Human Geography
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HUMAN GEOGRAPHY www.eiilmuniversity.ac.in Subject: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY Credits: 4 SYLLABUS Nature and Scope of Human Geography Growth and Development of Human Geography, Age of Human vs. Physical Debate, Determinism and Possiblism Evolution and Race of Man Chemical Evolution, Theory of Spontaneous Generation, Biological Evolution, Life Cycle, Adaptation Age of Fossils Determined, Various Model of Human Evolution, Human Race and Classification Trends and Patterns of World Population Growth of World Populations, Cultural Factors that Affected Population Growth, Major Tribes of World Regional Division of Population on the Basis of Growth Rate, Demographic Transition, Theories of Migration Economic Activities Food Gathering and Hunting, Secondary Activities, Tertiary Activities Human Settlement Origin of Settlements, Stage of Development, Pattern of Rural Settlement, Urban Settlement Suggested Reading 1. James M. Rubenstein, The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography, Prentice Hall 2. H.J. de Blij, Alexander B. Murphy, Erin H. Fouberg, Human Geography: People, Place, and Culture, John Wiley & Sons 3. William Norton, Human Geography, Oxford University Press 4. Jerome D. Fellmann, Mark D. Bjelland, Arthur Getis, Judith Getis, Human Geography: Landscapes of Human Activities, Brown & Benchmark Chapter1- Population: Its Nature and Perspective Learning Objectives To define the Population. To explain the Geographical Scrutiny of Population. To explain the Population Growth and Decline. To describe the Population Movement. 1.1 Population A population is a summation of all the organisms of the same group or species, which live in the same region, and have the capability of interbreeding. In ecology, the population of a certain species in a certain region is estimated using the Lincoln Index. The region used to define a sexual inhabitants is defined as that within which interbreeding is potentially possible between any pair within the region. The likelihood of interbreeding is greater than the likelihood of crossbreeding with individuals from other regions. Under normal circumstances, breeding is substantially more common within the region than across the border. In sociology, population refers to a collection of human beings. Demography is a social science that entails the statistical study of human populations. 1.1.1 Population genetics In population genetics, a sexual population is a set of organisms in which any pair of members can breed together. This means that they can regularly exchange gametes to produce normally fertile offspring, and such a breeding group is known therefore as a gamodeme. This also implies that all members belong to the same species, such as humans. If the gamodeme is very large (theoretically, approaching infinity), and all gene alleles are uniformly distributed by the gametes within it, the gamodeme is said to be panmictic. Under this state, allele (gamete) frequencies can be converted to genotype (zygote) frequencies by expanding an appropriate quadratic equation, as shown by Sir Ronald Fisher in his establishment of quantitative genetics. Unfortunately, this seldom occurs in nature : localization of gamete exchange – through dispersal limitations, or preferential mating, or cataclysm, or other cause – may lead to small actual gamodemes which exchange gametes reasonably uniformly within themselves, but are virtually separated from their neighboring gamodemes. However, there may be low frequencies of exchange with these neighbors. This may be viewed as the breaking up of a large sexual population (panmictic) into smaller overlapping sexual populations. This failure of panmixia leads to two important changes in overall population structure: (1). the component gamodemes vary (through gamete sampling) in their allele frequencies when compared with each other and with the theoretical panmictic original (this is known as dispersion, and its details can be estimated using expansion of an appropriate binomial equation); and (2). the level of homozygosity rises in the entire collection of gamodemes. The overall rise in homozygosity is quantified by the inbreeding coefficient (f or φ). Note that all homozygotes are increased in frequency – both the deleterious and the desirable! The mean phenotype of the gamodemes collection is lower than that of the panmictic "original" – which is known as inbreeding depression. It is most important to note, however, that some dispersion lines will be superior to the panmictic original, while some will be about the same, and some will be inferior. The probabilities of each can be estimated from those binomial equations. In plant and animal breeding, procedures have been developed which deliberately utilize the effects of dispersion (such as line breeding, pure-line breeding, back-crossing). It can be shown that dispersion-assisted selection leads to the greatest genetic advance (ΔG = change in the phenotypic mean), and is much more powerful than selection acting without attendant dispersion. This is so for both allogamous (random fertilization) and autogamous (self-fertilization) gamodemes 1.1.2 World human population As of today's date, the world population is estimated by the United States Census Bureau to be 7.121 billion. The US Census Bureau estimates the 7 billion number was surpassed on 12 March 2012. According to a separate estimate by the United Nations, Earth‘s population exceeded seven billion in October 2011, a milestone that offers unprecedented challenges and opportunities to all of humanity, according to UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. According to papers published by the United States Census Bureau, the world population hit 6.5 billion on 24 February 2006. The United Nations Population Fund designated 12 October 1999 as the approximate day on which world population reached 6 billion. This was about 12 years after world population reached 5 billion in 1987, and 6 years after world population reached 5.5 billion in 1993. The population of countries such as Nigeria is not even known to the nearest million, so there is a considerable margin of error in such estimates. Researcher Carl Haub calculated that probably more than 100 billion people have been born during the last 2000 years. 1.1.3 Predicted growth and decline Population increased significantly as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace from 1700 onwards. The last 50 years have seen a yet more rapid increase in the rate of population growth due to medical advances and substantial increases in farm productivity, particularly beginning in the 1960s, made by the Green Revolution. In 2007 the United Nations Population Division projected that the world's population will likely surpass 10 billion in 2055. In the future, the world's population is expected to peak, after which it will decline due to economic reasons, health concerns, land exhaustion and environmental hazards. According to one report, it is very likely that the world's population will stop growing before the end of the 21st century. Further, population will actually decline some likelihood before 2100. The population has already declined in the last decade or two in Eastern Europe, the Baltics and in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The population pattern of less-developed regions of the world in recent years has been marked by gradually declining birth rates. These followed an earlier sharp reduction in death rates. This transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates is often referred to as the Population transition. Control Population control is the practice of artificially altering the rate of growth of a human population. Historically, human population control has been implemented by limiting the population's birth rate, usually by government mandate, and has been undertaken as a response to factors including high or increasing levels of poverty, environmental concerns, religious reasons, and overpopulation. While population control can involve measures that improve people's lives by giving them greater control of their reproduction, many programs have exposed them to exploitation. Worldwide, the population control movement was active throughout the 1960s and 1970s, driving many reproductive health and family planning programs. In the 1980s, tension grew between population control advocates and women's health activists who advanced women's reproductive rights as part of a human rights-based approach. Growing opposition to the narrow population control focus led to a significant change in population control policies in the early 1990s. 1.2 Geographical Scrutiny of Population Population scrutiny includes the sets of methods that allow us to measure the dimensions and dynamics of populations. These methods have primarily been developed to study human populations, but are extended to a variety of regions where researchers want to know how populations of social actors can change across time through processes of birth, death, and movement . In the context of human biological populations, Population scrutiny uses administrative records to develop an independent estimate of the population. Population scrutiny estimates are often considered a reliable standard for judging the accuracy of the census information gathered at any time. In the labor force, Population scrutiny is used to estimate the sizes and flows of populations of workers; in population ecology the focus is on the birth, death and movement of firms and institutional forms. Population scrutiny is used in a wide variety of contexts. For