490
BERNARD L. FONTANA
speaks. The true desert man, moreover, is one who was born in it, whose
cultural roots are desert-bound, and, above all, whose whole way of life,
including his material possessions and technology, are desert-derived. Such
are the men with whom we are primarily concerned in this study.
A. WORLD-WIDE STUDIES
Since the publication in 1962 by UNESCO of the proceedings of the
Paris Symposium relating to problems of the arid zone, there has. been
a near deluge of such reports about the arid regions of the world (see,
for example, the lists of references and bibliographies appearing in Brown,
1968; Hodge, 1963; McGinnies and Goldman, 1969; McGinnies et al,
1968). The seed which gave birth to this modern upsurge in interest, at
least in the United States, was probably planted in the soil of studies carried out during World War II designed to enable Allied soldiers to survive
and to become efficient warriors in the dry battleground of North Africa
(Lee, 1963, pp. 341-350).
In the years following the end of the war there has arisen a global realization that about 14% of the earth's surface is "desert" [see McGinnies
(1969, pp. 280-282) for a discussion of the problems in defining the
"desert" concept]; that approximately half the nations of the world have
significant reaches of arid lands within their boundaries; and that given
the earth's rapid growth in human population and simultaneous depletion
of natural resources, more should be learned about this one-seventh of
the total land surface which annually receives 25 cm of rainfall or less.
It was the delegation from India which in 1948 proposed at the UNESCO
General Conference in Lebanon that studies of arid zones be undertaken
and coordinated on an international scale. The result was the UNESCO
Arid Zone Programme which lasted until 1964. Today there are more than
250 institutions in the world involved in arid-lands activities of one kind
or another, and the list is doubtless growing (Paylore, 1967).
Considering that what presumably spawned this plethora of desert research was a regard for man and his relationship to dry climes, the comparative scarcity of publications which address themselves directly to the
subject is noteworthy. Information abounds concerning saline and alkali
soils, the growth of desert shrubs, invertebrate fauna, Pleistocene volcanic
activity, the physics of wind erosion, and the hydrology of desert littoral
zones. The emphasis in arid-land studies clearly has been in physical
geography and natural history rather than in cultural geography and the
social sciences.
BERNARD L. FONTANA
speaks. The true desert man, moreover, is one who was born in it, whose
cultural roots are desert-bound, and, above all, whose whole way of life,
including his material possessions and technology, are desert-derived. Such
are the men with whom we are primarily concerned in this study.
A. WORLD-WIDE STUDIES
Since the publication in 1962 by UNESCO of the proceedings of the
Paris Symposium relating to problems of the arid zone, there has. been
a near deluge of such reports about the arid regions of the world (see,
for example, the lists of references and bibliographies appearing in Brown,
1968; Hodge, 1963; McGinnies and Goldman, 1969; McGinnies et al,
1968). The seed which gave birth to this modern upsurge in interest, at
least in the United States, was probably planted in the soil of studies carried out during World War II designed to enable Allied soldiers to survive
and to become efficient warriors in the dry battleground of North Africa
(Lee, 1963, pp. 341-350).
In the years following the end of the war there has arisen a global realization that about 14% of the earth's surface is "desert" [see McGinnies
(1969, pp. 280-282) for a discussion of the problems in defining the
"desert" concept]; that approximately half the nations of the world have
significant reaches of arid lands within their boundaries; and that given
the earth's rapid growth in human population and simultaneous depletion
of natural resources, more should be learned about this one-seventh of
the total land surface which annually receives 25 cm of rainfall or less.
It was the delegation from India which in 1948 proposed at the UNESCO
General Conference in Lebanon that studies of arid zones be undertaken
and coordinated on an international scale. The result was the UNESCO
Arid Zone Programme which lasted until 1964. Today there are more than
250 institutions in the world involved in arid-lands activities of one kind
or another, and the list is doubtless growing (Paylore, 1967).
Considering that what presumably spawned this plethora of desert research was a regard for man and his relationship to dry climes, the comparative scarcity of publications which address themselves directly to the
subject is noteworthy. Information abounds concerning saline and alkali
soils, the growth of desert shrubs, invertebrate fauna, Pleistocene volcanic
activity, the physics of wind erosion, and the hydrology of desert littoral
zones. The emphasis in arid-land studies clearly has been in physical
geography and natural history rather than in cultural geography and the
social sciences.