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     Each student is required to complete a library research paper on a human ecology topic from the list  of topics listed below. Students must use the library journal resources at our (Bailey-Howe) library. It  is highly recommended that students seek the assitance of a Reference  Librarian to help you target and speed up your search for appropriate journal articles (book chapters or books). 
     Students are required to have no less than 4 journal articles in their reseferences. 
     If you use web sites, you must: a) provide appropriate citation. See URL: http://bailey.uvm.edu/ref/webeval.html AND evaluation of the site. 
     All papers must be double-spaced, word-processed with your name on each page, and page numbered. 
     DUE: November 25. 

     Topics: 

      ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge)--Indigenous ecology, conservation, development debate 

       Women, human rights,  population and  environmental crisis (in a particular geographic region) 

       Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and co-management of natural resources 

       Remote Sensing in Environmental Anthropology (ex: GPS) 

       Biodiversity Conservation, Indigenous Nations and Political Ecology 

       Ecological Management Strategies of Marine Coastal Resources by a Specific Cultural Group 

Evaluation:
Papers will be graded on content, as well as:
1) Organization--nb: use headings for sections
2) Grammar and spelling
3) References and proper citations (see link below)
4) Conclusion--NOT a summary

For in text, and end page "References Cited" [bibliography] use the American Anthropological Association style.
www.aaanet.org/pubs/style_guide.pdf
 

Assignment 4-Population
 

This assignment poses the problem of world human population growth and the environment. Your task is to: 1)  link up to both of the web sites listed below: The Population Institute and Zero Population Growth. 
2) Read the information on the issue of world population presented in the main pages of these sites. 

WRITE a 1 3/4 [minimum]-2 page [maximum] essay that addresses the relationship between population growth and, economic development and environment. First, analyze the underlying theories or assumptions of each of the organizations (in regard to population growth); Second, write a critique of these assumptions. USE your READINGS  from Robbins and Humphries and Buttel.

Zero Population Growth
 

Assignment 3
Due November 5

 Miriam Kahn eplains that, in Wamira, exchanges of taro and pork are "occasions during which individual male statuses, political tensions, and powers of control are defined and manipulated...When men exhange food, they are symbolically manipulating their social selve. In Wamira, food exchanges allow people to  send and receive messages about their "insides," (orana) the word used to refer to feelings and states of mind." 

In Kahn's analysis, there are two "modes" of exchange in Wamira: incorporation and transaction. Each has its own characteristics and "grammar." 

Exchange involves the transfer of something that may be material or immaterial between at least two persons, groups, or institutions. Items exchanged may be purely utilitarian or they may carry meanings and have a history and social life of their own. 

ANSWER the following (in 2-3 pages):

              2) Consider your own culture's exchange systems. Using one nonmonetary exchange form that we engage in as an example: What is exchanegd? What is the mode of exchange? and what is the social function? 

Anthro. 179 
Assignment 5

Ecology, biodiversity, and “sustainable development”

In a 2 page essay, explain  what Arturo Escobar’s means by the “reconversion of nature effected by the discourses of biodiversity and sustainable development" [as occurring on the Pacific Coast region of Colombia through the Biodiversity Project]. Why is this environmentalist discourse and “sustainable development” practice a critical challenge to communities and social movements of Third World people? 

Environmental Anthropology

Final Exam Information

Anthro. 179 final exam is December 3 in our classroom at the regular class time. 
Expect 2 hours for the exam time, 6-8 pm; although you may take another half an hour. 

Exam format: The exam will be in two parts—Short essays, and Multiple choice questions. Plan on using most of your time to answer the essays. 
All course material will be drawn upon for the questions in both sections, including class material and videos. 

Multiple Choice questions will rely upon comprehension of basic concepts drawn from the readings. Your text Human Adaptability by Emilio Moran will be a main source for these questions. Each chapter discusses concepts in ecology and human (physiological and cultural) adjustments that we have studied. For example:
Chapters 1, 3 and 4 contain many of the basic concepts we have covered: adaptation, adjustments (regulatory, developmental, acclimatory), ecosystem, systems (closed and open), laws of thermodynamics, flows, cultural ecology, Julian Steward and his approaches, functionalism, ecological anthropology, Roy Rappaport and his approach, political ecology, population ecology (and measures of population change, such as fertility), plant  productivity, physiological responses, social and cultural adjustments.

Short Essay questions will be based on the application of main themes and concepts to particular issues and cases. For example, applying the theories of demographic (population) change to the issues of  world population growth. Your texts Maps & Dreams, Always Hungry, Never Greedy, and Liberation Ecologies, Sacred Ecology are all important for these questions. Study your Assignment questions to help. 
You will be asked to link or tie together texts in terms of concepts and approaches; for example, Maps & Dreams and Liberation Ecologies--in what way is Maps&Dreams a political ecology? How might we explain Kahn's analysis of Wamira cultural ecology as a ethnoecology such as Berkes' Sacred Ecology, or how does Kahn's analysis show that more than a materialist ecology is needed to understand food and production?
Also study the "tragedy of the commons" idea and its critique.