Geography, as we know, involves the study of natural and human environments, and how we interrelate with our environments. Through studying geography, we hope to understand both ourselves and our environments better.
But why study geography? I mean, why do we have to use concepts and words and pictures to talk about geography? In other words, what do we talk about when we talk about geography, and why do we talk about geography in the first place?
For example, is geography all about identifying and giving names to what we see around us, and then finding an explanation for these phenomena? I think how we perceive our surroundings is a reflection of how we perceive ourselves. For example, when we study the course of a river, why do we use terms such as upper course, middle course and lower course, or young, middle age and old? Is the river a metaphor for our stages of life? And death and rebirth, possibly?
What makes an environment "natural" and what makes it "human"? How much modification to an environment will we need to consider before we label it a human environment? Can any environment today be totally free from any impact of human activities, given that we are so intertwined with Nature?
Why see "human environment" as separate from "natural environment" when humans are part of Nature? Can we ever be free from the cultural and social conditioning in our thinking about geography because different cultures approach geography differently? For example, a native living in the rainforest may have drastically different perspectives from an urban dweller attempting to study the rainforest.
