trace the evolution of geography as a distinct discipline

The diversity of the living world is staggering. Google Scholar. Essentially, the subject needed to be defined, and this would entail more detailed research. Thus, vicariance biogeography provides a means of directly considering and testing the relative roles that geology and climate play as processes that motivate macroevolution. the environment to suit them. This work is considered by many academics to be a milestone contribution to geographic scholarship. tropics Frigid and temperate zones. WebSlaymaker, in Physical Geography, asserts that from the five types of Chinese geography recognized by Needham and Wang Ling there are three that bear on physical geography: hydrographical books and coastal descriptions (5th century B.C. However, it was not until the 19th century that geography emerged as a distinct academic discipline with the work of scholars such as Alexander von Humboldt, Carl Ritter, and William Morris Davis. described the effects of environment on man. The first few steps forward for geography were the opening of the first geographical institutions, such as the establishment of the first institution by Humboldt and Ritter in Germany in 1874, The National Geographic Society in 1888 and also the Royal Geographical Society, founded in 1830 in Britain. The areas are then described based on the 2005;79:26776. Emergence of Modern Geography. To do this, geographers go through a geographic methodology that is quite similar to the scientific method, but again with a geographic or spatial emphasis. The Greek philosophers and scientist focused on the (The word Geography is appropriately described in Hindi as BHUGOL meaning round earth. Evo Edu Outreach 5, 521525 (2012). Beckwith, C. How western Europe developed a full scientific method. who laid the foundations and gave a solid form to geographic studies and on Geographers also try to look for connections between things such as patterns, movement and migration, trends, and so forth. development and enrichment of the subject. Discuss the extent to which the development of Physical geography in the early 20th Century was influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution. The Greekphilosopher Pythagoras (450 B.C.) It has two main branches physical geography In accordance with the rules of lexicon word meanings and their syntax have variants and may even change.). Of course, the dynamics of the MOIs vary by discipline. The second sub-discipline deals with tides, climatic variations over time and space, and other variables that are influenced by the cyclical movements of the Sun and moon. was the first to describe round shape of the earth. Darwin came to learn of more examples on the Galapagos Islands including mockingbirds and also tortoises. Question: Trace the evolution of geography as a distinct discipline? Several chapters are devoted to the effect people have on the planet. data from maps, field, laboratories and questionnaires. Due to the fear of the church repression Copernicus could not propagate his heliocentric theory. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UKEssays.com. most academics in the United States considered geography a marginal discipline (Jill Freund Thomas) In May 1993, Roger Down worked towards making research in geography education to be an integral part of work. Proc Roy Soc Victoria. Integrating biogeograpy and evolution using phylogenetics and PaleoGIS: a case study involving Devonian crustaceans. During this period, geography was primarily focused on describing and classifying the Earth's physical features, but it gradually evolved to include the study of human geography and the interactions between humans and the environment. However, disappointingly the focus on fieldwork started to weaken as it is not promoted in educational institutions because of factors such as time to cover comprehensive curricula, financial constraints, legal issues and commitment by educators. Factors such as these had the effect that the inclusion of fieldwork declined in some schools; however, with the help of funding fieldwork is still a very important and prominent part of teaching geography whenever possible. human and physical geography of the Persian Empire. This quantitative revolution was referred to as a WebA peep into the history reveals that Public Administration as a distinct activity can be traced from the ancient river civilizations of Egypt, China, India and Mesopotamiathe earliest cradles of civilization. In the medieval period it were the Arabs who took the lead in the growth of geographic knowledge. Christopher Columbus. Humboldt and Carl Ritter then co-founded a Geographical Society in Germany in 1874, bringing together Humboldts principle of a systematic approach and Ritters regional approach which were key methods of geography at this time. The list of new lands and landforms kept on increasing with these new discoveries. What is the structure of geography? Regional geography is the study of world regions. A good example of In the 1950s there was a new Even if he would have used either, of these two words it would have equally been a meaningful word. Scientists take existing principles and laws and see if these explain observations. Dudei NL, Stigall AL. New insights into macroevolution focusing on the analysis of biogeographic patterns preserved in the fossil record have also been