CHAPTER 3 - Human Ecology and Cultural Ecology

Abstract

This chapter discusses human ecology and cultural ecology. Human ecology is a pattern of purposive behavior involving a matching of resources with objectives, a transforming of natural phenomena to meet these objectives, and a capacity to think about this process objectively without actually going through the physical steps. This form of behavior also contains the capability of becoming aware of the disturbances created by humans in the milieu and how these might be avoided if there is evidence of danger. The position that human ecology is theoretically assimilable into a general biological ecology was advocated. Equally problematic is the methodology and scope of human ecology. The most obvious implication of the very term human ecology is that man is a special or unique case and that human ecology must be studied with methods and concepts differing from those used for plants and animals. Cultural ecology is the reciprocal relationships between the production of energy and goods, cultural values, social organization, technology, and population. Anthropological cultural ecology has been particularly concerned with the way these reciprocal relationships function in relatively isolated, low-energy societies, often living in specialized environments.