Le développement et ses approches6

I believe that most people working in ecological anthropology have come to the conclusion that, at some level, the global environmental crisis is for real. Ultimately, it will not allow itself to be deconstructed, and it does require our very serious attention. But as soon as we start talking about it, anthropology proves to be a house divided. We not only study cultures, we create them within our own profession. At the 1996 AAA meeting in San Francisco, in a workshop discussing the agenda for political ecology, Emilio Moran finished by re- minding those present to 'count their potatoes'. When I suggested that we might also look at the relationship between ecology and personhood, the response I re- ceived made me feel as alien as on a first day of field- work. There are Humanists and Scientists in ecological anthropology (cf. Ingerson 1994), and it seems they don't spend much time talking to each other.