Definition
Ecology and behavior refers to the principle that the physical environment in which a society lives — its climate, terrain, food sources, water supply, and disease load — shapes the culture and the behavioral patterns that develop there. Ecology is one of the most distal causes in Sapolsky's causal chain, sitting behind culture, which sits behind individual action.
The idea is not environmental determinism. Ecology does not dictate behavior directly; it makes certain cultural solutions more workable than others, and those cultural solutions then shape individuals.
Why it matters
How it works
An environment imposes problems: how to secure food, defend wealth, coordinate labor, and avoid disease. Groups try various solutions, and the ones that fit the local ecology tend to spread and stabilize, becoming norms. Those norms are then transmitted culturally, so individuals inherit a behavioral repertoire pre-fitted to the ancestral environment.
Because the transmission is cultural, the patterns can persist long after the original ecological pressure is gone. An honor culture can survive in cities centuries after the herds vanished. Ecology sets the initial conditions; culture carries them forward.