The Environment in Anthropology: A Reader in Ecology, Culture, and Sustainable Living

504 Pages·2005·3.58 MB·English

by  Nora Haenn, Richard Wilk

The Environment in Anthropology
The Environment in Anthropology
A Reader in Ecology, Culture, and
Sustainable Living
e d i t e d b y
Nora Haenn and Richard R. Wilk
a
New York University Press
n e w y o r k a n d l o n d o n
n e w y o r k u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s
New York and London
www.nyu press.org
© 2006 by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The environment in anthropology: a reader in ecology, culture, and
sustainable living / edited by Nora Haenn and Richard Wilk.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–8147–3637–8 (alk . paper) —
ISBN 0–8147–3636–X (cloth: alk . paper)
1. Human ecology. 2. Applied anthropology.
I. Haenn, Nora, 1967– II. Wilk, Richard R.
GF8.E58 2005
304.2–dc22 2005050525
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
General Introduction to the Reader 1
s e c t i o n 1 : Theoretical Foundations 3
1 The Concept and Method of Cultural Ecology 5
Julian Steward
2 Smallholders, Householders 10
Robert Netting
3 Ecosystem Ecology in Biology and Anthropology 15
Emilio Moran
4 Gender and the Environment: A Feminist Political Ecology
Perspective 27
Dianne Rocheleau, Barbara Thomas-Slayter, and Esther Wangari
5 A View from a Point: Ethnoecology as Situated Knowledge 34
Virginia D. Nazarea
6 The New Ecological Anthropology 40
Conrad P. Kottak
7 Normative Behavior 53
I. G. Simmons
s e c t i o n 2 : Population 73
8 Some Perspectives and Implications 75
Ester Boserup
9 Beyond Malthus: Sixteen Dimensions of the Population
Problem 80
Lester Brown, Gary Gardner, and Brian Halweil
10 Reproductive Mishaps and Western Contraception: An African
Challenge to Fertility Theory 87
Caroline Bledsoe, Fatoumatta Banja, and Allan G. Hill
v
vi Contents
11 Gender, Population, Environment 113
Sally Ethelston
12 The Environment as Geopolitical Threat: Reading Robert
Kaplan’s “Coming Anarchy” 118
Simon Dalby
s e c t i o n 3 : Large-Scale Economic Development 137
13 Energy and Tools 139
Leslie White
14 The Growth of World Urbanism 145
Charles Redman
15 The Anti-Politics Machine: “Development” and Bureaucratic
Power in Lesotho 163
James Ferguson with Larry Lohmann
16 Income Levels and the Environment 173
Wilfred Beckerman
17 Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development 183
Vandana Shiva
18 Measuring up to Sustainability 191
Alan Fricker
s e c t i o n 4 : Conserving Biodiversity 203
19 The Third Stage of Ecological Anthropology: Processual
Approaches 205
Ben Orlove
20 Conflicts over Development and Environmental Values:
The International Ivory Trade in Zimbabwe’s Historical Context 215
Kevin A. Hill
21 The Power of Environmental Knowledge: Ethnoecology and
Environmental Conflicts in Mexican Conservation 226
Nora Haenn
22 Holding Ground 237
Kent Redford, Katrina Brandon, and Steven Sanderson
23 Does Biodiversity Exist? 243
Arturo Escobar
24 Road Kill in Cameroon 246
Michael McRae
Contents vii
s e c t i o n 5 : Managing The Environment 255
25 On Environmentality: Geo-Power and Eco-Knowledge in the
Discourses of Contemporary Environmentalism 257
Timothy W. Luke
26 Radical Ecology and Conservation Science: An Australian
Perspective 270
Libby Robin
27 The Political Ecology of Deforestation in Honduras 284
Susan C. Stonich and Billie R. DeWalt
28 Peasants and Global Environmentalism 302
Akhil Gupta
29 New World, New Deal: A Democratic Approach to Globalization 325
W. Bowman Cutter, Joan Spero, and Laura D’Andrea Tyson
30 Individualism, Holism, and Environmental Ethics 336
Kristin Shrader-Frechette
s e c t i o n 6 : Indigenous Groups 349
31 Cultural Theory and Environmentalism 351
Kay Milton
32 The Benefits of the Commons 355
F. Berkes, D. Feeny, B. J. McCay, and J. M. Acheson
33 Indigenous Initiatives and Petroleum Politics in the
Ecuadorian Amazon 361
Suzana Sawyer
34 Endangered Forest, Endangered People: Environmentalist
Representations of Indigenous Knowledge 367
J. Peter Brosius
35 Tribal Whaling Poses New Threat 386
Will Anderson
36 On the Importance of Being Tribal: Tribal Wisdom 390
David Maybury-Lewis
s e c t i o n 7 : Consumption and Globalization 401
37 How Do We Know We Have Global Environmental Problems?
Science and the Globalization of Environmental Discourse 407
Peter J. Taylor and Frederick H. Buttel
38 The Ecology of Global Consumer Culture 418
Richard R. Wilk
viii Contents
39 A World without Boundaries: The Body Shop’s Trans/National
Geographics 430
Caren Kaplan
40 The Invisible Giant: Cargill and Its Transnational Strategies 443
Brewster Kneen
41 Treading Lightly? Ecotourism’s Impact on the Environment 449
Martha Honey
42 Voluntary Simplicity and the New Global Challenge 458
Duane Elgin
Contributors 469
Index 475
Acknowledgments
The editors express gratitude to the people whose advice and help at critical points in
the project helped the volume come to fruition. Leanne Nash, Catherine Tucker, Glenn
Stone, Dick Norgaard, as well as reviewers for New York University Press, pointed us to
useful publications. Nora Haenn worked on the reader as a Mellon Foundation Fellow
in Anthropology and Demography while at the Carolina Population Center, Univer-
sity of North Carolina. In addition to the Foundation, she thanks the Carolina Popu-
lation Center for building such a supportive research atmosphere. In particular, many
thanks go to Dick Bilsborrow who facilitated the fellowship. Center staff Laurie Lead-
better and Judy Dye helped with bibliographic materials. Graphics savant Tom Swasey
assisted with the charts depicting global trade trends. At the University of North Car-
olina’s Davis Library, Rita Moss was a patient guide through the multitude of publica-
tions offering information on international trade. Sarah Willie, at Indiana University,
undertook invaluable work on copyright permissions which moved the publication
over its final hurdle. Eric Zinner at New York University Press showed immediate
enthusiasm for the project, and we thank him for seeing the volume’s potential from
its earliest stages. Despina Papazoslou Gimbel brought the project through the home
stretch.
Finally, our deepest gratitude goes to family and friends who, by making our lives
possible, make the work possible. Academic lives are often multi-sited, and this par-
ticular project followed the editors from California and Arizona to Indiana and North
Carolina. Family and friends bring these places together into a single home. Nora
thanks Luis Melodelgado, Grace Haenn, and the entire Haenn clan. Rick thanks Elvia
Pyburn-Wilk and Anne Pyburn.
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