Environmental anthropology is a sub-discipline of anthropology that examines the complex relationships between humans and the environments which they inhabit. 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 Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

soil erosion Soil erosion is the denudation or wearing away of the Topsoil, upper layer of soil. It is a form of soil degradation. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, Atmosphere of Ea ...

, or how modern human societies are adapting to

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

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. 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 Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are catego ...

, and

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

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 Julian Haynes Steward (January 31, 1902 – February 6, 1972) 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. Early life and ed ...

, a cultural ecologist who studied how the Shosone of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and Rocky mountains adapted their environment.Steward JH. 1955. Theory of Cultural Change: The Methodology of Multilinear Evolution. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. His efforts to define culture were based upon topography, climate, and resources and their accessibility. Other important early cultural ecologists were

Roy Rappaport Roy Abraham Rappaport (1926–1997) was an American anthropologist known for his contributions to the anthropological study of ritual and to ecological anthropology. Biography Rappaport was born in New York City on 25 March 1926. He received hi ...

and Marvin Harris. 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. 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. Another important field that contributed to the creation of environmental anthropology was ethnoecology. Ethnoecologists like

Harold Conklin Harold Colyer Conklin (April 27, 1926 – February 18, 2016) was an American Anthropology, anthropologist who conducted extensive ethnoecology, ethnoecological and Linguistics, linguistic field research in Southeast Asia (particularly the Philip ...

, 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. Research in

ethnobotany Ethnobotany is an interdisciplinary field at the interface of natural and social sciences that studies the relationships between humans and plants. It focuses on traditional knowledge of how plants are used, managed, and perceived in human socie ...

also led to the development of new drugs based on plants used in traditional herbal medicine.

Political ecology 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 pheno ...

, 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.

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 Land development is the alteration of landscape in any number of ways, such as: * Changing landforms from a natural or semi-natural state for a purpose such as agriculture or House, housing * subdivision (land), Subdividing real estate into Lot ( ...

biodiversity loss Biodiversity loss happens when plant or animal species disappear completely from Earth (extinction) or when there is a decrease or disappearance of species in a specific area. Biodiversity loss means that there is a reduction in Biodiversity, b ...

, and

water scarcity Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity. One is ''physical.'' The other is ''economic water scarcity''. Physic ...

, all of which are, in large part, due to

. 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.https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5834GSDR_brief_anthropology_SD_baer_reuter_rev.pdf After all, throughout history, the natural climate of specific areas have allowed for certain nations to flourish, whether it be in the

Fertile Crescent The Fertile Crescent () is a crescent-shaped region in the Middle East, spanning modern-day Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, together with northern Kuwait, south-eastern Turkey, and western Iran. Some authors also include ...

or in the Indus River Valley thousands of years ago.

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), along with internal, independent logic and inter-connectivity's impact now were observed. Roy A. Rappaport and Hawkes, Hill, and O'Connell's use of Pyke's optimal foraging theory 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. Rappaport, often referred to as a reductionist in his cultural studies methods, acknowledges, "The social unit is not always well defined" exhibiting another flaw in this perspective, obfuscation of aspects of analyze and designated terms.

List of academic programs in environmental anthropology

* Portland State University.''
Undergraduate and Master's Program in Anthropology
* Utrecht University
M.Sc. Cultural Anthropology: Sustainable Citizenship
* Stanford University.''
Environmental Anthropology Cluster
* University of South Florida.''
Department of Anthropology Undergraduate and Graduate Programs in Applied Anthropology
* University College London.''
M.Sc. Anthropology, Environment, and Development
* University of California, Davis.''
Graduate Area of Specialization: Environmental Anthropology
* University of Georgia.''
Ecological and Environmental Anthropology.
PhD. Integrative Conservation (ICON) Program. Undergraduate Certificates in Sustainability, Environmental Ethics, and Conservation Ecology. * University of Kent.''
M.A. in Social Anthropology: Humanitarian and Environmental Crises
* University of Pennsylvania.''
Environmental Anthropology
* University of Maine. B.A. Anthropology: Human Dimensions of Climate Change
M.A. in Anthropology and Environmental Policy Program
* University of Maryland.''
Ecological and Environmental Anthropology.
B.A., B.S., MA.A., and Ph.D. programs * University of Texas at San Antonio.''
Ph.D. in Environmental Anthropology
*Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences and Department of Anthropology.
oint Doctoral Degree Program in Anthropology and the Environment
*Southern New Hampshire University''
Undergraduate degree - Concentration on Environmental Sustainability

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Environmental Anthropology Anthropology Environmental social science

Anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...