Ecological Concepts and Categories in Ecological Anthropology

Abstract

Borrowing concepts, principles and categories of other disciplines unavoidably raise problems of their correct use in the host discipline. In this article, the author intends to analyze the use of ecological categories and concepts in ecological anthropology. First the definition of ecology and its related and sub-disciplines in natural sciences are investigated. The main body of the article deals with some basic ecological categories, such as ecosystem, population and niche, comparing the potentials of using their concepts both in ecology and anthropology, relying on the works and ideas of different anthropologists who introduced them in their analyses and explanations about the character of specific cultures (e. g. Barth, Rappaport, Singh et al.). Finally, the author comes to the conclusion that the theoretical definitions of all these categories are wide enough to use them in ecological anthropology as well, but the practice of ecology interprets them in a narrower sense and the different levels of ecological investigation are based on this narrow sense. The summary of the article claims that there are several ways of applying ecological methods in human sciences, but they will give way either to disciplines yet to be developed or to a scientific practice not without contradictions.