-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
1/119
(
(
r
r f
r
(
C ‘
c
cc
c ,c , c
C )
f ,
c
c
r
rr
rrr
r(
S
(
c
SOCIETY AND MILIEU
IN THE FRENCH
GEOGRAPHIC
TRADITION
A N N E B U T T I M E R
(Sister Mary Annette, O.P.)
Sixth in the Monograph Series
Published for
The Association of American Geographers
by
Rand McNally and Company Chicago
BIBLIOTECA “CONRADO PASCHOALE*
tG/UNICAMP
C 0 L E Ç Â 0 P R O F . “ D R . A N T Ô N I 0 C H R I S I O F U E I l l
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
2/119
■NSTITUTO DG ûEOCÎEC\& *
J ,-'«I.*CHAWA A ft ‘iS a^ > - ! * - ?.
D i
T O M 8 0 SC i S M J B J L ■T O ? v i B ü 10/ _ _ _ _ _ _ _P R OC .,-JJ -1-OON/Çpf c ï Z j » DZ3
j P R E Ç Oi D A T A O S / Ô E / O ~ Ô
i r i . " CPO
The Monograph Series of the
Asso ciation of Amer ican Geographers
fa.
EDITORS
Derwent Whittlesey Andrew H. C larkThomas R. SmithClarence J. GlackenMarvin W. Mikesell
*95 6
1957 - 19611961—1964ig^-igeö1966-
Copyright © 1971 by the Association of American Geographers
All rights reserved
Printed in the U.S A. by Rand MSNally if Company
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
3/119
vi Editor ’s Note
other concepts considered—genre cle vie, paysage, civilisation, and
so on—are intellectual constructs designed to facilitate understand-
ing of this grand and pervasive theme. Since most of the mono-
graph is devoted to the formative period of French geography—
its first and second “generations”—the work is essentially historio-
graphic, the study of a literature. Sister Annette has also tried, asall intellectual historians must, to take account of more subtle cur-
rents of personal influence.
In presenting this study as volume number six of the Mono-
graph Series of the Association of American Geographers, I am
confident that it will prove useful to scholars in many countries.
One must also hope that Sister Annette’s effort will demonstrate
the desirability of an ecumenical movement among the many na-
tional “schools” of geography.
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
M a r v in W. M i k e s e l l
A T r ibu t e
to the creative artists of
France’s humanistic tradition in social science
and
AP l e a .
for aggiornamento within
the geographic noôsphère
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
4/119
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
5/119
X
Preface
study. In short, I have attempted to review the Vidalian school in
its historical context, giving primary attention to the social dimen
sion of the enterprise. Thus, this monograph is by no means a
documentary study on the evolution of geography in France; it is
simply an interpretative essay on one particular aspect of that tra
dition based upon the published literature and the opinions expressed by some contemporary French scholars. Nor is it a “case”
for social geography. It merely attempts to explore one important
chapter in the evolutio’n of that field. Finally, this is primarily
an historical review; it does not attempt to describe or interpret
modern developments within the French school.
In the execution of this task, several French confrères have
helped and encouraged me enormously. Among these are espe
cially MM. Paul Claval, Jean Gottmann, Pierre Gourou, Philippe
Pinchemel, and Mme. Jacqueline Beaujeu-Garnier. Besides, at
each of the major geography departments visited I found coopera
tion and interest from professors, lecturers, and graduate students.
Thanks are due especially to MM. François de Dainville, Gabriel
Le Bras, P.-H. Chombart de Lauwe, and Mme. Mariel J.-B. Dela-
marre, and the late André Cholley in Paris; to M. Etienne Juillard
at Strasbourg; to M. Pierre Flatrès and Mme. Géneviève Pinchemel
at Lille; to MM. André Journaux and J. Brunet at Caen; to M.
Michel Lafferère and Mlle. Renée Rochefort at Lyon; to M. and
Mme. Veyret-Verner and their colleagues at Grenoble; to MM.
Raymond Dugrand and Jean Le Coz at Montpellier; to M. Bernard
Kayser at Toulouse; to MM. Guy Lasserre and Louis Papy at Bor
deaux; and to MM. Michel Phlipponneau and G. Galibert at
Rennes. In Belgium I received valuable help from MM. L. G. Pols-
poel, M. Goossens, and the.late Mile. Marguerite Lefèvre at Leuven(Louvain); from MM. Omer Tulippe and Ch. Christians at Liège;
and from M. Pierre Gourou at Bruxelles. In Britain, the late Pro
fessor FI. J. Fleure helped me greatly; also Professors Emrys Jones,
R. J. Harrison Church, E. W. Gilbert, J. M. Houston, and
A. F. Martin at Oxford, Professor R. W. Steel at Liverpool, and
Professors E. Estyn Evans and R. FI. Buchanan at Belfast. In the
Netherlands, Professors Chr. van Paassen and Willem Steigenga
gave me many valuable insights; as did Dr. Wolfgang Hartke at
Munich, Professor Hans Bobek at Vienna, and Dr. Nils Lewan at
xi Preface
Lunch To all of these scholars I owe a great debt of gratitude.
Finally, in the United States I have received direction, encourage
ment, and inestimable help from my teachers, Professors Richard
Morrill, Morgan Thomas, John Sherman, and Edward Ullman at
the University of Washington. But most valuable of all has been
the interest and direction of Professors Jan O. M. Broelc at theUniversity of Minnesota, and Marvin W. Mikesell at the Uni
versity of Chicago, and Dr. David Lowenthal at the American
Geographical Society. Their inspiration has brought this little
monograph into being. T o every scholar mentioned and to all those
whose names I may have omitted, I offer sincere thinks.
Clark University
Worcester, Massachusetts
A n n e B u t t i me r
(Sister Mary Annette, O.P.)
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
6/119
I
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
Contents
e d i t o r ’ s n o t e
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
Part One: The Historical Context
The Academic Setting
Anthropogeography and Social Morphology
Part Two: The Foundations
Contributions of Paul Vidal de la Blache
Neiu Horizons in the Work of Jean Brunhes
Basic Orientations of the First Generation
Part Three: From Regional Ensemble to Social System
Thematic Perspective on the Region
Functional Approach to Rural Habitat Study
Essays on Milieu and “Civilisation”
Part Four: Inventory and Prospect o£the Vidalian Tradition
Toward aMore Comprehensive Framework for Human
Geography: Maximüien Sorre (1880-1962)
Classical Principles and Systematic Specialization
Social and Demographic Perspectives
(
(
(
(
(
I
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
(
V
(
ix(
1 (
c9
11(
27 (
4 i(
43 r
59 C 73
c87
(
9 1 /
99{
1 11 f
121r
; (
123
V
(
1361 .
(15 0
xiii
(
(
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
7/119
xiv Contents
Part Five: Recapitulation: The Vidalian Core Revisited 163
XII. “Milieu” and “Civilisation” 166
XIII. “ Genres de Vie” and “ Circulation” 178
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 19 6
AUTH OR INDE X 22 0
SUBJECT INDEX 223
Introduction
Stimulated by consecutive discoveries which in
the space of a hundred years have successively re
vealed to ou r genera tion several impo rtant things
—first the profundities and significance of time,
then the limitless spiritual resources of Matter,
and lastly the power of living beings acting in
association—it seems that our psyche is in .the
process of changing. A conquering passion which
will sweep away or transform what has hither to
been the imm aturi ty of the earth has begun to
show itself, and its salutary action comes just at
the right moment to control, awaken, or order the
emancipated forces of love, the dormant forces of
human unity, and the hesitant forces of research.
—P. T e il h a r d d e C h a r d i n , Buil ding the
Earth (1965), p. 44.
T h e F r e n c h s c h o o l o f h u m a n g e o g r a p h y founded by Vidal dela Blache (1845-1918) is one of the richest sources of ideas and in
sights into the subject of society and milieu. Unlike other geog
raphy schools of the twentieth century, which tended to treat man
individualistically or as the pawn of economic law, the French
maintained an Aristotelian vision of collective man as zoon politi-
kon, organized into spatially recognizable social groupings. The
Vidalian tradition (la tradition vidalienne )1 is thus a precious in-
11 define the tradition vidalienne here in terms of those French scholars who
have been directly or indirectly influenced by the teachings of Paul Vidal de la
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
8/119
2
Society and Milie u in the French Geographic T radition
gredient of geographical history, and also an important milestone
in the history of ideas. Originally a unified and organically cohe
sive field, la géographie humaine*2 contained the seeds of several
systematic subdisciplines, including social geography.
