Articles on the effect of nature on human society and development?

Question

I'm doing a project for a class on the topic of humans in the natural world. My sub-topic is to show how nature is the root of human development and society. For example, the Greeks gave stars and constellations names and gave them stories in order to establish a connection between humans and the Gods. Over the course of the last 5000 years we've learned differently, but the stars (nature) have a history of also teaching us about our origins. Another example is art. Cave drawings started as a primitive way to perhaps record the world around us and to express ourselves. Since then, art has been used to record ourselves, the world, our religion, our history. I'm basically trying to make the point that despite our attempt to escape nature by making hubs of civilization, we can't escape it because civilization has developed through nature.

My main question is if anyone has any specific examples I could use or any articles that pertain to the development of civilization thorugh nature?

Answer 1

I'd recommend anything by Odom in ecological anthropology to help you're project.

Interesting thing:  cultures with the same level of technology and similar ecological environment organize themselves in the same way.  (Matrilineal vs. Patrilineal, bands vs. tribes, etc.)  Pretty interesting.