Ellsworth Huntington | |
---|---|
Born | September 16, 1876 |
Died | October 17, 1947 71) | (aged
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Beloit College [1] Harvard University Yale University [1] |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Geography Climatology Human Ecology |
Institutions | Yale University |
This article is part of a series on |
Eugenics Movement |
---|
Ellsworth Huntington (September 16, 1876 – October 17, 1947) was a professor of geography at Yale University during the early 20th century, known for his studies on environmental determinism/climatic determinism, economic growth, and economic geography. He served as president of the Ecological Society of America in 1917, the Association of American Geographers in 1923 and president of the board of directors of the American Eugenics Society from 1934 to 1938. [2]
He taught at Euphrates College, Turkey (1897–1901); accompanied the Pumpelly (1903) and Barrett (1905–1906) expeditions to central Asia; and wrote of his Asian experiences in Explorations in Turkestan (1905) and The Pulse of Asia (1907). He taught geography at Yale (1907–1915) and from 1917 was a research associate there, devoting his time chiefly to climatic and anthropogeographic studies. He was the 1916 recipient of the Elisha Kent Kane Gold Medal from the Geographical Society of Philadelphia.
In 1909, Huntington led the Yale Expedition to Palestine. It was his mission to determine "step by step the process by which geologic structure, topographic form, and the present and past nature of the climate have shaped man's progress, moulded his history; and thus played an incalculable part in the development of a system of thought which could scarcely have arisen under any other physical circumstances." [3]
During the Progressive Era, Huntington expressed concern about immigration and the race mixing. He claimed that liberal immigration policy would lead to the "highest racial values" being "irrevocably swamped by those of lower calibre." [4]
He was on the original standing committee of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles from 1941.
Environmental determinism is the study of how the physical environment predisposes societies and states towards particular economic or social developmental trajectories. Jared Diamond, Jeffrey Herbst, Ian Morris, and other social scientists sparked a revival of the theory during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This "neo-environmental determinism" school of thought examines how geographic and ecological forces influence state-building, economic development, and institutions. While archaic versions of the geographic interpretation were used to encourage colonialism and eurocentrism, modern figures like Diamond use this approach to reject the racism in these explanations. Diamond argues that European powers were able to colonize, due to unique advantages bestowed by their environment, as opposed to any kind of inherent superiority.
William Morris Davis was an American geographer, geologist, geomorphologist, and meteorologist, often called the "father of American geography".
Economic geography is the subfield of human geography that studies economic activity and factors affecting it. It can also be considered a subfield or method in economics.
Madison Grant was an American lawyer, zoologist, anthropologist, and writer known for his work as a conservationist, eugenicist, and advocate of scientific racism. Grant is less noted for his far-reaching achievements in conservation than for his pseudoscientific advocacy of Nordicism, a form of racism which views the "Nordic race" as superior.
Jeremiah Whipple Jenks (1856–1929) was an American economist, educator, and professor at Cornell University, who held various posts in the United States government throughout his career. He served as a member of the Dillingham Immigration Commission from 1907 to 1914 in which he led research projects on the state of immigration to the US.
The History of geography includes many histories of geography which have differed over time and between different cultural and political groups. In more recent developments, geography has become a distinct academic discipline. 'Geography' derives from the Greek γεωγραφία – geographia, literally "Earth-writing", that is, description or writing about the Earth. The first person to use the word geography was Eratosthenes. However, there is evidence for recognizable practices of geography, such as cartography, prior to the use of the term.
The American Eugenics Society (AES) was a pro-eugenics organization dedicated to "furthering the discussion, advancement, and dissemination of knowledge about biological and sociocultural forces which affect the structure and composition of human populations". It endorsed the study and practice of eugenics in the United States. Its original name as the American Eugenics Society lasted from 1922 to 1973, but the group changed their name after open use of the term "eugenics" became disfavored; it was known as the Society for the Study of Social Biology from 1973–2008, and the Society for Biodemography and Social Biology from 2008–2019. The Society was disbanded in 2019.
Ellen Churchill Semple was an American geographer and the first female president of the Association of American Geographers. She contributed significantly to the early development of the discipline of geography in the United States, particularly studies of human geography. She is most closely associated with work in anthropogeography and environmentalism, and the debate about "environmental determinism".
Raphael Pumpelly was an American geologist and explorer.
Edward Alsworth Ross was a progressive American sociologist, eugenicist, economist, and major figure of early criminology.
William Wheeler Bunge Jr. was an American geographer active mainly as a quantitative geographer and spatial theorist. He also became a radical geographer and anti-war activist in the US and Canada.
Dandan Oilik, also Dandān-Uiliq, lit. "the houses with ivory", is an abandoned historic oasis town and Buddhist site in the Taklamakan Desert of China, located to the northeast of Khotan in what is now the autonomous region of Xinjiang, between the Khotan and Keriya rivers. The central site covers an area of 4.5 km2; the greater oasis extends over an area of 22 km2. The site flourished from the sixth century as a site along the southern branch of the Silk Road until its abandonment before the Tibetan advance at the end of the eighth century.
Miran or Mirān is a former city that existed until the 1st millennium, on the southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang, China. Located at an oasis, where the Lop Nur desert meets the Altun Shan mountains, Miran was once a major point on the Silk Road.
Thomas Griffith "Grif" Taylor was an English-born geographer, anthropologist and world explorer. He was a survivor of Captain Robert Scott's Terra Nova Expedition to Antarctica (1910–1913). Taylor was a senior academic geographer at universities in Sydney, Chicago, and Toronto. His writings on geography and race were controversial.
Is Geography Destiny? Lessons from Latin America is a book written by John Luke Gallup, Alejandro Gaviria, Eduardo Lora and published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which documents an advanced step of the rediscovery of geography by economists initiated by Paul Krugman in the early 1990s, however in another, more deterministic direction.
Robert DeCourcy Ward was an American climatologist, author, educator and leading eugenics and immigration reform advocate in the early 20th Century. He became the first ever professor of climatology in the United States and made contributions to the study of the climate. His advocacy for immigration reform and eugenics led him to co-found the Immigration Restriction League which was instrumental in the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924 which reduced Jewish and Italian immigration to the U.S. by over 95% and completely barred Asian immigration until 1952.
Race suicide was an alarmist eugenicist theory, coined by American sociologist Edward A. Ross around 1900 and promoted by folks like Harry J. Haiselden. Per the American Eugenics Archive, “race suicide” conceptualizes a hypothetical situation in which the death rate of a particular “race” supersedes its birth rate.
Stephen Sargent Visher was an American regional geographer and eugenicist. He spent most of his academic career as Professor of Geography at Indiana University, Department of Geology. His interests included the geography of intelligence, ecology and the historical geography of Indiana – on which he wrote prolifically. After his death he was called the "Mr Geography of Indiana" as a result of the many articles and books he wrote concerning the Hoosier State. His interests in eugenics influenced in the work of Ellsworth Huntington, while his geographical work and stories of eastern travel were among the main reasons Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle began traveling to the Far East.
Henry Strong Huntington Jr. (1882-1981), was a Presbyterian minister who advocated the healthful advantages of nudism. He established the Burgoyne Trail Nudist Camp near Otis, Massachusetts. He was editor of the magazine, The Nudist. He was also an advocate of eugenics.
Harlan H. Barrows was an American geographer. He served as chair of the geography department at the University of Chicago from 1919 until 1942, then was named emeritus professor. He was elected president of the Association of American Geographers in 1922. Barrows played a significant role in the development of historical geography and environmental conservation.