Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – two (2) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7) days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests. This information applies to all assessment items in this unit.

All required readings for this unit are available via the library. A list of readings is included as part of the Unit Schedule

The following texts provide useful overviews of the course themes:

• Haenn N, A Harnish and R Wilk (eds) 2016 The Environment in Anthropology: A Reader in Ecology, Culture and Sustainable Living. Second Edition. New York University Press. 
• Hastrup K (ed) 2013 Anthropology and Nature. Routledge. 
• Kopnina H and E Shoreman-Ouimet (eds) 2016 Routledge Handbook of Environmental Anthropology. Routledge. 
• Dove, MR and C Carpenter (eds) 2007 Environmental Anthropology: A Historical Reader. Wiley-Blackwell. 
• Townsend P 2008 Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies. Second Edition. Waveland Press. 

WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION (Sophie Chao)

This lecture will provide an overview of the unit, the relevance of the study of ecological anthropology in the Anthropocene, and an introduction to key themes, terms, and typologies.

Suggested reading:

• Cronon W 1996 ‘The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature’ in Environmental History. Volume 1(1). Pp. 7 – 28. 
• Nixon R 2013 ‘Introduction’ in Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA. (pp. 1 – 22) 
• Plumwood V 1999 ‘Ecological Ethics from Rights to Recognition: Multiple Spheres of Justice for Humans, Animals and Nature’ in Low N (ed) Global Ethics and Environment. Routledge. London. Pp. 188 – 212. 
• Robbins P 2007 ‘Introduction’ in Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are. Temple University Press. Philadelphia, PA. (pp. xi – xxi) 

WEEK 2: NATURE AND CULTURE IN ANTHROPOLOGY (Sophie Chao)

This lecture will provide an overview of the treatment of nature, the environment, and ecology in anthropological theory from 19^th century social evolutionary approaches through to contemporary post-humanist thinking.

Required reading:

• Geertz C 2005 ‘Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight’ in Daedalus. Volume 134(4). Pp. 56 – 86. 
• Harris M 1992 ‘The Cultural Ecology of India’s Sacred Cattle’ in Current Anthropology. Volume 33(1). Pp. 261 – 276.

Further reading:

• Willerslev R 2004 ‘Not Animal, Not Not-Animal: Hunting, Imitation and Empathetic Knowledge among the Siberian Yukaghirs’ in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Volume 10. Pp. 629 – 652. 
• Ingold T 2006 ‘Rethinking the Animate, Re-Animating Thought’ in Ethnos. Volume 71. Pp. 9 – 20.

WEEK 3: EVOLUTIONARY APPROACHES (Greg Downey)

Humans developed their distinctive relationship to the environment over evolutionary time in ways that have implications for evolutionary theory, especially how ‘natural’ selection is affected by organisms changing the environments around themselves. This lecture discusses the major ecological transitions leading up to the development of agriculture, domestication of animals and cities and how humans change evolutionary dynamics, both for themselves and other species.

Required reading:

• Odling-Smee FJ, KN Laland and MW Feldman 1996 ‘Niche Construction’ in The American Naturalist. Volume 147(4). Pp.641 – 648. 
• Downey G 2016 ‘Being Human in Cities: Phenotypic Bias from Urban Niche Construction’ in Current Anthropology. Volume 57(S13). Pp. S52 – S64. 

Further reading:

• Smith BD 2012 ‘A Cultural Niche Construction Theory of Initial Domestication’ in Biological Theory. Volume 6(3). Pp. 260 – 271. 

WEEK 4: SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES (Sophie Chao)

This lecture will explore human-environment relations through the angle of subsistence strategies. We will explore the dialectical relation of subsistence to ecologies and socio-cultural forms in the context of foraging, horticulture, pastoralism and intensive agriculture, as well as ‘mixed livelihoods’.

Required reading:

• Ingold T 1996 ‘Growing Plants and Raising Animals: An Anthropological Perspective on Domestication’ in Harvis DR (ed) The Origin and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism. University College London Press. London. Pp. 12 – 24.
• Sahlins M 1972 ‘The Original Affluent Society’ in Stone Age Economics. Aldine-Atherton. Chicago, IL. 

Further reading:

• Pascoe B 2014 Dark Emu: Black Seeds – Agriculture or Accident? Magabala Books. Victoria. 
• Van Dooren T 2012 ‘Wild Seed, Domesticated Seed: Companion Species and the Emergence of Agriculture’ in Philosophy Activism Nature. Volume 9. Pp. 22 – 28. 

WEEK 5: WILD OR DOMESTICATED, NATIVE OR ALIEN? REVISITING CLASSIFICATION (Sophie Chao)

This lecture will explore modes of classification of nature, including ethnobotany and Western scientific taxonomies, as well as symbolic modes of categorisation of elements of the environment. The second hour explores classification among an indigenous community in West Papua with a focus on wildness and domestication, and native and alien species.

