Environmental Anthropology

Environmental anthropology investigates human relations with the environment. It examines how we shape the environments we live in, and how relations with the environment shape culture and social organization. This is an interdisciplinary, collaborative endeavor spanning the subdisciplines of anthropology and intersecting environmental research in fields including geography, the earth sciences, ethnobotany, biology and the environmental humanities. Understanding Indigenous natural resource conservation and management practices, island ecosystems, human-primate interactions (“ethnoprimatology”), and the environmental implications of globalization – these are all examples of environmental anthropology. The focus on cultural, political and social dimensions of human interactions with the environment, as well the depth of time afforded by archaeological approaches, makes environmental anthropology a cornerstone of modern anthropology. Environmental anthropologists are employed by the public, private and nonprofit sectors in positions ranging from community engagement to managing natural environments, sustainability and conservation biology.