Environmental Determinism

In his 2012 Political Geography plenary at the 2012 Royal Geographical Society meeting, Stuart Elden posed the possibilities of a "geopolitics" that engages the earth, the air and volumetric understandings as an alternative to geopolitics as a synonym for global politics with its two dimensional cartographic imagination. More is needed than political geography writ large: a material sensibility is necessary to think about security and geography but one that is not linked to traditional determinist formulations. Picking up these themes, this lecture explores how taking the physicality of climate change seriously requires a rethinking of politics in the face of numerous transformations in what is becoming a more obviously artificial planetary assemblage that makes human life possible in the Anthropocene. The
discussions in earth sciences and the very limited success of initiatives
in governance in formal negotiations concerning climate change both suggest that scholars require a more sophisticated understanding of the processes of transformation and the possibilities for innovation in governance to deal with mitigation measures as well as adaptation and geoengineering. Geopolitical analysis needs to incorporate these new developments if it is to effectively grapple with contemporary changes.

In a world of smart desktop approaches, it can be instructive to return to the roots of the discussion of whether it is possible to model the behaviour of small-scale human cultures based on environmental parameters. Present-day modellers appear to have forgotten this debate, which played such an important role in the anthropology of the early twentieth century. The question was never settled. Around the 1960s, a group of theoretical archaeological modellers decided that it was possible to model the landscape behaviour of hunter-gatherers based solely on the environmental data and thereby ignore social anthropological information supporting the opposing view. This was the beginning of a tradition of archaeological modelling that ignored differences in cultural landscape behaviour in similar environments and over time, the information provided by the developing discipline of landscape ecology, and with that the documented environmental complexity and its inherent small-scale dynamics. It is difficult to detect any scientific rationale behind this conscious archaeological isolation from relevant data provided by other disciplines, and the demand for cheap and fast management methods rather than science-based arguments appears the more likely driver. This presentation traces the history of this cultural "nature versus nurture" debate and discusses its implications.

It is the theory wherein the physical environment, including the climate, sets hard limits on human society. Environmental determinism is the belief that the environment determines the pattern of human culture and societal development in the past generations of traditional ways and beliefs where they live in.
This write-up Article excerpt from his D/MENRM Subject Course Thesis submitted at the University of the Philippines which will provide a background and understanding between the Determinism and the Possibilism on the ecological aspect towards the development of the society towards an element of the weaknesses and the strength respectively in particular with the environment we live and experiences. Nonetheless, discussed the conflict was happening in the environmental practices and beliefs, mostly, however, from the tropical climates with laziness, relaxed attitudes, and promiscuity while the normal variability in the weather found in the middle latitudes led to being more determined and driven of work ethics evolved within determinism aspect.

This chapter traces the earliest evidence for Chinese ideas of environmental determinism and explains how they later came to be linked to arguments about the purported moral inferiority of the ‘barbarians,’ first in the Han dynasty and again in the Tang. I build on Yuri Pines’s argument that “an idea of the barbarians’ inborn or strictly environmentally determined savagery” was a product of the unified Chinese empires and more specifically, of the second such empire, the Han. However, I also propose an alternative to Pines’s contention that the idea arose due to a new Chinese perception of the nomadic peoples of the northern steppe, particularly the Xiongnu, as unassimilable and therefore absolutely Other, unlike other ‘barbarian’ groups that the Chinese had previously absorbed successfully. Instead, I argue that Han and Tang discourses of barbarian moral inferiority, otherness, and unassimilability, of which notions of environmental determinism formed a part, were rooted in a tradition of anti-expansionist rhetoric deployed by officials who saw constant warfare against foreign polities as a threat to the stability of the Chinese state. The fact that the Han and Tang empires’ ‘barbarian’ enemies were often steppe nomads is incidental, not essential, to the existence of such rhetoric.

This chapter presents a non-destructive survey technique under development: acoustic detection and mapping of submerged Stone Age sites. While it has been experimentally established that reasonable amounts of man-knapped flint pieces can be excited by and respond to specific acoustic signal through meters of sea floor sediment, it is not yet known how small assemblages of knapped flint pieces one can obtain a response from and how deep in the sea floor this will be possible. It also remains to check experimentally if other knapped materials than flint (obsidian, quartzite, basalt, etc.) respond in a similar way given that some of their basic characteristics potentially differ from those registered for flint. This technique will facilitate a much more effective and
cheap detection and mapping of submerged Stone Age sites with knapped lithics compared to the techniques available at present. Especially the deep sites down to the approximately 120 m deep coastlines of the glaciations, which are very difficult to localize today, represent an important research potential. In general, the highly productive coast lines must be assumed to have played an important economic role of human society from the Palaeolithic onwards, which means that we miss an important part of the picture of the human cultural development. In spite of the promising perspective of methodological improvement, one must be aware of the limitations of the acoustic method. It will not be able to map Stone Age sites lacking knapped lithics. This chapter presents and discusses the method’s basic technological principles and the experimental results obtained so far, elucidating its potential.

