Environmental anthropology

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Environmental anthropology is a sub-discipline of anthropology that examines the complex relationships between humans and the environments which they inhabit. [1] This takes many shapes and forms, whether it be examining the hunting/gathering patterns of humans tens of thousands of years ago, archaeological investigations of early agriculturalists and their impact on deforestation or soil erosion, or how modern human societies are adapting to climate change and other anthropogenic environmental issues. This sub-field of anthropology developed in the 1960s from cultural ecology as anthropologists borrowed methods and terminology from growing developments in ecology and applied them to understand human cultures. [2]

Contents

Environmental anthropology is a growing sub-field of anthropology because the challenges of understanding and addressing human caused environmental problems like climate change, species extinctions, plastic pollution, and habitat destruction require an understanding of the complex cultural, political, and economic systems that have created these problems.

Historical development

The establishment of environmental anthropology can be credited to Julian Steward, a cultural ecologist who studied how the Shosone of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and Rocky mountains adapted their environment. [3] [4] His efforts to define culture were based upon topography, climate, and resources and their accessibility. [5] Other important early cultural ecologists were Roy Rappaport and Marvin Harris. [6] Their work used systems theories to explain how societies worked to maintain homeostasis through feedback loops. Harris' work in India, for example, examined the sacred cow in India as an ecological adaptation because of its importance for milk production, dung for fuel and fertilizers, and labor for plowing. [7] These approaches has since been since criticized for narrowly assuming the state of societies as static and not exploring the ways cultures change and develop over time. [8]

Another important field that contributed to the creation of environmental anthropology was ethnoecology. Ethnoecologists like Harold Conklin, Darrell Posey, and Wade Davis looked at traditional ecological knowledge to understand how indigenous groups around the world managed the ecosystems in which they lived. [9] Research in ethnobotany also led to the development of new drugs based on plants used in traditional herbal medicine.

Political ecology, an interdisciplinary social scientific perspective on environment issues, is also a significant contributor to environmental anthropology. Political ecology explores the ways that scientific and managerial approaches to the environment can often mask unequal relationships of power, especially in post-colonial settings. For example, the expansion of protected areas can be seen as an extension of state power into rural areas, rather than simply a plan to preserve wildlife. [10]

Current research

Climate change

There has been a renewed interest in recent years to reexamine cultural-environmental relationships across the globe due to the looming threats of land development, biodiversity loss, and water scarcity, all of which are, in large part, due to climate change. [11]

While sociological research on climate change is emerging and ongoing, there is a global push to recognize global communities in the context of their ecologies, as well as their places in history. [12] After all, throughout history, the natural climate of specific areas have allowed for certain nations to flourish, whether it be in the Fertile Crescent or in the Indus River Valley thousands of years ago. [12]

Cultural diversity

There is a renewed focus of environmental anthropology on cultural variation and diversity. Such factors like environmental disasters (floods, earthquakes, frost), migrations, cost & benefit ratio, contact/ associations, external ideas (trade/ latent capitalism boom), [13] along with internal, independent logic and inter-connectivity's impact now were observed. Roy A. Rappaport and Hawkes, Hill, and O'Connell's [14] use of Pyke's optimal foraging theory [15] for the latter's work are some examples of this new focus.

This perspective was based on general equilibriums and criticized for not addressing the variety of responses an organism can have, such as "loyalty, solidarity, friendliness, and sanctity" and possible "incentives or inhibitors" in relations to behavior. [16] Rappaport, often referred to as a reductionist in his cultural studies methods, [16] acknowledges, "The social unit is not always well defined [17] " exhibiting another flaw in this perspective, obfuscation of aspects of analyze and designated terms. [16]

List of academic programs in environmental anthropology

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthropology</span> Scientific study of humans, human behavior, and societies

Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavior, while cultural anthropology studies cultural meaning, including norms and values. A portmanteau term sociocultural anthropology is commonly used today. Linguistic anthropology studies how language influences social life. Biological or physical anthropology studies the biological development of humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural anthropology</span> Branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans

Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The term sociocultural anthropology includes both cultural and social anthropology traditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political ecology</span> Study of political, economic and social factors about environmental issues

Political ecology is the study of the relationships between political, economic and social factors with environmental issues and changes. Political ecology differs from apolitical ecological studies by politicizing environmental issues and phenomena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human ecology</span> Study of the relationship between humans and their natural, social, and built environments

Human ecology is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study of the relationship between humans and their natural, social, and built environments. The philosophy and study of human ecology has a diffuse history with advancements in ecology, geography, sociology, psychology, anthropology, zoology, epidemiology, public health, and home economics, among others.

