ANTH2200 Harvard University Anthropology and The Environment Paper Number of pages: 11 pages Number of sources: 6 sources Paper detalis: Explain Julian

ANTH2200 Harvard University Anthropology and The Environment Paper Number of pages:
11 pages

Number of sources:
6 sources

Paper detalis:
Explain Julian Steward’s concept of ‘cultural ecology’. Do you see any similarities in
the ‘cultural historical approach’ advocated by Steward’s students in their jointly
authored work The People of Puerto Rico and the concept of ‘political ecology’ used
in current writings? What do you regard as the key attributes of political ecological
approaches? Ownership and political
ecology
Eric Wolf
Eric Wolf – fieldwork experiences
? Puerto Rico
As a doctoral student researcher in Julian Steward’s The People of Puerto Rico
project.
? Mexico
Mainly archaeological and ethno-historical.
? Tyrolean Alps
Cole, John W., and Eric R. Wolf. 1974. The hidden frontier: Ecology and ethnicity
in an Alpine valley
Study of two neighbouring communities in the Italian Alps, one Germanicand the other Romance-language speaking, which demonstrated their
ecological convergence and political and symbolic divergence.
Eric Wolf
? A founding member of the teach-in movement against the Vietnam
War.
? The central themes of his work: power, history, dynamics, the
Marxian perspective.
? Continuity between his life history and intellectual enterprise — came
from a family of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi terror.
? First used the term political ecology to understand how power
relations draw on but also shape human–environment interactions.
Specifically, this article examines how political formations and
ideologies affect land use, which had previously been seen as a
completely separate kind of inquiry (cultural ecology).
Political Ecology Article
? A final comment on papers in a symposium.
? A plea for bringing social and political history in to understand local
ecological contexts.
? “The fast-running changes which have set in after World War II–most
especially the development of pursuits outside agriculture and the
transformation of land, labor, tools and money into commodities
subject to households and members-suggest that the use of
strategies of ownership and inheritance are now increasingly
prompted by factors over which the community has little control” (p.
203)
Colonialism and Its
Legacies, as Reflected
in Water, Incorporating
a View from Malawi
C. Mathur and W.O. Mulwafu
Features of this piece
? It is written as a review essay, engaging recurrent themes and key
debates in social theory and in social and historical studies.
? This is a particularly unsettled moment for the debates over the
legacies of colonialism. Discourses of imperial redemption and
nostalgia are on the rise, e.g. Niall Ferguson, Bruce Gilley and Nigel
Biggar. Hence our wish to examine colonial governance in concrete
realms, such as its approach towards natural resources, including
water.
First principles
Recognising “the injustice of water poverty” (Alex Loftus)
“Rather than taking it as a given that some will have access to water
and others will not, or rather than finding solace in technical solutions
or high-profile pledges, political ecology seeks to politicise
understandings of the distribution of water. …( Political ecologists)
are against Malthusian readings of resource wars that naturalise the
scarcity of resources, arguing instead for a recognition of the power
relations through which resources are both produced and distributed”
(Loftus 2009: 953-954).
‘Liberation ecologies’ have had an impact, e.g. they informed the first
Human Development Report on access to water, titled Beyond Scarcity:
Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis (UNDP 2006).
First principles, contd.
Understanding the histories and geographies of capital and empire that led to
the emergence of global mass poverty, and within it, water poverty
? The same world historical processes — “combined and uneven
development” — created unprecedented prosperity in some places and
unprecedented poverty elsewhere.
? The privatised provision of safe drinking water is a new form of
‘accumulation through dispossession’ (Harvey, Swyngedouw).
? But privatisation of water did not become as pervasive under neoliberalism
as was initially feared.
? Karen Bakker argues that water is an “uncooperative commodity”, not well
suited to marketisation, and that the ‘retreat of the state’ in water provision
may very well lead on to the ‘retreat of the market’ in due course .
First principles, contd.
