Anthropology 570, Fall 2003
Environmental Anthropology

Schedule

Course Schedule

SEPTEMBER

T-30      Review of seminar requirements, procedures, and objectives. Introductions. Overview of environmental anthropology at UW.

OCTOBER

I. Conceptualizing Environmental Anthropology

Th-2      Sources and discourses: Cultural ecology/ethnoecology; political ecology; conservation theory.
     
Required Readings:

•      Townsend, Patricia K. 2000. Environmental anthropology: From pigs to politics. Prospect Heights: Waveland Press, pp. 1-103.

•      Blaikie, Peter. 1995. Changing environments or changing views? A political ecology for developing countries. Geography 80: 203-14.

•      Western, David and R. Michael Wright. 1994. The background to community-based conservation. In: Natural connections: Perspectives in community-based conservation, ed. David Western and R. Michael Wright. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, pp. 1-12.

Recommended:

•      Ellen, Roy. 1996. Introduction. In: Redefining nature: Ecology, culture and domestication, ed. Roy Ellen and Katsuyoski Fukui. Oxford: Berg, pp. 1-36.


II. Ecological Adaptation and Maladaptation

T-7      Doing ‘deep history:’ Prehistoric environmental change and human adaptation.


Required Readings:

•      Kirch, Patrick V. 1997. Microcosmic histories: Island perspectives on “global” change. American Anthropologist 99: 30-42.

•      Denevan, William M. 1992. The pristine myth: The landscape of the Americas in 1492. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 82: 369-85.

Recommended:

•      Broughton, Jack M. 1994. Declines in mammalian foraging efficiency during the late Holocene, San Francisco Bay, California. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 13: 371-401.


Th-9       Conservation theory, place-based cultures, and local knowledge.

Required Readings:

•      Smith, Eric A. and Mark Wishnie. 2000. Conservation and subsistence in small- scale societies. Annual Review of Anthropology 29: 493-524.

•      Berkes, Fikret and Carl Folke, ed. 2000. Linking social and ecological systems for resilience and sustainability. In: Linking social and ecological systems: Management practices and social mechanisms for building resilience, ed. F. Berkes and C. Folke. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, pp. 1-25.

•      Gadhil, Madhav. 2000. People, refugia and resilience. In: Berkes and Folke, pp.       30-47.

Recommended:

•      Hargrove, Eugene C. 1989. An overview of conservation and human values: Are conservation goals merely cultural attitudes? In: Conservation for the 21st century, ed. David Western and Mary Pearl. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 227-31.

T-14      Battles for the commons. Environmental anthropology, property rights, and legal pluralism.

            Guest lecture: Gregory A. Hicks.


Required Readings:


•      Ostrum, Elinor. 2001. Reformulating the commons. In: Protecting the commons: A framework for resource management in the Americas, ed. Joanna Burger, et al. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, pp. 17-41.

•      Hicks, Gregory A. and Devon G. Peña. 2003. Community acequias in Colorado’s Rio Culebra watershed: A customary commons in the domain of prior appropriation. University of Colorado Law Review 74: 387-486.

•      Alcorn, Janis B. and Victor M. Toledo. Resilient resource management in Mexico’s forest ecosystems: The contributions of property rights. In: Fikret and Folke, pp. 216-49.

Recommended:

•      Goldman, Michael. 1998. Introduction: The political resurgence of the commons. In: Privatizing nature: Political struggles for the global commons, ed. Michael Goldman, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, pp. 1-19.

•      Goldman, Michael. 1998. Inventing the commons: Theories and practices of the commons’ professional. In: Goldman, pp. 20-53.

•      James C. Scott. 1998. Seeing like a state. New Haven: Yale University Press (esp. pp. 9-52; 262-306; 307-41.


III. Ethnoecology: Recovering Traditional Environmental Knowledge

Th-16      Traditional environmental knowledge (TEK).

Assignment note: Thought piece #1 due at the beginning of class.
            Guest lecture: Eugene S. Hunn.


Required Readings:

•      Hunn, Eugene S. and James Selam. 1991. Nch'I-Wana, the Big River: Mid-Columbia Indians and Their Land. Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press, pp. 3-137.

•      Nazarea, Virginia D. 1999. Introduction: A view from a point: Ethnoecology as situated knowledge. In: Ethnoecology: Situated knowledge/located lives, ed. Virginia D. Nazarea. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 3-20.

•      Hunn, Eugene S. 1999. The value of subsistence for the future of the world. In: Nazarea, pp. 23-36.

Recommended:

•      Atran, Scott, et al. 2002. Folkecology, cultural epidemiology, and the spirit of the commons: A garden experiment in the Maya lowlands, 1991-2001. Current Anthropology 43: 421-41, 448-50.


T-21      Traditional environmental knowledge: Selected case studies.


Required Readings:

•      Hunn and Selam. 1991. Nch'I-Wana, the Big River, pp. 138-268.

Th-23      Indigenous and scientific knowledge. Applied ethnoecology. Agroecology.

Required Readings:

•      Palsson, Gisli. 2000. Learning by fishing: Practical engagement and environmental concerns. In: Berkes and Folke, pp. 48-66.

