“Technology indicates the level of cultural development of a society.” Justify the statement with example.
Show Hint
Advanced Technology = Higher Cultural Development.
Solution and Explanation
• Human geography explores how humans interact with their environment.
• Technology is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.
Step 1: Explain the relationship between technology and society
Technology reflects how much a society understands the laws of nature.
A society with primitive technology is often highly dependent on nature and follows its dictates (Environmental Determinism).
Step 2: Justify with examples
In the early stages of human history, people were dictated by the natural environment because their technological level was low.
As cultural development progressed, humans invented tools and machines that allowed them to modify the environment (Possibilism).
For example, the invention of genetic engineering or sophisticated irrigation systems allows societies to grow crops in harsh climates, which was impossible for culturally "primitive" societies.
Another example is the use of air conditioning, which allows large-scale urban development in desert regions, showcasing a high level of cultural and technological control over the environment.
Top CBSE CLASS XII Geography Questions
Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Hunting and Food Gathering
The earliest human beings depended on their immediate environment for their sustenance. They subsisted on: (a) animals which they hunted; and (b) the edible plants which they gathered from forests in the vicinity. Primitive societies depended on wild animals. People located in very cold and extremely hot climates survived on hunting. The people in the coastal areas still catch fish though fishing has experienced modernisation due to technological development. Many species, now have become extinct or endangered due to illegal hunting (poaching). The early hunters used primitive tools made of stones, twigs or arrows so the number of animals killed was limited. Gathering and hunting are the oldest economic activity known. These are carried out at different levels with different orientations. Gathering is practised in regions with harsh climatic conditions. It often involves primitive societies, who extract both plants and animals to satisfy their needs for food, shelter and clothing. This type of activity requires a small amount of capital investment and operates at very low levels of technology. The yield per person is very low and little or no surplus is produced.- Examine the role of climate, water availability, and soil fertility on the distribution of world population.
- Examine three stages of demographic transition theory.
- Study the map of Rhine waterways and answer the questions that follow:
- Explain the main features of National Highways in India.
Top CBSE CLASS XII Human Geography Questions
- Relation Between Humans and their Physical Environment
You are already aware of the fact that the core concern of geography as a discipline is to understand the earth as home of human beings and to study all those elements, which have sustained them. Thus, emphasis is on study of nature and human beings. You will realise that geography got subjected to dualism and the wide-ranging debates started whether geography as a discipline should be a law making/theorising (nomothetic) or descriptive (idiographic).
Human beings interact with their physical environment with the help of technology. It is not important what human beings produce and create but it is extremely important ’with the help of what tools and techniques do they produce and create’.
Technology indicates the level of cultural development of society. Human beings were able to develop technology after they developed better understanding of natural laws. - Explain the regional analysis approach of human geography.
- Explain the spatial organisation approach of human geography.
- Examine the concept of naturalisation of humans.
- Examine the humanistic approach of human geography.
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