Exploitation and Overexploitation in Societies Past and Present

Brigitta Benzing · Bernd Herrmann

jan 2003 · LIT Verlag Münster

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Human impact on the landscape can be conceptualized in terms of socially governed ecological systems. In the past, the adaptive capacity of human cultural systems had been emphasized, though currently, a shift towards modified views can be recognized. In this study, resources are discussed as prerequisites for establishing complex human societies. This also includes a more biologically minded view from the standpoint of the humanities. In such a view, human societal complexes can be understood as systems that manage energy and matters. The concept of social-metabolic regimes has developed in such a context. Cultures, as seen within this paradigm, are not understood merely as autopoietic symbolic entities but as results of an interaction of material prerequisites and emerging social structures. It becomes increasingly evident that man-nature relationships, which are strongly expressed in exploitation strategies, will turn into the most decisive issue in this century.

Brigitta Benzing teaches anthropology at the University of Gttingen. Bernd Herrmann teaches historical anthropology and human ecology at the University of Gttingen.