Introduction to cultural ecology

INTRODUCTION TO

CULTURAL ECOLOGY

Second Edition

Mark Q. Sutton and E. N. Anderson

INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ECOLOGY Second Edition Anderson Sutton and

“This book is not only a clearly written and highly informative textbook for anthropology

students, but it is a book for anyone interested in people and places. It provides a

glimpse of the vast diversity of relationships between human beings and their envi￾ronment around the globe. It addresses the many challenges our ancestors faced in

their quest for survival, and what cultural responses, adaptations, and innovations

emerged as a result. And it offers an important introduction to the cultural ecology

of the modern world.

“Each chapter provides concise defi nitions of key terms, concepts, and the￾oretical approaches relevant to the study of cultural ecology and anthropology in

general. The book begins by explaining the different elements that comprise the

interdisciplinary study of cultural ecology, and it then discusses the various systems

humans have devised to obtain their food: hunting and gathering, agricultural systems,

horticulture, pastoralism, and intensive food production. Each of these chapters is

accompanied by in-depth case studies of representative cultures. The concluding

chapter addresses what is perhaps the most signifi cant topic of all, namely how

cultural ecology relates to current issues of environmental deterioration and care￾lessness.” —Nancy J. Turner, University of Victoria

Praise for the First Edition

“This badly needed book does a good job updating what we know about the ecological

relationships between people and their habitats. . . . [It] is well organized and the

writing clear and concise. The references cited section is a valuable research tool,

and the glossary is useful for defi ning the more technical terms used in the fi eld.

Highly recommended. Serious undergraduate readers as well as more advanced

professionals.” —CHOICE

Mark Q. Sutton is professor emeritus of anthropology at California State University,

Bakersfi eld, and is principal investigator at Statistical Research, Inc., a cultural

resource management and heritage preservation fi rm.

E. N. Anderson is professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California,

Riverside.

For orders and information please contact the publisher

A Division of Rowman & Littlefi eld Publishers, Inc.

1-800-462-6420

www.altamirapress.com

Cover photo: The Floating Gardens of Xochimilco, Mexico

City. Photo courtesy of Claudia García-Des Lauriers

Anthropology | Ecology

IntroductionCulturalDSRPBK.indd 1 6/15/09 4:29:36 PM

Introduction to

Cultural Ecology

Introduction to

Cultural Ecology

Second Edition

MARK Q. SUTTON AND E. N. ANDERSON

A division of

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.

Lanham • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK

Published by AltaMira Press

A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

http://www.altamirapress.com

Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom

Copyright © 2010 by AltaMira Press

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic

or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written

permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sutton, Mark Q.

Introduction to cultural ecology / Mark Q. Sutton and E. N. Anderson. — 2nd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7591-1246-9 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7591-1247-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)

— ISBN 978-0-7591-1248-3 (electronic)

1. Human ecology. 2. Social ecology. I. Anderson, Eugene N. (Eugene Newton), 1941– II.

Title.

GF50.S88 2010

304.2—dc22

2009015117

™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American

National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library

Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

To my wife, Melinda

—M.Q.S.

To my wife, Barbara

—E.N.A.

