ANTH 1010-1     Introduction to Anthropology [Menair]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | This course introduces the student to some general topics of interest in cultural anthropology. Through readings, films, lectures and discussions student should come to an understanding of the extent of human diversity. We explore what anthropologists mean by "culture" and the methodology most associated with cultural anthropology, fieldwork. A number of societies from around the world provide examples of different practices regarding the meaning of "progress," language and belief, patterns of family relations, the social construction of identity, and the question of "race." We look at other cultures to develop an appreciation of cultural diversity and cultural relativism. However, the anthropological method is comparative, and the aim of anthropology is always to know our own culture better. Satisfies College's Non-Western Perspective Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 1010-2     Introduction to Anthropology [Strohl]

MoWeFr 11:00AM - 11:50AM | This course introduces the student to some general topics of interest in cultural anthropology. Through readings, films, lectures and discussions student should come to an understanding of the extent of human diversity. We explore what anthropologists mean by "culture" and the methodology most associated with cultural anthropology, fieldwork. A number of societies from around the world provide examples of different practices regarding the meaning of "progress," language and belief, patterns of family relations, the social construction of identity, and the question of "race." We look at other cultures to develop an appreciation of cultural diversity and cultural relativism. However, the anthropological method is comparative, and the aim of anthropology is always to know our own culture better. Satisfies College's Non-Western Perspective Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 2190         Desire and World Economics [Mentore]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | This course offers an insight into the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services practiced by peoples ignored or unknown to classic Western economics. Its principle focus will open upon the obvious differences between cultural concepts of the self and the very notion of its desire. Such arguments as those which theorize on the "rationality" of the market and the "naturalness" of competition will be debunked. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 2280         Medical Anthropology [Nichols-Belo]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | TBA (3.0 Units)

ANTH 2310         Symbol and Ritual [Nelson]

TuTh 15:30PM - 14:45PM | Ritual provides the characteristic approach of anthropology to the comparative study of religion, and the analysis of ritual is anthropology's major contribution to that project. In no other sphere of social life is the alienness of other cultures more striking. Arguably, ritual presents a special challenge to anthropology. This course asks fundamental questions about what rituals mean, and shows how far we have come to answering them in a century of theorizing. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 2320         Anthropology of Religion [Metcalf]

MoWe 11:00AM - 11:50AM | Ritual provides the characteristic approach of anthropology to the comparative study of religion, and the analysis of ritual is anthropology's major contribution to that project. Everywhere ritual permeates social life, yet in no other category of behavior is the exoticness of other cultures more in evidence. This course asks commonsense questions about religion and ritual, and shows how far we have come towards answering them in a century of theorizing. There are no prerequisites for this course, which is designed to be accessible to those with no background in anthropology. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 2340         Anthropology of Birth and Death [Khare]

We 15:30PM - 18:00PM | An anthropological discussion of the rites of passage in human societies, with a particular focus on birth, selected daily life style and living aspects, aging, and the conceptions of death in such complex societies and cultures as India and America. Insightful observations of some thought-provoking physicians help us better understand the prospects and limitations of biomedicine in tackling the newer issues in human birth, daily life and dying and death. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 2400         Languages & Culture [Rodriguez]

MoWeFr 9:00AM - 9:50AM | A survey of topics having to do with the relationship between language, culture, and society. We will consider both how language is described and analyzed by linguists and how evidence from language can shed light on a variety of social, cultural, and cognitive phenomena. Topics include: nature of language, origins of language, how languages change, writing systems, use of linguistic evidence to make inferences about prehistory, the effects of linguistic categories on thought and behavior, regional and social variation in language, and cultural rules for communication. Satisfies the College Non-Western perspectives requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 2420         Languages and Gender [Contini-Morava]

MoWe 11:00AM - 11:50AM | In many societies, differences in pronunciation, vocabulary choice, and/or communicative style serve as social markers of gender identity and differentiation. We will compare gender differences in our own society with those in other societies including non-Western ones. Topics to be addressed include: the relation between gender difference and gender inequality (in scholarly discussion of language as well as in language itself); intersection of gender, race, and social class in language use; gender and non-verbal communication (including representations of gender in advertising and the media); issues of nature vs. nurture in explaining these differences. Requirements will include one or two papers based on fieldwork conducted jointly with a working group, participation in the required discussion section, and a take-home essay question exam focusing on the course readings and lectures. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 2800         Introduction to Archaeology [Laviolette]