Today the term “social geography” probably evokes more am
biguity than clarity .3During the past half-century so many mean
ings have been assigned to this term that it is impossible to formu
late any universally acceptable definition of the field.4 Some have
used it interchangeably with human geography; others regard it
as a systematic subdivision of the general field; others still regard
it as the sociometric, deductive approach to the study of society’s
spatial order. This is not the place to discuss these and other defi
nitions of social geography. However, two facts should be noted:
most scholars within the discipline today would agree that the rela
tions between society and milieu constitute an essential component
Blache. Being such an organically unified whole, this tradition cannot be iden
tified in terms of periods and specific dates; however, there is a general and implicit agreement among contemporary French geographers that the postwarperiod, particularly since the 1950s, has witnessed a radical reorientation of research and teaching within that school. The Vidalian tradition is thus definablemore in terms of personalities and major research directions than in terms of
specific dates.2 La géographie hum aine as articulated by Vidal de la Blache cannot be properlytranslated as “human geography’’ because of the connotation of this term inEnglish-speaking and German schools since Ratzel’s Anthropogeographi e (1882-91). It could be considered a “social” geography as distinct from economic andphysical geography (cf. A. Demangeon, Géographie économique et humaine de la France [Paris, 1948]), in that its predominant focus was on social organizationand milieu. Utrecht’s sociale geogrape (cf. H. D. de Vries Reilingh, “De Sociale
Ardrijk skunde als Geestescetenschap,” in Tidjschrift van hel Koninglijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskund ig Genootschap 77 [1961], pp. 112-32; and J. H.Keuning, "The Practice of Modern Geography in the Netherlands,” Tidjschrift
voor Economische en Sociale Geogrape 54 [1968], pp.3
0-34
) is more nearlycomparable to Vidal’s géographie humaine, as indeed is “social geography,” defined implicitly by H. J. Fleure in his lectures on Some Problems of Society and
Environmen t, Institute of British Geographers, Publication No. 12 (London,1947). Hans Bobek’s conception of Sozialgeographie is also consistent with
Vid al’s origina l definition of géographie humaine. See his “Aufriss einer Vcr-gleichenden Sozialgeographie,” Mitteil ungen der Geographischen Gesellschafl in Wien 92 (1950), pp. 34-45- See also J. W. Watson, “ Th e Sociologi cal Aspects ofGeography,” in G. Taylor (eel.), Geography in the Twentieth Century (London,
1951), pp. 463-99.3See Ch. van Paassen, Over vormverandering in de sociale geogrape (Groningen,1965); also K. Ruppcrt (ed.), Zurn Standort der Sozialgeographie: Wolfgang
Hartkc zurn 60. Geburtstag (Regensburg, 1968).4I have discussed this question more thoroughly in “Social Geography,” Interna-tional Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (New York, 1968), vol. 6, pp. 132-45.
3
Introducti on
of geographic study; many also pay at least lip service to the Vi
dalian tradition as an important source of ideas on the subject. Yet,
to date there is no systematic survey of this tradition either in
French or English;5 and without such a survey it is impossible to
define the nature and scope of social geography.
Society and milieu—sociality and territoriality—universally
characterize man’s occupance of the earth.6 Viewed in time and
place, these two scaffolds of human existence interact to produce
the earth’s variegated cultural landscapes: society a complex web
of organizational arrangements, milieu a variegated mosaic of
physically differentiated regions. Since the dawn of history great
curiosity and speculation have surrounded the question of man’s
place in the universe and of society’s relationship with its biophys
ical environment. Imaginative writers have postulated theories
concerning the influence of soil, climate, and topography on the
physiognomy and mentality of human groups. For centuries the
question was studied on two levels: speculatively, scholars soughtontological principles governing man’s place in nature; and em
pirically, others explored the oikoumene to ascertain what actual
relationships society had established with its milieu in different
parts of the world. For many reasons these two channels of thought
5Paul Claval's Essai sur l’évol ution de la géographie humaine (Paris, 1964) at
tempts to place the Vidalian tradition within the context of international geographic thought. Its purpose is not, however, to highlight the social dimensionin French work. His more recent statement, with J. P. Nardy, Pour le Cinquan -tenaire de la mort de Paul Vidal de la Blache (Paris, 1968) focuses more sharplyon the academie setting of Vidal’s work. The mid-century “inventory and prospect” published by L’Information Géographique, La géographie française au milieu du XXe siècle (Paris, 1957) and the subsequent anthology edited by
André Journ aux et al. under the title, Géographie générale (Paris, 1966) give agood illustration of the various research trends in contemporary French work. André Meyni er’s Histoire de la pensée géographique en France (Paris, 1969), which appeared after the presen t wo rk was comp leted, attempts a more generalcoverage of French geographic thought, i.e., from Reclus to the scholars of thecurrent decade.
6“M ilieu” here refers exclusively to the biophysical (physiographic, climatic, and biotic) environm ent, the ecological notion articulat ed by Vida l de la Blacheand consistently utilized by the “first generation” of French human geographers
in their regional monographs. It was later that milieu was given an extendedmeaning to include the artificial aspects of environment. Unless otherwise stated,the biophysical (ecological) definition of milieu will be maintained throughoutthis monograph. “Society” here refers generally to world population in spatialperspective, sociality rio t being a prim ary object of study, bu t a premise or explanatory hypothesis in the exploration o f man’s territorial behavior.
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
9/119
followed separate paths, thereby losing the mutually enriching in
fluence which interaction might have occasioned.
The history of thought on the subject of society and milieu thus
appears as two roughly parallel and only occasionally converging
currents: at one time the speculative current surging forward to
stimulate the imaginations of literary writers; at another time thezealots of empiricism feverishly accumulating information to
undermine a priori hypotheses and utopian social theories. There
are in fact two histories of thought on the subject: a history of
what men have thought and believed concerning society and
milieu, and a history of society’s actual perception and use of its
milieu. The vastly expanded technical and conceptual apparatus
of post-Cartesian science has helped clarify and collate elements
from these separate currents. However, deeper fissures have ap
peared which may be even more difficult to bridge eventually.
Scholarly energies are being siphoned off into new and more nar
rowly defined research channels exploring society on the one hand
and the physical environment on the other. Perched between twoincreasingly divergent research batteries of social and physical
science lies the question of society-milieu relationships; there too
stands many a frustrated human geographer.
What then is the historical background of this question of
society-milieu relationships? Roughly two millennia of speculation
and observation have produced a series of thought currents, each
one exploring individual aspects of the question, and only in a
few instances have these currents converged to provide an inte
grated perspective on the question. These points of convergence
have occurred in the lives and work of certain great individuals or
groups, who, sharing insights from different modes of analysis,have arrived at synoptic pictures valid for particular times and
places. Since such points of convergence represent critical mile
stones in the history of ideas they deserve careful attention. In
twentieth-century geography we can decipher three broad pat
terns of convergent thought: the environmentalist, the possibilist,
and the cognitive behaviorist syntheses.7 Each of these broad
7 See Harold and Mar garet Sprout, Man-M ilieu Hypothe sis in the Contex t of
Internati onal Polit ics (Princeton, N.J., 1956); Paul Claval, Essai s ur révol ution de la géographie humaine (Paris, 1964); and E. A. Wrig ley, “ Changes in the
4
Society and M ilie u in the French Geograp hic Tradition Introdu ction
thought patterns represented a distinct perspective on society and
milieu which had varying degrees of validity for the description
of particular places and periods. Each also became partly obsolete
as the object of analysis changed, yet each perspective can still
claim relevance to the description of certain places even today.
In our efforts to see broad lines of development we sometimesoverlook or minimize the individuality of specific schools. Facile
communication among scholars today tends to promote standard
ization of research procedures and a tendency to view the past from
a pragmatic viewpoint, viz., in terms of its relevance to present re
search objectives. This orientation diminishes our ability to ap
preciate the uniqueness of individual schools whose research aims
and methodological procedures may have differed radically from
ours. Some historic developments need to be viewed as unique
entities, whose personalities developed within a unique scholastic
tradition, and focused on a particular object of study.
This monograph attempts to survey the French school of human
geography as one such entity. Since one of its major aims is to
shed light on the nature of social geography, it cannot begin with
a dogmatic definition of the field. It will, however, outline concepts
and phenomena which could logically fall within the realm of
social geography, allowing a more explicit definition of the field
to emerge from the discussion of some key contributions to the
French geographic tradition. This general realm could be outlined
in terms of (1) a horizontal dimension: spatial variations in man
kind’s social characteristics; and (2) a vertical dimension: how these
variations are related to, or reflect society’s relationship with its
geographical milieu. With this very general definition, the works
of the great pioneers can be combed for insights and guidelines regarding the nature and scope of social geography. Given the co
hesive quality of French geographic literature, this is a difficult
task. How does one highlight thematic evolution while maintain
ing the holistic perspective upon which the fame of Vidalian geog
raphy rests?
