COURSE OUTLINE

Course Number: GE/AN 341 . College: CAS

Course Title: Cultural Ecology Credit Hours: 3

Date of Final Approval: __________ Semester Offered: Fall/Odd Yrs

Course counts as: General Education Requirement

____ Part of ____________ Major Program

__x__ Elective

1. Catalog Description

An examination of the linkages and interactions between human cultures and the environment, particularly of subsistence peoples in the tropics and the Pacific. Traditional and contemporary theories and approaches of human adaptation to and modification of the environment. Three lecture hours per week. Prerequisites: GE101, AN101, or consent of instructor.

2. Course Content

Theories, approaches in cultural ecology; ecology and the ecosystem concept; the tropical environment; subsistence patterns, processes and strategies; environmental/cultural interactions; implications for the future.

3. Rationale For The Course

This area of study is one which has been significant in the understanding of the development of cultures and their relationship to the environment. Cultural ecology represents an area of anthropological and geographical research which bloomed in the mid 1960s and which has been useful if the development of strategies to best accommodate primitive peoples in a rapidly developing world.

4. Skills and Background Required Or Expected

Prerequisites are GE101, AN101, or consent of instructor. The typical student should be an upper level student, with a voracious appetite for reading and well developed analytical skills in higher order thinking and writing.

5. Teaching Methodologies And Anticipated Class Size

Teaching methods will consist mainly of lecture‑discussion and seminars with appropriate visual aids. Anticipated class size: 10 or less.

6. Additional Course Descriptors

This course has two textbooks, one of which contains the concepts of cultural ecology, and the other consisting of field research articles that illustrate the concepts and methodologies of cultural ecology. Other examples of cultural ecological studies from the Pacific will be included.

7. Learning Objectives For Students

Students will learn the concepts, principles and methodologies of cultural ecology. They will read and critique research articles, and learn how to do an annotated bibliography. They will become familiar with (read) journals in cultural ecology.

8. Methods of evaluation

These will include: a research paper, midterm, final exam, and an oral class presentation.

9. Required And Recommended Texts And/Or Study Guides

Required text:

a. Hardesty, D. 1977. Ecological Anthropology. Chicago, Random House.

b. Vayda, A. P. 1969. Environment and Cultural Behavior. Ecological Studies in Cultural Anthropology. Austin, University of Texas Press.

c. Selected readings.

10. Subsequent Courses

GE401(Geography of the Pacific), GE461 (Conservation and Natural Resource Management), MI594 (Physical Geography of Micronesia).