Required reading:

• Bulmer R 1967 ‘Why is the Cassowary Not a Bird? A Problem of Zoological Taxonomy Among the Karam of the New Guinea Highlands’ in Man. Vol 2(1). Pp. 5 – 25. 
• Comaroff J and JL Comaroff 2001 ‘Naturing the Nation: Aliens, Apocalypse and the Postcolonial State’ in Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture. Volume 7(2). Pp. 233 – 265. 

Further reading:

• Turton D 1980 ‘There’s No Such Beast: Cattle and Colour Naming Among the Mursi’ in Man. Volume 15(2). Pp. 320 – 338. 
• Kirksey ES 2015 ‘Species: A Praxiographic Study’ in The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 

WEEK 6: EXTRACTIVE RESOURCE FRONTIERS (Eve Vincent)

In the 1970s, large-scale extractive resource industry emerged in tandem with increasingly efficacious Indigenous political claims for the recognition of their collective rights in land. This lecture takes students to some past and present resource ‘frontiers’ to examine the complec relationship between Indigenous political struggles, local Indigenous understandings of resource issues, and ‘extractive colonialism’.

Required reading:

• Tsing AL 2003 ‘Natural Resources and Capitalist Frontiers’ in Economic and Political Weekly. Volume 38(48). Pp. 5100 – 5106. 
• Kirsch S 2006 ‘Sorcery and the Mine’ in Reverse Anthropology: Indigenous Analysis of Social and Environmental Relations in New Guinea. Stanford University Press. Stanford, CA.
• Muecke S 2016 ‘Indigenous-Green Knowledge Collaborations and the James Price Point Dispute’ in Vincent E and T Neale (eds) Unstable Relations: Environmentalism and Indigenous People in Contemporary Australia. University of Western Australia Publishing. Perth. Pp. 252 – 272. 

Further reading:

• Trigger DS 1997 ‘Mining, Landscape and the Culture of Development Ideology in Australia’ in Cultural Geographies. Volume 4. Pp. 161 – 180. 
• Vincent E and Neale T 2017 ‘Unstable Relations: A Critical Appraisal of Environmentalism and Indigeneity in Contemporary Australia’ in The Australian Journal of Anthropology. Pp. 301 – 323. 
• Golub A 2006 ‘Who Is the "Original Affluent Society"? Ipili "Predatory Expansion" and the Porgera Gold Mine, Papua New Guinea’ in The Contemporary Pacific. Volume 18(2). Pp. 265 – 292. 

WEEK 7: FAUNA, FLORA, AND FIELDWORK: INTERVIEWING PLANTS AND OTHER METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES (Sophie Chao)

This lecture will explore some of the inter-disciplinary ways in which anthropologists are approaching the study of other species and elements. Drawing from multispecies methods, the second hour explores how Sophie Chao attempts to understand the lifeways of plants in West Papua, and the challenges and ethical concerns at play in the study of other-than-human lifeworlds.

Required reading:

• Locke P and P Keil (2015) ‘Multispecies Methodologies and Human-Elephant Relations’ in Engagement. Anthropology and Environment Society Blog, American Anthropological Association. 27 October. (Available at https://aesengagement.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/multispecies-methodologies-and-human-elephant-relations/)
• Daly L (2015) ‘What Kind of People are Plants? The Challenges of Researching Human Plant Relations in Amazonian Guyana’ in Engagement. Anthropology and Environment Society Blog, American Anthropological Association. 8 December. (Available at https://aesengagement.wordpress.com/2015/12/08/what-kind-of-people-are-plants-the-challenges-of-researching-human-plant-relations-in-amazonian-guyana/ )

Further reading:

• Van Dooren T and DB Rose 2016 ‘Lively Ethography: Storying Animist Worlds’ in Environmental Humanities. Volume 8(1). Pp. 77 – 94. 
• Hayward E 2010 ‘Fingeryeyes: Impressions of Cup Corals’ in Cultural Anthropology. Volume 25(4). Pp. 577 - 599. 
• Dumit J 2014 ‘Writing the Implosion: Teaching the World One Thing at a Time’ in Cultural Anthropology. Volume 29(2). Pp. 344 – 362. 

Session Recess: There are no classes between Monday April 16 and Friday April 27.

WEEK 8: NO LECTURE OR READINGS 

It is important to attend tutorials this week, as we will be peer-reviewing the Encountering Another Species assignment.

WEEK 9: WATERY WORLDS (ASTRIDA NEIMANIS)

Astrida Neimanis will talk about water as a connector between humans and environments. Her lecture and assigned readings will explorewater in relation to embodiment, toxicity, reproduction, and time, from feminist perspectives. Among other examples, she will discuss the ocean as a sink for military waste. Astrida will also take up the question of other-than-human methods: how do you know the bottom of the sea?

Required reading:

• Neimanis A 2017 ‘“Embodying Water: Feminist Phenomenology for Posthuman Worlds’ in Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology. Bloomsbury. Pp. 27 – 40. (available at https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/bodies-of-water-posthuman-feminist-phenomenology/ch1-embodying-water-feminist-phenomenology-for-posthuman-worlds)
• Murphy M 2013 ‘Distributed Reproduction, Chemical Violence and Latency’ in The Scholar & Feminist Online. Issue 11.3. (available at http://sfonline.barnard.edu/life-un-ltd-feminism-bioscience-race/distributed-reproduction-chemical-violence-and-latency/)
• Neimanis A, ‘Queer Times and Chemical Weapons, Suspended In The Gotland Deep’ in Journal of Contemporary Archaeology.