Viewin g the Vidalian tradition chronologically, three rather
discrete periods can be outlined: (1) 1890-1918: the foundations;
Philosophy of Geography,” in R. J. Chorley and P. Haggett (eds.), Frontiers in Geographical Teaching (London, 1966), pp. 3-20.
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
10/119
6
Society and Mil ieu in the French Geographic Tradit ion
(2) 1919-40: the second generation; and (3) 1940-to the present:
methodological debate and renewal. Viewing it thematically, how
ever—since thematic evolution is the focus of this study—the
chronological framework is only partially satisfactory. We have
adopted a compromise plan, viz., while adopting an approximatelychronological framework, our focus is on the evolution of concepts
and therefore references to the literature frequently deviate from
the historical order. Because of the enormous variety of writers
and studies involved, we have chosen certain key personalities who
seem to illustrate particular conceptual developments or whose
ideas have significantly influenced others in the field. In most
cases an effort is made to allow these scholars to “speak for them
selves,” i.e., key passages are translated rather than summarized,
and interpretations are open and suggestive. The treatment is
therefore eclectic, not exhaustive; it merely presents certain themes
and research orientations which appear particularly important as
precedents for social geography.Part One (Chapters I and II) sketches the academic background
in France before the time of Vidal de la Blache. Part Two (Chap
ters III, IV, V) describes the foundations for social geography
(géographie de la civilisation) laid down by Vidal de la Blache
and developed by his immediate disciples. Part Three (Chapters
VI, VII, VIII) views the Interwar Period in terms of the gradual
evolution of a thematic rather than a regional approach to geo
graphic study. Part Four (Chapters IX, X, XI) discusses the final
phase when the utility of Vidalian concepts was seriously ques
tioned in the light of postwar social changes and philosophical re
orientations within French geography itself. The concluding sec
tion (Chapters XII, XIII) is simply a recapitulation on the core
concepts of Vidal’s géographie de la civilisation: milieu, civilisa-
tion, genres de vie, and circulation, examining the development
of these concepts throughout the entire period.
An interpretative essay of this kind written by an outsider will
no doubt appear naïve and even erroneous to scholars trained in
the French school and to those who have studied it perhaps more
closely than I. Problems of language and values, of differing re
search orientations and objectives, arise when one attempts to
communicate between French and American schools. I have there-
7
Introdu ction
foie endeavored to base this work entirely on an interpretation of
the literatuie and on opinions expressed during interviews with
contemporary French geographers. Hence, questions of interper
sonal relationships and influences, though perhaps highly signifi
cant in the evolution of French geographic thought, cannot bedealt with satisfactorily in this work. In fact, opinions seem to vary
so widely among contemporary French geographers that it would
be virtu ally impossible to write a noncontroversial essay on this
subject. If only it will elicit some discussion and dialogue between
scholars in the French and American schools, however, it may haveserved a valuable function.
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
11/119
(
(
(
r
r(
c
c
r
(
<
(
\
(
(
(
(
PART ONE
The Historical Context
The Vidalian tradition in French geography, spanning roughly
the first half of the twentieth century, can in many ways he re-
garded as one organic component of a unique scholastic tradi-tion. Outside the French historic and academic context, such a
convergence of ideas could scarcely he imagined. By the second half
of the nineteenth century scholars from a variety of backgrounds
had explored the question of society and milieu. Natural science in
France and Germany had dissected and analyzed the physical
milieu, while history, comparative ethnography, and political econ-
omy had examined the multidimensional nature of social organiza-
tion. In France particularly the question of “environmental influ-
ences" remained a fascinating topic for philosophical reflection,
while internal differences within French society became the object
of literary essay and historical research.
How should the relationship between society and milieu be
studied? Should societies be studied in their environmental set-
ting, or should they be treated as autonomous systems indepen-
dently of milieu? These and other academic questions xuere burn-
ing issues around the time xohen Vidal de la Blache first developed
his ideas on la géographie humaine. In order to appreciate the
Vidalian enterprise, it is necessary to reflect briefly on this his-
toric context. This is attempted in Chapters One and Txvo.
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
12/119
;;É:
'K.
The Academie Setting
In m e d i e v a l ph i l o s o p h y man’s relation to nature was conceivedin terms of universal principles logically derived from naturallaw.1 The earth, as temporary home of mankind, was the passivestage upon which the drama of human life took place. Man wasthe center of the universe. Bodin’s Six livres de la République (1606) raised the first major dissenting voice against this view. Heintroduced the idea of relativism, suggesting that the milieu mighthave a certain influence on the molding of social differences.2 Toillustrate this claim he mapped the distribution of world population in terms of major “environments” : frigid, temperate, torrid;plains, valleys, barren lands, and lands of promise.3T he implication was deterministic, but the question was open-ended: could
environmental factors have played some role in promoting socialdifferences? Many of Bodin’s questions had remained unansweredfor almost a century when Baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu
1 Clarence Glacken has treated this subject exhaustively in his recent publication, Traces on the Rhodian Shores (Berkeley, 1967). See also Jacques Leclercq,
Introdu ction à la sociologie, 3rd ed. (Paris, 1963); H. E. Barnes and H.Becker, Social Thou ght from Lore to Science , 2 vols. (New York, 1938-39); andR. H. Lowie, The History of Ethnological Theory (New York, 1937).2Jean Bodin, Six livres de la Ré pub liqu e (Genève, 1606).3See Robert E. Dickinson and O. J. Howarth, The Making of Geography (Oxford, 1933), p. 192; Henri Joseph Léon Boudrillard, Jean Bodi n et son temps (Paris, 1853); and Etienne Fournol, Bod in , prédécesseur de M ontesq uieu (Paris,1896).
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
13/119
introduced the topic once more.4During the intervening century
new philosophical ideas from England had gradually tempered
the rigidity of French classical thought. The Abbé Dubos had
written on the physiological effects of climate on human behavior,
relating this to the “distribution of genius.”5
Montesquieu, a philosopher, juror, and keen explorer, hesi
tated to accept any simplistic explanations of social differences.
From his travels and studies he accumulated voluminous data on
people and places, and then proposed hypotheses concerning pos
sible causal connections between climate and social character
istics. His Lett res persanes (1721) reported on the dramatically
contrasting customs of France and Persia. Montesquieu pon
dered the following questions: Why do some peoples progress
while others stagnate? W hat role do environmental factors play,
and how significantly do historical forces influence a society’s
evolution?
Having made the useful distinction between the “personal”
and “impersonal” forces in history, Montesquieu held that the keyto progress and civilisation lies in the superiority of the former (ra
tional) over the latter (environmental and external).6 Yet even
among European peoples, whose political and cultural progress
were quite comparable, he noted many differences of “mentality” :
Nordic, Germanic, Alpine, and other peoples differed widely in
culture and life-style. They also inhabited physically contrasting
milieux. Examining these societies at closer range, Montesquieu
sought an index to social differentiation which would adequately
express both the environmental and cultural factors involved. In
every case, he distinguished between the internal (social and psy
chological) and external (biophysical and technological) milieux
of human life. What mechanism mediated between the internal
and external? Why did some groups have greater intimacy with,
greater technological mastery over their external milieux? Montes-
4Oeuvres complètes de Montesquieu (Paris, 1853). See also Kingsley Martin, French L iberal Thou ght in the Eightee nth Century (London, 1929); and JosephDedieu, Monte squieu et la tradition polit ique anglaise en France (Paris, 1909).5R. J. Harrison Church, "The French School of Geography,’’ in G. Taylor (ed.),Geography in the Twentieth Century (London,- 1951), pp. 70-91.6Baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu, Voyages de Montesquieu (Bordeaux,
1894); A. Prioult, “La psychologie des peuples de Montesquieu,” Revue de Psychologie des Peuples a (May, 1947), pp. 170-96.
12
Society and Milieu in th e French Geographic T radition13
The Academie Setting
quieu suggested that the key mechanism relating the internal and
external milieu was the legal structure, the institutional codifica
tion of a society’s relationship to its environment.7
The Esprit des Lois (1748), the culmination of his life work,
proposes a general theory of mankind’s social differences: the
spirit (essence) of law embodies all those environmental, cultural,and historical factors which mold the general spirit (“mentality”)
of a people. His three basic types of government, despotism, re
public, and monarchy, derive from three deeper lying principles,
largely emotional in character, but with roots traceable to geo
graphic and geographically determined economic factors. Montes
quieu’s exaggerations of this basic connection have been widely
discussed, but one rarely hears of his categoric refutations of deter
minism: for example, “There is no climate under the sun which
can prevent free men from functioning creatively . . . provided
their legal system is a rational one, and does not interfere with in
dividual liberty. . . .”8
At least two great themes emerge from Montesquieu’s writings:(1) the distinction between the milieu interne and the milieu
externe (or the milieu moral and the milieu physique), a
distinction later reiterated in the work of Claude Bernard,
and in a certain sense the foreshadowing of the modern
distinction between “subjective” and “objective” environ
ments;
(2) the suggestion that laws and social institutions provide a
key to society's relationship to its environment. This was
the culmination of a thought pattern initiated by Bodin a
century earlier; it pointed to the important role of institu
tions in codifying a society’s relationship to nature, a
theme which recurred frequently in French social history.