MoWe 14:00PM - 14:50PM | This course introduces the history and goals of archaeological research, different theoretical approaches to the study of ancient societies and culture change, and archaeological methods. Alongside this study of archaeological method and theory, we will explore major transformations in human history through archaeological case studies and discoveries from important sites worldwide. The class meets as a lecture on Monday and Wednesday and students take an additional mandatory discussion section. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 2810         Human Origins [Hantman]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | The course provides an overview and assessment of the theory, methods, and data used by anthropologists to reconstruct human physical and cultural evolution. Chronologically, the course spans the time from the initial appearance of distinctly human ancestors (ca 4.5 million years ago) to the period just prior to the rise of plant and animal domestication and early village life (ca 10,000 B.C.). The course is divided into three topical components: 1) a review of evolutionary theory, and the ever-growing American controversy surrounding that theory; 2) an in-depth survey of the data used to support current models of the complex ancestral tree of human evolution, and 3) a study of the origins of uniquely modern human behaviors of the relatively recent past, such as complex language, ritual, religion and art, as well as the question over how, when and where 'modern' humans evolved. Throughout we will examine anthropological perspectives in evolutionary studies as they compare and /or contrast with interpretations of unique (innate?) human behaviors argued for in the literature of evolutionary psychology and biology, as well as how those arguments are represented in the popular media and in public policy debates.

The grade for the course is based on two quizzes (40% total) and a mid-term and final exam (60% total). (3.0 Units)

ANTH 2820         The Emergence of States and Cities [Trella]

MoWeFr 10:00AM - 10:50AM | Surveys patterns in the development of prehistoric civilizations in different areas of the world including the Inca of Peru, the Maya, the Aztec of Mexico, and the ancient Middle East. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 3010         Theory and History of Anthropology [Ratanapruck]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | This course is designed for students who are majoring in anthropology. It presents a broad historical outline of major theoretical approaches in the field, from the late 19th century to the present. These approaches will be examined in relation to both evolving debates within the discipline, and the larger historical, cultural and intellectual contexts in which they were produced, and which they to some degree reflect; we will also discuss the enduring relevance of these theories. The course stresses close reading of primary texts and emphasizes in particular the critical analysis of these texts' arguments. The discussion section is obligatory. This is a required course for anthropology majors. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 3152         Amazonian Peoples [Mentore]

TuTh 15:30AM - 16:45PM | Native Lowland South American people 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 relation between such thinking and the experience of being "Indian" in Amazonian societies? Are there any other ways of understanding the Amazonian social experiences? This course addresses these questions through a reading of the ethnography of the region. This course will satisfy the non-western perspectives requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 3155         Anthropology of Everyday American Life [Damon]

MoWeFr 10:00AM - 10:50AM | Taking a production and exchange orientation to society, this course uses anthropological models to analyze aspects of the US experience in North America and its extension into the world. The models will be drawn primarily from the anthropological analysis of exchange, rites of transition, sacrifice and mythology. Although introduced by issues drawn from the immediate questions of American culture, the course has a serious historical orientation. It runs from our 19th century foundation up to contemporary crises. In addition to attending class and a Discussion section students will write several response papers (2-4 pages/) and one research project outline/paper (10+/_ pages) built out of the response papers but involving additional library or ethnographic research. There will be no tests; in-class quizzes may be given. The course should satisfy Second Writing Requirement. (4.0 Units)

ANTH 3157         Caribbean Perspective [Bonilla]

We 15:30PM - 18:00AM | Breaking with popular constructions of the region as a timeless tropical paradise, this course will re-define the Caribbean as the birthplace of modern forms of capitalism, globalization, and trans-nationalism. We will survey the founding moments of Caribbean history, including the imposition of slavery, the rise of plantation economies, and the development of global networks of goods and peoples. We will then examine the various forms of colonial and imperial power that have operated in the region during the latter part of the twentieth century and the lasting legacies of inequality and hierarchy that persist in contemporary Caribbean societies. Lastly, we will revisit the idea of the Caribbean as a tourist heaven and question popular images of the region as a site of tropical fantasy. (4.0 Units)

