生态人类学(Ecological anthropology)是人类学的一个次领域，探讨在各个时间空间之中，人与自然环境(文化与自然)的关系。它探究一个人群塑造其环境的方式，以及这些关系在往后构成这个人群的社会、经济和政治生活的方式。生态人类学将一种体系研究取向，运用于对文化和环境之间相互关系的研究。当代生态人类学的核心在「对于从个人与环境共生的概念出发，所进行的了解。」，以及自然与文化之间的相互关系。

在1960年代，生态人类学首次出现，这是对文化生态学的回应，文化生态学是人类学的一个分支，以朱利安·史都华(Julian Steward)为首。史都华侧重于探讨各种不同的生计模式，做为能量转移的方法，然后分析它们如何决定文化的其他面向，文化成为分析单位。第一批生态人类学家探讨做为一个生态群体的人类，应该是分析单位，而且文化成为这个群体改变与适应环境的手段。生态人类学的特色在于系统理论、功能论主义与负面反馈分析。

Ecological anthropology is a sub-field of anthropology and is defined as the “study of cultural adaptations to environments”. The sub-field is also defined as, "the study of relationships between a population of humans and their biophysical environment". The focus of its research concerns “how cultural beliefs and practices helped human populations adapt to their environments, and how people used elements of their culture to maintain their ecosystems.” Ecological anthropology developed from the approach of cultural ecology, and it provided a conceptual framework more suitable for scientific inquiry than the cultural ecology approach. Research pursued under this approach aims to study a wide range of human responses to environmental problems.