Environmentalism and Cultural Theory: Exploring the Role of Anthropology in Environmental Discourse (Environment and Society)

277 Pages·1996·0.71 MB·English

by  Kay Milton

ENVIRONMENTALISM AND
CULTURAL THEORY

The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the attention paid
by social scientists to environmental issues, and a gradual
acknowledgement in the wider community, of the role of social
science in the public debate on sustainability. At the same time, the
concept of ‘culture’, once the property of anthropologists, has
gained wide currency among social scientists. This book shows
how an understanding of culture can throw light on the way
environmental issues are perceived and interpreted, both by local
communities and within the contemporary global arena.
Taking an anthropological approach the book examines the
relationship between human culture and human ecology, and
considers how a cultural approach to the study of environmental
issues differs from other established approaches in social science.
This book adds significantly to our understanding of
environmentalism as a contemporary phenomenon, by
demonstrating the distinctive contribution of social and cultural
anthropology to the environmental debate. It will be of particular
interest to students and researchers in the fields of social science
and the environment.
Kay Milton is Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the Queen’s
University, Belfast.
ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY
Edited by Steven Yearley
Environmental Sociology
John Hannigan
Citizen Science
Alan Irwin
Environmentalism and Cultural Theory
Kay Milton
ENVIRONMENTALISM
AND CULTURAL
THEORY

Exploring the role of anthropology in
environmental discourse

Kay Milton

London and New York
First published 1996
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Routledge is an International Thomson Publishing Company

© 1996 Kay Milton

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Milton, Kay
Environmentalism and cultural theory: exploring the role of
anthropology in environmental discourse/Kay Milton.
p. cm.—(Environment and society)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Environmentalism—Social aspects. 2. Culture. 3. Ethnology.
I. Title. II. Series.
GE195.M55 1996
303.2–dc20–95–26822

ISBN 0-203-20544-8 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-20547-2 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-11529-9 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-11530-2 (pbk)
To Morse,
who arrived at the beginning
and left at the end

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Social science and environmental discourse 1
1 ANTHROPOLOGY, CULTURE AND
ENVIRONMENTALISM 8
How is anthropology different? 8
The concept of culture in anthropology 13
Anthropology and environmental discourse 22
Exploring environmentalism 27
2 CULTURE AND ECOLOGY 37
Culture as mediator 39
Environmental determinism 40
Cultural determinism 48
Leaving culture out 55
Bringing culture back in 61
3 ENVIRONMENTALISM IN SOCIAL SCIENCE 69
Environmental economics 71
Environmentalism in social and political theory 73
Environmentalism in anthropology 88
What cultural theory can offer 100
4 ENVIRONMENTALISM AND CULTURAL
DIVERSITY 106
The message of the Kogi 107
The myth of primitive ecological wisdom 109
Diverse cultures, diverse environments 114
The lessons of cross-cultural comparison 133
vii
CONTENTS
5 GLOBALIZATION, CULTURE AND DISCOURSE 142
The study of world systems 144
Globalization as a consequence of modernity 150
Globalization and cultural diversity 154
Globalization and cultural theory 159
Globalization as a dual process 164
Culture and discourse 166
6 THE CULTURE OF GLOBAL ENVIRON
MENTALIST DISCOURSE 172
A sense of the global 175
The globalist perspective 180
Opposing globalism 187
Contesting the past, contesting the future 193
Casting a vote? 196
The discourse beyond the debate 204
7 ANTHROPOLOGY, SOCIAL SCIENCE
AND ENVIRONMENTALISM 213
Back to culture 213
An interdisciplinary approach? 219
Cultural theory and environmentalism 222
Notes 227
Bibliography 236
Index 257
viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many people have contributed to this project in various ways. In
particular, I should like to thank Michael Redclift for his
encouraging comments during the early preparation of the book;
Tim Ingold, Roy Ellen and Hastings Donnan, who kindly supplied
me with pre-publication material; Laura Rival, Peter Rawcliffe and
participants in the Oxford Centre for the Environment, Ethics and
Society Seminar at Mansfield College, for their helpful comments
on various parts of the manuscript; Anne Gee for her patience as I
overran several deadlines; Steven Yearley for his constructive
criticism of earlier drafts and his editorial encouragement
throughout; my colleagues at Queen’s University, particularly
Elizabeth Tonkin, for giving me the time and space needed to
complete the project. The extract from the Rubáiyát of Omar
Khayyám (Fitzgerald 1947) is included by kind permission of
HarperCollins Publishers Limited. I am especially grateful to John
Stewart for his comments on various drafts, his constant support
and endurance of many bouts of bad temper. A final word of
thanks is due to the many students whose enthusiastic exchanges
and awkward but insightful questions have helped me to develop
the ideas expressed in this book.
ix