Ecology and Culture: Global Diversity and Inequality
Curriculum guideline
Lectures, group presentations, collective examination of case studies and facilitated discussion of readings will be the primary means of instruction. Some content from the internet will form an integral part of the curriculum. Utilizing online resources such as the “Engagement Blog” of the Anthropology and Environment Section of the American Anthropological Association that features accessible short articles on contemporary fieldwork in environmental anthropology, and online lectures and podcasts featuring prominent authors in the field students will have a chance to engage with the relevance of Environmental Anthropology “on the ground.” Case studies from these sources will be presented by student groups and discussed in class to enhance student understanding. One local community engagement that applies concepts learned in the course to the examination of a case from British Columbia will be chosen per term.
Possible course themes and sub-topics include the following that will be explored through selections from a variety of theoretical and ethnographic works as well as online podcasts and lectures:
A. Introduction and Overview of the Course/Re-Orientations to Culture and Nature
What is nature? Is it a material, physical object? Is it a social, cultural and historical construction? How do our ideas of what nature is affect what we do with it and to it? What historical context is necessary to understand contemporary environmentalism?
B. Commons
How do we situate local ecological and cultural concerns on the collective planet? The idea of the commons as discussed by Garrett Hardin, Elinor Ostrom, Michael Hardt and David Harvey (among others) will be discussed with reference to such challenges as population growth; ecological limits to capitalist expansion.
C. Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill
What are modes of production? What contributes to continuity and change of modes of production in response to colonial and imperial force?
D. From Cultural to Political Ecology
How did cultural and political ecology develop in anthropology alongside other disciplines (especially geography and political science)? What are some of the methods used by anthropologists to understand local and traditional ecological knowledge?
E. Indigenous Life Projects
What are some of the potential pitfalls of environmentalist ideals for indigenous peoples? How are environmentalism and indigenous struggles interrelated?
F. Anthropologies of Energy: The Metabolism of the Anthropocene
What are the impacts of oil dependence for populations where oil is extracted? What is the “resource curse”? What challenges and opportunities are present for the development of green energy?
G. Conservation and the Politics of Eco-Scarcity
What are the politics of international biodiversity conservation efforts? What are some of the unintended consequences of international conservation goals for local populations?
H. Anthropologies of the More Than Human/Non Human
How do anthropologists attempt to include cultural differences regarding the rights or role of non-humans in collective social life? What is anthropocentrism and what insights can be gained by de-centring humans in research about culture and ecology?
I. Disaster and Waste
How do people cope with toxic environments? Why are people unequally exposed to risk? Who is responsible for externalities of industrial production?
J. Environmental Racisms and Privileges
How are socioeconomic, raced and gendered inequalities revealed in access or lack of access to clean water, land, and air? What methods are used to discover the dynamics of these inequalities?
As a result of taking this course students should be able to:
- Define a commons and major theoretical approaches to confronting the challenges of resource access and exclusion from access.
- Discuss cultural ecology as a theoretical framework in anthropology and some major critiques of it.
- Recognize essentialist and reductive representations of indigenous peoples as natural environmental stewards in mainstream environmentalist campaigns.
- Assess major distinctions between indigenous life projects and assimilation-oriented policies through the examination of case studies.
- Formulate a more complex understanding of how cultural, ecological and economic changes are interrelated.
- Restate major theses in political ecology and apply one to the analysis of contemporary case studies.
Evaluation will be carried out in accordance with Douglas College policy. Evaluation will be based on course objectives and will include some of the following: quizzes, multiple choice exams, essay type exams, term paper or research project, computer based assignments, etc. The instructor will provide the students with a course outline listing the criteria for course evaluation.
Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation in the course as part of the student’s graded performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation will be clearly defined in the Instructor Course Outline.
An example of a possible evaluation scheme:
10% Participation Including group work, oral presentations and contributions to class discussion.
10% Paper Proposal and Preliminary Bibliography
25% Final Research Paper
10% Community Engagement Reflection Paper
20% Midterm Exam
25% Final Exam
Texts:
1. Base Text:
Robbins, Paul. 2004. Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction. Malden: Blackwell.
2. Possible Ethnographies:
The following list is a short sample of possible full-length ethnographies that might be taken up in the course. A comprehensive reading guide including key terms and discussion questions will be provided to students for any chosen ethnography for the term.
Kohn, Eduardo. 2013. How Forests Think Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Orlove, Ben. 2002. Lines in the Water: Nature and Culture at Lake Titicaca. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Tsing, Anna. 2004. Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Vivanco, Luis A. 2013. Reconsidering the Bicycle: An Anthropological Perspective on a New (Old) Thing. New York: Routledge.
