Abstract
Since the term “anthropology” appears in the title, and since anthropology is intimately associated with the concept of culture, it is necessary at the outset to describe the writer’s views on the use and meaning of the concept. I consider that “culture” is an abstract generalization made from observing behavior, and, as such, it cannot be a cause of that same behavior.1 However, some of the various phenomena included in the catchall conception of culture are undeniably influential in shaping concepts and practices related to the physical environment. But these phenomena have differing roles to play in this complex process, and therefore must be treated separately. For example, while ideology may influence conceptions of the conservation of resources for posterity, consumer desires may work in the opposite direction. To say that “culture” shapes or determines our use of the environment thus has little meaning. It is necessary to specify what components of culture, in what circumstances, at what times. Moreover, it is necessary to translate these cultural elements into active behavioral tendencies: responses and adaptations made by real people in real-life contexts.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Barkley, P. W., & Seckler, D. W. Economic growth and environmental decay. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1972.
Bennett, J. W. Hutterian brethren: The agricultural economy of a communal society. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1967.
Bennett, J. W. The significance of the concept of adaptation for contemporary sociocultural anthropology. Symposium 7: Proceedings, VIII, International Congress of Anthropological & Archeological Sciences. Tokyo, Volume 3, 1968, pp. 237–241.
Bennett, J. W. Northern plainsmen: Adaptive strategy and agrarian life. Chicago: Aldine, 1969. (4th printing: AHM Publication Co, Arlington Heights, Ill., 1976.)
Bennett, J. W. The ecological transition: Cultural anthropology & human adaptation. New York: Pergamon, 1976a.
Bennett, J. W. Anticipation, adaptation, and the concept of culture in anthropology. Science, 1976b, 192, 847–852.
Bennett, J. W. A rational-choice model of agricultural resource utilization and conservation. In N. L. Gonzales (Ed.), Social and technological management in dry lands. Selected Symposium No. 10, American Association for the Advancement of Science. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1978a, pp. 151–185.
Bennett, J. W. Social processes affecting desertification in developed societies. In P. Reining (Ed.), Desertification papers. Washington: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1978b.
Bennett, J. W., & Levine, S. B. Industrialization and social deprivation: Welfare environment and the postindustrial society in Japan. In H. Patrick (Ed.), Japanese industrialization and its social consequences. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976, pp. 439–492.
Coelho, G. V., Hamburg, D. A., & Adams, J. E. (Eds.). Coping and adaptation. New York: Basic Books, 1974.
Dorner, P. (Ed.). Cooperative and commune: Group farming in the economic development of agriculture. (See chapter by J. W. Bennett, on Hutterites.) Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977.
Douglas, M. Implicit meanings. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975.
Dubos, R. A theology of the earth. Washington: Smithsonian Institute, 1969. (Lecture printed as paperbound)
Firey, W. Patterns of choice and the conservation of resources. Rural Sociology, 1957, 22, 112–123.
Hardin, G. The tragedy of the commons. Science, 1968, 262, 1243–1248.
Hardin, G. Exploring new ethics for survival. New York: Viking, 1972.
Heath, A. Rational choice and social exchange: A critique of exchange theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Hirsch, F. The social limits to growth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press & Twentieth Century Fund, 1977.
Hostetler, J. A. Hutterite society. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974.
Johnson, W. A., Stoltzfus, V., & Craumer, P. Energy conservation in Amish agriculture. Science, 1977, 198, 373–378.
Knight, F. H. Risk, uncertainty and profit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921.
Lee, R. B. Work effort, group structure, and land use in contemporary hunter-gatherers. In P. J. Ucko, R. Tringham, & G. W. Dimbleby (Eds.), Man, settlement and urbanism. London: Duckworth, 1972a.
Lee, R. B. Population growth and the beginning of sedentary life among the !Kung Bushmen. In B. Spooner (Ed.), Population growth: Anthropological perspectives. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1972b, pp. 329–342.
Lee, R. B., & DeVore, I. (Eds.). Man the hunter. Chicago: Aldine, 1968.
Moran, E. Human adaptation. North Scituate, Mass.: Duxbury Press, 1979.
Ophuls, W. Ecology and the politics of scarcity. San Francisco: Freeman, 1977.
Ryan, J. The agricultural economy of manitoba hutterite colonies. Carleton Library No. 101. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1977.
Sahlins, M. Stone age economics. Chicago: Aldine, 1972.
Schechter, J. Desertification processes and the search for solutions. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 1977, 2, 38–54.
Sheets, H., & Morris, R. Disaster in the desert: Failures of international relief in the West African drought. Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1974.
Simon, H. A. Sciences of the artificial. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1969.
Steward, J. A. The theory of culture change. (Especially chapter 2, The Method of Cultural Ecology.) Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1955.
Stoltzfus, F. Amish agriculture: Adaptive strategies for economic survival of community life. Rural Sociology, 1973, 38, 196–206.
Turnbull, C. M. Demography of small-scale societies. In G. A. Harrison & J. A. Boyce (Eds.), The structure of human populations. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972, pp. 283–312.
Weintraub, D., Lissak, M., & Azmon, Y. (Eds.). Moshava, kibbutz, and moshav: Jewish rural settlement and development. Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1969.
Woodburn, J. Ecology, nomadic movement and the composition of the local group among hunters and gatherers. In P. J. Ucko, R. Tringham, & G. W. Dingleby (Eds.), Man, settlement, and urbanism. London: Duckworth, 1972.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1980 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bennett, J.W. (1980). Human Ecology as Human Behavior. In: Altman, I., Rapoport, A., Wohlwill, J.F. (eds) Environment and Culture. Human Behavior and Environment, vol 4. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0451-5_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0451-5_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0453-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0451-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive