During the twentieth century, indigenous peoples have often embraced the category of indigenous while also having to face the ambiguities and limitations of this concept. Indigeneity, whether represented by indigenous people themselves or others, tends to face a "double bind", as defined by Gregory Bateson, in which "no matter what a person does, he can't win." One exit strategy suggested by Bateson is meta-communication-communication about communication-in which new solutions emerge from a questioning of system-internal assumptions. We offer case studies from Ecuador, Peru and Alaska that chart some recent indigenous experiences and strategies for such scenarios.
In this article, we ask how considerations about moral (and immoral) ecologies have motivated and shaped ecological resistance movements. The concept of 'moral ecologies' involves expectations of reciprocal, just, and sustainable relations between society and environment, which we consider a central concern of environmental movements. We analyze the cultural, material, and political importance of moral ecologies as a form of resistance by examining social movements in Alaska and Turkey, as well as ideas about sumak kawsay ('good living') in Ecuador and historical precursors in the form of the 'righteous ruler' in early medieval Ireland. Our analysis demonstrates that a focus on moral ecologies has often resonated widely, facilitated new and cross-cutting coalitions, and in some cases garnered elite support and signi cantly in uenced national politics and landscapes.
Environmental anthropologists have refined, challenged, and reconfigured the conceptual divide between human culture and nonhuman nature through multidisciplinary, cross‐cultural ethnographic inquiry. Problematizing the assumption that society is fundamentally separate from the biospheric realm, scholars have called attention to the various ways in which the physical environment shapes human culture and vice versa. This entry explores environmental anthropology's engagement with the nature/culture dichotomy, focusing on five prominent themes in the subfield's literature: equilibrium versus postequilibrium approaches, power and politics, environmentalism, the nature/culture divide, and biocultural diversity.
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