See all ›
113 Citations
See all ›
7 References
The New Ecological Anthropology
Abstract
Older ecologies have been remiss in the narrowness of their spatial and temporal horizons, their functionalist assumptions, and their apolitical character. Suspending functionalist assumptions and an emphasis upon (homeo)stasis, “the new ecological anthropology” is located at the intersection of global, national, regional, and local systems, studying the outcome of the interaction of multiple levels and multiple factors. It blends theoretical and empirical research with applied, policy-directed, and critical work in what Rappaport called an “engaged” anthropology; and it is otherwise attuned to the political aspects and implications of ecological processes. Carefully laying out a critique of previous ecologies by way of announcing newer approaches, the article insists on the need to recognize the importance of culture mediations in ecological processes rather than treating culture as epiphenomenal and as a mere adaptive tool. It closes with a discussion of the methodologies appropriate to the new ecological anthropology. [“the new ecology,” political ecology, applied or engaged anthropology, linkages methodology]
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
The new ecological anthropology
Conrad P Kottak
American Anthropologist; Mar 1999; 101, 1; Academic Research Library
pg. 23
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
- CitationsCitations113
- ReferencesReferences7
-
- social action in the interconnectedness of an ecosocial system that encompasses given norms that are structured and stable and part of socially shaped schemas for engagement, while also being in emergence as discourses in the making (Morrison 2010; see also Miller, this issue). The notion of ecology here needs some disambiguation as it is used in environmental and natural sciences and anthropology as a mode of cultural ecology (e.g., Kottak, 1999) and media studies. Cultural ecology sees the natural and physical environment as having a non-determinist influence on our cultural and socio-material ones.
[Show abstract] [Hide abstract] ABSTRACT: We analyse the challenges and changing character , production and consumption of the emerging genre fashion film through a genre as ecology approach. This approach accounts for the complexity of various rhetorical practices used within the creative industries, such as fashion. We find that digital mediation compels genre innovation in networked cultures in the mediation of fashion. We examine three fashion films to ascertain how they function as cultural production within web-and mobile-based communication and networked articulations. These need to be understood as part of distributed, polyvocal and multimodally mediated digital branding and advertising strategies that have largely not been addressed as genre by media and communication studies. Genre ecology is proposed as an addition to typological and developmental models of (media) genre innovation. -
- 5 The American Anthropologist journal published a special issue in 1999 dedicated to Ray Rappaport's work in which several anthropologists drew up the new design of environmental anthropology. Kottack (1999) , for instance, argues that the new environmental anthropology has to blend with political awareness and policy concerns. He also points out that we need to look closer at what he calls environmental morality .
[Show abstract] [Hide abstract] ABSTRACT: The paper explores the contribution of social and cultural anthropology to the study of environmental disasters and climate change as it is reflected in the literature. It then makes some suggestions how the anthropology of and in Southeast Europe can contribute to these issues and the reasons why social anthropologists from and of Southeast Europe should engage more in environmental issues. It concludes that engaging in these issues will not only refresh the discipline theoretically and methodologically in the context of zonal anthropologies but can also offer the discipline of social anthropology a more conspicuous political voice. -
- Initially used in the United States, the term has since gained international usage. It is often used as a broader term when compared to Ecological Anthropology, although the latter is sometimes used as a proxy for Environmental Anthropology (Kottak 1999). In Europe, the term Anthropology of Nature continues to be used as a general designation for anthropological works on environmental issues.
-
- En este sentido varios autores (Escobar 2000; Diegues 2005; Milton 2006; Restrepo 1996) han señalado el carácter etnocéntrico del ambientalismo: sus discursos son construidos a nivel global y difícilmente admiten un discurso intercultural compartido que permita, en palabras de Little (1999), pensar localmente y actuar globalmente. Discursos homogeneizadores como el del desarrollo sostenible o la conservación, imponen o exigen una moral ecológica global que no considera el carácter " situado " de los conocimientos y reemplaza las prácticas locales por normalizaciones foráneas poniendo en evidencia relaciones de poder y tensiones entre lo global y lo local (Kottak 1999). ambiental de Norte y Centro América con Sur América.
