Human Ecology: Biocultural Adaptations in Human Communities (Ecological Studies)

310 Pages·2006·5.28 MB·English

by  Holger Schutkowski

Ecological Studies,Vol. 182
Analysis and Synthesis
Edited by
M.M.Caldwell,Logan,USA
G.Heldmaier,Marburg,Germany
R.B.Jackson,Durham,USA
O.L.Lange,Würzburg,Germany
H.A.Mooney,Stanford,USA
E.-D.Schulze,Jena,Germany
U.Sommer,Kiel,Germany
Ecological Studies
Volumes published since 2001 are listed at the end ofthis book.
H.Schutkowski
Human Ecology
Biocultural Adaptations
in Human Communities
With 36 Figures and 7 Tables
1 23
Dr.Holger Schutkowski
Biological Anthropology Research Centre
Department ofArchaeological Sciences
University ofBradford
Bradford,BD7 1DP
West Yorkshire,UK
Cover illustration:Picture ofmonth December,by Stephan Kessler and fellows (Brixen,1675/80).
Benediktbeuern monastery,Germany
ISSN 0070-8356
ISBN-10 3-540-26085-4 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York
ISBN-13 978-3-540-26085-1 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York
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To Helen
Preface
Human Ecology comes in various guises and is addressed at very different
levels; from the narrow focus of human household economics to the global
issue ofhumans as the agencies ofunconcerned and irresponsible consump-
tion oflandscapes and resources.Yet,Human Ecology comprises what it says:
the study ofhuman populations and their interrelationships with the charac-
teristics and properties of their environment.But this is where the analogy
with general ecology stops.Human interaction with their habitats is almost
entirely shaped by their cultural characteristics.Culture,this complex entity
oftechnological inventiveness,social institutions,beliefsystems and idiosyn-
cratic identities, is an integral part of the human condition and forms a
unique amalgamation with our evolutionary biological and behavioural her-
itage.Human Ecology,therefore,has to integrate both aspects into a study of
biocultural adaptations ofhuman communities.This is an almost all-encom-
passing,gargantuan briefthat needs tobe broken down into comprehensible
units.
The attempt presented here takes its starting point from a very basic area
of life-support strategies:the procurement of food and other resources.The
topics explored in this book are therefore both immediately and indirectly
connected to resources:subsistence strategies,subsistence changes,resource
allocations, population dynamics and reproduction. These are areas which
either directly refer to possibilities and patterns of tackling the challenge of
securing survival,to satisfy the energetic or caloric requirements from exist-
ing options within the habitat,or indirectly refer to those options which are
affected by these possibilities and patterns and which reflect the results of
such efforts,both at the individual and population level.The starting point for
such a resource-focused approach follows from the central ecological princi-
ples ofmaterial and energy flows in a given habitat,which humans are a nec-
essary part of. Resources and their use are, as it were, the interface where
humans integrate in the flows ofmaterial and energy and where their variable
exploitation by means of cultural solutions become the hallmark of human
niches.
VIII Preface
After addressing theoretical and historical aspects of human ecological
enquiry, the book will therefore examine modes of production and food
acquisition and how they are influenced by the characteristics of different
habitats and their limiting factors.This is followed by a consideration ofsub-
sistence change and explores its conditions and contexts against a range of
likely causes. Resource use and social organisation explore the question of
unequally distributed possibilities of access to resources within mainly his-
toric societies.Finally,it will be attempted to synthesise all three topics into an
appreciation of population development and regulation and to analyse the
consequences ofdifferent forms ofresource use on the size and composition
ofa population,i.e.in which form subsistence affects the reproductive options
within a population.
The organising pattern ofthis book follows function or functional areas of
life.This structure deliberately deviates from ‘classic’approaches that take the
division ofthe earth into biomes as a starting point and explore which kinds
of adjustment enabled humans to survive under specific and typical habitat
conditions.In contrast,an arrangement focussed on function has the advan-
tage that, where thematically necessary and useful, a habitat-oriented view
can be taken, for example with regard to strategies of food acquisition or
modes of production.At the same time, however, such a system keeps the
option ofbeing able to show not only the differences but also the commonal-
ities of strategies for coping with quite different habitats.The variability of
biocultural responses is characterised by exactly this duality ofthe,as it were,
universal functional areas and their local shapes and forms.Foragers,pas-
toralists or farmers do or did roam nearly all continents;and the respective
habitat factors led to quite different adaptations.It is nevertheless the local
and regional responses to the unchanging fundamental challenges ofthe use,
availability and control of resources which can be examined for their condi-
tions and effects and whose vital connection with structures in the social
organisation ofcommunities can be recognised.In this regard,this book pays
tribute to the tradition ofSteward’s Cultural Ecology.At the same time,how-
ever,it draws from the systemic approach ofEcological Anthropology,as cul-
