ANTH 101           Introduction to Anthropology [Baltali]

MoWeFr 9:00AM - 9:50AM | This is a broad introductory course covering race, language, and culture, both as intellectual concepts and as political realities. Topics include race and culture as explanations of human affairs, the relationship of language to thought, cultural diversity and cultural relativity, and cultural approaches to current crises. Non-Western Perspectives Requirement. (3.0 Units)

SWAH 101           Introduction to Swahili [Fubusa]

MoWeFr 10:00AM - 10:50AM, 11:00AM - 11:50AM |

Introduces the most widely spoken indigenous language of East-Central Africa. Focuses on speaking, comprehension, reading and writing skills, and the language in its cultural context.(3.0 Units)

NOTE: SWAH 101 is offered under the auspices of the Anthropology Department. The course in Swahili may count toward the Anthropology major, as an elective within the major. 

ANTH 228           Introduction to Medical Anthropology [Fjord]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | In this course, students explore the diversity of frameworks for diagnosing, explaining, and healing illness by closely reading and critically examining ethnographies and primary works of medical anthropology theory. Using illness narratives, we will study metaphors of disease and their social consequences. We will look for the connection between local notions of causation and geographies of blame, such as occur within the geopolitics of AIDS discourse. Course topics will include cross-cultural comparisons of birthing practices, diagnosis rituals, and the forms of expertise thought morally imperative for healing. To teach students how to apply the practices and ethics of anthropology to their everyday lives, each student will undertake a small, individual fieldwork project on a medical anthropology topic. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 230           Buddhism in Asian Societies [Sihlé]

MoWe 15:30PM - 16:45PM | The aim of this course is to look at Buddhism, within the context of Asian societies, with a broad anthropological perspective that will challenge common, Western reductive depictions of Buddhism as a lofty, ethical "spirituality" or "philosophy". Thus doctrinal and historical aspects, beyond a general introduction at the beginning of the course, will not be a central focus in themselves, but rather will be integrated in the analysis of a diverse array of living traditions stretching from Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma to Tibet, parts of Nepal, and Japan. This course will focus mainly on some general questions pertaining to relations between religion and "society" (social relations, socio-political organization, etc.) Another crucial point of interest is the fact that in most of these countries, the religious sphere (religious conceptions, practices, institutions, etc.) appears as a complex, interrelated whole within which "Buddhist" features are surrounded by and interpenetrate with a number of other elements. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 236           Castaneda & Don Juan [Wagner]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | This course encourages a reconceptualization of the thought and practice in Castaneda's first nine books, through the student's active participation in lecture, discussion, readings, and especially papers written to assigned topics. A culture re-perceived through the designs of a radically different cognitive worldview is not a culture, society is not society, life is not life, and death is not death. The course offers a counter example to all that may be familiar in our world, neither believable nor unbelievable, and a chance to get a sense of how anthropologists think. Grades will be based on 3 papers. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 247           Jewish Languages / Communities [Lefkowitz]

TuTh 12:00PM - 13:45PM | This course looks historically and comparatively at Jewish languages and the communities in which they have been used. We will explore general questions of the relationships among sociocultural groups, their languages (or language varieties), and the literatures they produce by reading about Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic from literary, cultural, and historical perspectives. No prior knowledge of these languages is required. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 256           Peoples & Cultures of Africa [Shutt]

MoWeFr 9:00AM - 9:50AM | Through this course, students will gain an understanding of the richness and variety of African life. While no course of this kind can hope to give more than a broad overview of the continent, students will learn which intellectual tools and fundamental principles are necessary for approaching the study of the hundreds of cultures that exist today on the African continent. Drawing from ethnographic texts, literary works and documentary and feature films, specific examples of African peoples and their lifeways will be selected in order to sample the cultural richness and diversity of the African continent.

