Revision:Cultural Ecology and Environmentalism

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Cultural ecology - the study of the ways in which different human groups interact with, and relate to their environment in order to survive and change (or not to), as human groups. How the environment affects a culture/society, and how a society/culture adapts to an environment. Cultural ecology (began approx. 1960s) gave rise to Environmentalism (1970s-present).

Ecology - the study of habitats, the modes of life and the interrelationship between all living things in a given environment.

Environmentalism - aka "The Green Movement". It is a social movement, which involves people who are environmentally concerned coming together with certain ideas and who become activists. It protects the environment, makes others aware of environmental issues, and reduces deforestation, the extinction of species, the loss of habitats and indigenous knowledge. Environmentalism is concerned with both our own society, and those of SSS (Small Scale Societies) .

Adaptation - the long-term cultural process of maintaining a balance between population and natural resources within a given environment. It is a two-way process, a group may change its strategies or tools in order or make better use of a particular environment, or it may use new elements in that environment, or it may change its environment by moving away altogether. However, groups may interact with the environment to change it. Thus, cultural ecologists study the effects that human groups have on their environment as well as the ways they adapt to it.

Ecosystem - Living organisms and their environment together make up an ecosystem, as a patterned arrangement of exchanges and energy flows.

Biological Ecology - The study of relationships between living organisms and the environment which has concentrated on different forms of animal life, insects, birds, plants etc.

Maladaptation - A cultural feature that undermines the culture's response to environmental change.

Destruction of habitats and hedgerows

Change

How the Environment affects a culture (i.e. cultural dynamics):

1. Trade
2. Food gathering
3. Farming techniques
4. Housing
5. Communications / transport
6. Diet / nutrition
7. Language (Eskimos have 50 words that categorise snow)
8. Behaviour / rationale

Cultural Ecologists argued that there were 4 main areas within society which are particularly affected by the environment:

1. Division of labour- includes sexual division of labour, age division of labour, tasks done, if they are sedentary or not.
2. Size and stability of people- includes food availability, size of territory, type of territory.
3. Their distribution in space- includes availability of food/water, vicinity to rivers, distance between groups (due to conflict), kinship/marriage rules.
4. Their residence rules- includes sexual division of labour, female infanticide, male domination.

Pg 112- Warfare, Male Supremacy, Protein Scarcity and Population in Amazonia (Chagnon 1968)

The characteristics of this society (which are all believed to be caused by protein deficiency) support the 4 rules theory:

1. Division of labour- men dominate, engage in warfare and politics
2. Size & stability of people- female infanticide limits population, male dominance, male supremacy complex.
3. Distribution in space- territorialness and competition have led to small, scattered settlements.
4. Residence rules- male dominance, male domination

Their fighting over women is maladaptive. As is the killing of their wives, which leads to a male supremacy complex.

Male supremacy complex- a functionally interrelated series of presumably male-centred traits, including patrilocality, polygyny, inequitable sexual division of labour, male domination of headmanship and shamanism, and the ritual subordination of women.

Female infanticide is adaptive in that it keeps the population down, but maladaptive in that it causes an imbalance in the gender ratio.

"Hidden Rationality"- Rappaport / Vayda

• Even when societies/cultures aren"t aware that they are adapting, they are.
• Societies and cultures do things without being aware of them, and these things can be adaptive or maladaptive.
• Having insight about their environment w/out necessarily being aware that their practices are adaptive / maladaptive.
• Religion, rituals and other customs are concerned with adaptation/ maladaptation. An example of this is the Hindu religion in India, where cows are worshipped.

Religion can: - control populations

• control resources.

Both are concerned with the availability of protein. The fewer resources a country has, the bigger its need to control or stabilise its population. This is why some religions promote small or big families.

Pg 126- Kuru and its consequences (Lindenbaum 1972)

An example of maladaptation, as the ritual practice produces de-population.

This seems to suggest that religion and adaptation / maladaptation are linked, with religion aiding in the production of one or the other.

Customs, values and beliefs such as these emerge as a way of regulating resources, acquiring protein and controlling the environment.

Hidden rationality- The fact that rituals and religion aid maladaptation and adaptation.

Cultural Ecology argues that there are four levels of human organisation, and that the environment affects all of these:

1. Infrastructure (the way things are set up)
2. Domain of food production
3. Political economy (trading/exchange)
4. Superstructure - religion/ politics/ religion

The Protein Debate- Do societies such as the New Guinea Fore need all of this protein?

For

That a lack of protein causes male dominance, aggression and female infanticide because a lack of animal protein means they need to keep the population low, which causes female infanticide, which leads to an increase in men, which leads to male supremacy. They are aggressive due to the competition for protein and women.

Against

• Recent studies that we do not need much protein in our diets anyway.
• It could be another deficiency which these people are suffering from.
• Other diets are just as nourishing.
• Starvation diets, which the majority of these people have to live by, don"t allow for protein digestion.
• If people are starving, then they need less protein- and more of the basics. Our perception of what they need could be wrong.
• The female infanticide, aggression and male dominance could just be cultural aspects uninfluenced by protein.
• Humans developed as omnivores, suggesting that we may need relatively low levels of protein; and digesting protein actually uses more energy than consuming other foodstuffs.
• The human body adapts to low levels of protein.
• Also, by always sending them this aid, the dependency of the Developing World on the Developed World is increasing.
• The West may impose an ethnocentric view of what humans bed to eat in order to survive. The food aid which we send over is based around our notions of underdevelopment, but the Western ideas could be bias, and we might be sending over the wrong type of food, such as easily-transported food to get rid of our surpluses. What also happens is that the LEDCs become misinformed about nutritionally deficient foods, e.g. babies brought up on powdered milk.

Alternative Development Strategies

Alternative Development Strategies encourage the preserving of cultures, so that knowledge, including that of medicines etc, will not be lost . They incorporate anthropological knowledge with the knowledge of the society in question.

Strategies include:

• leaving the society alone (is this practical?)
• alternative habitat- reserve
• an advocate/spokesperson for the society should pressure the government.
• pressure groups should encourage governmental support.

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