tural achievements will be regarded as those components or system proper-
ties which act as determinants for coping with habitat constraints and the
concrete problems ofdaily life resulting from such constraints.This approach
will be complemented by reverting to concepts of Behavioural Ecology,
thereby allowing individual decisions to be considered in the context ofsocio-
cultural institutions,which are the basis of observable characteristics on the
population level.
The central areas of life and function are characterised by their mutual
dependence on the biological and cultural characteristics of the populations
which were chosen as examples.Humans do not exist in a pristine state ofnat-
ural being.No human community is able to survive without cultural develop-
Preface IX
ments and inventions,without technology,or without traditions and institu-
tions.Their long-term survival is secured because they live through human
thoughts and actions and require to be translated by humans. Biological
processes and cultural structures are tied together in human life and human
evolution. Therefore humans in their ecosystems are the hinges between
socio-cultural,biotic and abiotic components.It is this role that makes them
unique.
Whilst the comprehensive demand behind this statement can only be com-
petently redeemed in a cross-disciplinaryy discourse,the material used for this
study must be necessarily limited.Certain areas usually connected with the
topic ofbiocultural adaptations are therefore missing,e.g.the entire complex
of material culture and its meaning. Devices, tools or handicraft, in other
words the technological skills and achievements ofa society,are undoubtedly
important as part oflife-support systems and are one key factor in analysing
survival strategies.Major lines of argument,for example the connection of
population growth and the intensification offood production have in the past
referred to technological innovations as the driving force behind cultural evo-
lution.To describe and analyse these is one thing.To understand the meaning
ofmaterial culture in the context ofits function in a certain culture is a differ-
ent matter entirely.Both sides however are inseparable,if material culture is
not to be reduced to its bare functional content.
For example,the houses built by the Toraja of Sulawesi (Indonesia) with
their characteristic roofs,saddleback-shaped and the roofends upswept,can
most likely be understood by appreciating the laws and principles ofphysics
and then be esteemed for their possible advantages and benefits in ambient
climatic conditions.At the last,however,when one attempts to reconcile these
aspects with their obvious meanings as part of cosmological concepts,with
the integration of the material environment deeply rooted in the belief sys-
tems ofthe community,the compelling necessity ofdiscourse and the unifica-
tion ofaspects ofdifferent subject matters becomes evident.However,the dis-
ciplinary leadership would then no longer be with scientific anthropology,but
with subjects ofthe humanities that are close to anthropology.In this regard,
the restriction on topics revolving around resource-related areas of life in
human communities takes into account disciplinary competence.
The formal structure of the book sees general theoretical aspects of the
topic at the beginning ofthe respective chapters,which are prepared by brief
examples.In the more specific parts,different aspects of the topic are devel-
oped by case studies.The chapters close with a summarising view and a com-
parison of the differences and commonalities of biocultural adaptations
derived from the case studies,as appropriate.The case studies may appear to
be portrayed in some detail from time to time,yet their purpose is only to
serve as illustrations ofthe underlying principle,notably the development of
biocultural strategies ofadaptation to changing and specific ecological condi-
X Preface
tions.Such examples are neither limited to certain geographical regions nor
to certain time-horizons and will, as far as sub-recent examples are con-
cerned,employ the ethnographic present tense.Thus,on the one hand this
opens the possibility of being able to represent the versatility of biocultural
adaptations in different natural conditions and different subsistence modes
and,on the other hand this demonstrates that ecological questions and their
systemic treatment are not subject to historical temporal delimitation or lim-
ited to synchronic analyses,but rather attempt to integrate reference to the
course ofhistoric events and developments.
This book owes its development and completion to the encouragement,
stimulation,advice and support ofcolleagues and institutions,to whom I feel
privileged to extend my gratitude.
Thanks are due to Bernd Herrmann,my long-time and influential acade-
mic teacher,also to Michael Casimir,Silvana Condemi,Randolph Donahue,
Alexander Fabig,Gisela Grupe,Clark Larsen,Gabriele Macho,Donald Ortner,
Britta Padberg,Mike Richards,Martin Rössler,Henry Schwarcz,Eva Stauch,
Joachim Wahl and Philip Walker.Last,but not least,I should like to thank the
many students for their inquisitiveness and interesting questions.
The completion ofthis book has greatly benefited from a teaching buy-out
granted by the Department ofArchaeological Sciences in the autumn term of
2004.
Springer-Verlag has admirably put up with the duration ofthis project and
I am greatly indebted to Drs Andrea Schlitzberger and Dieter Czeschlik for
their continuous support.Thanks also go to Alan Mill for congenial copy edit-
ing.
Bradford,July 2005 Holger Schutkowski