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Assignment 2
[Name of the Writer]
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Assignment 2
Garret James Hardin, a well-known American ecologist, was born on April 21, 1915. He was the first person who warned the world about the consequences of the dangers that could incur due to the human overpopulation on planet Earth. Hardin presented his views in the famous theory, “the tragedy of commons” on 13 December 1968. This theory was an effort to draw the attention of the world towards "the damage that innocent actions by individuals can inflict on the environment"(Hardin, 1968).
The “Tragedy of Commons” discusses a situation of shared resources where individual users, acting independently according to their own self-interest, act selfishly and sacrifice the common good of the users. This theory is equally supported by the Anthropology and Archeology as the adequate evidence has been found out in the form of destructed public landscapes, overgrazing, decaying of roads and destroyed bridge infrastructure.
Amazon is a region in Brazil that is mostly composed of rainforests. Amazon rainforests cover most of the area of northwestern Brazil. The series of the largest rainforests also extends into Columbia, Peru and South American countries. The largest rainforest has been undergoing deforestation at a large scale since 2005. Due to this, a large area of the forest gets removed annually. One of the major reasons of this deforestation is economic growth.
Humans have occupied a large area of land for the setup of industries and the construction of infrastructure like buildings. Same are the reasons behind the extensive deforestation of Amazon rainforests (Reed, 2006). The major economic reasons behind the deforestation of these rainforests are the building of roads, to get timber and strip the land of the foliage. These rainforests are of extreme benefit for the whole world as they provide an annual revenue of $8.2 billion to the economy.
The forests of Amazon are not only home to different species of animals but also to a number of human tribes. The total number of tribes has been estimated to be 77, however National Geographic claims that there are 84 of them. These tribes were mostly undiscovered as they prefer to live in isolation. One of these tribes is Munduruku, also known as Mundrucu or Wuy Jugu (Nietschmann, 1987). Although these tribes prefer to live at a distance and do not like to mingle in the human societies most of the times, they have realized the fact that it is not possible to live in isolation. This is the reason that they have started trading with modern or advanced human societies living nearby and have become commercialized to a great extent. There are a number of similarities and differences that exist between Mundurukus and Misikitos, for example, both belong to mixed races.
Gifting has always been used as an expression of showing feelings of love, care and even animosity for the other person or the party. Gifts represent different kinds of meanings in different situations. The type of gift presented also gives out various meanings. The initiation of gifts starts from one individual or a group of people, and then the other person or the party has to return it. Presenting, giving and receiving gifts holds great importance in anthropology. Different cultures give great value to gifts. When a gift is received, the act of gifting something in return is known as reciprocal gifting.
Reciprocal gifting has deep rooted-effects on the social and psychological structure of a society. Reciprocal gifting can leave a great positive image and help to foster healthy relationships. Nations use the notions and techniques of gifting to improve their bonds with other countries (Cronk, 1989). Gifts are also used by nations to demonstrate to the world how strong their relationships are with another country.
References
Cronk, L. (1989). On Human Nature: Strings Attached. The sciences, 29(3), 2-4.
Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. science, 162(3859), 1243-1248.
Nietschmann, B. (1987). Subsistence and Market: When the turtle collapses. Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology, 265-74.
Reed, R. (2006). Forest development the Indian way. Conformity and Conflict. Boston: Pearson Education, 132-141.
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