Human Adaptation to Climate Change: An Anthropological Perspective

Abstract

One of the main agents of environmental change is the climate change and its implications on human population in the world are vast. The integrative and comparative method of anthropology provides a more holistic way of comprehending the processes by which people react adaptively in response to the different climatic conditions and intergenerational environmental change. This paper discusses anthropological perspective of human adaptation to climatic change by looking at biological, cultural and socio-economic facets of adaptation. With references to the biological anthropology, the paper explains the role of evolutionary processes and physiological adaptability that has enabled human population to respond to a broad spectrum of climatic conditions over an extended period of time. The paper in terms of cultural anthropology involves adaptation mechanisms within the subsistence systems, settlement patterns, technological innovations and systems of traditional ecological knowledge. These culturally mediated responses represent a manifestation of capability of human groups to reduce environmental stress as regards social structure and symbolic practices. In addition, the paper also looks into the ways in which the contemporary technological and economic adaptations have altered the human environment interactions in the conditions of rising climate change. The unequal climate impacts are also unveiled in the discussion where the communities that are indigenous, marginalized whose adaptive capacity is limited by the structural inequality and access to resources are targeted. Through the choice of examples of ethnographies and cross-cultural adaptation, the study explains that the process of adaptation is not a homogenous and linear response, rather, it is contextual and historically related. The study is founded on the assumption that the anthropological knowledge constitutes the vital factor in formulating effective and culture sensitive climate adaptation policies. As a result of the fusion of local knowledge systems and scientific solutions, anthropology can assist in coming up with more equitable and sustainable solutions to human resilience to global climate change.