ANTH 3260         Globalization and Development [Terni]

MoWeFr 9:00AM - 9:50AM | Explores how globalization and development affect the lives of people in different parts of the world. Topics include poverty, inequality, and the role of governments and international agencies. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 3320         Shamanism, Healing, and Ritual [Turner]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | The course delves into the sources of shamanism and ritual healing. It provides understanding of their different logic, and therefore why they communicate and heal. The class brings to life the reports and experiences of contemporary non-Western shamanic and healing rituals, maintaining respect for native interpretations in order to understand the effectiveness of their rituals. We will emphasize the human, personal experience of the events as living processes, and will use the in-depth studies of scholars who have become more than academics and who sometimes participate as practitioners of the crafts about which they seek knowledge. The experiencing and practicing of shamanism and healing being the actual life of these crafts, we will learn how to approximate a sense of these rituals by enacting them. A term paper is required, also a book presentation and short papers during the term. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 3450         Native American Languages [Danziger]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | This course in an introduction to the native languages of the Americas and to the methods that linguists and anthropologists have used to record and analyze them. It covers linguistic analysis and theory 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 have been, 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. Pre-requisite: LNGS 325 (3250). This course fulfills the Language Structure requirement for Linguistics majors. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 3480         Language and Prehistory [Danziger]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | This course covers the basic principles of diachronic linguistics - the study of how languages change over time - and discusses the uses of linguistic data in the reconstruction of prehistory. We will consider the use of linguistic evidence in tracing prehistoric population movements, in demonstrating contact among prehistoric groups, and in the reconstruction of daily life. To the extent that the literature permits, examples and case studies will be drawn from the Mayan language area of Central America, and will include discussion of the pre-Columbian Mayan writing system and its ongoing decipherment. This course fulfills the linguistics distribution requirement for Anthropology majors and for Cognitive Science majors. It also fulfills the comparative-historical requirement for Linguistics majors. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 3550         Ethnography [Metcalf]

MoWe 15:30PM - 16:20PM | Readings in Ethnography An ethnography is the characteristic way of presenting the results of research in anthropology. They provide our claim to knowing something interesting and useful about the world. But ethnographies vary widely in their style of presentation, theoretical underpinnings, and success at convincing the reader. This course explores this variety by close readings of half a dozen texts ranging over several continents. Requirements: this course is restricted to majors in anthropology who have already taken ANTH 301. It also requires weekly readings, for which there will be quizzes in class, plus two essays. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 3603         Archaeological Approaches to Atlantic Slavery [Neiman]

We 16:30PM - 19:00PM | This course explores how archaeological and architectural evidence can be used to enhance our understanding of the slave-based societies that evolved in the early-modern Atlantic world from the 17th through early-19th centuries. The primary empirical focus is on the Chesapeake and the British Caribbean, the later exemplified by Jamaica and Nevis. The course covers recent contributions to the historical and archaeological literatures on the lives of enslaved people, as well as theoretical models of human behavior and basic analysis techniques that jointly are required to make and evaluate inferences about the meaning of material evidence. The course is structured around a series of research projects that offer students the opportunity to use historical knowledge, theoretical grounding, and methodological skills in the analysis of real data from the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (www.daacs.org). The class format combines lectures, discussion, and computer workshops. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 3630         Chinese Family and Religion [Shepherd]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | This course will introduce students to anthropological analysis of the traditional Chinese 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 20th- and 21st-centuryChinese life.