Contents

List of Figures and Tables xi

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xvii

1 Introduction 1

What Is Cultural Ecology? 3

Anthropology 5

The Study of Human Ecology 8

A History of Thought on Culture and Environment 13

The Rise of Cultural Ecology 21

Thus . . . 31

Chapter Summary 32

Key Terms 32

2 Fundamentals of Ecology 35

The Environment 35

Niche and Habitat 46

Resources 47

Energy 50

Chapter Summary 55

Key Terms 56

3 Human Biological Ecology 59

Humans as Animals 59

Biological Adaptations 60

Human Population Regulation 63

vii

Nutrition 68

Evolutionary Ecology 73

Chapter Summary 89

Key Terms 89

4 Cultural Ecology 91

Human Capabilities 91

Culture as an Adaptive Mechanism 97

Traditional Knowledge Systems 102

Human Control of the Environment 116

Decision Making 125

A Concluding Thought on Management 131

Chapter Summary 131

Key Terms 132

5 Hunting and Gathering 133

Hunter-Gatherer Classification 135

The Hunter-Gatherer Stereotype 138

Bias in Hunter-Gatherer Studies 140

Population 142

Settlement and Subsistence 143

Environmental Manipulation and Resource Management 152

Relations with other Groups 153

Chapter Summary 154

Key Terms 155

CASE STUDY 5.1: The Nuu-chah-nulth of British Columbia 155

CASE STUDY 5.2: The Mbuti of the Ituri Forest 165

6 The Origins of Food Production 177

Agricultural Domestication 180

The Transition to Farming 181

On the Origin of Agriculture 183

Types of Agriculture 188

The Impact of Agriculture 189

Chapter Summary 194

Key Terms 194

7 Horticulture 195

Horticultural Techniques 195

viii CONTENTS

Use of Wild Resources 206

Environmental Manipulation and Resource Management 207

Relations with Other Groups 207

Chapter Summary 208

Key Terms 208

CASE STUDY 7.1: The Grand Valley Dani of Highland

New Guinea 209

CASE STUDY 7.2: The Lozi of Western Zambia 215

8 Pastoralism 225

General Sociopolitical Organization 226

Types of Pastoralism 227

The Geography of Pastoralism 228

The Origin of Pastoralism 230

Some Parameters of Pastoralism 230

Use of Nonpastoral Products 236

Environmental Manipulation and Resource Management 237

Relations with Other Groups 238

A Note on the Impact of Grazing 238

Chapter Summary 240

Key Terms 241

CASE STUDY 8.1: The Maasai: Pastoralists in East Africa 241

CASE STUDY 8.2: The Navajo: Pastoralists of the

American Southwest 248

CASE STUDY 8.3: Cattle Ranchers in the American West,

by Kimberly Hedrick 256

9 Intensive Agriculture 267

Changes in Scale 268

Techniques of Intensive Agriculture 273

Contemporary Industrialized Agriculture 275

Environmental Manipulation and Resource Management 277

Relations with Other Groups 277

Chapter Summary 277

Key Terms 278

CASE STUDY 9.1: Mountains and Water: The Traditional

Agricultural System along South Coastal China 278

CASE STUDY 9.2: The Maya Agricultural System 294

CONTENTS ix

10 Current Issues and Problems 305

The Tragedy of the Commons 307

Agricultural Involution 308

Agricultural Development and Intensification 309

The Rainforest Dilemma 312

The General Problem 318

Chapter Summary 320

Key Terms 321

Glossary 323

References 331

Index 391

About the Authors 399

x CONTENTS

Figures and Tables

FIGURES

1.1. The general relationship of the major subdivisions within human ecology 3

1.2. Culture areas of North America 16

2.1. The general terrestrial biomes around the world 37

2.2. A general diagram of the aquatic biomes 39

2.3. An example of an ecotone between two ecozones 41

2.4. The general relationship among biomes, ecozones, and ecosystems 42

2.5. A hypothetical series of forest succession stages 44

2.6. A model of boom and bust cycles 50

2.7. A generalized trophic pyramid 52

2.8. A generalized food chain showing trophic levels and

circulation of nutrients 54

3.1. The graphic solution to diet using a linear programming model 86

4.1. The major elements of a landscape: patches, farmland, corridors,

and surrounding matrix 110

4.2. A constructed landscape: systems of terraced fields in Peru 121

4.3. A generalized hunter-gatherer travel route to gather information

and monitor resources 129

5.1. A very simple seasonal round 144

5.2. A fairly complex seasonal round 145

5.3. A very simple fission-fusion model 147

5.4. A very generalized forager settlement model 149

5.5. A very generalized collector settlement model 151

5.6. Location of the Nuu-chah-nulth along the northwestern

coast of North America 156

5.7. The forest along the shore of Vancouver Island 157

5.8. Location of the Mbuti in the Ituri Forest of Central Africa 165

xi

5.9. A schematic of the Mbuti net-hunting tactic 171

7.1. Modern chinampas at Xochimilco near Mexico City 197

7.2. A plan-view schematic of a system of raised chinampas 198

7.3. A slash-and-burn field 201

7.4. An example of the land requirements of a swidden system 205

7.5. Location of the Grand Valley Dani in New Guinea 209

7.6. Aerial view of a village and garden complex, highland

New Guinea, about 1938 211

7.7. Location of the Lozi in southern Africa 216

7.8. A Lozi village isolated by flooding 217

7.9. A woman tilling a Lozi li-shanjo garden 221

8.1. A general geographical distribution of pastoralists in the Old World

by broad ecological zones 229

8.2. Location of the Maasai in eastern Africa 242

8.3. Location of the Navajo in southwestern North America 249

8.4. Location of the Eastern Sierra corridor in California and Nevada 257

8.5. “Moooving” out: Cattle beginning the trek from mountain pastures

to the valley below 262

8.6. A cowboy separating a calf from its mother 263

