Human Ecology

Catalog description

Within the anthropological and environmental sciences, human ecology (incorporating environmental anthropology, ecological anthropology, cultural ecology, behavioral ecology and evolutionary ecology) is the study of dynamic interactions between people and the environment, past and present. The readings are designed to give students an overview of the fundamental ecological processes that pattern human behavioral responses to environmental variability and how and why human behavior recursively shapes environmental variability. These incorporate a wide range of topics with an emphasis on how human social behavior and resource use are integrated into ecological processes and their services at multiple scales. In so doing, the course takes a holistic perspective of the human experience; one that views cultural, biological, environmental, demographic, and technological processes as interconnected phenomena, and human behavior and practices as components of complex adaptive systems. The topics covered are especially timely in our contemporary political and environmental context, and will explore the relevance of human ecology for these on-going debates.