Revised May 2005
ENVIRONMENTAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION CONCENTRATION
BACKGROUND
In Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict, Michael Klare (2002) writes:
"Conflict over valuable resources---and the power and wealth they confer--- has become an increasingly prominent feature of the global landscape. Often intermixed with ethnic, religious, and tribal antagonisms, such conflict has posed a significant and growing threat to peace and stability in many areas of the world" (p. ix).
Klare further states that: "Ethnic and political factions seeking control over a lucrative source of income--- a valuable copper mine, diamond field, or timber stand--- may become drawn into bloody internecine feuds stretching over several generations. With the demand for such resources increasing, and many poor countries sliding deeper into debt, conflict over disputed zones will only grow more intense" (pp. xii-xiii). The crux of the matter is that natural resources are not distributed uniformly, either through space, or within and among societies. Differential access to resources can lead to competition, and that in turn to aggression and war, especially as supplies decline while demands increase. (For related studies see Bryant and Bailey 1997, Grinde and Johansen 1995, Homer-Dixon 1999, Homer-Dixon and Blitt 1998, Myers 1996, Peluso and Watts 2001, and Renner 1996).
CONCENTRATION
The above is the broad context of the Environmental Anthropology and Conflict Resolution Concentration as an optional track within the Ecological Anthropology Program at UH (http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/subfields/ecopage.html). Basically, this concentration operates at the interface of culture, ecology, and peace. More specifically, this concentration explores the connections among diverse phenomena pursued by researchers in cultural anthropology, ecological anthropology, political ecology, the anthropology of war and peace, applied anthropology, and advocacy anthropology and human rights. The applied component of ecological anthropology is now distinguished as environmental anthropology.
The following courses offered within the Department of Anthropology are especially relevant:
ANTH 345 Aggression, War and Peace
ANTH 415 Ecological Anthropology
ANTH 481 Applied Anthropology
ANTH 620H Human Ecology
Some students may also find one or both of these courses relevant:
ANTH 423 Social and Cultural Change
ANTH 435 Human Adaptation to Forests
Students may also take an individualized course focusing on particular topics and/or regions:
ANTH 399 Directed Reading and Research
ANTH 699 Directed Reading and Research.
The following courses within the Peace and Conflict Education (PACE) program are especially relevant:
PACE 210 Survey of Peace and Conflict Studies
PACE 247 Survey of Conflict Management
PACE 340 Negotiation
PACE 447 Mediation Skills
PACE 460 Facilitation and Group Process
PACE 477 Culture and Conflict Resolution
PACE 478 International Law and Disputes
PACE 485 Topics in Peace and Conflict Resolution
PACE 495 Practicum and Internship
PACE 650 ADR System Design (Alternatives to Dispute Resolution)
PACE 655 Facilitation and Advanced Mediation
PACE 695 Practicum
Students may also take an individualized course focusing on particular topics on peace and conflict resolution:
PACE 399 Directed Reading.
An appropriate combination of courses may be selected to earn a an undegraduate Certificate in Peace Studies or a Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution.
