Culture and Environment

Catalog description

This course explores how societies in the past have not only adapted to their environments, but how they have manipulated and transformed their ecosystems, and how these processes in turn have shaped economic, demographic, political, social, and ideological aspects of human populations. We will examine the development of theory regarding the emergence and history of ecological thinking in anthropology, and follow the development of varied approaches and major controversies, many of which remain unresolved today. The course will also utilize case studies from anthropology, archaeology and palaeoecology to evaluate changing interactions between the natural environment and human societies.