Geographer

For the musical group, see Geographer (band). For the 17th-century painting, see The Geographer.

The Geographer (1668-69), by Johannes Vermeer

A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" and the Greek suffix, "graphy", meaning "description", so a geographer is someone who studies the earth.[1] The word "geography" is a Middle French word that is believed to have been first used in 1540.[2]

Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography. Geographers do not study only the details of the natural environment or human society, but they also study the reciprocal relationship between these two. For example, they study how the natural environment contributes to human society and how human society affects the natural environment.[3]

In particular, physical geographers study the natural environment while human geographers study human society and culture. Some geographers are practitioners of GIS (geographic information system) and are often employed by local, state, and federal government agencies as well as in the private sector by environmental and engineering firms.[4]

The paintings by Johannes Vermeer titled The Geographer and The Astronomer are both thought to represent the growing influence and rise in prominence of scientific enquiry in Europe at the time of their painting in 1668–69.

  1. ^ Arrowsmith, Aaron (1832). "Chapter II: The World". A Grammar of Modern Geography. King's College School. pp. 20–21. Archived from the original on 4 October 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  2. ^ "geography (n.)" (Web article). Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper. n.d. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  3. ^ Pedley, Mary Sponberg; Edney, Matthew H., eds. (2020). The History of Cartography, Volume 4: Cartography in the European Enlightenment. University of Chicago Press. pp. 557–558. ISBN 9780226339221. Archived from the original on 4 October 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  4. ^ "Geographers : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics". www.bls.gov. Retrieved 6 October 2021.