Difference Between Man And Environmental Possibilism

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One of the chief exciting dichotomy in cultural geography is the man-land relationship. Natural environment is more than physical nature and material but intellectual, psychological and mental in nature. Humans have power to alter and modify the environment to their own determination. Man as a finisher of the creation can brought order into nature and shape it into his desired wills. However, the physical environment (nature/land) can directly limits, dictate and control human’s activities upon it. Individuals are bound to their environmental setting and cannot deviate, they only respond to the stimuli of nature’s dictation. The endeavor of this essay is to assess the theory of possibilism in man-environment relationship. Prior to assessment the terms environment and environmental possibilism are to be defined.
According to Norton (2002) environment denote a set of physical material that surrounds humanity. In Hoefer (2008) environment refer to natural and physical panorama like river, vegetation or terrain which surround man. Commonly, environment is the set of physical, cultural, social and economic components which surrounds humans. Castree (2005) and Rubenstein (2010) define environmental possibilism as a theory which view human as having the ability to transform and alter the natural environment. Generally, possibilism in cultural geography language is the theory which fore front humans in modifying and fashion the natural environment to their own desires and biddings.

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