,APY3705 Assignment 4 PORTFOLIO
(COMPLETE ANSWERS) Semester 1 2025 -
DUE 15 May 2025
Multiple choice,assured excellence
GLOBALISATION AND THE NATURE-CULTURE DICHOTOMY:
ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
1. Ontological Pluralism and “Other” Natures
Philippe Descola’s Four Ontologies: Descola shows that
not all societies divide the world into “nature” vs.
“culture”; some see humans and non‐humans as sharing
qualities (animism), or believe in spiritual continuities
(totemism). Globalization brings these ontologies into
contact—and sometimes conflict—with Western
“naturalist” assumptions.
Implication: As global development projects impose
conservation schemes, they may inadvertently erase local
ontologies that see rivers, forests or animals as kin,
triggering resistance or legal claims (e.g., Whanganui
River in Aotearoa/New Zealand gaining legal
personhood).
2. Commodification and the Bioeconomy
, Nature as Resource: Under global capitalism, living
entities—seeds, genes, microbes—become patentable
commodities. Anthropologists track how seed
sovereignty movements (e.g., India’s Navdanya) contest
multinational biotech firms’ claims.
Example: The controversy over ayahuasca tourism in the
Amazon – indigenous ritual plants are harvested at
unsustainable rates, and ceremonies are repackaged for
foreign visitors, transforming sacred “more‐than‐human
relations” into marketable experiences.
3. Hybrid natures and Technoscience
Laboratory Natures: CRISPR, GMO crops, lab‐grown meat
—all blur the line between “natural” and “artificial.”
Anthropologists conduct ethnographies in biotech labs to
see how researchers negotiate promises of “saving the
planet” with concerns over ecological risk and cultural
backlash (e.g., Golden Rice debates).
Multispecies Ethnography: Authors like Anna Tsing follow
fungi, bacteria, or invasive species across global supply
chains to reveal assemblages of humans and non ‐humans
—showing culture and nature co‐produced in novel ways
(e.g., matsutake mushroom economies).
(COMPLETE ANSWERS) Semester 1 2025 -
DUE 15 May 2025
Multiple choice,assured excellence
GLOBALISATION AND THE NATURE-CULTURE DICHOTOMY:
ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
1. Ontological Pluralism and “Other” Natures
Philippe Descola’s Four Ontologies: Descola shows that
not all societies divide the world into “nature” vs.
“culture”; some see humans and non‐humans as sharing
qualities (animism), or believe in spiritual continuities
(totemism). Globalization brings these ontologies into
contact—and sometimes conflict—with Western
“naturalist” assumptions.
Implication: As global development projects impose
conservation schemes, they may inadvertently erase local
ontologies that see rivers, forests or animals as kin,
triggering resistance or legal claims (e.g., Whanganui
River in Aotearoa/New Zealand gaining legal
personhood).
2. Commodification and the Bioeconomy
, Nature as Resource: Under global capitalism, living
entities—seeds, genes, microbes—become patentable
commodities. Anthropologists track how seed
sovereignty movements (e.g., India’s Navdanya) contest
multinational biotech firms’ claims.
Example: The controversy over ayahuasca tourism in the
Amazon – indigenous ritual plants are harvested at
unsustainable rates, and ceremonies are repackaged for
foreign visitors, transforming sacred “more‐than‐human
relations” into marketable experiences.
3. Hybrid natures and Technoscience
Laboratory Natures: CRISPR, GMO crops, lab‐grown meat
—all blur the line between “natural” and “artificial.”
Anthropologists conduct ethnographies in biotech labs to
see how researchers negotiate promises of “saving the
planet” with concerns over ecological risk and cultural
backlash (e.g., Golden Rice debates).
Multispecies Ethnography: Authors like Anna Tsing follow
fungi, bacteria, or invasive species across global supply
chains to reveal assemblages of humans and non ‐humans
—showing culture and nature co‐produced in novel ways
(e.g., matsutake mushroom economies).
