Exam I Review Sheet
Environmental Anthropology
ANT 309
Key terms & Concepts to know:
ecosystem
carrying capacity
cultural ecology
ethnoscience
ethnoecology
ethnobotany
native taxonomies
trophic pyramid
cultural relativism
ethnocentricism
mixed subsistence strategy
hunting-gathering (foraging) lifestyle
political ecology
biome
biodiversity
habitat
niche
ecozone
ecotone
low energy budget
reciprocity
possibilism
environmental determinism
natural selection
biodiversity
biomass
biotic
abiotic
human ecology
food procurement (subsistence) systems
forest succession
etic
emic
anthropogenic
evolution
adaptation/adaptability
Julian Steward
Shoshoni
piñon nuts
seasonal round
fission-fusion
mobility & material possessions
band level of social organization
Dobe Ju/’hoansi (!Kung Bushmen)
Kalahari Desert
kudu
mongongo nut tree
baobab tree
leveling mechanisms
Netsilik Inuit (Eskimos)
tundra
low biological productivity
nonshivering thermogenesis
chimney effect
stone lamps
ulu – steel knives
caribou & seals
population pressure (growth) & population regulation
natural regulators (disease, predators)
cultural regulators (warfare, food supply, birth control, infanticide)
Mbuti
resource management
resource manipulation
optimization models
littoral zone
riparian ecotone
Taino
Tarahumara
Quelites
long-distance running/game tracking
Australian Aborigines – Mardu group
fire ecology
habitat mosaic
Zuni/A:shiwi
waffle gardening
earth & brush berms
Black Rock Dam
check dams
maize
animism
unilinear vs multilinear evolution
renewable resources
slow-renewable resources
non-renewable resources
risk diversification
Discuss the concept of carrying capacity. What is it? Why is it important in human ecology? How can it be measured/determined for any one human group?
What do you have to know to be a successful hunter-gatherer?
In what ways did the Taino adapt to both the terrestrial and marine environments of Caribbean islands? What were some of their effective adaptive strategies?
What is ethnoscience and why are ethnoecological studies important? Why is indigenous knowledge of the environment so important and useful?
How are settlement patterns, subsistence and social organization linked in groups such as the Inuit, the Shoshoni or Dobe !Kung?
Why do anthropologists spend so much time discussing subsistence systems?
What are some of the physiological and cultural adjustments Arctic peoples (such as the Netsilik Inuit) must make? What were some effective Inuit adaptive strategies?
How do the A:shiwi (Zuni) conceive of their relationship with the land? How is Zuni ceremonialsm/religious belief system tied into the agricultural cycle?