GEOG 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Cultural Ecology, Hillbilly, Columbian Exchange

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Geography
• Course: GEOG 100
• Professor: Andrew Perkins

Document Summary

Nature/society/technology: nature is not apart from society, nature is biophysical, and a (cid:863)social creation(cid:863) (shaped by social ideas and practices, society/nature relation mediated by technology, artifacts (e. g. chain saws, activities (e. g. timber extraction, knowledge (e. g. forestry, resource management) Conceptions of nature: western (judeo-christian) ideas, separation of nature and society, humans superior to nature (anthropocentrism, nature as a resource for human society, nature as that which is to be tamed or controlled. Cultural ecology: human adaptions to environmental challenges, the nature environment is the major influence in the human society, culture is an important mean. Political ecology: emphasis on power in human/nature relations, role of political economy in shaping people/nature relations i. e. capitalism, state, regional/global (cid:863)chains of explanation(cid:863, causes, not symptoms (e. g. piers blaikie) Globalization, place, and people/nature relations: european expansion. Disease and demographic collapse and the columbian (cid:862)exchange(cid:863: population (birth rate, death rate) Ecological imperialism: plants and animals move from one ecosystem to another.