Carl Sauer

• Born: December 24, 1889
• Birthplace: Warrenton, Missouri
• Died: July 18, 1975
• Place of death: Berkeley, California

American geographer

Sauer’s “The Morphology of Landscape” was a seminal work in geography, establishing the idea of cultural landscapes. For this work, he is known as the founder of American cultural geography.

Life

Carl Sauer was born in Warrenton, Missouri, on December 24, 1889. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1908 from Central Wesleyan College, where his father was on the faculty. He then attended Northwestern University and in 1915 received a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Chicago. While he was attending graduate school, he served as a map editor for Rand McNally Publishers (1912-1913). Upon his graduation from the University of Chicago, he was hired by the University of Michigan as an instructor in the Geography Department.

By 1922, Sauer had become a full professor at the University of Michigan, but he chose to leave in 1923. At that time, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley, as a full professor and chair of the Department of Geography. In large part as a result of Sauer’s efforts, the graduate program in geography at the University of California, Berkeley, came into being and became world renowned. Sauer remained at Berkeley until 1957, when he retired and was appointed professor emeritus. He worked closely with the Department of Geography at Berkeley as an emeritus professor until his death in 1975.

Climate Work

The notion of a cultural landscape was developed by Sauer in 1925 in his paper “The Morphology of Landscape,” which appeared in the University of California Publications in Geography. Cultural landscape quickly became a central concept in the field of geography. Today, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines cultural landscapes as specific geographical locations that in some unique ways represent the interactions of people and nature. When Sauer developed this concept in his 1925 article, he indicated that culture is a major force in determining the visible features of the planet within specific areas. He therefore was the first person who indicated that humankind (culture) and the environment have a mutual impact on each other.

Sauer indicated that the natural landscape is a medium upon which culture can act, resulting in the notion of cultural landscape. He indicated that while both culture and society develop out of their landscape, they also work together to shape that landscape. This notion of the cultural landscape forms the basis for the field of cultural geography. It is often discussed in relation to global warming. Over the past century, human interaction with the landscape (environment) of the planet has involved many changes in agricultural practices, as society has emerged from the family-run farm to much more technologically advanced farming communities. Old land-use practices have been pushed aside to make way for technology.

These changes in culture result in changes in the landscape. Technology, along with the demands and challenges of the modern world, may gradually cause loss of biodiversity. This use of technology along with a lack of concern for the land may be at least partly responsible for major changes in the climate, including the warming of ocean temperatures and the melting of glacial and polar ice. If people continue to expose their natural resources to the demands of advancing technology, they may accelerate the changes occurring within the environment, which in turn may produce potentially harmful situations for humankind. Should this continue to occur, climatic events such as tsunamis and increased global warming will become ever more problematic for human societies. While Sauer did not highlight these specific ways in which culture and the environment might mutually affect one another, his notion of the cultural landscape did indirectly predict and does account for these climate-related changes today.

Bibliography

Harris, D. R. “The Farther Reaches of Human Time: Retrospect on Carl Sauer as Prehistorian.” The Geographical Review 92, no. 4 (October, 2002): 526-544. Reviews Sauer’s work in cultural geography, with a focus on the pros and cons of that work. Attempts to evaluate Sauer’s contribution to planetary studies, as well as fallacies he may have perpetuated.

Rubinstein, J. M. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography. Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2005. This college-level textbook looks at the relevance of the cultural landscape in terms of today’s world. One of the important areas of focus is the impact of society on global warming, as well as the impact of global warming on society.

Sauer, Carl. “The Morphology of Landscape.” University of California Publications in Geography 2, no. 2 (1925): 19-53. The landmark article in which Sauer introduced the idea of the cultural landscape, decisively shaping the field of geography and the social sciences generally.

Solot, M. “Carl Sauer and Cultural Evolution.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 76 (1986): 508-520. Explores Sauer’s notion of cultural geography, emphasizing his model of cultural landscapes, while highlighting his rejection of environmental determinism. Focuses on the impact of cultural geography on the planet over a sixty-year period.