Case study 3: African Transect

Question 1

How does globalization affect human culture/niches

Answer 1

globalization causes cultures to converge. Leads to a dominant world view that generates uniform human niches

These uniform human niches are maladaptive

Question 2

Why is a market an ecological phenomenon?

Answer 2

thriving population = surplus = market

Question 3

what is the pattern of displacement on agricultural lands

Answer 3

modern agriculture displaces traditional agriculture, which then in turn displaces nomadic pastoralists

Question 4

why is culture an adaptive mechanism?

Answer 4

it is highly variable and site-specific

Question 5

environmental determinism
possibilism
stop and go determinism

Answer 5

envr determinism: your environmentl determines your culture
possibilism: your culture is determined by what’s possible in your envr
stop and go determinism: long term effects of human impact; anything’s possible, human development can go on

Question 6

what are two indicators of a culture’s fitness?

Answer 6

• self-referencing satisfaction
• survival through space and time