Geography: Compilation of Essays on Geography | Geography

Here is an essay on ‘Geography’. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Geography’ especially written for school and college students.

Essay on Geography

---

Essay Contents:

1. Essay on the Introduction to Geography
2. Essay on the Meaning and Scope of Geography
3. Essay on the Fundamental Concepts of Geography
4. Essay on the Nature of Geography
5. Essay on the Approaches to the Study of Geography
6. Essay on the Branches of Geography
7. Essay on the Modern Philosophy of Geography
8. Essay on the Interactions of Geography with Other Sciences

1. Essay on the Introduction to Geography:

It was Eratosthenes, the great scholar of ancient Greece, who is identified to have coined the word geography, as ‘the study of the Earth as the home of man’. This definition still persists in a slightly different way-as ‘the study of the Earth’s surface as the space within which the human population lives’. The word ‘geography’ comes from the Greek words ‘geo’ (the Earth) and ‘graphien’ (to write).

The discipline of geography is essentially a human creation. It begins with man’s attempts to identify a particular extent of territory on the Earth’s surface as his living space. The identification of the territory, or the discovery of living space, reveals a close manifestation of his own mind. With the spread of knowledge, man has attempted to discover and describe many different areas, depending upon his capacity to observe and to generalise what he has discovered and observed.

During the long record of man’s efforts to gain more and more knowledge about the face of the Earth as the human habitat, there has been a continuing interplay between things and events observed through senses, and the mental images of things and events.

The direct observation through the senses is described as the percept, and the mental image of things and events is described as the concept. Percepts are what people feel or sense, and describe as reality, e.g. the identification of the territory for habitation, which reveals a clear manifestation of their experiences about the nature of land to be settled/occupied.

Concepts, on the other hand, are theoretical, implying that they are not real. People simply imagine of events, things and phenomena which they have not sensed and experienced or seen, and the derived deductions are based on pre­conceived opinions.

Geography thus emerged as a result of interplay between the percept and concept, and aimed at man’s needs and requirements to gain more and more knowledge of the human habitat and of man’s spread over the Earth.

2. Essay on the Meaning and Scope of Geography:

The word ‘geography’ has been in use since the time of Eratosthenes. At first it included all aspects dealing with description of Earth and its parts. As mentioned, the word ‘geography’ consists of two Greek words, ‘geo’ (the Earth) and ‘graphein’ (to write).

The former is more important and refers to ‘the zone of contact of the solid, liquid and gaseous masses that make up the planet’, while the latter refers to the description of these phenomena in relation to ‘place, localisation and distribution’.

A description of these earth-bound phenomena is geography. There are varieties of phenomena occurring on the surface of the Earth— some are mutually inclusive, some are mutually exclusive, others are interrelated and interacting, while some are purely physical phenomena and some others are purely human phenomena.

But all these phenomena, whether physical or human, are relative, in as much as they have distinct ‘place’ of their ‘localisation’ and ‘distribution’. A combination of both physical and human phenomena, occurring on the Earth’s surface as mutually interrelated and interacting, appears to be the ‘core’ and the ‘raison d’etre’ of geography.

The word ‘geography’ could be well explained and understood by the sentence ‘where do the people live? The word ‘where’ refers to place and localisation on the surface of the Earth that the people choose, and the word ‘live’ refers to ‘distribution and concentration of the people’.

Inherent in the sentence are the ‘space and time factors’. The Earth bound phenomena are ever- changing either by the natural calamities and disasters, or by the part that the people play in modifying the face of the Earth. Natural disasters intrinsically refer to ‘space and time’—disaster will befall on a particular place at a particular time (place, localisation, distribution understood).

Similar connotation is inherent in ‘the part that the people play in modifying the face of the Earth’. ‘Play’ and ‘modifying’ refer to ‘particular time’ because people here are identified with a particular set of time with a distinct way of living which is changeable in temporal perspective, while ‘the face of the Earth’ refers to that which forms the habitat or environment or space which is dependent entirely on man’s selection, and the way changes and modifications of different sets of the earth-bound phenomena are done (place, localisation and distribution understood). All these earth-bound phenomena are properly enumerated in geography.

Geography attempts to bridge the widening gap between the changing physical and biological phenomena on the one hand, and the changing human phenomena on the other. There can be no geography without both, and without geography, knowledge about the Earth is fragmented and incomplete.

Geography has been rightly defined as to provide accurate, orderly, and rational description and interpretation of the variable character of the Earth Surface. By ‘variable character’ is meant the spatial variation that occurs between the character of the Earth’s surface at one location and another.

This variation may occur at all map scales, from the globe itself (say, between continent and continent) down to a very local level (say, between one district and another within an area). By ‘Earth surface’ we mean that rather thin shell, only about one thousandth of the planet’s circumference in thickness, that forms the habitat or environment within which lives the human population for survival.

Each different location on the surface of the Earth is an ensemble of celestial, terrestrial and human phenomena, and geography must represent an approach to the empirical knowledge of these phenomena which is necessary for philosophical research. Geography essentially studies that man- environment relationship, as developed in different locations on the surface of the Earth, in the form of an assemblage of interrelated phenomena.

This man-environment relationship with the interrelated phenomena, occurring on the surface of the Earth, has been approached in three different ways, as providing three different types of geography—the Geocratic type of geography; the Theocratic type of geography; and the We-ocratic type of geography.

‘Geocratic type of geography’ suggests that the Earth (nature) itself plays a great part in determining the type of life which develops in a particular area. Alexander Von Humboldt attempted to demonstrate man’s dependence upon his environment.

The growth of Darwinism in the late 1850s placed greatest emphasis on environment and environmental changes. Friedrich Ratzel nourished the Geocratic geography in a more scientific way, i.e. through a hypothetic- deductive method. As a result, the question ‘why do people live as and where they do’ is rationally and scientifically described/answered.

‘Theocratic type of geography’ seeks to understand various kinds of phenomena, observable on the surface of the Earth, in relation to their underlying purposes. Carl Ritter, a contemporary of Humboldt, attempted to combine an ideological (Greek teleos=purpose) approach with a simple deterministic model (geocratic approach) in which everything that occurs on the Earth’s surface is directed to purpose whose controlling conditions are laid down by god.

His ideas on the ‘wholeness’ of things were in accordance with the writings of the German ‘idealist’ philosopher Hegel whose attitudes amounted to comprehend the entire universe, to know the infinite and to see all things in god.

‘We-ocratic type of geography’ has developed in opposition to the geocratic type and the theocratic type. It seeks to suggest that the environment offers a number of possibilities, and their utilisation is dependent almost entirely on human selection. The we-ocratic type gave rise to the school of possibilism of which Paul Vidal de la Blache was the main architect.

According to him, it is unreasonable to draw boundaries between natural and cultural phenomena; they should be regarded as united and inseparable. The areas over which such an intimate relationship between man and nature has developed through the centuries constitute a ‘region’, and each region is unique and particular.

The ‘observable-interrelated phenomena’ occurring in different locations, on account of non-environment relationships on the Earth’s surface, have been accounted for in the above three different ways and approaches. All these approaches, therefore, attempt to provide rational description and interpretation of the variable character of man-environment relationships.

Geography studies variations in phenomena from place to place, and its value as an academic discipline depends on the extent to which it can clarify the connections between different features of the same area, i.e. ‘the interrelated phenomena’. The central geographical question is ‘why is it like this here’? All the phenomena which have a recognisable ‘spatial’ distribution or can be shown on a map are basically of geographical interest.

The term ‘spatial’ describes a particular type of distribution—one that is spread out over a surface, rather than categorises objects as in statistical distributions. Thus spatial distributions include objects (phenomena) that are spread out from each other in space on a surface that usually means the surface of the Earth. Each spatial distribution is made up of objects that are similar to each other. The individual objects that make up a spatial distribution are arranged so that their pattern, density and dispersion can be analysed and mapped.

