Review of Eco-anthropology Research in the United States of America

Since the 1960s and 1970s, eco-anthropology was defined as a sub-discipline of cultural anthropology, attracting attentions increasingly. In the 1980s, in order to facilitate its research, some scholars divided the discipline into three stages. The first stage were cultural ecology proposed by Julian Stewart and cultural evolution by Lester Wright, who tried to explore the adaptation of culture in concerned ecological environments; the second stage was the forming of the argument of neo-evolutionism and neo-functionalism, which were influenced by systemism and absorbed the new concepts of dynamic equilibrium, enriching the theories of eco-anthropology; in response to the deficiencies of the neo-evolutionism and neo-functionalism, and in order to improve the early studies by Steward and White, some scholars proposed the theory of processual eco-anthropology, which can be regarded as the third stage of the development of eco-anthropology. From the 1990s, anthropologists have been more positive on environmental issues and have been further expanding the research of eco-anthropology, leading to the rise of environmental anthropology. It is concluded that the new-born environmental anthropology is the extension of traditional eco-anthropology as well as a trend of traditional eco-anthropology development.