The purpose of this article is to propose the relatively universal modern framework of person-environment interactions. The theoretical grounds, such as K. Lewin’s Field Theory, A. Bandura’s Doctrine of Reciprocal Determinism, and contemporary integral approaches, are presented. Then, the original idea of the integrative-transactional framework for studying complex person-environment interactions is proposed. It includes the person, environment, and behaviour, all engaged in constant bi-directional and reciprocal interactions correlated to the specific mental states. These mental states  such as person-environment fit, place attachment, place identity, place image, sense of place, and place satisfaction, as well as their possible behavioural correlates, are described and discussed. Critical dimensions of the person e.g. demographics, health, cultural influences, personality, knowledge, lifestyle, values, motives, and emotions are explained, conceptualised, and their possible indicators are discussed; so are the dimensions of the environment e.g. formal features, activities, functionality, social milieu, sensory stimulation, symbolic cues, physical coherence, and affordances. In the conclusion, the practical usage of integrative-transactional framework for studying complex person-environment interactions as a generalizable, highly usable and comprehensive conceptual toolbox for a variety of people-environment studies is presented.  Also the need of extensive use of existing concepts rather than creating new, and the necessity to look for parsimony in modelling the people-environment relationships is discussed.

Ellen Semple once described the major "life-supporting forces" of inland agriculturalists-fresh water, good soils, clear days, etc.-as "weak" along the coasts (Semple 1911, 242). This "weakness" did not, however, prevent mass urbanization at the ocean's edges as an accommodating human response to the growth of population, seapower, commerce and industry. Although coastal settlers may prefer their own habitat and life-styles to those of the inland agriculturalists, the early histories of human settlement have been written for the most part by inland dwellers, and reflect their prejudices (Edey 1974, 11). These contrasting preferences and aversions can be discussed as "geopsychological" aspects of settlement geography.

Exotic feng-shui practices are an increasingly popular form of applied geography in Anglo-America today. Hardly scientific, feng-shui is, however, systematic, complex, and profound in the context of its own cosmology and symbolism. In this article, I muse on the provenance of 'Berkeley School' genius at the UC Berkeley site in relation to its 'power of place,'using a simplified feng-shui model. My examples introduce and elaborate on the propitious synchronicities found at the site perhaps responsible for the flowering of three prestigious 'Berkeley Schools' of creative endeavor following WWI: Carl Sauer's Berkeley School of Cultural Geography; Alfred Kroeber's Berkeley School of Cultural Anthropology; and John Haley's Berkeley School of American Scene Landscape Painting. I muse over some auspicious peculiarities in the common ground at the UC Berkeley site from which these three landscape schools emerge. A general feng-shui cosmological model describes how creative arrays of primal natural forces might converge at the campus site, creating a cosmic force field that generates and shapes the successful thoughts, visions, and creative output of certain of the site's inhabitants. The founding fathers of these three Berkeley Schools, although unbeknownst to them, are perhaps beneficiaries of UC Berkeley's excellent feng-shui site. The model provides a provocative alternative understanding of forces responsible for the longevity and continuing vitality of the 'Berkeley School' tradition of cultural geography.

Determinism from the 1 st and 3 rd person perspective as well as the universal point of reference aee dealt with. This is to show the absence of free will in the last perspective and the illusion of it when seen from the first two perspectives. 'Free' choice is dealt with as well as the absence of free will and the consequences of determinism for law and court judgements are explored. So, what if any, is the place and the role of God in all this? Did s/he create determinism and the potential for or any semblance of choice and free will? Or is the existence of God, the fulfilling of prayer intentions and miracles impossible and redundant in a universe of determinism (laws of nature etc) or universal determinism?

The article aims to show the process of self-perception of elite Cartagena
and Barranquilla, about geographic space and its population during the
first half of the twentieth century. It will be shown as within the dynamicsthat sought to consolidate these cities as tourist and business destinations could not deny the statements which placed the tropics as unfit for progress

[Online at: https://www.societyandspace.org/articles/no-island-is-an-island].  Since March 2020, COVID rates have decimated Marshall Islander communities in the US, while the US nuclear testing and longstanding military presence in the Marshall Islands created the conditions for this public health ‘crisis.’ This essay explores how discourses of islands as remote and races as discrete undergird US imperial practices that produce Marshall Islanders’ health and legal vulnerabilities. The COVID pandemic both reveals and deepens uneven topographies of exposure, risk, vulnerability, and abandonment across US empire.

