ECOLOGY & SOCIETY                   

 

                   An Introduction to the New Ecological Anthropology

                                                           

                                                                         SYLLABUS                                                                                                                                 

This course attempts to 1) mediate the divide between the Arts and the Sciences; 2) introduce students new to anthropology aspects of culture theory and contemporary ecological/environmental anthropology; 3) forge a synthesis between culture theory and historical ecology; 4) provide new insights on how human both fashion and are fashioned by their environments; 5) create a seminar-like context in which we can evaluate, as anthropologists and citizens of our world, aspects of the current environmental debate in our culture; and 6) facilitate independent study on environmental issues by each student. Although case studies will be drawn from throughout the world, there will be a stress on the social systems and environments from the Asias (S., SE., & E.), Australia, and the Americas. A dominant theme will be the relationships between climate and human culture (through time). Lectures based on readings will occupy Monday and Wednesdays. Through March Fridays will focus on what I call Public Discussion books one of which each student is to read according to the schedule in the PUBLIC SYLLABUS; some time in these sections will also be devoted to lecture and course material in preparation for the Midterm and Final Exams. April Friday will be devoted to public presentation of each student’s final projects.

            There is a specific week by week syllabus for the PUBLIC SYLLABUS: In the course Collab, Resources section, see PUBLIC SYLS15b.  
             

I teach this course because I think the issues it addresses are interesting and extremely important for our future. I look forward to you joining me for the adventure.

 

  Class Cell Phone and Laptop Policies: I’ll claim and step on any cell phone that goes off during the class.  Laptops may not be used in class and therefore must be turned off—for complaints look at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/30/this-year-im-resolving-to-ban-laptops-from-my-classroom/

 

Books available for purchase:

 

For everyone:

Plotkin, Mark                     Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice (1993)

Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko   RICE AS SELF: Japanese Identities Through Time (1993)

 

Public Discussion books—select one of these seven:

Elvin, Mark                        The Retreat of the Elephants (2004).

Davis, Mike                        LATE VICTORIAN HOLOCAUSTS: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World(2002             ).  

Flannery, Tim F.                The Future Eaters (1994)

Flannery, Tim F.                               THE ETERNAL FRONTIER: An Ecological History of North America and Its People. (2001)–  

GERSHWIN, Lisa-ann      STUNG! ON Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean (2013)

Ruddiman, William           Plows, Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate and Ruddiman, W. F. (2010)

Russell, Edmund            WAR AND NATURE: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring (2001)

                      

All other readings may be found on the web via the class toolkit, although a few may be hardcopy reserve.

 

                                                                 PART I.

                                    COURSE INTRODUCTION AND QUEST

 

A). Introduction I:                                                                                                                1/12

            Course Purpose, Description and Requirements; Syllabus. Introduction II:-- Public Discussions--The Six Books; Project idea examples, & Damon’s Research quest 1/21

 

PART II

AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL VIEW ON THE ‘PROBLEM OF THE ENVIRONMENT’

--CONCEPTS& GENERALITIES

 

A).   Romance and/or Through Others’ Eyes: On Discontinuities and the Environment                                                                                                                                      1/14-1/23

                           Mark Plotkin’s Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice............. and some of Damon’s tales too

 

B). Rudiments Of Humanity, Social Organization, ‘Ecology’ And Climate                           

 Terms of comparison and problems in the (social) organization of production        1/26-3/6

            1). Consciousness and Culture

                              a. “The Primacy of Generic Taxa in Ethnobiological Classification,” Chapter 2 in Brent Berlin’s                                                             Ethnobiological classification: principles of categorization of plants and animals in traditional societies. 

                               b. “Fetishism: A Cognitive Approach” by Roy Ellen            

               2). Social Organization from the Ground Up

               c. Chapter 27, “The Backwater Country” from THE FUTURE EATERS By Tim Flannery

d. Chapter 7 “Wild Rice: The Endangered, the Sacred and the Tamed”  Nabhan Enduring Seeds: native American agriculture and wild plant conservation

e. “Galah” 2009 Australian Historical Studies 40: 275-293 by Bill Gammage.

f. Chapter 9 “Lost Gourds and Spent Soils on the Shores of Okeechobee.”  Nabhan’s Enduring Seeds

g. Chapter 11 “Harvest Time: Northern Plains Agricultural Change.”  Nabhan’s Enduring Seeds

 

               3). Ecology and Culture

                              f. "Concepts in Historical Ecology: The View from Evolutionary Theory,"  1994 by Winterhalder, B

                              g. “THE COSMIC FOOD WEB: Human-nature relatedness in the Northwest Amazon” by Århem, Kaj 1996

                              h.   “Local Knowledge and Management of Sago Palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottbeoll) diversity in south Central                              Seram, Maluku, Eastern Indonesia” 2006 by Roy Ellen.

i.   “A STRANGER’S VIEW OF BIHAR: RETHINKING ‘RELIGION’ AND ‘PRODUCTION’: More than a Poetry of Properties” 2007 by Frederick H. Damon

               4). Culture, Climate and Climate Change.

j. “Nature’s Pulsing Paradigm” 1995 Odum, William E, Eugene P. Odum, Howard T. Odum  Estuaries Vol. 18, No. 4, p. 547-555.

