Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. xvi, 324 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

1. "Human ecology is ultimately part of a general theory of society. This is the argument developed here by Roy Ellen, whose exploration of the interplay between social organization and ecology in small-scale subsistence systems has direct bearings both on the investigation of human environmental relations in general and on contemporary social theory. He argues that while ecological study of non-industrial societies cannot be elevated to the status of theory, domain, or discipline, it can be represented as a single 'problematic' that historically has acquired some degree of autonomy and which continues to make a significant contribution to a wider anthropology. Dr Ellen introduces his subject matter through an extended and systematic discussion of some major frameworks developed within the last hundred years to examine and explain facets of the relationship between culture, social organization, and the environment: determinism, possibilism, cultural ecology, systems theory and ideas derived from modern biology. He follows this with a detailed review and appraisal of important recent research involving the use of ecological models, methods, and data. This original and innovative study of the pre-eminently social character of human ecological relations will be of considerable interest to all students and researchers concerned with understanding the nature of the relationship between human beings and their environments"--Publisher description.

Series statement

1. Themes in the social sciences

Uniform title

1. Themes in the social sciences

Subject

1. Ethnology > Philosophy
2. Human beings > Effect of environment on
3. Ethnology > Methodology
4. Human ecology
5. human ecology
6. 73.13 settlement (ethnology)
7. Humanökologie
8. Sozialanthropologie
9. Soziologische Theorie
10. Subsistenzwirtschaft
11. Vorindustrielle Gesellschaft
12. Culturele ecologie
13. Sociale interactie
14. Environnement > Anthropologie
15. Sozialanthropologie
16. Soziologische Theorie
17. Subsistenzwirtschaft
18. Vorindustrielle Gesellschaft

Contents

1. Environmental determinism and causal correlation -- Possibilism and limiting factors -- Cultural ecology and the explanatory imperative -- Human ecology and the biological model -- The flow of energy and materials -- Ecosystems and subsistence patterns I -- Ecosystems and subsistence patterns II -- Systems and their regulation -- Information and the manipulation of the environment -- Adaptation: a summary and reconsideration -- The reproduction and evolution of social and ecological systems -- Ecology in anthropological method and theory.

Owning institution

1. Princeton University Library

Note

1. Includes index.

Bibliography (note)

1. Bibliography: p. 287-312.