Social and Cultural Geography: Origin of Man, Races, Tribes, Population and Settlements

These social and cultural geography notes for OPSC OAS cover the origin and evolution of man, the classification and distribution of human races, the major tribes of the world with their habitats, cultural realms and cultural regions, population distribution and density, the demographic transition model, migration and its types, and rural settlement patterns, closing with the tribal and settlement profile of Odisha and previous year practice questions.

Origin and Evolution of Man

Human evolution took place in the Pliocene epoch of the Tertiary period, the last epoch before the Pleistocene. The African continent, particularly the East African Rift Valley, has yielded the oldest hominin fossils and is called the Cradle of Mankind.

RAS/RTS 1994 asked which is the most recent — Cro-Magnon humans. RAS/RTS 2012 asked the Cradle of Mankind — Africa.

Human beings belong to the order Primates, which also includes the gorilla, chimpanzee, orangutan and the old and new world monkeys. In the standard textbook sequence, modern Homo sapiens is traced through Cro-Magnon man rather than directly from Neanderthal man.

Human Races: Classification and Distribution

Race is a classificatory concept in geography based on physical traits such as skin colour, hair form, eye form, nose shape, head form and stature. The standard threefold classification recognises the Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongoloid races, with the Australoid often treated as a sub-race or minor group.

Sub-races of the Caucasoid group include the Nordic (tall, fair, long-headed north-west Europeans), Alpine (broad-headed central Europeans), East Baltic (eastern Europeans) and Armenoid (West Asian) types. Skin colour classes are sometimes described by the Greek-derived terms melanoderm (dark), xanthoderm (yellow) and leucoderm (white).

The Negroid race is regarded as the oldest, the Caucasoid group is numerically the largest, and Semitic peoples of West Asia belong to the Caucasoid race. Native Americans (Red Indians) are Mongoloid, having migrated from Asia across the Bering land bridge.

SSC 2012 asked which is not a racial criterion — the ear. JK PCS 2011 asked the largest racial group — Caucasoid. UPPSC 2015 asked the racial group of Native Americans — Mongoloid.

Tribes of the World

Tribal geography examines the habitat, economy and social organisation of indigenous peoples. OPSC and UPSC test tribe-region matching extensively.

UPPSC 2019 asked which pair is wrong — Kirghiz with Sudan, when the Kirghiz are Central Asian. UPPSC Mains 2010 asked the wrong pair — Semang with Indonesia, when the Semang live in Malaysia.

Cultural Realms and Cultural Regions

Cultural geography studies the spatial distribution of culture. The most widely accepted scheme of cultural realms is associated with Broek and Webb. A cultural realm is a contiguous geographical area characterised by cultural homogeneity and is the largest areal cultural unit.

The concept of the cultural landscape — the visible imprint of human culture on the natural environment — was popularised by Carl Sauer of the Berkeley School.

The Mediterranean realm is characterised by the heritage of ancient civilisation and classical culture, the rise of ancient city-states, and the importance of agriculture and horticulture including viticulture. The Oriental realm is characterised by the joint family bond and subsistence agriculture, as distinct from the Occidental realm's industrialisation and urbanisation.

Bank and OPSC questions test that cultural realm is the largest unit, that Carl Sauer popularised cultural landscape, and that the Occidental realm is Christian.

Population Distribution and Density

Population distribution is shaped by physical, economic and social factors. Climate is the most influential factor affecting density, and the fertility of land is the most important ecological determinant of distribution.

Approximately half of the world's population lives in East and South Asia. Asia has the largest total population, while Europe has the highest population density among continents.

The Amazon basin has a very low population density because its hot, humid climate and dense rainforest make settlement and agriculture difficult, not because the forest is intrinsically valuable.

Demographic Transition Theory

The theory was developed by Warren Thompson in 1929. It describes how a population changes over time as birth and death rates fall in sequence during economic development. The standard model has five stages.

Natural growth is the difference between crude birth rate and crude death rate; migration changes total population but not natural growth. Population explosion occurs when the birth rate stays high while the death rate falls, which happens in Stage 2.

Developing countries today show high fertility, falling mortality, rapid population growth and a young age distribution. Growth continued even after fertility fell because life expectancy rose, infant mortality fell and death rates declined.

UPPSC 2019 asked the components of natural growth — crude birth rate and crude death rate. The demographic transition sequence runs from very high birth and death rates, to birth exceeding death, to low rates, to very low rates.

Population Composition and Pyramids

The age and sex composition of a population is best shown by a population pyramid. A wide base indicates high fertility and a young population; a narrow base with a broad top indicates low fertility and an ageing population.

Japan's pyramid resembles that of the USA and Denmark more than India's, because all three are developed economies with low fertility and ageing populations.

Migration

The push-pull theory explains migration: push factors such as unemployment, drought and conflict drive people out, while pull factors such as jobs, amenities and security attract them. Migration affects the population structure of both source and destination regions, because young working-age people move.

The Mobility Transition Model was proposed by Wilbur Zelinsky in 1971; Ravenstein gave the laws of migration and Lee gave the push-pull framework.

SSC CGL 2015 asked the village-to-town-to-city movement — step-wise migration. CGPSC 2018 asked the largest migration stream in India — rural-to-rural. IAS 1995 asked the original home of the Gypsies — India.

Settlement Geography: Rural Settlement Patterns

Settlements are classified by pattern, which reflects site, situation, water availability, defence needs and terrain. Water scarcity produces nucleated settlement, abundant water produces dispersed settlement, and a single linear resource such as a riverbank produces linear settlement.

Hamlets are small clusters without a street pattern, with dwellings close to their agricultural fields rather than separated from them. In the Himalayan region, the major cause of dispersed settlement is irregular topography, which limits flat cultivable land.

In the standard questions, oasis settlement is oval or circular, riverbank settlement is linear, and route convergence gives a star shape. The triangular pattern develops at the confluence of two rivers.

Odisha Angle: Tribes and Settlement Pattern

Odisha has one of the largest tribal populations in India, with about 22.85% of the state's population belonging to Scheduled Tribes, and the state accounts for about 9.17% of India's Scheduled Tribe population. There are 62 tribal communities in the state, of which 13 are Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups — the Bonda, Birhor, Chuktia Bhunjia, Didayi, Dongria Kondh, Hill Kharia, Juang, Kutia Kondh, Lanjia Saora, Lodha, Mankidia, Paudi Bhuyan and Saora.

Tribal populations are concentrated in the districts of Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh, Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi and Keonjhar. The Bonda of Malkangiri and the Juang of Keonjhar are among the state's most studied PVTGs.

Odisha's population is about 83% rural, and its settlement pattern reflects the state's relief. The coastal delta has nucleated villages along the Mahanadi, Brahmani and Baitarani, the hilly Eastern Ghats districts have dispersed hamlets, and roadside and canal-side villages in the plains show linear patterns. Rural-to-rural migration, including marriage migration, is the largest migration stream in the state, as in the rest of India.

Practice Questions