The eighteenth century brought much substantive information
on newly discovered parts of the earth. Yet, as de Dainville demon
strated, little attempt was made to describe or codify this material
7 Gustave Lanson, Histoire de la littérature française, 12th ed. (Paris, 1912); A. Gumplo witz, “W hat Montesquieu wrote in human geograp hy,” Revue Polonaise Géographique 7 (1927), pp. 18-43.8Baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu, Dissertation sur la p olitiq ue des Ro-
mains dans la religion (Bordeaux, 1716) which was reproduced as the 27th book
of L’Esprit des Lois (Paris, 1748).
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
14/119
in terms of any general theory of society and environment.9 At
home, new horizons were pioneered by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(1712-78) and other champions of liberty and equality. Their
writings were primarily responsible for the extension of scholarly
interest to all sectors of society. Up to this time literary efforts were
oriented mainly toward the social life of upper classes; the unlet
tered masses were ignored or regarded as the pawn of political or.
economic law.10
The whole democratic movement in France introduced two
new dimensions to scholarly thought: humanitarianism, which
tried to minimize the differences between people; and internation
alism, which implied that every true scholar should be a “citizen
of the world.”11 Like the Physiocrats in Britain, Rousseau viewed
social differences not so much in terms of the milieu, although he
wrote some entertaining comments on the effects of climate on
human behavior. His Discours sur les sciences et les arts (1750)
remarked on the misery associated with the onward march ofcivilization. Yet, he also noted that primitive people seldom ap
pear happy (1775), which suggested that neither polar situation
—submission to, nor aggressive mastery over milieu—provided the
key to individual happiness. His Contrat Social (1762) in one
way reaffirmed Montesquieu’s theory of social laws: only by be
havioral codes (rules) and the internal discipl ine necessary to
enable men to obey them, could happiness be ensured.12
Thus while Bodin, Montesquieu, and the Jesuit missionaries’
Lettres édifiantes (1705-75) stimulated speculation on man-nature
relationships, Rousseau directed attention along the horizontal
plane, toward the actual social differences of his own day, and the
potential role of laws in changing the social order. In this he an
ticipated Marx, Ruskin, Le Play, and the other nineteenth-century
heralds of humanism in social science.13
9François de Dainville, La géographie des humanistes (Paris, 1941).10Leclercq, Introducti on à la sociologie; C. Bougie, “Sociologie, psychologie ethistoire,” Revue de Mé taphysique et de Morale 4 (1896), pp. 362-70.11 Leclercq, Introducti on à la sociologie, pp. 20-24; Henri Beaudouin, La vie et les oeuvres de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 2 vols. (Paris, 1891).12Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discours sur les sciences et les arts (Paris, 1750);idem, Le Contrat Social (Paris, 1762).18Rousseau, Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes (London, 1922; first published Paris, 1755).
14
Society and Milie u in the French Geographic Trad ition
15
The Academie Setting
Philosophers had thus, by the nineteenth century, laid several
conceptual foundations for the study of society and milieu. They
had speculated on causal relationships between groups and their
milieu, reported on exotic phenomena abroad, and harangued
about inequalities among social classes at home. In such cases, at
tention became focused on social institutions as the key to liberat
ing the personal and moral forces which enable society to over
come the impersonal (environmental) circumstances of life. In
contrast to the Promethean, Hegelian, and other idealistic concep
tions of man-nature relationships, the French approach was essen
tially a relativistic one: neither the social nor the environmental
should be overemphasized, and both should be studied objectively.
T H E M I L I E U I N F R E N C H S O C I A L H I S T O R Y
The philosophical reorientation associated with the names of
Bodin, Montesquieu, and Rousseau had thus placed considerations
of milieu in the forefront of scholarly endeavor. The great eighteenth-century Encyclopedia had given a definite stimulus to the
development of human sciences, while the Enlightenment, in its
violent attacks on the ancien régime, had rejected the idea of a
static authoritarian system rooted in tradition. Each society should
be viewed as a product of its own environment and history in a
world operating according to “natural laws.”14 Statesmen should
try to discover these laws and remold society in the interests of the
sovereign people. Herein lay a challenge for scholarly research on
the customs, traditions, and needs of all sectors of society. In France
this meant above all an exploration of rural peasant groups within
their natural surroundings.The cohesive and relatively autonomous character of French
rural communities had, to a considerable extent, survived the stan-
14 This was particularly true of German thought at this time, e.g., AdamMidler’s Leçons sur la science de l’ Etat (Paris, 1808) which refuted the libertarianand contractual theories of Rousseau and affirmed that the State had a law untoitself. In 1814 Fr. Ch. de Savigny preached that every. State should have a legalsystem compatible with the spirit of its people. Fr. List, Wilhelm Roscher, andothers applied this “nationalistic” idea to economic life. See some of the articlesin Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie (1823-99) which explored the collective“mentalities” of different peoples. See also G. R. Crone, Background to Geography (London, 1961), pp. 48-49; and Leclercq, Introdu ction à la sociologie,
pp.14-18.
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
15/119
16
Society and Milieu in th e French Geographic T radition
dardizing effects of the Revolution. For social historians like
Michelet and Demolins, it was in this peasant setting, in all its
simplicity and isolation, that French civilization was created and
perfected. From peasant ranks sprang great scholars like Michelet,
Demolins, and Le Play, sympathetic students of, and articulate
spokesmen for the rural peasants. In their classic works we find
insights into the intimate environmental relationships which were
thought to explain the harmony and stability of the French pays.
From these, no doubt, Vidal de la Blache drew inspiration for his
Tableau de la géographie de la France. The evolution of a peas
ant’s self-identity was viewed as the outcome of his twofold attach
ment to (i) a particular life-style within (2) a particular locality.
Place and livelihood thus constituted two fundamental ingredients
in the personality integration of French paysans.
Among the more influential historians of the nineteenth cen
tury ranks Pierre Guillaume Guizot (1787-1874), Prime Minister
under Louis Phillipe.15 An ide alist and professor at the Sorbonne
where he taught Alexis de Tocq ueville , Guizot became the spokesman for the liberal.economic policy of the bourgeois regime. His
Essais sur l’ histoire de la France (1853) are replete with references
to the environmental factor in French social history.16 More ex
plicit still was Michelet’s treatment of the French peasant, “the true
author of French history.”17 His seventeen-volume Histo ire de
France showed the development of France’s mosaic of natural pays
through the prolonged dialogue of community and region. Speak
ing of Flanders, Michelet once wrote: “It has been created, so to
speak, in defiance of Nature; it is the product of human labor.”18
Herein Michelet invited a generation of young geographers to ex-
15François Pierre Guillaume Guizot, Essais sur l’histoire de la France, 14th ed.(Paris, 1878). See also the Revue Française which was edited by Guizot and usedas a mouthpiece for the liberal economic policies of the bourgeois régime untilhis demise in 1848. Guizot’s Histoire générale de la civilisation en Europe (Paris, 1840) is an example of social history which ascribed great importance tothe role of environmental factors in shaping rural life in France.16Guizot, Essais sur l’hi stoire de la France.
17Jules Michelet, Histoire de France, 17 vols. (Paris, 1833-67). La France devant l’Europe (Paris, 1871) has even more chauvinistic remarks on the French national character. See also Lanson, “Le table au de la France de Michelet: notessur la texte de 1833,” in M. Wilmotte, Mélanges de philolo gie romane et d’histoire littéraire, 2 vols. (Paris, 1910), pp. 267-99.
18Cited in Lucien Febvre, La terre et l’évolut ion humaine (Paris, 1922).
17
The Academie Setting
plore the details of this intimate dialogue of paysan and pays:
the key to an understanding of French landscapes and regions.
