Anthropology of the Environment
Objectives
Using different theoretical and methodological approaches, namely from areas such as Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology, the main objectives are:
1. to foster a general overview of anthropological perspectives on the environment;
2. to promote the understanding of the humans / non-human relationships in different cultural contexts;
3. to develop a critical perspective of the main contemporary subjects, from the processes of patrimonialisation and commodification of nature to climate change;
4. to address, as an anthropological object, environmentalist cultures and movements;
5. to address the role of anthropologists in the development of applied projects in the areas of environment and conservation.
General characterization
Code
722170089
Credits
10.0
Responsible teacher
Amélia Maria de Melo Frazão Moreira
Hours
Weekly - 3
Total - 280
Teaching language
Portuguese
Prerequisites
None.
Bibliography
CRUMLEY, Carole L. (ed.), 2001, New Directions in Anthropology and Environment: Intersections, Walnut Creek: Altamira Press.
DESCOLA, Philippe e PÁLSSON, G. (eds.), 1996, Nature and Society. Anthropological Perspectives, Londres, Routledge.
DOVE, Michael e CARPENTER, Carol (eds.), 2008, Environmental Anthropology: A Historical Reader, Oxford, Blackwell Publishing.
ELLEN, Roy e FUKUI, K. (eds.), 1996, Redefining Nature. Ecology, Culture and Domestication, Oxford, BERG.
INGOLD, Tim, 2011, Being Alive. Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description, Routledge, UK and USA.
HAEN, Nora e WILL Richard (eds.), 2005, The Environment in Anthropology: A Reader in Ecology, Culture, and Sustainable Living, Nova Iorque, NYU Press.
MILTON, Kay (ed.), 1993, Environmentalism, Londres, ASA Monographs.
Teaching method
Theoretical texts will be presented and discussed in seminars, introducing the theoretical concepts and different case studies will be analysed.
Evaluation method
Evaluation Methodologies - - presentation of theoretical and ethnographic texts and participation in debates (40%), - individual essay (theoretical or exploratory empirical research)(60%)
Subject matter
1. Theoretical frameworks
Ecological visions of the "classics". The precursors of Environmental Anthropology.
Ethnobiology. At the confluence of Cognitive Anthropology.
Phenomenology. The blurring of the dichotomy nature - culture.
2. Concepts and debates
Humans and non-humans. The perspectivism and the ontologies of nature.
Anthropocene, Capitalocene. An introduction to Political Ecology.
3. Contemporary movements
Paradoxes of preservation. Biodiversity, wilderness and the commodification of nature.
Environmentalisms. The discourses and practices of environmental organizations as an anthropological object.
4. Applications
Environmental policies and programs. For a locally sustained conservation.
"Anthropology beyond the human”. Interdisciplinarities and multi-species ethnography.