The Anthropology of Climate Change (eBook)

An Historical Reader

Michael R. Dove (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: EPUB

2013
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-1-118-60595-0 (ISBN)

Infos

This timely anthology brings together for the first time the most important ancient, medieval, Enlightenment, and modern scholarship for a complete anthropological evaluation of the relationship between culture and climate change.

• Brings together for the first time the most important classical works and contemporary scholarship for a complete historical anthropological evaluation of the relationship between culture and climate change
• Covers the historic and prehistoric records of human impact from and response to prior periods of climate change, including the impact and response to climate change at the local level
• Discusses the impact on global debates about climate change from North-South post-colonial histories and the social dimensions of the science of climate change.
• Includes coverage of topics such as environmental determinism, climatic events as social catalysts, climatic disasters and societal collapse, and ethno-meteorology
• An ideal text for courses in climate change, human/cultural ecology, environmental anthropology and archaeology, disaster studies,  environmental sciences, science and technology studies, history of science, and conservation and development studies

Michael R. Dove is the Margaret K. Musser Professor of Social Ecology in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Professor in the Department of Anthropology,  Director of the Tropical resources Institute, and Curator of Anthropology at the Peabody Museum, Yale University.

Inhalt

Acknowledgments to Sources viii

About the Editor x

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xiv

Introduction: The Anthropology of Climate Change Six Millennia of Study of the Relationship between Climate and Society 1
Michael R. Dove

Part I Continuities 37
Climate Theory

1 Airs, Waters, Places 41
Hippocrates

2 On the Laws in Their Relation to the Nature of the Climate 47
Charles de Secondat Montesquieu

Beyond the Greco-Roman Tradition

3 The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History 55
Ibn Khaldûn

4 The Jungle and the Aroma of Meats: An Ecological Theme in Hindu Medicine 67
Francis Zimmermann

Ethno-climatology Copyrighted Material

5 Concerning Weather Signs 83
Theophrastus

6 Gruff Boreas, Deadly Calms: A Medical Perspective on Winds and the Victorians 87
Vladimir Jankoviæ

Part II Societal and Environmental Change 103
Environmental Determinism

7 Nature, Rise, and Spread of Civilization 107
Friedrich Ratzel

8 Environment and Culture in the Amazon Basin: An Appraisal of the Theory of Environmental Determinism 115
Betty J. Meggers

Climate Change and Societal Collapse

9 Management for Extinction in Norse Greenland 131
Thomas H. McGovern

10 What Drives Societal Collapse? 151
Harvey Weiss and Raymond Bradley

Climatic Events as Social Crucibles

11 Natural Disaster and Political Crisis in a Polynesian Society: An Exploration of Operational Research 157
James Spillius

12 Drought as a "Revelatory Crisis": An Exploration of Shifting Entitlements and Hierarchies in the Kalahari, Botswana 168
Jacqueline S. Solway

Part III Vulnerability and Control 187
Culture and Control of Climate

13 Rain-Shrines of the Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia 191
Elizabeth Colson

14 El Niño, Early Peruvian Civilization, and Human Agency: Some Thoughts from the Lurin Valley 201
Richard L. Burger

Climatic Disasters and Social Marginalization

15 Katrina: The Disaster and its Doubles 217
Nancy Scheper-Hughes

16 "Nature", "Culture" and Disasters: Floods and Gender in Bangladesh 223
Rosalind Shaw

Part IV Knowledge and its Circulation 235
Emic Views of Climatic Perturbation/Disaster

17 Typhoons on Yap 239
David M. Schneider

18 The Politics of Place: Inhabiting and Defending Glacier Hazard Zones in Peru's Cordillera Blanca 247
Mark Carey

Co-production of Knowledge in Climatic and Social Histories

19 Melting Glaciers and Emerging Histories in the Saint Elias Mountains 261
Julie Cruikshank

20 The Making and Unmaking of Rains and Reigns 276
Todd Sanders

"Friction" in the Global Circulation of Climate Knowledge

21 Transnational Locals: Brazilian Experiences of the Climate Regime 301
Myanna Lahsen

22 Channeling Globality: The 1997-98 El Niño Climate Event in Peru 315
Kenneth Broad and Ben Orlove

Index 335

Rezensionen

"...a timely contribution to the discourse in anthropology for understanding the various impacts of global climate change from multiple perspectives and contexts...the pairing of relevant and related works under specific thematic areas is useful for class reading assignments and encouraging focused comparative debates." - Sandra Moore, for Anthropology Book Forum, Anthropology News

"I believe that Dove's book would serve as an excellent supplementary textbook for subjects on the anthropology of climate change because of its historical orientation." (The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 6 April 2015)

"...strengthened by Dove's excellent introduction, in which he outlines key themes and situates each work Dove has assembled a collection that demonstrates how anthropology can enhance our understanding of the relationship between climate and society.' (Anthem EnviroExperts Review, 1 October 2014)

"In this brilliantly devised compilation, Michael Dove
takes the long view, showing shifting perspectives on climate and
culture from Hippocrates and Vedic medicine to catastrophic global
change. This is a refreshingly diverse contribution at an urgent
time."