West, Paige. 2012. From Modern Production to Imagined Primitive: The Social World of Coffee from Papua New Guinea. Durham: Duke University Press.
3. Sample themes and readings for Course Reader
Including selections from a variety of theoretical and ethnographic works and online profiles, podcasts and lectures:
A. Introduction and Overview of the Course/ Re-Orientations to Culture and Nature
1. Beard, Charles. "Introduction, The Idea of Progress: An Inquiry into Its Origin and Growth” in The Energy Reader. Ed. Laura Nader. New York: Wiley-Blackwell. Pp. 149-161.
2. Williams, Raymond. 1980. “Ideas of Nature” from Problems in Materialism and Culture. London: Verso. pp. 67-85.
3. Cronon, William. 1995. “The Trouble with Wilderness: or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” in Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature. Ed. William Cronon. London: W.W. Norton and Company. pp. 69-90.
B. Commons – Unity and Diversity
1. Hardin, Garrett. 1968. The Tragedy of the Commons. Science. (162): 1243-48.
2. Ostrom, Elinor.1987. “Institutional Arrangements for Resolving the Commons Dilemma: Some Contending Approaches. In The Question of the Commons: The Culture and Ecology of Communal Resources. Eds. Bonnie J. McCay and James M. Acheson. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. pp.250-265.
C. Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill
1. Ingold, Tim. 2000. “Chapter Three: Hunting and gathering as ways of perceiving the environment” from The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill. New York: Routledge. Pp.40-60.
D. Disciplinary History and Critiques: Cultural and Political Ecology
1. Steward, Julian. 1972. “The Concept and Method of Cultural Ecology” from Theory of Culture Change: The Methodology of Multilinear Evolution. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Pp. 30-43.
2. Asch, Michael and Pinkoski, Marc. 2004. “Anthropology and Indigenous Rights in Canada and the United States : Implications in Steward's Theoretical Project.” In A. Barnard, ed., Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology, and Anthropology . Oxford : Berg pp. 187-200.
E. Indigenous Life Projects
1. Blaser, Feit and McRae. 2004. “Indigenous Peoples and Development Processes: New Terrains of Struggle” from In the Way of Development: Indigenous Peoples, Life Projects and Development. Ottawa: IDRC Books. Pp. 1-25.
2. Blaser, Mario. 2004. “Life Projects: Indigenous Peoples’ Agency and Development” from In the Way of Development: Indigenous Peoples, Life Projects and Development. Ottawa: IDRC Books. Pp. 26-44.
F. Anthropologies of Energy: The Metabolism of the Anthropocene
1. Mitchell, Timothy. 2011. Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. London: Verso. Introduction and Chapter One “Machines of Democracy.”
2. Online Lecture by Mitchell: http://vimeo.com/41913242
G. Conservation and the Politics of Eco-Scarcity
1. West, Paige. 2006. Conservation is Our Government Now: The Politics of Ecology in Papua New Guinea. Durham: Duke University Press. Selections from.
H. Anthropologies of the More Than Human/Non Human I
- Kohn, Eduardo. 2013. How Forests Think Toward an Anthropology beyond the Human. Berkeley: University of California Press. Selections from.
- Podcast: New Books in Science, Technology and Society. Eduardo Kohn http://newbooksinscitechsoc.com/2014/02/09/eduardo-kohn-how-forests-think-toward-an-anthropology-beyond-the-human-university-of-california-press-2013/
- Kosek, Jake. 2010. “Ecologies of Empire: On the New Uses of the Honeybee.” CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Vol. 25, Issue 4, pp. 650–678. ISSN 0886-7356, online ISSN 1548-1360
I. Disaster and Waste
1. Raffles, Hugh. 2010. “Chernobyl” from Insectopedia. New York: Vintage. pp. 15-40.
2. Petryna, Adriana. 2013. Ch 1 “Life Politics After Chernobyl” in Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
J. Environmental Racism/Classism and Privilege
- Pulido, Laura. 2000. “Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California” Annals of the Association of American Geographers Volume 90, Issue 1, 2000. pp. 12-40.
- Lazarus, Heather. 2012. Sea Change: Island Communities and Climate Change Annual Review of Anthropology 41:285–301.
- White, Richard. “Are you an Environmentalist or do you Work for a Living?” in Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature. Ed. William Cronon. London: W.W. Norton and Company. pp.171-185.
One of ANTH 1100, 1111, 1112 or permission of the instructor.