1 Ecological Anthropology AnthSci 164/264 Winter Quarter 2005 Tu Th 1:15-2:45 Essential Course Information Instructor: Rebecca Bird Office: 362a Building 360 (Anthro Sciences) Phone: 723-8839 E-mail: [email protected] Consultation hours: Tuesday 3-4, Wednesday & Thursday 11-12 Course web page: http://www.stanford.edu/~rbird/page3.html Required work: 3 10-page research papers due by March 10; 10 1-2 page summaries of the electronic readings, one due at the beginning of each week; 1 10-20 minute Powerpoint lecture/discussion presentation. Course Objectives Ecological Anthropology is a synthetic field of study that aims at a systematic understanding of variability in culturally-inherited human behavior and its relationship to specific social and physical environments. In my course, we take four ideas as fundamental: 1) that humans and environments interact dynamically in the process of adaptation, 2) that both subsistence and non-subsistence related cultural traits and behaviors can be adaptive, 3) that to understand the interaction between culture and ecology we must incorporate study of individual behavior and decision-making within a cultural and environmental context and 4) culturally inherited behaviors become adapted to their environments (physical and social) through a number of processes, including individual learning, cultural evolution, and natural selection on individual decision-making. The topics we will focus on this year include subsistence variability, subsistence intensification, feasting and ritual, nutrition and disease, warfare, indigenous resource management, and resource conservation/environmental degradation. We will examine some specific case studies on the socio-environmental dynamics of subsistence variability in the Great Basin, Australia, East Africa, and Amazonia; agricultural intensification in New Guinea; the ecology of feasting and ritual in the Pacific Northwest; the ecology of nutrition and disease in Africa; warfare in Amazonia; resource management in Australia; and resource conservation and environmental degradation worldwide. Required Reading A free electronic course reader is available on the course website at http://www.stanford.edu/~rbird/page3.html. The course reader page is a secure site so you will need to log in using your Stanford ID and password after you click on the course reader link. After you do this, you will be directed to the download page which provides bibliographic information on each paper. To download a paper, click on the PDF link associated with it. You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to read these files. You will also find links to the syllabus and details on the assignments, as well as any course announcements. You also have three required books: Steward, Julian (1938/1997) Basin-Plateau Aboriginal Sociopolitical Groups Rappaport, Roy (1984) Pigs for the Ancestors Smith, Eric A (1991) Inujjuamiut Foraging Strategies These should be available in the bookstore. 2 Schedule of Lectures Date Topic Readings 4 Jan Introduction Alvard, M. (2003) The adaptive nature of culture. Ev Anth 12:136-149. 6 Jan Steward’s Cultural Ecology Steward, J. (1955) The concept and method of cultural ecology. From: The Theory of Culture Change, pp 30-42. University of Illinois Press: Urbana. 11 Jan Rappaport’s Ecological Rappaport, R. (1984) pp 299-479. Functionalism 13 Jan Smith’s Behavioral Ecology Smith, E.A. (1991): pp 1-40, 399-409. Ecology and Subsistence 18 Jan Social context of hunting and Steward, J. (1938) pp 1-50 and 230-260. gathering Smith, E.A. (1991) pp 287-356. 20 Jan Subsistence variability in the Torres Harris, David R. (1977) Subsistence strategies across Torres Strait Strait. In: J. Allen, J. Golson, and R. Jones, eds, Sunda and Sahul: prehistoric studies in Southeast Asia, Melanesia, and Australia, pp 421-463. Academic Press: London. 25 Jan Pastoralist decision-making in East Netting, R. (1977) East African pastoralists. From: Cultural Africa Ecology, pp 40-53. Benjamin/Cummings. Borgerhoff Mulder, Monique and Daniel W. Sellen (1994) Pastoralist decisionmaking: a behavioral ecological perspective. In African pastoralist systems: an integrated approach, ed. Elliot Fratkin, Kathleen A. Glavin, and Eric Abella Roth, pp. 205-229. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers. 27 Jan Hunting and Horticulture in Hames, Raymond B. (1989) Time, efficiency, and fitness in the Amazonia Amazonian protein quest. Research in Economic Anthropology 11: 43-85. Dynamic Interactions—Culture/Ecology 1 Feb Food Production and Intensification Winterhalder, B. and C. Goland (1997) An evolutionary ecology perspective on diet choice, risk and plant domestication. In: K.J. Gremillion, People, Plants and Landscapes: Studies in Prehistory, pp 123-160. University of Alabama Press: Birmingham. 