‘Pattern’ refers to the geometric arrangements of the objects; ‘density’ means how many objects per unit area; and ‘dispersion’ means how spread out from each other the objects are. Geographers can compare one spatial distribution with another by comparing the three elements of pattern, density and dispersion.

Thus, the scope or field of geography is the ensemble of phenomena that occur in the zone of contact of the solid, liquid and gaseous masses that make up the planet, or the geosphere. These phenomena are analysed and rationally described in relation to place, localisation and distribution. Thus, the scope or field of geography is wide enough to include a double aspect—physical environment or nature and human life.

To explain their existence on the Earth’s surface, one needs to borrow from both the natural sciences and humanities or social sciences. The field of geography contains eight sub-divisions, which in turn are linked with eight major disciplines.

Thus geography links the four ‘natural or environmental sciences’ of geology, physics, astronomy and botany with the four ‘human or social sciences’ of history, anthropology, sociology and economics. There are vast uncharted areas on the borders of regional geography which merge into the eight subjects specified.

Sciences do overlap and each one of the overlapping zones, which also represent specialised, systematic branches of geography, belongs equally to some other science. The question is whether geography occupies anything more than these overlapping zones.

Is anything left in the centre which is specifically geographical? What should be missing if the geography of an area were prepared and written by a group of people who were specialised in their disciplines and each of whom contributed his own chapter—the geologist writing about the rocks, the botanist about the plant life, the economist about the economic conditions, the sociologist about the social life, the physicist about climate, the pedalogist about the soil structure, the astronomer about the celestial phenomena and the motion of the heavenly bodies, and the demographer about population condition?

Such an account would surely fail to consider the overall interaction between recognisable phenomena occurring on the surface of the Earth. It is easy to see, for example, that the relationship between climate and soil type must have an important bearing on condition of agricultural production and that the development of industry in an area may not be due only to economic factors but also to the natural resources of the area, its population potential and its historical, political and social development.

Fennman and Griffith Taylor argued that the interaction of these factors can primarily be studied within definite areas or regions and concluded that geography should attempt to cultivate the core, regional geography, as a safeguard against absorption by other sciences.

Geography is a mother discipline from which other specialised disciplines like geodesy, meteorology, soil science, plant ecology, and regional science have emerged. It is not like an inward-looking discipline as Fennman’s geography suggests, but it has become an outward-looking discipline.

This multi-disciplinary perspective may be regarded both as our raison d’etre and our life-raft sea of knowledge. If the periphery seems interesting, why not explore it; this would only widen the scope of geography. Geography does not border on the systematic sciences, overlapping them in common parts on a common plane, but is on a transverse plane cutting through them.

Some Specific Definitions of Geography:

1. Geography is concerned to provide accurate, orderly, and rational description and interpretation of the variable character of the Earth’s surface.

2. Geography has to be conceived as the science concerned with the formulation of the laws governing the spatial distribution of certain features on the surface of the Earth.

3. It is the study of spatial distributions and space relations on the Earth’s surface.

4. It seeks to understand the Earth as the world of man, with particular reference to the differentiation and integration of place.

5. Geography can be regarded as a science, concerned with the rational development, and testing, of theories that explain and predict the spatial distribution and location of various characteristics on the surface of the earth.

6. Geography is the study of spatial organisation expressed as patterns and processes.

7. Geography offers a broad synoptic view of spatial relationships in human affairs.

8. Marxist geography is that part of a whole science which deals with the interrelationship between social processes on the one hand, and spatial processes on the other.

9. The focus of all geographical enquiries is place. This implies location on the Earth’s surface, the relationship between it and other locations, and the processes affecting changes in those relationships.

3. Essay on the Fundamental Concepts of Geography:

It is clear from the above definitions that geography is based on certain fundamental concepts which intrinsically manifest its ‘philosophy’.

A brief idea of each of the major fundamental concepts is given below for a proper understanding of the philosophy of geography:

(i) Earth’s Surface:

All those phenomena which occur on the surface of the Earth and which are recognisable (such as rock type and arrangement, configuration and drainage, climate, soil, flora and fauna, ocean currents, and human habitat) and which lead to the spatial variation that occurs between the character of the Earth’s surface at one location and another, are treated in geography.

This is the most fundamental concept. This concept makes geography worthy of its name, which it seeks to describe and interpret the differences among its different parts as seen at any given time, commonly the present.

(ii) Areal Differentiation:

As inherent in the earlier concept that the phenomena occurring on the Earth’s surface are variable in character, so there are ‘differences in different areas on the surface of the Earth’.

There are three basic reasoning to the concept:

(a) The interrelation of different kinds of phenomena that are directly or indirectly tied to the earth;

(b) The differential character of these phenomena and the complexes they form in different areas of the earth; and

(c) The areal expression of the phenomena or complexes. These criteria lead to promote geography as ‘chorology’ whose highest expression is regional geography.

(iii) The Region:

From the concept of areal differentiation (chorology) has evolved the concept of Region—that each individual unit of a given area is unique, and distinguishable from one another, by distinct interrelated and interwoven phenomena which show certain degree of homogeneity within boundaries that could be defined.

A region manifests an intimate relationship between man and nature which has developed over an area through time. As a result, the physical phenomena and human features got interwoven and produced distinguishable, recognisable interrelated phenomena and features.

Inherent in the concept of Region is the ‘ecological emphasis’ on society-land relation. Here the stress is on the inter-relation of phenomena, the links between aspects of the natural environment of a particular area and the human population occupying and modifying.

In this type of analysis, geographers shift their emphasis from spatial variations between areas (these may be thought of as horizontal bonds) to vertical bonds within a bounded geographic area. It is worth noting that the border may be two tier, e.g. the impact of people on land, as well as that of land on people, (possibility and deterministic approaches); and that the bounded area may be anything from the globe itself to any part of it.

The regional concept, as a term, refers to the mental image of a portion of Earth’s surface differentiated by an exceedingly complex fabric of interwoven strands and produced by diverse but interrelated processes.

Various kinds of regions have been identified. The ‘uniform region’ is a discrete distribution that is defined in terms of specified criteria and is homogeneous throughout in terms of these criteria. In the ‘Compage’, which is a uniform region in the true sense of the term, all the features of the physical and societal environment are functionally associated with the human occupancy of the Earth. The word compage implies a highly diversified through unitary complex of elements, and gives a greater precision to several facets of regional geography.

The ‘nodal or functional region’ is defined by the contact relationships between a centre and its tributary surrounding the regions; or is an area that is tied functionally to a node or several nodes. The definition of such a region involves the measurement of movements, or spatial interaction, for example, the area functionally connected with a central place, the service area of a market, the area reached by a newspaper, or the territory that is tied to a centre of government by the lines of political authority.

The nodal region is bounded by lines that mark the disappearance or weakening of the tie to its own focus in favour of some other focus. The lines that mark the extension of a nodal region are similar to isopleth in that they do not separate different kinds of things. Furthermore, the lines of connection to the node usually run at right angles to the boundary of the region.

Modern concepts of systems analysis and Marxist geography appear to be very much indebted to the idea of regional synthesis.

Based on the approach:

(a) The systems analysis claims to be capable of addressing both horizontal (person- person) and vertical (society-nature) relations within a coherent and recognisably scientific framework; and

(b) Marxist geography is concerned with the differential geographies of the division of labour, of successive layers of investment, and of uneven distribution, predicated on fundamentally materialist dialectic relations between society and nature.

(iv) Location:

This concept is as old as the tradition of the discipline itself, and is logically linked up with the preceding concepts. When we say ‘variable phenomena on the Earth’s surface’, we invariably talk of the ‘location’ of the specific phenomena (where?) because spatial variations in phenomena are recognisable and distinguishable from place to place.

The word ‘place’ refers to location. Each place or each location on the Earth’s surface is therefore different with regard to its site and situation. Each place is unique in its location; and phenomena thereof are distinguishable and identifiable. So the question ‘where is it’ is significant when one studies the spatial section of the Earth’s surface.

