Human Geography: Definitions, Nature and Scope

Human geography attempts to explain the relationship between all elements of human life and the space they occur over. 

Some Human Geography Definitions

Human geography is the synthetic study

of relationship between human societies and

earth’s surface. --Ratzel (German Geographer)

“Human geography is the study of “the

changing relationship between the unresting

man and the unstable earth.” --Ellen C. Semple (American Geographer)

“Conception resulting from a more

synthetic knowledge of the physical laws

governing our earth and of the relations

between the living beings which inhabit it”. --Paul Vidal de la Blache (French Geographer)

Nature of Human Geography

Human geography studies the inter-relationship

between the physical environment and sociocultural environment created by human beings

through mutual interaction with each other. You know that these elements are landforms, soils, climate, water, natural vegetation

and diverse flora and fauna.Houses, villages, cities,

road-rail networks, industries, farms, ports, items of our daily use and all other elements of material

culture have been created by human beings using the resources provided by the physical

environment. While physical environment has been greatly modified by human beings, it has

also, in turn, impacted human lives.

There are various concepts and approaches to study human Geography such as Determinism, Possibilism, Neo-Determinism, Humanism. we will discuss them in other posts.

Fields and Sub-fields of Human Geography (Scope of Human Geography)

Human geography, as you have seen, attempts

to explain the relationship between all elements

of human life and the space they occur over.

Thus, human geography assumes a highly

inter-disciplinary nature. It develops close interface with other sister disciplines in social

sciences in order to understand and explain

human elements on the surface of the earth.

With the expansion of knowledge, new sub-fields emerge and it has also happened to

human geography. Let us examine these fields

and sub-fields of Human Geography (Table 1.2)

Source: NCERT, New Delhi, India

I hope that this article must have helped you a bit. 

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