ANTH 101           Introduction to Anthropology [Deetz]

MoWeFr 9:00AM - 9:50AM | An integrative survey with attention to the major subfields of anthropology: human origins, archaeology, anthropological linguistics, cultural anthropology, and folklore. This is a broad introductory course covering human evolution, the relationship of language to thought, cultural diversity and cultural relativity. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 109           Language and World View [Ross]

Th 15:30PM - 18:00PM | Does the language we speak affect the way we perceive and construct our view of the world? How does it affect our behavior? How do we organize "reality" by means of our language? How do we understand other people's realities by examining their languages? We will think about these and other questions by reading and discussing examples from English and from other languages that are unlike English in many ways. Students will write short essays and do brief oral presentations throughout the semester. Class size will be strictly limited to allow for seminar-style discussion. (3.0 Units)
Course meets second writing requirement and multicultural requirement.
Course is restricted to first-year students and will not exceed 15 students in size. 

ANTH 222           Buddhism [Seneviratne]

MoWeFr 11:00AM - 11:50AM | An introduction to the philosophy and social origins of Buddhism; the practice of Buddhism in selected Buddhist cultures. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 223           Fantasy and Social Values [Wagner]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | An examination of imaginary societies, in particular those in science fiction novels, to see how they reflect the problems and tensions of real social life. attention is given to "alternate cultures" and fictional societal models. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 224           Race Gender & Medical Science [Fraser]

MoWe 14:00PM - 15:15PM | This course discusses Western medical systems (focusing in particular on American medicine) from an anthropological perspective. Instead of turning the anthropological mirror on the medical practices of other cultures -- practices, usually typified as "folk" or "backward," or "superstitious," or "traditional"--we will consider American health care as a culturally, socially, and historically embedded system. This is a complex system and multi-stranded project that could be handled in a number of ways. Yet in the past decade, it has become increasingly clear that any critical cultural analysis needs to take into account race, class, and gender as factors for practitioners and clients in medical interactions, aid the delivery of health care, in the training and socialization of health professionals, in determining who gets sick and how they get sick, in the ways the body is conceptualized and treated. Anthropology is a discipline that will allow us to focus on these issues as both observers and participants. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 232           Symbol & Ritual [Metcalf]

MoWe 10:00AM - 10:50AM + section | Rituals great and small permeate social life everywhere, yet it is difficult to understand their meaning. This course explores anthropological approaches to religion through ritual, taking examples from cultures both simple and complex, remote and close to home. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 232D is a required one-credit discussion geared to the lectures. 

ANTH 234           Birth and Death [Khare]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | Rituals great and small permeate social life everywhere, yet their meanings are ambiguous, or contradictory, or contested. For that very reason, their interpretation gives access to an understanding of religions that goes beyond mere dogma, and constitutes anthropology's contribution to the comparative study of religion. Examples are drawn from cultures simple and complex, exotic and close to home. This course requires enrollment in, and attendance at, a discussion section. Course meets Non-Western Perspectives requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 237           Culture of Still Photograhpy [Sapir]

MoWeFr 11:00AM - 11:50AM | The course is blocked out into three sections: (1) The nature of photography. What form of communication is it and what is unique about it. How do we "read" photographs and why are they always so ambiguous? What are the motivations for snapshots? 2. A survey of the history of photography from its invention at the beginning of the 19th century to at least 1942 (beyond that if time permits). Subjects to be covered: the people involved with the invention of photography; the early photographic processes; photographs of the places in the world; photographs of "the other"; photographs in the archives - surveillance and the criminal type; photography as documentation; photography as an art and the influence of photography on art. The work of particular photographers will be examined in detail. 3. Continuing more general themes we conclude with three quite sperate topics: the use of photography in positive science; Photographic imaging on the computer; ethical problems in the photography of everyday life. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 253           North American Peoples [Crocker] 

