This course illustrates how humans have been an integral and active component of earth’s ecology for many thousands of years. This history of interaction between humans and their environments has had both deleterious and positive impacts, for us and other species. By studying how humans impacted their environments in the past, we gain a better appreciation of the potential effects of our own activities and their environmental consequences. Many of the processes affecting the planet today are rooted in our past, as many of the actions we see today were produced by and had impacts upon past societies. Similarly, past societies were forced to deal with the effects of climate change, a problem with which our current society is struggling. A better understanding of how these situations arose in the past may help us to better discern general principles that continue to operate today, and thus plan toward our future. Weekly hours: 1 Lecture hours and 2 Seminar/Discussion hoursPrerequisite(s):ANTH 250.3, ARCH 250.3, ARCH 251.3, ANTH 251.3 or permission of the instructor Note:Students with credit for ARCH 330 or ARCH 398 Special Topics: The Archaeology of Human Environmental Impact may not take this course for credit.
This course illustrates how humans have been an integral and active component of earth’s ecology for many thousands of years. This history of interaction between humans and their environments has had both deleterious and positive impacts, for us and other species. By studying how humans impacted their environments in the past, we gain a better appreciation of the potential effects of our own activities and their environmental consequences. Many of the processes affecting the planet today are rooted in our past, as many of the actions we see today were produced by and had impacts upon past societies. Similarly, past societies were forced to deal with the effects of climate change, a problem with which our current society is struggling. A better understanding of how these situations arose in the past may help us to better discern general principles that continue to operate today, and thus plan toward our future. Weekly hours: 1 Lecture hours and 2 Seminar/Discussion hoursPrerequisite(s):ANTH 250.3, ARCH 250.3, ARCH 251.3, ANTH 251.3 or permission of the instructor Note:Students with credit for ARCH 330 or ARCH 398 Special Topics: The Archaeology of Human Environmental Impact may not take this course for credit.