R E G I O N A L L I T E R A T U R E A N D M I L I E U
The individuality of French regions, the physical and cultural
uniqueness of particular locales (pays), inspired much literary work in the nineteenth century. T he regional novel in particular
aroused popular consciousness of the deep-rooted loyalties and
cultural identity of France’s regional communities whose solidar
ity rested largely on the harmonious dialogue of society and
milieu. In fact, each of the major philosophical currents men
tioned earlier found some echo in the literary world. Hippolyte
Taine (1828-93) and Ernest Rénan (1823-92) profoundly influ
enced literary thought by calling attention to the racial, political,
and other cultural forces evident in the evolution of society.10Like
Thierry and Gobineau, Taine ascribed great importance to the
racial factor in the development of culture, even literary styles
he regarded as reflections of particular racial “ mentalities.”20
The romantic movement reintroduced the milieu into litera
ture, and with it came a new connotation for homeland, the pays
as fundamental political unit.21 Rénan’s Souvenirs d’enfance et de
19Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828-93), described by Lanson as the “theoreticianof naturalism,” interpreted the history of social thought in terms of comparative psychology. See his He l’Inte lligence (Paris, 1892) and the more influential
works, Histoire de la littérature anglaise, 5 vols. (Paris, 1892) and Philosophes classiques du XIXe siècle en France (Paris, 1888). Ernest Rénan (1823-92) wrotea number of essays on the history of religion, particularly on those of Judaeo-Christian origin, e.g., Histoire des origines du Christianisme (1863-67), of whichthe more significant were tome I, Discours et conférences (1885), tome VI, Histoire du peuple d’Israël (1888). Rénan was also a keen traveler. His Souvenirs
d’Enfance et de Jeunesse (Paris, 1883) remains a classic example of nineteenth-century essays on regional character and landscape.20See Joseph Arth ur Gob ineau, Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines (Paris,1884), one of the first essays on sociocultural evolution which expressed a decidedly racist viewpoint. Taine’s Essais de critique et d’histoire (Paris, 1892)took a more moderate position. “There are three gener-al causes determining thequality of literature,” he wrote in the preface to Histoire de la littérature anglaise, “race, milieu (physical and historic) and moment (weight of previousexperience; tension between reality and aspirations).” His more famous workson literary criticism were La Fontaine et ses Fables (Paris, 1892); L ’Essai sur Tite-Live (Paris, 1888); and La phi losoph ie de l’art (Paris, 1885). Like Rénan healso wrote some perceptive reflections on his travels. See, for example, his
Voyages aux Pyrénées (Paris, 1891); and Carnets de Voyage (Paris, 1896).21 See G. Monod, Rénan , Taine, Michelet (Paris, 1894); Lanson, “Après le
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
16/119
18
Society and Milieu in the F rench Geographic T radition
jeunesse (1883) illustrated very well the regional character of
nineteenth-century literature. Examples are numerous: Pierre
Loti’s and Chateaubriand’s graphic descriptions of Brittany;*22
René Bazin’s delicate capturing of local life in Nivernais;23 the
Thara ud brothers’ dramatic account of peasant life in Limousin;24
and the poignant pieces from Alsace-Lorraine at the turn of the
century.25 Regional life in French colonial lands, were equally
featured: Louis Hémon’s Maria Chapd élaine is an oft-quoted
classic on rural life in Québec, as is Gérard d’Houville’s l’Esclave
on daily life in New Orleans.26
This regional literature did more than re-create graphic pic
tures of French localities, hotyever; it also introduced general ques
tions relating to rural societies and milieux. Loti's Pêch eur
d’Islande, for example, was not simply a typical Breton incident;
it related this to the universal human problems of fishing so
cieties.27 So, too, Eugène Lero y’s Le Mo ulin du Frau (1895) and
Jacq uou le Croq uant (1913), while amply describing the socialaspirations of Périgord workers, also pointed to the general pat
terns of socioeconomic change within peasant societies in other
regions.28
Thus nineteenth-century regional literature yielded a twofold
perspective on society and milieu.~0n the one hand it dramatically
portrayed the local interplay of milieu and cultural traditions in
routinized daily life, and on the other hand it pointed to the uni
versal problems of social evolution and progress so idealistically
naturalisme: le mouvement symboliste,” in his Histoire de la littérature fran
çaise (Paris, 1894), pp. 1105-66.
22Ch ateaub riand ’s genius in landscape description shines through particular lyin his Mémoires d’Out re-tombe, 1849-1850 (Paris, 1899—1900). See also PierreLoti (pseudonym used by Louis-Marie Julien Viaud), Mon Frère Yves (Paris,1892) and Pêcheu r d ’Islande (Paris, 1887), which capture the spirit of late nine
teenth-century Brittany.23Re né Bazin, le Blé qui lève (Paris, 1907).24Jérôme and Jean Thara ud, Les Hobéreau: Cahiers de la Çhiinzaine; la maî
tresse servajite (Paris, 1921).25 M. Barrés, Au service de l’Allemagne (Paris, 1916); Bazin, Les Oberlé (Paris,1901); and B. Valloton, On changerait plutôt le coeur de place (Paris, 1917).23Lo uis Hémon, Maria Chapdelaine: Récit du Canada français (Paris, 1924):
Gérard d’Houville, l’Esclave (Paris, 1905).27 Loti, Pêcheu r d’Islande.28Eugène Leroy, Le Mouli n du Frau (Paris, 1895); Jacquou le Croquant (Paris,
1913); and Les gens d’A ubéroq ue (Paris, 1907).
19
The Academie Setting
articulated by the Utopians.29It spoke to the question of “nation,”
to the appropriate scale of its regional components in an agricul
tural society which was being transformed by industry, and to the
economic and social plight of a country’s insufficiently endowed
rural districts. It was in relation to this latter problem, rural
misery and social disorganization, that the final thought current
on society and milieu emerged—“social science.”
O R I GI N S O F A “ S O C I A L S C I E N C E ’ ’ A P P R O A C H
Concomitant with the social transformations of the late nineteenth
century there came a slow permeation of democratic and national
istic ideas throughout Europe. In France scholars had drawn at
tention to all classes of society; in Germany the “nation” cult had
evoked a consciousness of fatherland, of Raum , and a decided con
viction that the pure race was the Teu tonic one.30T he latter 1800s
in England witnessed the rapid advance of fields like biology and
economics, and with them came arguments for a positivistic ap
proach to the study of society. The influence of Charles Darwin
permeated most of the natural sciences at this time, and Comte’s
plea for a positivistic approach to sociology no doubt voiced a
widely held resentment against philosophical approaches to sci
ence.31 The famous debate between Louis Pasteur and Claude
Bernard—the “microbe versus milieu” controversy—was an impor
tant event in drawing attention to the milieu concept once more.32
29Marie-Jean Antoin e Caritat Condorcet, Esquisse d’un tableau historique des progrès de l’esprit humain (Paris, 1794), trans. J. Barraclough as Sketch for an Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind (London, 1955). See also
Th. Flory, Le mouvement rêgionaliste Français: sources et développements (Paris, 1966).
30Mü ller, Leçons sur la science de l ’Etat; and Leclercq, Introdu ction à la sociologie, pp. 14—18; see also Johann' Gottlieb Fichte, Addresses to the German
Nation, trans. R. F. Jones and G. H. Turnbull (Chicago, 1922).31Aug uste Comte, Cours de philosophie positive, 6 vols. (Paris, 1830-42).32Sec E. Lebret, Pasteur, sa vie, son oeuvre, son influence (New York, 1947) fora detailed explanation of Pasteur’s work on microbes. Bernard, a “free-thinker”opposed to the microbe theory expounded by Pasteur, maintained that microbes
would no t cause disease if the environm ent were not conducive or at least pe rmissive. If a microbe met enough resistance, in Bernard’s view, it might neversucceed in being infectious; in other words, the milieu interne (resistance togerm) was more important than the milieu externe (contact with microbe).Claude Bernard’s famous Introducti on à l ’étude de la mé decine expérimentale (Paris, 1854) was an important milestone in the evolution of biology and also
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
17/119
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
18/119
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
19/119
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
20/119
26
Society and Milie u in the French Geographic Tradition
greater still. Within any particular soil or climate, a country’s best
resource is its population; and the population’s best resource is itsintelligence and “morality,” its productive potential, i.e., its work
and capital; another precious resource is its social order which helps
create and develop its productive powers.68
This excerpt from Levasseur provides an appropriate conclusion to our cursory survey of the academic background in France
before the development of géographie humaine. Another question,
however, needs to be reviewed; the debate between Burkheim’s
school and the anthropogeograpliers. In many ways this debate
developed simultaneously with Vidal de la Blache’s géographie hu-
maine. Nevertheless, it is instructive to reflect on this debate before
making a more thorough critique of Vidal de la Blache’s work.
08Lev asseur, La France et ses colonies, p. 437.
Anthropogeography and Social Morphology
I n l i t e r a r y a n d p h i l o s o p h i c a l c i r c l e s the society-milieu ques
tion evoked considerable speculation. New analytical devices and
conceptual models in social and natural sciences during the latter
part of the nineteenth century suggested that the subject could now
be approached from a more objective viewpoint. How was such an
investigation to be designed? T o what disc ipline did it belong?
