Veidlapa Nr. M-3 (8)
Study Course Description

Environmental Anthropology

Main Study Course Information

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
Structure Unit Manager
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

Title
% from total grade
Grade
1.
Individual work
-
-
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.

Examination

Title
% from total grade
Grade
1.
Examination
-
-
Active participation in classes. Written final paper.

Study Course Theme Plan

FULL-TIME
Semester 1
  1. Nature-Culture

EventType
Modality
Location
Contact hours
1.
Lecture
On site
Auditorium
2
2.
Class/Seminar
On site
Auditorium
2
  1. Human and Nature in Connected Worlds

EventType
Modality
Location
Contact hours
1.
Lecture
On site
Auditorium
2
2.
Class/Seminar
On site
Auditorium
2
  1. Cultural Perspectives on the Environment

EventType
Modality
Location
Contact hours
1.
Lecture
On site
Auditorium
2
2.
Class/Seminar
On site
Auditorium
2
  1. Creating the Environment in the Western World

EventType
Modality
Location
Contact hours
1.
Lecture
On site
Auditorium
2
2.
Class/Seminar
On site
Auditorium
2
  1. Environment as Policy

EventType
Modality
Location
Contact hours
1.
Lecture
On site
Auditorium
2
2.
Class/Seminar
On site
Auditorium
2
  1. Rethinking the Environment

EventType
Modality
Location
Contact hours
1.
Lecture
On site
Auditorium
2
2.
Class/Seminar
On site
Auditorium
2
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.

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