Designer: PrimarySourceLearning.org staff

Environment

Understanding Goal

The environment and technology both expand and constrain choice.

Investigative Question

How do environmental factors and new technologies influence the growth of communities?

Environment and technology both expand and constrain choice in the growth of human populations. The environment can be both a great facilitator of human growth (when soil exists to grow crops) or can be a great hindrance to development (such as when severe winters occur). Likewise, technologies can help to overcome certain environmental restraints, but often limit the ability of humans to develop. These items highlight the relationship between technologies -- such as symbolic written language, agriculture, and dams -- and various environments as a means to explore how humans have interacted with their environments over time.

1.[A] Red River oil field near Burkburnett, Texas

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.award/icuaep.txs12
This image shows an early Texas oil field. Texas' fortuitous concentration of oil beneath its land helped spur the state's economic growth during the first half of the twentieth century.  New rigging techniques that allowed efficient and effective means for tapping deep oils wells further helped developed the industry in the state, which in turn helped grow the oil industry within the United States.

2. Sart Fields

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/work.html
Agriculture emancipated humans from dependence on hunting and gathering and allowed for the settlement of populations. The creation of a sedentary existence, in turn, allowed for a more complex social organization, as agriculture facilitated divisions of labor. This image of modern agriculture attests to the continued importance of ancient practices such as irrigation and crop rotation in maintaining human civilizations.

3. Shasta dam under construction

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/boundforglory/glory-exhibit.html
Dams have always represented significant attempts by humans to harness the energies of nature.  In early twentieth century American, dams became of singular importance to the economic and social development of the American West.  Giant hydroelectric projects, often backed by federal money, facilitated the growth of electric power across large swaths of territory.  This growth in power linked together disparate communities into more coherent regions and allowed for populations to grow.


4. Native Americans
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=lhbcb&fileName=06557//lhbcb06557.db&recNum=182

This image depicts Native Americans organizing food supplies using traditional methods. Seasonal fishing and hunting patterns, coupled with some agricultural practices, allowed Native Americans to exploit existing lands to their own benefits.  Their refined knowledge of both technologies and environmental constraints proved invaluable to many Europeans attempting to acclimate to new lands.

5. La Cueva Pintada (Painted Cave): Detail of Indian painting/H.S. Poley

http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00171571+P-1571
One of the most significant developments of early humans was symbolic written language. By using available dyes and other materials to depict aspects of experience onto cave walls, these early human beings created a symbolic system of knowledge exchange that facilitated the transfer of information. This allowed early humans to conquer the dangers of experience by capturing everything from major predators to possible sources of food. These symbolic representations provided the basis for interactions which allowed humans control over both their environment and experiences in unprecedented ways.