Geography and History 1º ESO Unit 0 Geography: Concept and branches
Unit 0 Geography: Concept and branches
Contents:
- Concept of Geography
- Branches of Geography
Activities:
- Definitions´ workgroups
- Mind maps with geographical branches and techniques.
I- Concept of Geography
Welcome to Geography.
During the next few months you will learn what Geography is and what its main purposes are. You will discover that Geography is a very ancient discipline, very useful for human societies. For example, all the conquering empires along the History needed to know how the world was and the resources of new lands to be discovered and conquered.
First of all, we want to ask you about the meaning of Geography. Do you know who Gaea is? Do you know the Greek myths about the world and the creation of humankind? Do you know that Herodotus of Halicarnassus is considered the “father” of Geography? And, what most importantly, do you know that Geography is more than studying maps?
Origin of Geography
Let´s begin with Greece. The ancient Greek civilisation is the origin of many of our concepts about the world, and the very first creators of some of the science you will study at school (Maths, Philosophy, History, etc.). Let´s read the myth of Uranus and Gaea:
The Creation
In the beginning there was only Chaos. Then appeared Erebus, the place where death lives, and Night. All else was empty, silent, endless, dark. Then, Love was born bringing along the beginning of order. From Love emerged Light, followed by Gaea, the earth.
Gaea alone gave birth to Uranus, the sky. Uranus became Gaea's husband, surrounding her on all sides. Together, they produced the three Cyclopes, the three Hecatoncheires, and twelve Titans.
However, Uranus was a cruel father and husband. He hated the Hecatoncheires and imprisoned them by pushing them into the hidden places of the earth, Gaea's belly. This angered Gaea and she plotted against Uranus. She tried to get her children to attack Uranus. All were too afraid, except the youngest Titan, Cronus.
Gaea and Cronus set up a surprise attack as Uranus lay with Gaea at night. Cronus castrated him with the sickle, throwing the severed genitals into the ocean. As Uranus departed, he promised that Cronus and the Titans would be punished.
Cronus became the next ruler. He married his sister Rhea, and had many children. He ruled for many ages; however, Gaea and Uranus both had prophesied that Cronus would be eventually overthrown by a son. To avoid this, Cronus swallowed all of his children as they were born. Rhea was angry at the treatment of the children and plotted against Cronus. When it was time to give birth to her sixth child, Rhea hid herself, and then she left the child to be raised by nymphs. To conceal her act she wrapped a stone in clothes and passed it off as the baby to Cronus, who swallowed it.
This child was Zeus, who grew into a handsome youth at the island of Crete and after several fights could release all his brothers. All these Gods and Goddesses were unharmed and thankful to their youngest brother, so they made him their leader.
https://youtu.be/LxoRWD-RwtU
It is interesting, isn´t it? Remember that all the religions throughout the History tried to explain the origin of the world and the humankind, some of them in a more fascinating way than others...
So we know who Gaea or Gaia is, the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Could we connect Gaea with Geography? Of course, we can say that Geography is just the science that studies the Earth. But that is not enough for us.
Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments. It is a discipline that integrates knowledge from natural sciences, social sciences and humanities to build an understanding of the world.
II- Branches of Geography:
Geography is divided into three major branches:
· Physical geography is that branch of natural science which deals with the study of processes and patterns in the natural environment like the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere.
· Human geography is the branch of the social sciences that deals with the world, its people and their communities, cultures, economies and interaction with the environment by emphasizing their relationships with and across space and place.
· Regional geographyis the study of world regions. Attention is paid to unique characteristics of a particular region such as natural elements, human elements, andregionalizationwhich covers the techniques of delineating space intoregions.
Throughout this course you are going to study Physical Geography, so we will take a look at everything that deals with the natural features of the planet (mountains, coasts, rivers...) and the elements that can affect it, such as climate, erosion and so on.
Here you have some of the main sub- branches of Physical Geography:
- Biogeography: Animals and plants on earth are usually distributed in specific patterns and biogeography is the discipline that is involved in this study.
- Water Resources Geography: This is a branch of geography that normally deals with the study of how water resources are generally managed in a particular region. Geographers who are involved in this discipline normally look at the manner in which water is collected, distributed and ultimately used in various places across the planet.
- Climate Geography: Geographers in this branch of geography are usually concerned with the investigation of the weather patterns of the earth and the way in which they affect the climate as a result. Moreover, activities that are taking place within the atmosphere of the earth are also studied in this discipline.
- Geomorphology: Land forms on earth usually develop in interesting ways and there are numerous processes that normally lead to their eventual vanishing. Geographers who are involved in this field usually study the entire process from start to finish and erosion has been discovered to be a major factor that influences the vanishing of land forms.
- Lithology: Deals with the characteristics of rocks.
- Oceanography: The study of ocean currents waves and tides.
- Orology: Study of mountains.
- Etc.
However, do you think that Geography is something important in your life? Do you use some of its tools in your daily life? I bet you do...
Let´s see some of the most commons techniques and tools you use in your daily life:
- Statistic and mathematical models that can be used for demography or hydrology (birth´s rates, weather forecast, etc.)
- Cartography is the discipline that deals with the conception, production, dissemination and study of maps. Cartography is also about representation – the map. This means that cartography is the whole process of mapping.
Of course the humankind has made maps since ancient times, but nowadays new technologies have developed new tools that can be considered as a “map´s revolution”. For example, we can talk about GIT (Geographical Information Technologies) that deals with the new tools we use for representing and analysing our planet, Digital Cartography, Remote Sensing and the Geographic Information System (GIS).
a) Digital cartography:
b) Remote Sensing:
c) GIS (Geographic Information System)
And now you know what Geography is, we can start the journey through this subject.
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