Cultural ecology is the study of human adaptations to social and physical environments. Human adaptation refers to both biological and cultural processes that enable a population to survive and reproduce within a given or changing environment. This may be carried out diachronically, or synchronically. The central argument is that the natural environment, in small scale or subsistence societies dependent in part upon it, is a major contributor to social organization and other human institutions. In the academic realm, when combined with study of political economy, the study of economies as polities, it becomes political ecology, another academic subfield. It also helps interrogate historical events like the Easter Island Syndrome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental sociology</span> Study of interactions between societies and their natural environments

Environmental sociology is the study of interactions between societies and their natural environment. The field emphasizes the social factors that influence environmental resource management and cause environmental issues, the processes by which these environmental problems are socially constructed and define as social issues, and societal responses to these problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian Steward</span> American anthropologist

Julian Haynes Steward was an American anthropologist known best for his role in developing "the concept and method" of cultural ecology, as well as a scientific theory of culture change.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pastoralism</span> Branch of agriculture concerned with raising livestock

Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The animal species involved include cattle, camels, goats, yaks, llamas, reindeer, horses, and sheep.

Ecological anthropology is a sub-field of anthropology and is defined as the "study of cultural adaptations to environments". The sub-field is also defined as, "the study of relationships between a population of humans and their biophysical environment". The focus of its research concerns "how cultural beliefs and practices helped human populations adapt to their environments, and how people used elements of their culture to maintain their ecosystems". Ecological anthropology developed from the approach of cultural ecology, and it provided a conceptual framework more suitable for scientific inquiry than the cultural ecology approach. Research pursued under this approach aims to study a wide range of human responses to environmental problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historical ecology</span>

Historical ecology is a research program that focuses on the interactions between humans and their environment over long-term periods of time, typically over the course of centuries. In order to carry out this work, historical ecologists synthesize long-series data collected by practitioners in diverse fields. Rather than concentrating on one specific event, historical ecology aims to study and understand this interaction across both time and space in order to gain a full understanding of its cumulative effects. Through this interplay, humans adapt to and shape the environment, continuously contributing to landscape transformation. Historical ecologists recognize that humans have had world-wide influences, impact landscape in dissimilar ways which increase or decrease species diversity, and that a holistic perspective is critical to be able to understand that system.

Multilineal evolution is a 20th-century social theory about the evolution of societies and cultures. It is composed of many competing theories by various sociologists and anthropologists. This theory has replaced the older 19th century set of theories of unilineal evolution, where evolutionists were deeply interested in making generalizations.

Human behavioral ecology (HBE) or human evolutionary ecology applies the principles of evolutionary theory and optimization to the study of human behavioral and cultural diversity. HBE examines the adaptive design of traits, behaviors, and life histories of humans in an ecological context. One aim of modern human behavioral ecology is to determine how ecological and social factors influence and shape behavioral flexibility within and between human populations. Among other things, HBE attempts to explain variation in human behavior as adaptive solutions to the competing life-history demands of growth, development, reproduction, parental care, and mate acquisition. HBE overlaps with evolutionary psychology, human or cultural ecology, and decision theory. It is most prominent in disciplines such as anthropology and psychology where human evolution is considered relevant for a holistic understanding of human behavior.

Ethnoecology is the scientific study of how different groups of people living in different locations understand the ecosystems around them, and their relationships with surrounding environments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roy Rappaport</span> American anthropologist

Roy Abraham Rappaport (1926–1997) was an American anthropologist known for his contributions to the anthropological study of ritual and to ecological anthropology.

Frederick Russell Eggan was an American anthropologist best known for his innovative application of the principles of British social anthropology to the study of Native American tribes. He was the favorite student of the British social anthropologist A. R. Radcliffe-Brown during Radcliffe-Brown's years at the University of Chicago. His fieldwork was among Pueblo peoples in the southwestern U.S. Eggan later taught at Chicago himself. His students there included Sol Tax.

Andrew P. "Pete" Vayda was a Hungarian-born American anthropologist and ecologist who was a distinguished professor emeritus of anthropology and ecology at Rutgers University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecological resilience</span> Capacity of ecosystems to resist and recover from change

In ecology, resilience is the capacity of an ecosystem to respond to a perturbation or disturbance by resisting damage and subsequently recovering. Such perturbations and disturbances can include stochastic events such as fires, flooding, windstorms, insect population explosions, and human activities such as deforestation, fracking of the ground for oil extraction, pesticide sprayed in soil, and the introduction of exotic plant or animal species. Disturbances of sufficient magnitude or duration can profoundly affect an ecosystem and may force an ecosystem to reach a threshold beyond which a different regime of processes and structures predominates. When such thresholds are associated with a critical or bifurcation point, these regime shifts may also be referred to as critical transitions.