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | Ethnological treatment of the aboriginal populations of the New World based on the findings of archaeology, ethnography, linguistics, and social anthropology. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 282           Rise of Civilization [Wattenmaker]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | The Rise of Civilization examines the archaeological evidence for the development of human cultures from the establishment of villages at the end of the Ice Age through the origins of the first cities. We examine the development of some of the first civilizations of the Old and New Worlds (Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, the Valley of Mexico, and the Mayan lowlands), and consider reasons for cultural similarities and differences. Topics discussed include the origins of agriculture and its effect on society, the shift from egalitarian societies to those with social ranking, the rise of cities, and the beginnings of writing. The course also focuses on the often differing ways that archaeologists have tried to explain the long record of cultural change. By highlighting the wide range of variability in pre-industrial civilizations, the course examines the role of cultural values in shaping the organization of early societies. We question many of the widely held notions about civilizations, such as the view that civilization led to more leisure time and a higher standard of living. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 300           Perspective for Majors [Staff]

We 12:00PM - 12:50PM | A course for majors and minors in the department designed to introduce them to a number of topics of concern to current anthropology. Majors and minors are expected to take this course at their first opportunity after joining the program. (1.0 Units)

ANTH 301           Anthropological Theory [Crocker]

Tu 19:00PM - 21:30PM | An outline of the development of anthropology as a scholarly discipline stressing both is unfolding internal logic and its relation to "the rest" of the world. Themes include the dialectics of structure, function, conflict, and cultural style. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 323           Legal Anthropology [Khare]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | A discussion of recent developments in anthropological approaches to different legal cultures, with emphasis on critical examination of law as an instrument of social change, justice, and human rights. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 329           Marriage, Mortality & Fertility [Shepherd]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | This course explores the ways that culturally formed systems of values and family organization affect population processes in a variety of cultures. Topics to be discussed will include (1) disease history, the impact of epidemics and famine, the differential impact by gender, age, and class, the impact of improved nutrition and modern medicine; (2) marriage strategies and alternatives, the problem of unbalanced sex ratios at marriageable age, systems of polygamy and polyandry, divorce, widowhood, and remarriage; (3) fertility decision making, promodern methods of birth control and spacing, infanticide; and (4) migration, regional systems, and variation through time and space in the structure of populations. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 332           Advanced Study in Ritual and Symbolism [Turner]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | The course will be based on a theory of ritual combining functionalism with the explanations of the people who participate in ritual. It will include the natural history. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 335           Museums & Contemporary Society [Handler]

Th 19:00PM - 21:00PM | This course considers the museum as an institution in relation to its social and cultural contexts. The course focuses, first, on the politics of cultural representation in museums,\. It compares different types of museums( fine art, history, anthropology) and the differing uses of objects in each, with special attention to the political and cultural values that the display of objects in museums entails A second major concern is the sociology of museums: their organization to accomplish the array of tasks they set themselves (education,, heritage preservation, financial stability). The course will draw on the rapidly growing interdisciplinary literature on museums, it will include case studies (historical, ethnographic, and sociological) of selected museums as well as theoretical overviews. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 341           Sociolinguistics [Contini-Morava]

MoWe 15:00PM - 16:45PM | Sociolinguistics is the study of the way language is used to express relationships in the speech community. Topics to be covered include language as an index of socio-economic class, Black English, male-female language, pidgin and creole languages, the analysis of everyday conversation, and political, legal, and social issues affecting language in multilingual societies, including ours. Take home mid-term and final; field project involving observation of language use in the speech community. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 345           Native American Languages [Hymes]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | This course in an introduction to the native languages of North America and to the methods that linguists and anthropologists have used to record and analyze them. One purpose of the course is to introduce students to linguistics through actual use of grammars, texts and dictionaries of individual languages. It is concerned with linguistic analysis and theory not for their own sake but as a way into knowledge of languages very different from English and the frequently studied European languages. The methods of analysis learned should enable students to make intelligent use of linguistic materials on languages in other parts of the world as well. The native languages of the Americas are many, diverse and unevenly studied. Generalizations about them all can rarely be very meaningful or penetrating. The best way to gain a genuine sense of the subject is to become familiar with one of the languages. Such familiarity will give more than acquaintance with that particular language. It will give insight into the nature of the data and problems of the field as a whole (i.e. the field of study of languages which were, for their speakers, unwritten.) To achieve this purpose, the course is designed so that each student will be working on a different language for which adequate published materials are available. The major assignments involve that work. Brief oral reports by each student enable the class as a whole to learn about the languages the others are working on. Pre-requisite: Should have taken one course in linguistics or sociolinguistics, or have permission of instructor. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 351           Anthropology of Siberia [King]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:30PM | This course provides the student with an introduction to the peoples and cultures of Siberia and the Russian Far East. It begins with an historical overview of the region, and continues with in-depth readings on selected issues. The readings are organized by areas in order to give the student an understanding of the differences and interconnectedness of various native peoples and Russians in Siberia. Topics covered include social organization, oral literature, shamanism, cultural politics & nationalism, and ecology. Perspectives are provided by Western, Russian, and native scholars.

