Ecological anthropology studies the relations between human beings and their environments. Its foundations were laid by Julian Steward in the mid-twentieth century. Steward emphasised the dynamic, two-way nature of the culture-environment relation, and the importance of the concept of adaptation in understanding it. Steward distinguished ‘cultural’ from ‘biological’ ecology on the grounds that the former was about the adaptation of culture as a system existing outside of individual human organisms. By contrast, in the so-called ‘new ecology’ of the 1960s, culture was seen as the means of environmental adaptation of human populations. Theories developed in animal ecology were considered applicable to humans as well. Drawing on one such theory, of group selection, ecological anthropologists focused on how aspects of cultural behaviour maintain balance or ‘homeostasis’ in the relations between a local group and its environmental resources, and so promote its long-term survival.
In the 1970s and 1980s, ecological anthropology was overtaken by sociobiology. Emphasising the gene rather than the group as the unit of selection, sociobiologists argued that the adaptive role of cultural behaviour is to contribute to the representation of individuals’ genes in future generations. One recent offshoot of sociobiology, ‘evolutionary behavioural ecology’, is dedicated to showing how adaptive strategies established through natural selection are played out under variable environmental conditions. For example, studies of human foraging have explained the relationship between food procurement patterns and energy returns. During the 1990s, however, a quite different trend has emerged in ecological anthropology. This approach looks at the totality of relations existing between persons and their environments and privileges neither genetics nor culture in explanations of human action and perception.
Text written by Professor Tim Ingold
Postgraduate programmes in the UK
Recommended Resources
Films
The following trailer is for The Water Goddess and the Computer, a film distributed by the RAI Film.
The Water Goddess and the Computer
Directors André Singer and Steven Lansing
Location Indonesia
Released 1989
Length 52 minutes
The film demonstrates how in Bali, development projects can threaten a carefully balanced ecological irrigation system that is maintained by temple priests. A biologist and an anthropologist look at the traditional irrigation system and show through the use of a computer how it works. They then present the computer system to the temple priests as an aid to explore the effect of changes in the traditional irrigation system.
Huma Planet
Human Planet is an 8-part British television documentary series produced by the BBC in collaboration with Discovery and BBC Worldwide. The series explores how humans have adapted to life in various environments and the challenges and ingenuity of communities who thrive in the some of the most remote or hostile regions on Earth.
RAI Film is the Film section of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI). Their Ethnographic Film Catalogue is an extensive ethnographic film catalogue (over 600 titles) that are variously available to purchase as DVDs, personal rent on demand (Vimeo VOD), and accessible to institutions via our online streaming partners for educational and academic purposes. The following films are examples of environmental anthropology: The Water of Words, Since the Company Came.
General
https://anthropology.ua.edu/theory/ecological-anthropology/ – Stacy McGrath provides a good general overview of ecological anthropology.
Books
Sustainability and Communities of Place
Edited by Maida, A. Carl (Berghahn Publishers, 2011)
The Environment in Anthropology
Haenn, N. and Wilk, R. (Eds) (NYU Press, 2005)
Environmental Anthropology: A Historical Reader
Dove, R. M. and Carpenter, C. (Eds) (Wiley- Blackwell, 2007)
Articles & Online Journals
http://www.bio-nica.info/biblioteca/Davidson-Hunt2000Etnobotanica.pdf?pagewanted=all – an article on ecological ethnobotany by anthropologist Iain Davidson-Hunt from the University of Manitoba.
http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/index.php – an online peer reviewed journal published by Resillience Alliance.
Professional Organisations, Groups & Associations
Anthropology and The Environment -A section of the American Anthropological Association – for anthropologists interested in ecology, the environment and environmentalism.
Centre for International Forestry Research– an international research and global knowledge institution committed to conserving forests and improving the livelihoods of people in the tropics.
Environmental Anthropology an interest group of The Society of Applied Anthropology.
