HUMAN ECOLOGY
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Full programme
- Delivery method
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
The course does not require educational prerequisites.
The exam will be oral for a duration of 20 minutes; the knowledge acquired will be evaluated through 4 specific questions that will concern exclusively the topics presented in class:
• the knowledge related to the topics presented during the course (70%)
• the critical analysis skills of the main theories of the co-evolutionary processes of the biological and cultural traits of the human species (30%).
The answers will be evaluated with regard to both the real acquisition of the notions provided in class and the ability to analyze them critically.
The course promotes the ability to understand the contemporary human behavior in relation to the natural and anthropic environment and to non-human species. This will occur through the analysis and reconstruction of the evolution of human-nature relationship in biological and cultural terms, with particular attention to the key points of human evolutionary history.
The student will learn the main theories of the co-evolutionary process of the biological and cultural human structure. The student will also acquire the necessary skills for the preparation of critical analysis texts on the main issues related to man-nature relationship, as well as the basic knowledge essential for formulating judgments on textual works on the sphere of human ecology.
Through an interdisciplinary approach the main biological, cultural, social and environmental processes affecting the current man-environment relationship will be investigated.
Specific contents will be: the essential characters of the biological and demographic evolution of the human species; the characteristic elements of the human biological nature; the co-evolutionary path of the biological and cultural traits of the human species; the development of critical attitudes to the analysis of current perception patterns of the external reality through a biological-cultural approach; the genesis and evolution of the scientific basis of the theories related to the position of mankind in the natural context.
The lessons will focus on three main topics about the relationship between the Homo sapiens biological and cultural nature, the theory of gene-culture co-evolution, and the patterns of nature perception-knowledge.
In detail:
Biological and cultural nature (8 hours)
The biological nature
What makes us human?
Neotenia (the chronic childhood)
Human nature or cultural nature?
The biological classification of man
The evolutionary path
Natural selection - the basic Darwinian model
Revolutionary scientific and cultural aspects of Darwinian theory
Human population growth (8 hours)
The appearance of Homo sapiens
Human population growth model
Human population growth: the past
Human population growth: the case of the year 1000 in Europe
Human population growth: the case of the black plague (1346-1353)
Human population growth: after 1700
Human population growth: the modern age
Birth rate decline
The demographic transition model
Carrying capacity of human population
Cultural and biological evolution (16 hours)
Why culture?
Cultural vs. biological evolution
Culture as a biological phenomenon
Sociobiology and memetics
Dual inheritance and biological-cultural coevolution
Cumulative cultural evolution
An ecological and evolutionary approach applied to cultural models
Genetic determinism and eugenics
Guiding forces of cultural evolution
Genetic and cultural adaptations to pathogenic forms (bacteria, viruses, ...)
Social organization evolution (8 hours)
Essential characteristics of complex societies
Cooperation, altruism and selfishness
Collective goods / common goods
Mutual altruism
Parental selection and inclusive fitness
Nature perception schemes (8 hours)
Reflections on the attitude towards nature in the western world
Subjective, emotional and aesthetic reactions to nature
Dualism humans-environment
Cultural ecological-anthropological vision
Ecological and cultural niche. Niche construction
Perceptive patterns of nature:
Gibson (psychological ecology)
Lévy-Strauss (coding / decoding)
Bateson (ecology of the mind)
Maturana (autopoiesis)
Main ecological schools:
Naess (deep ecology)
Burlington (social ecology)
Capra (ecocentric ecology)
The training objectives of the course will be achieved through lectures for a total of 48 hours.
Classroom lessons will be carried out with the help of slides and videos that will be made available to students on the E-learning platform.
In order to promote the skills of critical analysis of the knowledge acquired, international scientific publications on human ecology will be presented and discussed collegially.
To improve the interdisciplinarity of the subject, lessons can be integrated by specific workshops.
The teacher is available for interview with the students by e-mail appointment (silvia.quadroni@uninsubria.it).