Understanding Of The Relationships Between People, Culture And The Natural Environment

By understanding the relationships between people, culture and the natural environment, our human society can learn how the world works comparing from centuries before to today. First of all, what is human geography? Human geography focuses on how humans interact with others in an environment which also includes urban planning like how we make spaces in a location when a population is also growing but this also depends on the region in different places in the world. In addition, globalization occurs when interacting with other countries globally outside of their own country and developing relationships and learning the culture that we can also benefit from. As of what we learned in class, I realized that everything connects in human society which includes people, culture and the natural environment.

There are so many groups of people living in a culture that is totally different from us depending on the location. This also includes ceremonies that some groups do regularly. Also, such as monuments and statues can be shown to represent something in the area or the region. For example, a totem pole located in Alaska. Totem poles are made to tell a story that has been passed down from family or legend for centuries, honor people who passed away, and to commemorate a birth. This is similar to keeping records and telling a story as if you are reading a book. They are usually carved out only by hand from giant tree stems, such as Red Cedar, that display symbols from top to bottom by the Native Americans from the Pacific Northwest. It can be imagined to be very tall. They would also be painted which is also handmade that is made from bark, clay, coal, berries, sometimes mixed with salmon eggs. Part of the symbol could include wolf which means to heal sickness with spiritual powers. Most often, you would see a Thunderbird which is the most powerful one out of all the other spirit animals on a totem pole. Moreover, killer whale represents an honor of strong and brave fish. Similarly, bear also represents teaching strengths and power. Lastly, Raven would serve as the hero of the Native American people which can become anything using magical spells. This is one of the examples that we learned in class that shows the culture and religion of the Native Americans. Overall, this was created to express themselves who they were and related to and what they experienced in the past handed down from their ancestors. From this, we can learn that these people have been keeping their stories and wanting to show their experiences through engraved tree stems. This means a lot to these Native Americans and this is one way they can keep their culture alive and share it throughout the world globally.

Most importantly, the relationships between humans and culture include the language barrier between people from different countries. This consists of different codes of linguistic communication, grammar rules, which are all assembled by cultural fundamental like the natural environment, economic systems, and types of social relationships. Through language, people obtained to identify and understand the norms, values, and ideas. It is considered to be passed down through the process of socialization. Citizens, which are people who live at a geographical place also having a official approval of staying at a particular place, interacting with other individuals from different regions would develop relationships between elements of culture. For example, relationships of traditional livelihood that includes hunting, farming, and fishing. Another point would be the language such as communication, arts that express human desire, and the divine in religion. Also, people would inherit the traditional religion from their ancestors and knowledge system about things like nature, situation, and desires. It is common to say that religion and philosophy were originally passed down from the east, such as India and China. It spread through cultural diffusion and migration. As I mentioned above, these are important elements in human society because culture produces a quality of each individual. There is also a belief that all cultures have equal value and have their own right. It usually follows the linguistic diversity which derives from cultural diversity. In a society, humans gain the skills and habits to blend in with others depending on the environment.

The relationship between humans and the natural environment is another key point to keep in mind. Humans generally depend so much on the environment and are affected by it. Because humans use so much of the natural resources that are on earth, it is impacting so much on the environment and it is lacking in some regions. In an ordinary situation, humans always need to obtain food in order to survive. They collect food from agricultural crops and animals. As generations move on, the technological advances in agriculture are improving still today which allows more people to consume more food. However, if you observe it in the other way around, these practices could be very harmful to the environment and are affecting them so much. By farmers using fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides, it can potentially damage the ecosystem and the biodiversity could start to unbalance. The land usage could be one of the important keys that we as humans should focus on. We use the land for farming, factories, homes, and other purposes. Each time we take a part of the land and start constructing something new, organisms and species that live on the land would lose their habitat and find a way to adapt to another new environment and community. In other words, it would destroy their ecosystem. They would not have a place to stay and live. Back when the Industrial Revolution took place, humans have been taking natural resources from the earth by mining, fracking, and deforestation. It included oil, coal, paper and other materials that were useful for humans to make money off of or trade. Extracting these natural resources had an impact on the environment. For example, mining would cause and erosion which then losses biodiversity and contaminates soil and water. In addition, deforestation causes animals to lose their habitat and try to adapt to a different environment which is like risk-taking. Even today, fossil fuels are used for many purposes such as to power vehicles, power plants, and homes. When such fossil fuels like oil, natural gas, and coal are used, they release harmful gases into the atmosphere including greenhouse gases. Lastly, climate change occurs due to human beings. The negative impacts would result and affect our lifestyle. What we as humans do would result by coming back around affecting our environment. Also, air pollution would affect our health. Living in cities where there is a large population, humans would be exposed to pollutants such as ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides which there is a possibility of getting lung diseases.

People try to maintain the traditional culture depending on the region they were raised from ancestors displays a variety of ways globally. The actions we as humans take today affect the the environment in the future. In order to maintain the culture, environment, and the relationships between humans, we need to consider our actions. We are depended by the entire earth and if we do not stop the current actions that are affecting the environment and the entire world, there will not be enough resources for future generations. We depend so much on resources, but if it goes extinct we will not be able to survive. In conclusion, we can learn that culture is something that never fades away but the environment in a community can go extinct due to humans.