The class is a seminar emphasizing discussion. Requirements include regular participation in class and either one long research paper, or two short discussion papers. ANTH 351 satisfies the ethnography requirement for Anthropology majors and the second writing requirement. Advanced students from related disciplines (e.g., history, Slavic studies, government and foreign affairs) are welcome. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 352           Amazonian Peoples [Mentore]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:45PM | Native Lowland South American peoples have been portrayed as "animistic", "totemic", "shamanic", "mythologic", "Dreauduan", "slash and burn horticulturalists", "stateless", "gentle", "fierce", and much more. What do these anthropological portraits mean and what do they contribute to the collective body of Western intellectual thought? Is there any relations between such thinking and the experience of being "Indian" in Amazonian societies? Are there any other ways of understanding the Amazonian social experience? This course addresses these questions through a reading of the ethnography of the region. This course will satisfy the non-western perspective requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 355           Anthropology of Everyday Life [Damon]

MoWeFr 10:00AM - 10:50AM | An anthropological perspective of modern American society. Traces the development of individualism through American historical and institutional development, using as primary sources of data religious movements, mythology as conveyed in historical writings, novels, and the cinema, and the creation of modern American urban life. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 357           Peoples & Cultures of the Caribbean [Fraser]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | The Caribbean is just around the edges of the American imagination -- tourist brochures, Spring Break, warm sea and sun, accented English, Jamaican posses, Haitian political chaos, tropical fruit in the supermarket--yet in reality this complex archipelago of islands and histories is barely known by its nearest and most important neighbor (the U.S.) This course Moves between this familiarity and strangeness to explore the histories and politics that have shaped the nations and dependencies that are geographically and politically defined as Caribbean. It will take a regional and a national perspective on the patterns of family and kinship; community and household structures, political economy, ethnicity and ethnic relations; religious and social institutions; relations between Caribbean abroad and at home. the Student will leave the course having dispelled some myths, having gained a comparative perspective of the French, English and Spanish Caribbean, and identified the key social and politic-economic issues facing contemporary Caribbean peoples This course fulfills the non-western perspective requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 360           Sex Gender Culture [McKinnon]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | The course examines the cultural construction of sexuality and gender from the perspective of various societies throughout the world. Topics to be discussed include: the diverse understand- ings of the nature of sexuality, reproduction, life, and death; the "engendered" structures of personhood; the political economy of gender; the foundations for gender hierarchy and equality; and the significance of gender-crossing. While the course focuses initially upon cultures other than our own, the last section of the course will return to a consideration of issues relating to sexuality and gender in American culture. Requirements: participation in class discussions and three papers. Enrollment is limited to 40 students. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 363           Chinese Family and Religion [Shepherd]

MoWe 14:00PM - 15:15PM | This course will introduce students to anthropological analysis of the traditional forms of the Chinese family and popular religion, and their modern transformations. Topics to be covered include the dynamics of Chinese marriage and domestic life, gender roles, the religious underpinnings of Chinese family life in ancestor worship and the Chinese cult of the dead, marriage rituals, and the cult of filial piety. The forms of temple worship, the interaction of the Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian traditions, and the shamanic tradition will also be covered. Finally, attention will be paid to the changing role of the family and religion in twentieth century Chinese life. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 384           Southwest Archaeology [Plog]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | The northern section of the American Southwest offers one of the best contexts for examining the evolution of local and regional organization from the prehistoric to the historic period. Readings and discussion focus on both archaeological and ethnographic studies of the desert(Hohokam), mountain(Mogollon), and plateau (Anasazi/Pueblo) culture. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 388           African Archaeology [Laviolette]