This course will satisfy the Second Writing Requirement. Meets College's Non-Western Perspective Requirements. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 3680         Anthropology of Austrialian Aboriginal Art [Smith]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | This class will study the intersection of anthropology, art and material culture focusing on Australian Aboriginal art. We will examine how Aboriginal art has moved from relative obscurity to global recognition over the past thirty years. Topics include the historical and cultural contexts of invention, production, marketing and appropriation of Aboriginal art. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 3700         Contemporary India [Khare]

Mo 14:00PM - 16:30PM | An anthropological discussion of selected changing aspects of and issues in India since independence, with a focus on interdependently transforming Indian modernity and traditions in the (a) changing social organization; (b) leaders, caste politics and Indian democracy; (c) social inequalities, Indian modernity and the middle class; (d) religious diversity, religious rituals and politics; and (e) India in the Indian Diaspora. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 3840         Archaeology of the Middle East [Mccarty]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | This course is an introduction to the prehistory/early history of the Middle East (Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Levant and southeast Anatolia) from 10,000 to 4,000 BP. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 3870         Archaeology of Virginia [Hantman]

MoWe 14:00PM - 15:15PM | This course examines 12,000 years of Virginia history through the lens of archaeological research. This span covers the time of earliest human colonization of the region to the nineteenth century. In this vast time frame, and situated in the context of the Chesapeake world more broadly, we will focus on selected topics for which people, events, and sites in Virginia provide a unique perspective. These include: the timing and process of the initial settlement of the Americas, the stability of Native American economies over the seven thousand year Archaic period, and the structure and relatively recent development of distinct regional and hierarchical polities such as the well-known Powhatans and Monacans. The course looks particularly closely at the archaeology of the colonial-era, including indigenous perspectives on early interactions between Virginia Indians, Europeans and Africans, as well as archaeological contributions towards new understandings of slavery and historic African-American culture in Virginia. The course grade is based on three exams (60% total) and one 10-15 page research paper (40%). (3.0 Units)

ANTH 4991-001   Senior Seminar: Technology, Culture and Time [Damon]

Mo 19:00PM - 21:30PM | Recently there has been an outpouring in anthropological literature taking seriously the proposition that motivated cultural forms are determinants of technological orders and that cultures themselves are a kind of technology, knowledge of and for the world. This course will convene a selective reading of this new work. A specific focus in this inquiry will concern the internal or external organization of time embedded, or not embedded, in particular technological configurations. Time is a critical component in Western technologies with their bubble-like orientations: Is this true elsewhere? The course has a two-fold orientation, on the one hand affording the class a review of this new intellectual thrust; on the other providing each student the occasion for his or her own specific inquiry into the relationship between a culture and some significant aspect of its technology. The course will be organized around short response papers to the collective readings and a term/research paper. This course will meet the second writing requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 4991-002   Urban Anthropology [Nelson]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | Although historically associated with rural areas, anthropology has made significant contributions to theoretical understandings of the urban landscape. In this seminar, we will explore the epistemological and methodological issues raised by anthropological studies that not only take place in cities, but are of the city. Emphasis will be placed on the attempts of contemporary ethnographies to question how issues of religion, social relations, architecture and planning, and global capitalism define and structure urban life. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 4991-003   Archaeology of Colonialism [Laviolette]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15AM | This seminar explores the comparative archaeology of colonialism, emphasizing European expansions post 1500 AD but contextualizing them against a backdrop of other archaeologically-known examples, e.g. in the ancient Near East, Africa, and the Classical Mediterranean world. In addition to the archaeology itself, we will be considering the success of various perspectives in terms of translating and communicating the human experience of being colonized. The core of the class will be critical readings of case studies, contextualized in the changing theoretical landscape of colonialism studies. This course can fulfill the Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 5420         Theories of Language [Contini-Morava]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | We will survey a number of modern schools of linguistics, both American and European, trying to understand each approach in terms of its historical context, the goals it sets itself, the assumptions it makes about the nature of language, and the relation between theory and methodology. Grades will depend on: four or five written homework assignments that ask you to look at some data from a particular theoretical perspective; weekly reading responses, a take-home, open-book final exam; and evidence (from class discussion) that you have been doing the readings, which are an essential part of the course. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 5529-002   NGOs, Development, & International Aid [Bashkow]

