Course Home
Class schedule
E-mail the class

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

ANTHROPOLOGY 210

INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL ANTHROPOLOGY

WINTER QUARTER 2017

UNIT IV: WATER IS LIFE: ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICE IN AMERICA
Unit Description
This unit and the next are about the fields we usually call political ecology and environmental justice, the way that people and their interactions with resources and environment are bound up with, and affected by, the politics and economics, and cultures of the nations and societies in which they live. We will illustrate these principles as they work in the US through water, fish and oil. We will be reading the second textbook for the course, Arlie Russell Hochschild's Strangers in Their Own Land. Though it seems improbable at first, this unit will not only mix up salmon and water, which do go together in the physical world, but also mix up water and petrochemicals, which don't go together in the physical world, but connect ecologically and economically in a way that makes us better understand both of them, and human-environment relations in general.

DAILY SCHEDULES AND READINGS

 Thursday, February 9: The Ecology and Politics of Salmon
Our most visible environmental issue in the Northwest touches on many of the basic themes of environmental anthropology: foraging economies, resource conservation, science, politics, and environmental justice. In preparation for today's class, read chapters 3, 4, and 9 from David Montgomery's King of Fish. Come to class prepared to write a short essay on the lessons we might learn from the history of salmon as Montgomery presents it. We will spend the remainder of the first hour of class going over some of the historical, cultural and legal issues with regard to salmon, salmon fishing, and the right to fish (remember that "fish," in English, is both a noun and a verb).

For the second hour Cecilia Gobin, Salish fisher, UW anthropology grad, and policy analyst for the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, will introduce the native ecological and legal perspective, talking to us about Salish fishing culture, methods, and treaty rights.

Monday, February 13: The second take-home exam is due at 5:00 p.m today.

Tuesday, February 14: The Ecology and Politics of Petroleum
Today we switch from fish and water to oil and water, and consider the political ecology of petroleum, as it relates to two specific cases in the United States. Both of these involve the fouling of the waters by greed and corporate irresponsibility, the ideology of material progress that has often disregarded environmental and sustainability considerations, and the false dichotomy between material progress and environmental sustainability.

In the first hour of class, we will discuss what the empirical results of 150 years of "development" say about the validity of the way different sciences understand our relationship to water, drawing direct parallels and also pointing out differences between the DAPL pipeline and the fouling of southwestern Louisiana waters by oil and petrochemical companies. In preparation for this, please read Part I of Hochschild's Strangers in Their Own Land, "The Great Paradox."

In the second hour, we will compare the struggle of the Northwest Coast peoples to preserve and then restore their native lands and waters to the current struggle of the Standing Rock Sioux to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline from despoiling their own ancestral lands and waters.

Wednesday, February 15: Section: The Experience of Initially Successful Environmental Justice Activism.
For today's sections, we will follow up with a visit from Dianne Baumann, a UW anthropology doctoral student, who was present at the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Campfires) Encampment that successfully resisted the Dakota Access Pipeline, at least for awhile. In preparation for this, please read three very short articles, and submit a 100-200 word summary of the main environmental justice issues involved in the disputes over the Dakota Access Pipeline: Thursday, February 16: The Ecology of Energy and the Denial of Science. Today we tie back into the history of intensification, as well as connect once more to the denial of science. We will review the history of energy use, worldwide, demonstrate its effects on our climate and our both liquid and solid water, and then review the ways in which corporations and politicians have denied the reality of scientific findings. We will also, following the arguments in Hochschild's book, Part Two, "The Social Terrain" (read it!), consider why many of the people who are hurt the most by environmental change, including climate change, refuse to acknowledge its existence.

Tuesday, February 21: Class and the Environment in the US.
Environmental justice, as a field of both research and activism, begins with the empirical observation that environmental costs of political and economic activity are unequally distributed, that poor people, minorities, indigenous communities, immigrants, and other relatively less powerful people usually bear the heaviest burden. We will look at this unequal burden both quantitatively - I will present some statistical evidence - and through the Southeastern Louisiana case study, for which you should read Hochschild's Part Three, "The Deep Story."

Wednesday, February 22: Section: Environmentalism and Social Class
Two things for today's section: Thursday, February 23: They'll be Coming for You, Too.
We are at a point of crisis. Although it is virtually certain that the poor, people of color, and immigrants will continue to bear the greatest burden of climate change and other environmental costs, it is clear from the appointments of the current (by now) administration, that the leaders of the US government are committed to actions that will increase the environmental burden on all of us and on the Earth. We will spend the first hour reviewing the statements and actions of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Energy, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Secretary of the Interior to demonstrate the harm they intend to do to the livability of the Earth and to those least able to defend themselves. For the second hour, we will explore the culture of the denial of science that lies behind their ability to be able to pursue such policies. You should read Hochschild's Part Four, "Going National."