Environmental Anthropology: Subject Matters, Approaches, and Applications

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

2 Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Environmental anthropology is one of the sub-fields of cultural anthropology that its ultimate goal is the studying of the types of relationships between humans and their surrounding environment. By utilizing the resources in this field, we seek to identify common issues, approaches and attitudes, and finally, its applied efforts. Accordingly, the structure of this article in the body section is divided into three parts. In the first part, by reviewing the latest English articles from 2018, in the field of environmental anthropology, the most important issues considered by environmental anthropologists have been studied. The important topics refer to the cultural experience of environmental challenges and the processes of adaptation to these challenges. The second part studies the specific approach of the anthropologists defining their relation to the environmental challenges. To participate in environmental challenges, anthropologists define various roles for themselves, including interpreters, translators, mediators, facilitators, and actors. In the third part, while reviewing the most important sources dealing with applied environmental anthropology, we examine the different types of applications and participations in environmental anthropology. Finally, a model of anthropological participation in the study of environmental challenges is presented, which consists of three pivotal components: knowledge, action and scale comprehensiveness.

Keywords


 
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