ABSTRACT
The recent history of ecological anthropology
Attention to the impact of environments on human societies is longstanding in philosophy
and geography, but in social and cultural anthropology, stress on the ecological dimension is relatively recent. During the first half of the twentieth century, social and cultural anthropology, whether in the British versions of Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown or the American version of Boas, examined relationships within the social and cultural realm, with little direct attention to relations with the environment. Notwithstanding Forde’s early (1934) contribution and some relevant ethnographic reports, ecological anthropology only became fully established in the 1960s. By that time, some researchers were drawn to
this subject in the hope that the study of adaptations would provide explanations of customs and institutions. A similar development took place in prehistoric archaeology, reinforcing the interest in ecology among social and cultural anthropologists.
