The ecological niche can be defined as: the
environmental conditions and resources necessary to a normal
development of a population. It has been used in a number of
ways in anthropology: as a specialised part of human society, as
synonymous with culture, and as a segment of the habitat. It
is actually the multi- dimensional concept of the human ecological
niche which renders the niche idea of greater value to studies of
human ecology. The importance of biological factors is
stressed, and particular attention is paid to the principle of
competitive exclusion, to human niche specialisation and to Cohen's
criteria of huiman adaptive success.
This ecological niche concept was developed by
Hutchinson, and it was entitled as multidimensional or
Hutchinsonian niche. The multidimensional niche concept is one of
the most adequate tools to study interactions between man and its
surrounding environment. The utility of ecological niche concept,
applied to the man, was firstly discussed and systematized by
Hardesty and has been useful to understand the use of natural
resources by human populations.
The use of ecological niche concept has allowed
evaluating the food resources dependence degree and seasonal
variations on a diet of a person, families or communities of local
social groups. This approach also allows establishing important
relations among the analysis units, which diet may differ depending
on social, economical and cultural factors, or on the distinctive
ways of using resources.
One of the striking facts about contemporary
society, and indeed of much of recorded history, is the division of
the human species into distinct ethnic groups, whose interrelations
are sometimes antagonistic and sometimes mutualistic. While
there are many interesting ways that social scientists are
analysing this phenomenon, ecological theory may provide some
additional insights.
One of the most important ecological aspect
relevant to biological cohesion is that human beings are
biologically adapted for culture in ways that other primates are
not, as evidenced most clearly by the fact that only human cultural
traditions accumulate modifications over historical time (the
ratchet effect). The key adaptation is one that enables individuals
to understand other individuals as intentional agents like the
self. This species-unique form of social cognition emerges in human
ontogeny at approximately 1 year of age, as infants begin to engage
with other persons in various kinds of joint attentional activities
involving gaze following, social referencing, and gestural
communication. Young children's joint attentional skills then
engender some uniquely powerful forms of cultural learning,
enabling the acquisition of language, discourse skills, tool-use
practices, and other conventional activities. These novel forms of
cultural learning allow human beings to, in effect, pool their
cognitive resources both contemporaneously and over historical time
in ways that are unique in the animal kingdom.