Environmental Determinism

Every existing society holds a particular view of the natural world and their place within it. Some saw the environment simply as backdrop to the culture humans establish for themselves, and others believed that the importance was equally shared in interaction between humans and the environment. The third view of human-habitat interaction, which was acknowledged well into the 20th century, was the idea of Environmental Determinism.

Environmental Determinism is the view that the physical environment, rather than people, is what determines culture. This form of determinism closely connected to the Social Darwinism ideologies of the time. Social Darwinism sought to explain "which societies were fittest in the imperial struggle for world domination" and Environmental determinism provided a naturalistic answer (Peet 310). It was believed that "the interrelation between groups and their habitats produced specific kinds of cultural traits" - humans adapt to their environment and not the other way around (Moran 30). Friedrich Ratzel, a noted ethnographic scholar, promoted the idea that a physical climate was a central factor in determining a populations cultural and social attitudes, and therefore defined their overall success in the world.

A lot of unsubstantiated claims were made regarding the personality traits of various cultures based on their geographic climate. For example, "tropical climates were said to cause laziness, relaxed attitudes and promiscuity, while the frequent variability in the weather of the middle latitudes led to more determined and driven work ethics" (Wikipedia). The view that geography and climate can influence the psychological temperament of people, and therefore define the behavioral culture of their society seems particularly absurd. Some determinist perspectives made a little more sense, however, pointing out that geographically speaking, "mountains produce isolation and cultural stability, while lowlands promote racial and cultural mixture and migration" (Moran 30). As a whole, Environmental Determinism was too crude of a theory to remain viable, and combinatory theories such as human adaptation to environment became the prime explanation for human’s role in the world.

Moran, Emilio. "Human Adaptability: An Introduction to Ecological Anthropology." W.W. Norton: New York. 2001. Print.

Peet, Richard "The Social Origins of Environmental Determinism." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 75.3 (1985): 309-333. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 4 Oct. 2009.

"Environmental determinism." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 2009. Web. 04 Oct. 2009.