Harold Conklin is Professor Emeritus at Yale University. Eastern Long Island, New York public school is where he started his education. He then went to the University of California, Berkeley where he earned his B.A. in 1950. He then entered Yale University for his graduate work, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1955.
He was on the anthropology faculty at Columbia University from 1954-1962. In 1962 he moved to Yale University. Conklin was one of the world's leading authorities in the field of ethnoscience. Ethnoscience is "the manner in which inhabitants of a particular area perceive and treat their surroundings". He was a pioneer in doing research on the indigenous systems of tropical forests and terraced agriculture. Conklin believed that where there was sparse population and abundant land, the slash-and-burn method of cultivation was not destructive to the environment. Ethnology, linguistics, and ecology were Conklin's main areas of research with his focus on southeast Asia. Mindoro (the Hanunoo) and Luzon (the Ifugao) in the Philippines were his main field sites. Through his research in the Philippines, Conklin is responsible for amassing one of the largest ethnographic collections from that area. His collection is at Yale, where he was curator from 1974 until 1996, when he retired.
Conklin used detailed topographic maps to show how land was used along village boundaries. He was a leader in his field for using maps in such a way and was considered by others in his field to have set the standards for such maps.
Since his retirement from full time teaching, he is now an emeritus professor at Yale. He is also the Franklin Muzzy Crosby Professor Emeritus of the Human Environment. Until his retirement, Conklin had been the Curator of Anthropology. In years before, Conklin had served as Chair of the Anthropology Department, and Director of Graduate Studies. He was the author of many publications, some of which were:
The Relationship of Hanunoo Agriculture to the Plant World (1955)
The Relation of Hanunoo Agriculture (1957)
An Ethnoecological Approach to Shifting Agriculture (1967)
Ethnographic Atlas of Ifugao: A Study of Environment, Culture, and Society in northern Luzon (1980)
References:
Conklin, Harold. The Study of Shifting Cultivation. Washington: Technical Publications, 1963.
http://www.yale.edu/anthropology/people/hconklin.html
Former Link, http://www.anthro.annualreviews.org/ (October 2006)
http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/ecologic.htm
Written by: Adam Sexter
Edited by: Lillian Dolentz, 2009