"If you're an anthropologist, well, let's talk about the wind":

the role of biological anthropology in the Anthropocene and climate change

Abstract

Climate change and the Anthropocene pose numerous challenges for all sectors of humanity. From anthropology, one of them is how to use the deep situated knowledge on human-environment relations for adaptation to accelerated environmental change, especially in frontier communities that are both the traditional object of study of the discipline and the main affected groups by environmental deterioration. Niche construction theory is then discussed as a holistic way of integrating this knowledge and the example of the Gran Chaco is described. To this end, both past practices of landscape domestication and the main current modifications are considered, and a recent socio-environmental problem is analyzed: the flooding of the Toba community of Sombrero Negro in 2018. Finally, we describe climate projections for the area and make a call for a biological anthropology that is useful for living in the Anthropocene.