Syllabus

Basic Concepts:
Environment, Ecology, Adaptation, Environmental Worldviews, Resources, Tragedy of the Commons, Sustainable Development

Theories on Human-environment relations:
Environmental determinism, possibilism/cultural determinism, cultural ecology, ecosystem, ethno-ecology, political ecology, Nature-culture dualism, Society-environmental relations

Culture and Resource Management:
Ecology of Hunting and Gathering, Ecology of Pastoralism, Ecology of Horticulture, Ecology of Intensive Agriculture,

Spiritual ecology, Biodiversity Conservation, Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Sustainable Agriculture and Development.

Current Issues and Problems of the Environment:
Invasive species, Environmental change, Human–wildlife coexistence and conflict

To familiarize the concepts of ecology, adaptation, and sustainable development

To learn the theories of human-environmental interactions

To understand the community/cultural resource management, modes of production and resource use - ecology of hunting-foraging, pastoralism, incipient agriculture, and agricultural intensification

To explore the diverse human-environmental interactions and environmental issues

CO1: To define basic concepts of ecology and sustainable development

CO2: To explain diverse perspectives to understand human ecological relations

CO3: To discover how societies adapted to different environmental conditions

CO4: To examine the emerging issues of the environment

CO5: To analyze how the ecological approaches generate sustainable outcomes, environmental management and development.

Sutton, Mark Q. & E.N. Anderson,, Introduction to Cultural Ecology, Altamira Press, Lanham , 2014

Moran, Emilio F., Human Adaptability: An Introduction to Ecological Anthropology, Routledge, New York , 2018

Marten, Gerald G, Human Ecology: Basic concepts for sustainable development, Earthscan, London , 2008

Moran, Emilio F, People and Nature: An Introduction to Human Ecological Relations, Blackwell Publishing, Malden , 2006