Geographic Thought: Progress Through Evolution, not Reaction

GEOGRAPHIC THOUGHT: PROGRESS THROUGH EVOLUTION, NOT REACTION Robert }. Tata* It can be said that geographic methods have changed very little since the time of the ancient geographers, while the techniques geographers use have changed tremendously. The basis of this statement is the distinction which Russell Ackoffdraws between "techniques" and "methods," (1 ) He defines techniques as the behavior and instruments used in performing research operations, such as making observations, recording data, and so forth; while methods refer to the behavior and instruments used in selecting and constructing techniques. He concludes that methods are therefore more general than techniques and thus the former are the foundations on which the latter are built. Applying these ideas to the development ofthe science ofgeography, it is apparent that "an analysis of earth space" has been the focal method for geographic studies from the days of Strabo, Ptolemy, and Eratosthenes to the present time. The technology and scientific attainment ofthe society in which a scholar works largely determines what data he can gather, the techniques he can use to analyze the data, and thus even the questions that can be answered by the data and techniques available. Armed with sound methods developed over centuries of geographic scholarship, modern geographers are now attempting to develop new techniques to articulate and enrich these methods, taking full advantage of the recent progress in technology and modern scientific attainment. DEVELOPMENT OF GEOGRAPHIC IDEAS. The ancient geographers were concerned mostly with "filling in the outlines of the earth and its inhabitants." (2) Prehistoric man likely had a keen sense of place and space, since his major goal of survival depended on accurate knowledge ofwatering places, game trails, the probable location ofenemies, location ofedible plants, and the location of cave home sites. In this situation, man was forced to be mobile over space because the predominant factors of the environment on which his existence depended also were relatively mobile. When plants and animals were domesticated and surplus farm production permitted the growth of cities, man's spatial perspective changed somewhat. Because his locus of everyday activities was now more fixed in place, he had a need to define field lines, lay out city streets, determine which market center could buy farm surpluses , and where communications routes should go. Plane geometry was a technique used to solve some of these practical problems, probably as far back as 3500 B. C. by the Egyptians and Babylonians. Power accumulated in the cities and again modified man's perception ofhis spatial domain. Boundary lines around the inhabitants subject to a particular administrative-religious -economic center became a practical concern; information on the loca- *Dr. Tata is associate professor of geography at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton. The paper was accepted for publication in January 1970. Vol. X, No. 1 15 tion, character, accessibility, and resources of neighboring communities was needed to effect trade and military operations. Man's geographic horizons had thus expanded from a basic interest in the needs of the individual household to a "world-wide" concern with neighboring and distant people and places. The drive to accumulate encyclopedic data was spurred by the necessities of developing civilization, whereas theoretical work was neglected because it was not immediately useful. The Phoenicians compiled data on far away places to aid their commerce with these lands. Alexander employed pacers and mappers in his armies to catalog the lands he conquered. And the Romans described travel routes in road books which crudely mapped roads, paths, distances, hills, rivers, and rest stations. (3) In the Roman period, Strabo and Ptolemy were the premier geographers, the former amassing place descriptions ofhis Greek predecessors, while the latter wrote about map making and place determination. (4 ) Questions that dealt with concepts and abstract reasoning were most often answered by mythical tales, except for the work that Greek geographers did concerning the size, shape, and generalizations about the content ofearth space. The place ofgeography in the academic world was a puzzle to the Greeks, disciples of Plato claiming it was a branch of physics, while followers of Aristotle said that it should be regarded as a part of applied mathematics. (5 ) After the fall of Rome and concurrent with the rise of...