Academic literature on the topic 'Cultural ecology'

The Tohono O'odham and their predecessors have occupied southwestern Arizona and northern Mexico (Pimeria Alta) for thousands of years. During that time the physical environment as well as the occupants' cultural patterns changed. This historical geographic study chronicles that change. It starts 10,000 years ago with a brief description of the early environment and how the people survived, continues with a discussion of agricultural crop introduction from central Mexico, and is followed by the period of Spanish colonization and Mexican occupation. The majority of this study, however, focuses on the post 1824 period when contact between the United States and the O'odharn began. Prior to United States takeover the O'odham lifestyle, owing to their isolated position in the harsh, and Pimeria Alta and utilization of a policy of cultural/ecological opportunism, had changed little. However, during the twentieth century their lifestyle has undergone considerable modification. They have reached a point in time where their economic base has changed from subsistence farming to wage labor and finally to owners of profitable gaming casinos. Now they must decide if they are going to continue as a unique cultural unit or blend further with the dominant society.

Humans have tried to separate themselves from nature and to gain an understanding of what it means to be human, through studies of nature. Ideas of human nature have political and ideological implications, and are thus important in providing information about what it means to be human and what the relation to animals and the environment "ought" to be like. The ideology of human nature makes the world hence meaningful and points out what kind of actions regarding environmental issues are appropriate. The understanding of human nature and the human relationship with nature is culturally and historically produced. Humans' cultural conception thus also influences what kind of relationships are seen as desirable with particular animals. Different animals are seen as having different relations to humans, relations in which all animals are not seen as being equal. Some animals are defined edible, others are defined as companions.

During the past four decades, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have emerged as important agents of change in Latin America. NGO actions are influencing the cultural-ecological relationships in upper Canar, an indigenous area in the southern highlands of Ecuador. Since the early 1960s, population growth, changing national polices, commercialization of the subsistence economy, migration, and greater contact with the global economy have dramatically affected rural conditions in upper Canar. In a contemporary context, the lands and society of the region are fragile and the traditional agricultural system is not sustainable. The Ecuadorian government has failed to address the needs at the grassroots, leaving an institutional void that is being filled by NGOs. NGOs are promoting sustainable development, and through their actions inevitably contribute to the change process. Sustainable development is difficult to define because of uncertainties related to time and scale. However, six measures of sustainable development specific to upper Canar are economic (production and income), ecological (soil fertility and soil erosion), organizational (community leadership, community cohesion, and indigenous cultural practices), migration, population growth, and the NGO impact on the larger policy environment. An NGO must address each of these measures in order to promote the larger process of sustainable development. Case studies of PLAN International in Sunicorral and CARE-PROMUSTA in Ramos Huray indicate that the NGO impact on sustainable development is mixed; the signs of success are neither clear nor absolute. However, NGOs are contributing to land use changes emphasizing dairying and vegetable production, patterns that have consequences for labor utilization. The implementation of agroecological land use methods and conservation measures remains slow and sporadic. NGOS emphasize strengthening community organization by using the methods of participatory development with implications for leadership changes and conflict. Each NGO in the study addresses different aspects of sustainability and makes incremental steps toward the larger goal. However, despite notable successes at the community level, the NGO impact outside the space of a community is limited. I define a critical role for what I call the "activist NGO" in influencing societal change and sustainable development.

This dissertation presents a political ecological case study of a Tongan village. Political ecology includes the methodological approaches of cultural ecology, concerned with understanding human/resource relations, and political economy, concerned with the historical examination of the political and social organization of production and power. The ethnography of political ecology is primarily interested in understanding how certain people use specific environmental resources in culturally prescribed and historically derive ways. With this in mind, the research provides an historical and ethnographic account of a diversified, local economic system characterized by a highly productive but depreciating smallholder agriculture once regenerative and sustainable. The smallholders in the Kingdom of Tonga are imperfectly articulated with market systems and rely on agricultural production for a significant proportion of household consumption and ceremonialized obligations to kin, and community. The dissertation presents an historical account of the political economic changes in Tonga beginning in the nineteenth century and culminating in recent alteration of traditional farming techniques and the loss of economic self-sufficiency and agricultural sustainability.

