This seminar examines the major trends in the development of ecological anthropology, with special emphasis on 1) the role of ecology in evolutionary theory, and 2) case studies of the interaction of people, culture and the environment.  Among the topics covered will be:  hunter-gatherers, pastoralism, agrarian ecology, the ecology of ritual and warfare, population ecology, ancient civilizations and the environment, ecology and culture change, environmental justice, and various current issues where culture and the environment intersect.  This seminar does not offer a biological approach to the study of ecosystems, nor is it a trendy course on how to recycle beer cans; it is a comparative survey of the ways in which people interact with their physical environments.  The primary focus will be on theories concerning the effects of the environment on the shape of culture.  There are few lucid explanations of the interaction of culture and environment, and many of the issues in ecological anthropology are open to interpretation.  The seminar will provide a forum for the discussion of these issues, and participants will be expected to be familiar with the reading assignments in advance of each session.

 

Requirements and Evaluation

 

The three required texts will provide a portion of the readings; additional assignments will be placed on reserve.  Evaluation of student performance will be based on class participation and three papers.

 

Papers                                                                   

 

The papers may address any issue that is relevant to the subject matter of the course, but the topics should  be cleared with one of the instructors beforehand. More specifically, the papers should focus on topics covered in the syllabus, i.e., the first paper should deal with some subject related to the material covered in the first five weeks of the course, the second on topics covered in weeks six through ten, and the third on topics covered in the last five weeks (11-14).  The text by Bates offers good overviews of the field, plus basic bibliographies.  Once you begin to narrow in on a subject, we can help you find additional references.  The papers should be around 1500 words, including the list of references; citing procedure and list of references should follow the format attached to this syllabus.

 

Texts

 

Bates, Daniel G.

2004     Human Adaptive Strategies.  Ecology, Culture, and Politics.   3^rd edition.  Pearson Allyn & Bacon, Boston.

 

Checker, Melissa

2005     Polluted Promises: Environmental Racism and the Search for Justice in a Southern Town.  NYU Press, New York. 

 

Lansing, J. Stephen

1991     Priests and Programmers.  Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali.  Princeton University Press, Princeton.

 

 

On Reserve and Online

 

The above and below texts, plus all additional articles listed in syllabus will be on electronic or shelf reserve.  Most articles are available online at the Course Reserves in the library (Ecological Anthropology, Andrews-Dean).  Articles in American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, American Scientist, Nature, Nature, Current Anthropology, are all available online through e-journal subscriptions in the library; some are also included in the online course reserves.

 

Bullard, Robert D. (Ed.)

2005     The Quest for Environmental Justice: Human Rights and the Politics of Pollution.  Sierra Club Books, San Francisco. 

 

Cohen, Yehudi (ed.)

1968     Man in Adaptation:  The Cultural Present.  Aldine, Chicago.  2nd edition, 1974.

 

Dove, Michael R., and Carol Carpenter (eds.)

2007     Environmental Anthropology.  A Historical Reader.  Blackwell, Boston.

 

Fagan, Brian M.

1999     Floods, Famines, and Emperors:  El Niño and the Collapse of Civilizations.  Basic Books, New York.

 

2000     The Little Ice Age.   Basic Books, New York. 

 

2004     The Long Summer.  How Climate Changed Civilization.   Basic Books, New York. 

 

2008     The Great Warming.  Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations.  Bloomsbury Press, New York.

 

Moran, Emilio F. (ed.)

1990     The Ecosystem Approach in Anthropology.  From Concept to Practice.

 

Vayda, Andrew (ed.)

1969     Environment and Cultural Behavior:  Ecological Studies in Cultural Anthropology.

 

 

                                    TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF CLASSES AND READINGS

 

 

WEEKS  1 - 2:   Ecological Anthropology:  Nature and Nurture in Anthropology

 

Readings:        Bates:  Chaps. 1 and 2.

 

Moran, Emilio F.

1990     Ecosystem Approach in Anthropology and Biology:  A Critical Assessment.  In The Ecosystem Approach in Anthropology (E.F. Moran, ed.): 3-40.

 

Headland, Thomas M.

