Editing Environmental determinism (section)

=== Classical and medieval periods ===
Early theories of environmental determinism in [[Ancient China]], [[Ancient Greece]], and [[Ancient Rome]] suggested that environmental features completely determined the physical and intellectual qualities of whole societies. [[Guan Zhong]] (720–645 BC), an [[Spring and Autumn period|early]] chancellor in China, held that the qualities of major rivers shaped the character of surrounding peoples. Swift and twisting rivers made people "greedy, uncouth, and warlike".<ref>{{cite book | last=Guan | first=Zhong | translator-last=Rickett | translator-first=W. Allyn | date=1998 | orig-year=1985 | title=Guanzi: Political, economic, and philosophical essays from early China | volume=2 | publisher=Princeton University Press | isbn=978-0-691-04816-1 | oclc=41348134 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-LAPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA106 | page=106}}</ref> The ancient Greek philosopher [[Hippocrates]] wrote a similar account in his treatise "Airs, Waters, Places".<ref>{{cite book | last=Isaac | first=Benjamin H. | title=The invention of racism in classical antiquity | publication-place=Princeton, New Jersey | publisher=Princeton University Press | date=2004 | isbn=978-0-691-11691-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_WOYDwAAQBAJ}}</ref>

In this text, Hippocrates explained how the ethnicities of people were connected to their environment. He argued that there existed a connection between the geography surrounding people and their ethnicity. Hippocrates described the effects of different climates, customs, and diets on people and how this affected their behaviors, attitudes, as well as their susceptibility to diseases and illnesses.

For example, he explains the Asian race were less warlike compared to other civilizations due to their climate. He attributes this to the fact that there are “no great shifts in the weather, which is neither hot nor cold but temperate”<ref name="Hippocrates 1849 part 16">{{cite book | title=[[s:On Airs, Waters, and Places|On airs, waters, and places]] | author=Hippocrates | date=1849 | orig-year={{circa|{{BCE|425}}}} | translator-first=Francis | translator-last=Adams | at=Part 16}}</ref> and how the climate conditions allow Asians to live without shock or mental anxieties. According to Hippocrates, anxieties and shocks promote passion and recklessness in humans, but since Asians lack this, they remain feeble. This connects to the manner in which Asians are ruled, stating they do not “rule themselves nor are autonomous but subjects to a despot, there is no self-interest in appearing warlike.”<ref name="Hippocrates 1849 part 16" /> In the later chapters of his work, he contrasts this attitude to that of Europeans. He claims that laziness can be attributed as an effect of uniform climate and that “Endurance of both the body and soul comes from change. Also cowardice increases softness and laziness, while courage engenders endurance and a work ethic.”{{sfn|Hippocrates|1849|at=Part 23}} Since Europeans experience more fluctuations in their climate, they do not remain accustomed to their climate and are forced to endure constant change. Hippocrates claims that this is reflected in a person's character and ties that to the character of Europeans, explaining that “For this reason, those dwelling in Europe are more effective fighters.”{{sfn|Hippocrates|1849|at=Part 23}}

According to Hippocrates, there are also physical manifestations of environmental determinism in people. He presents the connection between the nature of the land and its people, arguing that the physique and nature of a man are formed and influenced by it. He explains one of the ways this connection is exhibited by stating, “Where the land is rich, soft, and well watered, and the waters are near the surface so that they become hot in the summer and cold in the winter, and where the climate is nice, there the men are flabby and jointless, bloated and lazy and mostly cowards.”{{sfn|Hippocrates|1849|at=Part 23}} He notes the nomadic Scythians as examples of a civilization that possesses these traits. In a previous section of his text, he notes how the Scythians are flabby and bloated and that they possess the most bloated bellies of all peoples. He also comments that all males are identical and all females are identical in appearance, males with males and females with females. He attributes this to the climate conditions they live in and the fact that they experience identical summer and winter seasons. The lack of change leads them to wear the same clothes, eat the same fare, breathe the same damp air, and refrain from labor. This continuity and the lack of strong shifts in climate is what Hippocrates identifies as the cause for their appearance. Since the Scythians are not accustomed to experiencing sudden changes, they cannot develop the body or soul to endure physical activity.  In comparison, locations “where the land is barren, dry, harsh, and harried by storms in the winter or scorched by the sun in the summers, there one would find strong, lean, well-defined. muscular, and hairy men.”{{sfn|Hippocrates|1849|at=Part 24}} These characteristics would also reflect on their character, as they would possess hard-working, intelligent, and independent natures as well as being more skilled and warlike than others.