MoWeFr 11:00AM - 11:50AM | A lecture and discussion course covering the major social, economic and technological developments, sites, and societies we know primarily from the practice of archaeology in Africa. We will begin with the emergence of modern humans of the Middle to Late Stone Age. Along the way we will cover topics including the origins of plant and animal domestication, the transformation of hunter/gatherer societies to settled food-producing societies, rock paintings, the desiccation of the Sahara, the evolution of complex societies, the relationship of Nile Valley peoples to those in other parts of Africa, Great Zimbabwe, the impact of Islam, the trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean trades, and the archaeology of European colonialism. The requirements will include a midterm and final exam, several quizzes, and a short research paper. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 401A        Senior Seminar [Damon]

Mo 19:00PM - 21:00PM | TBA (3.0 Units)

ANTH 401B        Senior Seminar: The Archaeology of Symbolism [Wattenmaker]

We 14:00PM - 16:30PM | Much controversy surrounds the question of whether anthropologists can investigate the symbolic aspects of society through archaeological research. This course examines the theoretical underpinnings of this debate, the ways in which various archaeologists have studied the symbolic dimensions of societies and the controversy surrounding their findings. Some of the topics we will examine include archaeological approaches to changing concepts of space and time, the symbolic use of goods in various societies, and the construction of social identity (particularly rank and gender). (3.0 Units)

USEM 000           On Power and the Body [Mentore]

Th 15:30PM - 17:30PM | The human individual, as subject to the coercive strategies of society, has been the central topic of Western intellectual thought for some time now. Human corporeality in action, as agent, and as the surface upon which power operates has consistently fascinated us. The body, in fact, seems to have served as the constitutive element of power and as its field of knowledge. In this course, we will study the intimacy between relational power and the knowing body. We will cover such topics as the tortured body, the gendered body, the racial body, the medical body, the tattooed body, the divine body, the sovereign body, and the imprisoned body. We will attempt to understand how these meanings of somatic presence become knowable. In so doing, the form and character of a radically different theory of power will be introduced. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 507           History of Archaeological Thought [Deetz]

MoWeFr 11:00AM - 11:50AM | This course will consider the relationship between the development of ethnological theory and the way archaeologists have used their data. Beginning with Lewis Henry Morgan in the second half of the nineteenth century, the course will proceed to consider the effect on archaeological thought of the work of such scholars as Franz Boas, Alfred Kroeber, Leslie White, Julian Steward, Clyde Kluckhohn, Claude Levi-Strauss, Henry Glassie, and others. Special attention will be paid to one archaeologist, Walter Taylor. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 509           Historical Ethnography [Deetz & Scott]

Tu 9:30AM - 12:00PM | Plymouth Colony was the second oldest permanent settlement in English America, founded thirteen years after the establishment of Jamestown. Plymouth remained a separate colony from 1620 through 1691, when failure to renew the charter and the breakdown of civil authority led to absorption by Massachusetts Bay Colony. Throughout this time, the colony remained largely agrarian, with no significant development of urban centers such as Boston, Portsmouth, or Salem to the north. The records of the colony are in a remarkable state of preservation, and hold the promise of accounting to some degree at least for every person who lived there in the seventeenth century. This seminar will address selected sets of documents, the published Records of Plymouth Colony, wills and probate inventories, as a first step in a long range program of what is known as demographic reconstitution, or record stripping. The course will be largely devoted to the extraction and analysis of data from these sources, formulating and discussing various research questions, and creating a data base which can be used for a wide variety of research projects on the historical ethnography of a seventeenth century Anglo- American colony. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 525           Case Studies in Development [Seneviratne]

Mo 14:00PM - 16:30PM | TBA (3.0 Units)

ANTH 540           Linguistic Anthropology [Hymes]

Tu 15:30PM - 18:00PM | Reviews the many ways in which language is central to the theoretical issues and research of anthropology. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 571           Challenges to Interpretation [Metcalf]

We 14:00PM - 16:30PM | In recent years, the authority of ethnographers to represent other cultures has been severely questioned. This course examines the post-modernist critique, and assesses it by reviewing anthropological approaches to the interpretation of ritual from nineteenth century evolutionism to contemporary symbolic anthropology. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 577           Cultural Inventories [Wagner]

