inhabitant for every three square miles while the Nile Valley has about 1,100 per square mile. Similar contrasts, though seldom so striking, are found in all countries. Even a relatively small area like one of our states usually shows an uneven distribution. Compare Iowa with Utah. According to the census of 1920, Iowa had a population of 43.2 per square mile and this is evenly distributed, owing to the absence of large cities and the almost universal pursuit of agriculture to which all parts of the state are adapted. Utah, showing a population of 5.5 per square mile, has almost the entire population in a few valleys while great areas are uninhabited. Detailed maps will show that the great populations of the earth are found in the river valleys like the Ganges and Yangste and usually not over 600 feet above the sea level. Rhode Island has a density per square mile of 566.4; Nevada only 0.1, and the difference is not explained by saying that one is "old" and the other "new." It seems clear that the location of population is determined by something, but the student must beware of accepting any narrow idea of "geographic determinism" for the present situation of any part of earth must be considered in the light of its own history and the stage of development of its inhabitants. In what ways, then, does nature influence man? INFLUENCES OF NATURE UPON MAN Physical Effects Every one knows that the growth of the body is conditioned upon an adequate supply of food and drink as well as exposure to sunlight and that crippling of some sort results if the supply is inadequate. It is equally obvious that exposure to sun, wind, and rain will produce marked changes in the color of the skin, as illustrated by the beach guard at the end of the summer. The burning of the skin by rays reflected from water or snow and the damage done to the eyes are as well known. Any change in food, drink, or exposure is likely to produce a temporary upset of the body functions, more or less serious, as in the changes in altitude already noticed. Exposure to cold may cause frostbite or even death. It is quite possible that the development of men in different parts of the world will vary somewhat. "We can hardly err in attributing the great lung capacity, massive chests and abnormally large torsos of the Quichua and Aymara Indians inhabiting the high Andean plateaus to the rarefied air found at an altitude of 10,000 or 15,000 feet above sea level." If man changes from a poorer to a more favorable environment, better development is to be expected. We find this in plants taken from alpine conditions and grown in the lowlands. The descendants of Europeans living in America and Australia are believed to be larger and stronger than their ancestors, just as the men of to-day are larger than those of the Middle Ages. While these facts have been generally admitted there has been little effort to study and classify them nor do we know their limits. There are many indirect physical effects which may be attributed to nature. They may be summarized as the varying types of development of the body due to different occupations. Darwin attributed the thin legs of the Indians of the Paraguay River to their constant use of canoes. The farmer walking over soft ground develops a different gait from the dweller of the city pounding his heels on hard pavements. The cowboy and the sailor develop somewhat similar peculiarities. The pianist and the typist acquire marvelous dexterity with their fingers. The human body responds, in other words, to the special training given by constant use of any part. There is a widespread belief that the human face reflects daily activities but the attempt to determine career from photograph has produced results amusing rather than accurate. Influences on Occupations and Activities The daily round of man's activities is largely dependent on light, temperature, and weather, and from their influence he cannot escape, no matter how great control he develops. Man may grope his way across a field at night but he must be able to see in order to gather food or cultivate the field. But the sun may make the day so warm that effort is painful and man may have to rest till twilight, or wait for a moonlight meeting with his friends. The storm may confine him to the house, happy in the enforced idleness, or worried about fuel and food, as the case may be. The alternating seasons produce a rhythmic swing in his activities which varies with his location north or south of the equator. A careful scrutiny of birth, morbidity, and death rates will show that they are not even throughout the year but rise and fall in interesting fashion. Crime is as closely related to weather as church attendance. Nature influences group movements as well as those of individuals. The migrations of man depend on food supply, snowfall, and similar things as clearly as does the migration of birds. The Indians could not carry on long campaigns against the whites, far from their homes, because they could not carry the necessary foodstuffs. The campaigns against the government in Haiti usually took place when the mangoes were in fruit. It is out of the range of possibility to do more than suggest these facts at this time but they need to be mentioned because man so easily gets the notion that he has escaped from the control of nature. It is true that the average man in civilized lands deals seemingly more at secondhand with nature and has lost the training which comes from the immediate contact with basic ocсиpations, but this is only a small part of the situation. In as much as all plants and animals are to be found within given areas and not elsewhere, since coal and metals are here and not there, it follows that the occupations of men, since getting a living is the fundamental occupation, bear a definite relationship to local opportunities. At first all that man has is of local origin. Later on the growth of commerce between places of different types makes possible, and often profitable, a specialization in industry. The savage on the sandy seashore must eat oysters or clams until he learns to catch fish. Even here the warning against overemphasis on geographic determinism is needed. Man does not always do the best or most obvious thing. He may starve rather than eat clams if he has grown accustomed to a fish diet. It is much safer to see what man has done in any given place than to predict what he will do. That is to say that nature and man are relative rather than absolute terms. Man will be more likely to prosper if he does certain things; that is all. Many things he cannot do but he may try them. One of the announced projects in the founding of the Virginia colony was the production of wine, but two hundred years elapsed ere a cultivated grape suitable to American conditions was produced and the colony was saved by the growth of a plant unknown to Europe, tobacco. With these qualifications we may predict that a South Sea islander must be a fisher with some little help from coconuts. The dweller in the woods must depend on hunting or the gathering of wild fruits. The dense tropical woods have been peculiarly unfavorable places for human culture, for the fruits and the game were in the tree tops and the ground was too shaded for plant growth. The dweller in the arctics must be a hunter and fisher, for agriculture is impossible. Yet, if contact with some settled country in temperate climes can be maintained, he may be a miner, or if some peculiar animal like the reindeer can be imported he may revolutionize his life as has the Eskimo in parts of Alaska. The opportunity offered by any region must always be considered in relation to the stage of development of the people who are there or who come there. Iron was here but the Indian could not use it. The Indian planted corn but he could not cultivate large areas for he had no draft animals. To understand man's relation to his opportunities it will be found helpful to take some area whose general character is well known, like the United States, and then analyze the old Indian culture. Why were the Iroquois relatively prosperous and the Piutes relatively poor? Why were the Atlantic coast Indians so well developed and those of the Pacific coast so backward, if California has its alleged advantages? Why do we find in the far southwest ruins of irrigation ditches indicating that hundreds of square miles of land had been under cultivation at some time, whereas in Utah no such ruins are found in the very areas irrigated with so much success by the Mormons? Such are the questions the student must answer, for out of them grow the problems of society. The problems of the Indians have been used as illustrations because no known question of differences in racial equipment enters to arouse our emotions or confuse our judgment. History shows that the culture areas have offered very unequal opportunities to man and that no group, regardless of race, could prosper or advance if the opportunity was lacking. History also shows that man has responded to the varying opportunities sometimes in surprising fashion. The early colonists from Europe to America were in substantially the same state of development but note the differences that arose. The New Englander turned to fishing, to shipbuilding, to trade, or moved west to grow grain and live stock. The southerner turned to cotton and tobacco. A vast series of differences in social and political customs was the result. If man is to carry on settled industry he must have a place to live, a house, fire for food or heat, clothing. Whence are to come these necessities? Obviously from the neighborhood. From the cave of primitive man to the wigwam of the woods Indian and the skin-covered tepee of the plains dweller to the adobe house of the village Indian and the brick or stone |