography development
geography economic geography geopolitics
demography urban geography
transportation geography and many more
now this lying over here geography got
subjected to dualism the meaning of
dualism is two aspects for a single
subject there is two views on geography
one is giving importance to
environmental site and the other is
giving importance to the social factors
side and that's how it got divided into
physical and human geography however you
must realize that nature and human are
inseparable elements and they should not
be seen separately now try to understand
these lines I'm reading it from the page
we often talk of the face of the earth
I of the storm mouth of the river snout
of the glacier neck of the Isthmus and
profile of the soil I hope you can sense
a bit of poetic feel in these lines we
are comparing human body parts with the
physiographic divisions of the nature if
you recollect in English this sort of
reference and comparison is known as
metaphor which is a figure of speech in
which a word or a phrase is applied to
an object or action to which it is not
directly related so this was the
introduction part of this chapter pretty
long isn't it well I hope you found it
informative and I think anyone who is
beginning to read about geography must
know all these things that we just read
because that's how one can have an idea
as to how this subject is closely
related to our lives so the first topic
of this chapter is nature of human
geography under this topic we study the
interrelationship between the physical
environment and socio-cultural
environment once again let me just
quickly tell you the elements of
physical environment they are landforms
soils climate water natural vegetation
flora and fauna and on the other hand
the elements created by human beings are
houses villages cities road rail
networks industries farms ports and
items offer daily use and when we are
talking about interrelationship between
them we simply mean how humans have
modified the physical environment which
in turn has impacted their lives to a
great extent by modification we mean how
we created farms on bare land how we
created rail networks despite uneven
rough terrain so these are the path
breaking changes we are talking about we
move on to the next topic naturalization
of humans and humanization of nature now
we must realize that in order to develop
or make something we need to be aware of
a surrounding and the things that is
required to make what we want this line
over here nicely sums it up human beings
were able to develop technology after
they developed better understanding of
natural laws some examples are the
concepts of friction and heat has
just discover fire then understanding of
the secrets of DNA and genetics enabled
us to conquer many diseases then we have
the laws of aerodynamics to develop
faster planes so all these are fine
examples of why knowledge about nature
is extremely important to develop
technology this type of interaction
between human society and strong forces
of nature was termed as environmental
determinism so if I were to make this
term in very simple form it simply means
it is the study of how the physical
environment plays an important role
diversity development of nation-states
and societies a small example would be
coal was always there but if we didn't
know how to extract it today we wouldn't
have enjoyed the benefits of constant
supply of electricity as time went by we
understood nature in more better manner
which made us create more efficient
technology today we have discovered so
many ideas and options when there are
many options a sense of freedom comes
from within you know it creates endless
possibilities today due to electricity
we have computers and with computers we
are able to learn anything anytime just
like how you are watching this video and
doing your learning in the most
efficient manner again this is a very
small example in front of discoveries
like ports on the coasts oceanic routes
on the ocean surface and satellites in
the space this all was possible only
after knowing the nature's law and then
creating the necessary tools now we are
going to learn about to geographical
theories environmental determinism and
environmental possible ISM will try to
understand both of these theories
simultaneously let's talk about
environmental determinism it was first
coined by
Ellsworth Huntington although this
theory was very popular but it has long
been discredited in academic circles so
this theory says that culture of any
place is strictly determined by the
physical environment in other words a
population success is not by itself but
because of the environment it is
situated in for example areas that are
too hot or too dry or too
old cannot sustain human life and
population living over there will not
have much success a good example would
be central part of Africa they support
this theory these countries are very hot
and have very few resources and these
countries have very little economic
success now let's talk about
environmental possible ISM it was coined
by with Al de la blecch
a French geographer this theory was
created in response to the determinism
theory it was widely accepted because of
its more liberal approach this theory
says that culture is determined by
social conditions and not strictly by
the physical geographical condition that
the population lives in for example
humans are able to overcome any
environment problems and nothing can
hold them back
Japan is a country that supports this
theory they have economic success and
supports large population despite of the
small size and lack of resources now
there is a third theory introduced by a
geographer named Griffith Taylor his
theory is an interesting one he proposes
to choose a middle path between the two
ideas of environmental determinism and
possible ism he termed it as near
determinism or stop-and-go determinism
so what he means by this here is that
possibilities can be created within the
limits which do not damage the
environment and there should be
accountability for example if your
company cuts down trees forward for
every tea that you cut down you must
plant a tree and further there should be
a check by some authority on over
utilization of resources there should be
some sort of accountability for the
damages that occur I hope you are now
well aware of all the three geographical
theories go through it once more to get
a better grip of it and the last topic
of this chapter is human geography
through the corridors of time human
beings have always adapted themselves
within nature there is no doubt about
that we have read many early men's
stories wherein they rely on nature for
food shelter clothes and all other
amenities but one important thing we
must realize is that earlier there was
very little interact
in between different communities and
societies I mean they used to attack
each other for establishing control and
authority
therefore it is pretty obvious that
knowledge about each other was limited
as in today how we talk to each other
through so many platforms and exchange
information this wasn't possible back
then so the only way information
traveled was through travelers annex
explorers they used to maintain a record
about their travels and visits now there
is another catch here as well
navigational skills were not developed I
mean there was no GPS or any
communication line through which these
travelers would find information about a
particular place hence they always went
to places which were known to the
mankind and avoided unexplored region
because of danger I'm going to go a
little away from the book as it doesn't
have the required information so bear
with me in the late 15th century that is
the time after 1450 many lands
previously unknown to Europeans were
discovered during this period that's why
we call this period as the age of
discovery in the European history since
then mysteries about countries and
people started to open up similar kind
of discoveries were made by the British
they started exploring faraway lands in
order to access the resources of those
regions that's how we Indians came to
the mind as the Indian subcontinent was
rich in minerals and that attracted the
European traders anyways if we go
further this will turn into a history
lesson so this is how the human
geography developed over time and today
it got expanded to numerous subfields
that gives a better understanding of its
subject matter so if at all you're asked
a question at what point in time was the
beginning of human geography so always
remember it was during late 15th century
with this we have come to an end of this
chapter I hope you found this video
informative as usual thanks for watching
and I'll see you in the next one if you
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catch you guys later and talk to you
guys on the next one peace