Obviously the logical candidates were geography and sociology, yet
their disparate approaches to the question led to several methodo
logical debates. Precedent for such academic exchange was the
rather protracted controversy concerning anthropogeography and
social morphology. As in other controversies the arguments of both
sides had been largely premised upon and substantiated from the
work and ideas of two great scholars. On one side stood a German,
Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904), the father of anthropogeography,and on the other a Frenchman, Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), the
father of social morphology. Heirs to two contrasting philosoph
ical, political, and academic traditions, these two scholars had one
common interest, namely, how to study the social differentiation of
mankind. Ratzel, trained in zoology and history and endowed with
an amazing memory, was a man of grandiose ideas with a unified
vision of terrestrial reality. Accord ing to Lowie, he was noted for
his “conception of humanity as a unity, the tempering of environ
mentalism with an historical perspective, the demand for a conver-
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
21/119
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
22/119
30
Society and Milie u in the French Geographic Tradition
Dürkheim probably became acquainted with Ratzel’s workduring his sojourn in Germany (1895-96), and his initial reaction,it seems, was not enthusiastic.*10Could not all these environmental variables be incorporated into the morphological aspects of sociology? Did not the Anth ropog eogra phic ascribe too much signifi
cance to purely natural factors in social life? Dürkheim suggestedthat it was better to study social organization as an autonomousspatial system, a product of institutional framework and collective consciousness, and to avoid the question of environmentalinfluences.11
In brief, a fundamental duality of method was initiated: theRatzelian approach which studied world society in terms of spatialmovements and ecological adaptation to habitat; and the Durk-heimian one which studied world society as an autonomous systempossessing a “morphology” (formal patterns) and a “physiology”(life-styles, behavior) of its own.12 In order to understand thepremises from which this duality sprang, it is necessary to examine,
briefly the life work of these two scholars.
R A T Z E L A N D D Ü R K H E I M
“Die Menscheit ist ein Stück der Erde,” wrote Ratzel: it is impossible to study man apart from the “piece of ground” on which helives.13So many sociologists, he complained, treat society as thoughit lived suspended in air, as if it had no connections with theearth.14 Society and environment (particularly land) exist in close
Cultur- und Flandelsgeographie (Breslau, 1876); Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika, 2 vols. (Munich, 1878-80); Politische Geographie (Munich andLeipzig, 1897). J. Steinmetzler has recently given an excellent résumé of the
Anthropogeographi e in his “Die Anthropogeographie Friedrich Ratzels undihre ideengeschichtlichen Wurzeln,” Bonne r Geographische Abhandlung en 19(1956)-10See Durkheim’s review of the first volume of Anthropogeogr aphie in L ’Année
Sociologique 3 (1898-99), pp. 550-58; and also R. E. Dickinson and O. J.Howarlh, The Making of Geography (London, 1933), p. 199.11 Durkheim’s review of vol. 1 of Anthropogeographie and also “Morphologiesociale,” L’ Aimée Sociologique 2 (1897-98), pp. 520-21.12Durkheim, “Morphologie sociale.” This distinction is explained more thoroughly by Marcel Mauss in “Divisions et proportions des divisions de la sociologie,” L ’Année Sociologique, Nouvelle série, 2 (1927), pp. 96-176.13 Ratzel, Anthropogeogr aphie, vol. 1, 2nd cd., p. 23.14Ratzel, “ Le sol, la société et l’Et at,” L’ Année Sociologique 3 (1898-99), pp.1-14.
31
Anthropogeography and Social Morphology
mutual interdependence; it is the function of anthropogeographyto study the forces which maintain this interdependence. It cannotencompass all of them, of course, for the physical environmenttends to influence human physiology and even temperament, butthis lies beyond the domain of the anthropogeographer.15 Ratzelconfined himself to those influences which affect the collectivelives of people, their propensity for expansion and movement, andprocesses of adaptation to environment.16 The threefold object ofanthropogeography was thus to (1) describe the distribution andgrouping of mankind on the earth; (2) explain these distributionsin terms of historical movement, taking account of physical conditions; and (3) estimate the influences of physical environment onsociety.17 The first two tasks were essential to anthropogeography;the third was only of marginal interest.18
Durkheim responded quite warmly to the second volume of Anthropogeo graph ie (1891) and also to the revised edition of Vol
ume One (1899). He drew his colleague’s attention to it in the Ann ée Socio logiq ue (1898-99), acclaiming it as an indication ofgeography’s emergence from stagnation and purely physical concerns, to becoming a “potential ally” of the social sciences.19 Manyof the insights and empirical facts exposed in Ratzel’s work could be integrated into Durkheim ’s morphological study of society, ashe had elaborated in the previous volume of the Année .20 Thougha definite morphological approach had been implicit in Durkheim’s earlier writings, it was not until 1898, i.e., after his re
view of Ratze l’s Pol itisç he Géograph ie, that he published an overall framework for the discipline of social morphology. In the
Rule s of Sociolog ical Me tho d (1950) he had termed “morphological” those “facts which concern the social substratum.”21
15 Ratzel, Anthropogeograph ie, vol. 1, 2nd ed., pp. 18-79. See also Steinmetzler,“Die Anthropogeographie Friedrich Ratzels und ihre ideengeschichtlichen
Wurzel n,” pp. 16-28.10Ratzel, Anthropogeograp hie, vol. 1, 2nd ed., p. 77.17Steinmetzler, “Die Anthropogeographie Friedrich Ratzels und ihre idcengc-schichtlichen Wurzeln,” pp. 16-25.18Ratzel, Anthropogeograp hie, vol. 1, 2nd ed., p. 48.19Durkh eim,-review of volume 1 of Anthropogeographi e.20Ibid.21 Durkheim, Les règles de la méthode sociologique, trans. S. A. Solovay andJ. H. Mueller as The Rules of Sociological Method (Glencoe, 111., 1950), referenceto pp .12-13.
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
23/119
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
24/119
and eventually expand. This was the key point: to Ratzel "mor
phology” was not a static concept; like a living organism, each
group is in continual movement.31 Every cell is in process of ex
pansion or consolidation. In this discussion he echoed the ideas
of his contemporary, the biologist Moritz Wagner. He was no
doubt also influenced by Ernst Haeckel, the founder of ecology, who was concerned with distributions as well as the relationship of
organisms to their environments.32 Groups evolving wi thin partic
ular places occupy certain situations and need space for subsistence
and expansion.33Th is application of ecological notions to political
behavior became a bone of contention. Ratzel viewed every state
in terms of a natural propensity for expansion until it had filled
its perceived Raum. In this light, he applied a "whole series of
biogeographic conceptions to . . . the diffusion of the human
race.”34However, he also suggested that "when we say that an area
increases, we must remember that by this, we mean the intelligence
which views it and the wil l that holds it together have increased,
and naturally also that which is requisite for rendering intelli
gence and will capable for their work.”35*
This spiritual and intellectual component (later to be labeled
the nodsphere by Teilhard de Chardin) comes through much later
in French thought.30It also epitomized the humanistic Ratzel, the
antideterminist who said, "I could perhaps understand New En
gland during the first thirty years after the landing of the May
flower without knowing the character of the land, but never witli-
34
Society and M ilieu in the F rench Geographic Traditio n
31 Ratzel, Anthrop ogeogr aphie , vol. 1, 2nd ed., p. 120.32See H. Overbeck, “Das politische geographische Lehrg ebäude von FriedrichRatzel in der Sicht unserer Zeit,” Die Erde 88 (1957), PP- 169-92; and H. Wank-
lyn, Friedri ch Ratzel: A Biograph ical Memoire and Bibliog raphy (Cambridge,
1961) -33 Ratzel, Preface to Anthrop ogeogra phie, vol. 1, 2nd ed., and “L e sol, la société etl’Etat”; G. A. Hückcl, "La géographie de la circulation selon Friedrich Ratzel,”
Annales de Géographie 15 (1906), pp. 401-18.34Ratzel, “ Man as a Life Phenomenon on the Earth’s Surface,” chapter 3 ofH. F. Helmolt, The History of the World: A Survey of Man’s Record (New York,
1902), reference to p. 63.
35 Ibid., p. 85.30Pierre Te ilhar d de Chardin, “L ’hominisation: introduction à une étude scientifique du phénomène humain,” in E. Leroy, Les origines humaines et l’évo lu-tion de l’intelligence (Paris, 1928), pp. 9—134; and “U n seuil mental sous nospas: du cosmos à la cosmogénèse,” in C. Cuénot, Teilhard de Chardin (Paris,
1962) , pp . 83-84.