1997     Revisionism in Ecological Anthropology.  Current Anthropology, 38 (4): 605-30.

 

 

WEEK  3:   Foragers:  The Original Leisure Class?

 

Readings:        Bates:  Chap. 3.

 

                        Lee, Richard B.

                        1968     What Hunters do for a Living, or, How to Make Out on Scarce Resources. In Man the

                                    Hunter (R.B. Lee & I. DeVore, eds.):  30-48.  Also in Cohen 1974: Chap 4.

 

Hill, Kim, and A.M. Hurtado

1989     Hunter-Gatherers of the New World.  American Scientist, 77 (5): 437-43.

 

      Pastoralists:  Home on the Range

 

Readings:        Bates:  Chap. 5.

 

                       Hardin, Garrett

                       1968     The Tragedy of the Commons.  Science, 162 (3859; Dec 13 ): 1243-48.

 

Monbiot, George

1994     The Tragedy of Enclosure.  Scientific American, 279 (1; January): 159.

 

Begin reading Lansing, Priests & Programmers.

 

WEEK  4:   Origins of Agriculture:  Taking on a  9 to 5 Job

 

Readings:        Bellwood, Peter

2005    The Beginnings of Agriculture in Southwest Asia.  In First Farmers. The Origins of Agricultural Societies, by Peter Bellwood:  Chap 3, pp. 44-66.  

 

Smith, Bruce D.

1995     The Origins of Agriculture in the Americas.  Evolutionary Anthropology, 3 (5): 174-84.

 

Diamond, Jared A.

2002     Evolution, Consequences, and Future of Plant and Animal Domestication.  Nature, 418 (6898): 700-07.

 

 

WEEK  5:  Agrarian Ecology

 

Monday Video:   Guns, Germs & Steel (NGS; Jared Diamond)

 

Readings:        Bates:  Chap. 4.

 

                        Conklin, Harold C.

1954     An Ethnoecological Approach to Shifting Agriculture.  Transactions of the New York Academy of Science, Series 2, 17: 133-42.  Also in Cohen 1968 & 1974: Chap.10, and in Vayda 1969: Chap. 11.   

 

Hackenberg, Robert A.

1962    Economic Alternatives in Arid Lands:  A Case Study of the Pima and Papago Indians. Ethnology, 1(2): 186-95.  Also in Cohen 1974: Chap. 11.

 

Orlove, Benjamin S., John C.H. Chiang, and Mark A. Cane

2002     Ethnoclimatology in the Andes:  A Cross-Disciplinary Study Uncovers a Scientific Basis for the Scheme Andean Potato Farmers Traditionally Use to Predict the Coming Rains.  American Scientist, 90 (5: Sept-Oct): 428-35.

 

Bates:  Chap. 6.

Lansing, Priests & Programmers.

 

 

WEEK  6:  Ecology of Ritual and Warfare:  Adaptation need not be boring

 

Readings:        Ortiz de Montellano, B.R.

1978     Aztec Cannibalism:  An Ecological Necessity?  Science, 200 (4342): 611-17.

 

Chagnon, Napoleon A., and R. B. Hames

1979     Protein Deficiency and Tribal Warfare in Amazonia:  New Data.  Science, 203 (4383): 33-43.

 

Carneiro, Robert L.

1970     A Theory of the Origin of the State.  Science, 169 (3947): 733-38 (also in Cohen 1974: Chap. 27).

 

Turco, Richard P., et al.

1984     The Climatic Effects of Nuclear War.  Scientific American, 251 (2): 33-43.

 

                        Robock, Alan (Lead Author); Sjaak Slanina (Topic Editor)

2008    Nuclear winter.  In The Encyclopedia of Earth (Cutler J. Cleveland, ed.).  Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment, Washington, D.C. [ http://www.eoearth.org/article/Nuclear_winter ]

 

 

WEEK  7:   Population Ecology:  "We have found the numbers, and they are us."

 

Readings:        Bates:  Chap. 7

 

Konner, Melvin, and C. Worthman

1980    Nursing Frequency, Gonadal Function, and Birth Spacing among the !Kung Hunter-Gatherers.  Science, 207 (4432): 788-91.

 

Coale, Ansley D.