nity and/or population at large.
As a discipline, environmental anthropology focuses on the complex relationships between people and their environment. Since humans have an ongoing connection with the environment, they will therefore also influence the land, climate, plant and animal populations that are in close proximity to them. As such, these other populations have a reciprocating influence on humans (Salzman & Atwood, 1996, p. 169). Consequently, ecological anthropology investigates the manner in which a population forms its environment and the subtle ways in which these relationships formulate the populationÆs economic, political, and social life. In this context, ecological anthropology provides a somewhat materialistic explanation of society and culture as products of adaptation to a given set of environmental conditions (Seymour-Smith, 1986, p. 62).
Evolution holds that more individuals are produced in a generation than can survive. Thus, competition arises between these individuals competing for the same, albeit limited resources. Those individuals that are the fittest and strongest will be rewarded and survive to reproduce. Consequently, it is the ôenvironmentö which rather unilaterally determines whether or not a particular evolutionary trait is useful.
Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) and his Essay on Population (published in 1798) had a profound influence on Charles Darwin and his formulation of the Theory of Evolution. Malthus argued that human populations grow exponentially while their available resources will only grow on a geometric basis. As such, human populations have historically tended to outstrip their food supply (Seymour-Smith, 1986, p. 87) to such an extent that competition for these resources (and ultimately for survival) becomes necessary. This process is all-consuming, leading to disease and hunger and eventually limiting the growth of the population. This assumes, however, that a strugg...