Nature as Practice: Anthropological Perspectives on Humans, Nature, Ecology and the Environment

The course focuses on how humans influence nature and the environment, and how nature and the environment influence humans themselves. It gives a rich ethnographic understanding of the complex relationship between nature and culture, and between the symbolic and the material, by way of comparing local responses to global processes in a cross-cultural perspective. The course will also concern itself with people's conceptualizations of nature in relation to kinship, body, food, identity, natural resource management, environmental protection an the discourse of environmentalism. Each student must write an individual (or group) essay during the semester, to be presented and defended orally.

Knowledge:
Obtain an understanding of the rich variation concerning human-nature conceptualizations. Demonstrate knowledge about key analytical concepts and approaches related to human ecology, cultural ecology and political ecology.
Skills:
Engage critically with these same concepts and approaches as they take on bigger questions such as sustainability, global social inequality and climate change.
General competence:
To be able to write and to present verbally a brief analytic text.

Lectures/seminars and written assignments (approx.24 hours).
SANT 2003, SANT2010, SANT2011, AFR2120 and SANT3508: Minimum one course will be offered in the spring semester. Which course that is offered will be announced at the beginning of the spring semester. The announcement will be made at the Department and on the Department's web page.
SANT2003, SANT2010 and SANT2011: One or more of these courses may be offered in the autumn semester. If one or more is offered, this will be announced at the beginning of the autumn semester at the Department and on the Department's web page.