3 Feb Discussion/Presentation: Watson, James (1977) Pigs, fodder and the Jones Effect in post- Sweet Potatoes and Pigs in New ipomeoan New Guinea. Ethnology 16:57-70. Guinea Golson, J. and D. Gardner (1990) Agriculture and sociopolitical organization in New Guinea Highlands prehistory. Annual Rev Anth 19:395-417. Rappaport, R. (1984) pp 1-98 8 Feb Ecology, Ritual and Costly Displays Boone, J. (1998) The evolution of magnanimity: when is it better to give than to receive? Human Nature 9:1-21. Sosis, R and C. Alcorta (2003) Signaling, solidarity and the sacred: the evolution of religious behavior. Ev Anth 12:264- 274. Rappaport R. (1984) pp 153-242. 3 10 Discussion/Presentation: Piddocke, S. (1965) The potlatch system of the Southern Feb Feasting and social status on NW Kwakiutl: a new perspective. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 21:244-264. Coast Drucker, P. and R. Heizer (1967) To make my name good: a re- examination of the southern Kwakiutl potlatch. University of California Press: Berkeley. 15 Disease and Nutrition Katz, S. (1990) An evolutionary theory of cuisine. Human Feb Nature 1(3):233-259. McMichael, A.J. (2004) Environmental and social influences on emerging infectious disease. Phil Trans Roy Soc London B 359:1049-1058. 17 Discussion/Presentation: TBA Feb Disease/Nutritional Ecology Topic TBA 22 Competition, Territoriality, and Boone, James L. (1992) Competition, conflict, and the Feb Warfare development of hierarchies. In Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior, ed. E. A. Smith and B. Winterhalder, pp. 301- 337. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. 24 Discussion/Presentation: Chagnon, Napoleon (1988) Life histories, blood revenge, and Feb Amazon and New Guinea warfare warfare in tribal populations. Science 239:985-992. Shankman, P (1991) Culture contact, cultural ecology, and Dani warfare. Man 26:299-321. Ferguson, R. (1990) Blood of the leviathan: western contact and warfare in Amazonia. American Ethnologist 17:237-257. Rappaport, R. (1984) pp 99-152. 1 Mar Resource management Aswani, S. (1998) Patterns of marine harvest effort in southwestern New Georgia, Solomon Islands: resource management or optimal foraging? Ocean and Coastal Management 40:207-235. Hill, R. and A. Baird (2003) Kuku-Yalanji rainforest aboriginal people and carbohydrate resource management in the wet tropics of Queensland, Australia. Human Ecology 31:27-52. Balee, W. (1993) Indigenous transformation of Amazonian forests: an example from Maranhao, Brazil. L’Homme 33:231- 254. 3 Mar Discussion/Presentation: Bowman, D.M.J.S. (1998) The impact of aboriginal landscape Landscape burning in Australia burning on the Australian biota. New Phytologist 140:385-410. Bird, D., R Bliege Bird, and C. Parker (2005) Aboriginal burning regimes and hunting strategies in Australia's Western Desert. Human Ecology (in press). 8 Mar Conservation and Environmental Low, Bobbi S. and Joel T. Heinen (1993) Population, resources, Degradation and environment: Implications of human behavioral ecology for conservation. Population and Environment 15:7-41. Smith, Eric Alden and Mark Wishnie (2000) Conservation in small-scale societies. Annual Review of Anthropology 29:493- 524. 10 Discussion/Presentation: TBA Mar Conservation topic TBA 4 Required work and assignments Student presentations. The course will be organized into a combination of lecture and student-led presentations and discussions. Beginning in February, each week I will present some general and theoretical cases of interest to ecological anthropologists. This lecture will be followed by student- led presentations and discussion of particular case studies which both elaborate upon and describe in detail some of the principles we learned in the beginning of the week. Since we have many more students here than available presentation days, you will work in teams with each of you being responsible for one component of the lecture period. All of you are responsible for facilitating at least ten minutes of discussion following your presentation (which should be in Powerpoint, Keynote or other electronic display format). I will give you more details and guidelines on your presentations later. 3 10-page research papers. As part of your work in the class, in addition to your in-class presentations, you are responsible for completing three 10-page research papers which should be associated with each of your three required ethnographic works (Steward’s Basin Sociopolitical Groups, Rappaport’s Pigs for the Ancestors, and Smith’s Inuit Foraging Strategies). I expect undergraduates to complete their papers on a topic which I will suggest; while graduate students should choose their own research topic. I am open, however, to undergrads proposing their own research topics—but all who propose