Human Geography

Jerome D. FellmannMark BjellandArthur GetisJudith Getis

Human Geography

Chapter 8Livelihood & Economy:

Primary Activities

Insert figure C08

© Medioimages/Getty RF

Human Geography 11e

Economic Geography

• The study of how people earn their living– How livelihood systems vary by area– How economic activities are spatially

interrelated and linked

Human Geography 11e

The Classification of Economic Activities &

Economies• Categories of

Activity– Primary– Secondary– Tertiary– Quaternary– Quinary

Insert figure 8.2

Human Geography 11e

Classification of Economies• Types of Economic Systems

– Subsistence• Goods and services are created for the use of the

producers and their kinship groups• Little exchange of goods and only limited need for

markets– Commercial

• Dominant in nearly all parts of the world• Producers or their agents, in theory freely market

their goods and services– Planned

• Government agencies controlled both supply and price

• Locational patterns of production were tightly programmed by central planning departments

Human Geography 11e

Agriculture

Insert figure 8.7

Human Geography 11e

Subsistence Agriculture

• Extensive Subsistence• Intensive Subsistence• Urban Subsistence• Expanding Crop Production• Intensification and the Green Revolution

Human Geography 11e

Commercial Agriculture

• Production Controls• A Model of Agricultural Location• Intensive Commercial Agriculture• Extensive Commercial Agriculture• Special Crops• Agriculture in Planned Economies

Human Geography 11e

Commercial Agriculture

• Farmers produce not for their own subsistence but primarily for a market off the farm itself

Insert figure 8.19

© Corbis RF

Human Geography 11e

Johann Heinrich von Thunen

• Early in the 19th century he observed that lands of apparently identical physical properties were used for different agricultural purposes

• Around each major urban market, he noted a set of concentric rings of different farm products

• The ring closest to the market specialized in perishable commodities that were both expensive to ship and in high demand

Human Geography 11e

Johann Heinrich von Thunen

Insert figure 8.14

Human Geography 11e

Resource Exploitation

• What Counts as a “Resource”?• Resource Terminology• Fishing• Forestry• Fur Trapping and Trade• Mining and Quarrying

Human Geography 11e

Development of Primary Activities

• Depends on:- The occurrence of the

perceived resources- The technology to exploit

them- Cultural awareness of

their value- Fishing and forestry are

gathering activities based on harvesting the natural bounty of renewable resources

• Fishing and Forestry

- Heavily exploited renewable resources

- Part of both subsistence and advanced economies

- Their maximum sustainable yield is actually potentially being exceeded in some places

Human Geography 11e

Mining• Involves the

exploitation of minerals unevenly distributed in amounts and concentrations determined by past geologic events, not by contemporary market demand

• Transportation costs play a major role in determining where low-value minerals will be mined

Human Geography 11e

Trade in Primary Products

• Changing Pattern of Trade in Commodities and Manufactured Goods

• Volatility of Commodity Prices• Price “Fixing” and Technological Change• Agricultural Subsidies and Access to

Markets