Ethnography, epistemology and cosmovisions

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

Each of these topics of the syllabus will have a duration of 4 hours, with part of the presentation by the teacher and part of discussion with students, on previously selected texts and other audio-visual materials. In cases of presentation in audio-visual material, the discussion will focus on the material presented in the context of the class.

Learning Outcomes

The curricular unit aims to foster critical thinking among students, namely about the relationship of scientific knowledge, about the relationship between Humans/non-humans and Nature (with emphasis on the impacts of climate change on these local systems), with other forms of knowledge produced by human populations, what is commonly called traditional or local knowledge,as alternative forms to the hegemony of scientific knowledge. 

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1 - Scientific knowledge versus other forms of knowledge. Religion, Science and Traditional Knowledge.

2 - The anthropology of climate change

3 - Alternative knowledge: from perspectivism to permaculture and ecovillages

4 - Ethnographies of resistance: ethnographic examples.

Head Lecturer(s)

Fernando José Pereira Florêncio

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Synthesis work: 100.0%

Bibliography

Berkes, Filkret. 1999. Sacred ecology: traditional ecological knowledge and management systems. Philadelphia and London: Taylor & Francis.

Crane, Todd A. 2006. Changing Times and Changing Ways: Local Knowledge, Political Ecology and Development in the Niger River Inland Delta of Central Mali. Phd Dissertation. University of Georgia.

Ingold, Tim. 2000. The perception of the environment: essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. London: Routledge.

Reyes, Carlos Rojas. 2015. Perspectivismo indígena. Universitas, Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas de la Universidad Politécnica Salesiana del Ecuador, Año XIII, No. 22.

Vidal, Fernando & Dias, Nélia. 2016. Endangerment, Biodiversity and Culture. London and New York: Routledge Environmental Humanities Series.