35
Anthropogeogr aphy and Social Morph ology
out knowing the character of the Puritan people.” 37 In Ratz el’s
characterization of various types of population movement, he
made the critical distinction between nomadic peoples, farmers,
and commercial travelers.38 Livelihood emerges as a distinct cri
terion for classification of social movements, an idea which may
have been inspired by Eduard Hahn.39Durkheim also considered livelihood as a fundamental basis
for social integration. In fact, a central thesis of the revised edi
tion of De la division du travail social (1902) was that occupational
homogeneity provided the optimal rationale for social organiza
tion.40T he moral reintegration of society, he claimed, hinges upon
a restoration of the syndicate, patterned on the medieval guild or
Roman corporation.41 “For anomie to end,” he wrote, “ there must
exist a group which can constitute the system of rules actually
needed.”42 Like Montesquieu, Durkheim believed that laws and
behavioral norms should reflect the “spirit” or "mentali ty” of a
people, and that this was strongly influenced by occupational struc
ture. Suicide, anomie, and other social problems reflected a lack of
coordination between legal systems and livel ihood systems.43 Each
livelihood group should design its own laws, for
. . . economic life, because it is specialized and grows more special
ized each day, escapes their [states, etc.] competence. . . . An occu
pational activity can be efficaciously regulated only by a group inti
mate enough with it to know its functioning, feel all its needs, and
be able to follow all their variations. The only one that could an
swer all these conditions is the one formed by all agents in the same
industry, united and organized into a single body. This is what iscalled the corporation or occupational group.44
While Ratzel expounded on the ecological characteristics oflivelihood groups, Durkheim elaborated on their political, juri-
37R atzel, “Einige Aufgaben einer politischen Ethnogr aphic,” Zeitschr ift fur Sozialwissenschaft 3 (1900), pp. 1-19, reference to p. 6.
33R atzel, Anthropog eograph ie, vol. 2 (1891), pp. 131-35, 149-72.30Eduard Hahn, Die Haustiere und ihre Bezieh ungen zur Wirtschaft des
Menschen (Leipzig, 1896).
40Dur kheim , De la division du travail social, 2nd ed. (1902).41 Ibid., p. 6.42I bid., p . 5.
43Ibid ., pp. 353-72.44Ibid., p. 5.
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
25/119
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
26/119
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
27/119
40
Society and Milie u in the French Geographic T radition
up the threads again in 1957.60However, the sociologists continued
to consider the idea with varying degrees of clarity. Daudé in 1937
summed up the situation succinctly:
Human geography and social morphology study the same phenom
ena. The former, however, studies them in terms of their connec
tions with the geographical milieu, viz., the whole interacting en
semble of physical, biological and human phenomena within oneplace on the earth’s surface, while the latter studies them in terms
of their connection with the social milieu, viz., the whole interact
ing ensemble of social pheno men a... . Distinct disciplines .. . social
phenomena are partly explained by geographical conditions, while
the “humanized landscapes” are partly explained by social causes.61
Daudé, of course, could draw on the results of a whole generation
of geographic research to make this statement. At the turn of the
century, however, the situation was less clearly definable. In fact,
it is not at all clear that the social morphology-anthropogeography
debate preceded the work of Vidal de la Blache. There is strong
evidence of a lively va-et-vient between Durkheim and Vidal, and
it is difficult to say who influenced whom. At any rate, one canreadily find echoes both of Ratzel and Durkheim in Vidal’s géogra
phie humaine: the organismic perspective on group-milieu rela
tionships reflects Ratzel, while the focus on livelihood groups
reflects Durkheim. Let us now see how these and other ingredients
were integrated into Vid al’s monumental life work, la géographie
humaine.
60Max. Sorre, Rencontres de la géographie et de la sociologie (Paris, 1957), pp.
51-52.61 R. Daudc, “Géographie et l’unité de la science,” IXe Congrès International de
Philoso phie 10 (Paris, 1937), pp. 56-61.
The Foundations
Germany and France at the turn of the century thus witnessed
the birth pangs of a scientific approach to the study of nature and
society. Darwinian concepts had revolutionized the natural sciences, particularly biology, while geology had become established
in most of the major universities. Social history, philosophy, and
literature had encouraged the emergence of democratic and nation
alistic ideas and had also evoked curiosity about mankind’s phys
ical and cultural diversity. Into such an academic setting entered
Vidal de la Blache, schooled in classical literature and history,
ruidely traveled in France and the Mediterranean world, and fas
cinated by the diversity of Europ e’s “ humanized landscapes.” In
an era dedicated to proliferating modes of scientific explorations
into nature and society, Vidal recognized the need to treat certain
questions from a holistic point of view. The dialogue of man and
milieu which produced France’s variegated landscapes, for instance, should be approached from a comprehensive vietupoint.
Focus on landscape itself provided only a partial solution, how
ever; life-styles (genres de vie) soon becaràe Vidal’s more character
istic central concept in this kind of study. Genres de vie, the prod
ucts and reflections of a civilisation, represented the integrated
result of physical, historical, and social influences surrounding
man’s relation to milieu in particular places. Within the study of
this dialogue, the material object of la géographie humaine, Vidal
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
28/119
saw the need for a distinct study of internal and culturally defined
subjective influences upon man’s choice of genre de vie. This field
he labeled géographie de la civilisation.
Jean Brunhes’ “codification” of Vidal’s ideas brought a more
narrowly defined focus for géographie de la civilisation. Social
organization and social behavior, treated either systematically (as Brunhes’ irrigation studies) or regionally (in his “ island” studies),
became its central themes. Though in theory Brunhes recognized
the importance of “psychological” factors in geographic studies, he
tended to concentrate on the material products of a civilisation,
thereby introducing an “artifactal” emphasis in contrast with
Vidal’s “ideational” orientation.
The first generation of French human geographers between
z 8 po and i p i 8 attempted intermittently to develop some of Vidal’s
ideas. The dialectic of ideational or artifactal orientations, of sys
tematic or regional approaches, of thematic focus on landscape or
life-style (paysage versus genre de vie) continued to prevail. With
few exceptions, however, their energies were directed primarily to
small-scale regional monographs, to studying the complex web of
relationships binding society and milieu in particular French
pays. Despite the articulate rhetoric of Lucien Febvre, an historian-
admirer of the Vidalian school, the first generation was subject
to much criticism for this emphasis on the regional method and its
apparent lack of scientific precision.
The germinal phase 'thus bequeathed a scattering of heuristic
ideas rather than a well-defined field of social geography. Vidal’s
ideas lay dormant in large part during the predominantly “re
gional” phase of French geography, but soon flowered in the
unique contributions of Sion, Demangeon, and Sorre.
42
Society and M ilie u in the F rench Geographic Traditio n
III
Contributions of Paul Vidal de la Blache
A m o n g t h e m o s t c r e a t i v e c o n t r i b u t i o n s to the history of geo
graphic thought ranks that of the gentle Languedocian, Paul
Vidal de la Blache (1845-1918). Historian by training, well-versedin literature and the classics, a keen scientist and sensitive artist,
Vida l’s record stands as the origin and the glory of the French
school of geography.1 His career coincided with an epoch when
nature in all its aspects was being explored by an array of scientific
disciplines, and man (zoon politikon) was being investigated more
thoroughly than ever before. Conscious of these scholarly advances
and deeply inspired by the writings of his German predecessors,
Alexander von Humboldt and Car l Ritter,2V idal began his career
1 See Lucien Gallois, “Paul Vid al de la Blache,” Annale s de Géographie 27(1918), pp. 161-73, and Albert Demangeon, "Vidal de la Blache,” Revu e Uni versitaire 27, pt. 2 (1918), pp. 1-15; also the obituary notice of G. G. Chisholm
in Geographical Journal 52 (1918), pp. 64-65, and Max. Sorre’s Introduction to Les fondem ents de la géograp hie humain e, 3 vols. (Paris, 1943-52). The essayof Paul Marres, “Centenaire de Paul Vidal de la Blache,” Bu llet in de la Société
Langued ocienne de Géographie 19 (1948), pp. 146—58, is also en lig hte ning , as isthe recent work of André Meynier, Histoir e de la pensée géographiq ue en
France (Paris, 1969).
2In his Essai sur l’évol ution de la géographie humain e (Paris, 1964), pp. 98-
109, Paul Claval suggests that Ritter and Humboldt greatly influenced Vidal’sthought. See also the discussion of the influence of Emile Levasseur and othernon-geographers in Paul Claval and J.-P. Nardy, Pour le cinquante naire de la mort de Paul Vidal de la Blache (Paris, 1968). Meynier’s Histoi re de la pen sée géographique en France ascribes great importance to Elisée Reclus as a predecessor of Vidal. See also Marvin W. Mikesell, “Observations on the Writings ofElisée Reclus,” Geography. 44 (1959), pp. 221-26.
