1 SYLLABUS TITLE ANTH 620H Human Ecology (Theory or Method) TIME 10:30-11:45 a.m., TTh, Spring Semester 2009 PLACE 329 Saunders Hall, University of Hawai`i @ Manoa INSTRUCTOR Dr. Les Sponsel, Professor Director, Ecological Anthropology Program Office: 317 Saunders Hall Office hours: 3:00-5:00 p.m. TTh by appointment Office phone: 956-8507 Email: [email protected] Homepage: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/Sponsel ORIENTATION Ecological anthropology explores how culture influences the dynamic interactions between human populations and the ecosystems in their habitat through time. The primary approaches within ecological anthropology are cultural ecology, historical ecology, political ecology, and spiritual ecology. This sequence of approaches reflects the historical development of the subject, largely since the 1950’s. By now ecological anthropology is a mature topical specialization that crosscuts the five subfields of contemporary anthropology. It has its own separate unit within the American Anthropological Association called the Anthropology and Environment Section (http://www.eanth.org); journals (Human Ecology, Journal of Ecological Anthropology, Ecological and Environmental Anthropology); textbooks and anthologies; publisher’s series; specialists, programs, and courses; listserv with more than 1,000 subscribers (see E & A Section website to subscribe); and so on. (See http://www.eoearth.org/article/Ecological_anthropology). This class, 620H, is the graduate core course for the Ecological Anthropology Program (see EAP on the instructor’s homepage at http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/Sponsel). Ideally, the prerequisite for 620H is 415 Ecological Anthropology. Those who have not taken 415 may request the instructor’s consent. However, for some background they are strongly 2 advised to read Patricia K. Townsend’s Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc., 2009, Second Edition). Auditors are not allowed. This time the seminar pursues a systematic and penetrating critical analysis of theory and method in ecological anthropology in historical perspective from its early 20th Century roots to the present, but organized around the sequence of primary approaches to ecological anthropology. Unfortunately, there is no single textbook conveniently available for such a survey, thus a combination of texts together with seminar reports is necessary to adequately survey this subject. Each student is required to research one historical and one contemporary contributor to ecological anthropology for two seminar papers each summarized for the class with a PowerPoint presentation. Among the historical figures (most deceased) are Alfred L. Kroeber, Clark Wissler, Frank G. Speck, Julian H. Steward, Gregory Bateson, Fredrik Barth, Roy A. Rappaport, Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, Marvin Harris, John W. Bennett, Robert M. Netting, Harold C. Conklin, Eric R.Wolf, and Darrell A. Posey. Several historical personages beyond anthropology have also been particularly influential including Thomas Robert Malthus, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, John Wesley Powell, George Perkins Marsh, Karl Marx, C. Daryll Forde, Carl O. Sauer, Eugene Odum, and Howard Odum. Contemporary figures include, but are not limited to, Janis B. Alcorn, Kelly Alley, Michael Alvard, Eugene N. Anderson, Shankar Aswani, William Balee, Daniel Bates, Brent Berlin, John H. Bodley, J. Peter Brosius, Robert Carneiro, David Casagrande, Carole Crumley, Philippe Descola, Michael R. Dove, Darna L. Dufour, Roy F. Ellen, Arturo Escobar, James Fairhead, Harvey Feit, Walter Goldschmidt, Thomas N. Headland, Robert Hitchcock, Ake Hultkrantz, Tim Ingold, Allen Johnson, Barbara Rose Johnston, Arne Kalland, John Knight, Conrad Kottak, Shepard Krech III, J. Stephen Lansing, Melissa Leach, Richard B. Lee, Henry T. Lewis, Paul Little, Bonnie J. McCay, Luisa E. Maffi, Kay Milton, Emilio F. Moran, Gary Nabhan, Virginia D. Nazarea, Richard Nelson, Bernard Nietschmann, Benjamin S. Orlove, Rajindra Puri, Laura Rival, Eric Ross, Eric Alden Smith, Susan C. Stonich, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Paige West, Bruce Winterhalder, and Andrew P. Vayda. The above lists are representative, but not necessarily exhaustive. For example, with only a few exceptions, the individuals identified are cultural anthropologists. Ecologically oriented archaeologists and biological (physical) anthropologists are largely ignored simply because there are other courses available on the history of those subfields and time is very limited for this seminar. A special class project in anticipation of the Department’s 75th anniversary will be conduced to research and co-author a brief history of the development of ecological 3 anthropology at UHM through