GEOG 6 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Sub-Saharan Africa, Palearctic Realm, Phytogeography
Document Summary
Oldest continent as far as humans are concerned. Science of geographic distribution of animals & plants. > history of how species evolved & dispersed around world. > biology of individual species (differences in ecological adaptation & distribution) I. e. unequal distribution of cereals & herdable animals. By early 1800s, european scientists recognized science of biogeography. Nearctic: new arctic mostly temperate zone of north america, but ends at. Australiana: australia, new guinea & pacific islands out to east of australia. Ethiopian: africa minus north africa, plus southern arabia. Oriental: tropical southeast asia, indian subcontinent up to himalayas, western. Palearctic: old arctic , europe & north africa, central & eastern asia into the. Only major branch of humanity not in africa -> aboriginals. How to delineate racial differences across world arbitrary. > most were food producers rather than hunter-gatherers. Pygmies, 200,000, equatorial rainforest, work for neighboring black farmers. Debate over why they"re small, biologists don"t know why.