understanding of human/environment relations at the core of geographical RESOURCEFUL PEOPLE education. This essay examines some of the techniques for adapting to envi- AND PEOPLE’S RESOURCE ronmental risk utilized by people in South Asia, and then introduces a Teaching the Cultural Ecology of South Asia brief teaching plan for demonstrating these geographical concepts in an By Paul Robbins and Jason Moritz elementary classroom setting. CULTURAL ECOLOGICAL CONCEPTS ADAPTATION, RISK, t has been our experience that AND LANDSCAPE CHANGE when most students in the United heep penned in an Geography provides a number of use- States think of India or Pakistan, enclosure on a fallow ful concepts for better understanding they picture baked and cracked human/environmental relations. One I field. The animals belong soil, drought, and starving people. S of the most prominent, cultural ecolo- When they picture Bangladesh, they to a migrant herder and are gy, examines people within the most likely think of inundated fields, context of ecological conditions, con- deadly storms, and drowning farmers. being held on the land of a straints, and flows, and explores the Indeed, these persistent images of local farmer who exchanges interrelationships between people, nature running wild over helpless peo- resources, and space. Growing out of ple are perhaps the strongest and most the right to graze for sheep both Geography and Anthropology, it pernicious tropes in the North Ameri- dung, a key fertilizer on sandy examines how people make a living, can view of South Asia. Teachers, how cultural and natural systems are students, and parents absorb most of soils. This exchange of integrated, and what effects human these images of the region through resources is a form of risk- ways of life have on ambient environ- television programming beamed from mental systems.1 For example, in a growing number of cable networks spreading, as is the migratory Southeast Asian human ecological dedicated to nature, animals, and strategy of the herder. research, researchers have compared global issues. But the increasing load swidden (slash and burn) agriculture Photo courtesy of Paul Robbins. of pictures of the region has not neces- to paddy rice cultivation, considering sarily assured a diversity of images, each as an ecosystem. By measuring and important misconceptions persist. flows, withdrawals, and biotic change In particular, the myth of the Asian over time, researchers relate each sys- peasant at the mercy of the whims of tem to the soil and to human demands nature is evident from even a cursory and labor. Elsewhere, cultural ecolo- surfing of cable channels. Teaching gists have traced the relationships past this image is imperative and between growing and shrinking popu- requires a geographical approach to lations to changing agricultural and demonstrate the resilience and adapt- social systems. ability of humans to the environment. In South Asia, a cultural ecology Using the lens of cultural ecology approach begins by asking questions in geography, an alternate picture of like: how are human systems geared South Asian agriculture emerges. around the energy dynamics of cli- Human adaptation to risk and uncer- matic variation? How does soil and tainty in the environment is achieved water availability limit or focus agri- by modifying the landscape and cultural practices? How are systems by spreading ecological pressure of exchange and storage set to man- over space and time. By teaching a age annual scarcity? In asking these geography of producer behaviors in the questions, cultural ecology provides region, teachers can (1) dispel perni- a useful heuristic: adaptation. Human cious myths about the helplessness and communities adapt to changing vulnerability of people in places unlike conditions, and the behaviors and their own, and (2) introduce the key practices built around these condi- concepts of human adaptation and tions can be understood as adapta- landscape change, fundamental for an tions. Extensive movement systems

12 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 4, Number 2 Fall 1999 of nomadic herders in deserts, exhaustively dug and maintained In both of these cases, intimate knowledge of the local ecology terrace systems for mountain agriculture, and social systems for is used to transform the landscape, to adapt to changing condi- managing irri-gation channels in fertile river valleys, might all tions, and to lower risks in production. be seen as adaptive strategies adopted in particular contexts.2 Taken together, these geographical tools turn our attention This concept can be coupled with the idea of risk, defined as to particular questions in the human ecology of South Asia and “the likelihood of a range of possible outcomes resulting from a move beyond popular misconceptions, asking how human decision or course of action” and the idea of uncertainty, beings create stability amidst tempestuous variability and pro- defined as “the possibility of more than one outcome resulting ductivity where risk and uncertainty are high. For pedagogy, from a particular course of action . . . the probability of one out- adaptation in arid zones, mountains, and saturated lands make come being unknown.”3 particularly clear examples. In these People in South Asia face both more extreme regimes, harvesting and risk and uncertainty. Knowing that storage of crops, and altering of the rain fails one year out of four in arid land all demonstrate the adaptive char- Pakistan, for example, farmers face acter of producers under stress. risk. Add to this the uncertainty of a grain storage bin for CULTURAL ECOLOGY IN catastrophic event, and the farmer a rural household in must either creatively adapt or else SOUTH ASIA periodically waste precious seeds, western Rajasthan. RISK SPREADING, A WATER HARVESTING, water, land, and labor. For example, The bin holds enough