Premium
environment and choice in rapid social change 1
Author(s) -
BRITAN GERALD,
DENICH BETTE S.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1976.3.1.02a00040
Subject(s) - subsistence agriculture , transformation (genetics) , adaptation (eye) , wage , fishing , sociology , economics , ecology , agriculture , mathematical economics , positive economics , microeconomics , neoclassical economics , economic system , epistemology , labour economics , psychology , philosophy , biology , biochemistry , neuroscience , gene
Drawing on contemporary ecological and decision‐making theories, we develop a model synthesizing the concepts of environmental structure and individual choice. This approach avoids a static/dynamic dichotomy and therefore can explain behavioral processes in stable adaptation, gradual change, and rapid transformation. The application of the model is illustrated in two situations of rapid economic changeone in Yugoslavia, the other in Newfoundland—involving abrupt, widespread transformation in subsistence patterns through shifts from farming and fishing to industrial wage labor.