Social Sciences
Environmental determinism, also known as climatic determinism or geographical determinism, is the view that the physical environment sets limits on human environment.
Historiography [edit]
Origins [edit]
Environmental determinism's origins go back to antiquity, where it is first encountered in a fifth-century medical treatise ascribed to Hippocrates: Airs, Waters, Places.[1] In Roman times it is, for example, found in the work of the Greek geographer Strabo who wrote that climate influences the psychological disposition of different races. Some in ancient China advanced a form of environmental determinism as found in the Works of Guan Zhong (Guanzi 管子), perhaps written in the 2nd century BCE. In the chapter "Water and Earth" (Shuidi水地), we find statements like "Now the water of [the state of] Qi is forceful, swift and twisting. Therefore its people are greedy, uncouth, and warlike," and "The water of Chu is gentle, yielding, and pure. Therefore its people are lighthearted, resolute, and sure of themselves." [2]
Another early adherent of environmental determinism was the medieval Afro-Arab writer al-Jahiz, who explained how the environment can determine the physical characteristics of the inhabitants of a certain community. He used his early theory of evolution to explain the origins of different human skin colors, particularly black skin, which he believed to be the result of the environment. He cited a stony region of black basalt in the northern Najd as evidence for his theory:[3]
"[It] is so unusual that its gazelles and ostriches, its insects and flies, its foxes, sheep and asses, its horses and its birds are all black. Blackness and whiteness are in fact caused by the properties of the region, as well as by the God-given nature of water and soil and by the proximity or remoteness of the sun and the intensity or mildness of its heat."
The Arab sociologist and polymath, Ibn Khaldun, was also an adherent of environmental determinism. In his Muqaddimah
Historiography [edit]
Origins [edit]
Environmental determinism's origins go back to antiquity, where it is first encountered in a fifth-century medical treatise ascribed to Hippocrates: Airs, Waters, Places.[1] In Roman times it is, for example, found in the work of the Greek geographer Strabo who wrote that climate influences the psychological disposition of different races. Some in ancient China advanced a form of environmental determinism as found in the Works of Guan Zhong (Guanzi 管子), perhaps written in the 2nd century BCE. In the chapter "Water and Earth" (Shuidi水地), we find statements like "Now the water of [the state of] Qi is forceful, swift and twisting. Therefore its people are greedy, uncouth, and warlike," and "The water of Chu is gentle, yielding, and pure. Therefore its people are lighthearted, resolute, and sure of themselves." [2]
Another early adherent of environmental determinism was the medieval Afro-Arab writer al-Jahiz, who explained how the environment can determine the physical characteristics of the inhabitants of a certain community. He used his early theory of evolution to explain the origins of different human skin colors, particularly black skin, which he believed to be the result of the environment. He cited a stony region of black basalt in the northern Najd as evidence for his theory:[3]
"[It] is so unusual that its gazelles and ostriches, its insects and flies, its foxes, sheep and asses, its horses and its birds are all black. Blackness and whiteness are in fact caused by the properties of the region, as well as by the God-given nature of water and soil and by the proximity or remoteness of the sun and the intensity or mildness of its heat."
The Arab sociologist and polymath, Ibn Khaldun, was also an adherent of environmental determinism. In his Muqaddimah