Fills the Non-Western Perspectives Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 267           How Others See Us [Bashkow]

MoWe 10:00AM - 10:50AM | This course examines how America, the West, and the white racial mainstream are viewed by "others" in different parts of the world and introduces anthropological perspectives on culture, colonialism, identity, race, and discourses of otherness. Readings and films deal with topics such as the views of Islamist extremists, African perspectives on European colonialism, American Indian responses to Anglo-Americans, Chinese writings about America, Papua New Guinean constructions of white expatriates, the portrayal of whites in Japanese advertising, and critiques of the "invisibility" of whiteness in the U.S. We will ask what others' views can (and can't) teach us about the anthropology of our own lives, as well as about the possibilities and problems of cross-cultural understanding in general. Course requirements center on extensive reading assignments and an interview-based field research project to be conducted in local communities. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 281           Human Origins [Hantman]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | The course is intended to provide 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 hominids (ca 4.5 million years ago) to the period prior to the rise of urbanism and early state formation (ca 10,000 B.C.). The course is divided into three topical components: 1) a review of evolutionary theory, and the controversy surrounding that theory; 2) an in-depth survey of the data used to support current models of the pattern of human evolution; and 3) a study of origins of modern human adaptations in the relatively recent past, with language, ritual, religion and art. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 282           Rise of Civilization [Wattenmaker]

MoWeFr 11:00AM - 11:50AM | In this course we will focus on the emergence and collapse of complex societies in both the Old (Near East and Egypt) and New (Valley of Mexico and Maya Lowlands) Worlds. We will combine archaeological, textual and ethnographic evidence to understand the establishment of villages at the end of the Ice Age, the origin of the first cities and their abandonment. Topics discussed include the problematic concept of "civilization", origins of agriculture and its effects on society, the shift from egalitarian societies to those with social ranking, the establishment of cities, the beginnings of writing and the collapse of complex societies. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 290           The Culture Politics of American Family Values [McKinnon]

MoWe 11:00AM - 11:50AM | This course provides a broad survey of the range of cultural understandings, economic structures, and political and legal constraints that shape both dominant and alternative forms of kinship and family in the United States. The course is divided in three parts. The first examines the tension between the cultural values of biology and choices as they configure understandings about what counts as family in the U.S. We will look at the cultural ideas that organize the dominant understandings of what constitutes family and trace the ways in which these are refracted through and transformed by divorce, adoption, the new reproductive technologies, and gay and lesbian kinship. The second investigates the economic relations that structure different class formations of family - including those of dynastic families, low wage workers, the homeless, and national and transnational migrants. The third explores the cultural understandings that give shape to the legal and political constraints on the possible forms of sexuality, marriage, reproduction, and family. Here, we will consider legal controversies relating to cousin marriage, polygamy, and gay marriage, sexuality, birth control, and abortion; and adoption, eugenics, and welfare. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 301           Theory & History of Anthropology [Sihlé]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | This course is designed for students who are majoring in anthropology. It presents a broad historical outline of major approaches and debates in the field, from the late 19th century to the present. We will attempt to understand past anthropological theories in relation both to trends and debates within the discipline, and to the larger historical, cultural and intellectual context, while also considering the enduring relevance of these theories. The student must enroll in one of the discussion sections in 301D. (4.0 Units)

ANTH 317           Visual Anthropology [Sapir]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | This course is concerned with visual representation in Anthropology as it has been practiced and might be practiced. It is divided primarily into two major topics: the use of still photography in the early days of modern anthropology and film. Film (and now video) has played a seminal role in Visual Anthropology with many classic films starting with Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North and running up to recent work of such filmmakers as David MacDougall. A brief time will be devoted to aspects of documentary photography, though topics will be more thoroughly covered in the course to be given in the Fall of '04. Students will divide up into teams that will be responsible for giving oral presentations covering specific films and photographic topics. Course is limited to 20 students. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 333           Ethnopoetics [Perkowski]

MoWe 14:00PM - 15:15PM | Narratives, traditionally considered "prose," have usually remained outside the scope of interest for those who study poetry. Recent explorations in ethnopoetics, however, have found that orally transmitted tales and legends may be organized in ways that also make them a kind of poetry. This course will focus on the nature and form of oral narratives and on the culturally specific ways of generating verbal art. Stories are at once traditional and personal, conventional and creative. Making and telling them is part of being human, part of everyday experience and of identity, personal and collective, something people laugh at and die for. The main concern in exploring the field of ethnopoetics is the sense in which all communities have the capacity for verbal art, for a use of language that is oral, has artistry, and is indeed, poetry. Stories are words, a universal, even innate. At the same time, stories differ from one community to another, one person to another, one telling to another, in form and point. To grasp something of this interchange between the universal and the specific, aspects of the ethnopoetics of oral narrative in different traditions will be considered. Stories generated in English speaking, Native American, Bulgarian and Russian communities and based on transcriptions of tape recordings will be explored in their specific sociocultural context. General additional questions about such narratives will also be taken up (orality in relation to literacy, oral-formulaic composition and performance, parallelism as the main feature of poetry, and notions of the structure of narrative). (3.0 Units)

ANTH 336           Life History and Oral History [Perdue]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | This course is focused primarily on practical experience in the field situation and training in the creation of written life histories from transcriptions of recorded oral interviews conducted by the student. It will also present and discuss theoretical issues involved in the interpretation and use of life history and oral history material. This course is cross-listed in the English Department as ENAM 336 Life History and Oral History. 

