Culture and the Environment
Spring 2005
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Instructor Office Hours
Monday 11:30-12:30pm or by appointment
(303) 556-2621
Students are strongly encouraged to come to office hours whenever they have questions or difficulties.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Required Readings
Reserved readings are
available on line. Go to http://docuserv.auraria.edu. Enter my
name as the instructor. You will then be asked for a password to access the
electronic documents. The password is “banjo.”
Cronon Changes in the Land
Netting Cultural Ecology
Shiva The Violence of the Green Revolution
Igoe Conservation and Globalization
Roberts The End of Oil
___________________________________________________________________
Spring 2005 Registration and Academic Deadlines
· CLAS students must always have an accurate mailing and e-mail address: http:/www.cudenver.edu/registrar
· Students are responsible for completing financial arrangements with financial aid, family, scholarships, etc.
· 12 January (5:00 pm) Payment plan deadline for students registering by 17 December 2004. Students not on financial aid are administratively disenrolled for non-payment.
· 20 January Last day to be added to the wait-list for a closed course.
· 24 January – 1 February Students are responsible for verifying an accurate Spring 2005 registration via SMART.
· 27 January (midnight) Last day to add courses via the web SMART system.
· 2 February (5:00 pm) Last day to add 16-week structured courses. Treated as an absolute deadline. The 2 Feb deadline does not apply to independent study, internships, and late-starting modular courses.
· 2 February (5:00 pm) Last day to drop a Spring 2005 course for tuition refund and no transcript notation.
· 2 February Last day for undergraduates and graduates to apply for May, 2005 graduation.
· 4 April Last day to drop a Spring 2005 course without college approval.
· 15 April Last day to drop a Spring 2005 course for CLAS students. Treated as an absolute deadline.
Consult the Academic Calendar for details on registration/payment deadlines: http://www.cudenver.edu/registrar
____________________________________________________________________
Course Overview and Expectations
Issues of ecology and environmental conservation have become an important part of American popular culture. Such issues have also come to the forefront of international politics, as evidenced by the UN sponsored Rio Summit on Environment and Development (The Earth Summit) in 1992. Ironically, this growing awareness that global environmental deterioration has become a threat to human survival has not translated into significant changes in practice. Problems such as pollution, erosion, deforestation, and hunger continue on an unprecedented scale. Western science can easily explain the cause of these problems: the energy and resource costs of human activities are greater than the environment can support. What science cannot explain, however, is why humans continue to destroy their environment in spite of this evidence that we are doing so at the expense of our collective future.
The central premise of this course is that this problem cannot be understood without reference to culture and the cultural values that shape the way people perceive and interact with their environment. Within this course, we will explore the ways in which peoples of different cultures understand their environment and their own place within it. We will also examine the ways in which cultural ideas have affected resource use and public policy in a variety of contexts. We will also ask why some cultures have developed relatively successful modes of sustainable resource management, while others have apparently failed.
Traditionally, anthropologists have examined the environmental adaptations of non-western peoples, living in areas that are now collectively known as the 3rd world. Naturally, we will spend a good part of this course looking at the ideas and practices of non-western groups. However, we will begin with those of people here in the west -- including anthropologists. Of particular importance are two conflicting views as they show up in social science: are cultures fundamentally autonomous and in control of their environment or are they instead adapted to and constrained by nature. We will explore the evolution of these two ideas, as well as their implications for non-western views of the environment.
A second reason for beginning with the ideas and practices of western people is because of their dominant position in the world today. European constructions of “nature” were carried to every part of the world during the colonial period. They continue to be imposed on non-western cultures through international development and western conservation models today. So while we will study environmental adaptations such as hunting & gathering, horticulture, and pastoralism – we will broaden our study of these systems to include the impacts of European colonialism, global capitalism, and western ideas of humans and nature.
The second half of the course will begin with the colonial period and western ideas of the environment. We will examine the impacts of European colonialism on environmental adaptation in North America and Africa. We will then turn to issues of development. We will examine the assumptions of progress and cultural transformation, which have been a central theme in western development models since the end of WWII. Through a series of case studies we will examine the impacts of development and western perceptions of the environment on human ecosystems around the world. We will examine the impacts of the Green Revolution in South Asia, community conservation in Africa, and oil dependence in the U.S. The course concludes with a discussion of ethics, and we will ask what western approaches to conservation might be improved through the knowledge and practices of non-western peoples.
