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Anthro 361 Culture & EnvironmentSyllabus for Fall 2008 |
| Wed, August 27 | Introduction | |
| 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? | ||
| Wed, Sept 03 | Population Bomb film (ppt) |
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| Mon, Sept 08 | Malthusians, Cornucopians, and Critical Perspectives (ppt) |
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| Wed, Sept 10 | Seminal ideas on population, production, and cultural evolution: materialism, evolutionism, environmental determinism (ppt) ) |
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| Mon, Sept 15 | Energetics, cultural ecology and political ecology (html) | |
| Wed, Sept 17 | Hunter-Gatherers and the Kalahari case (ppt) |
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| Mon, Sept 22 | Behavioral ecology of hunting Demography and the origins of agriculture (html) |
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Wed, Sept 24 QUIZ 1 (2.5%)
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Shifting cultivation; Rainforest agroecology and deforestation (ppt) |
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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. | ||
| Mon, Sept 29 | Intensification html | |
| Wed, Oct 01 | Intensification case studies: Kofyar home & frontier (ppt), Machakos case study (ppt) | |
| Mon, Oct 6 | Asian wetrice; expanding ideas of intensification (ppt, lecture notes) | |
| Review session (Monday 6:30 Eliot 216) | ||
| Wed 8 Oct : Midterm I | ||
| 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? | ||
| Mon, Oct 13 | Ecology of warfare: Big Ideas and New Guinea (+ ritual detour) html |
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| Wed, Oct 15 | Ecology of Warfare: Amazonia (+ sex detour), Tiv & Wupatki (html)i (html) (ppt on Tiv and Wupatki) |
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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. | ||
| Mon, Oct 20 | Great Leap Forward (html) (malthusian interp) |
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Wed, Oct 22 QUIZ 2 (2.5%) |
Communal agriculture: Ujamaa (ppt) | |
| Industrialization: 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, Oct 27 | Capitalist Agriculture in the US: Seeds and Industrialization (ppt) |
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| Wed, Oct 29 | Harnessing Energy: Bombs, Beef, and Guano (ppt) | |
| Mon, Nov 03 | Mechanization (ppt); Malthus Inverted in the US (ppt); review |
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| Wed 5 Nov Midterm II | ||
| Mon, Nov 10 | Green Revolution: Mexico and India (ppt) |
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| Wed, Nov 12 | Political Economy of the Green Revolution GMO's (ppt) |
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| Mon, Nov 17 | GMO's (ppt if time) |
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| Wed, Nov 19 | Future of Food video |
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Morality and Sustainability. |
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| Mon, Nov 24 | Morality and anthropogenic envioronments |
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| Thanksgiving Break. McWilliams 2005 (They held their noses and ate) | ||
| Mon, Dec 01 | Alternative Production and Ethical Commodity Chains (html) |
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| Wed, Dec 03 | Politics of Population (htm) |
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| Review Session (Thurs 6 pm, room TBA) | ||
| Final Exam in Class Mon 8 Dec | ||
