In this lecture on the foundations of environmental anthropology, Dr. Eduardo Brondizio first highlights the modern era in world history as the great global acceleration, in which use of natural resources and economic development has increased exponentially. He traces the history of ideas to study the relationship between human culture and environmental constraints, starting with cultural ecology and moving through ecological anthropology, political ecology, ethnobiology, and historical and symbolic ecologies. He notes that these and other related theories and approaches all deal with complexity and connectivity, and that the temporal and spatial scope of change requires new frameworks for understanding. He ends with questions about the Anthropocene, and how anthropology and related disciplines are dealing with the epistemological and moral tensions inherent in current challenges facing humans and the environment.
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