The paper that Dave Stea and I are giving at AAG may be of interest to some
of the folks. We forgot to put it under the SGSG.
James M. Blaut, Geography Program, University of Illinois at Chicago,
Chicago, IL 60607 and David Stea, Department of Geography and Planning,
Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666 4616.
Internet:[log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
Environmentalism and Eurocentrism: A Marriage Made in Heaven
We tend to think of environmental determinism as a theory that
dominated geography during a certain historical period: roughly the 1890s
through the 1920s. This view must be questioned. Environmentalism was as
important in the early and mid 19th century as it was at the end of the
century. And it is perhaps as important today as it was in the past,
although it has shifted its venue from geography to history. This theory
has always had an important function: to provide arguments for the
historical and contemporary superiority of Europe (or part of Europe) over
other regions. It served this function for Hegel and Ritter just as it did
much later for Huntington and Taylor, and just as it does today for
Eurocentric historians like Jared Diamond, John Hall, Eric Jones, David
Landes, and Michael Mann. In Ritter's time, environmentalism did not imply
materialism: God made the environment to suit His purposes and favor His
people. Thus both environmentalism and Eurocentrism were ordained by
heaven. Later in the century the theory was seen as grounded in natural
law, not religion, and so it became fashionable to define geography as the
science of environmental influences -- a fashion, we suggest, that accounts
for the erroneous belief that that era was, uniquely, the
environmentalistic period in the history of geography. But the theory in
that era had basically the same functions, and the same salience, that it
had earlier. And today environmentalism is still married to Eurocentrism in
historiography and social theory.
Keyword: environmentalism, Eurocentrism
Cheers
Jim Blaut
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