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) describes indigenous and other traditional knowledge of local resources. As a field of study in Northern American anthropology, TEK refers to "a cumulative body of knowledge, belief, and practice, evolving by accumulation of TEK and handed down through generations through traditional songs, stories and beliefs. It is concerned with the relationship of living beings with their traditional groups and with their environment." Indigenous knowledge is not a universal concept among various societies, but is referred to a system of knowledge traditions or practices that are heavily dependent on "place". Such knowledge is used in natural resource management as a substitute for baseline environmental data in cases where there is little recorded scientific data, or may complement Western scientific methods of ecological management.

Harold Colyer Conklin was an American anthropologist who conducted extensive ethnoecological and linguistic field research in Southeast Asia and was a pioneer of ethnoscience, documenting indigenous ways of understanding and knowing the world.

Ethnoscience has been defined as an attempt "to reconstitute what serves as science for others, their practices of looking after themselves and their bodies, their botanical knowledge, but also their forms of classification, of making connections, etc.".

References

  1. ↑ "Environmental Anthropology — Anthropology". anthropology.ucdavis.edu.
  2. ↑ "Ecological/ Environmental Anthropology". www.discoveranthropology.org.uk.
  3. ↑ Clemmer, Richard O.; Myers, L. Daniel; Rudden, Mary Elizabeth (1999). Julian Steward and the Great Basin: The Making of an Anthropologist. University of Utah Press.
  4. ↑ Steward JH. 1955. Theory of Cultural Change: The Methodology of Multilinear Evolution. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
  5. ↑ Steward JH. 1938. The Great Basin Shoshonean Indians: An Example of A Family Level Of Sociocultural Integration. Environmental Anthropology: A Historical Read. 168–180.
  6. ↑ Rappaport RA. 1967. Ritual Regulation Of Environmental Relations Among A New Guinea People. Ethnology. 6: 17–30.
  7. ↑ Harris, Marvin (2000) [1966]. "The Cultural Ecology of India's Sacred Cattle". In McGee, John (ed.). Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History. Mayfield Publishing Company. pp. 287–300.
  8. ↑ Vayda, Andrew P.; McCay, Bonnie J. (1975). "New Directions in Ecology and Ecological Anthropology". Annual Review of Anthropology. 4: 293–306. doi:10.1146/annurev.an.04.100175.001453.
  9. ↑ Conklin, Harold (1957). Hanuoo Agriculture. A report on an integral system of shifting cultivation in the Philippines. FAO.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  10. ↑ West, Paige; Igoe, James; Brockington, Dan (2006). "Parks and people: the social impact of protected areas". Annual Review of Anthropology. 35: 251–277. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.35.081705.123308.
  11. ↑ Rockström, Johan; Steffen, Will; Noone, Kevin; Persson, Åsa; Chapin, F. Stuart III; Lambin, Eric; Lenton, Timothy; Scheffer, Marten; Folke, Carl; Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim; Nykvist, Björn; de Wit, Cynthia; Hughes, Terry; van der Leeuw, Sander; Rodhe, Henning; Sörlin, Sverker; Snyder, Peter; Costanza, Robert; Svedin, Uno; Falkenmark, Malin; Karlberg, Louise; Corell, Robert; Fabry, Victoria; Hansen, James; Walker, Brian; Liverman, Diana; Richardson, Katherine; Crutzen, Paul; Foley, Jonathan (November 18, 2009). "Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity". Ecology and Society. 14 (2). doi:10.5751/ES-03180-140232. hdl: 10535/5421 . S2CID   15182169 – via www.ecologyandsociety.org.
  12. 1 2 https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5834GSDR_brief_anthropology_SD_baer_reuter_rev.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  13. ↑ Lee, Richard B. (1992). "Art, Science, or Politics? The Crisis in Hunter-Gatherer Studies" (PDF). American Anthropologist. 94: 31–54. doi:10.1525/aa.1992.94.1.02a00030. hdl: 1807/17933 .
  14. ↑ Hawkes, Kristen; Hill, KIM; O'Connell, James F. (1982). "why hunters gather: optimal foraging and the Aché of eastern Paraguay". American Ethnologist. 9 (2): 379–398. doi: 10.1525/ae.1982.9.2.02a00100 . JSTOR   644682.
  15. ↑ Pyke, G H (1984). "Optimal Foraging Theory: A Critical Review". Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 15: 523–575. doi:10.1146/annurev.es.15.110184.002515.
  16. 1 2 3 Biersack, Aletta (1999). "Introduction: From the "New Ecology" to the New Ecologies". American Anthropologist. 101: 5–18. doi:10.1525/aa.1999.101.1.5.
  17. ↑ Melissa Checker (August 2005). Polluted promises: environmental racism and the search for justice in a southern town . NYU Press. ISBN   978-0-8147-1657-1 . Retrieved 3 April 2011.
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