Influences of Geographic Environment: On the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-GeographySemple, Ellen Churchill
History
Influences of Geographic Environment: On the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography
Semple, Ellen Churchill
Human beings -- Effect of environment on; Human geography
The Alaskan coast shows the same development. The Kinik Indians at the
head of Cook's Inlet buy skins of land animals from the inland
Athapascans at the sources of the Copper River, and then make a good
profit by selling them to the American traders of the coast. These same
Athapascans for a long time found a similar body of middlemen in the
Ugalentz at the mouth of the Copper River, till the Americans there
encouraged the inland hunters to bring their skins to the fur station on
the coast.[510] The Chilcats at the head of Lynn Canal long monopolized
the fur trade with the Athapascan Indians about Chilkoot Pass; these
they would meet on the divide and buy their skins, which they would
carry to the Hudson Bay Company agents on the coast. They guarded their
monopoly jealously, and for fifty years were able to exclude all traders
and miners from the passes leading to the Yukon.[511]
The same policy of monopoly and exclusion has been pursued by the Moro
coast dwellers of Mindanao in relation to the pagan tribes of the
interior. They buy at low prices the forest and agriculture products of
the inland Malays, whom they do not permit to approach either rivers or
seaboard, for fear they may come into contact with the Chinese merchants
along the coast. So fiercely is their monopoly guarded by this middleman
race, that the American Government in the Philippines will be able to
break it only by military interference.[512]
[Sidenote: Differentiation of coast from inland people.]
Differences of occupation, of food supply, and of climate often further
operate to differentiate the coast from the inland people near by, and
to emphasize the ethnic difference which is almost invariably present,
either inconspicuously from a slight infusion of alien blood, or
plainly as in an immigrant race. Sometimes the contrast is in physique.
In Finisterre province of western Brittany, the people along the more
fertile coastal strip are on the average an inch taller than the
inhabitants of the barren, granitic interior. Their more generous food
supply, further enriched by the abundant fisheries at their doors, would
account for this increased stature; but this must also be attributed in
part to intermixture of the local Celts with a tall Teutonic stock which
brushed along these shores, but did not penetrate into the unattractive
interior.[513] So the negroes of the Guinea Coast, though not immune
from fevers, are better nourished on the alluvial lowlands near the
abundant fish of the lagoons, and hence are often stronger and better
looking than the plateau interior tribes near by. But here, again, an
advantageous blending of races can not be excluded as a contributing
cause.[514] Sometimes the advantage in physique falls to the inland
people, especially in tropical countries when a highland interior is
contrasted with a low coast belt. The wild Igorotes, inhabiting the
mountainous interior of northern Luzon, enjoy a cooler climate than the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account