James Bryce offers the most excellent general survey of man’s relation to his physical environment.[[217]]
Herbertson’s very useful and readable introductory book gives “concrete pictures of human life under these very different conditions [typical environments]. They show, in the first place, how the occupation of different groups of mankind depends on their geographical surroundings, and how these occupations in turn affect not only the material life, the houses, food, clothing, etc., but also family life, notions of property, progress in trade and manufactures, power of expansion, and ideals of government. All these are classified, not according to race, which is often an accident, but according to those permanent influences by which all races are affected.”[[218]]
Robert DeCourcy Ward, in his standard work on Climate Considered Especially in Relation to Man,[[219]] presents “typical illustrations” of environmental action on the life of man in the tropics (Ch. 8, pp. 220–71), in the temperate zones (Ch. 9 pp. 272–321), and in the polar zones (Ch. 10, pp. 322–37).[[220]] In a chapter on the hygiene of the zones (Ch. 7, pp. 178–219), Ward also surveys “some of the relations between weather and climate and a few of the more important diseases.”[[221]]
R. R. Marett’s chapter on “Environment” in his Anthropology[[222]] presents, beside a number of valuable general and critical remarks, chiefly a regional survey of the world showing the general effect of geographical environment on man.
Camille Vallaux, in Géographie Sociale, Le Sol et L’État,[[223]] beginning with the sixth chapter, also discusses some phases of what would in E. C. Hayes’ classification[[224]] be called the technical milieu.
The most recent German essay, Willy Hellpach’s[[225]] Die Geopsychischen Erscheinungen: Wetter, Klima und Landschaft in ihrem Einfluß auf das Seelenleben,[[226]] deals with the direct effects of the surrounding atmosphere and soil on the human psyche.[[227]] Hellpach seems primarily interested in “Psycho-Pathologie”;[[228]] he lays most stress on das Pathologische, particularly in the main—first two—parts of his essay: “Wetter und Seelenleben,” and “Klima und Seelenleben,” where the pathological effect is strongly emphasized. Hellpach’s valuable summary of what we know today of this phase of the milieu,[[229]] revealing as it does by the meager number of the facts assembled the crying need for many more such facts, may be, in its results, somewhat disappointing[[230]] for the present day, but it augurs well for future investigation.
The latest extensive presentation of general anthropo-geography,[[231]] Jean Brunhes’ La géographie humaine,[[232]] pays more attention to present than to historical conditions,[[233]] and thus fittingly complements Ellen C. Semple’s Influences of Geographic Environment,[[234]] which “may be regarded as superseding Ratzel’s great work on Anthropo-geography.”[[235]]
Primitive Peoples and Environment
Karl Ritter, in the essay “Über das historische Element in der geographischen Wissenschaft” (1833), declares that the forces of nature which at the commencement of human history exerted a very decisive influence were bound to recede more and more, and their action had to diminish, in proportion to man’s progress. Civilized mankind extricates itself gradually, like single man, from the immediately conditioning fetters of nature and of its place of abode.[[236]] This opinion of Ritter’s was adopted by many.[[237]]
Theodor Waitz regards primitive man both as purely a product of, and as being completely at the mercy of, circumambient nature: “Denken wir uns vom Menschen Alles hinweg, was an ihm Wirkung der Kultur ist, so steht er da als bloßes Produkt der Macht, die ihn in’s Leben rief, ... Das Erste, was an ihm charakteristisch für uns hervorträte, würde die sehr vollständige Abhängigkeit sein, in der er sich von seiner Naturumgebung befände: der gesammte Inhalt, den sein inneres Leben zunächst gewönne, würde ein ziemlich reines Produkt dieser letzteren sein. Der Naturmensch wird zunächst nur das, wozu die Naturverhältnisse ihn machen, unter die er sich gestellt findet; wovon er sich nährt, das werden diese ihm darbieten, auf welche Weise und durch welche Mittel er seine Nahrung gewinnt, dazu werden diese ihm Anleitung geben müssen; ob er Kleidung und sonstigen Schutz gegen äußere Schädlichkeiten bedarf, und wie er diesem Bedürfnis abzuhelfen strebt, werden sie ihn lehren und die Erfindungen, die hierzu nötig sind, ihm an die Hand geben müssen; sie werden mit einem Wort seine ganze Lebenseinrichtung bestimmen ...”[[238]]