Hippocrates also argues that the physical appearance caused by people's environments affect the reproduction and fertility of civilizations, which affects future generations. He presents the appearance and bodies of the Scythians as having a negative impact on the fertility of their civilization. Hippocrates argues that due to their bloated stomachs and “extremely soft and cold lower bellies”{{sfn|Hippocrates|1849|at=Part 21}} Scythian men are not eager for intercourse and due to this condition, “highly unlikely to be able to satisfy his lusts.”{{sfn|Hippocrates|1849|at=Part 21}} He further argues that the behavior of the Scythian men and their horseback riding customs also affected their fertility because the “constant bouncing on horseback has rendered Scythian men unfit for sex”{{sfn|Hippocrates|1849|at=Part 21}} and made them infertile. Women, according to Hippocrates are also infertile because of their physical condition and because they are fat and bloated. Hippocrates claims that due to their physique, women have wombs that are too wet and “incapable of absorbing a man's seed.”{{sfn|Hippocrates|1849|at=Part 21}} This he explains, affects their fertility and their reproduction as well as causes other problems in the function of their reproductive system, for example “their monthly purge is also not as it should be, but is infrequent as scanty.”{{sfn|Hippocrates|1849|at=Part 21}} Due to their fat, their wombs are clogged which blocks male seed. All of these conditions and traits are evidence that supports his claim that the Scythian race is infertile and acts as an example of how the concept of environmental determinism manifests.

Writers in the medieval [[Middle East]] also produced theories of environmental determinism. The [[Afro-Arab]] writer [[al-Jahiz]] argued that the [[skin color]] of people and livestock were determined by the water, soil, and heat of their environments. He compared the color of black [[basalt]] in the northern [[Najd]] to the skin color of the peoples living there to support his theory.<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Conrad | first1=Lawrence I. | year=1982 | title=Taun and Waba: Conceptions of Plague and Pestilence in Early Islam | journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient | volume=25 | issue=3 | pages=268–307 [278] | doi=10.2307/3632188 | jstor=3632188}}</ref>

[[Ibn Khaldun]], the [[Sociology in medieval Islam|Arab sociologist]] and [[polymath]], similarly linked skin color to environmental factors. In his ''[[Muqaddimah]]'' (1377), he wrote that black skin was due to the hot climate of [[sub-Saharan Africa]] and not due to African lineage. He thereby challenged [[Hamitic]] theories of race that held that the sons of [[Ham (son of Noah)]] were cursed with black skin.<ref>{{cite journal | title='Race', slavery and Islam in Maghribi Mediterranean thought: The question of the Haratin in Morocco | first=Chouki | last=El Hamel | journal=The Journal of North African Studies | volume=7 | issue=3 | year=2002 | pages=29–52 [39–42] | doi=10.1080/13629380208718472 | s2cid=219625829}}</ref> Many writings of Ibn Khaldun were translated during the colonial era in order to advance the colonial propaganda machine.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Hannoum | first=Abdelmajid | date=February 2003 | title=Translation and the colonial imaginary: Ibn Khaldûn orientalist | work=[[History and Theory]] | volume=42 | number=1 | pages=61–81 | issn=0018-2656 | publisher=[[Wesleyan University]] | jstor=3590803}}</ref>

Ibn Khaldun believed that the physical environment influenced non-physical factors in addition to skin color. He argued that soil, climate, and food determined whether people were [[nomad]]ic or [[sedentism|sedentary]], and what customs and ceremonies they held. His writings may have influenced the later writings of [[Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu|Montesquieu]] during the 18th century through the traveller [[Jean Chardin]], who travelled to Persia and described theories resembling those of Ibn Khaldun.<ref>{{cite journal | title=The spread of Ibn Khaldun's ideas on climate and culture | first=Warren E. | last=Gates | journal=[[Journal of the History of Ideas]] | volume=28 | issue=3 | date=July 1967 | pages=415–422 | jstor=2708627 | doi=10.2307/2708627}}</ref>