ANTH10001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Whale Meat, Cud, Binary Opposition
29 May 2018
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ANTH10001 WEEK 5: ENVIROMENTAL ANTROPOLOGY
HUMAN AND NON HUMANS
Environmental Anthropology: the anthropological study of the relationship between humans
and their natural environments.
There are numerous theories on environmental anthropology (human ecology).
Theories in human ecology lie on a continuum between two extremes:
• Environmental determinism: the idea that culture is determined by the environment.
– an outcome of environmental factors.
• Cultural determinism: No thing has an intrinsic value or meaning beyond the values
and meanings inscribed upon it by culture. – the value/meaning of an object in the
natural world is an outcome of its cultural inscription.
CULTURAL MATERIALISM (Marvin Harris)
- (quasi scientific theory: seeking causal explanations and development of laws).
- the basic idea is that eiroets ad the eeds of eologial adaptio liit peoples
activities and cultures to within a wide range of possible constraints.
o environmental factors determine culture. – cultures are adaptive outcomes to
ecosystems.
- ecological factors ramify through societies from social structure to culture and shape
the nature of features of social life, such as ritual, which are only secondarily related
to ecology.
o These processes are often not perceptible to human consciousness. – what we
do is an outcome of ecological factors however we are not aware that it is.
- The central ecological factors shaping social structure and culture are:
o the needs for protein.
o regulation of population.
EXAMPLES OF APPLICATIONS:
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CRITIQUES OF THE CULTURAL MATERIALIST APPROACH:
METHODOLOGICAL FLAWS IN DATA COLLECTION:
• conducted over too small an area to enable geographical generalisation.
• conducted over too short a time-frame to enable historical generalisation.
• conclusions beset by problems of scale – it does not take structural factors into
account e.g. representations of tribal groups in this perspective depicted as living in harmony
with nature and being environmentally sustainable - related to protein preservation – flawed as it
is an accident of the small scale of the group relative to the environment they inhabit. see: Ellen,
‘o. . What Blak Elk left usaid: o illusor iages of green primitivism', Anthropology
Today, 2(4): 8–12. –
INERPRETIVE FLAWS
• Provides a pseudo-scientific rationalization for deplorable practices such as
infanticide, violence against women, and cannibalism myth – it is very literal in its
research and does not appreciate the symbolic value of human behavior. see: Arens,
William (1979) The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy, Oxford and New York, Oxford
University Press.
• The practices it rationalizes may be functional for the group as a whole, but how can
they be said to be functional for individuals, e.g. murdered babies and people who are
consumed?
o Ist there soethig slightl orrig aout a perspetie that ould attept
to rationalise practices which are horrible for people as something which is
adaptive for the group? it is a theory which rationalises immoral inhumane
practices.
FUNDAMENTAL FLAWS
• The theory does not account for phenomena which is maladaptive – e.g. easter island
stone heads - associated with the fall of civilisation due to environmental damage. –
the cultural practices which results in the destruction of society.
• Fundamentally this theory cannot account for situations which do not agree with this
perspective – and can only describe events which do fit into this perspective.
• Cultural materialism is problematic in the sense that it views both culture and human
action as secondary outcomes of ecological circumstances. – culture and individual
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consciousness have no autonomy – merely puppets of ecological factors. – basically
Cultural Materialism is an Environmental Determinist perspective.
General critiques, see:
Bargatsk, Thoas . Culture, eiroet ad the idea of adaptiois, Current Anthropology 25(4):
399-415.
STRUCTURALISM (CLAUDE LEVI STRAUSS)
The basic idea is a theory which posits that elements of human culture must be understood
in terms of their relationship to a larger, overarching system or structure.
- In Levi-Straussian structuralism the system is governed by logics of classification.
This is an interpretive theory which aims to search for meaning – an interpretive approach.
Levi-“trauss, Claude. . The strutural stud of th. The Journal of American Folklore, 68(270): 428-444.
The basic structural perspective would argue that:
The significance of objects (e.g. the designation by Jews of pork as defiling) derives less from
their intrinsic material qualities (e.g. the capacity of pork to rot quickly in hot climates) than
from their location within a system of categories.
see: Douglas, M. (1966 [2002]). Purity and Danger. an Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge, pp. 51-71.
- ultural aterialist ould argue that Jes dot eat pork for aterial reasoigs suh
as it rotting in hot climates, whereas a struturalist ould argue that Jes dot eat
pork for cultural reasons.
Cultural logic that is applied is that idea that an object has significance by its position within
a system of classification.
Eaple: The atural sustae o shoe is ere soil when I am in my garden. It only
eoes dirt, soethig to e eradiated he I eter the house. As Douglas states: Dirt is
atter out of place.
- the way that we classify something as good or bad is not something intrinsic to the
object – however is the outcome to where it is in a system of categories.
Structuralists emphasize the centrality of classification, but how do we classify?
- objects gain their significance from their location within binary opposition systems,
black/white, life/death, men/women etc. – this is the primary mode of classification
within societies.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
There are numerous theories on environmental anthropology (human ecology). Theories in human ecology lie on a continuum between two extremes: environmental determinism: the idea that culture is determined by the environment. An outcome of environmental factors: cultural determinism: no thing has an intrinsic value or meaning beyond the values and meanings inscribed upon it by culture. The value/meaning of an object in the natural world is an outcome of its cultural inscription. What we do is an outcome of ecological factors however we are not aware that it is. The central ecological factors shaping social structure and culture are: the needs for protein: regulation of population. O(cid:455). (cid:894)(cid:1005)(cid:1013)(cid:1012)(cid:1010)(cid:895). (cid:858)(cid:863)what bla(cid:272)k elk left u(cid:374)said(cid:863): o(cid:374) illusor(cid:455) i(cid:373)ages of green primitivism", anthropology. Inerpretive flaws: provides a pseudo-scientific rationalization for deplorable practices such as infanticide, violence against women, and cannibalism myth it is very literal in its research and does not appreciate the symbolic value of human behavior. see: arens,
