Environmental Anthropology
Undergraduate Lecture Last Taught: Fall 2024
What is the relationship between culture and ecology? How can environments produce inequalities? Is there such a thing as wilderness? Where is the boundary between the human and the non-human? How is “nature” understood in different communities? And how do people around the world live with toxicity, climate change, and other forms environmental degradation? Environmental Anthropology explores the answers to these questions and more.
The course is designed around a set of key questions and challenges in the anthropological study of the environment. The course is designed not as a survey of the history of the field, but rather as a means to introduce students to a set of questions and analytic tools and invite them to quickly move towards applying them to real-world cases.
What is the relationship between culture and ecology? How can environments produce inequalities? Is there such a thing as wilderness? Where is the boundary between the human and the non-human? How is “nature” understood in different communities? And how do people around the world live with toxicity, climate change, and other forms environmental degradation? Environmental Anthropology explores the answers to these questions and more.
The course is designed around a set of key questions and challenges in the anthropological study of the environment. The course is designed not as a survey of the history of the field, but rather as a means to introduce students to a set of questions and analytic tools and invite them to quickly move towards applying them to real-world cases.
