HUM 3150 Indigenous Ecology and Sustainability

As since 20th century, modern human influences are being increasingly recognized as having negative human and environmental impacts, now we need different approaches for a sustainable living. The study of local and traditional environmental wisdom entails long-term bodies of knowledge derived from unique worldviews that are deeply embedded in culture and traditions; as individuals use to interpret and make sense of the different human beliefs and assumptions, the communities display practices and experiences involving multiple environmental interactions. Considering this, indigenous ecology linked to agriculture and sustainability insights have an enormous value in terms of current and future human and environmental health and wellbeing.

This course introduces the study of indigenous and local approaches to nature, providing a background in agriculture and sustainability with the aim that students make appropriate and informed choices regarding their own current and future role in sustainability. Throughout this class we will study the learned lessons along 15 years of projects done in indigenous and peasants? LATAM communities, focusing indigenous (agro-) ecology and sustainability. Emphasis is put on study cases done in Costa Rica showing topics of world scope and significance -ecological awareness, indigenous cosmovision, system´s resiliency, environmental policies framed within particular historical perspectives- including additional information from study cases done in Peru and Panama, among other LATAM countries.

The class cultivates an understanding of local and indigenous articulations and ecological relations through the concepts, mechanisms and applications of agriculture and sustainability. Terms, such as: conventional, indigenous & local agriculture; agroecology; local & indigenous ecologies (the systems and philosophies of environmental responsibility and food security); and sustainability in local communities; together with general topics about current environmental, economic, and social problems and actions -will be assessed.