Tropical geography
Encyclopedia
Tropical geography refers to the study of places and people in the tropics
. When it first emerged as a discipline, tropical geography was closely associated with imperialism
and colonial expansion of the European empires
as contributing scholars tended to portray the tropical places as "primitive" and people "uncivilised" and "inferior". A wide range of subjects has been discussed within the sub-field during late 18th to early 20th century including zoology, climatology, geomorphology, economics and cultural studies.
The discipline is now more commonly known as development geography
as colonization had been replaced by economic development
as the main ideological driver of international and global interactions since the 1950s. Today, many scholars continue to use the term tropical geography to contest the determinism embedded in the term and de-exoticise the tropical countries and their inhabitants.
first discovered the Caribbean islands in tropical America. Subsequent writings of European explorers, merchants, naturalists, colonists and settlers who traveled to and lived in the tropics were the main sources of the study.
Alexander von Humboldt
, Joseph Dalton Hooker
, Charles Darwin
and Alfred Russel Wallace
are some of the significant contributors. It is argued that it is due to their academic reputation and scientific approaches tropical geography was consolidated into an academic discipline widely studied in Europe in spite of the region's vast differences in vegetation, wild lives, climate, geology and culture.
At first, explorers depicted the tropics as lands of great abundance and organic fertility with exotic flora and animals which they have never seen in the temperate. However, this view was challenged when tropical dwellers were taken into consideration.
A variety of environmental determinism
emerged out of the sub-field as colonists and naturalists started representing temperate and tropical people with binaries like "progressive vs. backward," "civilised vs. primitive," "hard working vs. lazy" and "superior vs. inferior." Race, an invented concept, was convenient and readily applied in attempts to "[link] climatic variation closely to the supposed division of the human species into different 'races'".
As activities of the European empires diversified in 19th century, travelers and settlers who had experienced deadly tropical diseases and conflicts with the local peoples forged another representation of the tropical world as a place full of "dangers" and "horrors" to mankind. The fertile lands of the tropics were then interpreted as to have set obstacles for human morality and physical well-being preventing their inhabitants from technical, philosophical and artistic innovation. This dramatized and pessimistic representation reinforced Europe's superior position and enhanced the depiction of the tropics as an exotic other to the temperate world.
Whether tropical geographers found the tropical places and people abundant and dynamic or deadly and barbaric, they understood them as inferior to the temperate and great Western civilizations. As criticized by Edward Said
in his famous work Orientalism
, the literature of tropical geography, like writings on the Orient, served the interests of European scholars who were living in the temperate world to create an exotic other which in turn helped define themselves.
replaced tropical geography as the sub-field of geography. Consequently, the studied regions were given new terminologies such as the "Third World
" and the "global South."
Critical geographers argue the replacement of tropical geography by development geography marks the historical turning point of international intervention strategy from colonisation
to economic development
. Though morphed into a different discipline, the ideological roots of tropical geography—superiority, progress, civilization and technological advancement of the West which originated and matured in the temperate
zone—carry on and become the building blocks of mainstream economic development theories.
Paralleled with the rise of critical approaches to other sub-fields of geography, development geography
and tropical geography as academic disciplines have seen a movement away from the mainstream economistic and deterministic view of the tropical world in the 1970s. Geographers now attend to the influences imperialism, racism and Euro-centrism have had on tropical geography while attempting to bring class, gender, race and religion into the broader picture to better understand the tropical world and its inhabitants.
Today the academic journal
Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography continues to be a forum for tropical geographers to introduce and present new research and critique existing literature on the tropical world and people. Different from the historic absence of voices from the tropics, now many of the contributors of the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography are of tropical origins and study tropical countries and their citizens with more holistic and inclusive approaches.
Tropics
The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...
. When it first emerged as a discipline, tropical geography was closely associated with imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
and colonial expansion of the European empires
European empires
European Empire may refer to:*in a historical context, the Colonial empires of the Early Modern period*in current usage, a term for the Eurosphere emphasizing a prediction of growing influence of Europe in the 21st century...
as contributing scholars tended to portray the tropical places as "primitive" and people "uncivilised" and "inferior". A wide range of subjects has been discussed within the sub-field during late 18th to early 20th century including zoology, climatology, geomorphology, economics and cultural studies.
The discipline is now more commonly known as development geography
Development geography
Development geography is the study of the earth's geography with reference to the standard of living and quality of life of its human inhabitants. In this context, development is a process of change that affects people's lives. It may involve an improvement in the quality of life as perceived by...
as colonization had been replaced by economic development
Economic development
Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...
as the main ideological driver of international and global interactions since the 1950s. Today, many scholars continue to use the term tropical geography to contest the determinism embedded in the term and de-exoticise the tropical countries and their inhabitants.
