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Class Description:
This class studies the ECONOMIC and
ECOLOGICAL aspects of human adaptation and cultural
systems around the world, past to present. We especially explore
people's adaptations to land and resources, and the different survival
strategies that people have fashioned in order to "make a living" in
varying physical and social environments. |
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Topics for Study:
- Issues in economic & ecological
anthropology/sociology theories
- Comparison of production strategies,
especially focusing on human's adaptation and use of land/resources: Hunter-Gatherer; Horticulture; Pastoralism; Agriculture;
Industrialism (including Industrial Agriculture).
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 Forms of Exchange: Reciprocity,
redistribution and market exchange; subsistence economies and
command economies; trade and marketplaces; the formal and informal
economy.
- Household and community economics in
small-scale societies/communities. Issues for study: generalized (or
multiple) livelihood strategies versus specialized livelihood
strategies; risk and decision-making; land tenure; inter-household
exchange; community structures of socio-economic support.
- Political economy: development of the modern
world economic system; economic structure of colonialism &
dependency theories; issues in economic development.
- Effects of development & globalization on
economies and environments around the world.
- Current/future emphases in economic
& environmental anthropology/sociology.
More discussion of the environmental content of SOCY 475: This
course focuses on people’s survival strategies and socio-economic
adaptations to their environments. It takes the ecosystems approach
known as Cultural Ecology, examining both the ways environment
shapes culture, and the ways culture impacts the environment, with
case examples from around the world, spanning past, present, and
future times. The first part of the semester, we explore people’s
adaptations to land and natural resources, and the different
survival strategies that people have fashioned over time including
hunting and gathering, pastoralism, horticulture, agriculture, and
industrial strategies. The second half of the semester, we examine
present and future economic-environmental issues at the local,
regional, and global levels. Students select a current environmental
problem-oriented issue and research its impact on world cultures in
depth.
Photo above: Dr.
LaLone's students
learning about farm family livelihood strategies.
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