A Trial Model of Cultural Ecology

Bibliographic Data

ID2581792
AuthorsRobert Mcc Netting (corresponding author)
Year1965
Volume38
Issue3
Pages81
Publication date1965-07-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropological Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-5491 • E-ISSN: 1534-1518
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3316868
OpenAlexW2326827144
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited7

Julian Steward's formulation of principles of cultural ecology (1955a) has been widely accepted as a significant advance in relating man as culture bearer to his environment. He defines cultural ecology as the adaptive processes by which nature of society and an unpredictable number of features of culture are affected by basic adjustment through which man utilizes a given environment (Tax 1953:243). Geertz (1963:2) has recently pointed out that Steward analysis goes beyond traditional approaches of anthropogeography and possibilism by selecting only those features of environment and cultural pattern which are functionally interrelated. No longer is it necessary to accept either a gross geographic determinism or a passive environmental limitation in accounting for specific cultural factors. Rather than separating works of man and processes of nature into separate spheres and looking for their external relation, it is more productive to specify the relations between selected human activities, biological transactions, and physical processes by including them within a single analytical system, an (Geertz 1963: 3). Just as in biology, ecological approach demands a study of process wherein life and environment interact (Sears 1957). The ecosystem of related elements is clearest when we draw upon simpler hunting cultures whose institutions are most extensively patterned by subsistence activities (Steward 1938:1). Steward's classic example connects presence of scattered, non-migratory game, its exploitation by a bow-spear-club technology, and adaptive qualities of small, localized patrilineal band (1955: 122-50). The question arises as to whether ecological approach is equally useful when applied to agricultural societies whose more efficient subsistence techniques per

Cultural ecology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics

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