4
GERALD L. YOUNG
three disciplines (e.g. Theodorson, 1958, 1961; Schnore, 1961a). But, as
Dansereau (1965) has declared, “we have as yet no definitive synthesis
of human ecology . . .”
11. SEMINAL W O R K I N H U M A N ECOLOGY:
THE DEVELOPMENT O F A “MULTI-DISCIPLINARY” CONCEPT
The formal beginnings of the ecological approach to the study of man
lie in evolutionary biology, in the work of Darwin and his intellectual
predecessors and descendants. The reason for this has been tersely
summarized by Sears (1970) in his statement that “after appearance [of
“The Origin of Species”] any thought of life as something apart from
environment became impossible”, including, it might be added, the life
of man. Darwin established that life as we know it has not only adapted
to many environments but is “an expression of environment as well as
its own innate tendencies”. Darwin quite specifically predicted the
inevitability of ecology in what Sears (1970) has called a “memorable”
passage:
’A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will be opened, on the
causes and laws of variation, on correlation, on the effects of use and
disuse, on the direct action of external conditions . . .
The field of study focusing on variation became modern genetics; that of
life, environment, and the action of external conditions evolved into
contemporary ecology. Darwin provided a noteworthy thrust toward a
field of human ecology because he was the first authoritatively and
irreversibly to include man in the process of natural evolution and
selection and as subject to the action of external conditions.
Human ecology owes its origin to the concepts developed by early
biological ecologists but not to any application that these pioneers in
ecology might have attempted with respect to human communities.
After the early influence of Darwin, I know of little evidence that any of
these early biological ecologists were professionally interested in man
except tts an agent of disturbance in natural communities. The importance of their early work toward an ecology of man, however inadvertent,
must be recognized.
A. T H E C O N T R I B U T I O N F R O M B I O L O G Y
It should be recognized as no accident that human ecology originated
at the same institution (the University of Chicago) that had, twenty-five
years earlier, co-founded the beginnings of biological ecology in the
United States. It is possible to be quite blunt about the contributions to
human ecology from the biological sciences: most, if not all, of the basic
GERALD L. YOUNG
three disciplines (e.g. Theodorson, 1958, 1961; Schnore, 1961a). But, as
Dansereau (1965) has declared, “we have as yet no definitive synthesis
of human ecology . . .”
11. SEMINAL W O R K I N H U M A N ECOLOGY:
THE DEVELOPMENT O F A “MULTI-DISCIPLINARY” CONCEPT
The formal beginnings of the ecological approach to the study of man
lie in evolutionary biology, in the work of Darwin and his intellectual
predecessors and descendants. The reason for this has been tersely
summarized by Sears (1970) in his statement that “after appearance [of
“The Origin of Species”] any thought of life as something apart from
environment became impossible”, including, it might be added, the life
of man. Darwin established that life as we know it has not only adapted
to many environments but is “an expression of environment as well as
its own innate tendencies”. Darwin quite specifically predicted the
inevitability of ecology in what Sears (1970) has called a “memorable”
passage:
’A grand and almost untrodden field of inquiry will be opened, on the
causes and laws of variation, on correlation, on the effects of use and
disuse, on the direct action of external conditions . . .
The field of study focusing on variation became modern genetics; that of
life, environment, and the action of external conditions evolved into
contemporary ecology. Darwin provided a noteworthy thrust toward a
field of human ecology because he was the first authoritatively and
irreversibly to include man in the process of natural evolution and
selection and as subject to the action of external conditions.
Human ecology owes its origin to the concepts developed by early
biological ecologists but not to any application that these pioneers in
ecology might have attempted with respect to human communities.
After the early influence of Darwin, I know of little evidence that any of
these early biological ecologists were professionally interested in man
except tts an agent of disturbance in natural communities. The importance of their early work toward an ecology of man, however inadvertent,
must be recognized.
A. T H E C O N T R I B U T I O N F R O M B I O L O G Y
It should be recognized as no accident that human ecology originated
at the same institution (the University of Chicago) that had, twenty-five
years earlier, co-founded the beginnings of biological ecology in the
United States. It is possible to be quite blunt about the contributions to
human ecology from the biological sciences: most, if not all, of the basic