The site of a settlement is the land on which it is built. There are a number of different types of sites which have been used for settlements from earliest times.
Site
Characteristics
Defensive
Difficult to attack e.g. hill-top or island
Hill-foot
Sheltered, with flat land for building and farming
Gap
Lower, more sheltered land between two hills
Wet point
Close to water in a dry area
Dry point
On higher, dry area close to wet land e.g. marshes or flooding rivers
Route centre
Focus of routes (e.g. roads) from surrounding area
Bridging point
Where bridges can be built over a river
Identify the type of site by matching each settlement letter to the appropriate description of its site.
Hill-foot Gap Wet-Point Dry-Point Route Centre
The importance of individual site features changes through time.
In Early Times (before 1800)
Feature
Reason / example
Good defence
Hard to attack e.g. hill top, island
Close to water
For water and fish supplies
Close to woodland
For fuel, building materials and food
On useful farmland
To provide food
Flat land
Makes building easier
Good communications
By road and river
In Later Times (after 1800), other features became important when considering the site of a settlement
Feature
Reason / example
Close to resources
As raw materials for industry e.g. limestone or coal
Close to ports
To transport raw materials or goods
Faster communication
As industry grew and developed e.g. canals, railways and more recently, motorways and airports.
Pleasant environment
For a) larger number of retired people and b) hi-tech industries which wish to locate in attractive areas
If we group and classify a number of settlements according to their size and shape the result is settlement hierarchy
Pyramid showing relationship between population and services
As you move up the hierarchy, the size of the settlement and the distance between similar sized settlements increases. As you can see from the diagram below, there are more cities than conurbations, more towns than cities and more villages than towns.
The number of services that a settlement provides increases with settlement size.
Small settlements will only provide low order services such as a post offices, doctors and newsagents. Large towns, cities and conurbations will provide low and high order services such as leisure centres, chain stores and hospitals.
Larger settlements and conurbations have a much larger sphere of influence than smaller ones. This means they attract people from a wider area because of the facilities they offer. Cities such as London have a global sphere of influence, whereas a small hamlet or village may only have a sphere of influence of a couple of kilometres.
Services such as department stores selling high order goods have a higher threshold than those selling low order goods such as newsagents. This means they need a higher number of people to support them and make them profitable, therefore they will only be found in larger settlements. It also means that there are fewer big department stores than small newsagents.
The range of a service or product is the maximum distance people are prepared to travel to purchase it. The range of a newspaper is much lower than an item of furniture for example. By the BBC - GCSE Bitesize
Although humans have established many types of societies throughout history, sociologists and anthropologists (experts who study early and tribal cultures) usually refer to six basic types of societies, each defined by its level of technology.
Hunting and gathering societies
The members of hunting and gathering societies primarily survive by hunting animals, fishing, and gathering plants. The vast majority of these societies existed in the past, with only a few (perhaps a million people total) living today on the verge of extinction.
To survive, early human societies completely depended upon their immediate environment. When the animals left the area, the plants died, or the rivers dried up, the society had to relocate to an area where resources were plentiful. Consequently, hunting and gathering societies, which were typically small, were quite mobile. In some cases, where resources in a locale were extraordinarily plentiful, small villages might form. But most hunting and gathering societies were nomadic, moving constantly in search of food and water.
Labor in hunting and gathering societies was divided equally among members. Because of the mobile nature of the society, these societies stored little in the form of surplus goods. Therefore, anyone who could hunt, fish, or gather fruits and vegetables
did so. These societies probably also had at least some division of labor based on gender. Males probably traveled long distances to hunt and capture larger animals. Females hunted smaller animals, gathered plants, made clothing, protected and raised children, and helped the males to protect the community from rival groups.
Hunting and gathering societies primarily survive by hunting animals, fishing, and gathering plants. The vast majority of these societies existed in the past, with only a few (perhaps a million people total) living today on the verge of extinction.
Pastoral societies
Members of pastoral societies, which first emerged 12,000 years ago, pasture animals for food and transportation. Pastoral societies still exist today, primarily in the desert lands of North Africa where horticulture and manufacturing are not possible.
