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Anthropology and the Environment

April 1998

Ed Liebow, Contributing Editor

Spring is roaring into sight, and we cannot totally free our attention from the half-formed writing projects arrayed in a growing number of piles across every bit of available surface area in our work spaces. This month, the Section News carries a number of current announcements for publication opportunities of interest to Section members, and a review of some relevant presentations at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Philadelphia mid-February. We also have an update on the status of the National Institute for the Environment, the formation of which has long been a focus of the Section and its organizational forebear, the AAA Task Force on the Environment.

PUBLICATION OPPORTUNITIES: A Call for Volunteers Last month's Section news announced a publication opportunity in collaboration with Culture and Agriculture. Discussions leading to this collaborative agreement also brought to the surface the possibility of other Section-sponsored publications, Section President Carole Crumley has asked Ed Liebow to organize a committee to explore options for establishing a publication series. If you are interested in serving on this committee, please contact either Crumley (crumley@unc.edu) or Liebow.

This month, a pair of additional announcements are rebroadcast here seeking contributions on environmental issues (for a more complete listing of "Calls for Papers" for conferences and publications, consult the "Announcements" section of the Anthropology/Environment web site). It is especially heartening to think of these as opportunities to bridge disciplinary boundaries and call attention to the contributions that anthropologists have to offer to a more encompassing discourse on ecofeminism, natural resource management, and related matters.

The Bucknell Review will publish a special issue on feminist literary ecocriticism, scheduled to appear in the year 2000. Submissions are due by January, 1999, and further information can be obtained from the journal editor, Glynis Carr at Bucknell (717/524-3118; gcarr@bucknell.edu).

The Academy of Management Journal will publish a special research forum on the management of organizations involved in environmental resource management. Submissions are due by May 15, 1998, and further information can be obtained by contacting Mark Starik at George Washington U, (202/994-5621; starik@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu).

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS: Thanks to huge time donation from Alx Dark and Tom Abel, the abstracts for more than 50 papers presented at the Section's 1997 Annual Meeting sessions are now available at the Anthropology/Environment web site. In addition, the Section now has a preliminary directory of all Section members (almost 350 at last count). Please look for a survey of the membership to be distributed later this month in order to update and improve the bibliographic and directory information of our current Internet sites.

We have the ability to send urgent and timely announcements via e-mail to all members who have provided their e-mail addresses. You can relay such announcements directly to Dark (anthenv@altavista.net) and he will take care of distributing your Section-wide announcements. This new distribution mechanism enables us to broadcast important notices in a rapid fashion, and is organized in a way that keeps from listing the entire membership roster. Certain e-mail abuses are thus avoided (e.g., hitting the "reply" command and sending to 300 people a response intended for just one or two correspondents).

AAAS CONFERENCE NEWS: The American Association for the Advancement of Science held its 150th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, February 12-17, 1998. The Anthropology/Environment Section was well represented on the Program.

A session entitled "It's Written in Stone: Using Geologic Records to Understand the Impact of Human Activity" focused on methods for examining how the history of human activity is preserved in the geologic record, and for using such information can aid in predicting the effect of human actions over long time periods. Patrick V. Kirch (California-Berkeley) contributed a paper to this session entitled Human Impacts to Polynesian Ecosystems: The Geoarchaeological Record

A session on special ethical problems in anthropology and archaeology included presentations by K. Anne Pyburn (Indiana U), "Native American Religion versus Archaeological Science: A Pernicious Dichotomy Revisited and Richard R. Wilk (Indiana U) "Whose Forest? Whose Land? Whose Ruins? Ethics and Conservation."

New perspectives on population and human carrying capacity and the influence of economics, environment, and culture were presented in the session, Population and Carrying Capacity: Beyond Malthus After Two Centuries.

Papers exploring the growth of shrimp farming worldwide and its impact on coastal ecosystems in the developing world were presented in the session, "Global Shrimp Farming, Mangroves, and People: Finding a Sustainable Path."

And finally, in a session entitled "Emerging Water Management Issues in Africa," the current status of African freshwater ecosystems was surveyed, along with projections of human interactions for the next century and the anticipated economic, social, and political implications that must be addressed.

STUDENTS' CORNER: There is still time to submit papers to be considered for the Roy A. Rappaport student paper competition. Papers must be delivered by May 1, 1998 to Carole Crumley [Anthro, U North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3115]. Please follow guidelines for authors from Human Ecology (for on-line copy of guidelines, see http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/anthro/ecology.html) except you should submit the original and FIVE copies to Dr. Crumley. The winner of the $500 prize will be presented at the A&E Business meeting in Philadelphia this December.

FOCUS ON POLICY AND PRACTICE: THE COMMITTEE FOR THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON THE ENVIRONMENT: When the Anthropology/Environment Section was still just a Task Force of the AAA, Task Force members were actively involved in efforts to create a National Institute for the Environment. As originally imagined, this Institute would have resembled the National Institutes of Health, an independent federal agency dedicated to improving the scientific basis for making decisions on environmental issues.

After five years and many political twists and turns, this past October the US Congress directed the National Science Foundation to prepare a report detailing how it would establish and operate a National Institute for the Environment. This report was supposed to be delivered by NSF on April 1, 1998.

In the meantime, the Committee for the National Institute for the Environment has been busy trying to highlight the proposed NIE's public benefits by providing free access to understandable and unbiased information on a wide range of environmental subjects through the award-winning National Library for the Environment. The Library, located on the Internet at http://www.cnie.org, includes:

Hundreds of up-to-date issue reports produced by the Library of Congress' Congressional Research Service
A Directory of Higher Education Environmental Programs produced in collaboration with Rice University's Center for Conservation Biology Network (CCBN) and other academic resources maintained by Second Nature and ATEEC
Environmental Laws and Treaties -- local, state, federal and international -- maintained by Pace University Law School.
An in-depth resource on Population-Environment Linkages that provides direct access to source materials in a user-friendly context.
A Virtual Library of Ecology and Biodiversity maintained by CCBN.

In November, 1997, Congressmen Jim Saxton (R-NJ) and Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) introduced H.R. 2914, the Sound Science for the Environment Act, which would authorize and direct NSF to create the NIE. The bill currently has 49 bipartisan cosponsors.

Send your news items for the Section's membership to Ed Liebow (liebow@seanet.com, 206/675-1002; fax: 206/675-1005). And check the Anthropology/Environment web site regularly.