Diversity: Cultural and biological

Gadgil, Madhav (1987) Diversity: Cultural and biological. In: Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2 (12). pp. 369-373.

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Abstract

Early human populations utilized a wide range of biological resources in a tremendous diversity of environments. As a result, they possessed high levels of cultural diversity dependent on and supportive of high levels of biological diversity. This pattern changed drastically with technological innovations enabling certain human groups to break down territorial barriers and to usurp resources of other groups. The dominant groups have gone on to exhaust a whole range of resources, depleting both biological and cultural diversity. Traditions of resource conservation can, however, re-emerge when the dominant cultures spread over the entire area and the innovations diffuse to other human groups. This could change once again as genetically engineered organisms become an economically viable proposition with the accruing advantages concentrated in the hands of a few human groups: a further drastic reduction in biological and cultural diversity may ensue.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Elsevier Science.
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	01 Jun 2009 06:58
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2010 07:58
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/20098

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