Ecology and Culture: Environmental Determinism and the Ecological Approach in Anthropology

Abstract

Throughout the ages man has shown an interest in explaining the world around him.' In myths, folk-tales, poetry, literature, history and science, man has communicated his beliefs in a well-ordered universe where given causes inevitably lead to given effects. Explanations of social and cultural forms existing in a given time and place have tended to be simple: they have frequently identified a single factor as a causal agent.2 An explanation that has long enjoyed considerable popularity is that geography determines man's life. The belief in the sovereign influence of environment has been widespread in space as well as in time. As a folk belief, it has frequently taken the form that people who live in the northern part of a given area are typically of stern and sturdy character, industrious and provident. Those who live in the southern section are characteristically easy going, indolent, talkative and of cheerful disposition. This folk belief is shared by such diverse peoples as the Japanese, the Chinese, the Indians, the Italians, the Germans, the Spanish, the English, the Dutch and the Americans.3 Men of letters who have subscribed to environmental determinism include many scholars who have in a major way affected the intellectual history of Western civilization-Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Galen, Polybius, and Ptolemy.