Environments and Environmentalisms in Anthropological Research: Facing a New Millennium
Author(s)
Little, Paul E.
Abstract
With the concept of environment as its organizing motif, this review focuses on two general fields of anthropological environmental research: ecological anthropology and the anthropology of environmentalism. Analysis of the complementary political and human ecology research programs is structured around four theoretical and methodological areas: transformations in the ecological paradigm, levels of analysis and articulation, the use of history, and the reemergence of space. Ethnographic analyses of the social forces of environmentalism point to civil society as an emerging and important protagonist with regard to environmental issues, and these social forces are reviewed within the categories of environmental movements, rights, territories, and discourses. A final prospective section looks at contemporary urban, viral, virtual, and warfare environments and postulates that the combination of empirical and political approaches can provide for anthropology an expanded role, one that has strong bioethical implications, in environmental debates and issues.
