ANTH 3340

As an anth & envi sci major, I had great hopes for this course but was really disappointed. The content is interesting and the professor is well-intended, but the course needs serious restructuring. Lectures were incomprehensible, content was way too broad and shallow in scope for the arguments to hold with any sort of scientific validity, and grades are more or less based on your ability to regurgitate Damon's ill-supported theories, instead of thinking about the authors' concepts critically in your own words. Environmental determinism loomed constant in this course, which is the last thing I expected from an anthropology class at UVA. Damon is a well-trained anthropologist, but understands very little about basic environmental phenomena (ex. sediment transport, nitrogen fixation, coastal upwelling) even though he depends on them to build his arguments. This leads to inconsistency and oftentimes straight up inaccuracy. Basically, if you enjoy dipping your toes into many vague ideas that may or may not be valid, you will enjoy this class. If you are a scientist who enjoys critical thinking and really understanding the case-specific details about different places of the world, you will hate it.

This is one of the best courses I have taken at UVA. I took it for my second writing/non-western perspective requirement, but I got so much more out of this class. It's true that Damon's lectures can be a little boring at times, but if you do the readings and pay attention to what he is saying and have an interest in non-western societies and how they interact with the environment, I would highly recommend this course. Everyone chooses a book related to ecology to read during the semester, where every Friday you have to submit a two page paper summarizing what you read, which is super easy considering this class satisfies the second writing requirement (you may not get a better deal than this if trying to satisfy this requirement), and he grades them super easily too. His main philosophy is to expose you to scientific readings regarding climate change, and ecological interactions with early or non-western societies in order for you to have a better understanding of how the rest of the world works. He grades the papers as -1, 0, or +1, which simply means you either need to do better, give a little more, or you're doing really well. If you are a good writer, he will really love your work! The readings are actually really interesting, but also kind of long, so I would suggest averaging about 2-3 of the readings per week, in addition to reading your selected book. I waited until the last few days before the midterm and final and read about 13 articles in two days, so you can definitely do a few a week. They are really interesting, and I've never been exposed to so many writings by anthropologists in the field. Damon is also really funny and kind of crude when he tells his stories of his own research, so it is pretty entertaining. Also, he is one of the handful of professors at UVA who have actually gone out in the world and worked in a field for more than 40 years. It's kind of like having the Indiana Jones of anthropology as your professor. Overall, this is the most worthwhile class I've taken at UVA, and I'm not even an anthropology major (bio major). I would really recommend this class to anyone who wants to have a better world view!

A very interesting course, but hard to follow and a lot of work. Take it if you are really interested in the environment and how people around the world interact with it. Damon is fun to talk to in office hours but in lecture he is not very clear about what he is talking about.

Damon is obviously extremely intelligent and experienced, and really has the best intentions. But instead of actually getting me to think, he often just confused me with his rambling stream of consciousness. I thought the material and readings were fascinating, but it was a heavy work load and the only reason I survived was studying in a group with the class. Email Damon and ask questions in class- it'll help a lot. Also DO THE READING. You can't get by without it.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOU'RE NOT INTERESTED IN ANTHROPOLOGY, if you are though you should! :)

Damon is a classic anthropology professor, he doesn't make sense at first and you have to work to get it. You will NOT get away with not doing the readings here, everything is necessary. However, in the end it can be totally worth it. It's a really cool application of anthropology, and Damon is passionate about the topic.

Arsalan is good, but goes on a LOT of tangents

Damons lectures were completely unintelligible. Even my wonderful TA sometimes couldn't make sense of them. The class was a glorification of his personal research. Potentially interesting topic (the readings were good) but lectures were too painful.