Before revision: Rappaport was something of a cultural materialist , and wished to contrast the actual reality and adaptations (the operational environment) within a people's ecological niche – say, the existence of tsetse flies and their role in causing sleeping sickness among humans – with how the people’s culture understands nature (the cognized environment) – say, the belief that witches live in those areas science knows is the habitat of the tsetse.
After revision: Rappaport was an ecological anthropologist, like Andrew P. Vayda , and wished to contrast the actual reality and adaptations (the operational environment) within a people's ecological niche – say, the existence of tsetse flies and their role in causing sleeping sickness among humans – with how the people’s culture understands nature (the cognized environment) – say, the belief that witches live in those areas science knows is the habitat of the tsetse.