Cultural ecology WF-OB-EKK

The course will present the following topics:

1. Ecological aspect of nature-culture relation (4 hours)
1.1. Culture and ecology
1.2. Basis of cultural ecology
1.3. Lessons form a prehistoric "Eden"
1.4. Attitudes toward the Environment

2. From Eden to Cajamarca (4 hours)
2.1. What happened on all the continents before 11,000 B.C.?
2.2. How geography molded societies on Polynesian islands?
2.3. Why the Inca emperor Atahuallpa did not capture King Charles I of Spain

3. History of food production (6 hours)
3.1. The roots of guns, germs and steel
3.2. Geographic differences in the onset food production
3.3. Causes of spread of food production
3.4. The unconscious development of ancient crops
3.5. Why did peoples of some regions fail to domesticate plants?
3.6. Why were most big wild mammal species never domesticated?
3.7. Why did food production spread at different rates on different continents?

4. Cultural adaptive strategies (16 hours)
4.1. Foraging and Hunting
4.2. Pastoralism
4.3. Horticulture

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