
This may be carried out diachronically (examining entities that existed in different epochs), or synchronically (examining a present system and its components). Human adaptation refers to both biological and cultural processes that enable a population to survive and reproduce within a given or changing environment. James Birx, 1012-1013.Cultural ecology is the study of human adaptations to social and physical environments. “Functionalism.” In Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Vol.

“Cultural Ecology.” In Theory in Social and Cultural Anthroology: An Encyclopedia, Vol. “Culture and Personality.” In Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Vol. “Cultural Materialism.” In Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Vol. “Postmodernism.” In Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology: An Encyclopedia, Vol. anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/.%20Personality. “Culture and Personality.” The University of Alabama Department of Anthropology, Anthropological Theories: A Guide Prepared by Students for Students. Kelly, Petrina, Xia Chao, Andrew Scruggs, Lucy Lawrence, and Katherine Mcghee-Snow.“Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology.” In Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology: An Encyclopedia, Vol. “Thick Description.” In Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology: An Encyclopedia, Vol. “Social Evolution.” In 21st Century Anthropology: A Reference Handbook, Vol. “Postmodernism.” In Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Vol. anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/.%20Materialism. University of Alabama Department of Anthropology Anthropological Theories: A Guide Prepared by Students for Students. “Functionalism.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. Leslie White was another proponent of cultural ecology, although he was focused primarily on how cultures harvested energy from the environment and how much energy they used. This idea of multi-directional change is called multilinear evolution and is one of the major departures from earlier evolutionary explanations of culture. Conversely, cultures that were dissimilar could become similar. Cultures that may have been similar at one point might become dissimilar if environmental conditions changed. Since environmental changes were not predictable, cultures changed in multiple directions. Cultural changes were due to changing environmental conditions. According to the cultural ecology school of thought, cultural similarities were explained by adaptations to similar environmental conditions, causing the approach to be labeled environmental determinism. Thirdly, Steward advocated for examining how social institutions and belief systems were impacted by subsistence-related behaviors. He then thought that examination of behaviors associated with the cultural core was necessary, which included the organization of labor. The cultural core was comprised of the technology, knowledge, labor, and family organization used to collect resources from the environment (Tucker 2013). Steward proposed that we could begin to understand these adaptations by first examining the cultural core, as this was the critical cultural component that dealt with the ability of the culture to survive.