enabled through the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Webhappened in Europe in the middle of the 19th century led to. A good example is that in many arid countries In particular, during Darwin's voyage aboard HMS Beagle, he recognized the existence of closely similar species separated by geographic barriers. By the beginning of twentieth century there was growth of geographic knowledge in the form of man-environment relationships. The role of theory in the development of geography in education is very significant as it is the basis of learning and has helped geography thrive over the last couple of centuries. physical geography. It is more than just a body of knowledge; science is a way of thinking that provides a means to evaluate and create new knowledge without bias. Geography is alive, and something that is relevant and we use in our daily lives. Myers and Lieberman (2011) specifically focused on whether there was any evidence for competitive replacement: a phenomenon where one species appears within another species' geographic range, its range expands, and it slowly and gradually drives the other species to extinction. Researchers now began investigating process rather than a mere description of the event of interest. On the one hand, the development of punctuated equilibria certainly did very much rely on correctly incorporating geography into evolution, but of course it did also rely on a more literal reading of the fossil record than Darwin promulgated. Eldredge N. Time frames. This field of knowledge is commonly known as geography. Key points: Evidence for PubMedGoogle Scholar. Speciation decline during the Late Devonian biodiversity crisis related to species invasions. In this literature there appears some semblance of cultural and human geography too. Developed by Therithal info, Chennai. 1999), what abiotic and biotic factors control species ranges (Stigall and Lieberman 2006; Maguire and Stigall 2009), and also how species niches change through time (Dudei and Stigall 2010). WebGeography can be traced back to Eratosthenes, a Greek scholar who lived around 276-196 B.C and who is often called the father of geography. Geographys strength comes from its ability to connect functional interrelationships that are not generally noticed in narrowly defined fields of knowledge. We're here to answer any questions you have about our services. It proved an inspiration to many geographers, who saw in Darwins idea of natural selection the possibility of a general theory of man-land relationships so man needed to adopt modes of living which were consonant with the environment in which he lived (Graves, 1975). In reality, because of lists of highlands depressions, cities and other places it contain, it was very boring and uninteresting subject. This approach can be applied to modern species but also to fossil species as well. During the Renaissance (1400 to 1600 AD) numerous journeys of geographical exploration were commissioned by a variety of nation-states in Europe. This helps us in expanding our realm of thought our thinking, perception and reasoning further expand our capacity to absorb knowledge, thus helping to make us better citizens. In Sanskrit the word Bhuvan is used to convey the meaning of elements of earth, life, human, water, space. Man first started expressing his geographic beliefs in words. The voyages also provided an opportunity for Springer Nature. New York: Columbia University Press; 1944. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative. Both ancient and modern geographers have contributed to geography, The books like Arabian Nights, Sinabad and the Sailor and Char Darvesh are full of adventure and thrill. This contrasts with inductive reasoning which begins from new observations and attempts to discern the underlying principles that explain the observations. These ranges change through time but do not show a statistical association with one another and instead appear to be associated with changes in the environment, from Myers and Lieberman (2011), used with permission. WebThe study of Geography as a discipline 2 Nature of Geography as a discipline z understand man-environment relationships and their impacts on each other; z illustrate the systematic and regional approaches of Geography; z understand various analytical techniques in Geography; z identify the different branches of Geography and its Testing the roles of competition and expansion in tetrapod evolution. The French geographer Paul Vidal de la Blanche opposed this revolutionary idea. New York: Penguin; 1839. But the word Geography is best described by Bhugol. Notably, phenomena akin to allopatric speciation were described before Darwin's voyage on the Beagle; for instance, by Leopold von Buch in 1825, based on his work in the Canary Islands. Mammals as a key to evolutionary theory. 6. school of thought such as Mackinder, Ellen Semple and Huntington believed that Railsback, B. L. T. C. Chamberlins Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses: An encapsulation for modern students. The naturalist Charles Darwin wrote a book called the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859. Nature. But of many geographic facts and phenomena is certainly found in the Vedas. Most individuals define geography as a field of study that deals with maps, yet this definition is only partially correct. Ritter and Friedrich Ratzel made substantial contributions to human and Instead, in the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway, it was changes in the physical environment that appear to be the primary factors controlling changes in geographic distribution through time, and also the primary factors that cause species to become extinct (Fig. and his pupils had accepted the round shape of the earth. extreme possibilities. 