Geographical studies try to establish location accurately, to represent them effectively and economically and to disentangle the factors that lead to particular spatial pattern. Modern geography seeks to account for the location of economic activities – the determination of principles governing location of units of production. Fundamental to the concept of location is the philosophy of positivism, giving emphasis on Models and Laws of spatial arrangements.

(v) Time:

Geography provides scientific procedures for describing or explaining phenomena in relation to their development over time. Changes are more common on the surface of the Earth. An ensemble of phenomena on a section of the Earth’s surface tends to manifest centuries of development (time factor understood).

The development of a region is reflective of a change through time, that in the course of time man and nature adapt to each other like a snail and its shell, and the adaptation reflects centuries of development. Every situation on the Earth’s surface denotes time, and every group of phenomena which we see ‘today’ becomes ‘past’ tomorrow, but that has to be explained in the light of its evolution (change through time).

The stages of economic development or political development have to be viewed in relation to the situation in an industrial region or a political region to the relevant stages of development. The concept of change over time is found in W. M. Davis’s cyclic system for the development of a landscape through the stages of youth, maturity and old age. The French school of regional geography also took up the study of evolution within the cultural landscape.

The concept of time emphasises the importance of continuity and connectedness for sequences of events, which necessarily take place in situation bounded in time and space and whose outcomes are thereby modified by their common localisation.

(vi) Cause and Effect:

It is one of the most fundamental concepts in geography and was developed in the nineteenth century. It seeks to explain that previous causes can explain observed phenomena. It can be explained in its simplest form that Cause ‘A’ leads to effect ‘B’, and that Cause ‘B’ cannot lead to result ‘A’.

This analogy can be further explained that ‘the mountains have given man leg muscles of iron to climb the slope’. Here the ‘mountains’ refer to the Cause, and ‘the leg muscles of iron to climb the slope’ refer to the Effect. It further explains that inorganic elements of the Earth’s surface, like mountains, etc. tend to control the organic inhabitants, their behaviour and activities which, as a result of the control, reflect their responses.

The concept clearly manifests that if the cause is present, the effect will follow. It is a deterministic concept and seeks to emphasise the deterministic natural laws. The concept, therefore, seeks to explain that ‘a reasonable relation exists between some inorganic element of the Earth on which we live, acting as a control, and some elements of the existence or growth or, behaviour or distribution of the Earth’s organic inhabitants, serving as a response’.

The assumption of cause and effect has given rise to the concept of ontography (organic half) in geography that ‘the discipline is concerned with the combination of physiography and ontography, i.e. with the correlations between inorganic environment and organic response’.

(vii) Sequent Occupancy:

It expresses the view of geography as a succession of stages of human occupancy which establishes the genetics of each stage in terms of its predecessor. Each generation of human occupancy leaves its imprints on the landscape. The life history of each manifests the inevitability of the transformation from stage to stage.

This concept sharply contradicts the concept of cause and effect and tends to represent a form of cultural determinism. It also emphasises the significance of resources in any significant change in the culture of the community of the region, which is a possibilist concept.

(viii) Spatial Distribution:

The term ‘spatial’ describes a particular type of distribution—one that is spread out over a surface, rather than categorises objects, such as population distribution. Thus, spatial distributions include objects (such as population, crops, etc.) that are spread out from each other in space, on a surface that usually means the surface of the Earth. Each spatial distribution is made up of objects that are similar to each other. A map of India showing nothing but the location of million-cities would portray a spatial distribution.

The objects are all of the same type, million- cities, and they are spread out over a surface—the surface of the map, which represents the surface of the Earth (India). Thus, the map is a visual representation of a spatial distribution.

Spatial distributions are collections (sets) of objects in which the objects are of a similar type, with each object having a particular location, a surface. The individual objects that make up a spatial distribution are arranged so that their pattern density and dispersion can be analysed.

The geometric arrangement of the million-cities in India would refer to their pattern, how many million-cities are located in per unit area would tell the density, and how the million-cities are spread out from each other would refer to the dispersion.

The concept of spatial distribution specifically deals with single phenomenon, and seeks to formulate empirical generalisation or law to treat the spatial distribution of the object or phenomenon.

(ix) Spatial Interaction:

It refers to interdependence between geographic areas. This interdependence appears to be complementary to the society- environment interdependence within a single area, and it is a major focus of geographic enquiry. It includes the movement of goods, passengers, migrants, money, information, etc. between geographic areas.

There are three bases for spatial interaction in terms of commodity flow between two regions – character of the regions; nature of commodities; and the existence of closer sources of supply, or markets. The strength of the original concept is that many forms of interaction are themselves interdependent, i.e. a flow of migrants will often stimulate subsequent flows or backflows of trade, passengers, money and information. The concept can be used to interpret the movement of people and ideas between two regions.

(x) Geography as an Empirical Science:

Both Alexander Von Humboldt and Carl Ritter insisted that geography should be empirical in the sense that one should proceed from observation to observation in search for general laws, and not from preconceived opinions, to hypothesis, to observation. In geography, we deal with concrete data or phenomena which are recognisable also, and it studies what really exists (especially what exists at the present time).

The observable phenomena, or for that matter concrete data, are unambiguously defined by natural science terminology and methods of measurement. Specifically, it is assumed that observational statements are the only ones which make direct reference to phenomena in the real world.

The central part of geography, in the context of the-present concept, is that it concerns itself with empirical questions, those with a factual content. Empirical questions are questions about how things are in reality. In this context, ‘reality’ is defined as the world which can be secured and experienced. This means that geography is concerned with objects in the world.

(xi) Synthesis:

Synthesis has always remained the teleology of geography, the purpose that justified the raison d’etre of geography. Geography has strongest affiliations with the natural and human sciences. It integrates the materials, which other sciences study separately, in terms of the areal integrations which the heterogeneous phenomena form in different parts of the world.

In modern geography, the argument for the development of a geographical synthesis is practical in character. Geography has worked with practically all the relevant phenomena during its historical development and has devised methods which are central to the formation of synthesis.

The planning of modern society requires a good deal of research on the development of synthesis. The concept of synthesis is central to Ritter’s concept of Ganzheit (wholeness). All interrelated phenomena, occurring on the Earth’s surface, as a result of mutual interaction and interdependence of features, tend towards synthesising the whole. The concept of synthesis is therefore basic to geography’s raison d’etre.

Modern quantitative or critical geography has not in fact given up the idea of synthesis, and research workers are specifically concerned in a search for synthesis through new forms of analyses.

(xii) Unity of Nature:

The concept of unity of nature in geography refers to a causal inter-relation of all the individual features in nature. The phenomena of nature require to be studied in order to establish this coherence and unity. Humboldt and Ritter, the founders of modern geography, carried forward the heritage of the concept of unity of nature. For both it was axiomatic that the unity of nature included organic as well as inorganic, human and non-human, immaterial as well as material phenomena.

The concept of unity of all nature requires to be carried into the consideration of individual areas, that all the features of an area in their interconnection form a naturally unified complex. All the objects and forces of nature are interconnected to form a ‘whole’.

Every part of the world is a reflection of the unity of the whole. Nature in every corner of the Earth is a reflection of the whole. The ‘wholeness’ has to be established only by investigating the individual, single features in their relation to each other, and building these up in their actual relationships to form the whole.

‘Unity in diversity of phenomena, a harmony blending together all created things, however, dissimilar in form and attributes, tends to create one great whole animated by breath of life’. The concept of unity of nature is basic to the concept of synthesis and refers to holistic tradition.

Regional concept, the concept of synthesis and the concept of unity of nature, tend to reflect the interdependence and mutual interaction of phenomena, leading to the wholeness. These concepts are, therefore, complementary to each other, and refer to ‘holism’. In fact, all the concepts which are fundamental to geography are logically tied up with one another, forming a greater circle of synthesis.

4. Essay on the Nature of Geography:

Geography occupies a logically defensible position among the sciences as one of the chorological studies, and attempts to consider not particular kinds of objects and phenomena in reality but actual sections of reality.

