Environment, Subsistence and System

Environment, Subsistence and System PDF Author: R. F. Ellen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521287036
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Get Book Here

Book Description
Human ecology is ultimately part of a general theory of society. This is the argument developed here by Roy Ellen, whose exploration of the interplay between social organization and ecology in small-scale subsistence systems has direct bearings both on the investigation of human environmental relations in general and on contemporary social theory. He argues that while ecological study of non-industrial societies cannot be elevated to the status of theory, domain or discipline, it can be represented as a single 'problematic' that historically has acquired some degree of autonomy and which continues to make a significant contribution to a wider anthropology. Dr Ellen introduces his subject matter through an extended and systematic discussion of some major frameworks developed within the last hundred years to examine and explain facets of the relationship between culture, social organization and the environment: determinism, possibilism, cultural ecology, systems theory and ideas derived from modern biology. He follows this with a detailed review and appraisal of important recent research involving the use of ecological models, methods and data. This original and innovative study of the pre-eminently social character of human ecological relations will be of considerable interest to all students and researchers concerned with understanding the nature of the relationship between human beings and their environments.

Environment, Subsistence and System

Environment, Subsistence and System PDF Author: R. F. Ellen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521287036
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Get Book Here

Book Description
Human ecology is ultimately part of a general theory of society. This is the argument developed here by Roy Ellen, whose exploration of the interplay between social organization and ecology in small-scale subsistence systems has direct bearings both on the investigation of human environmental relations in general and on contemporary social theory. He argues that while ecological study of non-industrial societies cannot be elevated to the status of theory, domain or discipline, it can be represented as a single 'problematic' that historically has acquired some degree of autonomy and which continues to make a significant contribution to a wider anthropology. Dr Ellen introduces his subject matter through an extended and systematic discussion of some major frameworks developed within the last hundred years to examine and explain facets of the relationship between culture, social organization and the environment: determinism, possibilism, cultural ecology, systems theory and ideas derived from modern biology. He follows this with a detailed review and appraisal of important recent research involving the use of ecological models, methods and data. This original and innovative study of the pre-eminently social character of human ecological relations will be of considerable interest to all students and researchers concerned with understanding the nature of the relationship between human beings and their environments.

Subsistence and Survival

Subsistence and Survival PDF Author: Timothy P. Bayliss-Smith
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1483288110
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 443

Get Book Here

Book Description
Subsistence and Survival: Rural Ecology in the Pacific covers the ecology of man's environment, man's use and perception of biological resources, and the physiology and health of the human organism itself. The geographical range of this text extends from the glaciated uplands of Papua New Guinea, through the montane forests and grasslands of the Highlands, into the coastal jungles, and across to the smaller islands and atolls of the South West Pacific. This book is organized into five parts encompassing 14 chapters. The first part deals with the theory and applications of human ecology. The next part considers first the International Biological Program in New Guinea concerning the link between human ecology and biomedical research. This part also explores the nutritional adaptation among the Enga and in Melanesia, and then introduces the principles of environmental health engineering as human ecology. The subsequent two parts highlight the impact of human activities on the environment, with an emphasis on the association between environmental exploitation and human subsistence. The final part discusses the relevance of self-subsistence communities for world ecosystem management. This book will be of great value to anthropologists, geographers, human biologists, nutritionists, botanists, and public health engineers.

Subsistence Agriculture in the US

Subsistence Agriculture in the US PDF Author: Ashley Colby
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000193802
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 136

Get Book Here

Book Description
Focusing on ethnography and interviews with subsistence food producers, this book explores the resilience, innovation and creativity taking place in subsistence agriculture in America. To date, researchers interested in alternative food networks have often overlooked the somewhat hidden, unorganized population of household food producers. Subsistence Agriculture in the US fills this gap in the existing literature by examining the lived experiences of people taking part in subsistence food production. Over the course of the book, Colby draws on accounts from a broad and diverse network of people who are hunting, fishing, gardening, keeping livestock and gathering and looks in depth at the way in which these practical actions have transformed their relationship to labor and land. She also explores the broader implications of this pro-environmental activity for social change and sustainable futures. With a combination of rigorous academic investigation and engagement with pressing social issues, this book will be of great interest to scholars of sustainable consumption, environmental sociology and social movements.

The Roots of Dependency

The Roots of Dependency PDF Author: Richard White
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803297241
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 460

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Richard White's study of the collapse into 'dependency' of three Native American subsistence economies represents the best kind of interdisciplinary effort. Here ideas and approaches from several fields--mainly anthropology, history, and ecology--are fruitfully combined in one inquiring mind closely focused on a related set of large, salient problems. . . . A very sophisticated study, a 'best read' in Indian history."--American Historical Review "The book is original, enlightening, and rewarding. It points the way to a holistic manner in which tribal histories and studies of Indian-white relations should be written in the future. It can be recommended to anyone interested in Indian affairs, particularly in the question of the present-day dependency plight of the tribes."--Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., Western Historical Quarterly "The Roots of Dependency is a model study. With a provocative thesis tightly argued, it is extensively researched and well written. The nonreductionist, interdisciplinary approach provides insight heretofore beyond the range of traditional methodologies. . . . To the historiography of the American Indian this book is an important addition."--W. David Baird, American Indian Quarterly Richard White is a professor of history at the University of Washington. He is the winner of the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Asso-ciation, the James A. Rawley Prize presented by the Organization of Ameri-can Historians and the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians. His books include The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815, "It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own": A History of the American West and The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River

Canadians and Their Natural Environment

Canadians and Their Natural Environment PDF Author: James (Associate Professor of History Murton, Associate Professor of History Nipissing University)
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780199025466
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book tells the story of Canadians and nature over the last 20,000 years, from the Ice Age to Greenpeace to Parks Canada, from Catherine Parr Traill to Farley Mowat to Umeek (Richard Atleo). More than that, it explains why Canadians have in the last two hundred years or so done such damage to the environment, and why they have found it hard to stop.

