Balance-of-Nature Paradigm Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

This Balance-of-Nature Paradigm Essay example is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic, please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.

Balance of -nature is a metaphor that invokes the ideal of a universe of interrelated components that operate in harmony undisturbed by external interventions. The concept of a balance in nature is part of many cosmologies around the world. In Chinese philosophy, this ideal is symbolized by the yin (earth/female) and the yang (heaven/ male). The Greeks had several deities with the power to generate and order the universe. As a common thread through these beliefs, all things were believed to be interconnected to preserve order, predictably, and resilience in nature.

The concept of the balance of nature was an implicit assumption in ecology for centuries and has influenced both its theory and practice. The principle of a balance of nature is also evident in the early conservation movement. In 1864, George Perkins Marsh wrote in Man and Nature that nature should be undisturbed by people so that the landscape can become almost unchanging and permanent in form. The paradigm, known as classical equilibrium, is seen in many concepts central to ecology such as biogeography, population dynamics, carrying capacity, stability, and homeostasis. Thus, a significant feature of classical equilibrium ecology is based on the assumption that all ecosystems follow a linear path toward an end state. If left alone, undisturbed by humans, all ecosystems were potentially self-regulating, and could reach a stable “climax” state.

Ecological Anthropology

Early ecological anthropology was also characterized by a search for a balance in the human ecosystem. While classical equilibrium ecology places humans outside of ecosystems, early human ecologists placed people at the center of the ecosystem. Importantly, the human ecology model retained many of the principles found in equilibrium ecology. The human ecosystem was believed to be a closed, self-regulating system that was culturally, structurally, and functionally complete. This approach informed the work of anthropologist Roy Rappaport, whose early research was concerned with humans as a species that participates in ecosystems in ways that are fundamentally similar to how other animals participate.

For Rappaport, cultures can be conceptualized as adaptations of particular groups to a particular ecosystem. Rappaport’s approach, known as cultural materialism, is best exemplified in his seminal book Pigs for the Ancestors: Ritual in the Ecology of a New Guinea People (1968), in which cultural phenomena are explained in terms of material factors among people and the natural environment. Rappaport attributes the ritual pig feasting and warfare among the Tsembaga Maring of highland New Guinea as an event that was critical in regulating the size of human and animal populations. Pigs for the Ancestors has become a classical case study in human ecology, exploring the role of culture in resource management and the application of systems theory to a human population. In a similar way to ecologists who applied the balance-ofnature metaphor to ecosystems, Rappaport and other human ecologists believed that if the human ecosystem was left undisturbed by outside forces (in this case, political and economic forces), then it would remain in a balanced, closed state of homeostasis.

Paradigm Shift

The powerful metaphor of the balance of nature came into question in the 1970s and 1980s in both ecological and social sciences. Ecological studies began to demonstrate that equilibrium conditions are rare and that disturbance events are so common that most ecological systems never reach a climax stage. Ecologists describe key ecological processes as nonequilibrium (or disequilibrium) dynamics, open to restructuring through disturbance regimes and historical contingencies. Emerging nonequilibrium theory conceptualizes ecosystems as nested hierarchies of patch mosaics, and ecological dynamics are viewed as the outcome of composite patch dynamics. Daniel Botkin, a pioneer in the theory of nonequilibrium ecology, maintains that nature is in fact not in balance and disturbance is ubiquitous, if not the norm. This is not to suggest that there is no ecological stability, but rather that balance is embedded in patterns of fluctuation and ecological persistence and can be seen as order within disorder.

This paradigm shift in the ecological sciences was mirrored by a similar shift in the social sciences. Just as ecologists began to recognize that ecosystems do not remain productive indefinitely, but rather require periodic disturbances, anthropologists and geographers began to rethink humanity’s role in actively shaping the landscape. It was once commonplace to talk about “pristine” areas of rainforest where “ancient” or “primeval” primary forest could be found, untouched by human hands. However, recent research in anthropology and geography has shown that much of the tropical forests around the world are the product of generations of selective human modification and interventions. These modifications are often responsible for the diversity of species, which previously might have been attributed to “natural” or nonanthropogenic forces.

Many scientists herald the transition from concern with equilibrium, homogeneity, and determinism to a widespread acceptance of nonequilibirum, heterogeneity, and disturbance in ecosystems as an important paradigm shift in ecology. This paradigmatic shift has significant implications for resource management. Conservation efforts, which often aim to remove human presence from landscapes, can focus on “real people-centered conservation,” or what the geographer Karl Zimmerer calls “nature-culture hybrids.” One example of this shift can be seen in the controversial issues surrounding wildfires in the western United States. Fire suppression polices, once the hallmark of forest conservation, have been replaced with the controlled-burn policy that acknowledges natural forest fires help regenerate the forest ecosystem.

Bibliography:

Daniel Botkin, Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the Twenty-first Century (Oxford University Press, 1992);
Dennis E. Jelinski, “There Is No Mother Nature-There Is No Balance of Nature: Culture, Ecology and Conservation,” Human Ecology (v.33/2, 2005);
George Marsh, Man and Nature (Harvard University Press, [1864] 1965);
Scoones, “New Ecology and the Social Sciences,” Annual Review of Anthropology (v.28, 1999);
Jiangou Wu, “From Balance of Nature to Hierarchical Patch Dynamics: A Paradigm Shift in Ecology,” Quarterly Review of Biology (v.70/4, 1995);
Karl S. Zimmerer, “The Reworking of Conservation Geographies: NonEquilibirum Landscapes and Nature-Culture Hybrids,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers (v.90/2, 2000).