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William Balée

William Balée is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand William Balée rather than just read about it. In short: William Balée (born 1954) is a professor of anthropology at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. About Balée was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and educated at the University of Florida, Gainesville, where he received a B.A. in Anthropology before moving on to Columbia University in New York City where he earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology (1984).

William Balée — main illustration
William Balée — illustration

Key takeaways

  • William Balée belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect William Balée to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of William Balée from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

William Balée (born 1954) is a professor of anthropology at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

About Balée was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and educated at the University of Florida, Gainesville, where he received a B.A. in Anthropology before moving on to Columbia University in New York City where he earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology (1984).

Career His primary ethnographic work was with the Ka'apor indigenous people of Maranhão, Brazil (Balée 1994). He also carried out fieldwork with the Tembé, the Assurini of the Xingu River, the Araweté of the Ipix (tributary of the Xingu), and the Guajá of Maranhão (Balée 2013, 2023). He is well-known as one of the founders of and experts in historical ecology (Balée 1998). Balée has proposed four interdependent postulates, which set historical ecology apart from other more traditional research programs. Basically summarized, these postulates are: (1) Humans have affected nearly all environments on Earth; (2) Humans do not have an innate propensity to decrease biotic and landscape diversity or to increase it; (3) Various types of societies impact their landscapes in dissimilar ways; (4) Human interactions with landscapes can be comprehended holistically (Balée 2006).

Awards and Recognition Dr. Balée has won the Mary W. Klinger Book Award from the Society for Economic Botany for two of his books, in 1996 (Footprints of the Forest) and 2014 (Cultural Forests of the Amazon). He was appointed Officer of the Order of the Golden Ark, a Dutch conservation merit order, by Prince Bernhard in 1993. In 2016 he received the President’s Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Teaching from Tulane University. He is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow. Balée is the 2023 recipient of the Distinguished Ethnobiologist Award from the Society of Ethnobiology.

See also Carl O. Sauer (geographer)

References

Sources Balée, William. 2023. Sowing the Forest. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. Balee William. 2016. Inside Cultures. Second Edition. New York and London: Routledge. Balée, William. 2013. Cultural Forests of the Amazon: A Historical Ecology of People and their Landscapes. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. Balée, William. 2012 Inside Cultures: A New Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. Balée, William. 2006. The Research Program of Historical Ecology. Annual Review of Anthropology 35(1):75-98. Balée, William. (editor). 1998. Advances in Historical Ecology. Historical Ecology Series, New York: Columbia University Press. Balée, William. 1994 Footprints of the Forest. New York: Columbia University Press. Balée, William. (editor). 1989. Nomenclatural patterns in Ka'apor ethnobotany (Journal of Ethnobiology).

Illustrations

William Balée: (R) William Balée, Anthropology professor at Tulane University, with (L) indigenous consultant on landscape transformation in Brazil
(R) William Balée, Anthropology professor at Tulane University, with (L) indigenous consultant on landscape transformation in Brazil

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with William Balée

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what William Balée claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to William Balée before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about William Balée ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of William Balée

In research
William Balée appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses William Balée in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
William Balée is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1954 births, 21st-century American anthropologists, Environmental studies scholars, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for William Balée outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study William Balée in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what William Balée means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain William Balée out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is William Balée in simple terms?

William Balée (born 1954) is a professor of anthropology at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. About Balée was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and educated at the University of Florida, Gainesville, where he received a B.A. in Anthropology before moving on to Columbia University in New Y…

Why does William Balée matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study William Balée?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on William Balée.

Tags

  • 1954 births
  • 21st-century American anthropologists
  • Environmental studies scholars
  • Ethnobiologists
  • Living people
  • Tulane University faculty

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