Paul Robbins, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies,
University of Wisconsin-Madison

"Fundamentally, climate change is an anthropological
problem. In this wonderful book, Michael Dove introduces readers to
the rich diversity of anthropological perspectives on climate and
society."

J. Stephen Lansing, University of Arizona

"An innovative and instructive collection of studies on
social and climate change, this book is a much needed addition to
the ongoing work on how to think about climate change. The critical
clarity that the papers in this collection afford should help
readers to think beyond the assertions of doom or the skeptical
denials that characterize nearly all work on climate -
instead, the book, especially its introduction by Dove, is an
invitation to think differently: an unusual luxury that gladdens
the spirit."

Arun Agrawal, University of Michigan

Textauszug

1

Airs, Waters, Places

Hippocrates

I. WHOEVER wishes to pursue properly the science of medicine must proceed thus. First he ought to consider what effects each season of the year can produce; for the seasons are not at all alike, but differ widely both in themselves and at their changes. The next point is the hot winds and the cold, especially those that are universal, but also those that are peculiar to each particular region. He must also consider the properties of the waters; for as these differ in taste and in weight, so the property of each is far different from that of any other. Therefore, on arrival at a town with which he is unfamiliar, a physician should examine its position with respect to the winds and to the risings of the sun. For a northern, a southern, an eastern, and a western aspect has each its own individual property. He must consider with the greatest care both these things and how the natives are off for water, whether they use marshy, soft waters, or such as are hard and come from rocky heights, or brackish and harsh. The soil too, whether bare and dry or wooded and watered, hollow and hot or high and cold. The mode of life also of the inhabitants that is pleasing to them, whether they are heavy drinkers, taking lunch,1 and inactive, or athletic, industrious, eating much and drinking little.

[…]

[Books II–XI are not reprinted here]

XII. So much for the changes of the seasons. Now I intend to compare Asia2 and Europe, and to show how they differ in every respect, and how the nations of the one differ entirely in physique from those of the other. It would take too long to describe them all, so I will set forth my views about the most important and the greatest differences. I hold that Asia differs very widely from Europe in the nature of all its inhabitants and of all its vegetation. For everything in Asia grows to far greater beauty and size; the one region is less wild than the other, the character of the inhabitants is milder and more gentle. The cause of this is the temperate climate, because it lies towards the east midway between the risings3 of the sun, and farther away than is Europe from the cold. Growth and freedom from wildness are most fostered when nothing is forcibly predominant, but equality in every respect prevails. Asia, however, is not everywhere uniform; the region, however, situated midway between the heat and the cold is very fruitful, very wooded and very mild; it has splendid water, whether from rain or from springs. While it is not burnt up with the heat nor dried up by drought and want of water, it is not oppressed with cold, nor yet damp and wet with excessive rains and snow. Here the harvests are likely to be plentiful, both those from seed and those which the earth bestows of her own accord, the fruit of which men use, turning wild to cultivated and transplanting them to a suitable soil. The cattle too reared there are likely to flourish, and especially to bring forth the sturdiest young and rear them to be very fine creatures.4 The men will be well nourished, of very fine physique and very tall, differing from one another but little either in physique or stature. This region, both in character and in the mildness of its seasons, might fairly be said to bear a close resemblance to spring. Courage, endurance, industry and high spirit could not arise in such conditions either among the natives or among immigrants,5 but pleasure must be supreme …6 wherefore in the beasts they are of many shapes.

XIII. Such in my opinion is the condition of the Egyptians and Libyans. As to the dwellers on the right of the summer risings of the sun up to Lake Maeotis, which is the boundary between Europe and Asia, their condition is as follows. These nations are less homogeneous than those I have described, because of the changes of the seasons and the character of the region. The land is affected by them exactly as human beings in general are affected. For where the seasons experience the most violent and the most frequent changes,7 the land too is very wild and very uneven; you will find there many wooded mountains, plains and meadows. But where the seasons do not alter much, the land is very even. So it is too with the inhabitants, if you will examine the matter. Some physiques resemble wooded, well-watered mountains, others light, dry land, others marshy meadows, others a plain of bare, parched earth. For the seasons which modify a physical frame differ; if the differences be great, the more too are the differences in the shapes.

