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DAILY SCHEDULE AND READINGS
Introduction
Intensification
Science
American Injustice
Global Injustice
The Future
EXAMS
1st Exam, Due Jan 23
2nd Exam, Due Feb 13
3rd Exam, Due Mar 15
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ANTHROPOLOGY 210
INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL ANTHROPOLOGY
WINTER QUARTER 2017
UNIT II: INTENSIFICATION
This unit is about the history of transformations in human subsistence and production, from the time when our ancestors were all foragers to the present, when most of us get everything at the store and have little direct involvement with producing or gathering the resources we use, while we deplete those resources at a faster rate than ever. Through lectures, films, class discussions, and section exercises, we learn about how people in different times and places have used resources, and how culture has interacted with this resource use.
DAILY SCHEDULES AND READINGS
Thursday, January 5: Foraging: The original affluent society?To prepare for the first hour today, you should read Marshall Sahlins's short article on the "Original Affluent Society." We will begin with a 10-minute, in-class writing assignment in which you summarize the main points of this article. Then I will discuss the different ways in which foragers make a living in different places. For the second hour, we will watch the ethnographic film, "Eskimo: Fight For Life."
Tuesday, January 10: From Foraging to Agriculture
For the first hour, I will review some of the speculation on how agriculture might have emerged; you should read the short chapter by William Ruddiman on early agriculture and civilization and be prepared to write a short piece on who you think planted the first seed. For the second hour, guest speaker Dr. Joyce LeCompte-Mastenbrook will demonstrate that foragers manage their environments to an extent, using the example of Northwest Native Peoples. .
Wednesday, January 11: Section: Local Foraging
In section today, you will discuss how foraging is still part of many people's lives. Your assignment is to bring to class section something useful (for example, food, medicine, decoration, etc.) that you have foraged from a local environment. If you're ambitious, catch a fish. If less so, something from a local plant is fine. No poaching on someone else's land or waters without permission! By 8:00 a.m., you should post 100-200 words on how this thing you are bringing is useful. In class you will discuss what you foraged and discuss what foraging might still contribute to our local subsistence.
Thursday, January 12: Agricultural Intensification
Today we look at agricultural intensification, or the process by which we have come to be able to feed more and more people from the products of the same territory. We will start the class with the film " Slash and Burn Agriculture." We then proceed to a .ppt lecture with a lot of graphs and charts, showing the processes of agricultural intensification. Finally, I will show a slide show from Taiwan of traditional rice cultivation, the most intensive system of agriculture in the pre-fossil fuel world.
Tuesday, January 17: Modern Industrial Agriculture
Today we continue our discussion of agricultural intensification, beginning with a brief review of demography, the study of population, and in particular the study of population in the 20th century, when it grew faster than ever before or since. Then we go on to look at the Haber-Bosch Process and the Green Revolution, two technological developments that allowed us to produce even more food from the same territory, but which may have severe unintended consequences, and in light of this look at the industrial agriculture as the latest step in intensification. You should read three very short things (a total of less than 25 pages) about these consequences: P.M. Vitousek and his colleagues on the ecological consequences, and Tarique Niazi's critique on the social and economic consequences, and an interview about what makes food good from famed chef and critic Alice Waters. You should come to class prepared to write a short evaluation of one of the three articles (I will decide which), and we will spend the second hour of class doing a close critique of their arguments.
Wednesday, January 18: Section: What We Eat Now
In section today, you will discuss what you eat, where it comes from, and how that reflects our current system of intensive agriculture. Your assignment is to keep a diary for one day during the previous week, indicating everything you ate during that time: what was it, what were its ingredients, who produced it and how did it get to you? You should post this diary by 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, January 18, and come to class prepared to discuss how your own food habits relate to contemporary industrial agriculture.
The questions for the first take-home exam will be posted today, and we will spend the last 10 minutes of class on the 19th going over them. The exam will be due at 5 p.m on Monday, January 23.
Thursday, January 19: Sustainability
Today we approach for the first time the slippery and sometimes misleading concept of "sustainability." In preparation, you should read David Orr's thoughts on Four Challenges to Sustainability, and come to class ready to write your definition of "sustainability." We will spend the first part of the class talking about the concept and some of the definitions of it, and then begin a speculation that will continue through the rest of the quarter: what are the prospects for the rest of the century?