It further attempts to analyse and synthesise not processes of phenomena, but the associations of phenomena as related in sections of reality. The heterogeneous phenomena which other sciences analyse by classes are not merely mixed together in terms of physical juxtaposition on the Earth surface, but are causally interrelated in complex areal combination.

Geography attempts to integrate the materials that other sciences study separately, in terms of the actual integrations which the heterogeneous phenomena form in different parts of the world. In practice as well as in theory, any phenomenon studied in geography may at the same time be an object of study in some systematic field.

But geography is not an agglomeration of pieces of the systematic sciences; it integrates these phenomena according to its distinctive chorographic point of view. Since geography cuts a section through all the systematic sciences, there is an intimate and mutual relationship between it and each of these fields.

Geography borrows from the systematic sciences all those generic concepts or type classifications that the sciences have developed, in order to effectively utilise them in making its description of phenomena and interpretation of their inter-relations as accurate as possible. However, geography attempts to discover its own generic concepts and system of classification when the borrowed generic concepts are found inadequate to account for geographic interpretations and purposes.

Geography, on the other hand, contributes much to the systematic sciences. In its naive examination of the inter­relation of phenomena in the real world, it discovers phenomena which the sophisticated academic view of the systematic sciences may not have observed. It shows them to be worthy of study in themselves and thus adds to the field of the systematic studies.

Geography constantly emphasises one aspect of phenomena which is frequently lost sight of in the more theoretical approach of the systematic fields, namely, the geographic aspect. It serves, therefore, as a realistic critic whose function is to remind the systematic sciences that they cannot completely understand their phenomena by considering them only in terms of their common characteristics and processes.

They must also note the differences in those phenomena that result from their actual location in different areas of the world. In order to interpret these differences, and to interpret the resultant world distribution of their phenomena; the systematic sciences take from geography something of the particular techniques which its point of view has required it to develop—notably the techniques of maps and map interpretation.

Geography adds the aptitude of comprehending the correspondence and correlation of facts, be they in the terrestrial milieu which includes them all, or in the regional milieu in which they are localised. Geography is essential to the full understanding of reality while the systematic sciences necessarily destroy the essential character of reality.

It attempts to interpret the realities of areal differentiation of the world as they are found, not only in terms of the differences in certain things from place to place, but also in terms of the total combination of phenomena in each place, different from those at every other place.

Geography seeks to acquire a complete knowledge of the areal differentiation of the world, and therefore discriminates among the phenomena that vary in different parts of the world only in terms of their geographic significance, i.e. their relation to the total differentiation of areas. Phenomena significant to areal differentiation have areal expression—not necessarily in terms of physical extent over the ground, but as characteristic of an area of more or less definite extent.

In order to make its knowledge of interrelated phenomena as accurate as possible, geography considers all kinds of facts involved in such relations and utilises all possible means of determining the facts, so that results obtained from one set of facts or by one method of observation, may be checked by those secured from other facts or from other observations.

On the basis of generic concepts, geography seeks to establish principles of relationships between the phenomena that are a really related in the same or different areas, in order that it may correctly interpret the inter-relations of such phenomena in any particular area.

Finally, geography attempts to organise its knowledge of the world into interconnected systems, in order that any particular fragment of knowledge may be related to all others that bear upon it.

5. Essay on the Approaches to the Study of Geography:

The subject matter of geography is logically indivisible, as it deals with ‘phenomena’ which occur in association on the Earth’s surface, with distinct areal expressions and variations. The problem arises about how to deal with these variable phenomena and what approaches to be adopted for their study? There have been two distinct approaches for doing this – either one can lay emphasis on the description and elucidation of individual phenomena of each part of the Earth’s surface in turn, region by region, because they are unique.

This is ideographical approach or ‘regional geography’. Or one can proceed with a significant theme of variable phenomena and trace it systematically over the whole of the Earth’s surface, considering geography as a law­ giving science. This is ‘nomothetical approach’ which is also called ‘systematic geography’. It requires the development and testing of theories and models in order to develop geographical laws.

(i)  Regional Geography:

Geography is viewed as the study of areal differentiation, and it seeks to describe and interpret the variable character from place to place of the Earth as the world of man. As mentioned earlier, phenomena occur in association on the Earth’s surface, and in that sense each particular location (region) on the Earth’s surface is unique with regard to its individual phenomenon.

Regional geography, therefore, attempts to organise knowledge of all interrelated forms of areal differentiation in localised individual units of area, which it must organise into a system of division and subdivision of the total Earth surface.

The description and elucidation of unique individual but interrelated forms of areal phenomena with distinct areal expression, proceeds with analysis and synthesis, the integration of all interrelated features and phenomena at individual units of places and must then express the integration of all such units of individual regions within a given area.

Each unit must be considered homogeneous. Regional geography proceeds with more effective ways of measuring the interrelationships of phenomena in individual units of a given area; but at the same time, the explanatory description of features in the past must be kept subordinate to the primary purpose because that facilitates comprehension of the present.

Regional methods are characteristically broad-based and include consideration not only of the physical environment of the individual units of a given area but also of the population of the unit—its demographic characteristics, its density and distribution, its occupational structure, its social and political behaviour (e.g. migration and political choice).

Stress is laid on the spatial dimension of each component and such local associations of physical environment and human characteristics in particular areas give rise to distinctive sub-region within the overall area being considered.

The Ganga plain is a region because of the uniqueness of the interrelated phenomena which have developed over centuries on account of intimate relationship and mutual interaction between man and nature, and which put a stamp on the landscape.

In order to measure the interrelationships of phenomena occurring in the Ganga plain, the regional geographer would attempt to identify the elements of physical environment (location, relief and geology, drainage, flora and fauna, climate, soils, minerals) and elements of human life (economic activity, political organisation, social organisation and settlement) of it.

Then, with the help of analysis and synthesis of all recognisable interrelated features and phenomena occurring in the Ganga plain, he would try to find out what is unique and distinctive as well as particular about it.

The description and elucidation of the unique phenomena of the Ganga plain must be comprehended by the explanatory description of the interrelated features of the historic past. By applying the regional method, the Ganga plain itself can be subdivided into the Upper Ganga plain, the Middle Ganga plain and the Lower Ganga plain.

Where the evidence of uniqueness of individual units is available, the stress is laid on the stability and instability of regional structures over time to underscore whether those being described are static or are undergoing changes and modifications. It is, therefore, characteristic of such regional methods in geography that they try to integrate a number of recognisable phenomena within a single area which have a complex array of links between themselves.

Formulation of scientific laws cannot be done in regional geography because it deals with the description and elucidation of complex integrations in unique units. Scientific laws can be best established in laboratory experiments which allow only a few independent variables to vary and suggest some kind of determinism, which is inappropriate to the human motivations which are in part the causes of landscape variations and changes.

Instead of scientific laws, regional geography seeks to:

(a) Describe phenomena with the maximum degree of accuracy on the basis of objective empirical observations;

(b) Classify the phenomena, as far as reality permits, in terms of generic concepts;

(c) Interpret the phenomena through rational consideration of the facts thus secured and by logical processes of analysis and synthesis; and

(d) Arrange these findings in an orderly system.

(ii) Systematic Geography:

Systematic geography is organised in terms of particular phenomena of general geographic significance, each of which is studied in terms of the relations of its areal differentiation with the others. Its descriptive form is therefore similar to that of the systematic science.

It seeks to formulate empirical generalisations or laws of the phenomena studied and their universal application, in terms of significance to areal differentiation. In systematic geography, each particular element or element-complex that is geographically significant is studied in terms of its relations to the total differentiation of areas, as it varies from place to place over the world or any part of it.

Systematic method in geography attempts to take one or a few aspects of the human environment or the human population and studies their varying performance over a pre­defined geographical space. Such studies are usually labelled with reference either to the phenomenon concerned or to the subfield of the natural or social sciences with which it may be identified.

Thus, a spatial study of voting pattern may be termed Electoral Geography (under the first) or Political Geography (under the second); or the spatial study of industrial pattern may be termed Industrial Geography (under the first) or Economic Geography (under the second).