for seeds may be sown in the time prior to AND MOUNTAIN TERRACING when rain is expected to come, but if subsistence needs should a The monsoon rain that drives seasonal the timing of yearly rainfall varies single monsoon fail. The South Asian agriculture is always an greatly, that may be a risky strategy. unsure bet. Producers face a known The notion of adapting to risk is, construction materials are risk of failed harvests every few years. therefore, an important part of human traditional: mud, dung, In the areas where capital develop- production strategies. Human beings ment is most extensive, the risk of do not only adapt to current condi- and straw. monsoon failure is ameliorated with tions; they plan for contingencies Photo courtesy of Paul Robbins. tubewell pumping from deep aquifers. and hedge their chances against risky In many areas, however, groundwater and uncertain situations. Rather than supplies have been depleted, or even sowing seeds before an expected rain, where they remain, they may only for example, farmers in some cultures be tapped by wealthy producers. A wait until the first rain arrives before majority of South Asian producers in planting, therefore reducing risk. arid lands still rely on the rain. Given A further geographical and the inter-annual variation in monsoon cultural ecological lens for viewing moisture, such reliance has to be tem- producer behaviors is that of land- pered with a mechanism for averting scape change. Most often, this area disaster. The tendency in subsistence of study is associated with the production towards risk-averse examination of the degradation behavior is nearly universal; farmers that accompanies human action in the and herders around the world are environment. Equally important, how- usually willing to reduce maximum ever, are those cases of creative returns in exchange for a lower annual destruction, where humans create new chance of disaster or failure. In prac- landscape conditions that are stable, tical terms, this means the investment productive, and sustainable over time. of time, labor, and resources in pro- These modifications might range from duction techniques, infrastructure, and small mounds for agriculture to social networks that can be called reclamation of land from the sea. In upon during times of scarcity. In arid Bangladesh, the complex ecosystems India, for example, joint family house- created in rice-field agriculture, hold networks spread risk of crop carved out of saturated wetlands, failure over large groups and areas, represent such an alteration. In Pak- assuring that somewhere a household istan during the 1980s, producers surplus may be called upon in case of quickly adapted mountainous terrain disaster or shortage. These networks for intensive farming of exotic crops provide a social circuitry through when resource pressure changed as a which livestock and labor can be result of Afghani refugee inundation. moved from village to village, where

13 needed. At the same time, however, producers in of crop failure, disaster, or forced migration. extended kin networks like these can be sure that someone Many of the region’s more notable adaptations occur at in the family will call upon their aid on a regular basis, thus scales beyond the household and take the form of collective reducing returns overall. action. Irrigation systems, managed through carefully coordi- Similarly, producers store value in domesticated livestock, nated systems of labor, are the hallmark of South Asian “village including sheep, buffalo, camels, and goats. In good years, republics” in India. Likewise, hill forests in Nepal are herds increase rapidly, with up to 200 percent annual returns in conserved through collective controls that underlie village fast-reproducing species like goats and sheep (see photo on solidarity. In another example, village tree stocks throughout page 12). In times of distress, producers cut their losses through the subcontinent are protected in sacred groves (orans) where animal sales, thus averting disaster. Simpler techniques for risk cutting of valuable trees is forbidden, enforced through mutual spreading also exist. In arid regions, wild grasses are often agreement, and marked in the landscape as cultural artifacts: planted alongside crop species. These wild species make excel- sacred islands of biodiversity. In all of these examples, the lent fodder, but more importantly, can store for up to a decade adaptive behaviors go beyond the individual to the group, rep- if carefully piled and stacked. With resenting instead larger ecological reserves in storage for ten years, pro- adaptations held together by cultural ducers are not forced to migrate with he “Persian Wheel” draws norms. their animals with every bad mon- Perhaps most dramatically, the soon. Desert households usually keep water from a shallow well terracing of the mountain landscape in one and sometimes two years of grain using a belt carrying small the Himalayan regions of Pakistan, in storage against the possibility of T Nepal, and India represents one of the total crop failure and use a variety of vessels. The wheel is driven by most ancient marks of risk manage- carefully adapted techniques to pro- animal power yoked in the circle ment through the investment of time tect fodder and grain in the interim and labor. Terraces carved out of the (see photo on page 13). behind the wheel. A mixture of mountain slope enable the planting of Similarly, water itself is tradi- modern and traditional materials corn, millet, and, most remarkably, tionally harvested throughout the rice in steep terrain and at relatively subcontinent with a staggering range is visible here; an aluminum high altitudes. Like irrigation systems, of technologies: canals for routing metal beam steadies the mecha- step wells, and community forests, water from catchments, deep wells these carefully maintained