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The nature–culture divide is the notion of a dichotomy between humans and the environment. [1] It is a theoretical foundation of contemporary anthropology that considers whether nature and culture function separately from one another, or if they are in a continuous biotic relationship with each other.
Cultural ecology as developed by Steward is a major subdiscipline of anthropology. It derives from the work of Franz Boas and has branched out to cover a number of aspects of human society, in particular the distribution of wealth and power in a society, and how that affects such behaviour as hoarding or gifting (e.g. the tradition of the potlatch on the Northwest North American coast).
Culture (/ ˈ k ʌ l tʃ ər / KUL-chər) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these groups. [1] Culture often originates from or is attributed to a specific region or ...
Sauer was determined to stress the agency of culture as a force in shaping the visible features of the Earth's surface in delimited areas. Within his definition, the physical environment retains a central significance, as the medium with and through which human cultures act. [9] His classic definition of a 'cultural landscape' reads as follows: [7]
For Georg Simmel, culture referred to "the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history". Culture in the sociological field is analyzed as the ways of thinking and describing, acting, and the material objects that together shape a group of people's way of life. [1]
Biocultural diversity is defined by Luisa Maffi, co-founder and director of Terralingua, as "the diversity of life in all its manifestations: biological, cultural, and linguistic — which are interrelated (and possibly coevolved) within a complex socio-ecological adaptive system."
A further definition of culture is, "[s]ocially transmitted behavior patterns that serve to relate human communities to their ecological settings." [15] This definition connects cultural behavior to the environment. Since culture is a form of adaptation to one's environment, it is mirrored in many aspects of our current and past societies.
Culture theory – seeks to define the heuristic concept of culture in operational and/or scientific terms. Human geography – social science that studies the world, its people, communities, and cultures with an emphasis on relations of and across space and place.