Systematic geography treats the discipline as a science. A science is characterised by its explanations, and explanations require laws, and to explain the phenomena one has described means always to recognise them as instance of laws. As geography is concerned with the variation of phenomena over the surface of the Earth, the major phenomena or regularities or features which are described refer to spatial pattern.

It is these spatial arrangements of phenomena or features, and not the phenomena themselves about which geographers should make law-like statements. Hence geography has to be conceived as the science concerned with the formulation of the laws governing the spatial distribution of certain features on the Earth’s surface.

Observation of phenomenon (e.g. the voting behaviour in Bihar) would lead to a hypothesis about the interrelationship between the spatial patterns concerning religious and caste cleavages on the one hand, and the electoral participation on the other hand, and this would be tested against large number of cases to provide the material for an empirical generalisation or law if it is thereby verified.

In order to develop geographical laws or generalisations, to account for the spatial arrangements of phenomena or features such as those of population mobility, migration, economic activity, drainage pattern and atmospheric circulation, etc., one is required to develop and test the theories and models through hypothetic-deductive methods. This requires the establishment of a priori models of the structure of reality.

Systematic geography attempts to postulate a set of hypotheses, based on observations, which could be confirmed, corroborated or rejected by testing empirical data. A large number of confirmations lead to a verification of the hypothesis, which is then established as an empirical law whose validity is tested elsewhere.

If the empirical validation of the model which is developed to account for the voting behaviour in Bihar is successfully tested to account for the voting behaviour in UP, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and other states, then its universal application is assured.

However, geography requires both the systematic and regional methods of study of phenomena and organisation of knowledge. Systematic geography is essential to an understanding of the areal differences in each kind of phenomena and the principles governing their relations to each other. This alone cannot provide a comprehension of the individual Earth units, but divests them of the fullness of their colour and life.

To comprehend the full character of each area in comparison with others, it is necessary to examine the totality of related features found in different units of area, e.g. regional geography. These two methods are mutually and intimately related and essential to each other (Fig. 1.1).

A distinction may be made between systematic geography which seeks to formulate generalisations or laws, and the study of uniqueness in regional geography whereby generalisations are tested so that subsequent theories may be improved.

6. Essay on the Branches of Geography:

Variable phenomena on the Earth’s surface can be treated separately or in association. They are classified and categorised into physical phenomena and human phenomena, or are treated in association as interrelated phenomena. So geography has two main branches – Physical Geography and Human Geography.

I. Physical Geography:

Physical geography is concerned with the study of the description of Nature or physical phenomena, encompassing the systematic sciences of geology, meteorology, astronomy, botany, zoology and chemistry. Physical geography has its origin in the antiquity when the ancient Greek and Roman scholars developed their interest in the study of Nature and its different attributes. It became a very popular subject during the last third of the nineteenth century.

Physical geography has a number of sub-branches which deal with different kinds of physical phenomena:

(i) Astronomical Geography:

Astronomical geography studies the celestial phenomena which concern the Earth’s surface. It is perhaps the oldest branch of geography developed by Thales, Anaximander, Eratosthenes, Aristotle and Ptolemy. Related to it is cartography which also developed along with astronomical geography in the antiquity, but its refinement took place during the period of Renaissance.

However, some of the earlier erroneous concepts concerning the motion of the celestial objects, including those of the Earth and other planets, were also rectified through observation during the period of Renaissance. Alexander Von Humboldt used the word uranography in place of astronomical geography.

(ii) Mathematical Geography:

It studies the form, size and movement of the Earth, and of its position in the solar system. It has its origin in the works of Thales, Eratosthenes and Ptolemy. But their ideas were corrected by Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo.

(iii) Geomorphology:

It is concerned with the study of the landforms on the Earth’s surface. Though earlier credit of such studies goes to Herodotus and Polybius of ancient Greece, but the contributions of the medieval Arab scholars like Al-Biruni and Ibn Sina cannot be overlooked. By the end of the eighteenth century, studies of mountain structure and origin were done by the German and the French scholars.

In fact, it was Mary Somerville of Great Britain and Alexander Von Humboldt of Germany who established geomorphology. In Germany, Ferdinand Von Richthofen, Oscar Peschel, Alfred Hettner, Albrecht Penck, Walther Penck in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century set forth a new direction in the field of geomorphology.

W. M. Davis of the United States emerged as the leading personality in its development. In France, Emmanuel de Martonne carried forward the tradition of geomorphology into the country. Most of the German geomorphologists emphasised the importance of glaciology, a distinct part of geomorphology.

(iv) Climatology:

It is the study of the atmospheric conditions and related climatic and weather phenomena. It was Eratosthenes, again, who for the first time provided a three-fold climatic division of the known world. However, Aristotle had earlier offered explanation with regard to climatic suitability of the human habitat.

Moreover, substantial contributions to this branch of physical geography were made by the medieval Arab scholars, AI-Balkhi and AI- Masudi. Later, it was developed by Wladimir Koppen and Albrecht Penck of Germany, A. I. Voeikov of Russia and C. W. Thornthwaite of the United States.

(v) Oceanography:

It is concerned with the study of various types of phenomena and features, both on the surface of the ocean and on its floor, including relief of the floor; temperature of the surface water; distribution of salinity, depth, currents, tides, waves; coral reefs, etc.

It was Posidonius (135-50 BC) who first investigated tides at Gades, measured the depth of sea off Sardinia, and sought to discover the origin of the Grau gravels. Oceanography was given a systematic treatment by an American, Matthew Fontaine Maury, in the mid- nineteenth century. However, he also offered a model of atmospheric circulation.

(vi) Soil Geography:

It studies various soil- forming processes, their chemical, physical and biological constituents, their colour and types, distributions and carrying capacities, etc. It was V. V. Dokuchaiev of Russia who pioneered the study of soil geography, which was further developed by the American soil geographer, Marbut.

(vii) Bio-Geography:

It is concerned with the biological phenomena in space, especially in terms of the distribution of various kinds of floral and faunal species. Bio-geography may be subdivided into plant or floral geography, and animal or faunal geography.

Theophratus, a pupil of Aristotle, is credited to have developed bio-geography which was later developed in a more meaningful way by John Ray, an English scholar. He was a major influence on the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus. Lamarck and Buffon also made contributions to it. Similarly, the contributions of Humboldt and George Gerland cannot be overlooked.

II. Human Geography:

Human geography is inseparable from physical geography because the variable phenomena on the spatial section of the Earth’s surface have human elements in them. Broadly speaking, human geography is the synthetic study of the relationship between human societies and the Earth’s surface.

It is made up of three closely linked components: the spatial analysis of the human population (i.e. its numbers, its characteristics and activities, distribution over the Earth’s surface); the ecological analysis of the relation between human population and its environment; and the regional synthesis which combines the first two themes in an areal differentiation of the Earth’s surface.

Human geography developed along with the physical geography and ancient scholars like Hecataeus, Aristotle, Herodotus, Polybius, and Strabo pioneered the studies of the influence of the physical Earth on human affairs. lbn Khaldun, a medieval Arab scholar, made a significant contribution to the field of human-environment relationship. Carl Ritter, one of the founders of modern geography, treated geography from the human point of view.

George Perkins Marsh of the United States developed a novel approach to the study of the relation of humankind to the land and he also analysed its effect on nature. It was Friedrich Ratzel of Germany who is credited to have provided the guidelines for a comparative and systematic study of human geography. Paul Vidal de la Blache and his pupil Jeam Bruhnes of France treated human geography in the light of humankind’s creativity in modifying the landscape. Human geography since then continued to prosper.

Human geography has a number of sub-branches:

(i) Anthropogeography:

It studies racial phenomena in their areal context, or the geographical distribution of races. Agarthacides is identified to have classified the Ethiopian tribes on the basis of their diet and cultural traits. But it was Friedrich Ratzel who is credited to have coined the term ‘anthropogeography’ to study human geography.