"Exotic feng-shui practices are an increasingly popular form of applied geography in Anglo-America today. Hardly scientific, feng-shui is, however, systematic, complex, and profound in the context o its own cosmology and symbolism. In this article, I muse on the provenance of “Berkeley School” genius at the UC Berkeley site in relation to its “power of place,” using a simplifed feng-shui model. My examples introduce and elaboration the propitious synchronicities found at the site perhaps responsible for the flowering of three prestigious “Berkeley Schools” of creative endeavorollowing WWI: Carl Sauer’s Berkeley School o Cultural Geography; Al-red Kroeber’s Berkeley School o Cultural Anthropology; and John Haley’s Berkeley School of American Scene Landscape Painting. I muse over some auspicious peculiarities in the common ground at the UC Berkeley siterom which these three landscape schools emerge. A general
feng-shui cosmological model describes how creative arrays o primal natural forces might converge at the campus site, creating a cosmic force feld that generates and shapes the successful thoughts, visions, and creative output of certain of the site’s inhabitants. The founding fathers of these three Berkeley Schools, although
unbeknownst to each of them, are perhaps beneficiaries of UC Berkeley’s excellent
feng-shui site. The model provides a provocative alter-native understanding of forces responsible for the longevity and continuing vitality o the “Berkeley School” tradition o cultural geography."

Sylvia Dümmer Scheel, "Metáforas de un país frío. Chile en la Exposición Iberoamericana de Sevilla de 1929", en Amarí Peliowski y Catalina Valdés (eds.), "Una Geografía Imaginada. Diez ensayos sobre arte y naturaleza", Ediciones Universidad Alberto Hurtado / Metales Pesados, Santiago, 2014

The introduction of environmental science and geography into the study of the ancient and medieval world in the second half of the twentieth century has opened new pathways to research. Yet in the background lurks a methodological peril; natural sciences are commonly perceived as “proper” science, offering measurable results and predictability. The environmental factor is considered as the hard surface which restricts human actions and possible strategies, as the canvas on which human agency is inevitably entangled;  and ultimately the determining factor in social evolution.

Our presentation builds on the established cross-disciplinary approach, and emphasises that if this approach has anything to teach, it is unity through diversity. Human societies do not interact with their natural environment in a pre-defined manner, or choose from a given set of alternatives determined by their natural environment. Instead, communities adjust to their environment and respond to challenges by applying a wide range of strategies. Our case studies focus on textual and archaeological evidence from ancient and medieval Anatolia. In ancient Asia Minor, cities alongside the Maeander faced similar issues and opted for different solutions; in Atarneus, recent archaeological research has shown that environmental deterioration followed, rather than caused, the abandoning of the settlement in the 1st century AD. In Byzantine Anatolia (c.650-850), the contrasting fortunes of the thriving regional capitals of Amorion and Ephesus, which contracted appreciably during this period, show that responses to events, such as the Sassanian and Islamic invasions, differed as a result of different local contexts.

Neglected tropical diseases are defined operationally as diseases that prevail in "tropical" regions and are under-researched, under-funded, and under-treated compared with their disease burden. By analysing the adjectives "tropical" and "neglected," I expose and interrogate the discourses within which the term "neglected tropical disease" derives its meaning. First, I argue that the term "tropical" conjures the notion of "tropicality," a form of Othering which erroneously explains the disease-prevalence of "tropical" regions by reference to environmental determinism, rather than colonialism and neocolonialism. Second, I examine the way in which this Othering enables the abjection of tropical regions and their peoples, leading to neglect. I recommend that the term "neglected tropical diseases" be more carefully contextualised within health scholarship, education, and policy.

The papers in this wide-ranging collection span four continents and vary in their chronological focus from prehistory to the modern age. However, two broad trends run across them all. The first trend is a consistent highlighting of how humans shape desert environments to suit both socio-economic and ideological or spiritual need. For instance, the articles by Moulin, Boza Cuadros, Stone and Alaika & Gonzalez La Rosa all emphasise how humans have transformed the Peruvian desert into a network of transport routes reflective of both commercial necessity and a desire for access to sites of particular religious significance. Likewise, Bird explains in his paper how people in Western Australia have used rock art and stone arrangements to create a sacred desert landscape that not only relates to their beliefs, but also has implications for practical matters of staking claim to territory. Similar processes have been shown to be at work in Namibia by Breunig, while Roberts et al have further backed up these observations by demonstrating how nomadic populations in Qatar have sought to appropriate the desert on both a level of political ideology, and as a physical environment for pastoralism, commerce and conflict. As an Egyptologist, in this commentary I will be adding my thoughts on comparable phenomena in the Egyptian desert.

