The natural environment is the phenomenon of all natural things that encompasses humanity. This means that the natural environment entails all living and non-living things which occur naturally on earth without the influence of human beings. The natural environment includes the Physical environment and the Biological environment. The physical environment entails all physical features occurring naturally on earth. It includes the atmosphere (layer of gases surrounding the earth), hydrosphere (liquid component of the earth) and lithosphere (solid layer covering the earth). The biological environment includes the natural biological factors as in animals, plants and bacteria that affect human life in a particular place or period.
According to Wikipedia, human behaviour on the other hand refers to the range of actions or attitudes exhibited by humans. This means that every action, speech, gestures and mannerisms employed by humans consist of our human behavior. Human behaviour is influenced by our culture, emotions and the natural environment. As the culture of a particular society influences the conduct or behaviour of an individual, so does the natural environment also influences human behaviour. It does influence the human behaviour because even the water, climate, soil, animals and plants we interact with do affect our attitude towards life and at times influence our cultural traits. The natural environment has influenced human behavior from the beginning of humankind up till the present. It has influenced us in our behaviour towards our food, shelter, clothing, vocabulary acquisition and ideology.
Table of contents
Food
Shelter
Clothing
Vocabulary (Language)
Ideology
REFERENCES
The natural environment is the phenomenon of all natural things that encompasses humanity. This means that the natural environment entails all living and non-living things which occur naturally on earth without the influence of human beings. The natural environment includes the Physical environment and the Biological environment.
The physical environment entails all physical features occurring naturally on earth. It includes the atmosphere (layer of gases surrounding the earth), hydrosphere (liquid component of the earth) and lithosphere (solid layer covering the earth). The biological environment includes the natural biological factors as in animals, plants and bacteria that affect human life in a particular place or period.
According to Wikipedia, human behaviour on the other hand refers to the range of actions or attitudes exhibited by humans. This means that every action, speech, gestures and mannerisms employed by humans consist of our human behavior. Human behaviour is influenced by our culture, emotions and the natural environment.
As the culture of a particular society influences the conduct or behaviour of an individual, so does the natural environment also influences human behaviour. It does influence the human behaviour because even the water, climate, soil, animals and plants we interact with do affect our attitude towards life and at times influence our cultural traits. The natural environment has influenced human behavior from the beginning of humankind up till the present. It has influenced us in our behaviour towards our food, shelter, clothing, vocabulary acquisition and ideology.
Food
Primitive human’s behaviour towards food began with the environment that they naturally found themselves in. In order for them to survive they had to hunt down small animals and gather wild plants fruit that were immediate to their environment. With time, they came to have knowledge of the use of fire by using materials from their natural environment to create fire. This development changed the behaviour of human. This caused us to begin to cook our food before we eat. Slowly and gradually, as we continued to rely on the natural environment to feed, we had that tendency of domesticating some of the animals and plants which we relied on most in order to free ourselves from wandering for food which the natural environment made it difficult to obtain. With time we ventured into agriculture resulting in the creation of surplus food to feed the ever increasing population.
Presently, it could be viewed that all societies and communities over and across the world rely on the food products which are able to survive the environment in which they live in. Thus, the entire world over there are different kinds of plants and animals which humans live on and this is as a result of what the natural environment prevailing in that region can provide.
In “The Living Africa’s” edition on the people living in the Sahara, it stated that the Sahara people tend to feed on goats, sheep and rice which they raise from irrigated land. This is as a result of the desert which makes herding of animals prominent and the production of rice in oasis viable than other produce which cannot stand the dry nature of the desert.
Those in the coastal areas also tend to feed on fish, crustaceans and coconuts as the water bodies and soil they live close to can support those foods.
People in the forest zones likewise feed on pawpaws, currants, elderberries, plantains and bush meat like snails due to the rich nature of the forest to support various kinds of plants and animals. (Davies, 2007)
In Stan Griffin’s edition of Eskimos, he revealed that the Eskimos also feed on seals, salmon and hares which are animals that are able to live in such cold climates and are also easily obtainable.
The soil and climate has influenced the type of food product that is easily obtainable in those regions and to a larger extent influenced their preparation of food.
Shelter
The natural environment has also indeed influenced how we take shelter from the past till the present. Due to the nature of the hot climate during the day and cold climate at night in certain parts of the world, it tended to have influenced humans to look for places to take shelter. As a result, we began to live in caves and on trees. As time went on and with the development of technology, we began to build mud houses and gradually to brick and block buildings which those items were readily available to us. This shift in our shelter patterns was as a result of natural causes like rainfall, flooding and sandstorms which we humans had to battle with. In the long-run, it influenced our choice of certain preferred buildings.