Th 17:30PM - 19:30PM | This graduate level seminar course explores the burgeoning literature on NGOs and the provision of aid, consisting of intensive studies based on long-term field research among aid professionals, aid donors, and aid clients. In delving into this literature through readings, discussion, and written work, we will consider issues like the following: the difficulties posed by changing development trends and organizational and funding priorities; the role of buzzwords like sustainability, participatory development, and market-led change; the question of how aid meshes with politics at community, regional, national, and larger scales; the negotiation of heterogeneity among aid professionals and in client communities; the role of personal relationships and personalized exchange in project implementation and direct service provision; the significance of economic and racial hierarchies in development; the complexities of representing the voices of aid clients in terms that ratify aims of donors; the culturally relative nature of goals for empowerment; the role of "working misunderstandings" and strategic familiarization in intercultural partnerships; the politics of assessment and audit; the institutional shaping of unplanned project effects; and the nature of the helping impulse and self-fashioning among aid volunteers and professionals. Admission to the course is restricted to graduate students and to undergraduates with instructor's permission. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 5549         Preservation of Language and Culture [Dobrin]

Tu 15:30PM - 18:00PM | Students of language and culture today are engaged in an effort "to save what can yet be saved" of dying native life ways. But the meaning this project holds differs across participants and stakeholders. What values motivate and constrain the western "will to preserve"? How do these articulate with the interests of native people? This seminar explores these questions, taking contemporary documentary linguistics as a model. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 5559         Cultural Inventories [Wagner]

Tu 12:30PM - 14:45PM | This class uses the work of Jorge Luis Borges and Ludwig Wittgenstein to explore the "inventory" side of the language-phenomenon, the quixotic logic or order of experience that is manifest in what is said, or meant, or intended in the use of language, rather than in its syntax, grammar, or basic structure. It focses on the logic of "what to say." Readings and discussion in seminar; course paper. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 5808         Method and Theory in Archaeology [Wattenmaker]

Tu 13:00PM - 15:30PM | An intensive investigation of theory and method in anthropological archaeology, with particular attention paid to the evolution of archaeological theory in the last fifty years, and to the diversity of modern approaches in archaeology (sic). (3.0 Units)

ANTH 5870         Archaeozoology [Wattenmaker]

Th 15:30PM - 18:00PM | This laboratory course provides students with the background and skills needed to analyze animal bones from archaeological sites. Emphasis will be placed on the potential of faunal analysis for contributing to anthropological issues, such as the domestication of animals, political economy, the origins of the state, and the organization of urban economies. Class sessions will include lectures and laboratory work. Lectures will include a critical survey of the methodological approaches and techniques used to address anthropological questions through the analysis of faunal remains. Topics such as research design, strategies of field collection of faunal remains, and data analysis and interpretation will be covered. In the laboratory, students will learn to identify faunal remains to species, to determine age and sex of species, to distinguish between wild and domestic animals, to recognize bone pathologies, and to observe cultural modification of bones, such as butchering marks. The course requirements include a series of short papers based on laboratory analysis of archaeological faunal remains, and a final paper. The final paper will involve the analysis of a small archaeological collection of faunal remains from the ancient city of Kazane (Turkey), focusing on a particular time period (e.g. prehistoric, early historic) and part of the site (e.g. house, palace). Each student will share his or her findings with the rest of the class. We will compare and contrast results, and discuss implications of findings. Cooperation and discussion between students is strongly encouraged.

This course is intended for advanced undergraduate Anthropology or Archaeology majors, advanced undergraduate students in related fields such as Zoology and Classics, and graduate students in Anthropology (or related fields such as Architecture/Historical Archaeology) with a specialization in archaeology. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 5420         Theories of Language [Contini-Morava]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | We will survey a number of modern schools of linguistics, both American and European, trying to understand each approach in terms of its historical context, the goals it sets itself, the assumptions it makes about the nature of language, and the relation between theory and methodology. Grades will depend on: four or five written homework assignments that ask you to look at some data from a particular theoretical perspective; weekly reading responses, a take-home, open-book final exam; and evidence (from class discussion) that you have been doing the readings, which are an essential part of the course. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 5529-002   NGOs, Development, & International Aid [Bashkow]

