Research methods in anthropology and human ecology. From the field to the lab WF-OB-PORM

What are the biggest problems facing humanity in the 21st century? Hunger? Regional water shortages? Global pandemics, including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome? Meeting global energy demands? Global warming? Worldwide financial collapse? International terrorism? The answer is all of these and more. Increasingly, scientists dealing with the issue of sustainable development and the human-environment relationship realize that man is part of nature, and it has always been so. Therefore, modern problems require a new, more integrated, transdisciplinary understanding of how humans have interacted with the rest of nature in the past. Assessment of the needs of modern man in the context of sustainable development partly results from the biological basis, adaptation, and behavior that people have had in the past. Using laboratory methods, we are able to reconstruct this information and draw conclusions about human functioning in the environment in the past and today. For example, as part of the course, students learn how to reconstruct an ancestral diet, discuss what a "sustainable diet" is based on information about people who lived many hundreds of years ago. The content presented in the class concerns human research on the basis of skeletal remains. The purpose of the course is to provide knowledge how human societies interacted with ecosystems, and what methodology allows us to establish this.

Term 2024/25_L:

The themes of the units are:
1. Challenges of the 21st century. Regional and global view. Comparative analysis of the situation in Poland and Iceland. (lecture) 2h
2. Anthropologist at the archaeological site. Methods used in field work. (lecture) 2h
3. Direct and indirect research methods in human ecology. (lecture) 2h
4. Preparation of material for anthropological and bioarcheological analyses (practice) 2h
5. Analysis of diagenetic changes in bone tissue. (practice) 2h
6. Evolution of the human-environment relationship. Long-term goals of ‘Integrated History and future of People On Earth’ Project (IHOPE) (lecture) 2h (OB1_W07)
7. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes: isolation of collagen from bone samples (practice) 2h
8. Stable oxygen isotopes in bioarchaeology. (lecture) 2h
9. Isolation of phosphates for analysis of origin and migration. (practice) 2h
10. Trace elements in bioarchaeological studies (lecture) 2h
11. Development and its influence on the biological condition of the population. (lecture) 2h
12. Methods for determining the age and sex of an individual (practice) 2h
13. Measurements of post-cranial skeleton, reconstruction of body height. (lecture and practice) 2h
14. Analysis of remains from colletive and crematory graves. (practice) 2h
15. Fingerprint identification- dactyloscopy. Methodological problems in the study of ancestors. (practice) 2h

(in Polish) Grupa przedmiotów ogólnouczenianych

(in Polish) nie dotyczy

(in Polish) Opis nakładu pracy studenta w ECTS

Term 2023/24_L:

6 ECTS = 1 ECTS (lecture) + 2 ECTS (participation in the discussion during the classes)+ 3 ECTS (mastering the Essential FTIR software and preparation for tests)

Term 2024/25_L:

1 ECTS corresponds to 25–30 hours of student workload.

Term 2022/23_Z:

6 ECTS = 1 ECTS (lecture) + 2 ECTS (participation in the discussion during the classes)+ 3 ECTS (mastering the Essential FTIR software and preparation for tests)

Subject level

elementary

Learning outcome code/codes

OB1_W02 OB1_W07 OB1_W08 OB1_W11 OB1_U16 OB2_W12 OB2_U15 OB2_K09

Type of subject

obligatory

Preliminary Requirements

knowledge of English (at least B1/B2)

Course coordinators

Aleksandra Lisowska-Gaczorek

Learning outcomes

Student explains the relationships and interdependencies between various natural and social science disciplines, particularly those dealing with the living and non-living components of nature.
The student is able to apply basic knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry to describe processes occurring in the natural environment.
Knows the terminology and methods used in natural science research. Characterizes isotope techniques for studying environmental components and is able to combine knowledge from various fields of natural science in order to solve environmental problems and issues related to human-environment relations.

Assessment criteria

Lecture:
1. 70% attendance.
2. Final test (100-90% very good, 80-70% good, 60-50% satisfactory, less than 50% insufficient).

Bibliography

literature available from the lecturer, or selected recent open access publications

Term 2024/25_L:

Suggested literature available to those interested from the lecturer:
White & Folkens (2005). The human bone manual. Amsterdam: Elsevier Academic.
Sandford (1993) Investigations of ancient human tissue. Gordon & Breach
Larsen (1997) Bioarchaeology Interpreting behavior from the human skeleton. Cambridge University Press
McGovern, T. H., Vésteinsson, O., Friđriksson, A., Church, M., Lawson, I., Simpson, I. A., ... & Dunbar, E. (2007). Landscapes of settlement in northern Iceland: Historical ecology of human impact and climate fluctuation on the millennial scale. American anthropologist, 109(1), 27-51.