Today, people like the Eskimos have been influenced by their natural environment in the way they take up shelter. Since they live a wandering life, they have both summer homes and winter homes and due to the influence of their natural environment, they build tents made of skins of seal or caribou during the summer. In the winter, they build sod houses made from snow. (Griffin’s ‘Eskimo’) Those in the Sahara as explained by “Google sites” also live in tents and they move their tents when the grass around them which they use to feed their livestock is finished. They also, build huts for their animals when they settle for a while. Their natural environment being a desert area has influenced them to be wanderers and as a result cannot build permanent shelters to live in.
However, those in the coastal areas live in permanent houses with raised foundations. This is to prevent floodwaters from getting into their homes. With the current phenomenon of earthquakes, tornados and hurricanes, it has influenced the architectural pattern of recent buildings along the coast especially in the so called developed countries like the United States of America. They construct buildings which are able to withstand hurricanes and earthquakes. In Susan Bady’s writing on housingzone.com he gave an example of a feature on a model house and how that model house which was partially completed was able to survive hurricane Katrina. He states “Since water from a storm surge can float a home off its foundation if it isn't built properly, LaHouse has flood control vents that allow water to flow through the home, keeping the structure anchored to its foundation and letting the water drain when the storm subsides. Different types of hardware were used to help hold the home together through high-impact, Cat-5 storms”.
Those living in the forest belt such as the Mbuti or Bambuti of Congo are also influenced by the natural environment in the way they build their houses. They build huts to stay in. These huts are built from the materials readily available to them; that is bamboo sticks. They insert poles into the ground and the poles are tied at the top with a vine and later they are covered with large leaves. They do not use materials which are not available in their natural environment in the construction of their buildings. (NativeWiki).
Clothing
Our choice of clothing has also been influenced by our natural environment. With humans not finding much comfort in the shelters we abode in which served to prevent us from the climate, it then influenced us to seek other means of protecting our bodies from the harsh hot and cold climates. The natural environment then influenced our behaviour to seek additional protection to protect our delicate bodies by covering them with leaves and hides of animals. This gradually developed with time to the production of cotton, silk and linen clothes. Therefore, it can however be seen that different kinds of people wear different kinds of clothing as a result of the kind of natural environment in which they find themselves in and as a result to protect their bodies.
Stan Griffin writing on the Eskimos also asserted that the Eskimos wear clothing from animal skins, preferably caribou (reindeer in Eurasia) as it is lightweight and very warm and also because it is the only raw material they can obtain for the production of their clothes.
Those in the Sahara desert wear, long woollen robes that cover their whole body to prevent their bodies from the sun’s heat. This was an answer given by Courtneys on “Blurtit” concerning what the people in the Sahara desert wear. He further explained that, the Sahara people wear the long robes with heavy soled shoes to protect their feet from the hot sand. They also wear turbans on their head to protect it from the hot blazing sun.
Among the Mbuti or Bambuti in the forest region of Congo, they wear loincloth provided by their natural environment. However, it is worthy to note that their traditional cloth is also made from the inner back of vines which undergoes a process of pounding and wetting till it is soft and waxy. (Efe and Mbuti).
People along the coast are also influenced by their natural environment and as such tend to wear clothes that are partially lost in order to enjoy the breeze from the sea. They however, would wear very tight and fitting clothes if they are going into the water. This is to allow them to easily move with the water.
Thus, the natural environment influences the kind and type of clothing to wear in a specific area and at what time. The nature of the jungle makes it appropriate to wear more of protective clothing in order for one not to hurt oneself.
Vocabulary (Language)
The natural environment has influenced humans’ ability to speak and the amount of vocabulary to use. As we humans in the past lived together and saw what was going on in our natural environment, we began to use symbols (codes) to represent what we saw and hear; thus the creation of vocabulary. In this sense, it could be realised that the vocabulary of humans all across the globe are not all the same and this is as a result of the different phenomenon or things which we find in our different natural environments. Thus, a society which has never seen a rainbow before will never have a name for a rainbow and in that way, that society will be deficient with the vocabulary “rainbow”. Also, the natural environment influences our vocabulary to the extent of influencing the varieties of names we will have for different things.
People living in the coastal areas will have a large vocabulary for different kinds of fish in their dialect compared to people living in the forest belt. An example can be taken from Ghana where a Ga person might have names like Armah, Emule, Gyaase etc for fish but an individual in Ashanti might call them Nsuomu nam. In the same way will someone in the forest belt will have different vocabulary of names for plantains compared to those living on the coast. An Ashanti might have names like Apem, Apantu etc. for plantain but a Ga person might call them Brͻdeε.
Also, a graceful ruminant with long legs and horns directed upward and downward will be called an Antelope in general terms. However, when these are taken from different regions of the world and are brought together, there will be names like Gazelle, Springbok, Impala, Addax, Gerenuk, Blackbuck and Dik-Dik. Thus, our natural environment allows us to have a name for Antelope without names for the rest since they cannot be found in that particular environment.
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- Quote paper
- Kwabena Ankoma (Author), 2012, How Human Behavior is Influenced By the Natural Environment, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/889344
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