(ii) Cultural Geography:

It focuses on the impact of human culture, both material and non- material, on the natural environment and the human organisation of space. Herodotus pioneered the study of the cultural traits of the people strange to the Greeks. He is called the ‘father of ethnography’.

Friedrich Ratzel and his American pupil, Ellen Semple were influenced by ecological concepts of culture traceable to the biological sources. Otto Schluter of Germany coined the word ‘Kultur landschaft’, a landscape created by human culture. Carl O. Sauer of the USA also carried forward the same tradition as that of Schluter. Kant’s ‘moral geography’ was nothing but ‘cultural geography’.

(iii) Population Geography:

It is the study of the ways in which spatial variations in the distribution, composition, migration, and growth of population are related to the nature of places. Achenwell (1748) and Sussmilch (1747) first pioneered the statistical studies of population in space. Since then its dimension has widened.

However, it was Trewartha (1953) who is now credited for having offered a tentative scheme of the content and organisation of materials in population geography, and he (1969) stressed that ‘population geography was concerned with understanding the regional differences in the Earth’s covering of people.’

(iv) Economic Geography:

It refers to the field of study focused on the location of economic activity at the local, national and world scale. It is also the study of economic phenomena in their areal context. Kant introduced commercial geography, which is the study of distribution of commodities. E. R. Johnson and J. R. Smith of the USA and N. N. Bavanskin of the Soviet Union were the pioneers of economic geography.

Economic geography requires to be studied under the following heads:

(a) Resource geography – the study of the resources, their distribution, production, utilisation and conservation;

(b) Agricultural geography – the study of spatial variations in agricultural activity;

(c) Industrial geography – the study of the spatial arrangement of industrial activity;

(d) Transport geography – the study of the role of transport in geography, including patterns and modes of transport, movement of goods and people and relationships between transport and other geographic factors.

(v) Political Geography:

It is the study of political phenomena in their areal or spatial context. The tradition of geographic studies of the state goes back to Aristotle, but Kant provided a classification of political geography. However, it is Friedrich Ratzel who is called the ‘father of modern political geography’. It developed much in the last century. Somewhat different from political geography was ‘geopolitics’ which developed in Germany during the inter-war period.

(vi) Geopolitics:

The origin of geopolitics can be traced back to the Swedish political scientist Rudolf Kjellen and the German natural scientist and geographer Friedrich Ratzel. While the former introduced the term, his interest was initially stimulated by the ideas of Ratzel, and it was through the latter that it became widely known. Geopolitics was defined as ‘the science of the state a realm in space’. Later, Kjellen redefined it as ‘the theory of the state as a geographical organism or phenomenon in space’.

In Germany, geopolitics was necessarily rationalised to justify the Nazi claims to a position of dominance in Eurasia. However, after the Second World War, Gennan geopolitics was lumped together with the rest of the ideological baggage of Nazism and the lot was banished. The return of geopolitics took place during the 1970s, the new geopolitics being pioneered in the USA and France. In the contemporary context, geopolitics is the spatial study of international relations.

(vii) Historical Geography:

It is the geography of the past or the study of the past events in their spatial context. It was Herodotus who provided some exciting examples of what we call historical geography, e.g. the re-creation of past geographies and the tracing of geographical change through time. Sir Halford J. Mackinder of Great Britain made substantial contribution to the field of historical geography. British geographers set forth the tradition of historical geography in the regional perspective.

(viii) Social Geography:

It is the analysis of social phenomena in space. It is a recent sub-discipline- concern with social phenomena developed mainly after 1945. However, social geography was developed in Germany by Otto Schluter as a reaction against physical determinism.

Interest in the studies of social well-being and social problems, and their spatial variations, and also the search for root cause of social problems has given rise to ‘radical geography’ and ‘welfare geography’. Study of new spatial determinism of capitalist society led to the rise of ‘Marxist geography’.

(ix) Urban Geography:

It is the geographical study of urban areas, their spatial patterns and functions, origin and hierarchies. Its development took place in the 1940s but during the 1960s it was probably the most popular sub-field within human geography.

The combination of both physical geography and human geography provides both the ‘core’ and the ‘raison d’etre’ of geography. There can be no geography without both, and without geography knowledge about the Earth is fragmented and incomplete. If both are separated and studied in isolation, the very synthesising character of the discipline would be lost.

7. Essay on the Philosophy of Modern Geography:

The theoretical development of geography took place during 1750-1950. During the period, a number of schools, with their distinct concepts and ideas regarding the variable phenomena on the Earth’s surface, came to be developed in Germany, France, Great Britain, Soviet Union and the United States of America. The geographical thought is, therefore, made up of these schools.

However, the year 1859 is a ‘watershed’ because it saw the death of the founders of modern classical geography. Alexander Von Humboldt and Carl Ritter, on the one hand, and the publication of Charles Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’ on the other, replaced the existing philosophy of geography by a materialistic scientific philosophy which emphasised natural laws and causality.

However, the philosophy of modern geography is based on the following schools of thought:

(i) German School of Ganzhiet, Chorology and Landshaftskunde:

Concepts of Ganzhiet (single whole) and chorology were earlier developed by Immanuel Kant. He regarded the intricate interlacing of relationships between all the phenomena found in Earth’s surface (organic or inorganic), as functional relation of the parts of a single whole.

Within any particular area, the combination of all interrelated phenomena is not a mere aggregate, but an interrelated ‘whole’. Later, this idea of Ganzhiet or whole was adopted by Carl Ritter in his geographical concept of synthesis, i.e. the unity in nature.

It is from the concept of Ganzhiet that has developed the concept of ‘chorology’. It is now widely believed that though Ferdinand Von Richthofen is credited to have applied the term ‘chorology’, the concept was earlier developed by Kant, and followed by Humboldt.

Kant studied not only the features of the Earth produced by natural processes, but also the races of man and the changes on the face of the Earth resulting from human action and added that the phenomena be considered in their areal context. What Richthofen did was to specify the purpose, i.e. to throw light on the causal inter-relation among the diverse things in a particular area. Alfred Hettner defined geography as a chorological science, i.e. the study of the areal differentiations.

But in order to have a more balanced treatment of the inter-relation of things in particular areas, it was suggested that emphasis be given to the overall appearance of the landscape and that the concept of geography as Landschaftskunde came into being in the beginning of the present century mainly due to Otto Schluter’s address at Munich in 1906.

In fact, the concepts of ‘chorology’ and ‘landschaftskunde’ are concerned about the variations in the characters of the force of the Earth, which is the interpretation of ‘the areal differentiation’. However, the German school of geography tends to identity itself with the traditional concept of geography as ‘Landschaftskunde’.

(ii) French School of ‘La Geographie Humaine’:

French geographical thought is focused on Paul Vidal de la Blache, who is credited to have developed we-ocratic tradition in geography—an approach in human geography clearly distinguished by the central and active role it assigns to human awareness and human agency, human consciousness and human creativity (genre de vie) in modifying the landscape. According to him, the natural and human phenomena should be regarded as united and inseparable.

In an area of human settlement, nature changes significantly because of the presence of man, but these changes are greatest where the level of human creativity is highest, where the people are more aware and conscious and proud of their culture. Vidal emphasised the study of region which was a manifestation of an intimate relationship between man and nature developed through centuries over an area.

(iii) British School of Regional Studies:

British school of regional studies has at least three different meanings in Great Britain:

(1) There are regional studies which amount to descriptions of segments of the Earth’s surface broadly synonymous with the German regional geography.

(2) There are regional studies which attempt to divide the Earth’s surface into either homogenous or functional areas of varying size which may be called regionalisation.

(3) Regional studies denote regional specialisation to study different aspects of some parts of the world.

One of the basic concepts derived from the regional studies was that of the regional survey of potential land quality and land use as a basic input to plans for economic development. It was L. Dudley Stamp who pioneered land use studies in Great Britain.

British regional studies were largely influenced by the French geographer Paul Vidal de la Blache, and to a greater extent by the French sociologist Frederic Le Play. In Great Britain itself, the tradition of regional studies was carried forward by Sir Padrick Geddes, Andrew J. Herbertson, Charles B. Fawcett and Herbert J. Fleure.