Committing to critical and self-critical scholarship (this was esp.
important to us as collaborators within a predominantly applied research
team)
“The wide range of people, agencies, and processes involved in
addressing concrete water problems all require sustained scrutiny. Too
often in the past, water consumers have been the sole concern, along
with their national governments; this mindset is no longer sufficient
when one realizes the profound presence and involvement of the
transnational community of water experts” (Orlove and Caton 2010:
411).
Mamdani’s argument
? Proposes what amounts to a general theory of colonialism in Africa, in
order to understand how power is organised in contemporary states and
how it continues to successfully fragment resistance.
? European colonial powers dealt with “the native question” – the question of
how a relatively small group of colonialists can establish stable rule over an
indigenous majority – by devising a bifurcated colonial state.
? In the urban context, direct rule and a racialised discourse of civil society (to
be a ‘citizen’, one had to be European).
? In the rural context, indirect rule, or “decentralised despotism”, where the
African population was purposefully splintered into different ethnic (and/or
“tribal”) groupings, and lived as ‘subjects’ of so-called customary authority.
As a result
? the colonial idea of custom was implanted across the continent
(occasionally with chiefdoms being invented in erstwhile stateless
societies)…
? …leading to the “containerisation” of subject populations.
? Mamdani says of the colonial project in Africa – “it has sold to the colonised
its own notion of what was authentic about them, what was trans-historical
about them, and what cannot be changed without being violated”.
? This was a form of rule that powerfully shaped even the form of resistance
to it. Decolonisation movements dismantled the bifurcated colonial state
only partially .
? There was deracialisation but not democratisation, and tensions have
continued between “containerised” ethnicities, and between rural and
urban populations.
Colonialism and Water: Setting the stage for
hierarchical relationships into the present
? Instances of the colonial appropriation of water, e.g. “in South Africa,
settler farms were often named after the captured fountains -Grootfontein, Brakfontein, Modderfontein — which initially sustained
them. By the mid-eighteenth century, as the trekboers moved into
the dry interior of South Africa, nearly 50 percent of new farm names
were water-related” (Guelke and Shell 1992).
? Equally, there was colonial conservationism. However, Beinart argues
that ecological and social regulation were usually intertwined. For
example, Jan Christian Smuts’ simultaneous embrace of ecological
holism and racial hierarchy (Foster and Clark 2008).
Brief observations regarding
inequalities of class
? The need for a historical understanding of labour migrations in the
“Africa of the labour reserves” (Amin 1976), of how apartheid worked
as a system of labour control, for example. Decades of racial
capitalism has meant that class continues to be refracted through
race and ethnicity in contemporary South Africa.
? Debate in the literature over Malawian policies to formalise
customary forms of land tenure – over whether these policies led to
increased class differentiation in the countryside.
? In sum, historical and existing inequities of land and labour imply that
WATERSPOUTT interventions will never be made in a cohesive,
unitary ‘community’ setting.
And gender
? The experience of poverty and powerlessness is invariably gendered,
e.g. Megan Vaughan’s account of famine in Malawi (Vaughan 1987).
Water poverty is also experienced in gendered ways, with waterrelated tasks usually being assigned to women, while most waterrelated powers and rights remain with men.
? Considerable prior research into the role of gender in access to water,
water collection and participation in water governance by
WATERSPOUTT social science partners in Uganda as part of
precursor projects. This provides the bedrock on which to base
further research.
Interpreting resource conflicts
? Introduction of conservation measures has not always gone well, e.g.
Wapulumuka Mulwafu’s 2011 book Conservation Song shows how
resentment over British soil conservation measures significantly
fuelled the Malawian decolonisation movement.
? The history of colonial-era ecological conflicts informs the politics of
water in present-day Malawi — acts of resistance such as illegal
disconnections and the cutting of distribution pipes point to a larger
problem of inequalities in water distribution.
Cultural Theory and
Environmentalism
Kay Milton
? Anthropology has much to offer to environmentalists.
? Starting with the clear message that non-industrial peoples are not
automatically the repositories of ecological wisdom. It is a mistake to
assume that indigenous and traditional cultures are inherently more
“natural”.
? This should not be regarded as a negative message. It is important to
stress that understanding cultural diversity can lead to ecological
wisdom.