fields situated in key sites relative to nism; the cups are ceramic; the exemplify the ways in which groundwater flow, tanks to feed belt is made from plant fibers. producers invest labor and resources irrigation, and recharge basins to fill Photo courtesy of Paul Robbins. to spread risk and raise productivity aquifers. In the drier plateau country through the modification of the of South India, temple tanks and landscape. catchment basins, religiously pro- scribed and controlled, are linked to CRISES IN ADAPTATION traditional irrigation schemes that MARKET LOGIC AND KNOWLEDGE depend on seasonal access, even in These traditional systems have not good rainfall years. In Gujarat, baolis, gone unchanged by pressures in the or step wells, are carved into the earth region. The two most significant con- and reinforced with stone. These draw tributions to change are declines in upon deep aquifers and provide a sure traditional knowledge systems and the source of dry-season water. In central pressures of the market. In the first Rajasthan, complex systems of silt case, new technologies have come to ponds are scattered through the land- displace older ones and to push the scape to feed groundwater. The necessary supporting knowledge from recharged aquifer is tapped in shaft the minds and memories of producers. and step wells for irrigation. These The post-independence development waters may be drawn using a number orientation towards large dams and of traditional technologies including green revolution technologies, for the Persian wheel driven by ox or example, pushes aside the traditional camel (see photo, this page). These all adaptations like groundwater harvest- represent deliberate alterations of the ing, intercropping, and ethnobotany. landscape for the control of resources Not only are techniques displaced, but and of risk. By diverting natural flow the knowledge systems that support of surface water, feeding and tapping them also quickly disappear. The groundwater, and impounding catch- maintenance of recharge tanks for ments, producers reduce the chances groundwater, for example, requires

14 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 4, Number 2 Fall 1999 specialized experience cultures. The following exercises are directed towards teaching and information, unknown to university-trained engineers the concepts of risk, adaptation, and landscape change to and unappreciated by contemporary planners. These risk- elementary school students. They are prepared for world controlling knowledges may vanish in a single generation, and geography classrooms, to be completed in less than an hour, where newer technologies fail to adequately provide for and to lay the foundations for a variety of follow-up exercises. producer needs, it may be too late to recover this information, A first exercise introduces the concepts of adaptation and now lost to history. risk, asks students to imagine and create risky situations In the second case, the pressures of commodity marketing and responses to risk, and prepares students for future have begun to change the structure of risk itself; while the tradi- discussions of human adaptation to risk in South Asia. First, the tional risk-averse system reduces maximum output, the market instructor introduces “adaptation” and “risk” using the simple provides greater output but with higher risk and inter-annual definitions provided above and a few of the examples. The returns. With the advent of green revolution technologies in students are then paired up and instructed to construct collages agriculture that demand capital-intensive inputs like pesticides of risky situations using simple materials, including magazine and fertilizers, the cash returns for marketed commodities must clippings, construction paper, glue, and pens. On the reverse be increased. This system of incentives is inherently riskier, side, they then write a short plan about how they would deal especially for capital-poor producers who may lose their stake with the situation and prepare for future problems like it. These in the first major crop failure. In the process, wealthier produc- can be discussed with the larger group, using questions that ers emerge at an advantage, traditional knowledges are emphasize the kinds of sacrifices, investments, and decisions de-emphasized, and the regional cultural ecology changes to required in preparing for known but unpredictable events. higher-risk crops, fewer systems of storage, and less socially Would such a plan be carried out alone or as a form of group organized methods of risk spreading. organization? Is the investment worth the reduction of risk? While many geographers celebrate the advances of These can be brought back to examples from South Asia: green revolution technologies, more detailed study of house- pastoral nomadism in arid regions, agricultural terraces in hold adaptations and farming strategies reveal problems. mountains, irrigation channels in river valleys. Follow-up Negative repercussions of the green revolution include soil lessons draw upon the basic examples of risk aversion degradation from high input rice cultivation in Bangladesh, the envisioned by students to underline the logics and resource- disintegration of tribal community through integration with fulness of producers in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. markets in India’s far northeast, the unexpected pressures on A second exercise introduces the concept of adaptive land- pastoral systems caused by cropping intensification, and the scape change. Here, students modify their own environment as crisis of landlessness growing from the accumulation of land. an imaginary disaster looms. Students are first introduced to the Similarly, large-scale irrigation projects for agricultural idea of “landscape change” as both the unintentional forces of production appear progressive on paper, but