Origins
The origins of tropical geography can be traced back to as early as the fifteenth century when ColumbusChristopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
first discovered the Caribbean islands in tropical America. Subsequent writings of European explorers, merchants, naturalists, colonists and settlers who traveled to and lived in the tropics were the main sources of the study.
Alexander von Humboldt
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
, Joseph Dalton Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
, Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
and Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist...
are some of the significant contributors. It is argued that it is due to their academic reputation and scientific approaches tropical geography was consolidated into an academic discipline widely studied in Europe in spite of the region's vast differences in vegetation, wild lives, climate, geology and culture.
Troubled Representations
The discourse on the tropics and their inhabitants have evolved overtime in response to changing patterns of Europe's engagements in the tropics.At first, explorers depicted the tropics as lands of great abundance and organic fertility with exotic flora and animals which they have never seen in the temperate. However, this view was challenged when tropical dwellers were taken into consideration.
A variety of environmental determinism
Environmental determinism
Environmental determinism, also known as climatic determinism or geographical determinism, is the view that the physical environment, rather than social conditions, determines culture...
emerged out of the sub-field as colonists and naturalists started representing temperate and tropical people with binaries like "progressive vs. backward," "civilised vs. primitive," "hard working vs. lazy" and "superior vs. inferior." Race, an invented concept, was convenient and readily applied in attempts to "[link] climatic variation closely to the supposed division of the human species into different 'races'".
As activities of the European empires diversified in 19th century, travelers and settlers who had experienced deadly tropical diseases and conflicts with the local peoples forged another representation of the tropical world as a place full of "dangers" and "horrors" to mankind. The fertile lands of the tropics were then interpreted as to have set obstacles for human morality and physical well-being preventing their inhabitants from technical, philosophical and artistic innovation. This dramatized and pessimistic representation reinforced Europe's superior position and enhanced the depiction of the tropics as an exotic other to the temperate world.
Whether tropical geographers found the tropical places and people abundant and dynamic or deadly and barbaric, they understood them as inferior to the temperate and great Western civilizations. As criticized by Edward Said
Edward Said
Edward Wadie Saïd was a Palestinian-American literary theorist and advocate for Palestinian rights. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a founding figure in postcolonialism...
in his famous work Orientalism
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...
, the literature of tropical geography, like writings on the Orient, served the interests of European scholars who were living in the temperate world to create an exotic other which in turn helped define themselves.
Today's tropical geography
Until mid 20th century, the imperialist, racist and Euro-centric version of tropical geography was still flourishing as influential works were still being published like Les Pays Tropicaux by geomorphologist Pierre Gourou. From 1950's onward, development geographyDevelopment geography
Development geography is the study of the earth's geography with reference to the standard of living and quality of life of its human inhabitants. In this context, development is a process of change that affects people's lives. It may involve an improvement in the quality of life as perceived by...
replaced tropical geography as the sub-field of geography. Consequently, the studied regions were given new terminologies such as the "Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
" and the "global South."
Critical geographers argue the replacement of tropical geography by development geography marks the historical turning point of international intervention strategy from colonisation
Colonisation
Colonization occurs whenever any one or more species populate an area. The term, which is derived from the Latin colere, "to inhabit, cultivate, frequent, practice, tend, guard, respect", originally related to humans. However, 19th century biogeographers dominated the term to describe the...
to economic development
Economic development
Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...
. Though morphed into a different discipline, the ideological roots of tropical geography—superiority, progress, civilization and technological advancement of the West which originated and matured in the temperate
Temperate
In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...
zone—carry on and become the building blocks of mainstream economic development theories.
Paralleled with the rise of critical approaches to other sub-fields of geography, development geography
Development geography
Development geography is the study of the earth's geography with reference to the standard of living and quality of life of its human inhabitants. In this context, development is a process of change that affects people's lives. It may involve an improvement in the quality of life as perceived by...
and tropical geography as academic disciplines have seen a movement away from the mainstream economistic and deterministic view of the tropical world in the 1970s. Geographers now attend to the influences imperialism, racism and Euro-centrism have had on tropical geography while attempting to bring class, gender, race and religion into the broader picture to better understand the tropical world and its inhabitants.
Today the academic journal
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography continues to be a forum for tropical geographers to introduce and present new research and critique existing literature on the tropical world and people. Different from the historic absence of voices from the tropics, now many of the contributors of the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography are of tropical origins and study tropical countries and their citizens with more holistic and inclusive approaches.