Cultural Perspectives on Resource Use and Environmental Influence

1. RESOURCES • “Resources are not, they become • they are not static but expand and contract in response to human needs and human actions” • Zimmerman, 1951

2. THE QUESTION OF USE • Environmentalism • The physical environment (emphasis on climate and terrain) is the active force in shaping the development of cultures • human society is a passive product of its physical surroundings

3. Perception • Look at similar environments • large cities • elongated, hilly sites • flanked on all sides but one by water - ie ocean, river, bay • both connected to adjacent land by bridges built in the 20th century

6. CHANGE OVER TIME

7. Perception • Each person and cultural group has mental images of the environment • These images are shaped by ? • It is possible that the choices people make will depend on what the perception is rather than the reality • So to understand reactions we must know how a cultures “sees” its’ environment

8. GEOMANCY (feng-shui) • East Asian world view and art • traditional system of land planning • sites for houses, villages, temples and graves • terrain, compass directions, soil texture and patterns of streams are important

10. POSSIBILISM • Possibilists do not ignore the environment but rather treat it as an influence • Cultural heritage is treated as being at least as important as the physical environment in shaping human responses • Significance?

11. Resourcesare defined in terms of: • Human perceptions • wants and needs • technological skills • legal limits such as property rights and environmental laws • financial and institutional arrangements • political, cultural and religious customs • location and accessibility

12. Human Wants & Needs Our Environment Dianne Draper

13. Technological Skills • A possibilistic viewpoint of a physical environment would state that the environment offers a range of choices and limitations • The choice a culture makes is guided by cultural heritage and the range of perceived choices

14. OTHER FACTORSProperty RightsEnvironmental Laws • These produce legal limits on the use of resources and the environments that they are developed and used in • question of private land and dump sites • construction on or near wetlands (who owns beaches on a public lake?) • the location of dumpsites in Ontario (concept of waste disposal where it is produced

15. Financial/Institutional Arrangements • Additions and constraints that may be added to the development and/or management of resources • in Ontario responsibilities for water quantity and water quality lie with separate agencies

16. Religious/Cultural Customs • Influence on rural land uses for example • development of the “long lot” system along the banks of the St. Lawrence in Quebec - linked to modes of transport, the church, and inheritance • Montreal, Quebec - Google • The lands of Spain and Morocco (separated by the Straits of Gibralter) - Muslim Morocco does not raise pigs - but Spain does

17. Location/Access • Distance is a barrier to the concepts associated with resources • distance is measured in terms? • Time and cost This has an impact on the feasibility of developing/using a resource

18. Major Themes of the Course • A Single, Unified, Global Ecosystem - a collection of sub-systems but all are interconnected • Pressures result in • CONFLICT & UNCERTAINTY