Human-Environment Relationship
Human-Environment Relationship
Environment
Relationship
-Smriti Sharma
21513035
Deterministic Approach
Teleological Approach
DIFFERENT
APPROACHES
TABLE OF
CONTENT
Possibilistic Approach
Neo – Deterministic
Approach
Ecological Approach
Systematic Approach
Period of Agriculture
Environmentalism/Deterministic
Teleological Approach Possibilistic Approach
Approach
According to the possibilists, nature is never more than an adviser. Nature offers many opportunities to man and man as a
master of his own will utilizes those possibilities. Through his technical skill man can grow banana and rubber in Antarctica,
but he is to take into consideration the input cost. As such, man can never entirely rid himself of the hold his environment has
on him. In spite of the fact that man has numerous possibilities in a given physical setting, he cannot go against the directions
laid by the physical environment. The possibilistic approach has been criticised by many contemporary thinkers. Like
determinism, possibilism is also an extreme concept and soon people realized that the impact of nature cannot be ignored.
There are several region of the world that are not yet inhabited by man either due to extreme climatic condition or adverse
physiography. Man is helpless before natural hazards like earthquakes, volcanos, floods, landslides, storms etc.
Neo-Deterministic Approach
The concept of neo determinism was put forwarded by Griffith Taylor in the 1920. He urged that the limits of agricultural
settlement in Australia had been set by factors in the physical environment such as distribution of rainfall. He believed that
the best economic program for a country to follow has in large part been determined by nature and its geographer’s duty to
interpret its program. He criticized the concept of possibilism and stressed on the fact that although nature has offered
humans a lot of scope for the development but it has also set the ultimate limits that man should not cross. He asserted that
a geographer’s role is essentially that of an adviser and not to interpret the nature’s plan. Man is able to accelerate, slow or
stop the progress of a country’s development. He is like the traffic controller in a large city who alters the rate not the
direction of progress and perhaps the phrase stop and go determinism expresses sufficiently writer’s geographical philosophy.
Neo-determinism is nothing but a compromise between extreme philosophies. According to this concept, nature provides
opportunities for man to use these possibilities according to his wisdom. But man is not free from the control of nature.
Taylor suggests that the goal must be adjustment to nature's plan, the carrying out of nature's programme. The opportunities
offered by any environment are neither equal, nor limitless. For every choice price must be paid, but within the limits of
freedom to choose. According to Spate, the role of a geographer is basically advisory, he can help to plan efforts in such a way
so that harmony with nature and development, can be established. (The viewpoint is now called Sustainable Development,)
In fact, "man can conquer nature only by obeying her."
Stop and Go determinism has become quite relevant in the present day context. The unabated use of the earth’s resource to
fulfill the greed of human society has led to the various problems.
The impact of nature should be assessed in its totality, rather than 'single factor determinist' point of view. Ecological studies
have taught us that all nature is inter-connected. While discussing 'environmental causation', John E. Chappell, Jr., has given
the following ten guiding principles for a more realistic evaluation of environmental impact and limitations:
1.The single factor determinist is merely a straw man.
2. The fact that all nature is one does not imply that unity cannot be analyzed.
3. Causation can indeed be discovered without specifying every link in a mechanistic causal chain.
4. The most profound truths are usually the hardest to discover, to confirm, and to quantify,
5. Subjective truths are valued more highly, but objective truths are usually more powerful in the long run.
6. The enviror nent is not stable, and therefore changing culture does not, in itself, prove lack of environmental influence.
7. Cultural diffusion is not the logical antithesis of environmental causation.
8. Environmentally-shaped traits generated in one place may be carried to another place, where they will not be reshaped
immediately.
9. Environmental influences are not limited to material phases of life, they also affect our minds, and our habits.
10. Environmental determinism is not a politically reactionary philosophy, and it can be applied towards the solution of large
practical problems.
“Probabilism” is another term used by a few geographers. According to Hagget, "probabilism is a compromise position
between environmentalism and possibilism that assigns different probabilities to alternative patterns of geographical
behavior in a particular location or environment." Fleure, Spate, Martin, Woolridge and East, Roxby, Herbertson, etc., have
expressed their ideas on man-environment relationship in terms of man's adjustment in nature and have also given due
weightage to the modern scientific developments.