XIV. The races that differ but little from one another I will omit, and describe the condition only of those which differ greatly, whether it be through nature or through custom. I will begin with the Longheads.8 There is no other race at all with heads like theirs. Originally custom was chiefly responsible for the length of the head, but now custom is reinforced by nature. Those that have the longest heads they consider the noblest, and their custom is as follows. As soon as a child is born they remodel its head with their hands, while it is still soft and the body tender, and force it to increase in length by applying bandages and suitable appliances, which spoil the roundness of the head and increase its length. Custom originally so acted that through force such a nature came into being; but as time went on the process became natural, so that custom no longer exercised compulsion. For the seed comes from all parts of the body, healthy seed from healthy parts, diseased seed from diseased parts. If, therefore, bald parents have for the most part bald children, grey-eyed parents grey-eyed children, squinting parents squinting children, and so on with other physical peculiarities, what prevents a long-headed parent having a long-headed child?9 At the present time long-headedness is less common than it was, for owing to intercourse with other men the custom is less prevalent.

XV. These are my opinions about the Longheads. Now let me turn to the dwellers on the Phasis. Their land is marshy, hot, wet, and wooded; copious violent rains fall there during every season. The inhabitants live in the marshes, and their dwellings are of wood and reeds, built in the water. They make little use of walking in the city and the harbour, but sail up and down in dug-outs made from a single log, for canals are numerous. The waters which they drink are hot and stagnant, putrefied by the sun and swollen by the rains. The Phasis itself is the most stagnant and most sluggish of all rivers. The fruits that grow in this country are all stunted, flabby and imperfect, owing to the excess of water, and for this reason they do not ripen. Much fog from the waters envelops the land. For these causes, therefore, the physique of the Phasians is different from that of other folk. They are tall in stature, and of a gross habit of body, while neither joint nor vein is visible. Their complexion is yellowish, as though they suffered from jaundice. Of all men they have the deepest voice, because the air they breathe is not clear, but moist and turbid. They are by nature disinclined for physical fatigue. There are but slight changes of the seasons, either in respect of heat or of cold. The winds are mostly moist, except one breeze peculiar to the country, called cenchron, which sometimes blows strong, violent and hot. The north wind rarely blows, and when it does it is weak and gentle.

XVI. So much for the difference, in nature and in shape, between the inhabitants of Asia and the inhabitants of Europe. With regard to the lack of spirit and of courage among the inhabitants, the chief reason why Asiatics are less warlike and more gentle in character than Europeans is the uniformity of the seasons, which show no violent changes either towards heat or towards cold, but are equable. For there occur no mental shocks nor violent physical change, which are more likely to steel the temper and impart to it a fierce passion than is a monotonous sameness. For it is changes of all things that rouse the temper of man and prevent its stagnation. For these reasons, I think, Asiatics are feeble. Their institutions are a contributory cause, the greater part of Asia being governed by kings. Now where men are not their own, masters and independent, but are ruled by despots, they are not keen on military efficiency but on not appearing warlike. For the risks they run are not similar. Subjects are likely to be forced to undergo military service, fatigue and death, in order to benefit their masters, and to be parted from their wives, their children and their friends. All their worthy, brave deeds merely serve to aggrandize and raise up their lords, while the harvest they themselves reap is danger and death. Moreover, the land of men like these must be desert, owing to their enemies and to their laziness,10 so that even if a naturally brave and spirited man is born his temper is changed by their institutions. Whereof I can give a clear proof. All the inhabitants of Asia, whether Greek or non-Greek, who are not ruled by despots, but are independent, toiling for their own advantage, are the most warlike of all men. For it is for their own sakes that they run their risks, and in their own persons do they receive the prizes of their valour as likewise the penalty of their cowardice. You will find that Asiatics also differ from one another, some being superior, others inferior. The reason for this, as I have said above, is the changes of the seasons.

XVII. Such is...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 24.12.2013
• Reihe/Serie: Blackwell Anthologies in Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Reihe/Serie: Blackwell Anthologies in Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Reihe/Serie: Wiley Blackwell Anthologies in Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: Anthropologie • Anthropology • Environmental Science • Environmental Sociology • Environmental Studies • human and cultural ecology, environmental anthropology and archaeology, disaster studies, environmental sciences, climate theory, ethno-meteorology, environmental determinism, societal collapse, drought, flood, el niño, glacier, global warming, anthropology of climate, climate anthropology, climate and society, history of climate change, history of climate science, environmental determinism • Klimawandel • Social & Cultural Anthropology • Sociology • Soziale u. kulturelle Anthropologie • Soziologie • Umweltforschung • Umweltsoziologie • Umweltwissenschaften
• ISBN-10: 1-118-60595-0 / 1118605950
• ISBN-13: 978-1-118-60595-0 / 9781118605950