HUMAN ECOLOGY: AN EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH
SYLLABUS
Dr. Patricia Mosto – mosto@rowan.edu; 256-4834- Biological Department –New Science building room 256A
Dr. Maria Rosado – rosado@rowan.edu; 256-4500 ex. 3983 – Geography and Antropology Department – 3rd. Floor - Robinson
Course Overview:
This course will take an evolutionary approach to understand how the environment has shaped biological and cultural changes in humans, and how humans have and are continuously impacting the environment. Our story will begin with the reconstruction of Pliocene pre-hominid environments, going through the emergence of the earliest ancestors of humans and their impact in the ecology of their surroundings as a scavenger population. The story continues in the Pleistocene, with hominid and human dispersal throughout the world as hunter-gatherer societies. We will trace the emergence of agriculture, its biological, social, and cultural implications, and the destabilization of the environment through desertification, domestication of plants and animals, natural resource uses, and energy changes. We will close our story with the emergence of cities, the expansion of the human race, the impact of urbanization and industrialization in every environment of the world, and the encroaching upon indigenous cultures and endangered populations. The emphasis of this course will be to understand the biological, cultural and environmental diversity that has emerged through human history and its impact in the intricate interactions among humans and between humans and their environment.
Course Objectives:
v To understand the intricate, dynamic and diverse dimensions of humans and the environment
v To have a global perspective of human history and ecological processes
v To understand the validity of the diverse relationships between different human groups and their environmental impact
v To impact how students think, share and relate about environmental issues based on human development
v To learn problem solving through the use of case studies
You will benefit from this holistic learning approach because your voice will be heard, your diverse opinion will be respected, integrated and validated in the way the course will be taught by two faculty from different disciplines, with sometimes different worldviews. Our diverse worldviews will enhance our intellectual experiences as the community of learners that participate in a constructive interdisciplinary exchange. The analysis of cultural, biological and environmental diversity in the evolutionary path of the human race will benefit you in your search for global understanding.
The success of this Rowan Seminar depends on the commitment and dedication of your faculty. We want to help you to make the transition to the university life and open your mind to new experiences. This year, you are the first cohort to have a Rowan Seminar for Honors Freshman. This course has been created with this view on mind.
Course Outline and Required Readings:
Pre-test
Wednesday September 10th
Continuation Introduction
Learning activity on how to use the Library
Journal # 1 due
3rd week
Monday September 15th
Quiz # 1 – Introductory Chapter
Pliocene environments and Old World Primates: Reading: Park, M. 2000. Introducing Anthropology. Mc Graw Hill Press. Chapter 4- Pages 22-38
Wednesday September 17th
Autralopithecines and their scavenger ecology: Reading: Park, M. 2000. Introducing Anthropology. Mc Graw Hill Press. Chapter 5- Pages 22-38
4th week
Monday September 22nd
Early hominids and the reconstruction of the environment: Reading: Karmondy, E. and Brown, D. 1998. Fundamental of Human Ecology. Prentice Hall, N.J. Chapter 1. Pages 39-65
Wednesday September 24th
Tool technology and Basic Ecology: Reading: Karmondy, E. and Brown, D. 1998. Fundamental of Human Ecology. Prentice Hall, N.J. Chapter 1. Pages 39-65
Journal # 2 due
5th week
Monday September 29th
Quiz # 2 – Reading from Week 3 & 4
Pleistocene environments, Early humans and hunter-gatherers and their impact: Reading: Bates, D. 1998. Human Adaptive Strategies. Allan and Bacon, Boston Inc. Chapter 2. Pages 66-91
Wednesday October 1st
Pleistocene environments, Early humans and hunter-gatherers and their impact: Reading: Bates, D. 1998. Human Adaptive Strategies. Allan and Bacon, Boston Inc. Chapter 2. Pages 66-91
Visit to CAP Center
6th
Week
Monday
October 6th
Human migrations and environmental changes: Reading: Bates, D. 1998. Human Adaptive Strategies. Allan and Bacon, Boston Inc. Chapter 4. Pages 92-116
Wednesday October 8th
Ice age environments and subsistence patterns: Reading: Bates, D. 1998. Human Adaptive Strategies. Allan and Bacon, Boston Inc. Chapter 4. Pages 92-116
Journal # 3 due
7th Week
Monday October 13th
Domestication of plants and animals: the great experiment: Reading: Bates, D. 1998. Human Adaptive Strategies. Allan and Bacon, Boston Inc. Chapter 4. Pages 92-116
Wednesday October 15th
Quiz # 3 – Reading from Week 5 & 6
Dr. Luke Holbrook – Invited lecture
1st draft of research project due
8th Week
Monday October 20th
Early farming communities: Reading: Southwick, C. 1996. Global Ecology in Human Perspective. Oxford Univ. press. Chapter 13 Pages 117-133
Wednesday
October 22nd
Development of agriculture and reshaping of ecology: the take off of human population growth and the doom of the environment: Reading: Southwick, C. 1996. Global Ecology in Human Perspective. Oxford Univ. press. Chapter 15 Pages 117-133
Journal # 4 due
9th Week
Monday October 27th
Mini-writing workshop
Wednesday October 29th
Museum of Anthropology- Philadelphia
10th Week
Monday November 3rd
Quiz # 4 – Readings week 8 & 9
Emergence of cities: the path to urbanizations: Reading: Stone,E. and P. Zimansky. 1995. The Tapestry of power in a Mesopotamian City. Scientific American.