Ecological Approach
Ecology deals with mutual interactions between organisms and physical environment on the one hand and interactions
among the organisms on the other hand in a given ecosystem. Man is considered as an integral part of nature/environment.
C.C. Park (1980) opines that "the relationship of man with the natural environment should be symbiotic and not exploitative
or suppressive.“
The ecological school recognises man as the most skilled, intelligent, and leader of all biota and steward of the earth. This
approach lays emphasis on wise and restrained use of natural resources and application of appropriate environmental
management programmes, policies and strategies.
According to Moonis Raza there is a need to humanize nature because "we cannot think of a 'non-humanized nature' and a
'non-natural men. Man does not just adapt himself to nature but actually interacts with it. He is not a passive element but on
active factor in the ecosystem.Thus, ecological approach is the best way to explain the man- environment relationship.”
System Approach
Attempts have been made to understand the interaction of man and environment by using a systems analysis approach. A system
can be defined as 'a set of objects together with the relationship between the objects and between their attributes’, and can
operate at any scale, from atoms in a molecule to the universe itself. The relationship between man and environment can be
viewed as an ecosystem, which is a term first used in ecology to describe the functional interactions among and between living
organisms and their environment. The task of the geographer is to identify the various elements in the system, understand how
they work, discover how they are related to each other and then study their interaction as a functioning whole. The concept of
ecosystem is also useful in planning. Harvey (1969) opines that system analysis is the best approach for analyzing geographical
problems: Within an environment there exist many systems and sub-systems. Environment on a larger scale farms the biospheric
system.
However, there are two problems associated with the use of the ecosystem approach:
( i )the scale and complexity of the system which make it difficult to analyze,
( ii ) the role of man.
The ecosystem implies some sort of balanced, functioning whole, but man is increasingly the dominant element in this system
and may not even be an integral part of it, if it is accepted that man is not part of nature. Very complex socio-economic
considerations are the most important factors affecting man's relationships with the environment, which is becoming increasingly
man-made, and these have to be taken into account. A systems analysis approach is still useful, although systems are very
difficult to analyse, but the ecosystem might better be replaced by the idea of a 'control system' in which man controls negative,
feedback to maintain the stability of the system while using positive feedback to create change. In this system, iman's role is not
just ecosystem management, but positive socio-economic planning which can change the ecosystem to his advantage.)
Historical Progression of Man-Environment Relationship
Man is an important factor of the environment. As such, he plays important roles in the environmental system in different capacities e.g. as 'physical man', 'economic man', and 'technological man'. Like all other
organisms, all the functions of man are affected and determined by his natural environment. Man, in turn, influences and modifies his environment and creates cultural landscapes. These mutual interactions between
man and environment can be studied in historically perspective through various stages of development of civilization, as mentioned below:
Period of
Period of Animal Period of Science,
Period of Hunting Agriculture and
Domestication and Technology and
and Gathering Plant
Pastrolism Industrialization
Domestication
1. Period of Hunting and Food Gathering
Primitive man was functionally a 'physical men'. His basic requirements were limited to food only which he obtained from his surroundings.
The early man was a food gatherer. He collected fruits, berries, roots, etc. from plants and trees. He supplemented his food from hunting
animals. Hunting and gathering. involved exploitation of resources yet these activities did not make any change in the natural environment as
the human population was very low at that time.
The discovery of fire brought about a significant change in man's life. Now he learned to roast animal fresh. He required wood for roasting
meat. So, he invented tools to cut and chop trees, and weapons to kill animals. He also used fire to drive animals. The inadvertent burning of
forests due to carelessness of man while cooking and roasting meat by fire caused the first destruction of environment. According to Botkin
and Keller (1982), "fire was one of the major ecological tools used by human beings to change the environment for their own benefit. Indeed,
fire has been used around the world by early peoples to clear the land for improved travel and hunting, or for farming“