Veidlapa Nr. M-3 (8)
Study Course Description
Environmental Anthropology
Course Code
KSK_242
Branch of Science
Social Anthropology; Sociology and social work
ECTS
3.00
Target Audience
Social Anthropology
LQF
Level 7
Study Type And Form
Full-Time
Study Course Implementer
Course Supervisor
Agnese Bankovska
Structure Unit Manager
Ieva Puzo
Structural Unit
Faculty of Social Sciences
Contacts
Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szf@rsu.lv
About Study Course
Objective
The objective of the course is to enable students to observe, study and discuss the complex interactions between human communities intermingling with their natural environment. The current environmental crisis is generating lively debates about the role of human society in causing climate change, anthropogenic pressures and animal extinction. In this direction, environmental anthropology offers a useful tool for mapping such disputes, identifying both the different types of environmental experiences produced by human collectives and the political approaches mobilised in public debates on the state of the environment.
Preliminary Knowledge
Basic knowledge of anthropology.
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge
1.Students will gain knowledge of the most important and up-to-date theories of environmental anthropology, get acquainted with the main concepts and topics in contemporary environmental anthropology, and learn the approaches of different theoretical schools.
Skills
1.Students acquire and deepen skills in analysing and comparing theoretical texts, as well as in presenting their views orally and in writing, drawing on both newly acquired theoretical knowledge and empirical observation.
Competences
1.Ability to critically evaluate the theoretical and empirical material covered in the study course, use it to interpret and analyse other theoretical and empirical material, and apply it to practical problem solving and research.
Assessment
Individual work
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Title
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% from total grade
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Grade
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1.
Individual work |
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-
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Students must study the required readings independently and prepare the required papers and oral presentations. Students prepare for seminars independently, visit the library and use available digital resources to prepare for face-to-face classes. The specific objectives are updated annually and described on the e-learning platform.
To assess the overall quality of the study course, the student must complete the course evaluation questionnaire on the Student Portal.
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Examination
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Title
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% from total grade
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Grade
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1.
Examination |
-
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-
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Active participation in classes.
Written final paper.
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Study Course Theme Plan
FULL-TIME
Part 1
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Nature-Culture
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-
Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Nature-Culture
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-
Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Human and Nature in Connected Worlds
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-
Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Human and Nature in Connected Worlds
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-
Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Cultural Perspectives on the Environment
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-
Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Cultural Perspectives on the Environment
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-
Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Creating the Environment in the Western World
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Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Creating the Environment in the Western World
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Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Environment as Policy
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-
Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Environment as Policy
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-
Lecture
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Rethinking the Environment
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-
Class/Seminar
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Modality
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Location
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Contact hours
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|---|---|---|
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On site
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Auditorium
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2
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Topics
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Rethinking the Environment
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Total ECTS (Creditpoints):
3.00
Contact hours:
24 Academic Hours
Final Examination:
Exam (Written)
Bibliography
Required Reading
1.
Visa literatūra ir angļu valodā un piemērota gan latviešu, gan angļu plūsmas studentiem
2.
Descola, Philippe. 2009. The two natures of Lévi-Strauss. In B. Wiseman (Ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Lévi-Strauss, 103-117. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3.
Ingold, Tim. 2013. Dreaming of dragons: on the imagination of real life. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 19: 734-752.
4.
Candea, Matei. 2010. “I fell in love with Carlos the meerkat: Engagement and detachment in human-animal relations. American Ethnologist 37(2): 241-258.
5.
Tsing, Anna L. 2018. Nine provocations for the study of domestication. In A.H. Swanson, M.E. Lien and G.B. Ween (Eds.). Domestication gone wild, 231-251. Durham: Duke University Press.
6.
Gibson, Diana. 2018. Towards plant-centred methodologies in anthropology. Anthropology Southern Africa 41(2): 92–103.
7.
Kirksey, S. Eben, and Stefan Helmreich. 2010. The emergence of multispecies ethnography. Cultural Anthropology 25(4): 545–576.
8.
Freidberg, Susanne. 2003. ‘French Beans for the Masses: A Modern Historical Geography of Food in Burkina Faso’. Journal of Historical Geography 29 (3): 445–63.
9.
Calkins, Sandra. 2019. ‘Bananas, Humanitarian Biotech, and Human-Plant Histories in Uganda’. Medicine Anthropology Theory 6 (3): 29–53.
10.
Krenak, Ailton and Duarte, Andreia. 2021. Silence of the World: Scenic Experiment Script. TDR 65(4): 67-76.
11.
Meneley, Anne. 2021. ‘Eating Wild: Hosting the Food Heritage of Palestine’. PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review 44 (2): 207–222.
12.
Reis-Castro, Luisa. 2021. Becoming Without: Making Transgenic Mosquitoes and Disease Control in Brazil. Environmental Humanities 13(2): 323-347.
13.
Howard, Penny McCall. 2018. ‘The Anthropology of Human-Environment Relations: Materialism with and without Marxism’. Focaal 2018 (82): 64–79.
Additional Reading
1.
Ortner, Sherry B. 1974. Is female to male as nature is to culture? In M.Z. Rosaldo and L. Lamphere (Eds.). Woman, culture, and society, 68-87. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
2.
Haraway, Donna. 2006. Encounters with Companion Species: Entangling Dogs, Baboons, Philosophers, and Biologists. Configurations 14(1/2): 97-114.
3.
Hartigan Jr, John. 2017. ‘How to Interview a Plant: Ethnography of Life Forms’. In Care of the Species: Races of Corn and the Science of Plant Biodiversity, 253–81. Minneapolis [et al.]: University of Minnesota Press.
4.
Harris, Marvin et al. 1966. The Cultural Ecology of India’s Sacred Cattle. Current Anthropology 7(1): 51-66
5.
Prihandoko. Sanjatmiko. 2021. Multispecies ethnography: reciprocal interaction between residents and the environment in Segara Anakan, Indonesia. South East Asia Research 29(3): 384-400.
6.
Calkins, Sandra. 2021. ‘Toxic Remains: Infrastructural Failure in a Ugandan Molecular Biology Lab’. Social Studies of Science, April, 1-22.