Meets Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 337           Power and the Body [Mentore]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | The human individual, as subject of 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 a constitutive element of power and as its field of knowledge. In this course, we will cover such topics as the tortured body, the gendered body, the racial 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.

Meets Second Writing Requirement. (4.0 Units)

ANTH 347           Language / Culture Middle East [Lefkowitz]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | This course provides an introduction to the people, cultures, and histories of the Middle East, through an examination of language-use in contemporary Middle Eastern societies. The course focuses on Israel/Palestine, and the contract between Hebrew and Arabic, as a microcosm providing insight into important social processes - such as colonization, religious fundamentalism, modernization, and the changing status of women - affecting the region as a whole. Readings contrast ethnographic with novelistic representations of language, society, and identity. A primary concern will be to compare social scientific and literary constructions of self and other in the context of the political and military confrontation between Israel and Palestine. This is a lecture and discussion course. A number of feature films from the Middle East are incorporated into the course material. Requirements include three short essays, a book review, and a research paper. Prerequisite: previous course in anthropology or Middle Eastern studies, or permission of the instructor. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 350           Readings in Ethnography [Khare]

Mo 15:30PM - 18:00PM | A comparative study and analysis of different ethnographic writings, old and new, monographic and issue and problem oriented, for understanding anthropological approaches, methods, tools, analyses and perspectives. The readings in the course will range from ethnography as an art and science to tribal ethnography, gender issues, childbirth, and religious memory and expression. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 353           Anthropology of Eastern Europe [Makarova]

Tu 15:30PM - 18:00PM | This course explores current changes in East European societies focusing on everyday social life. Among the topics to be discussed are the changing cultural meanings of work and consumption, the nature of property rights and relations, family and gender, ethnicity and nationalism, religion and ritual.

Meets Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 359           Ethnophotography [Sapir]

Mo 19:30PM - 22:00PM | This course will be composed of two parts - academic and workshop. The academic part of the course will exam specific photographic works that can be thought of as "ethnographic" in some way. The materials will be drawn from documentary photography and photojournalism. Particular attention will be given to the "photo essay" as exemplified in "LIFE" Magazine. Students will give oral reports, to be written up, on selected photographers and topics. The workshop will be an ethnophotography project. Students will find an appropriate field subject to photograph. The work will be displayed in a "photo essay" form and presented to a jury. Digital photography will not be used.

Prerequisite: permission of the instructor and knowledge of darkroom techniqueswork will be displayed in a "photo essay" form and presented to a jury. Digital photography will not be used. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 370           Contemporary India [Khare]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | A study of selected major socio-cultural, religious, political and media related forces and issues for understanding India since independence. This course offering will focus on (a) caste/class, kinship and family; (b) the Indian middle class, gender issues and marriage; (c) social problems in modern India; (d) modern India of the cities, industries and democracy; (e) religious diversity and Islam in India; and (f) India and Indians in Indian media. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 388           African Archaeology [Laviolette]

MoWeFr 10:00AM - 10:50AM | This course surveys the archaeological knowledge currently available about the African continent. The emphasis will be on the Late Stone Age, when fully modern humans dominate the cultural landscape, and the subsequent Iron Age, but will also briefly cover pre-modern humans and the archaeology of the colonial period. We will discuss the great social, economic, and cultural transformations in African history known primarily through archaeology, and the most important archaeological sites and discoveries on the continent. Throughout the course a theme will be the politics of the past, and the changing role of the practice of archaeology in Africa. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 389           Southwestern Archaeology [Plog]

