Wed
8/30 |
Introduction |
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Population, Environment, and Evolution. The most fundamental interactions between culture and environment pertain to the process of feeding ourselves, and the first section of the course introduces several Big Ideas on this process. Few ideas are bigger than that of human population growth outstripping the food supply: we confront this idea first in the cariacature form of the famous Ehrlich - Simon bet, and then look at its origins by comparing perspectives of Malthus, Godwin and Marx. (We will look at other aspects of the ecology and politics of population growth throughout the course). We also confront other historic Big Ideas on culture, environment, and evolution. Do cultures really evolve by changing their adaptation to environment? Do cultural adaptations become more energy-efficient as they evolve? What is the role of population pressure in such evolution? Does the environment shape culture, and if so, how?
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| Wed 9/5 |
Population Bomb film
(ppt) |
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| Mon 9/10 |
Malthusians, Cornucopians, and Critical Perspectives
(ppt) |
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| Wed 9/12 |
Seminal ideas on population, production, and cultural evolution: materialism, evolutionism, environmental determinism
(ppt) |
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| Mon 9/17 |
Energetics; cultural ecology; political ecology
(html) |
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Low-Population Human Ecology: Foraging, Agricultural Origins, and Shifting Cultivation. Humans actually evolved as hunter-gatherers (foragers); how do foraging systems work? How efficient and productive is foraging? What is the historic and political context of foraging groups used in classic studies? Why was foraging replaced by cultivation, and what role did population play in the transition? We will then look at the slash & burn cultivation that is practiced in low-population areas, including how the system actually works, and at its relationship todeforestation (using the case study of the Amazon rain forest).
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| Wed 9/19 |
Hunter-Gatherers and the Kalahari case (ppt) |
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| Mon 9/24 |
Behavioral ecology of hunting
Demography and the origins of agriculture (html) |
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| Wed 9/26 |
(ppt) Shifting cultivation;
rainforest agroecology and deforestation
QUIZ 1 (2%) |
- Conklin 1954 (An Ethnoecological Approach to Shifting Agriculture) ERes
- Hecht & Cockburn 1989:15-43 (Fate of the Forest) ERes
- Optional: Stone 1993 (The Delaware Valley)
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Population Density and Intensification. There are few questions as far-reaching as how human production systems change with population density. We look at the theory that turned Malthus on his head, and at important recent writing, to understand what intensive agriculture is, why is it practiced, and how it relates to other aspects of culture. We use case studies from West Africa, East Africa, East Asia, and ancient Mesoamerica.
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| Mon 10/1 |
html Intensification
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| Wed 10/3 |
Intensification case studies: Kofyar home & frontier (ppt), Machakos case study (ppt) |
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| Mon 10/8 |
Asian wetrice; expanding ideas of intensification
(ppt, lecture notes)
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- Netting 1993:41-50, 138-140 (Wet-Rice Farming as an Intensive System Par Excellence) ERes
- Durham 1995 (Political Ecology and Environmental Destruction in Latin America) ERes
- Optional: Stone and Downum 1998, just the section "Boserup and Agrarian Ecology"
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| Review session (8 Oct, 6 pm, Rebs. 215) |
| Wed 10 Oct Midterm I |
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Ecology and Politics of Conflict. Conflict over resources has been seen as the perpetual consequence of overpopulation, from Malthus through many contemporary writers. We will examine these ideas in light of classic anthropological studies in Papua New Guinea and the Amazon. We will see how conflict relates to the process of agricultural intensification, using cases in West Africa and prehistoric US Southwest. Is "primitive warfare" a characteristic of indigenous society that Western colonizers quells or creates?
