Class 11 Geography Notes Chapter 1 Geography as a

Discipline

We depend on the resources to sustain ourselves in the surrounding areas. Primitive

societies subsisted on ‘natural means of subsistence’, i.e. edible plants and animals.

Importance of Geography: Geography helps us to understand the diversity and the causes
and factors that have created it. Through geography we understand how spherical earth is
presented through a map and we get information about soil, minerals, weather, climate,

i
population, means of transport and communication, local landscape, etc. It also tells us

rth
about rivers, mountains, plateaus, plains, deserts, seas, lakes and cultural facts.

The term geography was first coined by Eratosthenese, a Greek scholar (276-194 BC.).
The word has been derived from two roots from Greek language geo (earth) and graphos
(description). Put together, they mean description of the earth. The earth has always been
seen as the abode of human beings and thus, scholars defined geography as, “the
description of the earth as the abode of human beings”.
ya
Geographers do not study only the variations in the phenomena over the earth’s surface
(space) but also study the associations with the other factors which cause these variations.
For example, cropping patterns differ from region to region but this variation in cropping
pattern, as a phenomenon, is related to variations in soils, climates, demands in the
market, capacity of the farmer to invest and technological inputs available to her/him.

Geography as a discipline is concerned with three sets of questions:

id
Some questions are concerned with the identification of the patterns of natural and
cultural features as found over the surface of the earth. These are the questions
about “what”?
Second type of questions are related to the distribution of the natural and human/
cultural features over the surface of the earth. These are the questions about where?
eV

The third question is related to the explanation or the causal relationships between
features and the processes and phenomena.

Many disciplines from natural sciences such as geology, pedology, oceanography, botany,
zoology and meteorology and a number of sister disciplines in social sciences such as
economics, history, sociology, political science, anthropology, etc. study different aspects
of the earth’s surface.

A geographer is required to have a broad understanding of all the related fields, to be able
to logically integrate them. A geographer should have some proficiency in mathematics
and art, particularly in drawing maps. Geography is very much linked with the study of

1/4
https://www.evidyarthi.in
astronomical locations and deals with latitudes and longitudes. The cartographic and
quantitative techniques require sufficient proficiency in mathematics, statistics and
econometrics.

All the social science disciplines, viz. sociology, political science, economics and
demography study different aspects of social reality. The branches of geography, viz.
social, political, economic and population and settlements are closely linked with these
disciplines as each one of them has spatial attributes.

i
rth
ya
id
eV

The major approaches to study geography have been

Systematic and
Regional.

The systematic geography was introduced by Alexander Von Humboldt, a German

geographer (1769-1859) while regional geography approach was developed by another
German geographer and a contemporary of Humboldt, Karl Ritter (1779-1859).

2/4
https://www.evidyarthi.in
Class 11 Geography Notes Chapter 1 Important Terms:

i
Geography: Geography is concerned with the description and explanation of the
areal differentiation of the earth’s surface. (Richard Hartshome); In other words,

rth
Geography studies the differences of phenomena usually related in different parts of
the earth’s surface. (Hettner) GEOGRAPHY-XI
Geo-morphology: It is concerned with the study of land forms, their evolution and
related processes.
Climatology: It is concerned with the study of structure of atmosphere and elements
of weather and climates and climatic types and regions.
Hydrology: It studies the realm of water over the surface of the earth including
ya
oceans, lakes, rivers and other water bodies and its effect on different life forms
including human life and their activities.
Soil Geography: It is concerned with the study the processes of soil formation, soil
types, their fertility status, distribution and use.
Social/Cultural Geography: It is concerned with the study of society and its spatial
dynamics as well as the cultural elements contributed by the society.
Population Geography: It studies population growth, distribution, density, sex ratio,
id
migration and occupational structure etc.
Settlement Geography: It studies the characteristics of rural and urban settlements.
Economic Geography: It studies economic activities of the people including
agriculture, industry7, tourism, trade, and transport, infrastructure and services,
etc.
eV

Historical Geography: It studies the historical processes through which the space
gets organised. In other words, it studies how history has influenced the geography
of a region.
Political Geography: It studies the impact of political events and studies boundaries,
space relations between neighboring political units, delimitation of constituencies,
election scenario and develops theoretical framework to understand the political
behavior of the population.
Bio-geography: It has emerged as a result of the interface between physical
geography and human geography. It has three branches: Plant Geography, Zoo
Geography and Ecology.
Plant Geography: It studies the spatial pattern of natural vegetation in their
habitats.

3/4
https://www.evidyarthi.in
 Zoo Geography: It studies the spatial patterns and geographic characteristics of
animals and their habitats.
Ecology: It is concerned with the scientific study of the habitats characteristic of
species.
Environmental Geography: It is concerned with environmental problems such as
land gradation, pollution and environment conservation.

i
rth
ya
id
eV

4/4
https://www.evidyarthi.in