The Belizean export sugar industry is dominated by small family farmers who produce the nation's most important cash crop in terms of area under cultivation, employment, and export earnings. These peasant farmers control both cane cultivation and the harvest transport system and receive the lion' s share of the proceeds from the sale of Belizean sugar. The origins of this anomalous industry can be traced to the regions' long history of peasant resistance to exploitation. Sugarcane was brought to Belize by refugees of the Mayan Caste Wars in the mid-nineteenth century who began producing sugar for the local market using swidden technology. Sugar production was briefly taken over by British plantations; however, the peasants were never fully proletarianized despite attempts to turn them into a plantation labor force. The peasantry's historical resistance to proletarianization is the result of several factors. Colonial officials and capitalists found it difficult to control either the movements or the labor of these independent cultivators. Low rural population density, peasants' refusal to give up subsistence farming, sugarcane's compatibility with swidden farming practices, and the peasantry's politicization all contributed to the dominance of small-farmer cane production during this century. During the 1950s plantation production was resurrected in order to meet the colony's recently acquired Commonwealth Sugar Agreement export quota. Colonial planners assumed that plantations were more efficient and competitive than peasant farmers. Nevertheless, in 1972 the state sponsored plantations were forced to shut down due to competition from independent small cane farmers. Peasant sugarcane farming has proven to be remarkably resilient in the face of crises spawned by chronic fluctuations in the price and demand for cane sugar. Most farmers depend heavily on family labor to minimize their production costs. Because they have minimal capital inputs to production, they can sustain negative profits from cane and still survive by deploying family labor into other income and/or subsistence producing activities. The viability of peasant farming families that allows them to compete successfully with large-scale capitalist sugarcane farmers contradicts the Marxian notion of the inevitability of polarization into capitalist farmers and proletarian workers.