2008;120(1):517. At its best, science uses objective evidence over subjective evidence to reach sound and logical conclusions. Vrba ES. However, there was a slump in the early 1940s when geography hit crisis point. This paper provides an overview of the evolution of the discipline from methods focused on finding general patterns of distribution (cladistic biogeography), to The first individual to accurately calculate the circumference of the Earth was the Greek geographer Eratosthenes (circa 276 194 BC). geographers concerned with answering questions like what is where on the All this information gives you important clues in understanding man-environment relationship. While gaining altitude you may even notice changing varieties or species of trees. In this manner, several new species in the same region would evolve at roughly the same time. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License ( These techniques make it possible to precisely and repeatably calculate the geographic range of individual species using locality information. is considered to be the father of description of his travels to then known lands. Geographic descriptions are found in not find mention in old Vedic literature. Further, evolutionary change was concentrated in geologically relatively short intervals that might represent 5,000 to 50,000years. Following the publication of Darwin (1859), for a long time, most scientists tended to de-emphasize the role of allopatric speciation, although some including Gulick (1872), Wagner (1873), and Jordan (1908) did continue to assert its significance, such that climatic and geologic factors were not typically viewed as the primary factors motivating speciation. Geography from the very dawn of history was characteristed by the investigations and explanations of the world we live in. So the scholars thought it fit to use the word BHUGOL as Hindi translation of Geography. It made laws that applied to large groups of people and individuals, and established broad generalisations. For instance, humans Eldredge N. A question of individuality: Charles Darwin, George Gaylord Simpson and transitional fossils. Evolution: Education and Outreach One of the main points in Darwin (1859) is that the fossil record is too incomplete to study evolution in detail. The Romans, the Arabs, the Indians, the Chinese, the Germans, Homer (900 B.C.) disasters such as drought, famine, floods and earthquakes. Their road network helped spread Greek culture and knowledge throughout the Empire. DMCA Policy and Compliant. In this essay I will be looking at the development of geography as an academic discipline, and then I will be discussing the role that theory has had in the development of geography. Biogeography is the discipline that focuses on reconstructing the history of biotas, and by biotas what is meant are groups of species that occur in particular regions. One of Ratzels students Ellen Semple studied under Ratzel and was heavily influenced by his ideas, publishing Influences of Geographic Environment in 1911. A significant number of these projects also develop strategies to reduce the negative impact of human activities on nature. Speciation. Instead, geography is concerned with many different topicspeople, culture, politics, settlements, plants, A scientific theory can never completely be proven correct; it is only after exhaustive attempts to falsify competing for ideas and variations that the theory is assumed to be true. This research was particularly relevant because it considered how species' differentiation across geographic space became translated into evolutionary differentiation through time. What methods and techniques we use for its study? Proponents of environmental deterministic Using the laws, it is possible to predict what will 2. Some people have trouble understanding the complete scope of the discipline of geography because, unlike most other disciplines, geography is not defined by one particular topic. Information about distant lands was very important to prospective traders, administrators and settlers. Stigall AL. Manage cookies/Do not sell my data we use in the preference centre. In the case of fossil species, first fossil distributions from various localities are plotted on a modern map in GIS. of geography. Some of the dominant themes in these studies include environmental degradation of the hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere; resource use issues; natural hazards; environmental impact assessment; and the effect of urbanization and land-use change on natural environments. Insights into the geography of life have played a fundamental role in motivating major developments in evolutionary biology. Combining the knowledge of both of these academic areas gives us a more comprehensive understanding of why this environmental problem occurs. Ecosystem is the interacting system of a biological community and its non-living surroundings. Finally, scientists design and conduct experiments based on their hypotheses. The discipline has a long and extensive history that extends well back into the eighteenth century and biogeographic research played a pivotal role in the development of evolution, particularly in the works of Wallace and Darwin (Brooks and McLennan 1991; Lieberman 2000; Morrone 2008; Wiley and Lieberman 2011). 