Carl Ortwin Sauer (December 24, 1889 – July 18, 1975) was an American
geographerA geographer is a scientist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's physical environment and human habitat.Though geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
. Sauer was a
professorThe meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual...
of
geographyGeography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
at the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines...
from 1923 until becoming professor
emeritusEmeritus is an adjective that is used in the title of a retired professor, bishop, or other professional. Emerita is often used as the female equivalent, although avoided by purists, since phrases such as professor emerita are ungrammatical in Latin...
in 1957 and was instrumental in the early development of the geography graduate school at Berkeley. One of his most well known works was
Agricultural Origins and Dispersals (1952). In 1927, Carl Sauer wrote the article "Recent Developments in Cultural Geography," which considered how cultural landscapes are made up of "the forms superimposed on the physical landscape."
He was born in
Warrenton, MissouriWarrenton is a city in Warren County, Missouri, United States. The population was 5,721 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Warren County. Warrenton is located in the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area. Warrenton's slogan is "A City for All Seasons."-Geography:Warrenton is located at...
and graduated from the
University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private, coeducational research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by oil magnate and benefactor John D...
with a
Ph.D.Ph.D. or PHD may stand for:* Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group* Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip* PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* Parisada Hindu Dharma, an Indonesian organization...
in 1915.
Carl Sauer's paper "The Morphology of Landscape" is probably the most influential in developing ideas on
Cultural landscapeCultural Landscapes have been defined by the World Heritage Committee as distinct geographical areas or properties uniquely "..represent[ing] the combined work of nature and of man.."...
s and it is still cited today.
Carl Ortwin Sauer (December 24, 1889 – July 18, 1975) was an American
geographerA geographer is a scientist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's physical environment and human habitat.Though geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
. Sauer was a
professorThe meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual...
of
geographyGeography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
at the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines...
from 1923 until becoming professor
emeritusEmeritus is an adjective that is used in the title of a retired professor, bishop, or other professional. Emerita is often used as the female equivalent, although avoided by purists, since phrases such as professor emerita are ungrammatical in Latin...
in 1957 and was instrumental in the early development of the geography graduate school at Berkeley. One of his most well known works was
Agricultural Origins and Dispersals (1952). In 1927, Carl Sauer wrote the article "Recent Developments in Cultural Geography," which considered how cultural landscapes are made up of "the forms superimposed on the physical landscape."
Early years
He was born in
Warrenton, MissouriWarrenton is a city in Warren County, Missouri, United States. The population was 5,721 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Warren County. Warrenton is located in the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area. Warrenton's slogan is "A City for All Seasons."-Geography:Warrenton is located at...
and graduated from the
University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private, coeducational research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by oil magnate and benefactor John D...
with a
Ph.D.Ph.D. or PHD may stand for:* Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group* Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip* PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* Parisada Hindu Dharma, an Indonesian organization...
in 1915.
Career
Carl Sauer's paper "The Morphology of Landscape" is probably the most influential in developing ideas on
Cultural landscapeCultural Landscapes have been defined by the World Heritage Committee as distinct geographical areas or properties uniquely "..represent[ing] the combined work of nature and of man.."...
s and it is still cited today. Ironically however, Sauer's paper was really concerned about his own vision for the discipline of geography, which was to establish the discipline on a
phenonomologicalThe term phenomenology in science is used to describe a body of knowledge which relates empirical observations of phenomena to each other, in a way which is consistent with fundamental theory, but is not directly derived from theory. For example, we find the following definition in the Concise...
basis rather than it being specifically concerned with cultural landscapes. "Every field of knowledge is characterised by its declared preoccupation with a certain group of phenomena”. Geography was assigned the study of areal knowledge or landscapes or chorology. “Within each landscape there are phenomena that are not simply there but are either associated or independent of each other”. Sauer saw that the geographer’s task was to discover the areal connection between phenomena. Thus "the task of geography is conceived as the establishment of a critical system which embraces the phenomenology of landscape, in order to grasp in all of its meaning and colour the varied terrestrial scene"
Sauer was a fierce critic of
environmental determinismEnvironmental determinism, also known as climatic determinism or geographical determinism, is the view that the physical environment, rather than social conditions, determines culture...
, which was the prevailing theory in geography when he began his career. He proposed instead an approach variously called "landscape morphology" or "cultural history." This approach involved the inductive gathering of facts about the human impact on the landscape over time. Sauer rejected
positivismPositivism is a philosophy that holds that the only authentic knowledge is that which is based on actual sense experience. Metaphysical speculation is avoided...
, preferring
particularistHistorical Particularism is widely considered the first American anthropological school of thought.Founded by Franz Boas, historical particularism rejected the cultural evolutionary model that had...
and historicist understandings of the world. He drew on the work of
anthropologistAnthropology is the study of human beings, everywhere and throughout time....
Alfred Kroeber, and later critics accused him of introducing a "superorganic" concept of culture into geography. Politically Sauer was a conservative, and expressed concern about the way that modern
capitalismCapitalism is an economic and social system in which the means of production are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor...
and
centralized governmentA centralized, or centralised , government is the form of government in which power is concentrated in a central authority to which local governments are subject...
were destroying the
cultural diversityCultural diversity is the variety of human societies or cultures in a specific region, or in the world as a whole. Cultural diversity is the variety of human societies or cultures in a specific region, or in the world as a whole. Cultural diversity is the variety of human societies or cultures in a...
and environmental health of the world.
After his retirement, Sauer's school of human-environment geography developed into
cultural ecologyCultural ecology studies the relationship between a given society and its natural environment, the life-forms and ecosystems that support its lifeways. This may be carried out diachronically , or synchronically...
. Cultural ecology retained Sauer's interest in human modification of the landscape and pre-modern cultures.
Awards
He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the
American Geographical SocietyThe American Geographical Society is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the world...
in 1935, and its Daly Medal in 1940.
Further reading
- Carl Sauer on Culture and Landscape:Readings and Commentaries edited by William M. Denevan and Kent Mathewson. Baton Rouge LA.:Louisiana State University Press
The Louisiana State University Press is a nonprofit book publisher and an academic unit of Louisiana State University. Founded in 1935, the press publishes scholarly, general interest, and regional books as part of the university’s mission to disseminate knowledge and culture...
, 2009 ISBN 978-0-8071-3394-1
- Carl O Sauer. Northern Mists. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1968
External links