CULTURAL ECOLOGY, AN 3110.01
SPRING, 2012
MWF 12:20-1:10 pm
Rounds 223
DR. KATHERINE C. DONAHUE
Office: Rounds 317
Telephone: 535-2424
Email: kdonahue@plymouth.edu
Office Hours: MWF 10-11 am and T 2-3:00 pm, or by appointment
GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANT: MATT BARTLEY
OFFICE: Boyd 219
TEL: 920-470-8656
Email: mbartley2@plymouth.edu
Office Hours: by appointment
Examines culture as a human adaptation to nature from the Pleistocene to the present. Case
studies will demonstrate success and failure of various societies in their adaptation to and impact
on their environments. Emphasis will be on present-day traditional societies as well as cultural
ecological problems facing certain third world countries and industrial nations. Demographic
pressures, environmental degradation, and climate change will be discussed. PREREQUISITE:
AN 2210 or permission of instructor.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1. to enhance student knowledge and understanding of past
relationships between human culture and environment;
2. to examine current connections between human activity and
increasing environmental degradation;
3. to understand some of the problems we all face in the future as a result of demographic
pressures and environmental change.
TEXTS:
Townsend, Patricia. 2000 or 2nd ed. Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies. Long
Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.
Hohn, Donovan. 2012. Moby-Duck, Paperback released end of Feb., 2012. Penguin. | ISBN
9780143120506
Igoe, Jim. 2004. Conservation and Globalization: A Study of National Parks and Indigenous
Communities from East Africa to South Dakota. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth
HANDOUTS AND READINGS:
Selected material from
Dobbs, David, and Richard Ober. 2008 Introduction. The Northern Forest. White River
Jct., VT: Chelsea Green Publishers. Or earlier editions.
Walter-Newton Nature Preserve
Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and Hubbard Brook Foundation
And material on Moodle (under “Readings”)
There will be in-class writing assignments, including short reaction papers concerning the
materials read. Students will be asked to report on specific readings and to bring to class
questions and reactions to the readings in order to lead discussion.
RESEARCH PAPER/PROJECT:
Actually, you will write a newspaper opinion essay, or “op-ed” piece…so called because usually
those pieces are printed opposite the editorial section, expressing a well-researched opinion on a
particular topic that is of interest to you. This piece is limited to 700 words. Ideally, you will
work together with a group on a particular biome/habitat/environmental issue to research your
topic. Each one of you will be responsible for researching a specific aspect of that topic. You
will be responsible for reporting back to the class on the work you are doing, and you will (as a
group) do a poster or PowerPoint presentation towards the end of the course. You will also turn
in your own accompanying op ed piece, written on your own. The final due date for the project is
Friday, May 4, in class. All written work is to be your own. You will need to turn in a
bibliography of the sources you have used while researching this piece. You will need to include
the use of two journal articles, found through Lamson Library’s databases or through Google
Scholar. Anthropologists usually use APA style for references, but whatever you use, be
consistent. Check the Lamson Library Style Guides for advice (available at the Lamson Library
home page).
ATTENDANCE POLICY:
You are expected to attend all classes. Your contributions to class discussion are important
to the success of the class. (Your grade may be reduced by 10 points if you have more than two
absences.)
EVALUATION:
Exam I
20%
Exam II
20%
Research Project/Op Ed
25%
Final Exam
20%
Participation in class discussions, writing assignments, in peer reviews, and in discussion
of your project
15%
TOTAL
100%
PLEASE NOTE:
Plymouth State University is committed to providing students with documented disabilities equal
access to all university programs and facilities. If you think you have a disability requiring
accommodations, you should immediately contact the PASS Office in Lamson Library (5352270) to determine whether you are eligible for such accommodations. Academic
accommodations will only be considered for students who have registered with the PASS Office.
If you have a Letter of Accommodation for this course from the PASS Office, please provide the
instructor with that information privately so that you and the instructor can review those
accommodations.
COURSE OUTLINE
WEEK
1: 1/30-2/3
2: 2/6-2/10
3:2/13-2/17
4:2/20-2/24
TOPIC
Monday: Introduction to course;
How do anthropologists study the
interaction of humans with their
environment?
READING
Biomes: For an interesting
set of images, take a look at:
http://geoimages.berkeley.ed
u/GeoImages/Johnson/Biome
s.html
Wed: Biomes, habitats, and niches
Fri: Evolution, ecosystems, and
ecologies:
How have humans adapted?
Townsend, pp. 2-16, 18-35
Mon: Discussion of topics for
research
During the week, think about and
choose a research topic that
interests you.