•      Berkes, Fikret. 2000. Indigenous knowledge and resource management systems in the Canadian subarctic. In: Berkes and Folke, pp. 98-127.

•      DeWalt, Billie R. 1999. Combining indigenous and scientific knowledge to improve agriculture and natural resource management in Latin America. In: Traditional and modern natural resource management in Latin America, ed. Francisco J. Pichón, et al. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 101-21.

Recommended:

•      Agrawal, Arun. 1995. Dismantling the divide between indigenous and scientific knowledge. Development and Change 26: 413-39.

•      Altieri, Miguel. 1995. Agroecology: The science of sustainable agriculture. Boulder: Westview Press (esp. pp. 1-70; 107-44; 205-18).


IV. Anthropogenic Environmental Change

T-28      Anthropogenesis, environmental history, and ecological politics, I: Intermountain West.


Required Readings:

•      Peña, Devon G. 1998. Los animalitos: Culture, ecology, and the politics of place in the Upper Rio Grande. In: Chicano culture, ecology, politics: Subversive kin, ed. Devon G. Peña. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 25-57.

•      Peña, Devon G. and Rubén O. Martínez. 1998. The capitalist tool, the lawless, and the violent: A critique of recent Southwestern environmental history. In: Peña, pp. 141-75.

Recommended:

•      Zimmerer, Karl J. and Kenneth R. Young. 1998. Introduction: The geographic nature of landscape change. In: Nature’s geography: New lessons for conservation in developing countries, ed. Karl J. Zimmerer and Kenneth R. Young. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 3-34.

Th-30      Anthropogenesis, environmental history, and ecological politics, II: Ethnic minority regions of Southwest China.

      Guest lecture: Stevan Harrell


Required Readings:

•      Williams, Dee M. 2000. Representations of nature on the Mongolian steppe: An       investigation of scientific knowledge construction. American Anthropologist 102: 503-      19.

•      Williams, Dee M. The barbed walls of China: A contemporary grassland drama. Journal of Asian Studies 55: 665-91.

•      Harrell, Stevan. 2001. Some ethnic displays. In: Ways of being ethnic in southwest China, Stevan Harrell. Seattle: University of Washington Press, pp. 5-15.

•      Harrell, Stevan. 2001. The land and its history. In: Ways of being ethnic, pp. 57-78.


Recommended:

•      Muldavin, Joshua S. 1996. The political ecology of agrarian reform in China: The case of Heilongjiang province. In: Peet and Watts, pp. 227-69.

•      Edmonds, Richard L. ed. 2000. Managing the Chinese Environment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.


NOVEMBER

T-3      Anthropogenesis and biodiversity: Taking stock of natural assets.


Required Readings:

•      Peña, Devon G. 1999. Cultural landscapes and biodiversity: The ethnoecology of an Upper Rio Grande watershed commons. In: Nazarea, pp. 107-32.

•      Boyce, James K. 2003. From natural resources to natural assets. In: Natural assets: Democratizing environmental ownership, ed. James K. Boyce and Barry G. Shelley. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, pp. 7-28.

•      Peña, Devon G. 2003. The Watershed Commonwealth of the Upper Rio Grande. In: Boyce and Shelley, pp. 169-86.


Recommended:

•      Zimmerer, Karl S. 2000. The reworking of conservation geographies: Nonequilibrium landscapes and nature-society hybrids. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 90: 356-69.

Th-6      Anthropogenesis, environmental history, and ecological politics, III: Colonial eastern India.

            Guest lecture: K. Sivaramakrishnan.


Required Readings:

•      Sivaramakrishnan, K. 1999. Modern forests: Statemaking and environmental change in colonial eastern India. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 1-144.


Recommended:

•      Sivaramakrishnan, K. 1999. Modern forests, pp. 242-284.

•      Peluso, Nancy L. 1996. Fruit trees and family trees in an anthropogenic forest: Ethics of access, property zones, and environmental change in Indonesia. Comparative Studies in Society and History 38: 510-48.


V. Political Ecology of “Development”

T-11      No class. Veterans Day.

Assignment note: Submit sample annotations for the bibliography by 12 noon in my office.

Th-13      Political ecology and environmental anthropology. Framing, scientific discourse, and social movements.


Assignment note: Thought piece #2 due at the beginning of class.

Required Readings:

•      Forsyth, Tim. 2003. Critical political ecology: The politics of environmental science. London: Routledge, pp. 1-76.

•      Forsyth, Tim. 2003. Critical political ecology, pp. 77-167.


Recommended:

•      Escobar, Arturo. 1998. After nature: Steps to an antiessentialist political ecology. Current Anthropology 40: 1-30.

•      Vayda, Andrew P. and Bradley B. Walters. 1999. Against political ecology. Human Ecology 27: 167-79.

•      Taylor, Dorceta. 2000. The rise of the environmental justice paradigm: Injustice framing and the social construction of environmental discourses. American Behavioral Scientist 43: 508-80.


T-18      The globalization of environmental risk. The sustainable development debate.


