Identify the correct points with respect to environmental determinism.
(A) Physical factors control human activities.
(B) Technology allowed the people to overcome the constraints imposed by nature.
(C) Human beings adapted to the dictates of nature.
(D) Human beings are naturalised.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below :
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → (A), (C) and (D) Only
Environmental determinism describes the early stage of human life, when technology was very low and nature controlled what people could do.
(A) Physical factors control human activities. — Correct. In the early stages, humans were greatly influenced by nature, so physical factors decided their activities.
(B) Technology allowed the people to overcome the constraints imposed by nature. — Incorrect. This describes possibilism. With better technology, humans create possibilities with the resources of nature and nature gets humanised.
(C) Human beings adapted to the dictates of nature. — Correct. With very low technology, people had to adapt to the dictates of Nature.
(D) Human beings are naturalised. — Correct. In this stage we can imagine a naturalised human, who listened to Nature, was afraid of its fury and worshipped it.
NCERT (2026-27): “Naturalisation of Humans and Humanisation of Nature … In the early stages of their interaction with their natural environment humans were greatly influenced by it. They adapted to the dictates of Nature. This is so because the level of technology was very low and the stage of human social development was also primitive. This type of interaction between primitive human society and strong forces of nature was termed as environmental determinism. At that stage of very low technological development we can imagine the presence of a naturalised human, who listened to Nature, was afraid of its fury and worshipped it.” |