Examples of other relevant courses from various departments some of which may also be selected by the individual student include but are not limited to:
AREC 432 Natural Resource Economics
AREC 638 Resource and Environmental Policy
BIOL 410 Human Role in Environmental Change
ECON 358 Environmental Economics
ECON 638 Environmental Resource Economics
ES 455 Topics in Comparative Ethnic Conflict
GEOG 325 World Resources and Economic Development
GEOG 326 Environment, Resources and Society
GEOG 328 Culture and Environment
GEOG 336 Geography of Peace and War
GEOG 411 Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change
GEOG 412 Environmental Impact Assessment
GEOG 426 Energy Resources
GEOG 455 Resource Management
GEOG 612 Ecological Concepts and Planning
GEOG 618 Human Environment Systems
GEOG 628 Resource Systems
GEOG 637 Environment and Development
GEOG 639 Planning for Rural Development
GEOG 728 Seminar: Resource Management in Asia-Pacific
GEOG 752 Research Seminar: Resource Management
GEOG 758 Research Seminar: Conservation
LAW 508 Negotiation/Alternative Dispute Resolution
LAW 582 Environmental Law
MGT 660 Negotiation
NREM 432 Natural Resource Economics
NREM 480 Tropical Forestry/Agroforestry
NREM 637 Resource Economics
PLAN 620 Environmental Planning
PLAN 625 Environmental Policies and Programs
PLAN 627 Negotiation and Mediation in Planning
PLAN 637 Environment and Development
PLAN 653 Social Impact Assessment
POLS 304 Indigenous Politics
POLS 378G Topics in American Politics:
American Environmental Politics
POLS 396 Nonviolent Political Alternatives
POLS 319 International Organizations
POLS 633 International Conflict Resolution
POLS 646F Politics and Development:
Topical - Political Ecology and Development
POLS 675E Topics in Public Policy:
Current Environmental Issues
POLS 676 Nonviolent Political Alternatives
POLS 682 Indigenous Politics
SOC 479 Theories of Social Conflict
SOC 715 Current Issues in Sociology (Theory and Practice in
Conflict Resolution)
SP 455 Conflict Management
Other programs which offer complementary courses from which a student may select offerings to pursue an appropriate curriculum include Global Environmental Science, and Natural Resources and Environmental Management. Also two 15-credit certificates are available: at the undergraduate level the Environmental Studies Certificate, and at the graduate level the Resource Management Certificate. The Department of Geography offers a wealth of courses on various methods, techniques, and skills for data collection and analysis. (Explore these various options online at: http://www.catalog.hawaii.edu).
In short, at either the undergraduate or graduate level a committed student can pursue a major or minor in anthropology augmented by complementary course work, degrees, or certificates in other departments and/or programs to development an individualized specialization in Environmental Anthropology and Conflict Resolution as an optional track within the Ecological Anthropology Program at the University of Hawai`i.
RELATED RECENT DISSERTATION RESEARCH IN ANTHROPOLOGY
David W. Adams, 1998, "The Boundary Makers: The Search for Wilderness Hundred Years' War." His dissertation was revised and published as the book: Season of the Loon: One Man's Wilderness in Increasingly Strange Times, St. Cloud, MN: North Star Press of St. Cloud, Inc., 2001. Dr. Adams is founder and President of the Institute of Cultural Ecology in Hilo, Hawai`i (http://www.Cultural-Ecology.com).
Shankar Aswani, 1997, "Customary Sea Tenure and Artisanal Fisheries in Roviana and Vonavona Lagoos: The Evolutionary Ecology of Resource Utilization." Dr. Aswani is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Carolyn Cook, 1995, "The Amung Way: The Subsistence Strategies, the Knowledge and the Dilemma of the Tsinga Valley People of Irian Jaya." Dr. Cook works with the Amung-me as a consultant through Freeport Co.
Ephrosine K. Daniggelis, 1997, "The `Jangal's' Hidden Wealth: A Survival Strategy by Foraging Farmers in the Upper Arun Valley, Eastern Nepal." Dr. Daniggelis serves as a consultant for various humanitarian agencies focused on food relief and security.
Barun Gurung, 1998, "A Study of Mountains, Development and Knowledge Processes: The Mewahang Rai of East Nepal." Dr. Gurung is now based in Vientiene, Laos, with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Asia.
Tuck-Po Lye, 1997, "Knowledge, Forest, and Hunter-Gatherer Movement: The Batek of Pahang, Malaysia."
Rajindra K. Puri, 1997, "Hunting Knowledge of the Penan Benalui of Eastern Kalimantan, Indonesia." Dr. Puri is a Lecturer in Social Anthropology and convenor of the Masters Programme in Environmental Anthropology at the University of Kent, Canterbury, England.
