 
to really understand people, you must know something about the environment 
in which they live. 
environment is the setting in which man lives. 
man is surrounded by people, objects and nature. 
these three things help decide the way in which man lives. 
from man's earliest history, people have adapted their way of life to the 
natural environment, the habitat. 
the habitat consists of such things as soil, land surface (topography), 
climate, plants and animals. 
these things are different throughout the world. 
for this reason man has had to learn to use them differently. 
people in the warmer climates have ways of living which are different from 
those in colder climates. 
they build houses, wear clothing and eat foods that are different. 
where soil is fertile and climate is favorable, men earn their living by 
farming. 
in places where the land is rocky and the soil poor, men have had to make 
their living in other ways. 
as man's knowledge has grown larger, he has become better able to make the 
environment meet his needs. 
earliest man was very dependent on his environment. 
he did not use the environment well. 
he lived in trees or caves and gathered food or hunted animals. 
when the food supply disappeared, he either died or moved to where the 
food was plentiful. 
when man learned to farm, make simple tools and build houses, he no longer 
needed to move about to get food. 
he began to make the habitat work for him. 
the habitat is important, but there is another important part of the 
environment. 
this part is called the culture. 