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Mon
10/15 |
Ecology of warfare: Big Ideas and New Guinea (+ ritual detour) |
- Rappaport 1967 (Ritual Regulation of Environmental Relations) ERes
- Lansing summary (Balinese Water Temples) including the PLEASE READ link
|
| Wed 10/17 |
Ecology of Warfare: Amazonia (+ sex detour), Tiv & Wupatki (html) (ppt on Tiv and Wupatki) |
- Gross 1992:412-415 (Tribal warfare: The Yanomamo) ERes
- Ferguson 1992 (Tribal Warfare) ERes
- Stone and Downum 1999 (Non-Boserupian Ecology and Agricultural Risk: Ethnic Politics and Land Control in the Arid Southwest) html or pdf
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State Intervention : Communal Agriculture. State interventions into indigenous agriculture had profound effects on society during the 20th century. Although the most sustained transformations have resulted from the promotion of capitalist agriculture, Communist attempts to redesign agrarian societies have led to some spectacular tragedies. The answers to how an idealistic agricultural policy could kill 50 million farmers lie mainly in the cultural aspects of intensive agriculture. We will also look at state-directed communal agriculture in East Africa and Israel.
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Mon
10/22 |
Great Leap Forward (html) (malthusian interp)
QUIZ 2 (2%) |
- Becker 1996 (Hungry Ghosts) Chaps 1-7, 18-20
- optional: Becker 1996, Chaps 13-14
|
| Wed 10/24 |
Communal agriculture: Ujaama (ppt) |
- Scott 1998:223-252 (from Seeing Like a State) ERes
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Input Catchment Expansion: Science and Capitalist Agriculture. Although they are both called "intensive," the intensive smallholder farming examined earlier and the industrial agriculture epitomized by the US today are profoundly different. We will explore the interactions among science, capitalism, and the state in the industrialization of agriculture, and explore one of the ongoing legal conflicts resulting from industrial farming in Missouri. |
Mon
10/29 |
Capitalist Agriculture in the US: The Seed Catchment (ppt) |
- Kloppenburg 1988 (First the Seed intro, pp 1-18) ERes (listed under First The Seed)
- NYT 2005 (Mountains of Corn)
- start Pollan 2006 (Omnivore's Dilemma, pp. 2-273; see note)
- optional: Schlosser 2001, Fast Food Nation; Is Heterosis a Myth?;
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Wed
10/31 |
Harnessing Energy: Bombs, Beef, and Guano (ppt) |
- Foster and Magdoff 2000 (Liebig, Marx, and the Depletion of Soil Fertility: Relevance for Today's Agriculture) ERes
- continue Pollan 2006
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Mon
11/5 |
Mechanization and Policy |
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Wed
11/7 |
Malthus Inverted in the US (ppt) |
|
| Green Revolution. We now look at the export of industrial agriculture through the Green Revolution, which is credited with saving millions from starvation (especially in India). Yet some analysts see the Green Revolution as an overrated, short-term rise in production of a few crops, at enormous ecological and social cost. |
| Mon 11/12 |
Green Revolution: Mexico and India (ppt) |
- Chrispeels & Sadava 1994 (Green Revolution, from Plants, Genes and Agriculture) ERes
- Perkins 1997:211-246 (from Geopolitics and the Green Revolution)
- optional: Pearse 1980:33-40 (Seeds of Plenty, Seeds of Want: Social and Economic Implications of the Green Revolution); Simmonds and Smartt 1999:347-355 (The Green Revolution)
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| Wed 11/14 |
Political Economy of the Green Revolution |
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| Gene Revolution. |
Mon
11/19 |
GMO's (ppt) |
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Thanksgiving Break. McWilliams 2005 (They held their noses and ate)
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Mon
11/26 |
GMO's: India cotton (ppt) |
|
| Wed 28 Nov Midterm II |
| Morality and Sustainability. |
Mon
12/3 |
Morality and anthropogenic envioronments
(ppt) |
- Denevan 1992 (Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492) Eres
- Erickson 2000 (An Artificial Landscape-Scale Fishery, online or pdf)
- Stone 1993 (The Delaware Valley)
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Wed
12/5 |
Alternative Production and Ethical Commodity Chains (html) |
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| Mon 12/10 |
Politics of Population (htm) |
- Simon 1990 (The Population Establishment) ERes
- Ross 1998 (Malthus Factor, Chap 3 and Conclusion)
- optional: Peluso & Watts 2001 (Violent Environments; just pp. 2-24) ERes
- optional: Sen 1994 (
Population: Delusion and Reality)
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| Final Exam on Thurs 13 Dec 2007 (McMillan 149) |