Th 14:00PM - 16:30PM | TBA (3.0 Units)

ANTH 580           Archaeology Laboratory [Most]

Mo 12:00PM - 14:30PM | This course provides instruction in the methods of analysis and interpretation of archaeological material culture. Particular emphasis is on two of the most common items of material culture recovered from prehistoric sites: lithics and ceramics. We also briefly review methods of paleobotanical analysis, human osteology, and faunal analysis. Attention is paid to the methods and assumptions used in inferring modes of production, use or consumption, and exchange. The first half of the course will include class discussions and labs where students will analyze artifacts from department collections. In the second half of the semester, students will design and implement an analytical project of their own design using available collections. Department archaeology faculty and graduate students will make collections available for study as possible.
(Course is suitable for 3rd and 4th year archaeology majors or 2nd year majors with some background in archaeology/anthropology.) (3.0 Units)

ANTH 589A        Archaeology of Colonial Expansions [Laviolette]

Tu 19:00PM - 21:30PM | This seminar explores the archaeology of colonialism by foregrounding two particular, major expansions--Islamic and European--against a backdrop of the treatment of expansions generally. We will review pertinent, recent literature on colonialism and colonial historiography, to help inform our analyses of archaeological studies.. We will trace the evolution of contact models used to interpret sites on colonial frontiers, and examine how very different archaeologically- known expansions, e.g. Halafian, Roman, Phoenician, and Bantu, are conceptualized in terms other than strictly those of colonialism. The core of the class will be close readings of case studies, bringing to bear the above theoretical considerations. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 589B        Archaeology I: Hunter Gather Chiefdoms [Hantman]

Mo 19:00PM - 21:00PM | TBA (3.0 Units)

ANTH 507           History of Archaeological Thought [Deetz]

MoWeFr 11:00AM - 11:50AM | This course will consider the relationship between the development of ethnological theory and the way archaeologists have used their data. Beginning with Lewis Henry Morgan in the second half of the nineteenth century, the course will proceed to consider the effect on archaeological thought of the work of such scholars as Franz Boas, Alfred Kroeber, Leslie White, Julian Steward, Clyde Kluckhohn, Claude Levi-Strauss, Henry Glassie, and others. Special attention will be paid to one archaeologist, Walter Taylor. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 509           Historical Ethnography [Deetz & Scott]

Tu 9:30AM - 12:00PM | Plymouth Colony was the second oldest permanent settlement in English America, founded thirteen years after the establishment of Jamestown. Plymouth remained a separate colony from 1620 through 1691, when failure to renew the charter and the breakdown of civil authority led to absorption by Massachusetts Bay Colony. Throughout this time, the colony remained largely agrarian, with no significant development of urban centers such as Boston, Portsmouth, or Salem to the north. The records of the colony are in a remarkable state of preservation, and hold the promise of accounting to some degree at least for every person who lived there in the seventeenth century. This seminar will address selected sets of documents, the published Records of Plymouth Colony, wills and probate inventories, as a first step in a long range program of what is known as demographic reconstitution, or record stripping. The course will be largely devoted to the extraction and analysis of data from these sources, formulating and discussing various research questions, and creating a data base which can be used for a wide variety of research projects on the historical ethnography of a seventeenth century Anglo- American colony. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 525           Case Studies in Development [Seneviratne]

Mo 14:00PM - 16:30PM | TBA (3.0 Units)

ANTH 540           Linguistic Anthropology [Hymes]

Tu 15:30PM - 18:00PM | Reviews the many ways in which language is central to the theoretical issues and research of anthropology. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 571           Challenges to Interpretation [Metcalf]

We 14:00PM - 16:30PM | In recent years, the authority of ethnographers to represent other cultures has been severely questioned. This course examines the post-modernist critique, and assesses it by reviewing anthropological approaches to the interpretation of ritual from nineteenth century evolutionism to contemporary symbolic anthropology. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 577           Cultural Inventories [Wagner]

Th 14:00PM - 16:30PM | TBA (3.0 Units)

ANTH 580           Archaeology Laboratory [Most]

