Ecological Anthropology

The course examines the relations between human and the environment in the history of the anthropological thought. The main goal of the course is to provide the detailed knowledge about the ecological paradigms in cultural anthropology, to critically rethink the role of human as an element of the global ecosystem, and to present an emerging future-oriented trends in ecological humanities.

Week 1: Introduction: Human Ecology

Week 2: Environmental Aspects in the Early Anthropological Thought: Julian Steward and Leslie White (lecture).

Week 3: Cultural Ecology: Robert Murphy and Roy Rappaport (lecture).

Week 4: Perception of the Environment: James Gibson and Tim Ingold (lecture).

Week 5: ‘Landscape’ as an Anthropological Concept

T. Ingold, Temporality of the Landscape, “World Archeology” 2, 1993, p. 152-174.

Ch. Tilley, K. Cameron-Daum, An Anthropology of Landscape. The Extraoridinary in oridinary, UCL Press, London 2017 (excerpts).

Week 6: Emerging Landscapes

D. Deriu, K. Kamvasinou, E. Schinkle (ed.), Emerging Landscapes. Between Production and Representation, , Ashgate, Farnham/Burlington 2014 (selected chapters).

Coconut Revolution (2001), directed by Dom Rotheroe (documentary).

Week 7: Traditional Ecological Knowledge

R. Pierotti, Defining Traditional Ecological Knowledge, in his: Indigenous Knowledge, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology, Routledge, New York-London, 2011, p. 7-25.

Week 8: Anthropology Beyond the Human(ity)

T. Ingold, Athropology beyond Humanity, “Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society” 3, 2013, p. 5-23.

E. Kohn, How Forests Think. Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human, University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London 2013 (excerpts).

Week 9: Ethnobotany and Phytoanthropology

P. Sensarma, A. K. Ghosh, Ethnobotany and Phytoanthropology, in: R. E. Schultes, S. von Reis (ed.), Ethnobotany. Evolution of a Discipline, Timber Press, Portland/Cambridge 1995, s. 69-74.

Week 10: Anthrozoology, Zoontology and Animal Studies

D. Haraway, The Companion Species Manifesto, in her: Manifestly Haraway, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2016, p. 93-198.

Week 11: Multispecies Ethnography

S. E. Kirksey, S. Helmreich, The Emergence of Multispecies Ethnography, “Cultural Anthropology” 4, 2010, p. 545-576.

A. L. Tsing, Mushroom at the End of the World: On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins, Princeton University Press, Princeton/Oxford 2015 (excerpts).

Week 12: Extinction Studies

D. Bird Rose, Th. van Dooren, M. Chrulew (ed.), Extinction Studies. Stories of Time, Death, and Generations, Columbia University Press, New York 2017 (selected chapters).

Week 13: Anthropology and the Concept of the Anthropocene

H. Gibson, S. Venkateswar, Anthropological Engagement with the Anthropocene: A Critical Review, “Environment and Society: Advances in Research” 1, 2015, p. 5-27.

Week 14: Anthropology Facing Climate Changes

M. R. Dove, Introduction: the Anthropology of Climate Change, in his (ed.): The Anthropology of Climate Change. Historical Reader, Wiley Blackwell, Chichester, 2014, p. 1-36.

Week 15: Conclusion: Beyond Human Exceptionalism

As indicated in the syllabus.