UNIT – IV
ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY
IV.B Culture as adaptive Screen
CULTURE AS ADAPTIVE
SCREEN
An adaptation is any alteration in the structure or functioning of an organism (or
group of organisms) that improves its ability to survive and reproduce in its
environment. Adaptations occur in response to stressors or changes in the
environment in which the organism lives. Stressors can be abiotic (climate or high
altitude), biotic (disease), or social (war and psychological stress).
CULTURAL ADAPTATION - A cultural adaption is the knowledge or behaviour that
enables humans or groups to adjust, survive, and thrive in their environment.
Cultural adaptations can occur at any time and may be as simple as putting on a
coat when it is cold or as complicated as engineering, building, and installing a
heating system in a building, or building a space station for human habitation.
Cultural adaptation has enabled humans to survive in harsh environments.
However, not all cultural adaptations have been beneficial. While the goal of
adaptive traits is to enhance human ability to be successful and survive in their
environment, some traits have become maladaptive. That is they have become
more harmful than helpful and could actually threaten the survival of the people.
One example is the use of air conditioners. Although air conditioners improved our
lives and made it easier to live in hot and humid conditions, older air conditioners
released chlorofluorocarbons and contributed to the depletion of the ozone layer
which protects us from harmful ultraviolet rays. Over a long period of time, this
People adapt themselves to the environment using culture. The ability to adapt
themselves to practically any ecological condition, unlike other animals, makes
humans unique. This ability is attributed to human’s capacity for creating and
using culture. Culture has also maladaptive dimensions. That is, the very cultural
creations and achievements of people may turn out to threaten their survival.
When we see the contemporary problems of the environments, the side effects of
rapid growth and in science and technology, etc, we see that culture is also
maladaptive.
For example, the Inuits’ livelihood aspects are dependent on the harsh climatic
conditions or the kinds of environment they inhabit. In the past, their forms of
living, such as houses, occupations, tools, and implements, and labor division,
indicated that environmental influence is very powerful. However, Inuits had
already changed with time. The means of livelihood and ways of living among the
contemporary world’s Inuits could notice a drastic change starting from the 19th
and early 20th centuries. Today’s Inuit region has various technological and
infrastructural development; people live in cities or upcoming small towns,
signifying major changes and adaptation in their lifestyle and living. It means that
the theory of determinism, which was popular in the 19th century through the
Geographer Friedrich Ratzel and his followers, became redundant with the
changing climatic conditions, environment, technology, and adaptability.
The rise of environmental possibilism theory took place during the period between the
1920s and 30s. The French Geographer Paul Vidal del la Blache became the founder of this
idea and his famous quote, “Nature sets limits and offers possibilities for human
settlement, but the way man reacts and adjusts to these conditions depends on his own
traditional way of life (1922)” is always noteworthy. He did not agree with the complete role
of the environment in human societies as the environment changes with knowledge and
technology development. In contemporary days, any society will not rely entirely on the
natural environment; instead, technology offers possible options. Technology is a by product
of the human mind, and with the help, succeeding generations will act as agents to interact
and adjust to the environment.
American anthropologist Franz Boas (1858-1942) strongly reacted against environmental
determinism and focused on culture through his historical particularism theory. His theory
of historical particularism suggested that all cultures, irrespective of their environmental
condition, will have their specific history, and with this, they developed the culture as an
ongoing process across generations.
A.L. Kroeber (1876-1960) analyzed and distinguished the relations between the
environment and social organization of the region in which culture interacts with the
environment. However, the culture of or within the social organization did result from other
cultural phenomena present in the region. Kroeber also followed Boas’s idea of ‘diffusion’ in
the evolution of cultural traits and elements and the inclusion of migration as another
factor.
From the above anthropological studies of possibilism, it is pertinent that the environment
does not necessarily produce a culture; instead, it provides alternative opportunities or
CULTURAL ECOLOGY
Cultural ecology as an approach came against the ideas of environmental determinism in the
mid-20th century based on Darwin’s theory of biological evolution. Gordon Childe (1892-
1957), Leslie [Link] (1900-1975), and Julian Steward (1902-1972) are the neo evolutionists
who proposed the idea of multilinear cultural evolution. Childe (1951) described the evolution
of cultures because of technological and societal ‘diffusion’ due to migration. However, this
notion of evolution promotes the superiority of the Western developmental norm, invoking
‘ethnocentrism,’ i.e., judging a culture from another culture’s standards and norms.
White’s (1949) model was based on humans’ ability to be able to harness resources with the
use of technology through the level of energy consumption. His energy and technology
theory formed the basis of the culture around which other aspects such as symbolism and art
developed. Steward’s (1955) model was based on the theory of biological evolution and
cultural relativism to highlight the divergent evolution in culture while there are cultural
parallels within it.
In anthropology, the idea of cultural ecology principally focuses on adaptation to the
environment
The American anthropologist Roy Rappaport’s (1926–1997) study of the Kaiku rituals of the
Tsembaga tribe in Papua New Guinea represents the best example of the ecosystem
approach in ecological anthropology. The patrilineal society of the Tsembagas does not have
any political figure, but the integration of the community members took through kinship and
co-residence. They are an agrarian society with an ecosystemic environment of fixed
boundaries for the regulation of society. Pig rearing is central to their subsistence mode of
living, where pigs provide advantages and disadvantages. Pigs feed on garbage around the
settlement areas allowing them to weed and clear the ground through wallowing and herding.
However, this becomes disadvantageous with the growth of pig size and number. They do not
slaughter the pigs except during the festival of the “Kaiku.” The Kaiku festival involves the
large-scale slaughter of pigs, consumed by the local clan and its allies as a method of paying
off the debt or appreciation. The Kaiku continues for about a year, allowing socialization and
facilitating mechanical trade and other commodities of importance. This ritual ensures that
the number of pigs in each community does not become so high that it becomes burdensome
to support them.
Cultural ecology, thereby, draws attention to the aspects of culture closely related to
humans’ sustenance activities co-existing with other humans through the economic system.
