People, Culture, and Environment

Anth 208

Norbert O. Ross

Fall 2003

COURSE OUTLINE

Introduction: This course provides an overview of the field of environmental anthropology and human ecology. As such it will discuss findings from different disciplines, including psychology, political sciences and natural history.

The course starts out with a discussion of the history of environmental studies within anthropology. This discussion will lead us to examine – in a first pass – the role environmental studies played in theorizing within anthropology about culture and human life. The different approaches examined will serve as the basis for more detailed discussion of some branches of environmental anthropology. To better locate some of these approaches in their concrete context we will then examine how different societies adapt to their local environment: hunters-gatherers, pastoral, fishing, agricultural and industrial societies will be looked at, with respect to certain aspects of their economic and environmental behavior. This background will lead us into discussions of men – environment relations, and on the impact different societies have on the environment, both their immediate surrounding as well as on a global scale. We will be looking at local / global production systems and the influence of global markets to regions. These discussions will finally help us to discuss and evaluate a series of theoretical approaches such as cultural ecology, system ecology, and processual (actor based) ecology. The final section will be looking at recent approaches within and outside anthropology as well as specific studies that proofed to be useful, providing insights that extent well beyond the field of anthropology.

There are two required text for this course, which have been ordered through the Vanderbilt University Bookstore. I will assign specific chapters on a weekly basis. Even if not assigned, I expect every students to read all the chapters during the course of this class.

Course Structure: The course is designed as a lecture seminar. It includes student presentations, class discussions of common readings and films.

Course Requirements: The course will be graded on the basis of class participation. Undergratuate students will write a midterm paper (5-10 pages) and give a class presentation. In addition they will write a final paper (10-15 pages). The latter can be based on the midterm. Papers have the form of research papers and have to be based on readings (beyond the ones assigned for class). Topics have to be discussed with me during office hours. Each student will present his final paper during the last week of class (10-15 minute presentation). Graduate students will write a midterm paper and also give a class presentation. Topics have to be discussed with me during office hours and have to be fitted into the broader class structure. They will be based on common readings plus additional readings selected by the student. For graduate students, the final paper consists of a research report or proposal on a topic discussed with me during office hours. This proposal can build on the midterm paper. Formats of both research reports and proposals will be discussed in class. The course will be graded based on class participation (30%), (including the class presentation), the mid term (30%), and the final papers (30%). Midterm papers are due Nov.12th Final papers are due Dec. 11th. As with all Vanderbilt courses, the honor code will be followed and all assignments should be the independent work of the student unless otherwise arranged by me. In addition there may be some pop-quizzes during some of the weeks. These quizzes are intended to give me a better idea of the general progress of the class. These quizzes might help students to make up for lower class participation; they will not lower your grades, however.