Shu-min Huang
Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica

　　Before the rise of environmental conservation movements in 1960s, anthropologists already began to advocate concepts of ecosystem analysis as the key to understand how humans maintain sustainable interactions with their surroundings. This lasting concern, which crisscrosses tempo, regional, and disciplinary boundaries, investigates how multifaceted cultural mechanisms are developed in this human-environment feedback loop. For instance, questions can be asked: How does the domestication of plants and animals have altered the substance and nutritional levels of our daily life? Or how the availability and flows of food chains regulate the rhythms of social activities? Least but not the last, how do folk tales and myths about these cultural mechanisms been incorporated internally to enhance and reinforce group cohesion and legitimize traditional cultural heritage? Looking at issues from the Chinese cultural context, we may conclude that the Sheng Nong worship is the embodiment of the holistic ecosystem concept of anthropology.      

Key Words: Food chains, Plant and animal domestication, sustainable agriculture, ecosystems, Sheng Nong worship.