Ecological Anthropology: Fundamentals

Introduction to Cultural Ecology: by Sutton & Anderson, Chapter One

• Goal of Book– Communicate Anthropology side of ecological

issues– Learn from diverse, mainly traditional

non-western, cultural interaction with nature• Not the “ecologically noble savage”

Ecological Anthropology: Fundamentals

• Ecology studies the interactions between organisms and their environments

• Ecological Anthropology studies the interaction between human biology, culture and the environment

Ecosemiotics

Source: Kull Kalevi 1998

The communicative relationship between nature and culture

History of Environmental Thought

• Environmental Determinism: Environment dictates cultural adaptation

• Cultural Evolution: There is an upward progression to environmental adaptation

• Possibilism: Environment limits cultural adaptation

Approaches to Ecological Anthropology

• Cultural Ecology: Began in 1930’s

– Julian Steward coined term, “father of Ecological Anthropology,”saw culture as making

human distinct animals separate from environment

• The “New Ecology”: Began in late 1960’s

– Science of systems ecology, humans not unique animals but embedded in ecosystems. • Rappaport, Pigs for the Ancestors, Physics Model• Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind,

Communication- Ecosemiotic Model

Approaches to Ecological Anthropology

• Cultural Materialism: Began in late 1960’s

– Marvin Harris “functionalist” culture interaction with environment explained by direct material payoff in specific situations, i.e. Sacred Cow of India

• Rational Choice: Began in late 1980’s

– Popular in economics and political science, culture interaction derives from a people’s best “rational” decisions

Approaches to Ecological Anthropology

• Political Ecology: Began in 1970’s– Focus on immediate conflicts and the short-term

cultural/environment processes involved

• Historical Ecology: Began in 1970’s– Similar to environmental history, dialectic relationship

between humans and the altered “landscape”

• Postmodernism: Began in 1980’s– Interpretations by science of human/environmental

interaction is subjective, “biophysical reality”centered on power relationships dictated by dominant modern culture

Ecological Anthropology: Fundamentals

Introduction to Cultural Ecology:

by Sutton & Anderson, Chapter Four

• Cultural Adaptation to the environment has become more more influential for humans than biological adaptation

Environmental Adaptation Through Cultural Systems

• Organization: orders and integrates diverse cultural components, i.e. religious, economic, political, for environmental adaptation– Social networks allow for distribution of

environmental resources – Settlement patterns allow for differing utilization of

environmental resources

• Technology: utilization of tools has allowed humans to adapt to every ecosystem on earth

Traditional Knowledge Systems

• All cultures obtain and categorize knowledge about the environment– Ethnoscience/Ethnoecology: the classification and

knowledge of the environment by a culture• Ethnobiology: the study of biotic environment

– Eethnobotany: plants– Ethnozoology: animals – Ethnopharmacology: medicines

Traditional Knowledge Systems

• Knowledge of Abiotic Environment includes geography, soils, meteorology & astronomy

• Art portrays cultural attitudes and beliefs about the environment– Underutilized by Eco-Anthropology

Eco-Anthropologists & Modern Western Uses of

Traditional Knowledge Systems

• Medicine - recording and collecting

native plants used in healing

• Food and Fiber – describing traditional uses

for native plants and animals

• Agricultural Techniques – documenting environmentally sustainable practices

Eco-Anthropologists & Modern Western Uses of

Traditional Knowledge Systems• Thought and Philosophy – illuminating the ways

native people think about their environment– Study and make known, culturally encoded beliefs

and knowledge of the environment, • Different cultures know different “facts” about the

environment that are often non-factual to outsiders• Traditional cultures have extensive knowledge of

environment that often exceeds modern scientific knowledge• Traditional religion acts to “sell” conservation through ethics

and moral teachings that can be utilized in modern society, i.e, Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic”

Human “Impact” on the Environment

• Anthropogenic (human + produced) changes derive from:– Large scale environmental alteration of landscapes

• Burning forest to clear land for farming

– Smaller scale specific resource management• Pruning trees to increase fruit

– Active or Passive Methods• Purposeful goal directed behavior, crop cultivation • Ritual to promote stewardship, conservation awards

Making Decisions About the Environment

• Cultural systems are dynamic, constant calibration and adjustment necessary for stability (a stochastic process)– Cognition: Perception of environment is a

selective process, the “difference that makes

a difference”– Information (to bring into form): Environment

understood through accumulation, classification and explanation

Ecological Anthropology: Fundamentals

“The Roots of Environmental Crisis,” Part 6 no. 3, in Steps to an Ecology of Mind by Gregory Bateson, ©1972

• Ad hoc measures can allow deeper causes to grow stronger, treating symptom without curing disease – In 1939 DDT was solution to an insect “problem,” (Nobel Prize)– 1950 DDT found severely toxic to animals, including humans– World is addicted to DDT, short-term gain long-term pain– 1962 Silent Spring by Rachel Carlson launches environmentalism– 1970 Prohibition of DDT is begun, endocrine (hormone) disruptor – At present DDT is still in use, found in maternal amniotic fluid even in

U.S. where it is banned

The Roots of Environmental Crisis

• Interaction of Three Interconnected Causes– Technological “Progress”– Population Increase– Errors in thinking and attitudes

• Every solution to technological and population problems made more difficult by errors in the “thinking and attitudes of Occidental Culture”

Bateson’s "Separation From Nature” Cluster of Ideas

• It’s us against the environment.• It’s the individual (or individual company

or individual nation) that matters.• We can have unilateral control over the

environment and must strive for that control.

• We live in an infinitely expanding “frontier."

• Economic determinism is common sense.• Technology will do it for us

Occidental Culture"Separation From Nature”

Cluster of Ideas

• Proven false by the massive environmental destruction caused by technological achievements (especially since industrial revolution)– “The creature that wins against its environment

destroys itself”

The Roots of Environmental Crisis

The “hubris” of Occidental thinking is only one culture’s way of relating to nature– Many traditional cultures are models, i.e

ancient Hawaiian– Environmental scientist and philosophers – Environmentalists and eco-friendly business– Next five to ten years crucial