Landscape and Ecology
The following materials are key presentation points developed by the instructor during
class lectures. They are not a substitute for student participation in the class lectures,
but a highlighting of the pertinent items considered.
Theme What are the various ways peoples have defined and related to the natural
world and their "landscape?" This discussion will explore various ecological,
subsistence and economic patterns. A "partnership" with the "animal
peoples" will characterize how some peoples define their relationship with their
landscape, while for others they may seek an "exploitation" of the world's
"natural resources." As a result, the manner in which "hunting,"
"farming," "trading and exchange," and "goods and services"
are understood and expressed can be quite variable. Issues of environmental stasis and
degradation will also differ accordingly. What is a "healthy environment"?
What are the implications given how are we to relate to your environment?
Landscape, Gatherer-Hunters, and the Original Affluent Society
- Definition of "landscape" -- the way a people have conceptualized the
phenomena of their environment (lakes, rivers, mountains, animals, plants and fish),
investing that phenomena with cultural significance and meaning. A "landscape"
transcends its material properties and resides in the symbolic meaning it has for a
people. Hence a "landscape" can entail phenomena that is fundamentally
aesthetic, affective, moral, spiritual, as well as economic and political in nature.
- One form of anthropological research focusing in human/landscape relations is called,
"ethnobotany," as exemplified in the following images from
the Schitsu'umsh
(Coeur d'Alene Indians) uses and meaning of "camas" and "water potato."
- Types of ecological systems include: gatherer-hunter (e.g., Australian Aborigine),
herding (e.g., Nuer), horticultural (e.g., hoe
technology), agricultural (e.g, plow
technology), and industrial, capitalistic society (e.g., modern
technology)
- Gatherer-Hunter is the oldest and historically most adaptive form of ecology, expressed
in virtually every niche around the world. Gatherer-Hunter ecologies
are exemplified by the story of the Schitsu'umsh
- Defining characteristics of a "gatherer-hunter" ecology include:
- a limited technology and energy basis, tools characterized multi-function, yet vast and
sophisticated ecological knowledge base. A listing of approximate
level of energy needed per day per capita to maintain the society:
- Paleolithic society: approximately 2,000 kilocalories
needed per day per capita.
- Historic and contemporary gatherer-hunter society: the equivalent
of 5,000 kilocalories are needed daily per capita.
- Horticultural society: the equivalent of 12,000
kilocalories are required .
- Agricultural society: the equivalent of 26,000 kilocalories
are needed daily.
- Industrial society: the equivalent of 77,000 kilocalories
are required per capita per day.
- Technological society: the equivalent of from 230,000 to 273,000
kilocalories are needed per individual each day.
- transhumance and nomadic seasonal cycle
- flexible and autonomous social groupings
- equalitarian roles and leadership
- spiritual foundation
- an integration into preexisting ecosystem, resulting in the following
cultural values:
- "walk lightly" -- ecological balance -- receive only what the natural
landscape provides
- a "kinship" -- inclusivity -- with the landscape, e.g., address and
relate to a deer as a "brother"
- a "partnership" -- equality -- with the animals and plants of the landscape,
i.e., the "animal peoples" have the same rights as "human peoples" and
"live by consent of others"
- an "ethic of sharing" among and between all the human and animal kinsmen, i.e,
universal and equitable distribution of "gifts" based on need -- one's status
measured in terms of what given away
- Note: extension and replication of the same cultural values that characterizes how
gatherer-hunters relate
to "human people" characterizes how they relate to "animal peoples."
- The "Original Affluent Society"
- low level of work output needed and high level of leisure and social time afforded.
Average work-week is 20-25 hours of labor.
- healthy diet, including calorie, fiber, calcium and protein intake, and low fat and
sodium consumption. The Paleolithic gatherer-hunter dietary
consumption levels per day per capita include:
- an estimated 3,000 calories (these levels of calorie
consumption are compared with the United States Department of
Agriculture recommended minimum of 1,975 calories).
- 250 grams of protein (these levels are comparable or exceed
the actual U.S. average consumption which ranges from 50-125 grams)
- fat consumption was at 71 grams (30 g. animal and 41 g.
plant), representing 21% of the total daily dietary energy source.
