INTRODUCTION :
Human Geography is the sub-branch of geography, that’s the study of study of human races; the growth, distribution and density of populations of the various parts of the world, their demographic attributes and migration patterns; and physical and cultural differences between human groups and economic activities.
Human geography also takes into account the mosaic of culture, language, religion, customs and traditions; types and patterns of rural settlements, the site, size, growth and functions of urban settle¬ments, and the functional classification of towns.
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. Geography is ‘the study of the earth as home of humans’.
Its nature is interdisciplinary and integrative. Geography looks at the earth’s surface from two different but interrelated perspectives, known as systematic and regional. Accordingly, it has two broad branches: systematic geography and regional geography. Human geography is a branch of systematic geography. It studies the locational and distributional aspects of cultural phenomena, resulting from ever changing human-nature interaction.
The study of man and his adjustments to natural environment is known as human geography. Man has moduled his habitats and life style according to his physical surrounding natural endowments. The impact of environment on man & his adaptations to physical environment. have been emphasized by the Greek, Roman & Arab Scholars.
DEFINITION OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY :
There is given below various definition given by different scholar :
According to Ratzel “Human geography is the synthetic study of relationship between human societies and earth’s surface”.
According to Ellen C. Semple “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”.
According to Ellsworth Huntington, “Human geography may be defined as the study of the nature and distribution of the relationships between geographical environment and human activities and qualities.”
SCOPE OR BRANCHES OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
Scope means subject matter of any discipline so the subject matter of human geography divided into three sub-branches, their further division are given below :
1. Social Geography: Social Geography on social phenomena in space. Poverty, health, education, livelihood are some important fields of study in social geography. Social Geography also further divided into various branches :
i. Anthropogeography: The term "anthropogeography" was first coined by German geographer Friedrich Ratzel. It largely deals with racial phenomena in their spatial context.
ii. Population Geography: Population Geography is the of various dimensions of population like its population distribution, density, composition, fertility, mortality, migration, etc.
iii. Political Geography: Political Geography is the study of political phenomena in their spatial context. Main focus remains for creation and transformation of political and administrative regions.
iv. Historical Geography: Historical Geography emphasis on Spatial and temporal trends of geographical phenomena are studied in Historical geography.
v. Settlement Geography: Settlement Geography is the study of Rural/Urban settlements, their size, distribution, functions, and hierarch and of various other parameters of settlement system.
vi. Urban Geography: Urban geography is a branch of human geography concerned with various aspects of cities. Urban geographers and urbanists examine various aspects of urban life and the built environment.
vii. Rural Geography: The study of rural geography deals with phenomena which are typical of the rural space. It deals with rural settlements their characteristics and the socio-economic processes of change that occur in the rural space of the developed and less-developed countries.
2. Cultural Geography: Cultural Geography focuses on the origin, components and impact of human cultures, both material and non-material. Geography of Languages, Geography of Tools and Skills etc.
3. Economic Geography: Economic Geography is the study of the location and distribution of economic activities at the local, regional, national and world scale. Economic geography can be studied under the following sub-branches ;
i. Agricultural Geography: Agricultural geography deals with the study of agricultural activities of man. It studies the spatial variations of agricultural activities over the surface of earth and influence of geographical factors on agriculture. A comparative study is also undertaken with a view to understand how different agricultural systems are shaped in different areas of the world.
ii. Resource Geography: Resource geography is concerned with the study of resources, their geographical distribution, availability in terms of development, their production and their utilization.
iii. Industrial Geography : Industrial geography deals with the study of geographical variations in industrial activities on the earth`s surface. It also studies role of geographical factors in industrial localisation. In a narrow sense an industry is confined to the production of goods i.e. manufacturing industry. However, in a wider sense it is meant to cover the provision of services as well such as tourism, banking, transport etc.
iv. Geography of Transport : Transport geography is concerned with the study of mobility of goods and people, transportation routes and different means and modes of transportation. It also analyses accessibility and connectivity and the control of geographical factors and geographical barriers.
CONCLUSION:
Human geography as second major branch of geography focuses on the study of people and their social groups, cultures, economies, and interactions with the environment by studying their relations in spatio-temporal perspective. Human geography is the study of changing relationship between the active man and dynamic earth surface features. The major branches of human geography are population geography, settlement geography, economic geography, socio-cultural geography, political geography etc.
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