Exercise #2: Family Environmental History
Instructions
For Exercise #2, you will bring the environmental concepts home by looking at your own and your family environmental history.
Our lives and present environments are products of history. Our parents and grandparents grew up in very different environments from those of today. In our study of environmental history, it is helpful to think about our families’ past environments and their meaning for us today.
- Write an informal essay, between 700 and 1100 words, reflecting on your personal environmental history going back to your grandparents, parents, and your own generation. See the Exercise 2 Samples for a guide to this exercise.
- In formulating your response, consider the environments in which they and you have lived. Where were they located? What natural resources sustained your families and their communities? To what extent were those environments “natural” or human-made, native, or exotic (that is, transformed by European or other non-native species)? How have your families helped to transform their environments? Does your own ethnic and class heritage or gender play a role in the way you and your family have related to and valued the environment? How did the relationships your grandparents and parents had with their environments differ from the ones you have had in the past and wish to have in the future?
- Post your response by clicking ‘Add Submission’ below.
- Please note, you should write and edit your submission in a separate file then copy and paste it into the submission box. Once submitted to the HIST 3991 trubox site, you will not be able to edit your post.
Are you a student of HIST 3991? Click here to add a submission to this assignment.
Submissions
Exercise 2: Personal Enviromental History at Shanghai City
August 19, 2024 By: Jiaqi(Ryan) Shi
Prof. Mark Butorac HIST3991 Enviromental History Jiaqi(Ryan) Shi Aug 19,2024 My family and I lived in a small town in northwest China when I was very young. Then we moved to Shanghai City where is located in southeast of China. I’d like to show you the different environments in the same city that were experienced by my parents, grandparents and I. We also have different points of view in treating the environment. The Yangtze and Yellow rivers are known as the two most important rivers in China. They are providing abundant fresh water resources for thousands of Chinese people. Shanghai,…
Personal Environmental History
August 7, 2024 By: Sam Al-Alimi
The historical environments of my family have been within the same country, but has included living in villages, towns, and cities. While both sides of my family lived in similar environments, I will focus on my father’s side of the family because I have more information, and I have visited the village of my father twice. The ancestors of my father were originally from the city of Marib. During the 6th century, the collapse of the famous Marib dam forced people out of the capital city of the Sheba kingdom and my ancestors moved to southern west Yemen and settled…
My Personal Environmental History of Yongsan-gu
July 11, 2024 By: Jinsu Kim
I live in Yongsan-gu, a district located in the heart of Seoul, South Korea. The name “Yongsan” means “Dragon Mountain,” reflecting the hilly terrain that once characterized much of the area. As I explore the environmental history of my neighborhood through the experiences of my family across three generations, I’m struck by how dramatically this landscape has been transformed over the decades. My grandfather’s story begins in pre-war Yongsan. Even before the Korean War, the natural environment of Yongsan had already been significantly altered. During the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), Yongsan served as a major military installation, with arsenals and…
Family Environmental History
June 24, 2024 By: Heather Prohaska
I come from a diverse ethnic background of German, Irish, Swedish, Romanian, and Scottish. That being said, my family came to North America in the early to mid-1800s. Some family lines have lived in North America for six generations. I’ll focus on my grandparents from my father’s side, my parents’ life together, and my family life. Both my paternal grandparents were born in the United States of America. One immigrated by train, and the other came by wagon to Manitoba in the early 1900s with their families to set up farms. My grandfather cleared the land his family had purchased…
Family Environmental History
April 7, 2024 By: Danielle Fernstrom
The ecological history of my hometown is intimately tied to my family’s history. Only five years after the initiation of the development of Mackenzie my paternal grandparents moved to the place I was born in the early 1970’s. For three generations my family has been living within the same mountain range yet have experienced dramatically different environments over the 50 years. I live in a society far more detached from the natural world around me than my grandparents ever did when they occupied this area. The interaction in society with the surrounding ecology is diminished by modern technology and patterns…