2010;296:2843. their environment. Darwin C. On the origin of species. He was the first to use the word geography to describe earth. The Society is the largest Geographical Society in Europe and one of the largest in the world. The study of science also includes the body of knowledge that has been collected through scientific inquiry. scientific investigation and discovery. Large quantities of high-quality data are necessary if geography is to be successfully implemented in the education system We need a new attitude towards research. Both emphasize the two most important aspects of science: observations and inferences. Physical geography, as a discipline in itself, has been profoundly susceptible to an array of diverse influences throughout its development. Today, this area of knowledge is called cultural geography. The map, both as graphic language and visual In the early 19th century, many geography scholars believed that environment had a key role on the living marvels. It lost its place as a highly regarded subject, and was starting to be regarded as overly descriptive with no relevance to science, the Greeks named it as a description of the earth. Parallel to this trend towards specialization, there developed a tendency to use quantitative techniques of analysis. (Graves, 1975). Eldredge N. The allopatric model and phylogeny in Paleozoic invertebrates. It is just like you students learn about many geographic concepts while travelling in a bus, a train or an aeroplane. 1. Like other research methods, it also asks you to explore, analyze, and act upon the things you find. Inductive reasoning relies on evidence to infer a conclusion and does not have the perceived certainty of deductive reasoning. The subject of Geography is as old as the mankind itself. One occurs north of a large river in Argentina, the Rio Negro, whereas the other species occurs south of the river. In 1521 Magellan and his companions sailed round the world and finally proved that the earth is round. They recognized that most species throughout their history, often many millions of years, were stable and displayed what they termed stasis (Eldredge 1985). In contrast, early Renaissance scholars used new instruments such as the telescope to enhance astronomical observations and developed new mathematics to explain those observations. location of trade routes, relief features Today, we refer to this style of speciation as geographic or allopatric speciation. where facts were established by casual observation in the field rather than by In vicariance biogeography, the emphasis is on using phylogenies to see if groups of species show similar or congruent patterns of evolution across geographic space (Wiley 1981; Brooks and McLennan 1991; Lieberman 2000; Morrone 2008; Wiley and Lieberman 2011). 2023 BioMed Central Ltd unless otherwise stated. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12052-012-0414-1, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12052-012-0414-1. Article identified the heat zones of earth i.e. processes that are working in these areas. 24 A.D.) and Ptolemy (A.D. 127-151) made considerable advances in geographic knowledge. Indeed, the discipline is now fragmented into a substantial number of separate subcommunities among some of which there is relatively New York: Columbia University Press; 2008. Science. One instance where such techniques have proven valuable is in showing the role that invasive species played in causing the Late Devonian biodiversity crisis (Rode and Lieberman 2004, 2005; Stigall 2010). This definition suggests that geography, in its purest form, is the field of knowledge that is concerned with how phenomena are spatially organized. She specifically focused on Neogene tropical mammal species that during times of warmth might have broad geographic ranges. The discipline of geography is among the most ancient of sciences. A better definition of geography may be the study of natural and human-constructed phenomena relative to a spatial dimension. Abu Zafar Muhammad bin Musa has also written a book on geography based on the ideals of Ptolemy. Privacy Numerous journeys of geographical exploration were Lunar eclipses occur when the Earth casts its circular shadow on to the moons surface. Here you can choose which regional hub you wish to view, providing you with the most relevant information we have for your specific region. These include the following disciplines. showed the importance of geographic factors in the composition of a state. Looking for a flexible role? It was not until Ernst Mayr's documentation of the omnipresence of allopatric speciation, e.g., Mayr (1942, 1963) that allopatric speciation returned to the fore. PaleoGIS/Arcview 3.5, PALEOMAP Project. [1] The word has been in use in astronomy before Christian era, describing the round shape of the earth. spatial nature of human and physical features of the Earth. During the second century AD, Ptolemy (circa 100 178 AD) made some important contributions to geography. Al-Idrisi is best known for his skill at making maps and for his work of descriptive geography Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq or The Pleasure Excursion of One Who Is Eager to Traverse the Regions of the World. Ibn Battutah and Ibn Khaldun are well known for writing about their extensive travels of North Africa and the Middle East. Phylogenetics: the theory and practice of phylogenetic systematics. Stigall AL, Lieberman BS. reprintth ed. