ENVS 024. Environmental Anthropology

(Cross-listed as ANTH 033B)
This course offers students an introduction to Environmental Anthropology, a subfield of anthropology which encompasses the study of the interrelationships between humans and the ecosystems in which they are embedded as well as analysis and application of anthropological knowledge to contemporary environmental issues. Humans have transformed their environments for millennia, but in recent decades, have altered the global environment in ways that have no precedent in human history or in geological time. With contemporary environmental crises as its backdrop, this course examines some classic and contemporary anthropological approaches to the environment, exploring the value of anthropological theory, methods, and approaches in the humanistic study of the environment. In this sense, the course will expose students to diverse ways for thinking about the environment in its many dimensions and critical perspectives on contemporary environmental issues. We will review various theoretical approaches and their implications for our understanding of human relations to the environment, and explore how anthropologists and those they study are engaging with contemporary environmental issues including biodiversity conservation, deforestation, community-based natural resource management, ecotourism, and climate change.
Social sciences.
1 credit.
Eligible for ENVS
Catalog chapter: Environmental Studies
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/environmental-studies

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