CBSE Class 12 Geography Fundamental of Human Geography Assignment Set B

Key Notes:
• The core concern of geography as a discipline is to understand the earth as home of human beings and to study all those elements which have sustained them.
• It emphasis is on study of nature and human beings.
• Geography is a field of study is integrative, empirical and practical.
• It studies each and every event on the earth over the space and time.
• Geography can be studied through law making or descriptive.
• Both physical and human phenomena are described in metaphors using symbols from the human anatomy.
• German geographers describe the ‘state/country’ as a ‘living organism’. Networks of road, railways and water ways have often been described as “arteries of circulation”.

There are two approaches of geography a. Systematic approach and b. Regional approach
• According to Ratzel, “Human geography is the synthetic study of relationship between human societies and earth’s surface.”
• According to Ellen C Sample, “Human geography is the study of “the changing relationship between the unresting man and the unstable earth.”
• According to Paul Vidal De la Blache, “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”.

NATURE OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
• Human geography studies the inter-relationship between the physical environment and socio-cultural environment created by human beings through mutual interaction with each other.
• 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.

Naturalisation of Humans
• Man interact with nature with the help of technology.
• It is not important that what he creates but with what tools he used to create.
• Technology indicates the level of cultural development of society.
• Human beings were able to develop technology after they developed better understanding of natural laws.
• In the early stages of their interaction with their natural environment humans were greatly influenced by it. They adapted to the dictates of Nature. This is so because the level of technology was very low and the stage of human social development was also primitive. This type of interaction between primitive human society and strong forces of nature was termed as Environmental determinism.
• Primitive societies which live incomplete harmony with their natural environment.
• Nature is a powerful force,worshipped, revered and conserved. There is direct dependence of human beings on nature for resources which sustain them. The physical environment for such societies becomes the “Mother Nature.
• It is the theory that the environment sets certain constraints or limitations, but Culture is otherwise determined by social conditions.
• A geographer, Griffith Taylor introduced another concept which reflects a middle path (Madhyam Marg) between the two ideas of environmental determinism and possibilism. He termed it as Neodeterminism or stop and go determinism.

Humanisation of nature
• With the development of technology people understood the nature well
• They move from state of necessity to state of possibilities.
• Human activities created cultural landscape.
• The concept shows that neither is there a situation of absolute necessity (environmental determinism) nor is there a condition of absolute freedom (possibilism).
• It means that human beings can conquer nature by obeying it.

Human Geography through the Corridors of Time
If we imagine the beginning of human geography with the interaction of environment and human beings, it has its roots deep in history
• The concerns of human geography have a long temporal continuum though the approaches to articulate them have changed over time.
• This dynamism in approaches and thrusts shows the vibrant nature of the discipline.
• For example, in th e late 15th century witnessed attempts of explorations in Europe and slowly the myths and mysteries about countries and people started to open up.
• The colonial period provided impetus to further explorations in order to access the resources of the regions and to obtain inventorised information
• The intention here is not to present an in-depth historical account but to make you aware of the processes of steady development of human geography.

I. Read the case study given below and answer the questions that follow:

Winters in the town of Trondheim mean fierce winds and heavy snow. The skies are dark for months. Kari drives to work in the dark at 8 am. She has special tyres for the winter and keeps the headlights of her powerful car switched on. Her office is artificially heated at a comfortable 23 degrees Celsius. The campus of the university she works in is built under a huge glass dome. This dome keeps the snow out in winter and lets in the sunshine in the summer.
The temperature is controlled carefully and there is adequate lighting. Even though fresh vegetables and plants don’t grow in such harsh weather, Kari keeps an orchid on her desk and enjoys eating tropical fruits like banana and kiwi. These are flown in from warmer areas regularly. With a click of the mouse, Kari can network with colleagues in New Delhi. She frequently takes a morning flight to London and returns in the evening in time to watch her favourite television serial. Though Kari is fiftyeight years old, she is fitter and looks younger than many thirty year old in other parts of the world.