                              k. "Global Climate and Regional Biocultural Diversity," by J. Gunn, Chapter 4in HISTORICAL                                                   ECOLOGY

                              l. “Emergence of Complex Societies after Sea Level Stabilized” 2007 EOS, TRANSACTIONS, AMERICAN                    GEOPHYSICAL UNION *Day, J. W .Jr. et.al.*

                              m. “On the Ideas of a Boat. From Forest Patches to Cybernetic Structures in the Outrigger Sailing Craft of the            Eastern Kula Ring, Papua New Guinea” by fhdamon. In: Clifford Sather & Timo Kaartinen (eds.)                 Beyond the Horizon. Essays on Myth, History, Travel and Society. Studia Fennica Anthropologica 2.                Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. 2008 Pp. 123-144.

n. Climate and Culture: Anthropology in the Era of Contemporary Climate Change Susan A. Crate Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2011. 40:175–94

 

Midterm Exam: Friday, March 6

 

                                                                            PART III

HYPOTHESES & APPLICATIONS

 KNOWING ABOUT ‘PRODUCTION’ AND THE WORLD

Syntheses Through Case Studies

 

A.  Transformations, Cycles, or Reciprocities between Nature and Culture?       3/16-3/23

 

                        1). “the fish & the forest” Gende, Scott M. & Quinn, Thomas P. Scientific American; Aug 2006, Vol. 295(2)                             p84-89.               

2) Langdon, Steve 1989 Chapter 10, “From Communal Property to Common Property to Limited Entry: Historical Ironies in the Management of Southeast Alaska Salmon” in A sea of small boats Cambridge, Ma.: Cultural Survival, Inc. Report No. 26Pp.304- 332.

3). Chapter 2.1 “Watersheds and Marinescapes: Understanding and Maintaining Cultural Diversity Among Southeast Alaska Natives” by Thomas F. Thornton, Pp. 123-136 in Water, Cultural Diversity, and Global Environmental Change Emerging Trends, Sustainable Futures? (2012) Barbara Rose Johnston, editor-in-chief Spinger

4) “Salmon and His People”Encounters with Global Capitalism by Benedict J. Colombi Chapter 9 from Keystone Nations Indigenous Peoples and Salmon across the North Pacific Edited by Benedict J. Colombi and James F. Brooks School for Advanced Research Press: Santa Fe. Pp. 183-206.

5). “Indigenous Soil Management And The Creation Of Dark Earths: Implications of Kayapo Practices” by Susanna B. Hecht, In The Amazon Basin Chapter 18 In: Johannes Lehman Et. Al Amazonian Dark Earths: Origin, Properties And Management Of Fertile Soils In The Humid Tropics.  Springer. Pp. 355-372.

 

B. Bridges to … and the Americas?                                                                                                3/25-4/1

 

1). “Management for Extinction in Norse Greenland,” by Thomas McGovern, Chapter 6 in HISTORICAL ECOLOGY 1994.

2). “Landscapes of Settlement in Northern Iceland: Historical Ecology of Human Impact and Climate Fluctuation on the Millennial Scale” THOMAS H. McGOVERN, et.al.  AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, 2007 Vol. 109, Issue 1, pp. 27–51

3) “Norse Greenland Settlement: Reflections on Climate Change, Trade, and The Contrasting Fates of Human Settlements in the North Atlantic Islands” 2007 Andrew J. Dugmore, et.al. ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 12–36,

4).. “Social Responses to Climate Change Among the Chumash Indians of South-Central California,” Chapter 11 by John R. Johnson in THE WAY THE WIND BLOWS.                         

 

FRIDAY, March 27, electronic provisional outline/paragraph abstract of project due.