Frank R. Thomas, 1999, "Optimal Foraging and Conservation: The Anthropology of Mullusk Gathering Strategies in the Gilbert Islands Group, Kiribati." Dr. Thomas is a Lecturer at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Dr. Leslie E. Sponsel
Professor of Anthropology
Director Ecological Anthropology Program,
Director Environmental Anthropology and Conflict Resolution Concentration
Department of Anthropology
University of Hawai`i - Saunders Hall 317
2424 Maile Way
Honolulu, HI 96822-2223 U.S.A.
Telephone: (808) 956-8507 (office hours Thursday afternoons)
FAX: (808) 956-4893
Email: sponsel@hawaii.edu
Website:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/sponsel/
http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/faculty/sponsel/sponsel.htm
RELATED PUBLICATIONS BY DR. SPONSEL
Journal articles
1981, "Situacion de los Yanomama y la Civilizacion: una Leccion de Ecologia Cultural desde el Amazonas" (The Situation of the Yanomama and Civilization: A Lesson from Cultural Ecology), Boletin Indigenista Venezolano 20(17):105-116.
1990, "The Mutual Relevance of Anthropology and Peace Studies," Human Peace Quarterly 7(3-4):3-9 (reprinted in Social Justice: Anthropology, Peace and Human Rights 1(1-4):75-88, 2000).
1992, "A Comparison of the Cultural Ecology of Adjacent Muslim and Buddhist Villages in Southern Thailand: A Preliminary Field Report," Journal of the National Research Council of Thailand 23(2):31-42 (co-author Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel).
Book Chapters
1986, "Amazon Ecology and Adaptation," Annual Review of Anthropology 15:67-97.
1989, "An Anthropologist's Perspective on Peace and Quality of Life," Peace and Development: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, Daniel S. Sanders and Jon Matsuoka, eds. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i School of Social Work, Ch. 3, pp. 29-48.
1992, "The Environmental History of Amazonia: Natural and Human Disturbances, and the Ecological Transition," Changing Tropical Forests: Historical Perspectives on Today's Challenges in Central and South America, Harold K. Steen and Richard P. Tucker, eds. Durham, NC: Forest History Society, pp. 233-251.
1992, "Myths of Ecology and Ecology of Myths: Were Indigenes Noble Conservationists or Savage Destroyers of Nature?," Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference of Culture and Communication in the Asia/Pacific Region, Honolulu, HI: East-West Center, Ch. 5, pp. 27-37.
1993, "`Rivers of Hunger'?: Indigenous Resource Management in the Oligotrophic Ecosystems of the Rio Negro, Amazonas, Venezuela," Tropical Forests, People and Food: Biocultural Interactions and Applications, C.M. Hladik, et al., eds. Paris, France: UNESCO/Parthenon Publishing Group (UNESCO/MAB Series Volume 15), Ch. 36, pp. 435-446.
1993, "The Yanomami," Who Pays the Price? Examining the Sociocultural Context of the Environmental Crisis, Barbara R. Johnston, ed. Norman, OK: Society for Applied Anthropology, Ch. 5, pp. 43-55.
1994, "The Yanomamo Holocaust Continues," Who Pays the Price? Examining the Sociocultural Context of the Environmental Crisis, Barbara R. Johnston, ed. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, Ch. 5, pp. 37-46.
1994, "Environmental Management at the Community and National Levels" Asia's New Initiatives in the 1990s: The Peace Process, Economic Cooperation, Management of the Environment. Tokyo, Japan: he United Nations University Japan-ASEAN Forum II, pp. 234-257.
1994, "The Mutual Relevance of Anthropology and Peace Studies," The Anthropology of Peace and Nonviolence, Leslie E. Sponsel and Thomas A. Gregor, eds. Boulder,CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Ch. 1, pp. 1-36.
