Tropical geography refers to the study of places and people in the

tropics The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

. When it first emerged as a discipline, tropical geography was closely associated with

imperialism Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of Power (international relations), power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultura ...

and colonial expansion of the European empires as contributing scholars tended to portray the

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

places as "primitive" and people "uncivilised" and "inferior".Arnold, David, 2000. "Illusory Riches": Representations of the Tropical World, 1840-1950. ''Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography''. 21(1), 2000, 6-18. 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 is a branch of geography which refers to the standard of living and its quality of life of its human inhabitants. In this context, development is a process of change that affects peoples' lives. It may involve an improvement ...

colonization 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...

had been replaced by

economic development In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and object ...

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 Columbus 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 Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For 20 years he served as director of the Ro ...

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

and

Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was an English naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection; his 1858 pap ...

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 over time in response to changing patterns of Europe's engagements in the tropics. A variety of

environmental determinism Environmental determinism (also known as climatic determinism or geographical determinism) is the study of how the physical environment predisposes societies and states towards particular economic or social developmental (or even more gener ...

emerged from the sub-field as colonists and naturalists started representing temperate and tropical people with

binaries A binary file is a computer file that is not a text file. The term "binary file" is often used as a term meaning "non-text file". Many binary file formats contain parts that can be interpreted as text; for example, some computer document files ...

like "progressive vs. backward," "civilised vs. primitive," "hard working vs. lazy" and "superior vs. inferior."Gilmartin, Mary, 2008. p177. Race, an invented concept, was convenient and readily applied in attempts to "

ink Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. ...

climatic variation closely to the supposed division of the human species into different 'races'". As activities of the European empires diversified in the 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 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 Wadie Said (1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American academic, literary critic, and political activist. As a professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of Postcolonialism, post-co ...

in his famous work ''

Orientalism In art history, literature, and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle ...

'', the literature of tropical geography 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 the 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 Pierre Gourou (31 August 1900 – 13 May 1999) was a French geographer. In 1984, he received the Patron's Medal from the Royal Geographical Society. Further reading * Paul Claval: ''Pierre Gourou 1900–1999'', in ''Geographers: Biobibliograp ...

. From 1950's onward,

replaced tropical geography as the sub-field of geography. Consequently, the studied regions were given new terminologies such as the "

Third World The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Southern Cone, NATO, Western European countries and oth ...

" and the "

global South Global North and Global South are terms that denote a method of grouping countries based on their defining characteristics with regard to socioeconomics and politics. According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Global South broadly com ...

." Critical geographers argue the replacement of tropical geography by development geography marks the historical turning point of international intervention strategy from

colonisation 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...

.Lawson, Victoria, 2007. "Development as Intervention: From Modernisation to Neo-liberalisation." Making Development Geography. Hodder Arnold. p70. 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 In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

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,

and tropical geography as academic disciplines saw a movement away from the mainstream economistic and deterministic view of the tropical world beginning 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 An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. They serve as permanent and transparent forums for the ...

''Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography''Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-9493 ccessed November 23, 2012 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.

References

External links

Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography - Journal Information at WileyNational University of Singapore Department of Geography
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geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...