(iv) Russian School of Landscape Science (Landschaftovednie):

Russian geography is focused on applied geography as landscape science which appears to have developed as a result of V. V. Dokuchaier’s ‘law of zonality’. His concept of natural zones transformed by man is synonymous with Otto Schluter’s concept of ‘kulturlandschaft’. Earlier, A. I. Voeikov recognised the influence of man upon the environment.

Landscape in the Russian school is defined as a dynamic system in which matter and energy are circulating and in which there are rhythmic (seasonal) changes of heat and water balance and biological productivity. A landscape is a combination of interrelated environmental components (local climate, landforms, soils, plants and animals) occupying a discrete unit of territory. It exists objectively in the natural environment.

The Russian landscape science is synonymous with regional science, which attempts to link economics, geography and planning and is concerned with theoretical and quantitative analysis of regional economies and problems. The concept of landscape science in the Soviet Union was applied to practical purposes of building the socialist economy and contributed to the economic regionalisation and economic development planning.

(v) American School of Spatial Science:

The American school of geography has passed through several concepts, and not confined to a particular concept as those of the German, French, the Russian and the British schools. The American school of geography was initially confined to ‘ontography’, a term coined by W. M. Davis, which dealt with the correlation between inorganic environment and organic response. The concept of ontography, with the logical inclination towards environmental determinism, continued for several decades of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The concept of ontography gradually lost its academic and professional value in the American geography and was replaced by human ecology (application of ecological concepts to the study of the relations between people and their physical and social environment); chorology (the study of areal differentiation); historical geography (the attention was focused on the processes or sequences of events that provided an explanation of observed landscapes); and the functional organisation of space (which sought for functional explanation for the observed differences from place to place on the Earth’s surface). These explanatory procedures have been applied in various topical fields.

American geography during the post-war period witnessed an intense rivalry between Hartshorne and Schaefer on whether geography should be idiographic or nomothetic. However, the regional paradigm in the American geography has been replaced by topical specialism with emphasis on spatial science and relations.

8. Essay on the Interactions of Geography with Other Sciences:

While defining the scope of geography we had seen that some parts of it have their strongest affiliations with mathematics and environmental (natural) sciences, others with history and social sciences.

While other sciences deal with distinctive types of phenomena, geography studies several kinds of phenomena, each already studied by another science. Thus, geography has firmly established itself as a discipline of synthesis, on the plane of empirical knowledge.

I. Relations with Natural Sciences:

(i) Astronomy and Geography:

Astronomy basically deals with the celestial bodies (their motion in the universe) which include the different Suns and their planets, satellites, and their motion, constellations, as well as different kinds of phenomena occurring in the outer space.

It is a pure natural science, and systematically deals with the concrete objects and phenomena which have a known situation in the Universe. Geography’s link with astronomy has developed mainly because it also deals with concrete phenomena.

Geography attempts to identify and measure the impact of the motion of the celestial bodies on the surface of the Earth. How have the phenomena on the spatial section of the Earth’s surface been influenced by the objects of the celestial space? This has necessitated in geography to study the form, size and movement and motion of celestial bodies, especially of the Sun, the Earth and the Moon, and their corresponding position in the solar system. Geography also attempts to determine the position of the stars and the constellation in the horizon, the extent of the celestial sphere, and ‘other celestial phenomena, such as to locate new planets, their satellites and stars.

It is the mathematical tradition in geography which has brought both astronomy and geography closer to each other. With the help of mathematics, the precise location, nature of motion and movement, extent of celestial sphere, form and size of celestial bodies, including those of the Sun, the Earth and the Moon have been successfully determined. Astronomy and geography both are equally concerned with these aspects, and in a sense, they are mutually interdependent.

The interaction of astronomy and geography within the mathematical framework has given rise to cartography in geography which treats specific phenomenon of location in relation to geodesy (form, shape, size of the Earth, latitude and longitude, etc.) and celestial objects.

(ii) Geology and Geography:

Geology is the natural science which has traditionally been closest to geography, because both of them have strong links with the idiographic tradition. Geology describes and clarifies ‘concrete’ simple phenomena and puts them into a geological chronology and classification. Geography also attempts to deal with ‘concrete’ recognisable phenomena occurring on the surface of the Earth, classifying them into various categories. Both study such concrete phenomena which have known situation in time and space.

Geology is the study of rocks, their layout and arrangements, types, minimal constituents, resistance and age, distribution, dip and alignment, etc. These are all concrete phenomena, and need not be quantified. Geography is essentially the study of the Earth’s surface, especially the morphology of the surface.

Morphology of the Earth’s surface is the manifestation of the rock structure in different forms so one has to study geology in order to explain the morphology. The analogy, ‘landscape is the study of structure, process and stage’ clearly demonstrates the closest relation between geology and geography.

The term ‘structure’ refers to geology and the words ‘process’ and ‘stage’ refer to geography. The sentence makes both complementary to each other. Geology and geography both study the distribution of various kinds of rocks and minerals, their mode of occurrence, chemical and physical components, hardness, specific gravity and lots of other things which are concrete and recognisable. Interaction between geology and geography leads to geomorphology or landform geography.

However, certain types of phenomena studied in geography are quantifiable in nature. They require the formulation, verification or rejection of hypotheses through experiments and the establishment of universal scientific laws. Because of this changing trend in geography, the discipline shows some deviation from its traditional idiographic link with geology.

(iii) Physics and Geography:

Geography has long been associated with physics. As geography is the study of variable phenomena on the Earth’s surface, the mechanism of the phenomena requires to be studied within the framework of physics. The physics of atmosphere, called meteorology, uses the methods of physics to interpret and explain atmospheric processes. Similarly, the physics of hydrosphere is called oceanography, which too applies the principles of physics to explain and interpret hydrospheric processes.

Even lithospheric processes and changes are studied within the framework of physics. The characteristics of phenomena studied in meteorology and oceanography show that objectives are quantifiable. Some of their phenomena are more abstract than those studied by geologists and biologists.

Geography, as a science of synthesis, seeks to draw within its circumference the basic principles of meteorology and oceanography, in an obvious attempt to explain and interpret ‘the interrelated features’ and ‘terrestrial phenomena’. Interaction with meteorology has given rise to a systematic branch of climatology in geography.

Climate is an important element of the physical environment of humankind. A geographer is interested in ‘the processes’ of exchange of energy and mass between the Earth and the atmosphere because that results in conditions for climate.

It is the climate which is the prime factor for analysing and classifying the terrestrial phenomena occurring on the Earth’s surface. In order to understand the variable phenomena, one has to take into consideration the basic principles of meteorology and hydrology, then to proceed with explanation, to account for the interdependence of phenomena.

Geography’s inclination towards physics seems to have been further intensified on account of its increasing dependence on the hypothetic-deductive method. It has been mostly developed in physics. Geography’s increasing tendency to adopt the hypothetic-deductive method has been mainly due to the type of questions regarding the variable phenomena to be answered and the nature of empirical data to be studied. It is characteristic of the phenomena now studied in geography and physics that objectives are quantifiable.

Some of the phenomena of theoretical geography are, however, much more abstract, and some of them cannot be directly observed, but the method of measurement has given a theoretical supposition of their existence.

Theoretical geography, like theoretical physics, operates in an abstract milieu, seeking unity and association through mathematical and statistical hypotheses and postulates. It is from physics that theoretical geography has been able to develop into model-building, precisely because it works with abstract and quantifiable phenomena

(iv) Botany and Geography:

It is the idiographic tradition in geography which seeks to suggest its strong link with biology and zoology. The systematic branches of botany and zoology have traditionally been confined to a classification and description of various kinds of species on the Earth’s surface which tend to form unique features and phenomena. Geography, being the study of the spatial section of Earth’s surface, also attempts to study the distributional aspects of floral phenomena and also provides their classification.

