A. Ecological anthropology
B. Examples of contrasting culturally defined values
1. Cloud forests of Pichita, Peru: 1980 vs. 2002
2. Global warming in 2002:a. Arctic permafrost, Greenland ice cap, Alpine glaciers
b. Arguments that it is unproven, or does not existC. Interactions between culture and environment
1. Julian Steward (1968)
2. Adaptive strategies determined by…
a. Environment (physical and cultural)
b. Technology
c. Culturally determined "needs"
d. Social structure3. Flexibility of adaptive strategies
A. Some examples
B. Pleistocene megafauna extinctions
1. Pleistocene geological period
a. Wisconsin Glacial Period (most recent ice age in North America)
b. Changes in glaciation and zonation toward the end of the Pleistocene2. Extinctions
a. Interval of unusually high rates of extinction
b. Extinctions concentrated among large mammals of all kinds3. North American Paleo-Indians
a. Entry into North American from Siberia
b. Effective hunting weapons, strategies, and butchering tools
c. Many archaeological sites that prove successful big-game hunting
d. Development of "mass kill" hunting technique1) Especially effective on Bison antiquus
2) Overkill4. Explanations relating to environmental change
5. Explanations relating to Paleo-Indian big-game hunting
C. Contrasting adaptive strategies in Greenland
1. Native American colonization of the Arctic
a. Initial Paleo-Indian expansion into North America
(1) Bering Straits region & ice-free corridor, 12,000 BC?
(2) Canadian Arctic uninhabitableb. Earliest human settlement
(1) 2200 BC from Siberia eastward across Canadian Arctic
(2) 43 known settlements in NE Greenland, 2000-1700 BC, only 440 miles from North Polec. Continued subsequent occupations
d. Thule ("Tulie") Tradition
(1) Expanded from Bering Straits to Greenland
(a) In northern Greenland by AD 1000?
(b) Expanded south along coasts; overlap with inland Norse(2) Cultural/ linguistic homogeneity across 6000 mile expanse
(3) Precursor to historic/ modern Inuit
(4) Adaptive versatility(a) Sophisticated hunting and fishing weapons
(b) Highly mobile: dog sleds, kayaks, etc.
(c) Effective hunting of land mammals and sea mammals, including bowhead whales2. Norse colonization of the North Atlantic
a. Ireland: Occupied by Norse in AD 800's.
b. Iceland
(1) Learned about Iceland from Irish monks.
(2) 30,000-50,000 Norse colonists by AD 870.c. Greenland
(1) Norse colony founded by Erik the Red in AD 980.
(2) Attracted 6000 Norse colonists in two settlements.d. Vinland (Newfoundland)
(1) Founded by Leif Eriksson in AD 1000.
(2) Valued as source of timber to supply Greenland colony.
(3) Archaeological excavations at L'Anse aux Meadows.
(4) Hostilities with local "Skraelings": (Inuit or an Algonquian-speaking tribe).
(5) Abandoned after a few years; too far, too hostile3. Norse Occupation of Greenland
a. Two principal settlements, SW Greenland. Small, isolated farmhouses. Built of stone, sod, imported timber & nails, as in Scandinavia. Nestled into sheltered valleys inland.
b. Raised sheep, cattle, goats, pigs, horses; Livestock and basic subsistence strategy from Scandinavia. Fodder & hay harvested from high pastures in summer. 9-month winters indoors together with livestock. Very little consumption of local fish & game: hunting controlled by Church; source of income
c. Clothing same as in Scandinavia
d. Exported walrus ivory and falcons to Europe
e. Built churches with income from trade
f. Norse-Inuit contact: overlapping range, but Church stressed avoidance; prevent access to pagan beliefs
4. Norse decline
a. Climatic deterioration
(1) "Little Ice Age" AD 1500, vs warmer period AD 1000
(2) Evidence from glacial ice cores, tooth enamel, etc.