For proponents of the view that anthropogenic climate change will become a ‘threat multiplier’ for instability in the decades ahead, the Syrian civil war has become a recurring reference point, providing apparently compelling evidence that such conflict effects are already with us. According to this view, human-induced climatic change was a contributory factor in the extreme drought experienced within Syria prior to its civil war; this drought in turn led to large-scale migration; and this migration in turn exacerbated the socio-economic stresses that underpinned Syria’s descent into war. This article provides a systematic interrogation of these claims, and finds little merit to them. Amongst other things it shows that there is no clear and reliable evidence that anthropogenic climate change was a factor in Syria’s pre-civil war drought; that this drought did not cause anywhere near the scale of migration that is often alleged; and that there exists no solid evidence that drought migration pressures in Syria contributed to civil war onset. The Syria case, the article finds, does not support ‘threat multiplier’ views of the impacts of climate change; to the contrary, we conclude, policymakers, commentators and scholars alike should exercise far greater caution when drawing such linkages or when securitising climate change.

"Cultural response to ocean influences and coastal settlement has not always been positive. Regardless of recent trends toward coastal settlement, over the long view of history there seems to be widespread and deep-seated cultural aversions to coastal settlers and to coastal settlements among traditional agricultural peoples worldwide; that is, among people who have centered their own existence on the inland river banks
and plains. Ellen Semple once described the major "life-supporting forces" of inland agriculturalists-fresh water, good soils, clear days, etc.-as "weak" along the coasts (Semple 1911, 242). This "weakness" did not, however, prevent mass urbanization at the ocean's edges as an accommodating human response to the growth of population, sea power, commerce and industry. Although coastal settlers may prefer their own habitat and lifestyles to those of the inland agriculturalists, the early histories of human settlement have been written for the most part by inland dwellers, and reflect their prejudices (Edey 1974, 11). These contrasting preferences and aversions can be discussed as "geopsychological" aspects of settlement geography. This term was introduced by Gregor in1963 (p. 340)."

This study analyzes the strategies and market positioning adopted by Brasil Telecom (incumbent) and GVT (mirror company) over the last few years. The research involved semi-structured interviews with executives of the two companies, as well as documental analysis, particularly of those companies' annual reports. The data was then confronted with a model that was consolidated by the authors based on previous work by Hrebiniak and Joyce, in 1985, and Hax and Wilde II, in 1996 and 2001. Results show that those organizations make strategic choices and develop organizational competences that are still influenced by the way they entered the market several years ago.

This paper discusses a couple of basic methodological problems inherent in predictive modelling as used today in mapping the location of Stone Age settlements based solely on landscape topography/bathymetry. It argues that the modelling approach employed is based on elements adopted from a type of landscape ecology that was abandoned more than 20 years ago, because it was unable to produce reasonable results, and that it can be difficult to develop prediction methodology based on the present understanding of landscape ecology as being extremely complex and dynamic. Furthermore, it maintains that the modelling approach currently employed in Stone Age archaeology is based on assumptions about prehistoric resource-strategic behaviour that are simplistic and out of tune with what we now know. It therefore questions whether it is possible to develop a precise and efficient predictive procedure for modelling the locations of Stone Age sites.

The Routledge Handbook of Identity and the Environment in the Classical and Medieval Worlds explores the various ways in which environment was considered to define and shape ethnicity and identity, taking its cues from developments in early natural philosophers and historical ethnographies. Defining ‘environment’ broadly to include not only physical but cultural environments, natural and constructed, the volume includes contributions on a diverse range of topics that address the multifarious ways in which environment was understood to shape culture and physical characteristics of peoples as well as the ways in which the ancients manipulated their environments to achieve a desired identity. The volume includes studies not only of the Greco-Roman world, but also ancient China and the European, Jewish and Arab inheritors and transmitters of classical thought.
In recent years work in this area has been confined mostly to the discussion of texts that reflect an approach to the barbarian as ‘other’. This volume takes the discussion of ethnicity on a fresh course. The theories represented in this volume contextual the concept of the barbarian within rational discourses such as cartography, medicine, and mathematical sciences, an approach that allows us to better see the more varied and nuanced approaches to ethnic identity that abounded in antiquity. The innovative and thought-provoking material in this volume realise new directions of study for identity in the Classical and Medieval worlds.

In this essay, I draw on three intimate moments in my life as a feminist
academic to explore the precarious yet powerful position of the graduate student in the politics of knowledge production. Our institutions may continue to generate profits and power from our devaluation, but through
groups of solidarity and support we perform a protest, a collective
counterpolitic. Feminist ways of knowing and being lend political leverage
to our efforts to empower our students, protect and challenge each other, and radically reimagine our inherited forms of oppression. The following  are brief glimpses into my lived experience of Women’s Studies.