The U.S. average consumption represents 42% of the diet, with 30% a
U.S.D.A. recommended. A significant portion of the U.S. fat
consumption is of saturated fats)
- Sodium levels were at 690 milligrams (compared with the
U.S. average consumption of 2,300-6,900 mg. per day)
- Calcium intake levels were at 1,580 milligrams (compared
with an average 740 mg. per day in the U.S. Of note, this calcium
level was reached without dairy products, e.g., cheese or milk, but
was a result of the way animal foods are prepared and consumed,
i.e., inclusion of animal bone)
- ascorbic acid was at 392 milligrams per day (compared with
an average U.S. consumption of 88 mg.)
- fiber intake was at 46 grams per day ( compared with an
average U.S. of 20 grams)
- few diseases and, if survive infancy, great longevity
- "affluence" -- a measure of the ratio of the means and
products available, i.e., the technological knowledge and goods
produced, relative to the desired wants, i.e., the
expectations. For
gatherer-hunters, what is desired is obtained. And given the "ethic of sharing,"
no one or group goes without. Anything but "nasty,
brutish and short-live." "A poor man shames us all."
Domestication, Agriculture, Capitalism, and the Culture of Consumption
- Jericho 9,400 years ago: a metaphor of domestication.
Why were the walls and tower
of Jericho built?
- Domestication of plants was pursued by the Natufians and people of Jericho
as an unintentional, secondary strategy for survival in a "ghetto"
gatherer-hunter zone, all predicated on a number of precursor conditions
first occurring.
- Domestication is predicated on and leads to the defining characteristics of an
agricultural ecology as well as the culture
of capitalism:
- higher ratio of technological control and energy application over the
land (than in gatherer-hunter, herding or horticultural ecologies), as exemplified
in the use of the plow, resulting in greater yield of crop per
capita of land.
- a sedentary life-style
- task specialization, differential access to resources, social stratification, and
political centralization
- manipulation of and control over a natural species -- creating a "domestic"
from what now is considered a "wild"
- a symmetrical relationship of mutual dependency between newly domesticated plant/animal
and human -- each dependent on the other for its survival
- necessitates and eventually leads to rapid growth in human population
- an enormous human labor input is required, though low level of productivity per unit of
human labor results -- you need a lot of labor (thus placing demands
in increased population levels)
- but a high aggregate crop productivity per unit of land also results -- you are able to
produce a lot of food (to feed those extra mouths)
- and critically, redefines the human/landscape cultural values and subsequent relationship
- creating and maintaining a "barrier" between the beneficial
"domesticated" crops and the destructive "wild weeds." What is
"wild" is necessarily a threat to your security -- separation and exclusivity,
displacing Inclusivity – (replacing kinship)
- securing and maintaining control over those "wild weeds." What is
"wild" must be purged. -- dominion and inequality
- a. within natural realm, securing and maintaining control over
those "wild weeds." What is "wild" must be
purged. Ecological success measured by ability to
technologically control and dominate the nature environment and
exploit it – (replacing equality)
- b. within social and economic realm, central control of and
competitive access to scarce resources, leading to stratified
society and political centralization – (replacing equality)
- and once domesticated, transforming nature into a "commodity" for man's
economic exploitation and benefit -- "natural resource"
– (no longer a "kinsmen," no longer with volition)
- Redistributing those resources based on "principle of
competitive accumulation" – you become a "rich man"
via successfully competing for and acquiring material goods. Maximize
one’s gains and minimize one’s losses – (replacing
"ethic of sharing")
- the ultimate success of an agricultural ecology is measured in terms of its ability to
technologically control, manipulate and modify the natural environment
- One consequence is the "Culture of Consumption," with its globalization of
the "American Dream," all starting with the experiment at Jericho,
is the raising level of expectations for a material life-style.
To meet its (our) desires, we must address issues of:
- increased energy consumption and new resources
- new technology development
- effective disposal of waste and pollution
- elimination of bio-diversity and the threat of mono-cropping
- elimination of cultural-diversity and the threat of cultural stagnation
Inclusivity and Exclusivity
- Exclusivity breeds destruction -- Thoughts of Gregory
Bateson on "Mind"
- The search for balance in Traditionalism and Modernity -- Inclusivity
You are currently viewing
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~rfrey/220land.html
To return to Course
Syllabus - ANTH 220
To return to Frey's Home Page
Page manager:rfrey@uidaho.edu