York, R. (2006). Ecological paradoxes: William Stanley Jevons and the paperless office. Human Ecology Review, 143-147.
Dietz, T., Rosa, E. A., & York, R. (2009). Environmentally efficient well-being: Rethinking sustainability as the relationship between human well-being and environmental impacts. Human Ecology Review, 114-123.
Richerson, P. J., Mulder, M. B., & Vila, B. (1996). Principles of human ecology. Simon & Schuster Custom Pub..
Ericson, J. E. (1985). Strontium isotope characterization in the study of prehistoric human ecology. Journal of human evolution, 14(5), 503-514.
Dyball, R., & Newell, B. (2014). Understanding human ecology: A systems approach to sustainability. Routledge.
Adams, C. C. (1935). The relation of general ecology to human ecology. Ecology, 16(3), 316-335.
Wasserheit, J. N. (1994). Effect of changes in human ecology and behavior on patterns of sexually transmitted diseases, including human immunodeficiency virus infection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 91(7), 2430-2435.
Marten, G. G. (2010). Human ecology: Basic concepts for sustainable development. Routledge.
Glaeser, B. (2016). Environment, Development, Agriculture: Integrated Policy through Human Ecology: Integrated Policy through Human Ecology. Routledge.
McGlade, J. (1995). Archaeology and the ecodynamics of human-modified landscapes. Antiquity, 69(262), 113-132.
Scudder, S. J., Foss, J. E., & Collins, M. E. (1996). Soil science and archaeology. Advances in agronomy, 57, 1-76.
Lawrence, R. J. (2003). Human ecology and its applications. Landscape and urban planning, 65(1-2), 31-40.
Croll, E., & Parkin, D. (2002). Anthropology, the environment and development. In Bush Base, Forest Farm (pp. 15-22). Routledge.
Orlove, B., & Caton, S. C. (2010). Water sustainability: Anthropological approaches and prospects. Annual Review of Anthropology, 39, 401-415.
Shortall, R., & Kharrazi, A. (2017). Cultural factors of sustainable energy development: A case study of geothermal energy in Iceland and Japan. Renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 79, 101-109.
Becker, C. D., & Ostrom, E. (1995). Human ecology and resource sustainability: the importance of institutional diversity. Annual review of ecology and systematics, 113-133.
Robinson, J. G. (1993). The limits to caring: sustainable living and the loss of biodiversity. Conservation biology, 7(1), 20-28.
Tilman, D., & Clark, M. (2014). Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health. Nature, 515(7528), 518-522.
Lassaletta, L., Billen, G., Garnier, J., Bouwman, L., Velazquez, E., Mueller, N. D., & Gerber, J. S. (2016). Nitrogen use in the global food system: past trends and future trajectories of agronomic performance, pollution, trade, and dietary demand. Environmental Research Letters, 11(9), 095007.
Reed, K., & Ryan, P. (2019). Lessons from the past and the future of food. World archaeology, 51(1), 1-16.
Sabaté, J., & Soret, S. (2014). Sustainability of plant-based diets: back to the future. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 100(suppl_1), 476S-482S.
McMichael, A. J. (2002). Population, environment, disease, and survival: past patterns, uncertain futures. The Lancet, 359(9312), 1145-1148.
Gluckman, P. D., & Hanson, M. A. (2004). Living with the past: evolution, development, and patterns of disease. Science, 305(5691), 1733-1736.
Daszak, P., Cunningham, A. A., & Hyatt, A. D. (2001). Anthropogenic environmental change and the emergence of infectious diseases in wildlife. Acta tropica, 78(2), 103-116.
Tilman, D. (1999). Global environmental impacts of agricultural expansion: the need for sustainable and efficient practices. Proceedings of the national Academy of Sciences, 96(11), 5995-6000.
Warner, K., Hamza, M., Oliver-Smith, A., Renaud, F., & Julca, A. (2010). Climate change, environmental degradation and migration. Natural Hazards, 55(3), 689-715.
McLeman, R. A. (2009). On the origins of environmental migration. Fordham Envtl. L. Rev., 20, 403.
Costanza, R., Graumlich, L., Steffen, W., Crumley, C., Dearing, J., Hibbard, K., ... & Schimel, D. (2007). Sustainability or collapse: what can we learn from integrating the history of humans and the rest of nature?. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 36(7), 522-527.

Additional information

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of WF-OB-PORM in USOSweb