How anthropological knowledge can inform
environmental discourse
? It is a mistake to say that some cultures are more “natural” than
others – this just leads to prejudice and discrimination against them.
Also, claiming that sustainability can be achieved just by “going
back” makes the uncritical champions of “progress” tune out. This is
harmful because their attention and efforts are esp. required at the
current juncture. Instead, she suggests that nature should be seen as
“the all-encompassing scheme of things to which all human cultures
and practices, as well as non-human species and physical processes,
belong”. Thus, “a dam built by people is as natural as one built by
beavers, computer technology is as natural as collecting fruit from
the rainforest”.
How anthropological knowledge can inform
environmental discourse, contd.
? It is important to understand cultural variation. Different cultures can
understand time, humanity, life and death in radically different ways.
For example, “ the concept of extinction is likely to be very differently
received by those for whom cross-species reincarnation is an
indisputable fact, than it is by western scientists”.
? The various components of each culture’s perspectives interrelate in
very specific ways. “It might seem like a good idea for industrial
societies to emulate the Dogon respect for trees, for instance. But
this is not an isolated phenomenon; it is part of a cultural complex
whose other components do not fit easily into an industrial context”.
The potential of cultural analysis
? Environmental problems and their solutions are as much cultural as they
are physical or biological, and cultural research is an important resource for
environmentalists.
? Cultural analysis is useful not only for understanding processes within a
culture, but also for understanding “transcultural” discourses, i.e. “those
generated by communication across cultural boundaries”. Environmentalist
perspectives are themselves an example of transcultural discourses,
political in character, and can usefully be subjected to cultural analysis.
? “If no human culture holds the key to ecological wisdom, then it is essential
to conserve the greatest possible number of ways of interacting with the
environment if we are to maximize the chances of survival, both of our own
species and of those with which we share the planet. …protecting cultural
diversity might offer the best chance of conserving biodiversity, though I
would not accept the argument… …that cultural diversity can guarantee
the protection of biodiversity”.
The Concept and Method
of Cultural Ecology
Julian Steward
? One of the earliest efforts, going back to the 1950s, to address
human-environment issues in anthropology. Also, a very influential
perspective.
? Decades after Boasian thought had done away with discussions of
causality and generalisation within anthropology, Steward’s work
represented a departure from “salvage ethnography” and “the
ethnographic present”.
? Eric Wolf defines Steward’s approach as a “matter-of-fact
materialism”.
The concept of the cultural core
? Everything – all social, political, religious institutions — associated
with getting a living from a given environment. In his words, “the
constellation of features which are most closely related to
subsistence activities and economic arrangements”.
? As Eric Wolf describes it, Steward is concerned with “the labour
process” (the interactions of people with their local environment)
rather than the “social relations of production” (understanding these
people’s lives in the context of global capitalism).
? Beyond the “cultural core” are the secondary features in any given
society, not tied to doing work in a given environment. These can
vary, and account for the dissimilarity between societies with similar
“cores”.
Hence, cultural ecology
“Cultural ecology differs from human and social ecology in seeking to
explain the origin of particular cultural features and patterns which
characterize different areas rather than to derive general principles
applicable to any cultural-environmental situation”.
“Cultural ecology pays primary attention to those features which
empirical analysis shows to be most closely involved in the utilization of
the environment in culturally prescribed ways”.
“The concept of cultural ecology is less concerned with the origin and
diffusion of technologies than with the fact that they may be used
differently and entail different social arrangements in each
environment”.
The Method of Cultural Ecology
1. Analysis of the interrelationship between productive technology
and the environment – simpler cultures are more directly
conditioned by the environment than complex cultures.
2. Analysis of the behaviour patterns that characterise the use of
technology to make a living in each context – are they cooperative
or competitive?
3. Analysis of the extent to which these behaviour patterns affect
other patterns of culture. Requires a holistic approach – factors like
demography, settlement pattern, kinship structures, land tenure
etc. need to be considered in terms of their interrelationship with
each other and with the environment.
The significance of cultural ecology as
a method
? “Cultural ecology has been described as a methodological tool for
ascertaining how the adaptation of a culture to its environment may
entail certain changes. In a larger sense, the problem is to determine
whether similar adjustments occur in similar environments.