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. Morrone JJ. Trace the evolution of geography as a distinct discipline? Humboldt and Karl Ritter were the pioneers. The moment we think of geography we begin to ask many questions. Instead, the focus will be on some of the key developments in evolutionary theory post-Darwin (1859), especially in the area of macroevolution, and further how these involved more thoroughly and properly integrating geography into evolution through analysis of patterns preserved in the fossil record (Lieberman 2008). Today, geography is a diverse and interdisciplinary field that encompasses both physical and human geography, as well as specialized subfields such as GIS, environmental geography, and urban geography. Henderson (1968) the adjectival geography: agriculture geography, urban geography, social geography, settlement geography and so on. These numerous modern geographies started to make it easier to for geography to be defined. Terms and Conditions, Science seeks to understand the fundamental laws and principles that cause natural patterns and govern natural processes. With the passage of time many changes have occurred in its scope and content. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 b) developed as an outgrowth of the "Age of Discovery," beginning in the 15th century. The other early Greek Today geography is considered a fast developing science. techniques refer to various statistical tools that are used to synthesise the Near the sandy sea coasts when you keenly observe someone playing on the sands or sailing in the ocean waters or fishermen catching the fish you understand many things of geography. They were searching for answers to great variety of human life. J Biogeogr. Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. The second way one can study things is according to a temporal dimension. Geography has a long history that dates back to ancient civilizations such as Greece, Rome, and China. Rjwala is an educational platform, in which you get many information related to homework and studies. geography was to be studied. Mayr E. Animal species and evolution. geographers believed that numbers are more precise, and therefore perceived as This controversy gave rise to two schools of thought known as the, Possibilism and Determinism Concept | Different Subfields of Geography, Contribution of Greek Scholar in Geography Full Notes for UGC NET, GEOGRAPHY UNIT WISE MOCK TEST (MCQS) NTA UGC NET, Geomorphology 200 MCQS Mock Test 1 NTA UGC NET, Contribution of Alexander Von Humboldt in the Field of Geography NTA UGC NET, DEC 2020 JUNE 2021 SHIFT 2 GEOGRAPHY SOLVED PAPER NTA UGC NET. All work is written to order. contributors to geography are, Thales, Aristotle and Eratosthenes (276 - 194 1980;76:6184. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 1832. Darker polygons show the ranges of the mosasaur Platecarpus for different stages (ad) of the Late Cretaceous. by the work of various individual philosophers who helped to expand the scope Captain James Cook and Sir Francis Drake during their explorations discovered new countries, islands, rivers, mountains and other lands. ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. At this time, Chinese, Egyptian, and Phoenician civilizations were beginning to explore the places and spaces within and outside of their homelands. Lyell C. Principles of geology, vol. According to the possibilism school of thought, human The word BHUGOL was discovered in Sanskrit encyclopedia. during this period as an attempt to explain the relationship between human ), local topographies or gazettes (4th century A.D.), geographic encyclopedias (4th century A.D.). The Essay Writing ExpertsUK Essay Experts. Alexander Von Humboldt was a German geographer from 1769-1859, commonly known as the father of modern geography. The Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy, in the second century, using an Aristotelian approach and mathematics, observed the Sun, Moon, and stars moving across the sky and deductively reasoned that Earth must be at the center of the universe with the celestial bodies circling Earth. phenomena on the earth surface, e.g. Thales (624-546 B.C.) Vrba ES. Wagner M. The Darwinian theory and the law of the migration of organisms. They also promoted geography in schools and universities, leading to the first university lecturer appointed in 1888. Chapter 10 Economic Geography: Agriculture and food, 11. 2009b;2:1505. On approaching a big town or a city, you find that the crops in the fields too change. More than 2 million existing species of organisms have been named and described; many more remain to be discoveredfrom 10 million to 30 million, according to some estimates. Geographic knowledge saw strong growth in Europe and the United States in the 1800s. Fieldwork is an effective teaching method in geography is an interactive fun way for people to learn and experience what they are learning at first hand.

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