Environmental Perception: Nature and Ellen Churchill Semple

ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTION: NATURE AND ELLEN CHURCHILL SEMPLE Arthur J. Hawley* Man’s perception of his environment is generating considerable interest in current geographic literature. (I) Studies in this area to date primarily concern the contemporary scene with few attempts to reconstruct this per­ ception for a past situation. (2) Moreover, this perception has been treated in terms of general themes rather than specific concepts. (3) This paper at­ tempts a conceptual reconstruction, using the writings of Ellen Churchill Semple, and suggests a methodology to isolate and identify concepts in other cases. CONCEPTS. A concept, as the term is used here, structures a definite segment of reality for use in analysis or synthesis. It is a mental tool to assist in the development of thought and not usually an end in itself. A concept’s meaning should be understood clearly, since it organizes reality and com­ municates this organization to other individuals. (4) The formulation of a concept can be considered an initial step in the inductive approach to theo­ ryAmerican geographers have used many concepts which are rather inde­ finite and abstract notions. Although difficult to define they have been use­ ful constructs and would be difficult to do without. Examples are “culture,” “region,” and “occupance.” “Nature” appears to have been a concept of the same order in the past. (5) CASE STUDY. Ellen Churchill Semple introduced and developed Friedrich Ratzel’s determinist philosophy in the United States. (6) Her book Influences o f Geographic Environment: On the Basis o f Ratzel’s System o f Anthropogeography , published in 1911, has been called “one of the great formative works in the geography of the English-speaking world.” (7) Hartshome states that “In this country the association of Semple’s concept of ‘geographic influences’ . . . [with William Morris Davis’ dualistic concept] largely de­ termined the methodological thought of at least a generation.” (8) Yet dis­ cussion still reverberates over the meaning of determinism and to what extent Miss Semple’s writings are deterministic. (9) This study analyzes Ellen Churchill Semple’s use of the word “nature” and shows how it evolved into a concept close to the heart of her final philosophic position. Some light is shed upon both her perception of the environment’s role in human history and what she meant when she used the word “nature” in her writings. *Dr. H a w ley is assistant pro fessor of g eo gra p h y at the U n iv e rs ity of N o rth C a ro lin a , C h a pel H ill. T h e p ap e r w as accepted for p u b lica tio n in Ju ly 1968. V o l . VIII, 1968 55 METHODOLOGY. The method of analysis used is a word count. All but one of Miss Semple’s publications listed in C. C. Colby’s bibliography were pe­ rused page by page, line by line, word by w-,rd. (10) Whenever the word “nature” appeared, its location was noted and sufficient adjacent ma­ terial copied to indicate its contextual usage. Over 2,000 pages of text were searched and 197 uses of nature were located. The word appears an average of 2.7 times in 71 of 85 book chapters and articles. Ellen Churchill Semple published a total of four books and 38 periodical articles. Since several articles were republished later as chapters in the books, the two are considered equivalent in this analysis. Using the earli­ est published form of an article or chapter avoided bias resulting from mul­ tiple use of the same material, except when the context or form of the word “nature” changed in a later publication. In those cases both uses were includ­ ed and given equal weight. Thus, chapter 3 in American History and its Geographic Conditions, written in 1903, and chapters 1, 5, 7, 8 and 9 in Influences o f Geographic Environment were omitted from the count while four uses of nature in those chapters were included. (11) Excluding quota­ tions by other authors within the articles, a short work with a co-author, and an abstract of doubtful origin limited the sample to uses attributable directly...