Shifting Cultivation and Environmental Change

Shifting Cultivation and Environmental Change PDF Author: Malcolm F. Cairns
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317750187
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 1405

Get Book Here

Book Description
Shifting cultivation is one of the oldest forms of subsistence agriculture and is still practised by millions of poor people in the tropics. Typically it involves clearing land (often forest) for the growing of crops for a few years, and then moving on to new sites, leaving the earlier ground fallow to regain its soil fertility. This book brings together the best of science and farmer experimentation, vividly illustrating the enormous diversity of shifting cultivation systems as well as the power of human ingenuity. Some critics have tended to disparage shifting cultivation (sometimes called 'swidden cultivation' or 'slash-and-burn agriculture') as unsustainable due to its supposed role in deforestation and land degradation. However, the book shows that such indigenous practices, as they have evolved over time, can be highly adaptive to land and ecology. In contrast, 'scientific' agricultural solutions imposed from outside can be far more damaging to the environment and local communities. The book focuses on successful agricultural strategies of upland farmers, particularly in south and south-east Asia, and presents over 50 contributions by scholars from around the world and from various disciplines, including agricultural economics, ecology and anthropology. It is a sequel to the much praised "Voices from the Forest: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into Sustainable Upland Farming" (RFF Press, 2007), but all chapters are completely new and there is a greater emphasis on the contemporary challenges of climate change and biodiversity conservation.

The Subsistence Perspective

The Subsistence Perspective PDF Author: Maria Mies
Publisher: Spinifex Press
ISBN: 9781875559930
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book Here

Book Description
First published in Germany in 1997 as 'Eine Kuh fur Hillary: Die Subsitenzperspective'. Provides an alternative to the current global free market industrial system, by calling for a new economics and politics based on a subsistence perspective. Explains subsistence as empowerment based on people's strength and cooperation. Analyses recent feminist politics and argues that the fight for equality with men has failed to make an egaliltarian society. Includes case studies from Africa, Latin America and Europe, references and an index. Mies is professor of sociology at the Fachhochschule, Cologne. Bennholdt-Thomsen is director of the institute of the theory and praxis of subsistence, Bielefeld, Germany.

Claiming the High Ground

Claiming the High Ground PDF Author: Stanley F. Stevens
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publishe
ISBN: 9788120813458
Category : Ethnology
Languages : en
Pages : 578

Get Book Here

Book Description
Stanley Stevens brings new ecological and historical perspectives to his study of a subsistence society in ever-increasing contact with the outside world. The Sherpas of the Mount Everest region, famous for their mountaineering exploits, have frequently been depicted as victims of the world`s highest-altitude tourist boom. But have the Sherpas and their homeland been transformed by tourism? He is the first to analyze the complex interaction of local environmental knowledge, cultural beliefs, and socio-economic and political conditions in changing sherpas subsistence strategies, land use practices, and local resources management institutions. Claiming the High ground is must reading for all those interested peoples and concerned about the conservation of the earth`s high places.

Food Security, Gender and Resilience

Food Security, Gender and Resilience PDF Author: Leigh Brownhill
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317596579
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 214

Get Book Here

Book Description
Through the integration of gender analysis into resilience thinking, this book shares field-based research insights from a collaborative, integrated project aimed at improving food security in subsistence and smallholder agricultural systems. The scope of the book is both local and multi-scalar. The gendered resilience framework, illustrated here with detailed case studies from semi-arid Kenya, is shown to be suitable for use in analysis in other geographic regions and across disciplines. The book examines the importance of gender equity to the strengthening of socio-ecological resilience. Case studies reflect multidisciplinary perspectives and focus on a range of issues, from microfinance to informal seed systems. The book’s gender perspective also incorporates consideration of age or generational relations and cultural dimensions in order to embrace the complexity of existing socio-economic realities in rural farming communities. The issue of succession of farmland has become a general concern, both to farmers and to researchers focused on building resilient farming systems. Building resilience here is shown to involve strengthening households’ and communities’ overall livelihood capabilities in the face of ongoing climate change, global market volatility and political instability.

Shifting Cultivation Policies

Shifting Cultivation Policies PDF Author: Malcolm Cairns
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1786391791
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 1117

Get Book Here

Book Description
Shifting cultivation supports around 200 million people in the Asia-Pacific region alone. It is often regarded as a primitive and inefficient form of agriculture that destroys forests, causes soil erosion and robs lowland areas of water. These misconceptions and their policy implications need to be challenged. Swidden farming could support carbon sequestration and conservation of land, biodiversity and cultural heritage. This comprehensive analysis of past and present policy highlights successes and failures and emphasizes the importance of getting it right for the future. This book is enhanced with supplementary resources. The addendum chapters can be found at: www.cabi.org/openresources/91797