| Abstract: |
Academia is about presenting frameworks. Frameworks run perspectives. <p> For more than a decade the animal protein hypothesis tended to dominate anthro studies of human ecology and adaptation in Amazonia. <p> Cultural analysis used: infrastructure (population, technology, subsistence), structure (social organization, domestic and political economy), and sup[restructure (myth, ritual, symbol, Ethnoecology). <p> Cultural ecology is the study of the ways in a culture adapts a particular human population to its ecosystem. <p> ECOSYSTEM <p> <b>Abiotic component</b> <p> Soils: weathering of parent materials no longer plays an important role in the nutrient economy of the ecosystems
rather nutrients are derived from the atmosphere and the forest itself. <p> Floods: flood plains make up 10% of amazonia <p> Rivers: clear, white, and black water. <p> Biotic component: Tropical rain forests are high in species diversity, however, density is low and the distribution of individuals is patchy. <p> Factors contributing to high species diversity: 1 - geologic antiquity and stability of Amazonia</br> 2 - competition for light and nutrients. <p> Tropical rainforest is a stratified plant community. Biogeography separated into island-like refugia, tree-fall instigates cycles of successionary growth. <p> Faunal species like plant species in that: species diversity is high, but population density is low and distribution patchy. Leaves are ubiquitous yet often full of secondary compounds, often toxic as antipreditor defenses. <p> <b>Cultural system</b> <p> Ultimately, 3 primary adaptive problems confront any population: 1 - coping with hazards, </br>2 - acquiring and possessing resources, <br/>3 - regulating population size, density, and distribution. </br>These 3 problems are related thru the concepts of carrying capacity and limiting factors, concepts which remain at the core of biological ecology, cultural ecology. The universal operation of limiting factors has been demonstrated by biology. While this paradigm is far from perfect, it has generated a wealth of useful insights and data on human ecology, adaptation, and culture. <p> In amazonia anthropologists have pointed to 1) soil fertility, 2) animal protein, 3) carbohydrates, 4) Western disease, and 5) ethnoagronomic knowledge. this all causes great debate and spawns field studies testing these hypothesizes. <p> <b>Infrastructure</b> <p> Because of the nature of agriculture in Amazonia, traditional societies that subsist exclusively on farming are unknown. Manioc is the principle crop in indigenous ecosystems. <p> Maku and Tucanoan: mutualism in the nomadic Muku will trade protein food for carbohydrate food from the more sedentary Tucanoan tribes. Each society thus exploits a different niche and trophic level. <p> <b>Hunting, fishing, gathering</b> <p> Swiddens mimic tree falls in that they stimulate a natural process of succession. Also Geertz argues that swiddens are adaptive in another sense: intercropping imitates the diversity and structure of the forest. Swiddens then phase into a type of agroforestry. <p> Swiddens are adaptable as long as pop. density is low, and ample land is available <p> Kayapo practice a form of nomadic agriculture in which on treks 6-8 months long they visit old gardens and plant new ones and ion other ways experiment with domestication and cultivation. Thus a continuum from wild to semidomesticated to domesticated. <p> ** Much focus on cultural institutions as negative feedback mechanisms regulating population dynamics and resource consumption in relation to carrying capacity. <p> <b>Structure</b> <p> Social organization plays a role in the acquisition, processing, distribution, and consumption of food and other resources. Male/female relations, male supremacist complex in Amazon <p> Cultural practices (e.g. war, infanticide) interpreted as functioning to regulate population in relation to protein resources (Harris). This rebutted by Chagnon and Hames, who demonstrate a surplus of protein in Yanomomo diet. <p> <b>Superstructure</b> <p> Magic is often involved in gardening, hunting, and other activities yet studies tend to be purely ethnographic descriptions, thus not considering their concern with ecology. Exception is Reichel-Dolmatoff: there is emic as well as etic recognition that animal protein is at the base of Desana cultural ecology. Desana ecology is systems ecology, and their religious symbols, beliefs, and values are daily translated into practical action, mainly thru their shaman who manages resource exploitation to insure a sustained yield. His analysis comes closest to a holistic cultural ecology. <p> Fauna taboos may serve a practical function in regulating predation on certain species in cost-effective ways and in relieving predation pressure on certain taxa and/or areas. Faunal prohibitions channels predation away from the less accessible and more vulnerable species to those which provide a better cost/benefit ration combined with sustained yield. In this manner Ross offers an explanation on tapir and deer taboos by the Achuar Jivaro. Similarly in a cross-cultural analysis, McDonald argues that food taboos are a system of game management and conservation beneficial to hunters. <p> Another aspect of superstructure is Ethnoecology, i.e. the environmental knowledge and taxonomy of indigenous societies. <p> <b>Change</b> <p> Change thru Western contact was unparalleled in its suddenness, rapidity, magnitude, and depth. The contact was not just between two cultures but between two worlds. <p> At a biological level, mass mortality was experienced, disrupting cultural systems like a chain reaction. simultaneously ecosystems were disturbed by European extraction industries. Genocide, ethnocide, ecociode becoming synergistic. Nevertheless, some societies adapted to colonialism, becoming the peasantry of Amazonia. Others not effected so much, but nonetheless did not escape Western influence. <p> Process continues, but instead of colonialism it is called economic development, integration, and national security. <p> Increasingly, specialists from diverse disciplines are realizing that civilization might better turn towards indigenous models of development thru cultural ecology and ethnoecology. E.g. Western weapons are not good because they lead to rapid depletion of game. <p> cultural ecology could document indigenous adaptive responses to the new hazard in their ecosystem, Western civilization (shauar ayahuasqueros in U.S.). <p> <b>Research trends and needs</b> <p> While the concepts of carrying capacity and limiting factors are useful, additional ecological concepts merit further exploration. <p> The biases of cultural evolutionism and salve ethnography need to be transcended in order to focus more systematically and intensely on cultural and ecological changes stimulated by colonialism and development. Again, the most important environmental hazard challenging indigenous populations is Western civilization. the environmental and social impact of this hazard as well as the adaptive responses of indigenous cultures are top priorities.
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