Evaluating Students
Students in this course will be evaluated according to three criteria:
Take Home Essays 40% (2 x 20%)
Mid Term Exam 30%
Final Exam 30%
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
n Late assignments will only be accepted under unusual circumstances (serious illness, death in the family, etc). Please start early and manage your time wisely.
n Incompletes will only be given in very unusual circumstances beyond the student’s control
(see above).
n All written work should be typed, proofread, easily readable, and professional and scholarly in
appearance. Sloppy work will be returned to students to resubmit, and receive a maximum grade of B.
n Keep copies of the assignments you turn in.
n Please turn off your cell phone while you are in class.
n The instructor reserves the right to substitute readings of comparable length for those that are already on the syllabus.
n STUDENTS ARE EXPECTED TO ABIDE BY THE UNIVERSITY GUIDELINES FOR ACADEMIC INTEGRITY, WHICH EACH OF YOU IS RESPONSIBLE FOR KNOWING.
Class Schedule
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Wednesday January 19th 2005
Introduction to the course
How do we think about humans and nature?
Does nature shape culture or does culture shape nature?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday January 24th 2005
Humans, Nature, and Human Nature
The man-nature dichotomy in American culture
The politics, economics, and culture of progress and conservation
Readings: Anderson Ecologies of the Heart Chapter: 1 (Reserve)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday January 26th 2005
Humans and Nature in Western Culture
Readings: Lynne White “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis” (Reserve)
Glacken “Man versus Nature” (Reserve)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday January 31st 2005
Progress and technology: the human mastery over nature?
Readings: Leslie White “Energy and the Evolution of Culture” (Reserve)
Julian Simon “The Ultimate Resource” Selections (Reserve)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday February 2nd 2005
Competing Paradigms of Nature and Human Nature
Readings: Goldsmith “Ecological Succession Rehabilitated” (Reserve)
Kaufman “How Nature Really Works” (Reserve)
Purchase “Kropotkin’s Metaphysics of Nature (Reserve)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class Schedule
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday February 7th 2005
Taming the Anthropogenic
Readings: William Cronon Changes in the Land Chapters 1-4
Also Available: William Cronon The Trouble w/ Wilderness Reserve
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday February 9th 2005
The man-nature dichotomy in the American landscape
Readings: William Cronon Changes in the Land Chapters 5-8
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday February 14th 2005
Human adaptation -- hunters and gatherers
Readings: Netting Cultural Ecology Chapters 1 & 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday February 16th 2005
Contemporary hunters and gatherers
Video: N!Ai The Story Of A !Kung Woman
PLEASE NOTE: Paper #1 is due in class on this day. Please do not come late!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class Schedule
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday February 21st 2005
Human adaptation -- Pastoralists
Readings: Netting Cultural Ecology Chapter 4
Evans-Pritchard The Nuer Chapter 2 (Reserve)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday February 23rd 2005
Contemporary Pastoralists
Video: The Khirgiz of Afghanistan
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday February 28th 2005
Human adaptations -- Horticulture
Readings: Netting Cultural Ecology Chapter 5
Reed “Cultivating the Tropical Forest” (Reserve)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday March 2nd 2005
Contemporary horticulturalists
Video: The Spirit of Kuna Yala
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday March 7th 2005
Human adaptations – Agricultural Intensification
Readings: Gever et al Beyond Oil Chapter Five (Reserve)
Jackson Natural Systems Agriculture (Reserve)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday March 9th 2005
MID TERM EXAM
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class Schedule
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday March 14th 2005
Malthusian thought in the colonial project
Readings: Shiva The Violence of the Green Revolution Chapter 7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday March 16th 2005
Malthusian thought in the development project
Readings: Walter Rostow Stages of Growth (Reserve)
Harding “The Tragedy of the Commons (Reserve)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday March 21st and Wednesday March 23rd
SPRING BREAK/NO CLASS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday March 28th 2005
The violence of the Green Revolution
Readings: Shiva The Violence of the Green Revolution Chapters 1-6
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday March 30th 2005
DISCUSSION: The Green Revolution in Indonesia
Video: The Goddess and the Computer
Readings: Horton The Dawn of McScience Reserve
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday April 4th 2005
National Parks Style Conservation
Readings Igoe Conservation & Globalization Chapters 1 & 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday April 6th 2005
NO CLASS
MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY FOR APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday April 11th 2005
The Colonial Origins of National Parks
Readings: Igoe Conservation & Globalization Chapter 3
Lissu Democratizing Africa’s Natural Resource Tenure (Reserve)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday April 13th 2005
Conservation Alternatives
Readings: Igoe Conservation & Globalization Chapters 4 & 5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class Schedule
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday April 18th 2005
U.S. Consumer Culture
Film: Surplus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday April 20th 2005
The History of U.S. Oil Dependency
Readings: Paul Roberts The End of Oil Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday April 25th 2005
Our Current Dilemma
Readings: Paul Roberts The End of Oil Chapters 6,7,8, & 9
Course Pack A Primer on Oil and the Future of the U.S. Economy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday April 27th 2005
The Future
Readings: Paul Roberts The End of Oil Chapters 10,11,12, & 13
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday May 4th 2005
Mandatory Field Trip
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE FINAL EXAM WILL TAKE PLACE IN CLASS ON THE SCHEDULED DATE