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 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, 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, the case of the year 1000 in Europe, the case of the black plague (1346-1353), after 1700, 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. 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).