Domesticating animals allows for a more manageable food supply than do hunting and gathering. Hence, pastoral societies are able to produce a surplus of goods, which makes storing food for future use a possibility. With storage comes the desire to develop settlements that permit the society to remain in a single place for longer periods of time. And with stability comes the trade of surplus goods between neighboring pastoral communities.
Pastoral societies allow certain of its members (those who are not domesticating animals) to engage in nonsurvival activities. Traders, healers, spiritual leaders, craftspeople, and people with other specialty professions appear.
Horticultural societies
Unlike pastoral societies that rely on domesticating animals, horticultural societies rely on cultivating fruits, vegetables, and plants. These societies first appeared in different parts of the planet about the same time as pastoral societies. Like hunting and gathering societies, horticultural societies had to be mobile. Depletion of the land's resources or dwindling water supplies, for example, forced the people to leave. Horticultural societies occasionally produced a surplus, which permitted storage as well as the emergence of other professions not related to the survival of the society.
Agricultural societies
Agricultural societies use technological advances to cultivate crops (especially grains like wheat, rice, corn, and barley) over a large area. Sociologists use the phrase Agricultural Revolution to refer to the technological changes that occurred as long as 8,500 years ago that led to cultivating crops and raising farm animals. Increases in food supplies then led to larger populations than in earlier communities. This meant a greater surplus, which resulted in towns that became centers of trade supporting various rulers, educators, craftspeople, merchants, and religious leaders who did not have to worry about locating nourishment.
Greater degrees of social stratification appeared in agricultural societies. For example, women previously had higher social status because they shared labor more equally with men. In hunting and gathering societies, women even gathered more food than men. But as food stores improved and women took on lesser roles in providing food for the family, they became more subordinate to men.
As villages and towns expanded into neighboring areas, conflicts with other communities inevitably occurred. Farmers provided warriors with food in exchange for protection against invasion by enemies. A system of rulers with high social status also appeared. This nobility organized warriors to protect the society from invasion. In this way, the nobility managed to extract goods from the “lesser” persons of society.
Feudal societies
From the 9th to 15th centuries, feudalism was a form of society based on ownership of land. Unlike today's farmers, vassals under feudalism were bound to cultivating their lord's land. In exchange for military protection, the lords exploited the peasants into providing food, crops, crafts, homage, and other services to the owner of the land. The caste system of feudalism was often multigenerational; the families of peasants may have cultivated their lord's land for generations.
Between the 14th and 16th centuries, a new economic system emerged that began to replace feudalism. Capitalism is marked by open competition in a free market, in which the means of production are privately owned. Europe's exploration of the Americas served as one impetus for the development of capitalism. The introduction of foreign metals, silks, and spices stimulated great commercial activity in Europe.
Industrial societies
Industrial societies are based on using machines (particularly fuel-driven ones) to produce goods. Sociologists refer to the period during the 18th century when the production of goods in mechanized factories began as the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution appeared first in Britain, and then quickly spread to the rest of the world.
As productivity increased, means of transportation improved to better facilitate the transfer of products from place to place. Great wealth was attained by the few who owned factories, and the “masses” found jobs working in the factories.
Industrialization brought about changes in almost every aspect of society. As factories became the center of work, “home cottages” as the usual workplace became less prevalent, as did the family's role in providing vocational training and education. Public education via schools and eventually the mass media became the norm. People's life expectancy increased as their health improved. Political institutions changed into modern models of governance. Cultural diversity increased, as did social mobility. Large cities emerged as places to find jobs in factories. Social power moved into the hands of business elites and governmental officials, leading to struggles between industrialists and workers. Labor unions and welfare organizations formed in response to these disputes and concerns over workers' welfare, including children who toiled in factories. Rapid changes in industrial technology also continued, especially the production of larger machines and faster means of transportation. The Industrial Revolution also saw to the development of bureaucratic forms of organization, complete with written rules, job descriptions, impersonal positions, and hierarchical methods of management.
