ANTH2060 Lecture 1: Ecological Determinism
ANTH2060 Lecture One: An Introduction
Environment:
• the physical surrounding in which a person lives. The totality of the physical
conditions in the earth or part of it.
• A broad term of environment encompasses many disciplines:
-geography
-built environments
-subterranean
-computing
-natural world
• Environment in spacial terms:
-boundaries of continents, cities, suburbs, islands, and rivers, The boundlessness of
the oceans, deserts, and scrubs.
-the precision of geometry (x, y, z) maps are a key competency of states. Nation states
are now talk of securing the volume (verticality and subterranean; tunnels and
airspace)
-in anthropology, space is studied in terms of:
-place and territory
-land and country
-social space: the distance between also sets us apart, establishing the other
• Environment in time terms:
change to our surroundings over short time frames:
-development
-extractive industries (mining, fishing)
-natural disasters
-change to our surrounding over a long timeframe:
-geological epochs are now a topic in social theory
-are we still in the Holocene? (The Holocene is epoch we are currently living in,
the 21st century)
• Nature in cultural terms:
-"Nature is seen by humans through a screen of beliefs, knowledge and purposes, and
it is in terms of their images of nature, rather than of the actual structure of nature,
than they act" (Roy Rappaport)
• Ecology is the study of the relationships between organisms within an environment.
In anthropology, human ecology looks at the relationship between humans and their
environment. Political ecology looks at the inequalities and disparities
• Ecosystem has a similar definition as ecology but "-system" implies an inherent
order. The idea that the natural environment is arranged into a coherent system has a
genealogy stretching back to Ancient Greece. "To the Ionian philosophers, the cosmos
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Document Summary
Environment: the physical surrounding in which a person lives. The totality of the physical conditions in the earth or part of it: a broad term of environment encompasses many disciplines: Boundaries of continents, cities, suburbs, islands, and rivers, the boundlessness of the oceans, deserts, and scrubs. The precision of geometry (x, y, z) maps are a key competency of states. Nation states are now talk of securing the volume (verticality and subterranean; tunnels and airspace) In anthropology, space is studied in terms of: Social space: the distance between also sets us apart, establishing the other: environment in time terms: change to our surroundings over short time frames: Change to our surrounding over a long timeframe: Geological epochs are now a topic in social theory. Are we still in the holocene? (the holocene is epoch we are currently living in, the 21st century: nature in cultural terms: In anthropology, human ecology looks at the relationship between humans and their environment.