Sauer's Cultural Landscape Geography - Assignment Example

GEOGRAPHY Considered to be the intellectual giant of his era, the leader of dominant Berkeley School of Geography, Carl Sauer led the impressive field of cultural geography. He was a great influence on a generation of geographers, who wanted to connect the various areas of physical and human geography with historical geography by using the all-important historical methodology. Sauer advocated 'humane' use of environment, argued that ecological geography should be given higher importance pointing to ancient and modern rural cultures as examples. Sauer argued that cultural ecology, physical and human geography all work by adapting and transforming themselves to their environments and their needs. Under the influence of Carl Sauer, cultural landscape geography developed as the main branch of geography. "Sauer was explicitly concerned to counter an environmental determinism which had dominated the American geography of the previous generation, within which human agency was given scant autonomy in the shaping of the visible landscape," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_landscape He believed that culture is the main force in shaping all visible features of physical environment of earth's surface and he calls it 'human cultural action.' They provoke action, responses and adaptation by humans. He touches the cultural traits imposed by Europeans during colonization on various parts of the world and says that this cultural imposition on pre-existing cultures, shaped these new cultures in a different way. "Culture is the agent, the natural area is the medium, the cultural landscape is the result. Under the influence of a given culture, itself changing through time, the landscape undergoes development, passing through phases, and probably reaching ultimately the end of its cycle of development. With the introduction of a different - that is an alien - culture, a rejuvenation of the cultural landscape sets in, or a new landscape is superimposed on remnants of an older one," Sauer (1925), The Morphology of Landscape." University of California Publications. French regional geography was a model of what Sauer propagated. French seafarers were crowned with initial success and the French school of geography was highly influential. It 'became known for its descriptive regional monographs presented in a lucid and flowing manner, human and historical geography were its forte.' Even though there were criticisms that the emphasis has shifted several times between the approaches and viewpoints, all geographers had recognised their interdependence and complimentary importance. There is no denial that French regional geography also reflected the historical and military developments of the country. Talking about hundred years' war between France and Britain, Sauer says (Northern Mists) that France lost most of her ports and her north and southwest regions were ravaged. France had unending political rivalry with Britain. Napoleon's wars had left bitter memories in both the countries. The French revolution had far reaching affects all over the world. French landscape, its geography and culture were influenced by all these events. By then, France was involved in the colonial hunt and fresh rivalry in newly found lands had begun with England, Spain and Portugal. Colonies had left far reaching impacts on European nations. Use of tobacco spread rapidly in France. Most of the European countries were competing with each other for gaining colonies all over the world. Immigration, especially to America was continuing with gusto. Due to the above historical background and the climatic changes, vegetation was not considerable in France. Sauer says European agriculture did not originate in Europe. Agriculture did not advance much over the centuries either. "Fields were plowed and planted principally in order to raise grain, which supplied the starch and a good deal of the protein in the diet of the people. To a far greater extent than is true today, the farmers of Northwest Europe made their living in the growing of small grains," Sauer (1981, p. 31). Barley, wheat, oat and rye, legumes, oil and fibre plants, considerable varieties of fruits all came from colonies. French were good with animal husbandry and kept animals like cattle, sheep, pigs and horses, fowls. "Dairying is the foundation of north European husbandry, not only the cattle, but largely as well as sheep and goats. Fresh and sour milk, curds, butter and cheese provided, together with grain a cheap and sufficiently balanced basic diet," (ibid, p. 36). Woodlands and community lands were vigorously maintained, meadowlands were protected. A different form of husbandry was developed 'that is almost peculiar to northern Europe - the cutting and curing of crops of hay.' Fields too remained important grazing lands, and fallowing was in practice. Sauer says that there existed a good balance between climate, man, livestock and vegetation. He gave original arguments to the cultural variation in Old and New worlds. "The difference between the deserts and their margins in the Old and the New Worlds may be explained by the different histories of occupation by man. The Old World lands were lived in much longer by more people and by people who turned flocks and herds out to graze and browse. The people of the New World had neither herd animals nor plow." P.102, Sauer (1969). French regional geography had all the cultural traits advocated by Sauer. It changed according to the changes in political and trading fields of the country. It also showed the imperialistic ambitions of French society, its desires to win far away colonies, its competition with other European powers and as argued by Sauer, French regional geography changed constantly according to the changing patters of the world. These paradigms included new inventions and discoveries of new continents. Cultural landscapes of every region changed unendingly and continue to do so even today. This also involves Darwin's determinism that was an immense contribution to cultural geography. Environmental determinism, also known as Climatic Determinism, advocated by Darwin, is the view that physical environment, rather than the social culture, determines culture. With a slight difference, Darwin and Sauer are speaking the same language. It also argues that these peculiarities determined the nature of the people themselves. Even though in Europe, determinism was rejected later, environmental determinism cannot be totally ruled out and found a new lease of life under the influence of Sauer. David Livingstone and his geographical tradition that conveyed the idea that research interests in history and geography are more important than the physical geography, are still widely accepted, along with the Process of selection of Malthus, creating a relationship between the people and environment. Sauer used 'landscape as theatre' and his ideas and theories were largely appreciated. He said 'culture area is a region of world shared by people with similar cultural traits. Single cultural trait like maize agriculture, forcing the communities together, can group other communities because of common cultural complex, culture area analysis has been used widely in both anthropology and cultural geography 'because it facilitates comparisons between regions, assists in the historical reconstruction of cultural development, and lends itself to questions about the impact of the natural environment on the form of human culture' http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/15 Sauer undoubtedly "reinvigorated the culture area concept within the field of geography by synthesizing the ideas of the European Kulturkreise school with the anthropological approaches to culture area Sauer argued that the diffusion of ideas from a few "cultural hearths," or cultural centeres, had been the driving force in human history," http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/15 It interested him to find out the meaning and distribution of arts and artefacts of man and how they materialised at particular places and how they moulded the physical experiments. "I like that expression, the meeting of natural and cultural history, partly because I prefer natural history with its sense of real, non-duplicated time and place to ecology, and culture history for the same reason to sociology or social science," (p.2, Sauer, 1969). In the meantime, quest of cultural geography continues with particular emphasis on ecology and environment. "We remain a part of the organic world, and as we intervene more and more decisively to change the balance and nature of life, we have also more need to know, by retrospective study, the responsibilities and hazards of our present and our prospects as lords of creation," Sauer (1954, p.104). BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Sauer, Carl O. (1981), Selected Essays 1963 - 1975, Turtle Island Foundation, Berkeley, California. 2. Sauer, Carl O. (1968), Northern Mists, University of California Press, Berkeley. 3. Sauer, Carl. O. (1952), Agricultural Origins and Dispersals, Series 2, The American Geographic Society, New York. 4. Sauer, Carl O. (1969), Seeds, Spades, Hearths, and Herds, second edition, The MIT Press, London. 5. Thomas, William L. (1956), ed. Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth, Vol. 1, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ONLINE RESOURCES: 1. http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/15 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_landscape Read More