Required Readings:

•      Forsyth, Critical political ecology, pp. 168-201.

•      Redclift, Michael. 1995. Sustainable development and popular participation: A framework for analysis. In: Grassroots environmental action: People’s participation in sustainable development, ed. Dharam Ghai and Jessica M. Vivian. London: Routledge, pp. 23-49.

Recommended:

•      Ghai, Dharam and Jessica M. Vivian. 1995. Introduction. In: Grassroots environmental action, pp. 1-22.

•      Vivian, Jessica M. 1995. Foundations for sustainable development: Participation, empowerment and local resource management. In: Ghai and Vivian, pp. 50-79.

Th-20      Feminist political ecology.

Required Readings:

•      Rocheleau, Dianne, et al. 1996. From forest gardens to tree farms: Women, men, and timber in Zambrana-Chacuey, Dominican Republic. In: Feminist political ecology: Global issues and local experiences, ed. Dianne Rocheleau, et al., pp. 224-50 London: Routledge.

•      Curtin, Deane. 1997. Women’s knowledge as expert knowledge: Indian women and ecodevelopment. In: Ecofeminism: Women, culture, nature, ed. Karen J. Warren. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, pp. 82-98.


Recommended:

•      Zimmerman, Michael E. 1994. Contesting earth’s future: Radical ecology and postmodernity. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press (esp. pp. 233-317).

T-25      Identity, place, and ecological politics.


Required Readings:

•      Forsyth, Critical political ecology, pp. 202-79.

•      Peña, Devon G. 2003. Identity, place, and communities of resistance. In: Just sustainabilities: Development in an unequal world, ed. Julian Agyeman, Robert D. Bullard, and Bob Evans. London: Earthscan, pp. 146-67.


Recommended:

•      Peet, Richard and Michael Watts, ed. 1996. Liberation ecologies: Environment, development, social movements. London: Routledge.

•      Bryant, Raymond L. and Sinéad Bailey, ed. 1997. Third world political ecology. London: Routledge.

Th-27      No class. Thanksgiving Day.

DECEMBER

VI. Environmental Change and Human Health: Medical and Environmental Anthropology

T-2      Environmental degradation and human health.

            Guest lecture: Bettina Shell-Duncan.


Required Readings:

•      Chivian, Eric. 1997. Global environmental degradation and biodiversity loss: Implications for human health. In: Biodiversity and human health, ed. Francesca Grifo and Joshua Rosenthal. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, pp. 7-38.

•      Speidel, Joseph. 2000. Environment and health: 1. Population, consumption and human health. Canadian Medical Association Journal 163: 551-6.

•      Leaning, Jennifer. 2000. Environment and health: 5. Impact of war. Canadian Medical Association Journal 163: 1157-61.


Recommended:

•      Barrett, Ronald, et al. 1998. Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases: The third epidemiologic transition. Annual Review of Anthropology 27: 247-71.


VII. Environmental Justice: Equity, Autonomy, and Sustainability

Th-4      The “environmentalism of everyday life.” Grassroots environmental movements in the U.S. and abroad.

Assignment note: Thought piece #3 due at the beginning of class.

Required Readings:

•      Bullard, Robert D. 1993. Anatomy of environmental racism and the environmental justice movement. In: Confronting environmental racism: Voices from the grassroots, ed. Robert D. Bullard. Boston: South End Press, pp. 15-40.

•      Faber, Daniel. 1998. The struggle for ecological democracy and environmental justice. In: The struggle for ecological democracy: Environmental justice movements in the United States, ed. Daniel Faber. New York: Guilford Press, pp. 1-26.

•      Foster, John Bellamy. 1998. The limits of environmentalism without class: Lessons       for the ancient forest struggle in the Pacific Northwest. In: Faber, pp. 188-217.

•      Moguel, Julio and Enrique Velázquez. 1995. Urban social organization and ecological struggle in Durango, Mexico. In: Ghai and Vivian, pp. 161-87.

•      Agbola, Tunde and Moruf Alabi. 2003. Political economy of petroleum resources development, environmental justice and selective victimization: A case study of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. In: Agyeman, Bullard, and Evans, pp. 269-88.


Recommended:

•      Peña, Devon G. 2003. The scope of Latino/a environmental studies. Latino Studies 1: 47-78.

T-9      Biopiracy, globalization, and traditional (indigenous) resource rights.

            Guest lecture: James D. Nason


Required Readings:

•      Posey, Darrell. 1999. Safeguarding traditional resource rights of indigenous peoples. In: Nazarea, pp. 217-29.

•      Stephenson, David J. Jr. 1999. A practical primer on intellectual property rights in a contemporary ethnoecological context. In: Nazarea, pp. 230-48.

•      Moran, Katy. 1999. Toward compensation: Returning benefits from ethnobotanical drug discovery to native peoples. In: Nazarea, pp. 249-62.


Recommended:

•      Shiva, Vandana. 1999. Biopiracy: The plunder of nature and knowledge. Boston: South End Press.

T-16      No class.
Assignment note: Annotated bibliography due in my office by 2 p.m