surveying the work of associated faculty and staff including Gregory Bateson, Henry T. Lewis, Richard A. Gould, Leonard Mason, Richard K. Nelson, A. Terry Rambo, Michael R. Dove, Jefferson Fox, Gerald Martin, Bion Griffin, and Douglas Yen. Each student should selected one of the above individuals to research and then distribute by email a brief report (a text of one page typed single spaced and accompanying bibliography) in advance of the special seminar on this topic. Later the instructor will draft a composite essay, and then this will be revised through contributions by each student. In several cases, the individual for this special report may be the same as either the historical or contemporary scholar. When the instructor is informed of each student’s topical and regional interests, then he can help provide information and advice to assist in the selection of appropriate individuals. For each individual researched, most relevant for this seminar is information on the individual’s personality, intellectual biography and development, a time line, theoretical and methodological orientations, topical and regional teaching and research specializations, contributions and limitations, publications and other professional activities, and key primary and secondary sources. The historical, social, cultural, and political context of the individual should also be discussed. FORMAT The research for these two papers should be based on reading as much as possible published by and about each of the two scholars investigated (see the attached Appendices for resources). For the contemporary scholar, the student should also try to conduct an email interview. Such an interview might also be conducted for a historic scholar, if a student of that individual is available, such as Richard Wilk for Robert Netting, Kenneth Good for Marvin Harris, or Peter Brosius for Roy Rappaport. Finally, building on relevant aspects of the two previous exercises, each student will use a PowerPoint presentation to summarize a research proposal or report for the seminar. (See attached guidelines for a research proposal in Appendix II). Some possible topics for this report include biodiversity conservation, biophilia, diversity principle, ecolinguistics, “ecologically noble savage”, environmental justice, global warming, landscape ecology, land and resource conflicts, mining, and sacred places as protected areas. Each of the three regular seminar papers should be about five pages single-spaced exclusive of the bibliography. Follow carefully the style of the American Anthropologist. Include an abstract, introduction, discussion, and conclusion. Insert subheadings, notes, and references cited. Circulate your paper to the seminar participants one week in advance as an email attachment to allow others the opportunity to read it and formulate comments and questions for the next seminar discussion. 4 A fourth paper is required as well in connection with the Department’s 75th anniversary, as indicated previously. Several telephone interviews may be conducted during the class with selected ecological anthropologists on the mainland, depending on class interests and the availability of the individual. It may be feasible to incorporate some local faculty as visitors in the seminar for special topics as well. OBJECTIVES This course has the following eight objectives with related learning outcomes: 1. explore and become familiar in general with the intellectual history of ecological anthropology during the 20th century to the present, including the evolution of its more important ideas, questions, problems, issues, and trends; 2. explore and become familiar in depth with two or three ecological anthropologists whose work is of special relevance to your own interests; 3. provide background on specific theories and methods useful for the development of an individual research proposal or report; 4. explore and become familiar with key print and internet resources available on the subject and accumulate a composite bibliography as well as a list of the interests and contributions of the more important individuals; 5. assemble a compilation of brief papers on the intellectual biography of key historical and contemporary ecological anthropologists that may be used in subsequent teaching; 6. contribute to researching and co-authoring a brief essay on the history of the development of ecological anthropology at UHM which will be posted on the Department website under the Ecological Anthropology Program. 7. practice giving brief professional presentations with PowerPoint; and 8. receive friendly and constructive but critical feedback for your own professional improvement from the instructor and fellow students. Anthropology students may use the exercises in this course to develop one or more chapters for an M.A. thesis