 

C. The (old) Asian Synthesis (For the predicaments of the present/future)                4/6-4/27

1) India to China  ...Sacred Spaces and Sacred Times?                                                               

                              (Ideas, some big)

               1a. Ordering: (Synthetic facts, some small)

                        a). Indigenous Agronomics and Agricultural Development in the Indus Basin. Human Organization 1983 42                                     (4):283-94 By Richard Kurin

b). “Monsoon in Traditional Culture” (South Asia) by Francis Zimmermann MONSOONS EDITED BY Jay S. Fein, Pamela L. Stephens National Science Foundation. New York: A Wiley-Interscience Publication of John Wiley & Sons.

c).  “Chapter 2, Paths of technical development,” from Francesca Bray, (1986)  THE RICE ECONOMIES: Technology and Development in Asian Societies.  Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 27-61(notes on P. 219).

                              d) "Political Economy and Theology of Rice in Monsoon Asia" by Christopher A. Gregory (2006)

 

               1b. Making it:

d.  Shaw, J. and J.V. Sutcliffe (2003), “Water management, patronage networks and religious change: new evidence from the Sanchi dam complex and counterparts in Gujarat and Sri Lanka,” South Asian Studies 19, 73-104.

e) “'The Grove is Our Temple’:  Contested Representations of Kaavu in Kerala, South India,”  by Yasushi Uchiyamada Chapter 8 in Social Life of Trees.

               1c. The Constructed China:

f) “Chinese Attitudes Toward Climate,” by Cho-yun Hsu, Chapter 8 in THE WAY THE WIND BLOWS

g) The Chinese House By Ronald Knapp (81 small pages, many of which have pictures....Fast read!)

                                                                                   

2) Bali: The State of the Art?

Howe, L. E. A. “An Introduction to the Cultural Study of Traditional Balinese Architecture” Archipel 25: 137-158           

Lansing, J. Stephen & James N. Kremer “Emergent Properties of Balinese Water Temple Networks: Coadaptation on a Rugged Fitness Landscape                     American Anthropologist, 95(1): 97-114.

Lansing, J. Stephen Chapter 4, “The Temple of the Crater Lake” Pp. 73-94(notes:172-174) from PRIESTS AND PROGRAMMERS: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali (1^st Ed. 1991)  

                        Lansing, J. Stephen, Chapter 2, “Origins of Subaks and Water Temples” P.20-66 in Perfect Order (2006)

 

3) Visions of Japan                                                                                                           

                 a) Knight, John (1998) “The Second Life of Trees: Family Forestry in Upland Japan” by John Knight Chapter 9 in Social Life of Trees.

b)  “Feelings and Forces Behind the Flow of Trees in Japan” By Sharon Teeler

                              c) RICE AS SELF: Japanese Identities Through Time (1993) Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko

 

 

Wednesday, 4/29 Individual Research Project Final Draft Due

                                                           

                                               Final Exam: Saturday, 5/2/15 0900-1200

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS& PROCEDURES

 

1) Participation and attendance are required for this course; I reserve the right to drop you from the course role for regularly missing the class and deduct one or more complete grades for inordinate absences. Attendance will be taken periodically vis-à-vis end-of-class quizzes.                         

2) Seven (7) 1-2 page papers summarizing your scheduled Public Discussion reading. These papers should be written quickly, but carefully and sympathetically, concentrating either on an overview of the week’s assignment or detailing a small portion of the author’s argument.  You should consider experimenting with different styles of writing. Your objective is to tell somebody else what is in the book (which you will doing every Friday. By the end of the class you will have produced a record about a very serious contemporary scientist/scholar’s understanding of the environmental history of a major portion of the globe—arguably one of the conditions for intelligent action for the next century or so.

3) A Research Project....which should be a 10-15 page critique of book, relevant website (e.g. http://forests.org/gaia.html; http://www.rachelcarson.org/; RealClimate.org) or study chosen with Damon’s input and consent. The amount of interesting and important work “out there” now is staggering. Jump in and learn to swim in some important pool. There is a condition for these projects/research papers: You must have at least 10 references no more than half of which can be off the www—In short, you must go to the library (although I can imagine a very few projects for which this is not possible—i.e. where in today’s world must of the material is on the web.). An oral presentation of your projects will be made on successive Discussion sections in April. Joint projects are encouraged.  Final written reports are due by noon on Friday 4/28.  These papers need to be well organized. We expect a title, 50-75 word abstract, Introduction, Main section and Conclusion. The use of charts, graphs and pictures is expected. Images may be easily employed in today’s world and can be, may be, useful additions for the thinking process.

4)  Grades will be derived from the Midterm exam (20%), discussion section participation and Public Discussion papers (25%), Individual Research Projects (25%) and  Final exam (30%). Attendance will give us an enormous fudge factor.

 

This course has been the center of my last extremely stimulating 23 years; I hope it will do something similar to and for you.