44
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
29/119
in geography with a new vision for the field: “Modern geography,”
he later wrote, “is the scientific study of places.”3In other words, it
can no longer be simply an encyclopedic description of people and
places, nor must it be a deterministic interpretation of man-nature
relationships. Neither philosophical generalization nor archival
research could yield the true geographic picture; this could only be
gained from a well-formulated empirical approach to field study.To this task, Vidal de la Blache devoted half a century of pains
taking effort.
To be truly scientific, geography had to face the dilemma of
society-environment relationships, the dilemma which had caused
so much debate and hostility. Ratzel's Anthr op o geographie had
not been too successful among geographers and the sociologists re
garded it as presumptuous, “giving rise to unacceptable forms of
environmental determinism.”4Vidal’s challenge was thus a formi
dable one. Precedents within geography tended to orient them
selves toward the historical and geological dimensions of earth
reality; yet if the challenge of the French sociologists was to be
confronted, he had to venture into the hitherto unexplored social
realm. In response to this twofold challenge, Vidal de la Blache
pioneered la géographie humaine, the uniquely French style of
human geography which was to have a widespread influence on
other schools of geographic thought during the twentieth century.
“ g é o g r a p h i e h u m a i n e ”
At once as comprehensive as Ratzel’s Anthropogeographie, Vidal’s
géographie humaine was a much more modest, a conceptually less
ambitious design than that of his German predecessor. His ap
proach was more empirical, more inductive. Skeptical of a priori
laws of environmental relationships, he first of all set out on aseries of carefully designed regional studies. From the results of
these studies he hoped eventually to form some meaningful gen
eralizations. The core of his original method was the study of rural
3 P. Vidal de la Blache, “Les caractères distinctifs de la géograp hie,” Annales de
Géographie 22 (1913), pp. 289-99, and “Leçon d’o uverture du cours de géographie, ” ibid. 8 (1889), pp. 98-109. See also his renowned Tableau de la géogra-
phie de la France (Paris, 1903).4See Chapter IL
44
Society and Milie u in the French Geographic Tr aditionContributions of Paul Vidal de la Blache
45
communities within their natural milieux.5xMilieu here meant
the organically integrated physical and biotic infrastructure of
human life on earth: “A composite . .. capable of holding together
heterogeneous beings in mutual vit al relationships.”6 On a global
scale, Vidal saw large realms of nature which provide the milieu de
vie of different peoples. World population should be studied in thq.
context of these great milieux de vie—how people have adapted
the natural resources of these different milieux in the creation of
genres de vie, or life-styles.7
The natural milieu was the great leveler or harmonizer of
heterogeneous social elements:
Human associations, just like vegetables and animal associations,
though heterogeneous, are all subjected to the influence of milieu.
No one knows from whence they [human groups] have come . . .
but they live together in a country which, little by little, leaves
its mark on them.‘$ome societies have long since become incorpo
rated in their milieux, others are in process of becoming so. . . )
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
30/119
4 6
Society and Milieu in the French Geographic T radition
dress at the University of Paris, Vidal spoke of geography as a
natural rather than a social science.
Geography, getting its inspiration . . . from the idea of terrestrial
unity, has for its special mission to find out how the physical and
biological laws which govern the world are combined and modifiedin their application to different parts of the earth’s surface. It has
for its special study the changing expression which, according to the
locality, the appearance of the earth assumes.9
Superimposed upon these different rrjilieux and the point de
depart for human geography was the uneven distribution of man
kind on the face of the earth.10 Could the great concentrations of
population in Northwest Europe and East Asia be explained in
terms of abundant and easily exploitable natural resources? This
provided a partial answer, but why the internal differences in
population density? Why did China and India have heavier den
sities than Laos and Vietnam?11 Again, why did the North Amer
ican prairies and the South American pampas remain relativelyunexploited until the advent of Europeans? These and other enig
mas, unexplainable in terms of milieu alone, led Vidal to two
other vital facts: (1) the facteur social influencing human choice;
and (2) the importance of circulation as a promoter of exchange
and progress.12 Both of these topics had been treated by Ratzel:
society as mediator between man and milieu, and circulation as
the fundamental dynamism underlying mankind’s spatial distri
bution.13
Thus, la géographie humaine had a threefold structure: (1) the
distribution, density, and movement of population; (2) the meth
ods used by man to develop his environment and his diverse civilizations; and (3) transportation and communications.
The first consideration provided the materia, the question to be
9Vidal de la Blache, “Les caracteres distinctifs de la géographie.”10Gallois, review of Principes de géographie humaine.11 Vidal de la Blache, “La repa rtition des hommes sur le globe ”; “Les grandesagglomerations humaines,” Annales de Géographie 26 (1917), pp. 401-22; and
ibid. 27 (1918), pp. 92-101, i74>-87.12The circulation aspect of Vidal’s work is discussed by Christian van Paassen inhis inaugural lecture at the University of Utrecht, Over vormverandering in de
Sociale Gcografie (Groningen, 1965).13 For Ratze l’s discussion of society in geograp hy, sec Anthropogeographie, vol.1, pp. 53-56; and for circulation and movement, see ibid., vol. 2, passim.
Contributions of Paul Vidal de la Blache
47
examined; the second provided the solutions in terms of a static or
slowly changing balance between man and nature; the third repre
sented the fundamental promoters of change and spatial inter
action. Vidal’s impact upon the development of this threefold
structure has been felt mainly in terms of the second category.
As we shall see later, his contributions to the third considerationhere were mainly of a suggestive, heuristic nature, whose perti
nence to the objects of geographical research at that time were not
clearly evident. Vidal was first and foremost a teacher, a leader
with a charismatic talent for arousing the interest and enthusiasm
of his students.14In his lectures at the Sorbonne he reiterated the
guiding principles of geographical study: the unity of all earth
phenomena; the variable combination and modification of phe
nomena, visible especially in climate; the significance of environ
ment, illustrated especially in vegetation; the need for scientific
procedures in defining and classifying phenomena; and finally,
the primacy of man’s role in modifying his environment, illus
trated especially in the life-styles, or genres de vie, which haveevolved through history.15 His students remember Vidal more for
his personal interest in their intellectual development, his pains
taking arrangement of field experiences which enabled them to
examine the natural and human dynamism underlying French
landscapes. For Vidal, however, paysage meant the physical physi
ognomy of the land, not the cultural landscape implied in later
use of the term.16
One can readily understand how difficult it is to isolate any
dimension of this comprehensively integrated field. However, if
we keep this reservation in mind and focus sharply for a moment
on the social dimension, the nucleus of a special discipline seemsto emerge: la géographie de la civilisation.17
14Claval, Essai sur l’évolution de la géographie humaine, p. 48.15V idal de la Blache, “ Les caractères distinctifs de la géographie,” p. 288.16Vidal’s first Atlas was really a compilation of field experiences with his students and of reflection on his own extensive field travels. Atlas général, histo-rique et géographique (Paris, 1894, and rev. eds. in 1918, 1922, 1938, and 1951).17Vidal de la Blache, “Les conditions géographiqu es des faits sociaux,” Annales de Géographie 11 (1902), pp. 13-23. While Elisée Reclus e videntl y used theterm "géographie sociale” in the Introduction to his La terre et les hommes (Paris, 1877), p. 28, Vidal coined the term “gé ographie de la civ ilisation ” which
was subsequen tly developed by Jean Brunhes, Camille Vall aux, and Jules Sion.
48 49
-
8/19/2019 BUTTIMER, Anne. Society and Milieu in the French Geographic Tradition
31/119
48
Society and Milie u in the French Geographic T radition
S O C I A L G E O G R A P H Y A S
“ G É O G R A P H I E DE L A c i v i l i s a t i o n ”
From extensive field work in France and the Mediterranean world
and from the initial results of his disciples’ research, as early as
1905 Vidal proposed some preliminary hypotheses concerning so
ciety in geography. “By now,” he claimed, “certain connectionsappear between certain types of environment, e.g., valleys, moun
tains, city-hinterlands, and the kind of social conditions found
there. . . . Is it now possible to examine the precise effects of phys
ical conditions [literally, ‘geographical factors’] on the social life
of mankind?”*18 Vida l carefully reviews the Ratzelian hypotheses
regarding society and environm ent:19 the effect of location and
accessibility on the internal clan or tribal system of a society, the
effect of soil and vegetation on the choice of genre de vie, and
others. Each type of natural milieu, he suggests, is usually as
sociated with a typical kind of social organization. Climate is a
primary force promoting differentiation: Monsoon Asia, for
example, typifies the symbiotic network of relationships between
livelihood and natural milieu, a symbiosis which ensures the social
stability of these rice-growing communities.
Vid al’s ideas on social organization could be summarized ap
proximately as follows: a social system is closely connected with a
cultivation system, which is itself a reflection of physical (geo
graphical) conditions. This principle was, of course, most appli
cable to agricultural societies, but even in this context it tempered
the rigidl