1995, "Relationships Among the World System, Indigenous Peoples, and Ecological Anthropology," Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Amazona: An Ecological Anthropology of an Endangered World, Leslie E. Sponsel, ed. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, Ch. 13, pp. 263-293 (reprinted in Contemporary Cultures and Societies of Latin America: A Reader in the Social Anthropology of Middle and South America, Third Edition, 2001, Dwight B. Heath, ed., Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc., Ch. 4, pp. 31-49).
1996, "Anthropological Perspective on the Causes, Consequences, and Solutions of Deforestation," (co-authors Robert C. Bailey and
Thomas N. Headland) Tropical Deforestation: The Human Dimension, Leslie E. Sponsel, Thomas N. Headland, and Robert C. Bailey, eds. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, Ch. 1, pp. 3-52.
1996, "The Natural History of Peace: A Positive View of Human Nature and Its Potential," The Natural History of Peace, Thomas A. Gregor, ed. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, Ch. 4, pp. 95-125.
1996, "History, Conservation, and Human Rights: The Case of the Yanomami in the Amazon of Brazil and Venezuela," Managing Conflicts in Protected Areas, Connie Lewis, ed., Gland, Switzerland: IUCN- The World Conservation Union, pp. 62-62.
1997, "The Master Thief: Gold Mining and Mercury Contamination in the Amazon," Life and Death Matters: Human Rights and the Environment at the End of the Millennium, Barbara Rose Johnston, ed., Thousand Oaks, CA: Altamira Press, Ch. 5, pp. 99-127.
1997, "La Gestion des Resources dans les Systemes Oligotrophes du Rio Negro (Amazonie Venezuelienne)," (with Paula Loya) L'alimentation en foret tropicale: interactions bioculturales et perspectives de development, Claude Marcel Hladik, et al., eds. Paris, France: UNESCO Editions, Ch. 41, pp. 685-696.
1998, "The Historical Ecology of Thailand: Increasing Thresholds of Human Environmental Impact from Prehistory to the Present," Advances in Historical Ecology, William Balee, ed. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, Ch. 17, pp. 376-404.
2000, "Identities, Ecologies, Rights, and Futures: All Endangered," Endangered Peoples of Southeast and East Asia: Struggles to Survive and Thrive, Leslie E. Sponsel, ed., Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, Ch. 1, pp. 1-22.
2002, "Monkey Business? The Conservation Implications of Macaque Ethnoprimatology in Southern Thailand," (with Nukul Ruttanadakul and Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel) Primates Face to Face: The Conservation Implications of Human-Nonhuman Primate Interconnections, Agustin Fuentes and Linda Wolfe, eds., New
York, NY: Cambridge University Press, Ch. 14, pp. 288-309.
Encyclopedia and Dictionary Articles
1996, "Peace and Nonviolence," The Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology, David Levinson and Melvin Ember, eds. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Co., 3:908-912.
1996, "Human Rights and Advocacy Anthropology," The Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology, David Levinson and Melvin Ember, eds. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Co., 2:602-607.
1997, "Environment and Nature: South America--- The Amazon," Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, Helaine Selin, ed. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 305-307.
1997, "Ecological Anthropology," The Dictionary of Anthropology, Thomas Barfield, ed. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 137-140.
1997, "Peace and Nonviolence," The Dictionary of Anthropology, Thomas Barfield, ed. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 350-352.
1997, "Human Rights," The Dictionary of Anthropology, Thomas Barfield, ed. Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 248-250.
2001, "Human Impact on Biodiversity, Overview," Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Simon Asher Levin, Editor-in-Chief, San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 3:395-409.
2001, "Advocacy in Anthropology" International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, N.J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, eds., Oxford, UK: Pergamon Press, pp. 204-206.
2005, "Yanomami," Encyclopedia of Anthropology, H. James Birx, ed., Thousand Oaks, CA: AltaMira Press (in press).