[Show abstract] [Hide abstract] ABSTRACT: This article aims to characterize the relation of a community of fishermen in the Gulf of Urabá to the surrounding mangrove ecosystems and their conservation. The analysis was done following the ethnographic approach (participant observation and in-depth interviews). The analysis is based on the perspectives of political ecology and ethno-ecology. This approach reveals the existence of multiple overlapping territorialities and power relations underlying the inequitable attribution of responsibilities among local stakeholders in the conservation and restoration of the mangroves. The absence of favorable attitudes regarding the protection of marine and coastal resources is considered to be an expression of the sharp contradictions that permeate the economic, social and political life of the Urabá region. -
- Mosse (2001) notes that local knowledge could benefit the marginalized communities based on coordination of local knowledge with development projects. In this context, local ecological knowledge requires epistemological recognition in local and basin-wide water management systems (Kottak 1999; Van Eijck and Roth 2007). This recognition can promote farming communities' beliefs, cultural practices, seasonal patterns, and festivals in these systems.
[Show abstract] [Hide abstract] ABSTRACT: This paper explores the ecological effects of the top-down Ganges Basin water management systems in Chapra, Bangladesh, based on my ethnographic fieldworka data collected in 2011-12. An example of this top-down system is the Farakka Barrage in India that causes major ecological system failures and challenges to community livelihoods. The reduction in Ganges Basin water flow in Bangladesh based on the pre and post Farakka comparison is helpful in understanding these failures and their effects on community livelihoods. My argument is that basin communities are capable of becoming empowered by Ganges Basin water management and failures in the management create major challenges to the livelihood of these communities. In this context, I analyze the current Ganges Basin management practices, focusing specifically on the Joint River Commission and the 1996 Ganges Treaty between India and Bangladesh, and their effects on the basin communities in Chapra. My fieldwork data point out that the current shortcomings in basin management can be overcome with an improved management system. Water governance based on a multilateral approach is a way to restore the basin’s ecological systems and promote community empowerment. Based on this empowerment argument, this paper is divided into the following major sections: importance of the basin ecosystems for protecting community livelihoods, limitations of current basin management practices and community survival challenges, and proposed water governance for community empowerment. -
- This effort is directly related to the treatment of the relationships between " nature " and " culture " , discussed in turn by two antagonistic anthropological perspectives: one cultural-ecological and the other socio-cultural. The first one, started as cultural ecology (Steward, 1955 ), was consolidated as ecological anthropology (Rappaport, 1968) and has recently bifurcated into " old " and " new " (Kottak, 1999). Recently, the new ecological anthropology is home to the " ecosystemic " (Morin, 1999) " ethnoecological " (Nazarea, 1999) and " ecological-historical " approaches (Baleé, 1994), among others.
[Show abstract] [Hide abstract] ABSTRACT: The objective of this article is to present a sociological analysis about sustainability based on questionings about ecology, economics, sociology and anthropology. From the assumption that its scientific production is polysemic, complex and asymmetrical regarding ecological, economical and socio-anthropological contents, it is important to find a methodology that comprises the internal articulation of the proposals as well as the interdisciplinary practices derived from it. This proposal, based on the reflexive modernization theory and in the social studies of science, suggests that the various sustainability ideas have to be analyzed observing: the ontological conceptions of human and non-human interaction events; the idea of disturbance, including risk and threat situations; and, the derived consequences of the approach of environmental dilemmas. This analysis hopes to contribute with a sociological point of view, focused on the linkage between the scientific artifact and the politic propositivity inside the environmental context.
Project
The goal of this project is to provide a platform where collaborators can discuss issues in the ethnography, history and archaeology of the South Betsileo region of Madagascar.
Article
Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are the most proficient and versatile users of tools in the wild. How such skills become integrated into the behavioural repertoire of wild chimpanzee communities is investigated here by drawing together evidence from three complementary approaches in a group of oil-palm nut- ( Elaeis guineensis) cracking chimpanzees at Bossou, Guinea. First, extensive surveys of... [Show full abstract]
Article
I discuss the utility of modeling in the social sciences, with emphasis on the long-term study of the coevolution between society and nature. I emphasize the need for such models to develop dynamical theories concerning processes about which we are only informed through their consequences and results.
Article
Recent discussion on invasive species has invigorated the debate on strategies to manage these species. Lantana camara L., a shrub native to the American tropics, has become one of the worst weeds in recorded history. In Australia, India and South Africa, Lantana has become very widespread occupying millions of hectares of land. Here, we examine historical records to reconstruct invasion and... [Show full abstract]
Data provided are for informational purposes only. Although carefully collected, accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Publisher conditions are provided by RoMEO. Differing provisions from the publisher's actual policy or licence agreement may be applicable.
This publication is from a journal that may support self archiving.
Learn more