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CONSERVATION ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology is the scientific and humanistic study of the human species: humankind's present and past biological, linguistic, social, and cultural variation. Anthropologists contribute to conservation their detailed knowledge of people, places, and the networks of influence and pressure on those places. Anthropologists often have been in the position of "conservation critics" due to their insistence on fine grained and critical social research. Collaboration between anthropologists and other types of conservation scientists is beginning to generate new conservation approaches grounded in better knowledge of social systems and relations, attention to inequalities, and appreciation for diverse conceptions of "conservation."

The discipline of anthropology emerged from the study of non-Western peoples as a result of travel and colonization during the 1800s. At its outset, anthropology was marred by racism and pseudo-scientific methods of comparing people and societies. Some early anthropologists used Charles Darwin's concepts of evolution and "survival of the fittest" to bolster notions of Western superiority. In the 1920s, however, Franz Boas in the United States, Bronislaw Malinowski in the United Kingdom, and their students fashioned a modern anthropology that rejected--and in the case of Boas actively fought--racism. They and others developed the hallmark of the anthropological approach: emphasis on (1) "cultural" (as opposed to biological) dimensions in explaining human behavior and variability and (2) the need for extended fieldwork using participant observation, language skills, and, often, historical and archaeological investigation. For more than eighty years, modern anthropology has been growing and diverging into subdisciplines and specializations.

Both Boas and Malinowski studied the ways that humans make a living from the land and their "material culture": the artifacts, food sources, and other materials that humans produce and trade. Theory about the relations between humans and nature evolved with the work of Julian Steward and Raymond Firth, among others. Steward focused on understanding and classifying modes of subsistence such as hunting, gathering, and horticulture without situating these modes as steps in an upward cultural evolution. Firth, following Malinowski, examined non-Western economic systems of trade and exchange.

Key concepts in early modern anthropology retain their importance. Among these concepts are

-- Human "adaptation" to an environment is not determined by ecological conditions alone; people can exploit the same resources in different ways

-- Technology mediates human relations with nature, but technology is socially produced

-- Economics (types of exchange and trade, systems to cope with real and perceived scarcity) determines modes of exploitation of natural resources

-- Relations of power, prestige, and status significantly shape economics

Anthropologists soon realized that development of theories from studies within isolated small-scale societies posed numerous theoretical dilemmas. Even the most isolated populations were connected to larger economies through trade, commodity production, or inclusion in a colonial state. Few societies are homogeneous; they are complex and multi-layered. All peoples have a history of establishment, migration, change, and adaptation to specific places. Colonialism and the expansion of the global economy radically transformed "traditional" societies. Many were destroyed or severely damaged by slavery, disease, and the depredations of early exploration and colonization. Other traditional societies adapted to new production and market systems. Understanding how "local people" adapt and integrate into markets and political processes has become central to anthropology. Uncovering and tracing these connections helps us to discern behaviors and practices in relation to use and conservation of natural resources.

Anthropology can challenge conventional wisdom on human-environment relationships. Archaeology and indigenous history reveal that many areas thought to be "wilderness" were significantly shaped by human intervention; they are anthropogenic landscapes. Anthropologists document the ways in which direct threats to biodiversity from local exploitation are linked to wider sociopolitical and economic pressures and networks. Anthropologists also have played a key role in highlighting indigenous conservation strategies, such as protecting refugia, species taboos, and seasonal hunting restrictions, thereby revealing and documenting indigenous and local knowledge in conservation.

Anthropologists contribute to conservation in numerous ways. Anthropology and the Environment is an active section of the American Anthropological Association, and the Society for Applied Anthropology (SFAA) has many professionals working in conservation. Anthropology contributes with theory, method, and practical experience in living and working in remote settings, which are often the places set aside for conservation. Although environmental and ecological anthropologists are united in concern for loss of biological diversity and environmental degradation, they may take different approaches to conservation. These approaches include

-- Support to conservation initiatives through fieldwork, data collection, knowledge of local people and societies, ethnobiology, and ethnoecology

-- Critical engagement with conservation initiatives from the perspective of indigenous and human rights, and concerns about inadequacies of social science inputs into conservation planning including lack of historical and sociopolitical analysis

-- Support for human-centered approaches to conservation such as community-based conservation and rights-based conservation

-- Planning, funding, implementing, and evaluating conservation initiatives

Resources

Anthropology and Environment Section of the American Anthropological Association, http://www.eanth.org/.

The Social Science Working Group is co-sponsoring a course on ethnoecology and community conservation (organized by Gary Martin, University of Kent, Canterbury) at SCB's 2007 annual meeting.

Brosius, J.P. 2006. Common ground between anthropology and conservation biology. Conservation Biology 20:683-685.

Diane Russell
Biodiversity and Social Science Specialist
U.S. Agency for International Development

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