Further reading:

• Hamilton JM 2017 ‘All the World’s A Drain’ in Sydney Review of Books. 15 November. (a review of Neimanis A 2017 Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology. Bloomsbury. (available at https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/bodies-of-water-by-astrida-neimanis/)

WEEK 10: ANTHROPOLOGY IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS (Juan Salazar)

This lecture will explore how anthropological thinking and ethnographic research methods can be used in the study of human settlements and cultural practices in Antarctica and Outer Space.

Required reading:

• Salazar JF 2017 ‘Microbial Geographies at the Extremes of Life’ in Environmental Humanities. Volume 9(2). Pp. 398 – 417.
• O’Reilly J and JF Salazar 2017 ‘Inhabiting the Antarctic’ in The Polar Journal. Volume 7(1). Pp. 9 – 25.

Further reading:

• Salazar JF 2017 ‘Speculative Fabulation: Researching Worlds to Come in Antarctica’ in Salazar JF, S Pink, A Irving and J Sjöberg (eds) Anthropologies and Futures: Researching Emerging and Uncertain Worlds. Bloomsbury Publishing. London. Pp. 151 – 170. 
• Pink S and JF Salazar 2017 ‘Anthropology and Futures: Setting the Agenda’ in Salazar JF, S Pink, A Irving and J Sjöberg (eds) Anthropologies and Futures: Researching Emerging and Uncertain Worlds. Bloomsbury Publishing. London. Pp. 3 – 22.

WEEK 11: CONSERVATION AND ECO-TOURISM: PROTECTION AND EXCLUSION (Sophie Chao)

This lecture explores the emergence and transformation of principles and practices of biodiversity conservation. How do these processes entail both protection and exclusion, of whom, and to what ends? In a context of widespread ecological destruction and the concomitant need for socio-economic development, to what extent can eco-tourism sustain ecologies while also benefiting those living within them?

Required reading:

• West P 2006 ‘Environmental Conservation and Mining: Between Experience and Expectation in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea’ in The Contemporary Pacific. Volume 18(2). Pp. 295 – 313. 

• Honey M 2006 ‘Treading Lightly? Ecotourism’s Impact on the Environment’ in Haenn N, A Harnish and R Wilk (eds) 2016 The Environment in Anthropology: A Reader in Ecology, Culture and Sustainable Living. Second Edition. New York University Press. Pp. 449-457).

Further reading:

• Davidov V 2013 ‘Introduction’ and ‘Discussion and Conclusion’ in Ecotourism and Cultural Production: An Anthropology of Indigenous Spaces in Ecuador. Palgrave Macmillan. London. Pp. 1 – 16 and 195 – 206.
• West P 2006 ‘The Practices of Conservation-as-Development’ in Conservation is Our Government Now. Duke University Press. Durham, NC and London. Pp. 183 – 214.

WEEK 12: WASTE AND TOXIC EXCESS (Eve Vincent)

Public awareness of and interest in the vast amount of waste produced by contemporary consumer societies, and the build up of plastics in the world’s oceans is steadily growing. This lecture explores anthropological perspectives on waste, excess and leakage, using case studies such as fast fashion and toxic disasters.

Required reading:

• Reno J 2016 ‘The Life and Times of Landfills’ in Journal of Ecological Anthropology. Volume 18(1).
• Fortun K 1998 ‘The Bhopal Disaster: Advocacy and Expertise’ in Science as Culture. Volume 7(2). Pp. 193 – 216.

Further reading:

• Boarder Giles D 2014 ‘The Anatomy of a Dumpster: Abject Capital and the Looking Glass of Value’ in Social Text. Volume 32(1 118). Pp. 93 – 113.

WEEK 13: CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS AND LOOKING FORWARD (Sophie Chao)

This week draws together the themes and theories explored over the course of the unit, raising questions about the future of the planet and its human and other-than-human lifeforms in the context of the Anthropocene. It also highlights the relevance of the unit for applied anthropology and activist research in the contemporary era.

Required reading:

• Davis H 2015 ‘Toxic Progeny: The Plastisphere and Other Queer Futures’ in PhiloSOPHIA. Volume 5(2). Pp. 232 – 250. 
• Rose DB 2013 ‘Anthropocene Noir’ in Arena Journal. No 41 – 42: 206 – 219. 

Further reading:

• Kirksey ES 2015 ‘Possible Futures’ in Emergent Ecologies. Duke University Press. Durham, NC and London. Pp. 190 – 216. 
• Todd Z ‘Fish, Kin and Hope: Tending to Water Violations in amiskwaciwâskahikan and Treaty Six Territory’ in Afterall, Volume 43. Pp. 102 – 107.