individual decisions and functional systems: economic rationality and environmental adaptation

Abstract

Ecological anthropology and substantive economic anthropology have developed along parallel fines during the past decade. They have both dealt with structured interrelationships between aggregate patterns of behavior on an institutional or subsystem level of analysis. Despite important differences, such as the relative emphasis on normative or behavioral data, they share a basic concern with functional explanations of these broad patterns in terms of their overall contribution to system‐wide goals. In Fiji there are functional relationships among the aggregate village pattern of land use, shared norms about land tenure, and environmental patterns, which can be explained in terms of a cognized model of functionally significant technoenvironmental relationships. The unintended consequences of rational actions are also considered.