Question. When do fierce winds blow in Trondheim?
(a) Summers
(b) Winters
(c) Monsoons
(d) All the year round

Answer: B

Question. What is the shape of the university campus?
(a) Bell shaped
(b) Pyramid shaped
(c) Dome shaped
(d) Cone shaped

Answer: C

Question. Which of these fruits does Kari likes to eat?
(a) Kiwi
(b) Dragon fruit
(c) Apple
(d) Mango

Answer: A

Question. How old is Kari?
(a) 23
(b) 32
(c) 46
(d) 58

Answer: D

II. Read the note on outsourcing given below and answer the questions that follow:

The Naturalisation of Humans
Benda lives in the wilds of the Abujh Maad area of central India. His village consists of three huts deep in the wilds. Not even birds or stray dogs that usually crowd villages can be seen in these areas. Wearing a small loin cloth and armed with his axe, he slowly surveys the penda (forest) where his tribe practices a primitive form of agriculture called shifting cultivation. Benda and his friends burn small patches of forest to clear them for cultivation. The ash is used for making the soil fertile. Benda is happy that the Mahua trees around him are in bloom. How lucky I am to be a part of this beautiful universe, he thinks as he looks up to see the Mahua, Palash and Sal trees that have sheltered him since childhood. Crossing the penda in a gliding motion, Benda makes his way to a stream. As he bends down to scoop up a palmful of water, he remembers to thank Loi-Lugi, the spirit of the forest for allowing him to quench his thirst. Moving on with his friends, Benda chews on succulent leaves and roots. The boys have been trying to collect Gajjhara and Kuchla, from the forest. These are special plants that Benda and his people use. He hopes the spirits of the forest will be kind and lead him to these herbs. These are needed to barter in the madhai or tribal fair coming up the next full moon. He closes his eyes and tries hard to recall what the elders had taught him about these herbs and the places they are found in. He wishes he had listened more carefully. Suddenly there is a rustling of leaves. Benda and his friends know it is the outsiders who have come searching for them in the wilds. In a single fluid motion Benda and his friends disappear behind the thick canopy of trees and become one with the spirit of the forest.

Question. Which of these types of agriculture is practiced in the village of Benda?
(a) Traditional Cultivation
(b) Intensive Cultivation
(c) Shifting Cultivation
(d) Large Scale Cultivation

Answer: C

Question. What is used to make the soil fertile?
(a) Fertilizers
(b) Manure
(c) Insecticides
(d) Ash

Answer: D

Question. What is the name of the spirit of the forest?
(a) Loi- Lugi
(b) Chi-Mini
(c) Gajjhara- Kuchla
(d) Benda- Benda

Answer: A

Question. Who had come to search Benda and his friends in the wilds?
(a) Wild animals
(b) Outsiders
(c) Tribals
(d) None of these

Answer: B

Question. Where is Abujh Maad area?
(a) Eastern India
(b) Western India
(c) Central India
(d) North-eastern India

Answer: C

Question. Which of these is the local word for forest?
(a) Benda
(b) Penda
(c) Loi-Lugi
(d) Madhai

Answer: B

Question. What have the boys been trying to collect from the forest?
(a) Sal
(b) Mahua
(c) Palash
(d) Gajjhara

Answer: D

Question. Who does he believe will lead them to the herbs?
(a) Spirits of trees
(b) Spirits of medicine
(c) Spirits of forest
(d) Spirits of ancestors

Answer: C

III. Read the case Study given below and answer the questions that follow:

The process of adaptation, adjustment with and modification of the environment started with the appearance of human beings over the surface of the earth in different ecological niches. Thus, if we imagine the beginning of human geography with the interaction of environment and human beings, it has its roots deep in history. Thus, the concerns of human geography have a long temporal continuum though the approaches to articulate them have changed over time. This dynamism in approaches and thrusts shows the vibrant nature of the discipline. Earlier there was little interaction between different societies and the knowledge about each other was limited. Travellers and explorers used to disseminate information about the areas of their visits. Navigational skills were not developed and voyages were fraught with dangers.
The late fifteenth century witnessed attempts of explorations in Europe and slowly the myths and mysteries about countries and people started to open up. The colonial period provided impetus to further explorations in order to access the resources of the regions and to obtain inventorised information. The intention here is not to present an in-depth historical account but to make you aware of the processes of steady development of human geography.

Question. The process of adaptation, adjustment with and modification of the environment started with the appearance of human beings over the surface of the earth in different :
(a) ecological niches
(b) ecological cliché
(c) ecological balance
(d) None of these

Answer: A

Question. If we imagine the beginning of human geography with the interaction of environment and human beings, it has its roots deep in _________ .
(a) History
(b) Political Science
(c) Economics
(d) None of These

Answer: A

Question. Which period provided impetus to further explorations in order to access the resources of the regions and to obtain inventoried information?
(a) Elizabethan
(b) colloquial
(c) colonial
(d) dark

Answer: C

Question. What did the travellers and explorers used to do about the areas of their visits?
(a) disseminate information
(b) discard information
(c) ignore information
(d) maintain no records

Answer: A