Edited Books
1995, Indigenous Peoples and the Future of Amazonia: An Ecological Anthropology of an Endangered World. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
2000, Endangered Peoples of Southeast and East Asia: Struggles to Survive and Thrive (volume in the series, Barbara Johnston, series editor). Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
2003, Yellow and Black Gold in the Amazon: Gold, Oil, People, Environment, and Rights (under review by publisher).
Co-Edited Books
1994, The Anthropology of Peace and Nonviolence. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. (co-editor Thomas A. Gregor).
1996, Tropical Deforestation: The Human Dimension. New York, NY: Columbia University Press (co-editors Thomas N. Headland and Robert C. Bailey).
Books (Monographs)
Ecocide or Ecosanity?: The Ecological Anthropology of Diversity.
REFERENCES CITED AND SELECTED SOURCES FROM OTHER AUTHORS
Bodley, John, 2000, Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Bodley, John H., 1999, Victims of Progress, Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co.
Bryant, Bunyan, 1995, Environmental Justice: Issues, Policies and Solutions, Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Bryant, Raymond L., and Sinead Bailey, 1997, Third World Political Ecology, New York, NY: Routledge.
Collinson, H., ed., 1996, Green Guerillas, New York, NY: Monthly Review.
Crumley, Carole, ed., 2001, New Directions in Anthropology and Environment, Thousand Oaks, CA: AltaMira Press.
Dobson, Andrew, ed., 1991, The Green Reader: Essays Toward a Sustainable Society, London, UK: Deutsch.
Faber, Daniel, ed., 1998, The Struggle for Ecological Democracy: Environmental Justice Movements in the United States, New York, NY: Guilford.
Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn, 2003, Ethics and the Profession of Anthropology: Dialogue for Ethically Conscious Practice, Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Gledittch, Nils Petter, ed., 1997, Conflict and the Environment, Dordecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.
Grinde, Donald A., and Bruce E. Johansen, 1995, Ecocide of Native America: Environmental Destruction of Indian Lands and People, Santa Fe, NM: Clear Light Publishers.
Gwynne, Margaret A., 2003, Applied Anthropology: A Career-Oriented Approach, Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Hasdtings, Tom H., 2000, Ecology of War and Peace: Counting Costs of Conflict, Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Homer-Dixon, Thomas F., 1999, Environment, Scarcity and Violence, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Homer-Dixon, Thomas F., and Jessica Blitt, eds., 1998, Ecoviolence: Links Among Environment, Population and Security, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Johnston, Barbara Rose, ed., 1994, Who Pays the Price? The Sociocultural Context of Environmental Crisis, Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Johnston, Barbara Rose, ed., 1997, Life and Death Matters: Human Rights and the Environment at the End of the Millennium, Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Kakonen, Jyrki, ed., 1994, Green Security or Militarized Environment?, Brookfield, VT: Dartmouth.
Kaplan, Robert D., 2001, The Coming Anarchy, New York, NY: Vintage Books.
Klare, Michael, 2002, Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict, New York, NY: Henry Holt and Co.
Manes, Christopher, 1990, Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization, Boston, MA: Little, Brown.
Maybury-Lewis, David, 2002, Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups, and the State, Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Myers, Norman, 1996, Ultimate Security: The Environmental Basis of Political Stability, Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Peet, Richard, and Michael Watts, eds., 1996, Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development, Social Movements, New York, NY: Routledge.
Peluso, Nancy Lee, and Michael Watts, eds., 2001, Violent Environments, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Price, Steven V., ed., 2003, War and Tropical Forests: Conservation in Areas of Armed Conflict, London, UK: Haworth Press, Inc.
Renner, Michael, 1996, Fighting for Survival: Environmental Decline, Social Conflict, and the New Age of Insecurity, New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Co.
Robbins, Paul, 2004, Political Ecology, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Schabecoff, Philip, 1996, A New Name for Peace: International Environmentalism, Sustainable Development, and Democracy, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Suliman, M., ed., 1999, Ecology, Politics and Violent Conflict, Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Zed Press.
Townsend, Patricia K., 2000, Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies, Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
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