What Are Isolated Settlements?

Isolation of a settlement might be due to geographic remoteness.

Any settlement with little, if any, contact with the world can be said to be isolated. The isolation of a community might be due to its geographic remoteness, or its access to modern methods of travel or communication. A settlement also might be isolated because of politics, social standing, a declining economy, race, religion or war.

Considerations

How isolated is isolated? Scientists in Antarctica have access to cellphones and the Internet.

Isolation is relative. The key to assessing the extent of isolation is the level of contact with people outside a settlement. Note that some communities may choose to remain isolated.

History

Agriculture, industry and trade all offset a settlement's isolation.

Humans have grouped together since at least the Old Stone Age, first as family-based nomadic hunter-gatherers, then in settlements. Such communities began because the local food supply was ample and consistent. Whether the location was isolated was not an issue: there is evidence of Stone Age activity in remote places worldwide.

Agriculture, industry and trade--combined with an increasing global population--led to wealth creation and caused more interaction. Exploration and colonization led to greater knowledge of other civilizations and wider economic development.

Towns and cities developed because of their locations on trade routes and/or the value of nearby natural resources. Conversely settlements with little trade or natural wealth remained small. Their geographic remoteness dictated their degree of isolation.

Exploration and Economic Development

Economic conditions define if a settlement will prosper or fail.

As humans explored the world around them, they moved into areas that were sparsely populated, if at all. All of these settlements were isolated at first, but contact increased if the conditions were right. An example from recent history is the development of towns and cities in North America from the 1600s. Resource towns were those established to help exploit the extraction of goods, such as food, cotton, beaver pelts, gold or oil. Trading towns were those where goods were sold and transshipped. Economic conditions defined whether such a settlement would prosper or fail--and its level of contact with neighbouring communities.

Shrinking Isolation

Air travel has reduced the isolation of even the most remote areas.

The ease of travel--particularly by air--means that fewer settlements are geographically isolated. Likewise, cellphones and the Internet are helping inhabitants overcome isolation. At the beginning of the 21st century, the only true isolated settlements are those that are geographically remote in which access to technology and air travel are limited, where people reject contact, or whose isolation is such that there is little contact with global society. These include, for instance, the "lost tribes" of the Amazon and Papua New Guinea.

Features

Ghettoes can be regarded as isolated settlements.

Isolation is not necessarily due to geographic location. Consider the American settlers in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. The Atlantic separated them from people of their own race and they traded with Native Americans. This stopped when conflict broke out. Inhabitants of ghettos found in European and U.S. cities-- settlements in their own right--were isolated by race, language and culture. Some Jewish settlements in the West Bank are considered isolated because they are surrounded by Palestinian neighbors hostile to Israeli policy. Any town or city under siege can be said to be isolated, even though that isolation might last for a relatively short time.

Religion and Poverty

Some religions and religious orders choose to create isolated settlements.

The Amish in Pennsylvania choose to remain separate from the communities around them and are isolated to a degree. Some Roman Catholic religious orders isolate their members from the outside world. Poverty can isolate people in cities and rural areas. Somebody from the Bronx in New York, the Gorbals in Glasgow, Scotland, or the East End in London--all distinct settlements--may feel disadvantaged by their background and therefore isolated. In the U.K. countryside, where agriculture is no longer a major employer, somebody living in a village without access to a car or the Internet may be isolated and find it difficult to secure a job.

References

• National Geographic: Prehistoric Bones Point to First Modern-Human Settlement in Europe
• History World: History of Trade
• Local Histories: A Brief History of English Towns