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Class Readings and Plans for Thursday, October 8
Microfoundations of Human Environmental Engagement
Class Plan
Today's set of readings is intended to provide some theoretical foundation for human-environmental interaction from a behavioral ecological perspective. Please read all assigned readings and, by 9:00 p.m. on Monday, October 7, please post comments covering some of the many issues detailed below. Review other student posts before class. Come prepared to engage in a thoughtful discussion about these questions concerning bio-microeconomic theories of human behavior:
- Their relevance to how humans may adapt to (or be impacted by) 'environmental change'
- How we affect the environments through this process
- How those factors can resultin co-evolution of human behavioral systems and 'natural' systems.
Look to the specicfic readings below for insights into the following issues:
- Winterhalder and Smith: basic tenets of human behavioral ecology.
- What is the argument for an individual-oriented theory of human behavior?
- What are its limitations?
- What kinds of research has HBE stimulated and which are most relevant to human-environmental interactions
- Winterhalder, Lu and Tucker
- Why are humans not just 'rate maximizers' (Homo economicus)?
- What is the role of risk and uncertainty in the evolution of human strategies
- Broughton, Cannon, and Bartelink
- What is niche construction?
- What does it imply about the co-evolution of human-natural systems?
- General
- Is HBE economic determinism?
- What is the rationale for a reductionist approach to human behavior?
- What about collective action
- Where is 'culture' in this picture?
Readings
- Winterhalder, B., & Smith, E. A. (2000). Analyzing adaptive strategies: Human behavioral ecology at twenty-five. Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews, 9(2), 51-72.
- Winterhalder, Lu, & Tucker. (1999). Risk-sensitive adaptive tactics: Models and evidence from subsistence studies in biology and anthropology. Journal of Archaeological Research, 7(4), 301-348.
(READ pp. 301-316; 325-339; Skim the rest)
- Broughton, J., Cannon, M., & Bartelink, E. (2010). Evolutionary Ecology, Resource Depression, and Niche Construction Theory: Applications to Central California Hunter-Gatherers and Mimbres-Mogollon Agriculturalists. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 17(4), 371-421.
(READ pp. 371-376 + 410-411; Skim the rest)
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