Wed: Different approaches to cultural
ecology: Barth, Geertz, Wolf and
Political Ecology
Fri: Biome Focus on Africa
Case Study: Tanzania and
National Parks
Dobbs and Ober,
Introduction to The Northern
Forest (Moodle 2)
Issues in Conservation: what different
models are there?
No Class Wed., 2/15 (Winter
Carnival)
Igoe, Ch. 2
Townsend, 79-101
Friday, 2/17, Turn in research topic
for op ed piece (short paragraph
discussing why you are interested in
that particular topic)
Introduction to “Darwin’s
Nightmare”
Townsend, pp. 38-44
Igoe, Ch. 1
Fortress Conservation? A Social
“Darwin’s Nightmare”
History of National Parks and National Igoe, Ch. 3
Forests
5:2/27-3/2
6:3/5-3/9
Monday: Case Study: The White
Mountain National Forest
Enclosing the Land, East Africa and
the American West
Igoe, Ch. 4
Natural Resources, Conflict, and
Environmental Justice
Townsend, pp. 46-68
Global Issues and Conflict, Land and
Communities
Case Study: Alaska and the People of
Point Hope
Igoe, Ch. 5
Wednesday, March 7, EXAM I
Friday, March 9, turn in a Dear
Matt and Kate letter: discuss how
your research is going, successes
and problems with the material.
7:3/12-3/16
The Ocean is our Garden
Alaska and Natural Resources
Begin reading Hohn
Conflict on the North Slope of Alaska
Donahue article (Moodle 2)
8:3/19-3/23
Spring Break; No Classes
9:3/26-3/30
The Northern Forest
10:4/4-4/6
The Northern Forest
Review Dobbs and Ober
Land, Northern Forest
Update
(Moodle 2);
Resources: Climate Change
in the Northern Forest:
AMCNFA Alliance
11:4/9-4/13
The Northern Forest
NFC-Annual Report 2011
(Moodle 2)
EXAM II
12:4/16-4/20
13:4/23-4/27
The Northern Forest:
Regional Case Study: Walter-Newton
Town Nature Preserve
White Mountain National Forest:
Wilderness, Preservation, or
Conservation?
Group meetings: projects
Research on the environment in New
England
Possible Field trip: Hubbard Brook
Experimental Forest White Mountain
National Forest
Read Hohn
Finish Hohn
Hubbard Brook materials:
Web Site:
www.hubbardbrook.org
Handouts, and
Some materials available in
class
14:4/30-5/4
Group meetings: projects
Interpretation and Discussion
Presentations
15:5/7-5/11
Research Paper/Project due Friday,
May 4
Interpretation and Discussion
Presentations
Review
16 :
FINAL EXAM: Friday, May 18, 11:00 am-1:30 pm
Web Sites:
The Northern Forest Center
http://www.northernforest.org/
The Society for Human Ecology
http://www.societyforhumanecology.org/
Biomes:
http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/PhysicalGeography.html
Forest in a Box (Simulated Forest): http://ddc.hampshire.edu/simforest/
Hardin, Garrett "The Tragedy of the Commons"
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/162/3859/1243
For more discussion on “The Tragedy of the Commons”:
Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change, Elinor Ostrom, Thomas Dietz, Nives
Dolsak, Paul C. Stern, Susan Stonich, and Elke U. Weber, Editors, National
Research
Council 2002. The Drama of the Commons.
http://www.nap.edu/books/0309082501/html/
White Mountain National Forest
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/white/
Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (part of the White Mountain National Forest)
www.hubbardbrook.org
American Association for the Advancement of Science website:
http://www.aaas.org/international/africa/conservationbiology/
AAAS International Office, Africa: Community-Based Research in Africa
http://www.aaas.org/international/africa/cbr.shtml
Biomes of the World:
http://www.runet.edu/%7Eswoodwar/CLASSES/GEOG235/biomes/main.html
Online vegetation maps:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/vegmaps.html
Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, NH
http://www.crrel.usace.army.mil/library/cold_reg.html
Point Barrow, Alaska, webcam
http://seaice.alaska.edu/gi/observatories/barrow_webcam
Journals: Most are available in the periodical section of Lamson Library
American Anthropologist
American Ethnologist
Current Anthropology
Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Review, published by Hunter College , Plenum
Publishing, (not the Human Ecology published by Cornell University).
Human Ecology Review, published by the Society for Human Ecology
Human Organization, published by the Society for Applied Anthropology (www.sfaa.org)
Journal of Political Ecology, available online: http://www.library.arizona.edu/ej/jpe/jpeweb.html
Conservation Biology (full text available online through Ebsco Host).
For a discussion of political ecology, see Human Organization, Fall 2003, Vol. 62(3), as well as
the journal Political Ecology.