This module is not currently running in 2022 to 2023.
This is an introduction to anthropological approaches to the environment, and a critical exploration of theories concerning the relationship between culture, social organisation and ecology. The topics covered will include problems in defining nature and environment, cultural ecology, biological models and the concept of system, indigenous and local knowledge systems, the concept of adaptation, the ecology of hunting and gathering peoples, small scale agriculture and pastoralism, development and the SDGs, the anthropology of the environmental movement, multispecies ethnography, the more-than-human and the anthropology of climate and climate change.
Total contact hours: 24
Private Study Hours: 136
Total Study Hours: 150
Resting in 2022-23
BA Environmental Social Science
BSc Human Ecology
BSc Wildlife Conservation
BA Social Anthropology
BSc Anthropology
BSc Human Geography
BSc Biological Anthropology
Available as an elective module
Essay: 2500 Words (50%)
Exam: 2 hours(50%)
Reassessment instrument:
100% coursework
Howard, P., G. Pecl, R. Puri and T. Thornton. 2019. Human Adaptation to Biodiversity Change in the Anthropocene. Ambio Vol 48, no 12 Special Issue. Springer.
Kopnina, H. and Shoreman-Ouimet, E. eds., 2016. Routledge handbook of environmental anthropology. Taylor & Francis.
Barnes, J. and M. Dove 2015. Climate Cultures. Yale UP.
Dove, M.R. and Carpenter, C. 2008. Environmental Anthropology: A Reader.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
8.1 Demonstrate broad outline knowledge of the comparative human ecology of different kinds of subsistence systems
8.2 Assess evidence and articulate theories concerning the relationship between culture, social organisation and ecology
8.3 Evaluate critically arguments and data in the field of environmental anthropology
8.4 Compare and contrast natural and social science approaches to the understanding of human environment relations
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