Influences of geographic environment on the basis of Ratzel's system of anthropo-geography / by Ellen Churchill-Semple.

  • Semple, Ellen Churchill, 1863-1932
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Influences of geographic environment on the basis of Ratzel's system of anthropo-geography / by Ellen Churchill-Semple. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lat.ed his principles at a time when Herbert Spencer exercised a wide influence upon European thought. This theory, now generally abandoned by sociologists, had to be eliminated from any restatement of Ratzel’s system. Though it was applied in the original often in great detail, it stood there nevertheless rather as a scaffolding around the finished edi- fice; and the stability of the structure after this scaffolding is removed shows how extraneous to the whole it was. The theory performed, however, a great service in impressing Ratzel’s mind with the life-giving connection between land and people. The writer’s own method of research has been to compare typical peoples of all races and all stages of cultural devel- opment, living under similar geographic conditions. If these peoples of different ethnic stocks but similar environments manifested similar or related social, economic or historical development, it was reasonable to infer that such similarities were due to environment and not to race. Thus, by exten- sive comparison, the race factor in these problems of two unknown quantities was eliminated for certain large classes of social and historical phenomena. The writer, moreover, has purposely avoided definitions, formulas, and the enunciation of hard-and-fast rules; and has refrained from any effort to delimit the field or define the relation of this new science of anthropo-geography to the older sciences. It is unwise to put tight clothes on a grow- ing child. The eventual form and scope of the science, the definition and organization of its material must evolve grad- ually, after long years and many efforts of many workers in the field. The eternal flux of Nature runs through an- thropo-geography, and warns against precipitate or rigid conclusions. But its laws are none the less well founded be- cause they do not lend themselves to mathematical finality of statement. For this reason the writer speaks of geographic factors and influences, shuns the word geographic determi- nant, and speaks with extreme caution of geographic control. The present volume is offered to the public with a deep sense of its inadequacy; with the realization that some of its principles may have to be modified or their emphasis altered