ANTHROPOLOGY OF ENVIRONMENT IN JAPAN

This is one of the core courses of the Corso di Laurea "Languages, Cultures and Societies of Asia and Mediterranean Africa".
Its formative objectives are within the area of cultural and humanistic skills learning.

The learning pathway includes as partial objectives: critically apply the methodologies of analysis peculiar to environmental anthropology in the context of Japanese society; develop critical judgments about the cultural and environmental phenomena examined in the course; independently deepen the conceptual frameworks of the anthropological sciences to the contemporary cultural debate on the environment and landscape.

It is recommended that students have an intermediate level of English (B2) in order to be able to explore the topics covered in class in greater depth, using reference texts.
A textbook knowledge of environmental anthropology is also required. For those who have not already taken a basic course in environmental anthropology, I recommend reading the following book: Emilio F. Moran, 2006, People and Nature: An Introduction to Human Ecological Relations, Wiley.
The course is designed in a seminar style: punctuality, participation and overall contribution to classroom activities also affect the final grade.

The course aims to introduce a critical reflection on the issues and methods adopted by environmental anthropology in the context of Japanese society. In particular, the focus will be on historical and contemporary forms of environmental coexistence between humans and nonhumans and the current climate-environmental crisis. With this in mind, the course will focus on some specific topics of interest: traditional ecological knowledge, climate change, environmental sustainability, environmental conflicts, concepts of land and landscape and their historical evolution, and conservation and protection of landscape heritage.

Due to the nature of the course, it is not possible to refer to a textbook. The bibliography consists of a number of studies that address specific topics and problems.
Clarifications on the bibliography will be provided at the beginning of the course and during the lectures.
Texts that relate specifically to the topics covered in class will be available on the Moodle page dedicated to the course.

Attending students: paper to be agreed with the teacher. The written paper must consist of at least 8 pages, and possibly no more than 10, of text, excluding notes, indexes, bibliography, images and their lists.

Non-attending students: paper to be agreed with the teacher. The written paper must consist of at least 12 pages, and possibly no more than 14, of text, excluding notes, indexes, bibliography, images and their lists.

Lectures and seminar type teaching.

Italian

It will only be possible to take the exam with the syllabus taught in this course (a.y. 2023-24) for the first four appeals after the course is held.
Once these four appeals have passed, students will have to take the exam with the syllabus of the new academic year.

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