HUMAN GEOGRAPHY AND ECOLOGY

Catalog description

This course will examine our species from an ecological and geographical perspective based on writings of Jared Diamond. Students will read The Third Chimpanzee: Guns, Germs, and Steel; and Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed. The course will begin with an analysis of the ecology of proto humans, and the hunting-gathering and early agricultural ecosystems of modern humans. We will examine evolution and early migration patterns (and the concordance between language patterns and genetics) and discuss what might explain ¿racial¿ features. Then, we will go on to look at how geography has influenced what kinds of societies develop where, and why the most technologically advanced societies developed where they did. Finally, we will look at the effect that we have had on our environment in different societies, how some societies have persisted or not based on environmental use.Faculty: M. GELLER