(3) Erosion of denuded pastures, livestock starvation; shorter growing season plus destructive grazingb. Crisis
(1) Middle ear disease: declining health, reduced life span
(2) Increased mortality of young women and children
(3) Malnutrition and famine (slaughtered hunting dog)c. Disappearance of population
(1) West settlement abandoned by 1340
(2) East settlement last visited 1410, abandoned by ca. 1500
(3) Fly evidence: last survivors died in bed5. Secrets of the Dead: The Lost Vikings (video)
Consider the following while watching the video:
a. Compare/contrast the adaptive strategies of Native American vs. Norse colonists of Greenland
b. What explanation does the video offer for the failure of the Norse occupation of Greenland?
c. What kinds of evidence exist in support of this hypothesis?6. Summary
a. Inuit perspective: "This land is beautiful, big, harsh. The Vikings didn't really catch the meaning of life here. You have to have some certain skills to survive."
b. Inuit well-being during Little Ice Age
(1) Preserved remains in permafrost: healthy & warmly clothed.
(2) Blow fly fossils abundant around Inuit homes (leftovers).c. European ways were environmentally "expensive"
(1) Diet, pastoralism, clothing, housing, Church.
(2) Society based on imported goods, tenuous links to Europe.
(3) "Cathedrals in the Arctic."d. Inflexibility
(1) Conservative, rigid society; tried more of same (bigger churches) rather than alternative strategies
(2) A society vulnerable to climate/ environmental change
(3) "These Vikings depended on a social system that lacked flexibility, one that worked in a certain place at a certain time, but could not change… They succumbed to their own rigidity, and disappeared from history."
A. Recycling & Coca-cola
B. Mining in central Peru
C. Extinctions and the vicuña
1. Wild South American camelid
a. Native to pastures of the high Puna zone
b. Finest of all wool2. Endangerment
a. Centuries of uncontrolled poaching for illegal export to US & Europe
b. Became an endangered species despite 20th-century government regulations, international support, and research programs
3. Recent recovery
a. Shift in wildlife management and conservation of this species from national/ international levels to the local traditional communities
b. Communities authorized to sell vicuña products on world market
c. Incentives for effective managerial practices at local level
d. Protection of a valued local resource against over-predation by themselves, or by outsiders/ foreigners
D. Maca: obsessive demands for a high-altitude root crop
1. Root crop
a. Ancient food crop of high Puna grasslands of central Peru
b. Well adapted to high altitude, at upper limits of agriculture
2. Pastoralism of the Puna zone
a. Rich grassland high above tree-line
b. Fragile ecozone; poor soils, slow to recover from over-grazing
c. Land use practices
1) Hunting of deer and wild camelid herds by earliest Paleo-Indians
2) Prehistoric domestication of two camelid species
a) Llama and alpaca
b) For meat, wool, hides, and pack animals
c) Herding on a massive scale by Inca empire
3) Also, small-scale cultivation of maca for 1000's of years
4) Herding of European-introduced sheep & cattle, as well as camelids
3. Maca, the "love potion"
a. Local population long aware of medicinal and nutritional properties
b. Outside world learned of reputed aphrodisiac qualities in 1990's
c. Developed and marketed especially by European corporations for world-wide distribution; further publicized through the Internet
4. Production increase
a. Sudden huge demand by US & European love-potion obsessions
b. Rapidly escalating change in land use: Puna pastures being plowed to plant maca, highly profitable cash crop
5. Environmental concerns
a. Rapid depletion of soil nutrients by maca
b. Plowed ground is slow to revert to good grassland
c. Reduction of high-altitude pasturage– a long-term, valuable, but fragile resource– for short-term cash incentives of maca cultivation
d. Precarious economic dependence, vulnerable to whims of the market
E. Coca: traditional vs. Western usage
1. Production
a. The coca shrub and its leaves
b. Principal zone of production2. Traditional usage
a. Habitual chewing by native population of the high Andes
b. Effects of cocaine ingested through traditional chewing
c. International studies of the functions of coca-leaf chewing
d. Other folk medicinal uses3. History
a. Origins
b. Spanish Colonial
c. Recent past1) Miracle elixir
2) US pharmaceutical companies
3) Coca-cola
4) Addictive narcotic4. Environmental consequences
a. Agricultural production
1) Slash & burn clearing of forest on steep mountainsides
2) Soil erosion and severe flooding down-river
3) Depletion of key minerals in soil; cannot rotate with other crops
4) Chemicals used to grow coca– and in govt. raids to eradicate it
5) Refining of coca leaves for export as an illegal narcotic
a) Sulfuric acid, ammonium hydroxide, potassium permanganate, kerosene, acetone, and hydrochloric acid used in process
b) Dumped into rivers afterwards – elimination of many plant & animal species for 100's of miles down-river
Cree versus Hydro-Quebec
Power: One River, Two Nations (video)