…Cultural types therefore, must be conceived as constellations of
core features which arise out of environmental adaptations and
which represent similar levels of integration”.
The Third Stage of
Ecological Anthropology
Processual Approaches
Ben Orlove
The layout of the longer article from
which the current chapter is excerpted:
? An intellectual history and stocktaking of developments in ecological
anthropology – Annual Reviews in Anthropology article, published in
1980.
? 1st stage – Julian Steward (cultural ecology) and Leslie White
(unilineal evolution) – made it legitimate to talk about societal
change (even evolution) again, for the first time since Boas had
challenged evolutionist ideas.
? 2nd stage – neo-evolutionists (reconciling Steward and White) and
neo-functionalists (e.g. Marvin Harris – “the explication of
ethnographic riddles”).
? 3rd stage – processual approaches – our concern today.
Important trends that have influenced
processual cultural anthropology
? “processual ecological anthropology examines the interaction of
populations and environments rather than treating the latter as a
passive background to the former”.
? In post-war British as well as US anthropology, shift in interest from
social structure to social process; move to actor-based models.
Populations no longer treated as uniform. Interest in individual
behaviour and variability.
? Decision making models, including microeconomic models (though
breaking out of the confinement of the assumption of rational
actors), e.g. Barth used game theory to understand political
organisation among the Swat Pathans.
4 components of processual ecological
anthropology
Demography
? Draws on Esther Boserup’s insight – in her book The Conditions of
Agricultural Growth — that population pressure is the cause of
agricultural intensification , not its result (as was the Malthusian
view). It is population growth that leads to the move from more
efficient extensive to less efficient intensive agricultural systems.
? Orlove describes as processual the studies that followed in the wake
of Boserup’s work. Because they were interested in the relationship
over time between population density and agricultural intensity.
Environmental problems
? Looking at human responses to environmental problems implies a
rejection of the assumption of stable equilibrium. That makes it
processual.
? Responses can be at both individual and collective levels.
? Adaptive strategies
? “The idea of adaptive strategy suggests that individuals, by
repeatedly opting for certain activities rather than others, construct
alternatives which others may then choose or imitate… A focus on
adaptive strategies leads to an examination of the manner in which a
larger number of choices made by individuals can influence the wider
setting”.
? Definition of adaptive strategy by J.W. Bennett: “the patterns formed
by the many separate adjustments that people devise in order to
obtain and use resources and to solve the immediate problems
confronting them”.
Marxisms
? Marxism’s questions: What are the patterns of resource distribution?
If adaptive strategies are “repeated allocation of scarce resources to
a hierarchy of goals under conditions of constraint”, then what
decides the goals and constraints?
? Characteristic of both structural Marxism and political economy.
? Historical change is key in Marxist schema. Reconsideration of the
mode of production concept did away with unilineal evolution.
? Dependency and world systems analysis drew on Marxism.
In conclusion
? Orlove is interested in shaping of the physical environment by
conflict and by certain decision-making processes.
? A historical time frame allows us to understand mechanisms of
change.
Rethinking Political
Ecologies of Water
Alex Loftus
Starting point: recognising the
injustice of water poverty
? “Rather than taking it as a given that some will have access to water
and others will not, or rather than finding technical solutions or highprofile pledges, political ecology seeks to politicise understandings of
the distribution of water as a first step in an emancipatory project to
ensure that all are able to live in environments free from the daily
injustices of stagnant, polluted water sources. As Robbins’ definition
neatly puts it, political ecologists are against apolitical ecologies.
They are against Malthusian readings of resource wars that naturalise
the scarcity of resources, arguing instead for a recognition of power
relations through which resources are both produced and
distributed” (p. 953-954).
Contemporary water debates
? Political ecology perspective is far from marginal. In 2006, the World Bank’s
Human Development Report was titled Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and
the Global Water Crisis, and drew upon background papers by various
political ecologists.
? Report said that it’s a socially produced crisis (not the outcome of scarcity)
on a vast scale. 1 billio…
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