Human Adaptive Strategies : Ecology, Culture, and Politics

by Bates, Daniel G.

• ISBN13: 9780205418152
• ISBN10: 0205418155
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-06-28
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

Based on Bates'Cultural Anthropology,this book provides a framework for analyzing cultures based on their economic systems.Cultural ecology is the study of human behavior and culture within an environmental context. It examines how humans adapt to their environment and how the environment shapes culture. Based on a selection of materials from Bates and Fratkin'sCultural Anthropology, Third Edition, Human Adaptive Strategiesuses case studies to show how cultures evolved within the context of their environment and how their methods of surviving in their environment have affected other aspects of their culture. One reviewer says, "Concentrating, as the book does, on subsistence patterns and cultural ecology, it creates a conceptual structure conducive to the needs of the introductory student in anthropology." The new third edition includes an expanded discussion of basic ecological concepts and ecosystem components and organization; expanded material on population related issues; and addresses in some depth the controversy involving Napolean Chagnon's work as it touches on a number of important aspects of scholarship and research.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
The Study of Human Behavior	p. 1
The Nature of Scientific Inquiry	p. 2
Cultural Relativism	p. 4
Aspects of Culture	p. 7
Behavior and Learning	p. 12
The Science of Anthropology	p. 17
Evolution, Ecology, and Politics	p. 27
The Human Evolutionary Legacy	p. 27
Human Ecology	p. 33
The Evolution of Procurement Systems	p. 41
Adapting to Environmental Problems	p. 43
Political Ecology	p. 47
Foraging	p. 56
The Organization of Energy	p. 60
Social Organization	p. 63
Settlement Patterns and Mobility	p. 67
Resilience, Stability, and Change	p. 67
The Dobe Ju/'hoansi	p. 68
The Inuit, or Eskimo	p. 75
The Batak Foragers of the Philippines	p. 81
Horticulture: Feeding the Household	p. 87
The Horticultural Adaptation	p. 88
The Yanomamo	p. 98
The Pueblo of North America	p. 107
Nomadic Pastoralism	p. 115
The Pastoral Adaptation	p. 116
Social Organization	p. 120
The Ariaal of Northern Kenya	p. 127
The Yoruk of Turkey	p. 136
Intensive Agriculture: Feeding the Cities	p. 144
The Development of Intensive Agriculture	p. 145
The Social Consequences of Intensive Agriculture: Peasant Farmers	p. 153
The Tamang	p. 158
Where the Dove Calls: The Mexican Village of Cucurpe	p. 162
The Kofyar of Central Nigeria	p. 164
Directions of Change in Rural Egypt	p. 167
Industrial Society and Beyond: Feeding the World	p. 172
From Intensive Agriculture to Industrialized Farming	p. 172
Centralization, Collectivization, and Communism	p. 179
Dams and Their Consequences	p. 183
Urbanized Rural Society: Farming in the United States	p. 185
The Rise and Fall of Collective Agriculture in Bulgaria	p. 189
Change and Development: The Challenges of Globalism	p. 195
The Emerging Fourth World in the New Millennium	p. 195
Adaptation and Processes of Cultural Transformation	p. 197
Beyond Industrialism	p. 207
The Ecological Consequences of Postindustrialism	p. 212
Can We Survive Progress?	p. 217
The Ethics of Development Work	p. 224
Glossary	p. 228
Bibliography	p. 233
Index	p. 248
Table of Contents provided by Rittenhouse. All Rights Reserved.