Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

THIS  UNUSUAL ONLINE COURSE provides an introduction to the intimate relation between  culture and environment, and the the individuals who are a part of it. The course includes an assessment of the concept of culture, scrutiny of the "environment" with its physical, behavioral and perceptual aspects, and the individuals, the "animates" living as part of them.  A complex interface ties these togethe, in which culture, the human capacity and characteristic that includes our beliefs, values and consequent activities at the heart for all human societies, meets environment; we will look closely at this interface. Culture includes often-profound contrasts, complexities and seeming contradictions, which all take place in some existing space-time-place-behavior setting. e.g., "the environment". Using an anthropological perspective including ethnographic documentaries, the course introduces, reviews and discusses the core aspects of environment, culture and the individual. It does this with particular awareness of each as (1) a complex system in itself, (2) part of a global "ecoculture" and (3) part of the requirements of the living entities, the animates who use it, including their energy and information needs. Together, these provide an integrated and functional base for the course in relation to our lives. 

THE COURSE USES A VARIETY OF CONCEPTS for the basics of this metasystem, this complex set of relations and interactions. It introduces you to principles, concepts and realities about specific systems, cultures and  environments. It discusses the powerful and determinant cultural values, implicit and explicit, that have their traditional consistencies and yet are  changing in today's global landscape and its activities; these in turn alter the interactive nature of our human ecosystem for all species. It will benefit you in many ways to learn about this system, especially in today's environmentally-disturbed world. 

THE INSTRUCTOR IS AN ANTHROPOLOGIST with particular interests in cultural ecology and medical anthropology, extensive experience in teaching, fieldwork, consultation, projects and publications in developing, developed and industrialized societies, and brings these into the class in a realistic and meaningful sense. The course includes a variety of interesting and relevant weekly activities, including personal discussions, focal summaries, readings and reading sources, two brief papers, a midterm and a final, and a brief and deeply relevant personal project.

FOUR PAPERBACK BOOKS ARE USED in the course. This may seem a lot, yet it's reasonable since each speaks to a vital part of the interface with culture and the environment They are concise paperbacks, and we use them selectively. Students taking the course earlier have enjoyed them, and there is an addition this term for global political concerns in present tense. These have been very carefully selected to deliver what you need to know, and they are relatively inexpensive online:

environmental ethics - an introduction to environmental philosophy, 5th edition  Joseph Desjardins, Wadsworth 2013, ISBN 978-1-133-04997-7. This is a small classic in its own right, and an excellent and readable summary of the ethical aspects of ecological concerns; these are major, deep, often subtle and usually ignored.

Thinking in Systems - A Primer  Donella H. Meadows, Chelsea Green Publishing 2008, ISBN 978-1-60358-055-7. This is an unusually readable and very useful introduction to the use of systems to talk about ecological relations, plus some relevant basic statistics. These are vital for understanding the reality and data of the ecodynamics of the world, and also very useful in the general sense.  

People and Nature - An Introduction to Human Ecological Relations  Emilio F. Moran, Blackwell, 2nd edition, 2017. This is a core introduction to human and cultural ecology; there is also an earlier edition re cost; the 2nd edition is preferred yet both are acceptable and the used prices are very reasonable.

A Citizen's Guide to Ecology, L. B. Slobodkin, Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-19-516287. This is a relaxed and personal approach to living with ecology, as we all do, aware or not; a "guide" in its own way, and inexpensive online. 

There is also an optional addition: Terrestrial Transformations - A Political Ecology Approach to Society and Nature  Thomas K. Park & J. B. Greensberg, eds., Lexington Books 2020, ISBN 978-1-7936-0548. This is a recent array of contemporary issues in behavioral ecology and its political aspects, for those interested in that dynamic.  

These are all in paperback, and available in the PCC Sylvia bookstore, new and spiffy or used and iconic. They are also available online; Amazon, Powell's, and the instructor's favorite: abebooks.com for inexpensive used copies. The course uses these four together selectively as it proceeds towards its goal of developing your awareness, knowledge and appreciation of core realities of cultural ecology in our world today: the environment as mediated by culture, culture as mediated by the environment, the values operating in both, and the creatures wittingly and unwittingly involved. So we deal with both ethics and practicality, and the four paperbacks provide a realistic and interesting matrix for concerns that are now truly global.

UNCERTAIN ABOUT TAKING AN ONLINE CLASS?  Well, (1) the mechanics of actually doing this course are built into it, and are very clear and accessible (it's a popular and proven OL course adapted from an earlier f2f course), and (2) it is entirely possible to feel part of a group and communicate personally in an online course; in fact, THAT is exactly what we do in it. Hope to meet you virtually!

Dr. K. J. Pataki

 only a computer