Th 17:30PM - 19:30PM | This graduate level seminar course explores the burgeoning literature on NGOs and the provision of aid, consisting of intensive studies based on long-term field research among aid professionals, aid donors, and aid clients. In delving into this literature through readings, discussion, and written work, we will consider issues like the following: the difficulties posed by changing development trends and organizational and funding priorities; the role of buzzwords like sustainability, participatory development, and market-led change; the question of how aid meshes with politics at community, regional, national, and larger scales; the negotiation of heterogeneity among aid professionals and in client communities; the role of personal relationships and personalized exchange in project implementation and direct service provision; the significance of economic and racial hierarchies in development; the complexities of representing the voices of aid clients in terms that ratify aims of donors; the culturally relative nature of goals for empowerment; the role of "working misunderstandings" and strategic familiarization in intercultural partnerships; the politics of assessment and audit; the institutional shaping of unplanned project effects; and the nature of the helping impulse and self-fashioning among aid volunteers and professionals. Admission to the course is restricted to graduate students and to undergraduates with instructor's permission. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 5549         Preservation of Language and Culture [Dobrin]

Tu 15:30PM - 18:00PM | Students of language and culture today are engaged in an effort "to save what can yet be saved" of dying native life ways. But the meaning this project holds differs across participants and stakeholders. What values motivate and constrain the western "will to preserve"? How do these articulate with the interests of native people? This seminar explores these questions, taking contemporary documentary linguistics as a model. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 5559         Cultural Inventories [Wagner]

Tu 12:30PM - 14:45PM | This class uses the work of Jorge Luis Borges and Ludwig Wittgenstein to explore the "inventory" side of the language-phenomenon, the quixotic logic or order of experience that is manifest in what is said, or meant, or intended in the use of language, rather than in its syntax, grammar, or basic structure. It focses on the logic of "what to say." Readings and discussion in seminar; course paper. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 5808         Method and Theory in Archaeology [Wattenmaker]

Tu 13:00PM - 15:30PM | An intensive investigation of theory and method in anthropological archaeology, with particular attention paid to the evolution of archaeological theory in the last fifty years, and to the diversity of modern approaches in archaeology (sic). (3.0 Units)

ANTH 5870         Archaeozoology [Wattenmaker]

Th 15:30PM - 18:00PM | This laboratory course provides students with the background and skills needed to analyze animal bones from archaeological sites. Emphasis will be placed on the potential of faunal analysis for contributing to anthropological issues, such as the domestication of animals, political economy, the origins of the state, and the organization of urban economies. Class sessions will include lectures and laboratory work. Lectures will include a critical survey of the methodological approaches and techniques used to address anthropological questions through the analysis of faunal remains. Topics such as research design, strategies of field collection of faunal remains, and data analysis and interpretation will be covered. In the laboratory, students will learn to identify faunal remains to species, to determine age and sex of species, to distinguish between wild and domestic animals, to recognize bone pathologies, and to observe cultural modification of bones, such as butchering marks. The course requirements include a series of short papers based on laboratory analysis of archaeological faunal remains, and a final paper. The final paper will involve the analysis of a small archaeological collection of faunal remains from the ancient city of Kazane (Turkey), focusing on a particular time period (e.g. prehistoric, early historic) and part of the site (e.g. house, palace). Each student will share his or her findings with the rest of the class. We will compare and contrast results, and discuss implications of findings. Cooperation and discussion between students is strongly encouraged.

This course is intended for advanced undergraduate Anthropology or Archaeology majors, advanced undergraduate students in related fields such as Zoology and Classics, and graduate students in Anthropology (or related fields such as Architecture/Historical Archaeology) with a specialization in archaeology. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 7010         The History of Anthropological Theory [Weston]

We 15:30PM - 18:00PM | This required course for first year graduate students explores the diverse intellectual roots of Anthropology from the 18th to the mid 20th Century. We attempt to keep clear the differences and interweavings amongst US, English and French traditions that lay the ground work for late 20th and early 21st century Anthropology. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 7030         Anthropological Monographs [Bashkow]

