ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Crop Rotation, Noble Savage, Environmental Degradation
9 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Optimists: doomsday model, malthus, positive checks, preventative checks. Optimists: logic-of-growth model, technology, modernity and economic growth will solve our problems. Contribution of anthropology: understanding relationship between humans and their environment, past and present, example, zoonoses. Environmental trends: myth of the ecological noble savage , we have been modifying/damaging the environment for a long time (small scale, modern humans - happening on a larger scale. The green revolution : began after wwii (ended 1945, new high yield crop varieties, fertilizers, pesticides and mechanized equipment. Mechanized agriculture and the green revolution": crop rotation, natural and chemical fertilizers, commercial seed production, winter feeding, improved transportation. Green revolution - cons: technology not spread evenly, many subsistence farmers can"t afford seeds, fertilizers, equipment, africa bene ted least, failed to address unequal access to food and food-producing resources. Environmental costs of green revolution: environmental degradation, 1/4 of all agricultural nitrogen leaches into groundwater, loss of species varier -> monoculture, loss of indigenous agricultural knowledge.