Tiivistelmä opinnäytetyöstä Olen hyödyntänyt diplomityössäni algoritmisia työskentelymenetelmiä uudenlaisessa suunnitteluprosessissa, jossa käytän luonnonilmiöitä sekä niiden taustalla vaikuttavia voimia arkkitehtuurin muotokielen pohjana. Digitaalisen morfogeneesin keinoin simuloin rakennuspaikan ekologiaa ja sen vaikuttavia tekijöitä kolmiulotteiseen kappaleeseen. Tähän prosessiin pohjautuva suunnitelma yhdistää visuaalisesti simuloituja luonnonvoimia sekä perinteisiä, manuaalisia suunnittelumenetelmiä. Käyttämällä algoritmisia työskentelymenetelmiä, on tarkoituksenani ollut löytää uusia tekniikoita ja inspiraation lähteitä arkkitehtisuunnittelun tueksi. Algoritmisten menetelmien käyttö toimii apuna niin inspiraation etsinnässä, kuin myös suunnittelun apuvälineenäkin. Tämä diplomityö jakautuu kahteen osioon; prosessinkuvaukseen sekä prosessiin pohjautuvaan suunnitelmaan. Prosessinkuvaus esittää käyttämäni työskentelymenetelmät sekä niiden taustalla olevan ajatteluprosessin, jossa hyödynnän luonnonvoimien simulointia osana luovaa suunnittelua. Suunnitelmaosio havainnollistaa prosessin avulla tehtyä suunnitelmaa. Lopullisen työn arvioimisen kannalta molemmat osat ovat yhtä tärkeitä; yhdessä ne kuvaavat koko prosessin konseptista suunnitelmaan ja siten täydentyvät kokonaisuudeksi. Tavoitteenani on ollut tutkia nykyaikaisen arkkitehtuurisuunnitteluprosessin kehittämistä algoritmisten työskentelymenetelmien avulla. Tarkoituksenani ei ole ollut saavuttaa suunnitteluratkaisua napin painalluksella, vaan saavuttaa algoritmisten työskentelymetodien sekä perinteisen luonnostelun pehmeämpi integraatio. Algoritmiset suunnittelumenetelmät tarjoavat uusia tapoja älykkään informaation ja motivaation etsimiseen suunnitteluratkaisujemme pohjaksi. Hyödyntäen algoritmisia työskentelymenetelmiä, tein työkalut, joiden avulla simuloin visuaalisesti luonnonvoimien vaikutuksia objekteihin. Niiden toiminta perustuu NURBS-pintojen (Non-uniform rational B-spline) kontrollipistematriisien muokkaukseen, eli pintoja säätelevien kontrollipisteiden siirtämiseen. Testasin ja analysoin erilaisia alkioita (eng. seed) evoluutioprosessin alkuasetelmina ja näiden avulla suunnittelin alkion, jota käytin lopullisessa suunnitelmassa. Evolutiivisten menetelmien sekä vaikuttavien luonnonvoimien avulla päädyin ratkaisuun, jota pystyin hyödyntämään informatiivisena luonnoksena työn jatkosuunnittelussa. Lopullinen suunnitelma on arkkitehtoninen kuvaus digitaalisesti kasvaneesta orgaanisesta muodosta. Olen pyrkinyt välttämään tuttuja maneereita sekä olemassa olevien ratkaisujen suoraa referointia; pyrin inspiroitumaan rakennuspaikan yksilöllisestä ekologiasta sekä suunnittelutehtävästä. Käyttämäni uudet tekniikat mahdollistivat inspiraation etsimisen luonnollisista lähtökohdista, tarjoten luonnosteluun avaramman katsantokannan<br>Abstract of thesis This diploma work employs algorithmic design methods in a design process that uses natural phenomena as the basis of its architectural morphology. It implements digital morphogenesis in reaction to ecology and the infl uential forces of the building environment. The resulting design of this process is a combination of the application of these forces and the use of traditional design methods. With the help of algorithmic design methods, my goal has been to fi nd new techniques and inspiration in the aid of architectural design. The use of computational methods in architecture have the ability, not just to aid in the design, but to aid in the search for inspiration for the design as well. This work is divided into two equally important sections; the description of the process and the case study. The description of the process demonstrates the methods used and the thinking involved in incorporating nature's infl uential elements as part of the creative task, as the case study illustrated the outcome of that process. Both sections are equally important in evaluating this work. Without one, the result of this diploma work would be incomplete and uninformative. Together they describe a fluent process from concept to design and as such, the distinctive parts complete each other. My intention was to study different possibilities in which algorithmic aided design could develop the process of architectural design. My intention was not to reach a final and definitive answer to the design problem just by creating a set of design tools and then pressing a ’start‘ button; the methods used in this diploma work offer a more soft-touch integration of computational methods as an extension of our inspiration and sketching processes. Algorithmic design methods offer new ways of searching for information and motivation to reinforce our design intentions. Using algorithmic design methods, I created tools for simulating nature's environmental and visual forces. These tools create transformations in NURBS-based (Non-uniform rational B-spline) surfaces through the translation of their respective control point matrices. Using these tools, I tested and analysed several different seeds that would work as the starting point for the evolutionary process. Based on that information, I designed a seed to be used in the process of the final design. Through evolutionary methods and the influential environmental forces, I received a final solution that I then used as an informed draft to further refine my design. The final case design is a digital representation of an organic architectural form. I have avoided the use of pre-learned mannerisms and direct references to existing solutions. This offered the possibility to be inspired by the location, its ecology and the design problem itself, rather than just looking into recent architectural publications as source for inspiration. These new techniques offered me a way to break free from the limitations of my own mind, and truly search for alternative solutions through the inspiration of nature