Mo 13:00PM - 15:30PM | In this seminar which is one of the "Commons Courses" that form the core sequence of the Anthropology graduate program, we study the craft of ethnographic analysis. How do anthropologists frame interesting questions as the first step in analysis? How can existing materials be reanalyzed in new ways? We will examine the basic kinds of arguments and common genres of writing in which analyses are presented. What is the heuristic structure of traditional academic writing? What standards do we bring to the evaluation of ethnographic analyses in books and articles? Coursework will consist of readings, discussion, and exercises. This course should be taken by all Anthropology graduate students entering their first or third semesters. (Beginning in 2010, it will be given only biannually.) (3.0 Units)

ANTH 7060         Grant Writing [McKinnon]

We 15:30PM - 18:00PM | A workshop for graduate students on how to write solid dissertation proposals and winning applications for research grants. We will examine model proposals and discuss application strategies, selection criteria, and the process by which applications are evaluated. Each student will prepare a draft proposal and take it through several revisions that will be discussed by the group. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 7210         Anthropology of the State [Bonilla]

Tu 17:00PM - 19:30PM | This course will examine the bundle of relationships subsumed under the heading of "the state". If we understand the state to be a set of relationships - rather than an ontological reality - what are the social practices that materialize the state? What are the lessons we can learn from the ways in which the state becomes both manifest and diffuse as an object of study? And how can we observe and interrogate those practices anthropologically? The first half of the course will focus on theories of the nation-state, its function, nature, and "effects". We will explore how the unity of the nation-state has been forged and challenged and how the categories of citizenship and national belonging have been theorized and enacted. The second half of the course will feature ethnographic analysis of encounters with the state and its agents. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 7340         Anthropology and History [Ratanpruck]

Th 15:30PM - 18:00PM | This course explores the mutuality of the disciplines of anthropology and history, as well as the differences in their approaches and methods, in order to appreciate the epistemology and subject matter common to the two disciplines, and to bring strength to disciplinary analysis. In the first part of the course, students will explore these conceptual issues, as well as interdisciplinary exchanges between the disciplines of anthropology and history, such as the “cultural turn” in history and the “historical turn” in anthropology. In the second part of the course, students will read specific works by anthropologists and historians who traverse the two disciplines, paying close attentions to their methodological approaches, and exploring how historians can become more historical in becoming more anthropological, and how anthropologists can become more anthropological in becoming more historical, as Bernard Cohn put it. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 7450         Native American Languages [Danziger]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | This course in an introduction to the native languages of the Americas and to the methods that linguists and anthropologists have used to record and analyze them. It covers linguistic analysis and theory 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 have been, 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. Pre-requisite: LNGS 325 (3250). This course fulfills the Language Structure requirement for Linguistics majors. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 7480         Language and Prehistory [Danziger]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | This course covers the basic principles of diachronic linguistics - the study of how languages change over time - and discusses the uses of linguistic data in the reconstruction of prehistory. We will consider the use of linguistic evidence in tracing prehistoric population movements, in demonstrating contact among prehistoric groups, and in the reconstruction of daily life. To the extent that the literature permits, examples and case studies will be drawn from the Mayan language area of Central America, and will include discussion of the pre-Columbian Mayan writing system and its ongoing decipherment. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 7603         Archaeological Approaches to Atlantic Slavery [Neiman]

We 16:30PM - 19:00PM | This course explores how archaeological and architectural evidence can be used to enhance our understanding of the slave-based societies that evolved in the early-modern Atlantic world from the 17th through early-19th centuries. The primary empirical focus is on the Chesapeake and the British Caribbean, the later exemplified by Jamaica and Nevis. The course covers recent contributions to the historical and archaeological literatures on the lives of enslaved people, as well as theoretical models of human behavior and basic analysis techniques that jointly are required to make and evaluate inferences about the meaning of material evidence. The course is structured around a series of research projects that offer students the opportunity to use historical knowledge, theoretical grounding, and methodological skills in the analysis of real data from the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (www.daacs.org). The class format combines lectures, discussion, and computer workshops. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 7630         Chinese Family and Religion [Shepherd]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | This course will introduce students to anthropological analysis of the traditional Chinese 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 20th- and 21st-century Chinese life. (3.0 Units)