Mo 12:00PM - 14:30PM | This course provides instruction in the methods of analysis and interpretation of archaeological material culture. Particular emphasis is on two of the most common items of material culture recovered from prehistoric sites: lithics and ceramics. We also briefly review methods of paleobotanical analysis, human osteology, and faunal analysis. Attention is paid to the methods and assumptions used in inferring modes of production, use or consumption, and exchange. The first half of the course will include class discussions and labs where students will analyze artifacts from department collections. In the second half of the semester, students will design and implement an analytical project of their own design using available collections. Department archaeology faculty and graduate students will make collections available for study as possible.
(Course is suitable for 3rd and 4th year archaeology majors or 2nd year majors with some background in archaeology/anthropology.) (3.0 Units)

ANTH 589A        Archaeology of Colonial Expansions [Laviolette]

Tu 19:00PM - 21:30PM | This seminar explores the archaeology of colonialism by foregrounding two particular, major expansions--Islamic and European--against a backdrop of the treatment of expansions generally. We will review pertinent, recent literature on colonialism and colonial historiography, to help inform our analyses of archaeological studies.. We will trace the evolution of contact models used to interpret sites on colonial frontiers, and examine how very different archaeologically- known expansions, e.g. Halafian, Roman, Phoenician, and Bantu, are conceptualized in terms other than strictly those of colonialism. The core of the class will be close readings of case studies, bringing to bear the above theoretical considerations. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 589B        Archaeology I: Hunter Gather Chiefdoms [Hantman]

Mo 19:00PM - 21:00PM | TBA (3.0 Units)

ANTH 701           General Anthropology [Handler]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | Canonical theories in modern Western social philosophy, including social contract theory, romanticism and primitivism, evolutionary theory, utilitarianism, functionalism, and cultural relativism. Works by Locke, Rousseau, Tocqueville, Darwin, Spencer, Durkheim, Weber, and Boas. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 703           Ethnology II [Sapir]

MoWe 17:00PM - 18:15PM | Ethnography is the characteristic literary gene of anthropological thought since World War II, a half century during which separate English, French, and American traditions have influenced each other to produce a broad and subtle international discipline. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 729           Marriage, Mortality & Fertility [Shepherd]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | This course explores the ways that culturally formed systems of values and family organization affect population processes in a variety of cultures. Topics to be discussed will include (1) disease history, the impact of epidemics and famine, the differential impact by gender, age, and class, the impact of improved nutrition and modern medicine; (2) marriage strategies and alternatives, the problem of unbalanced sex ratios at marriageable age, systems of polygamy and polyandry, divorce, widowhood, and remarriage; (3) fertility decision making, promodern methods of birth control and spacing, infanticide; and (4) migration, regional systems, and variation through time and space in the structure of populations. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 733           Ethnohistory Research & Methods [Perdue]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | This course offers an introduction to ethnohistory, considers various sources and methods for conducting ethnohistorical research, and requires a practical application of these to an historical case study in Albemarle County. Conceptions of group identity and culture, or "ethnos"-- based on race, ethnicity, class, or situation-- and of the nexus between history and anthropology will be discussed, with some consideration given to contemporary ethnohistorical case studies that address issues of contact, conflict, control, and commodification. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 745           Native American Languages [Hymes]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | This course in an introduction to the native languages of North America and to the methods that linguists and anthropologists have used to record and analyze them. One purpose of the course is to introduce students to linguistics through actual use of grammars, texts and dictionaries of individual languages. It is concerned with linguistic analysis and theory not for their own sake but as a way into knowledge of languages very different from English and the frequently studied European languages. The methods of analysis learned should enable students to make intelligent use of linguistic materials on languages in other parts of the world as well. The native languages of the Americas are many, diverse and unevenly studied. Generalizations about them all can rarely be very meaningful or penetrating. The best way to gain a genuine sense of the subject is to become familiar with one of the languages. Such familiarity will give more than acquaintance with that particular language. It will give insight into the nature of the data and problems of the field as a whole (i.e. the field of study of languages which were, for their speakers, unwritten.) To achieve this purpose, the course is designed so that each student will be working on a different language for which adequate published materials are available. The major assignments involve that work. Brief oral reports by each student enable the class as a whole to learn about the languages the others are working on. Pre-requisite: Should have taken one course in linguistics or sociolinguistics, or have permission of instructor. (3.0 Units)