Parsons, James (1915–1997)

James Jerome “Jim” Parsons was a noted cultural geographer in the tradition of Carl Sauer. He was a professor in the geography department at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1948 to 1986. He was an advisee and student of Carl Sauer, long recognized as one of the most influential modern geographers. Parsons obtained his PhD in 1948 at Berkeley and was hired to stay there. As a student of Sauer's, and because he never left Berkeley, Parsons is often so directly linked to Sauer as to not be seen as different from his mentor.

A review of his academic work and publication record suggests that Parsons was a generalist and that the topics he researched and studied were closely aligned with the Berkeley School of geography. While advisees who completed their PhD degrees early in Parsons's career said that their mentor's philosophy was so closely tied to Sauer that little distinction could be made between the two, Parsons's later students viewed him as decisively different from Sauer.

Parsons's publications show an intense interest in the “man-land” tradition of the Berkeley School, but they also indicate a substantial divergence into biogeography, especially his work on the interface between human and mammal communities and on human use of and impacts on vegetation. Examples of the former are his research on Spanish starlings and Caribbean green sea turtles. In the case of sea turtles, his 1962 book The Green Turtle and Man is seen as one of his most important contributions, coming at a time before the widespread international concern over species overexploitation. Parsons's work on turtles dovetails pioneering studies by the famed marine biologist Archie Carr. In that respect (and others), later students of Parsons view him as the originator of biogeography in the context of human-environment interaction, or what has been termed cultural biogeography.

Parsons shared Sauer's philosophy of deeply rooted and dedicated field observation. Unlike Sauer, however, Parsons turned farther from archival work and historical geography to contemporary topics that relied as much on local knowledge and practices. As president of the Association of American Geographers in 1976, Parson gave an address to the professional association that focused on his vision of geographical inquiry as “exploration and discovery.” This call reflects his openness to seeking out topics in the field, learning from unorthodox sources, following up with archival research, and communicating in unobtrusive language.