ANTH 357: Violent Environments

(1 Unit)
Prerequisite: ANTH 105 or SOC 101 and junior standing or permission of instructor.
Does environmental degradation produce violence? What is the relationship between population growth, resource scarcity and violent conflict? In what ways do different environments (e.g., African national parks, Appalachian coal mines, hurricane-ravaged coastal cities) feature differential access to and control over natural and economic resources? This course first explores anthropological perspectives on violence, including biological, archaeological and cultural approaches to understanding war. Then, it investigates the multifaceted linkages between environments and conflict—the articulations among resource extraction, urbanization, economic development, population growth, biotechnology, biodiversity, natural disasters, human health, structural violence and social inequality. Harnish.