ETHNOBIOLOGY: AMAZONIAN RELIGION AND NATURE   [Archived Catalog]
2017-2018 Undergraduate Catalog
   

ANTH 1711 - ETHNOBIOLOGY: AMAZONIAN RELIGION AND NATURE


Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
The course explores Amazonian cultural knowledge of plant and animal species, comparing it to scientific knowledge, to uncover underlying assumptions that constitute a systematic, if implicit, Amazonian philosophy of nature. It also teaches students how to ask key questions and to carry out qualitative research on ethnobiology. Over generations of hunting and gathering Amazonian cultures gained an intimate knowledge of their rainforest environment, the most bio-diverse on earth. Now, more than ever, preservation of that environment depends on improving understanding and cooperation between environmentalists and the native peoples who live there; and upon integrating traditional Amazonian and scientific knowledge of the natural world. The course addresses key ethnobiological questions such as: how do native Amazonian people classify plant and animal species? How do they understand the extinction or the emergence of new species? How do they understand plant and animal behavior? How is plant and animal ecology believed to serve as a model for understanding human society and vice versa? How should human emotions be regulated so as to better work with nature? What aesthetic, emotional or religious practices were developed to create bonds of empathy or communication between human beings and other species? What are the practical implications of the answers to these questions for collaborative environmental work with indigenous communities?
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: LG/SNC Elective Basis


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