Postindustrial societies
Sociologists note that with the advent of the computer microchip, the world is witnessing a technological revolution. This revolution is creating a postindustrial society based on information, knowledge, and the selling of services. That is, rather than being driven by the factory production of goods, society is being shaped by the human mind, aided by computer technology. Although factories will always exist, the key to wealth and power seems to lie in the ability to generate, store, manipulate, and sell information.
Sociologists speculate about the characteristics of postindustrial society in the near future. They predict increased levels of education and training, consumerism, availability of goods, and social mobility. While they hope for a decline in inequality as technical skills and “know-how” begin to determine class rather than the ownership of property, sociologists are also concerned about potential social divisions based on those who have appropriate education and those who do not. Sociologists believe society will become more concerned with the welfare of all members of society. They hope postindustrial society will be less characterized by social conflict, as everyone works together to solve society's problems through science.
There are three fundamental mechanisms which influence populations and their structure: births, deaths and migrations.The purpose of this is to introduce some of the basic calculations which are used to understand the nature of populations.Typically, demographic variables are expressed as rates.A rate is a measure that reflects the frequency of an event (such as birth), relative to the population that may experience that event.Rates are useful because they allow us to make comparisons between different populations and because they can be compared across time to discover trends in a particular population.
Measuring Fertility: CRUDE BIRTH RATE
The crude birth rate (often referred to simply as the birth rate) is the most commonly used index of fertility.This is the ratio of the number of live births each year to the total population (usually measured at the mid-point of the year).It is expressed as the number of births per 1,000 population.e.g. if 3,000 babies were born in a population of 150,000, then the crude birth rate would be 20 per 1,000.
1. Why is it called a crude rate?
Measuring Mortality: CRUDE DEATH RATE
The crude death rate is the number of deaths per 1,000 members of a given population.It may be calculated for the population at the mid-point of the year or at the beginning of the year.
Population Growth: NATURAL INCREASE
Natural increase is a simple measure of population growth which examines the differences between births (fertility) and deaths (mortality) in a given group.It is usually determined by subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate.Natural increase is generally expressed as a percentage figure.e.g. an annual natural increase of 0.8 means that a country is increasing its population by 0.8 per cent each year.
If the death rate is greater than the birth rate, then a population may be experiencing natural decrease.
2. What aspect of population growth or decline is not measured by the natural increase calculation?
Births and Deaths in the Republic of Ireland, 1995 – 2002 (selected years)
Source: CSO, 2004
1995
1998
2000
2002
Births
48,787
53,600
54,239
60,521
Deaths
32,259
31,400
31,115
29,348
Total Population (estimated)
3,601,300
3,704,900
3,786,900
3,917,203
3. Calculate the Birth and Death Rates for Ireland in each of the four years
4. Calculate the Natural Increase for Ireland in each of the four years.
5. Write a short paragraph outlining the population changes experienced over the period from 1995 to 2002, based on this data.
Remember this is an interactive web page and in completing the tasks you will find your answers.
The world today
1.What is the population of the world when you opened this web page?
2.How many people were on the earth when you were born and what percentage has the population increased by since then?
3.What is the predicted population in 120 years time?
4.How many babies come to life everyday?
How many children in your lifetime?
5.How many babies is it possible for a woman to have in her lifetime?
6.If a woman became sterile at 45, how many babies is it possible for her to have?
7.What are the main reasons why women do not have this many children?
8.Enter on the web page the best age for a woman to get married.How many does this reduce the fertility potential (the number of babies you can have) by?
9.What is the average age of marriage in the regions listed below?
North America
Europe
Latin America
Asia
Africa
Oceania
10.Enter on the web page the number of months you think a woman should breastfeed for.How much does the birth potential reduce by?
11.How many months, on average, do women from each of the regions below breastfeed?
North America
Europe
Latin America
Asia
Africa
Oceania
How many children in your lifetime?
12.Enter on the web page the number of children you want.If you do not use birth control, how many children could you have?
13.For each of the birth control methods shown below, write down their efficiency rate.
Efficiency rate
Have no sex
Withdrawal
Condoms
Pill
IUD
Sterilization
14.What is the most common form of birth control worldwide?
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