<p> There exists a dynamic, reflexive relationship between bodies and space as humans both respond to and mold the world around them &mdash; and vice versa. Bodies and space cannot exist without one another. Through movement, humans not only perceive and engage with the world, but also shape abstract space into the places of their lives as activities affect the characteristics of, perception of, and future interactions with a place. Conversely, the characteristics of a place (whether physical features or societal customs and expectations associated with a place), inform perceptions of and interactions with that place, influencing the behaviors of those who occupy it. Dance, thus, exists not simply as a body moving in space, but as a body in deep, nuanced interaction with space &mdash; an interaction that affects both entities. Investigating this body-space relationship as it pertains to site dance, we see more clearly how the body not only occupies space, but also activates it. </p><p> Performed outside of traditional performance settings such as theatres and studios, site dance places dance directly in lived space, with specific attention in this paper to dances staged in public spaces. These dances engage not only with the site&rsquo;s physical characteristics, but also various aspects of the site&rsquo;s history, its current import to a community, or its potential usages. By situating dance directly in the lived experience, interacting with the places of daily life, site dance possesses the ability to change how people see and experience both dance and place. Removed from the conditioned interaction with performers on a formal stage, site dance allows more inference between spectators and performers as both have the opportunity to recognize, experience, and engage with the same phenomena. And in its honest exchange between dancers and site, the intricate body-space relationship is made tangible to viewers who may see themselves reflected in the actions of the dancers. Through its untraditional, unconventional, and at times transgressive relationship with place, &mdash;and its intentional evocation of the history, memory, or function of a specific site,&mdash; site dance illuminates the powerful, dynamic relationship we have with our environment and empowers audiences to recognize their role as active agents shaping the non-static entity of space. Through its heightened phenomenological engagement and embodiment within sites for performers and audience alike, site dance affords a new perception of place at a deep experiential level. When dancers occupy, literally or figuratively, the places that humans typically do not, or cannot, physically occupy, and/or engage in behaviors that one might not anticipate in a particular setting, audiences can perceive these sites in new ways which may in turn inform their future interactions with said places. As such, site dance holds potential for affecting change and activation of community and public space which needs further attention in the current trend of creative placemaking and other programs designed to revitalize public spaces, deepen community engagement, or bring attention and/or action to a community concern.</p>

This PhD dissertation examines the relationships between cultural heritage and the environment, focusing specifically on the devastation and rebuilding of New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Departing from conventional approaches to the natural world (such as documentation- and conservation-based approaches), this thesis adopts a developmental-systems based approach to cultural heritage in order to construct a new way of interpreting it, within the specific context of natural disaster. This new approach, termed 'heritage ecology', reinterprets cultural heritage in two ways: first, as a physical assemblage of sites, materials, traditions, beliefs, and practices that are constructed in significant ways by their natural environments; and second, as a metaphorical ecosystem which impacts back on the assessment and construction of that natural environment in turn. In order to construct this approach, the thesis poses three interrelated questions: how is cultural heritage transformed as a result of disaster, how do societies rebuild their heritage after disaster, and how does heritage contribute to the rebuilding process? Examining a rebuilding process in real-time provides a unique window on these processes; events and developments in New Orleans taken from the first four years of recovery (2005-2009) suggest that prior understandings of how societies rebuild themselves after disaster have neglected crucial aspects of cultural heritage that are integral to that process. The examination of data from the case study - data of diverse forms, such as historiography, the culinary arts, music, the built environment, and memorial sites and landscapes - reveals the limitations of traditional approaches to heritage and prompts a reassessment of a range of issues central to heritage research, issues such as materiality, authenticity, and commodification. This study moreover incorporates into heritage research concepts previously unconsidered, such as infrastructure and policy. In the coming century of global climate change and increased environmental hazards, this last theme will become increasingly central to heritage policy and research; the dissertation concludes accordingly, with a reflection on contingency and future disaster.