Again, we come to the point that the distributional nature of floral species, right from the polar areas down to the equatorial lands, tends to form concrete phenomena. Both botany and geography- seek to describe and classify the spatial pattern of concrete phenomena and put them into different classifications according to spatial conditions.

Geography is closely related to zoology, because both seek to interpret:

(i) The distribution of the individual genera and species of animals;

(ii) The distribution of the interrelated phenomena of genera and species of animals over the spatial section of the Earth’ surface; and

(iii) Both are concerned with the difference in faunal equipment of the different lands.

It is the ecological tradition in botany and zoology which brought them much closer to geography. Ecology is the study of the relationships between animals, plants and their environments. Ecologists, therefore, study the natural relationships whereby particular species of plants and animals are dependent on each other and on the non­organic environment. This aspect of ecology exerts its influence on man’s biological nature and his relationship to the natural environment.

Geography, especially population geography and synecology (which treats the development of plant and animal communities in an area), can be said to parallel traditional biological ecology. During recent decades, ecology has become a major interest of research in botany, zoology and geography. This is due to the development of a new direction within ecology—called systems ecology—which studies construction and function of the ecosystem.

An ecosystem consists of the biological community at a specific place and the environmental physical circumstances which influence and are influenced by the biological community. It clearly manifests the interdependence and interrelationship between botany, zoology and geography.

The four elements of the ecosystem which interest the botanist, zoologist and geographer are:

(i) It brings together the worlds of man, animals and plants within a single system wherein the interactions between the components can be analysed;

(ii) It is structured in a more or less orderly, rational and understandable way;

(iii) Ecosystems include a permanent throughput of material and energy;

(iv) It is a type of general system which uses and can make use of general developed themes of systems analysis.

II. Relations with Social Sciences:

(i) Economics and Geography:

Economics and geography are long related to each other, and should be regarded united and inseparable because both study ‘concrete phenomena which have a known situation and time’, focusing on man.

Economics is basically concerned with man’s economic activities, and the principles governing the location of units of production, forces of production, relations of production, division of labour, and a host of institutional aspects, including health, capital investment and assets, entrepreneurial skills, technology, investment funds, etc. In brief, economics is concerned with how human needs and wants are satisfied in a world of limited resources, where everyone cannot have as much as he or she wants of everything.

All the above phenomena concerning economics have a known situation and time. They must be studied in spatial and temporal context. Every human activity, dealing with satisfying needs and wants, must have a definite location (place), time and distribution.

For example, mining activities refer to the place of occurrence of minerals, their distribution and the period of extraction. The purpose of the activity is production. Each unit of production on the Earth’s surface is variable in the context of place, time and distribution.

Since geography is the study of ensemble of phenomena in relation to place, localisation, time and distribution, it is equally concerned with the variable character of the economic activities. Agricultural activities and industrial activities do have known places, localisation, time and distribution on the various spatial sections of the Earth’s surface.

Forces of production, relations of production, units of production, division of labour, the material condition and the entrepreneurial skill, all tend to have ‘areal expression’ with a known time and situation. This makes economics and geography interdependent.

Modern geography which focuses on testing, on the empirical validation of hypotheses concerning variable economic phenomena, has developed a much stronger affinity with economics. This has been productive of new ideas and techniques since the 1950s.

The introduction of location theory into geography is based on concepts from ‘Neoclassical Economics’ (which forms the basis of the view of how economic activity functions) as conventionally adopted in capitalist society.

Geography’s interaction with economics has given rise to economic geography, which is the study of the spatial variation on the Earth’s surface of activities related to producing, exchanging and consuming goods and services.

(ii) Sociology and Geography:

Sociology is mainly concerned with the institutional aspects of the society which broadly include social organisation of communities, family structure and system, rituals, culture, customs, social system, and overall the entire ‘genre de vie’ (way of living). Since all these aspects tend to constitute distinct phenomena which have known situation and time, they must be studied in spatial context.

Each spatial section of the Earth surface is identified by its distinct ‘genre de vie, which results into ‘social phenomena’, and when one studies the variable character of its social phenomena on the Earth’s surface, he seeks to integrate sociology with geography.

For example, when a sociologist or a geographer studies the institutional aspects of the social organisation of the major communities of India, he takes into account the geographical aspects and bases of the social organisations of the major communities, each with a distinct way of life and having ‘place’, ‘localisation’ and ‘distribution’ in different sections of the country. This shows the interrelationship between sociology and geography.

Geography’s traditional link with sociology appears to have developed mostly as a result of the idiographic tradition. However, the introduction of the location theory into sociology has further strengthened its ties with geography and vice versa. Geography has drawn some of its concepts from modern sociology which are associated with the formulation of empirical generalisations or laws through mathematical methods and statistical procedures.

A number of studies of relations between social behaviour, of movement of people between urban centres, of spatial interactions between social groups, of the relations between innovation and tradition in rural and urban areas, have been made both in sociology and geography with the aid of models. Social geography is the logical expression of the interaction between sociology and geography as it studies social phenomena in spatial context.

(iii) Anthropology and Geography:

Anthropology attempts to study human races, their physical characteristics, biological traits, cultural traits and organisations, and seeks to classify them accordingly. Physical and biological traits of human races and their organisation are products of nature.

Races have been identified on the basis of various indices, such as head index, nasal index and cephalic index and skin colour, hair texture and stature, and are accordingly categorised as Negrito, Negro, Australoid, Mediterranean, and Nordic, Alpine and Mongolic.

Each of them has distinct biological traits and habitants. Both anthropology and geography seek to identify and classify them on the basis of their habitant and cultural traits and attempt to study the variable racial phenomena on the spatial section of the Earth’s surface.

The reciprocal relationship between anthropology and geography has resulted in the development of ‘anthropogeography’ or ethnology which treats different human groups in terms of the natural conditions, and the geographical distribution of races. The study of ‘apartheid’ (the policy of spatial separation of races) as applied in South Africa forms an inseparable part of anthropogeography or ethnology.

(iv) History and Geography:

History and geography fill up the entire circumference of our perception: history that of time, and geography that of space. History differs from geography only in the consideration of time and area. The former is a report of phenomena that follow one another and has reference to time. The latter is a report of phenomena beside each other in space.

History is a narrative, geography is a description. History provides the framework into which the multiplicity of historical facts is ordered, the area provides the skeleton for geography, and both the fields are concerned with integrating different kinds of phenomena. Therefore, history and geography are traditionally idiographic in nature and are mutually interdependent.

There would be no history if human events never changed and were invariable from day to day. Similarly, there would be no geography if physical and human phenomena were distributed uniformly over the Earth’s surface.

It is because of the variation through time, and the variation on the Earth’s surface that the disciplines of history and geography exist. There can be no history without geography. Any event, whether small or big, must represent a time, a place of its occurrence and localisation, and distribution.

It is firmly believed that the landscape changes are mainly due to communities’ genre de vies (ways of living). Landscape changes are greatest where the level of genre de vie of the community is highest. Each major period in the past shall have to be seen in the light of its distinct phenomena occurring in sequence (temporal variations inherent) as a result of the community’s action on the landscape, and the historian can identify such variation in phenomena accordingly.

Each period would also manifest variation from place to place, in terms of natural and human condition. A geographer, or a historian, while attempting to study the Mughal period or the British period in India, seeks to integrate the temporal and the spatial phenomena of that period into one, in order to arrive at a conclusion with regard to the association of phenomena.

The interpretation of present geographical phenomena requires some knowledge of their historical development, whether physical or human features. For example, when we attempt to interpret the relief of India, we must take into account its geological development first, or if we attempt to analyse the present political phenomena of India, we must first try to acquire knowledge of the political development of India since independence. In this case, history is the means to a geographic end. Likewise the interpretation of historical events requires some knowledge of their geographic background; in this case geography is the means to an historical end.

Interpretation of political phenomena in their areal context or of historical phenomena in their spatial perspective may be logically called ‘political geography’ or ‘historical geography’, which is a direct product of the interaction between the disciplines.