Wednesday November 5th
Religious worldviews and their ethical framework towards the environment: Readings: The Book of Genesis (1:1-3.24) and The Book of Job (38:1 42.6. In: Environmental Ethics by J. Desjardins. 1999. and Kraft, K. The Greening of Buddhist Practice, Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad.Creation of the World from the Self, and Ahisma: Respect for life from the Jain Scriptures. In: Issue of Cross Currents. 1994. Pages 169-184
Journal # 5 Due
11th Week
Quiz # 5 – Reading week 10
Dr. Dianne Markowitz – Invited Lecture
Journal # 6 due
2nd draft for library research due
Wednesday November 26th
Quiz # 6 – Readings week 11 & 12
Dr. John Hasse- Invited lecturer
Wednesday December 3rd
Journal # 7 due
15th Week
Monday December 8th
Futuristic perspective: are we alone in the cosmos?: Reading: T. Owen. 1999. Evolution! Facts and Fallacies. Academic Press. Chapter 6.
Research Paper DUE
Quiz # 7 – readings week 14 & 15
Post-test
Final Diverse Experience: View and Discussion of the Film: ÒThe Clan of the CrocodileÓ
Course Readings:
Readings Compiles by P. Mosto and M. Rosado (available at the Rowan University Bookstore). Course syllabus, lecture notes, and additional materials available on WEB CT.
Course Requirements and Assesment Procedures:
This course will be taught in a combination of lecture and seminar format. You will be required to read materials before class, be prepared to discuss the class topics with your peers and us, engage in case study analysis, and write weekly questions from the readings in your journals. You will participate in two outside class experiences (museum trips) and three classes with guest speakers. You will have a series of quizzes during the semester and a small literature research group project. You will be evaluated on: class participation, journal writing, quizzes and the literature research group project.
Class
participation assessment: You
will be expected to actively participate in class, read the material ahead of
time, come prepared to ask questions, answer questions, and make critical and
relevant contributions. Since this
class will be heavily dependent on
your contributions to discussion, it is very important that you speak up
and demonstrate that you have read the assigned material.
Journal
assessment: Every other week you should select an article from newspapers
or magazines related to the topic discussed the previous weeks. You should include the article, a
summary (see guidelines in webct under course content icon) in your own words,
and your personal reaction to the problem being addressed. Journals are due every other
Wednesday. A bound journal book
works very well and it will be required.
Lack of presentation of the journal every other week will be counted as
Ò0Ó for that 2-week period.
Quizzes
assessment: quizzes will be given at certain times during the semester
(please see calendar) regarding the material covered prior to the quiz.
Absences from quizzes will affect your grade.
Literature research project assessment: From a topic that interests you (try our library or your local public library), your group will write an eight to ten-page paper with a Bibliography. This paper should be typed on computer, double-spaced and carefully drafted, outlined, revised, and proofread.
Tips for the literature research project: Once you've chosen your topic you might want to do a web search to find some basic information about the subject matter of the work. If you find anything that strikes you as important, make sure you take adequate notes--write down the source (the website) and get accurate quotations so that you can cite responsibly. In college writing, whenever you get an idea or term or quotation from somewhere else, you MUST indicate where that idea came from with a parenthetical citation (i.e. Dillard 42) backed up with a Bibliography entry to give full information about that source. So don't merely browse and read passively: to do so can easily get you accused of plagiarism. Academic honesty means you must read responsibly and take notes on what you find and where.
First, give us an introduction to the theme: outline or describe the theme briefly (in one or two paragraphs). Then focus analytically on the theme. To figure out a theme, ask yourself a list of questions: why this theme is relevant? What do you feel are the basic problems with this topic? How these relate to the class discussions?
Choose books that contains the topic that interests you, and work on turning that topic (a basic statement of fact) into a thesis (something more analytical or argumentative, something capable of development/deeper explanation). As you work on your thesis, think about the issues we have studied and read about throughout the course. How does this work tie into that dialogue about the relationship between humanity and the environment? What does this add to that conversation?
Once you've done lots of preliminary brainstorming and pre-writing, you're ready to work on a draft of your thesis paragraph and your thesis statement itself. Then outline the paper to follow: jot down a topical outline, with one main idea per paragraph, backed up with illustrations from the text and your commentary or response to those ideas. Remember, the focus of this paper is on your explanation of the topic. It's not a general "book report" or summary: you are demonstrating how and/or why this topic fits into the themes of our course. Remember that you need to stay focused, and you need to develop/expand your thesis paragraph by paragraph; don't keep repeating your thesis--add to it, deepen it.
A good tip for coming up with a conclusion is to look at the end of the work itself: where does the topic leave you at the end? Why end there--what is the final message or impression conveyed by that choice? Or you could use some of the information we've accessed during the course to provide more information about the issue you've chosen. .