9.1. The region of traditional Chinese wet rice agriculture 279

9.2. An idealized model of traditional Chinese wet rice agriculture 280

9.3. Rice paddies in China 285

9.4. Location of the Yucatec Maya in the Yucatan Peninsula 298

9.5. A Maya milpa 300

TABLES

2.1. The Major Terrestrial Biomes 38

2.2. The Major Aquatic Environments 40

3.1. Biological Adaptations to Some Stressors 61

3.2. General Daily Caloric Needs 70

3.3. Vitamins Important for Proper Nutrition 73

3.4. Minerals Important for Proper Nutrition 74

3.5. Hypothetical Resource Modeling for Culture X 78

4.1. Some Methods of Environmental Control 118

6.1. Some Theories of the Development of Agriculture 184

6.2. Types of Agriculture 188

6.3. Summary of the Environmental Impact of Agriculture 190

8.1. The Basic Types of Pastoralism 227

9.1. Nutritive Value of Various Foods 271

9.2. General Maya Forest Succession Stages 301

xii FIGURES AND TABLES

Preface

Cultural ecology is one of the two major subdivisions of human ecology, the

other being human biological ecology. We felt that the books available for a class

in cultural ecology focused either too heavily on general ecology, or too much on

human biological ecology, or not enough on cultural ecology. Thus, we faced a

“Goldilocks” dilemma: none of the usual text books were “just right” for our in￾troductory classes. So we decided to create a new book. We begin with the as￾sumption that the student has no prior knowledge of anthropology or ecology

and try to build an understanding from the ground up.

All peoples and cultures are faced with a number of major environmental is￾sues, problems that can be addressed by anthropology and cultural ecology. How

have other people faced and dealt with the same basic problems that face us all

today? How can we improve our situation? What can anthropology and cultural

ecology contribute to the future?

The key is understanding what the options are, what works, and what does

not. This requires a great deal of knowledge that must be obtained through the

study of other groups, including the documentation of their environments and

adaptations. Next, we must analyze what we have learned to develop alternative

responses to environmental situations. We must also understand the conse￾quences of the choices that have been made; we can learn from the successes and

mistakes of others rather than having to repeat those same mistakes.

We do not attempt to cover all aspects of the incredibly complex and diverse

field of the relationships between humans and the environment. We thought it

important to provide a reasonably comprehensive introduction to ecological the￾ory in a simple format, combined with discussions of various human cultures.

We spend more time defining the concepts and classifying things typologically

xiii

than most treatments do. We have concentrated on things we thought would be

appropriate for an introductory student, including traditional food production,

but have not included more sophisticated materials beyond the introductory

level. Many such concepts are important, but it is impossible to do everything in

one book. We plead for charity. However, we do spend some time discussing and

critiquing evolutionary ecology, primarily because we feel it is so widely used and

misunderstood.

We have also had to be highly selective in using and citing the incredibly

large literature that now treats even narrow and specialized questions within

the field. We can only abjectly apologize to those experts (the vast majority,

alas) who find themselves uncited. We have tried, insofar as possible, to con￾fine citations to easily located, basic works or other literature readily accessi￾ble to students.

Our main goal was to try to communicate the anthropological side of ecolog￾ical matters. It is not our intent to cover all the ecological issues or problems of

the world, to deal in detail with modern matters of pollution, climate change, en￾vironmental degradation, and the like; these issues are now in the center of the

world stage (though perhaps not of the U.S. government). Our aim was to ex￾plore how traditional cultures operate and adapt to their environments, how they

function, and what the Western world can learn from them.

Assuming that the student has no prior knowledge of the subject, we begin

with a very basic introduction to anthropology, to scientific inquiry, and end

chapter 1 with a brief history of the development of cultural ecological theory.

Chapter 2 provides an introduction to the concepts and terms used in general

ecology, many of which are heard on the news and read in newspapers and mag￾azines daily, yet are rarely defined in any detail. Human biological ecology (chap￾ter 3) is then discussed as a background to understanding and distinguishing

cultural adaptations, which are the subject of chapter 4. We thought it important

to clearly distinguish between human biological ecology and cultural ecology, as

the two tend to get mixed up in much of the literature, creating a source of con￾fusion for everyone.

The next five chapters (chapters 5–9) deal with discussions of the cultural

ecology of the two broad and generalized economic strategies that are the sub￾ject of much anthropological study: hunting and gathering and food production,

the latter having three basic adaptations, horticulture, pastoralism, and intensive

agriculture. This is a rather traditional approach, and we recognize the problems

with the pigeonholes in which we place societies. However, we feel that it is a

sound approach at the introductory level. Finally, we close (chapter 10) with

xiv PREFACE