You have studied geography as one of the components of your social studies course upto the secondary stage. You are already aware of some of the phenomena of geographical nature in the world and its different parts. Now, you will study ‘Geography’ as an independent subject and learn about the physical environment of the earth, human activities and their interactive relationships. Therefore, a pertinent question you can ask at this stage is — Why should we study geography? We live on the surface of the earth. Our lives are affected by our surroundings in many ways. We depend on the resources to sustain ourselves in the surrounding areas. Primitive societies subsisted on ‘natural means of subsistence’, i.e. edible plants and animals. With the passage of time, we developed technologies and started producing our food using natural resources such as land, soil and
water. We adjusted our food habits and clothing according to the prevailing weather conditions.
There are variations in the natural resource base, technological development, adaptation with and modification of physical environment, social organisations and cultural development. As a student of geography, you should be curious to know about all the phenomena which vary over space. You learn about the diverse lands and people. You should also be interested in understanding the changes which have taken place over time. Geography equips you to appreciate diversity and investigate into the causes responsible for creating such variations over time and space. You will develop skills to understand the globe converted into maps and have a visual sense of the earth’s surface. The understanding and the skills obtained in modern scientific techniques such as GIS and computer cartography equip you to meaningfully contribute to the national endeavour for development.
Now the next question which you may like to ask is — What is geography? You know that earth is our home.
It is also the home of many other creatures, big and small, which live on the earth and sustain. The earth’s surface is not uniform. It has variations in its physical features. There are mountains, hills, valleys, plains, plateaus, oceans, lakes, deserts and wilderness. There are variations in its social and cultural features too. There are villages, cities, roads, railways, ports, markets and many other elements created by human beings across the entire period of their cultural development.
This variation provides a clue to the understanding of the relationship between the physical environment and social/cultural features. The physical environment has provided the stage, on which human societies enacted the drama of their creative skills with the tools and techniques which they invented and evolved in the process of their cultural development. Now, you should be able to attempt the answer of the question posed earlier as to “What is geography”? In very simple words, it can be said that geography is the description of the earth. The term geography was first coined by Eratosthenese, a Greek scholar (276-194 BC.).
The word has been derived from two roots from Greek language geo (earth) and graphos (description). Put together, they mean description of the earth. The earth has always been seen as the abode of human beings and thus, scholars defined geography as, “the description of the earth as the abode of human beings”. You are aware of the fact that reality is always multifaceted and the ‘earth’ is also multi-dimensional, that is why many disciplines from natural sciences such as geology, pedology, oceanography, botany, zoology and meteorology and a number of sister disciplines in social sciences such as economics, history, sociology, political science, anthropology, etc. study different aspects of the earth’s surface. Geography is different from other sciences in its subject matter and methodology but at the same time, it is closely related to other disciplines. Geography derives its data base from all the natural and social sciences and attempts their synthesis.
Excercise
1. Multiple choice questions.
(i) Which one of the following scholars coined the term ‘Geography’?
(a) Herodotus (c) Galileo
(b) Erathosthenese (d) Aristotle
(ii) Which one of the following features can be termed as ‘physical feature’?
(a) Port (c) Plain
(b) Road (d) Water park
(iii) Make correct pairs from the following two columns and mark the correct option.
1. Meteorology A. Population Geography
2. Demography B. Soil Geography
3. Sociology C. Climatology
4. Pedology D. Social Geography
(a) 1B,2C,3A,4D (c) 1D,2B,3C,4A
(b) 1A,2D,3B,4C (d) 1C,2A,3D,4B
(iv) Which one of the following questions is related to cause-effect relationship?
(a) Why (c) What
(b) Where (d) When
(v) Which one of the following disciplines attempts temporal synthesis?
(a) Sociology (c) Anthropology
(b) Geography (d) History
2. Answer the following questions in about 30 words.
(i) What important cultural features do you observe while going to school? Are they similar or dissimilar? Should they be included in the study of geography or not? If yes, why?
(ii) You have seen a tennis ball, a cricket ball, an orange and a pumpkin. hich one amongst these resembles the shape of the earth? Why have you chosen this particular item to describe the shape of the earth?
(iii) Do you celebrate Van Mahotsava in your school? Why do we plant so many trees? How do the trees maintain ecological balance?
(iv) You have seen elephants, deer, earthworms, trees and grasses. Where do they live or grow? What is the name given to this sphere? Can you describe some of the important features of this sphere?
(v) How much time do you take to reach your school from your house? Had the school been located across the road from your house, how much time would you have taken to reach school? What is the effect of the distance
between your residence and the school on the time taken in commuting? Can you convert time into space and vice versa?
3. Answer the following questions in about 150 words.
(i) You observe every day in your surroundings that there is variation in natural as well as cultural phenomena. All the trees are not of the same variety. All the birds and animals you see, are different. All these different
elements are found on the earth. Can you now argue that geography is the study of “areal differentiation”?
Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 11 Geography Geography As A Discipline
