In: Psychology
What is "geographic determinism?" Sometimes you will see it referred to as "environmental determinism" or "geographical determinism." Regardless, what is it and how did it impact the societies and cultures of both the Old World and the New World?
Geographical determinism refers to a theory of adaptation in which culture and societies influenced by geographical or environmental conditions. The theory of geographical determinism is proposed by Ellsworth Huntington. As we know, every culture developed in specific environmental and geographical conditions, people uses natural resources and develop agriculture so that agriculture develop the food verities and clothing. Good food and clothes are symbols of any civilization. People built the home by using local natural resources so the influence of local geographical amenities could be seen at any level of social and cultural development.
Let we discuss about Eastern culture, India is known for their diverse culture, varieties of foods, clothing and traditional music, if we go beyond all these things we can see enough environmental resources behind this, like food varieties developed from availability of various kind of food while music developed because people don’t have to work for a long time to collect food or water. A lot of festivals shows that the people had enough time after fulfill their basic needs of food, clothes, and shelters.