MoWe 14:00PM - 15:15PM | An examination of the prehistory of the American Southwest (New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Utah and Colorado) with an emphasis on the origin and development of Pueblo culture in the Four Corners region. Topics will include the origin of agriculture, the establishment of village-based organization, demographic change including the major population declines of the 12th and 13th centuries, conflict/warfare, and ritual change. Particular areas of concern will be the Chaco Canyon region of northwestern New Mexico, Mesa Verde, and the Salt-Gila River Valleys. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 391           Ceramics in Archaeology [Bon-Harper]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | Ceramics comprise one of the major categories of material culture in archaeology. This course introduces ceramics in their technological and social contexts. Emphasis will be placed on recognizing physical attributes of archaeological ceramics in terms of clay preparation, forming, firing, and finishing. Past ceramic studies will be used to explore the role of ceramics in archaeological research. The course combines lecture and hands-on ceramic study. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 401A        Senior Seminar: Lost Tribes [Metcalf]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | A generation ago, it was taken for granted that anthropologists chased off to the far corners of the globe in search of remote peoples. Nowadays, such a sterotype would be dismissed with a sniff. Does that mean the search was a wild goose chase? Or worse, a hoax? What was it about in the first place, and what is now to be made of the records it left behind?

Meets Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 401B        Senior Seminar: Ancient Mesopotamian Cultures [Wattenmaker]

MoWe 14:00PM - 15:15PM | Films, archaeological findings and translated ancient documents provide the basis of this examination of ancient Mesopotamian cultures. We will use these sources to gain insight into key changes that took place as the first cities formed, such as the establishment of social stratification, the formation of urban society, and an increasing reliance on writing. Ethnographies from the modern Middle East also serve as a source of models for interpreting ancient societies in this part of the world. Finally, we will consider the relevance of the archaeology of southern Iraq for modern societies living both in the Middle East and elsewhere. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 401C        Senior Seminar: Culture Religion Hindu Bali [Bellows]

Mo 19:00PM - 21:30PM | This course is designed to introduce students to the history, culture, and religion of Bali through a survey of anthropological literature about the island. We will begin the course with one of the seminal 19th-century Dutch works on Balinese culture and an historical overview written in 1976. By beginning with a 19th-century account, students will have a sense of the trajectory of scholarship on Bali from its beginnings, a perspective which will set the stage for a later consideration of contemporary work that takes a critical look at the colonial period. Following this overview of history and culture, we will delve into the particulars of Balinese religion and social life. In our exploration of Hindu religion we will consider Balinese understanding of cosmology which have implications for nearly every aspect of Balinese life, particularly as such understandings articulate the relationship of the human body to the universe. Our exploration of Balinese cosmology will provide a framework for looking at other aspects of Balinese religious and social life, including the calendrical system, agriculture and architecture, life-cycle and magic as well as performing and literary arts, weaving and ritual offerings. Students will be asked to engage in class discussion of assigned readings and films. Each student will be responsible for one in-class presentation of additional readings, and a two-page analysis of one of the films assigned during the semester. Moreover, students will be asked to write two critical research papers (mid-term paper 5-7 pages in length; final paper 7-10 pages in length). Students may expect to take short quizzes and possibly one essay exam on the course content.

Meets Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 401E        Afra-American Indians [Mebane-Cruz]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | Also listed as AAS 406E. Afra-Amer-Indians: Constructions of Race, Identity and Memory. Afra-Amer-Indians: Constructions of Race, Identity and Memory. For many, this class will mark their introduction to the concept of "Black-Indians" and the history of mixed race Indians in the US. The course will explore some of the constructs of race categories, perceptions, and history building from the colonial period to the present. The course will attend to the ways in which people resist and subvert categorization and legitimacy even while constructing and preserving memory and identity. There will be guest lecturers from/associated with Afra-Amer-Indian groups. Requirements: Two ten page papers as well as two or three one page response papers to critical articles/papers or a short interview paper. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 504          Linguistic Field Methods [Contini-Morava]

We 19:00PM - 21:30PM | In this course we will work with a native speaker of an "exotic" language (i.e., a language that is not commonly taught in the U.S., hence likely not to be familiar to any of the students in the class.) We try to figure out the phonological and grammatical structure of the language based on data collected from a native speaker consultant in class. Attendance is therefore mandatory. Assignments include one paper on phonology, one on morphology, and one on syntax (the nature of the assignments may vary depending on the particular language being studied). (3.0 Units)

ANTH 529A        Concept of House Societies [McKinnon]

Th 14:30PM - 17:00PM | This course will examine the development and contemporary deployment of the concept of "house societies" in both socio-cultural anthropology and archaeology. We will first trace some of the conundrums in classic kinship theory that compelled Lévi-Strauss to propose the concept of "house societies" as a mediating term between the elementary and complex structures of kinship. We will then go on to assess how the idea has been used in contemporary anthropological and archaeological works as an alternative to both "lineage" and "household" theories, as an articulation of structure of hierarchy, as site of ritual elaboration, as a node in complex systems of exchange, as it relates to ideas of "community," and as a symbolic entity that links the human body and the cosmos.

