The Politics of Nature: Modernity and Its Others
ANTH 397
Spring 2011 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
SISP 397 |
This course deconstructs the cultural uses and misuses of the concept of "nature" and the "natural" in the relations between modernity and its others. Our larger query will concern cosmology and ontology--the worldviews and worlds we inhabit--and what happens when there is basic disagreement as to what counts as real. For example, do glaciers, mountains, rivers listen as many indigenous peoples claim? Or are they just objects passively governed by natural forces? Can biological and animist worldviews reconcile? Are technologies, like humans, sentient? If so, how? What about the spirits of nature or the spirits of the dead? Do they count in the commons? What is nature's political and cultural authority in deciding these questions? We'll read across the history of science, philosophy, cultural studies, science studies, and, of course, anthropology (medical, feminist, and of religion), as well as bring an ethnographic sensibility to our study of what has been one of the fiercest tensions in EuroAmerican modernity, namely this opposition between the so-called scientific and pre- or non-modern. |
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Essential Capabilities:
Intercultural Literacy, Interpretation
First, students will read inter-disciplinarily and thus learn a range of analytical approaches; second, through peer collaborative projects, students will engage in interpretive exercises with each other.
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS ANTH |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (ENVS) |
Major Readings:
Deborah Bird Rose, REPORTS FROM A WILD COUNTRY, ISBN 0868407984
Hugh Raffles, IN AMAZONIA, ISBN ISBN 069104885
Bruno Latour, WE HAVE NEVER BEEN MODERN, ISBN 067494948386
Donna Haraway, THE COMPANION SPECIES MANIFESTO, ISBN 0971757585, 9780971757585
Tim Ingold, THE PERCEPTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT, ISBN 0415228328, 9780415228329
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Examinations and Assignments:
Short reading responses, a midterm analytical response, and a final research paper and/or presentation that can include an ethnographic component. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Some prior familiarity with Anthropology and/or interdisciplinary studies desirable. |
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