Anthropogeography

ANTHROPOGEOGRAPHY (from Greek anthropos - man and geographia - description of the earth), a term used in modern science in two senses. In the first sense, Anthropogeography is a branch of geographical science that studies the distribution of man across the oikoumene (inhabited earth's surface) and manifestations of his activity, taking into account, on one hand, the influence of geographical conditions on man, and on the other hand, the influence of man on the geographical environment. Thus, for example, by identifying certain types of geographical areas - high mountain zones, lowlands of tropical rivers, grassy steppes or deserts, one can study the general characteristics of buildings, forms of agriculture, way of life, etc., peculiar to these areas, while taking into account the dependence between manifestations of human activity and natural conditions. The most fruitful approach is the study of individual small districts and the diversity of forms of human activity found in them in connection with natural conditions, for example, fishing along river banks, the occupations of inhabitants of forest areas, etc. In this study, man and his activity appear as one of the elements of the landscape, i.e., a complex of interacting orographic, soil, climatic, plant, and faunal elements, and are an inseparable factor of this complex. For such specialized Anthropogeography, general anthropology serves as a kind of prerequisite. At the same time, human activity, various types of economy, etc., significantly modify the landscape, giving it a distinctive character. For example, one can identify types of landscapes in areas of plow agriculture, extraction of mineral ores, cultivation of silkworms or grapevines. In general form, one can study the geography of types of cities and settlements, means and routes of communication, etc. Depending on the type of elements being studied, one can speak, for example, of the geography of dwellings, religions, forms of government, types of exchange, forms of production, i.e., to identify branches of cultural, political, historical, economic, commercial geography, etc. The last two branches, as well as the study of the distribution of man across the oikoumene or proper 'geography of man', are sometimes understood as special branches of statistics, demographic or economic; under these names are often published works of a statistical or economic nature. However, scientific Anthropogeography understands under these corresponding names facts closely connected with the landscape and their geographical interpretation. Anthropogeography deals mainly with facts relating to the sphere of culture, which brings it closer to ethnology (ethnography). The latter draws to a large extent its material from Anthropogeography, differing from it in another systematization of facts, namely, in their distribution not by tribes or elements of culture, but by landscapes, taking into account the interaction of all landscape elements. - The term Anthropogeography is sometimes also used to denote a method or, rather, a direction in ethnology that seeks to explain the difference in cultural phenomena by the influence of geographical factors. This direction, which took its final form at the end of the 19th century in the works of Ratzel, who at the same time was the founder of Anthropogeography as a special science, found a response as a reaction against the evolutionary school that dominated ethnology at that time, which interpreted cultural phenomena as stages of a sequential, uniformly proceeding evolution. But already at the beginning of the 20th century, another direction (the so-called 'method of cultural circles') predominated in most ethnological works, which, abandoning the concept of universalism and uniformity in the evolution of cultural forms and in the influence on them of geographical factors, considered various cultural areas as self-sufficient and fully developed units. In recent times, other paths are also outlined in ethnology, for example, the method of analyzing the uniqueness of the psychic type of tribes, etc., put forward by Thurnwald. Nevertheless, Ratzel's system had great and fruitful influence in the past, partially continues to have it now, and at the same time, Anthropogeography, which took a definite form as a science in the works of Ratzel (he also coined the term Anthropogeography), continues to develop today, although on largely different theoretical foundations. Ratzel had direct predecessors in the persons of E. Reclus and C. Ritter, who gave a description of the earth in connection with human activity. The appearance of Darwin's school forced to give a certain place to the natural hereditary characteristics of man. Marx's doctrine, pointing to the importance of socio-economic factors and the different refraction of natural influences in different social environments, also excluded the assumption of a direct dependence of cultural forms on geographical factors, although, of course, it did not deny their indirect influence through the forms of production relations conditioned by them. (Plekhanov, 'Essays on the History of Materialism', 1922). An example of a system of Anthropogeography in the form in which it has developed at present can be the work of Brun. An essential methodological basis of Anthropogeography is the extensive use of the cartographic method. The comparison on a map of various characteristics, for example, areas of humidity distribution and population density, etc., has primary importance in solving problems of Anthropogeography. Anthropogeography is developed by departments of geography in higher educational institutions.