ANTH 435 Human Adaptation to Forests (Area or Theory)

The primary topical focus is the changing niches of human populations in tropical forest ecosystems in relation to the environmental, economic, and sociocultural impacts of deforestation, mining, economic development, missionization, war, climate change, and other forces. Secondary topical foci are the contributions of ecological and environmental anthropology to biodiversity studies and conservation, and the relationships among human rights, advocacy anthropology, and professional ethics. The overarching theoretical and methodological approach is political ecology, but the approaches of primate, cultural, historical, and spiritual ecology will also be considered.

This course is reading, thinking, and discussion intensive. The final grade will be based on class discussion (general, individual, and subgroup), panel discussions of book length case studies, pop quizzes, and a final examination. The prerequisites for this course are Anth 152, 415, and 482, or consent of the instructor. Enrollment is limited because of the Oral Focus designation.

Every student is expected to thoroughly read and discuss these three main textbooks:

Whitmore, T.C., 1998, An Introduction to Tropical Rain Forests.

Dove, Michael R., Percy E. Sajise, and Amity A. Doolittle, eds., 2005, Conserving Nature in Culture: Case Studies from Southeast Asia.

Sponsel, L.E., ed., 2007, Changing Dynamics of Human Ecology in the Forest Ecosystems of Southeast Asia.

Students are strongly urged to read the following book as general background prior to the first class.

King, Victor T., and William D. Wilder, 2003, The Modern Anthropology of South-East Asia: An Introduction.