study of regional degradation and as the novel sustainable conditions that accom- cultural ecology often shows them to be unsustainable over pany human action in the environment. They are then paired up time. Moreover, cultural ecological analysis reveals that these and given an “Impending Disaster Card” describing a foresee- transformations of regional production have differing and able natural hazard ranging from the small to the catastrophic; disproportionate impacts on women and the very poor. In sum, drought and flood, for example, are a good place to start, but cultural and social ecology presents a fundamental challenge to the range of risks and hazards leaves plenty of room for local many development orthodoxies. specificity and creativity. They can then prepare a map, For these reasons, it is essential that students learn diagram, or picture presenting their preparations for the to employ a cultural ecological perspective to understand disaster/risk, considering the ways in which they might build, producer ways of life in South Asia. By using this kind of plant, dig, or otherwise engineer a solution. geographic approach, it becomes evident (1) that village Class discussion can draw out the “unintended” effects of production systems are not at the mercy of nature but are care- landscape alterations, changes in plant cover, erosion, or other fully integrated into natural patterns through cultural systems unwanted or unplanned changes resulting from their solution. that reduce risk and uncertainty; (2) that these systems reduce The lesson can then be returned to the examples of landscape risk of disaster and failure through adaptation of production and change mentioned above, including rice field cultivation, landscape; and (3) that many technological and market changes terracing, well construction, or any other examples with which endanger carefully adapted systems for survival. Teaching the instructor is more comfortable and familiar. Follow-up human adaptation, risk control, and landscape change is exercises might involve sketching students’ landscape-altering therefore essential to any curriculum on the geography of solutions to problems, binding these, and comparing them to South Asia. photographs or slides of land-altering adaptations in South Asia and elsewhere, including dams, silos, reserve forests, etc. TEACHING HUMAN ADAPTATION These exercises provide an accessible entry into basic AND LANDSCAPE CHANGE geographical concepts for students at the elementary level and These concepts from cultural ecology make good teaching can be used in any sort of geography class. They also lay a material in geography, social studies, and earth sciences at any foundation for longer units on the geography of South Asia. level. In classrooms, these concepts are especially helpful ways With a richer vocabulary to describe human actions and of bridging students with apparently distant landscapes and impacts, a slide show of South Asia (or any other region) can

15 become highly interactive, with students suggesting possible L. Turner, 685–701. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. explanations for cultural landscape features and pointing out Conklin, H. C. “An Ethnoecological Approach to Shifting Agriculture.” New York Academy of Sciences, Transactions 17, no. 2 (1954): 133–142. human influences. At more advanced levels, these concepts can Ellen, R. Environment, Subsistence and System: The Ecology of Small Scale be used to build a discussion of technological and economic Social Formations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. change. The growth of the high-tech, factory farm in rural Gadgil, M., and V. D. Vartak. “The Sacred Uses of Nature.” In Social Ecology, edited by R. Guha, 90–119. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994. India, the shift in the pattern of risk, and the new environmental Geertz, C. 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Even so, the concept of adaptation is a powerful heuristic and peda- ery Publishing House, 1994. gogical counter-image to that of people at the mercy of nature. Ramachandran, K. “Impact of Drought on Foodgrain Production in India.” 3. Definitions from Smith, D. M. “Risk.” The Dictionary of Human Geogra- Indian Geographical Journal 67, no. 2 (1992): 29–36. phy. Eds. D. Gregory, R. J. Johnston, and D. M. Smith. Cambridge: Black- Rosin, R. T. “The Tradition of Groundwater Irrigation in Northwestern India.” well Publishers, 1994, p. 536. Risk and uncertainty share an exhaustive lit- Human Ecology 21, no. 1 (1993): 51–86. erature of their own in geography, outside of cultural ecology. Scott, J. C. The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976. REFERENCES Shiva, V. The Violence of the Green Revolution. Penang, Malayasia: Third World Network, 1991. Agarwal, A., and S. 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Bhatia, B. “Lush Fields and Parched Throats: Political Economy of Groundwa- PAUL ROBBINS is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geogra- ter in Gujarat.” Economic and Political Weekly (December 19, 1996). phy at Ohio State University. He teaches courses on the Environment Burman, J. J. R. “A Comparison of Sacred Groves among the Mahedeo Kolis and Development Issues and continues his ongoing research in western and Kunbis of Maharastra.” Indian Anthropologist 26, no. 1 (1996): 37–45. Rajasthan, India. Butzer, K. “Cultural Ecology.” In Geography in America, edited by Wilmmott and Gaile. New York: Merrill, 1989. JASON MORITZ teaches World History at Audubon Middle School in ——.“The Realm of Cultural-Human Ecology: Adaptation and Change in His- Los Angeles, California. His research includes critical pedagogy in geog- torical Perspective.” In The Earth Transformed by Human Action, edited by B. raphy at the elementary and post-secondary levels.

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