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June 27- July 25, 2020 Tropical Ecology in the Ecuadorian Amazon
University of Pittsburgh
University of Nevada at Reno
Morning
BIO: Tropical Forest Ecology (3cr)
This 3-Credit course provides a solid foundation in tropical forest ecology. It is designed to prepare students to carry out research on the interaction of plant and animal communities and to engage the serious challenges facing neotropical forests. Students will learn to compare pristine to altered forests identifying key factors in forest decline and regeneration. Students will examine each of the diverse elevational zones that comprise the Amazonian watershed. The highlight will be a 4 day canoe trip to a Waorani community on the Nushino River.
Afternoon
ANTH: Amazonian Religion and Nature (3cr)
Contact Hours: 45 Credits: 3
Instructor: Tod Swanson
Full Syllabus
Course Description
The course examines Amazonian cultural knowledge of water, weather, plant and animal life seeking to uncover underlying assumptions that constitute a systematic, if implicit, religious philosophy of nature. It also teaches students how to ask key questions and to carry out qualitative ethnographic research in the Cultural Anthropology and the Humanities. How do Amazonian people understand their relatedness to a natural world believed to be alive and human-like? How do they understand the hidden social lives of plants and animals. What is believed to cause new species to emerge or to become extinct? How are human emotions related to the seasonal cycle of rains? How is plant and animal ecology believed to serve as a model for understanding human society and vice versa. What aesthetic, emotional or religious practices were developed to create bonds of empathy or communication between human beings and the natural world.
Learning Objectives:
• Learn to analyze Amazonian narratives on plant and animal origins
• Understand the aesthetics of Amazonian engagement of other species.
• Understand how nature works as a pattern for organizing Amazonian social life and conversely, how social life works as a model for understanding nature.
• Learn to carry out qualitative research in Cultural Anthropology and the Humanities.
Professor Walter Carson
Professor Lee Dyer
Professor Thomas Walla
Professor Tod Swanson
Itinerary
Saturday June 27
11:30 PM Arrive in Quito Shuttle to Real Audiencia
Sunday, June 28
8:00 AM Breakfast
9:00 AM Tour colonial Quito (founded 1535)
12:00 Lunch At Hotel Real Audiencia
1:PM Hike in the high altitude páramo polylepis forest.
6:30 PM Arrive at Iyarina
7:00 PM Dinner
Monday June 29
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-4 Introduction to the Ecuadorian Amazon. Swanson
7:00 Dinner
Tuesday, June 30
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Wednesday, July 1
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Thursday, July 2
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Friday, July 3
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
Afternoon: Free Time
7:00 Dinner
Saturday July 4 Free Day. No Class.
8:00 Breakfast
1:00 Lunch
7:00 Diner
Sunday July 5 Free Day. No Class.
8:00 Breakfast
1:00 Lunch
7:00 Dinner
Monday, July 6
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Tuesday, July 7
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Wednesday, July 8
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Thursday July 9
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Friday, July 10
8:00 Breakfast
Travel to Waorani community on the Nushino River
Saturday July 11 Waorani Community on the Nushino River
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Class
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Class
7:00 Diner
Sunday July 12 Waorani Community on the Rio Nushino
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Class
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Class
7:00 Dinner
Monday, July 13 Return from Rio Nushino
Tuesday, July 14 Free Day
Wednesday, July 15 Free Day
Thursday, July 16
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Friday, July 17
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Free time
7:00 Dinner
Saturday, July 18 Free Day. No Class.
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Class
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Class
7:00 Diner
Sunday, July 19 Free Day. No Class.
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Class
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Class
7:00 Diner
Monday, July 20
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Tuesday, July 21
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Wednesday, July 22
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Thursday, July 23
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology
1:00 Lunch
2-5 Amazonian Religion and Nature
7:00 Dinner
Friday, July 24
8:00 Breakfast
9-12 Tropical Ecology Wind up
1:00 Lunch
Travel to the airport
Saturday July 25
Arrive home.