Meets Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 529B        Anthropology of Aesthetics [Sapir]

Tu 14:00PM - 16:45PM | We take as a premise that aesthetic judgment is a universal form of judgment, as universal as ethical, moral, or pragmatic judgments. We also take as a premise that aesthetic judgments are made constantly and are by no means confined to what we call Art. With these two premises in mind we will consider various Western theories of aesthetics and then proceed to see how they might apply to the aesthetics of everyday life in the West and elsewhere. The art of spitting as with baseball pitcher or as an emphatic in Turkana discourse will be given the same treatment as Olympia and the Changing of the Night Watch. This course is run as a seminar and students will give presentations on selected topics. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 529D        Mythodology [Wagner]

Mo 19:00PM - 21:30PM | This course offers experience in using and understanding a very simple format for the analysis of a myth or story (any myth or story), called obviation. Following an introductory explanation, students will each select one or more myths or stories, and present and explain its obviation in class. Grading will be based on the student's expertise in doing so, final paper plus class participation. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 536          Location, Dislocation, and Relocation [Upton]

Tu 16:00PM - 18:30PM | This seminar investigates the architecture and landscape of change. What happens when people move? How do they interpret what they find? How do their own ways of building and ordering space change? Our range will be worldwide and we will read a variety of primary and secondary sources and some theoretical works. Much of our attention will be given to human encounters, to settings where people with different cultures meet each other in colonial enterprises, in commercial relationships, or through migration, conquest, or travel. In what ways do these encounters challenge received ideas and encourage the formation of new syntheses? Our discussions will range through such issues as the way people attempt to understand each others' landscapes, the architecture and urbanism of colonial power, the transformation of traditional practices after immigration and the creation of new ethnic landscapes, the kind of syncretic new landscapes created from multicultural fusions, responses to the natural environment, and the reinterpretation of contemporary others and past selves by visitors. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 541          Phonology [Dobrin]

Th 16:00PM - 18:30PM | This introductory but fast-moving course teaches students with some linguistic background (1) to analyze and formally represent the organization of sound systems, and (2) to appreciate some of the central problems and methods of phonological theory. Students will apply what they are learning in weekly or biweekly problem sets.

The permission of the instructor is required. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 546          Tesol: Culture, Theory & Method [Ross]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | Study of the theory, problems, and methods in teaching English as a second language, with attention to relevant cultural matters and areas of general linguistics. This course is designed for students intending to specialize in the teaching of English to non-native speakers. The course will include approaches to second language learning, the discussion of learning and social problems in the multilingual classroom, the discussion of trends in the methodology of teaching, the critical examination of currently available teaching materials, and the discussion of problems in English phonology and syntax which present special problems in teaching. The approach used is eclectic and pragmatic. Students in the course are expected to be serious in their goals and to have some background in linguistics or in foreign languages. Appropriate for students applying for the Peace Corps, World Teach, the JET Program, Teach for America, etc.

Permission of instructor required. Meets Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 549          Discourse Analysis [Danziger]

We 14:00PM - 16:30PM | This course offers a linguistics approach to the study of multiparty speech events that are longer than the single sentence. We view these as vehicles through which such central issues as identity, subjectivity and power are negotiated in human societies. Topics to be covered include: methods in the documentation of discourse (including ethical issues), conversational analysis, linguistic pragmatics, narrative analysis, and critical discourse analysis. The course takes a handson approach in which students prepare their own recordings, transcriptions and analyses of naturally occurring speech events. Students will prepare commentaries on readings, and complete a final project for presentation to the class. (3.0 Units)

Prerequisite: An introductory course in Linguistics: Anth 540, Anth 740, LNGS 701, or LNGS 325. 

ANTH 565          Creole Narratives [Mentore]

TuTh 15:30PM - 16:45PM | We begin with 18th- and 19th-century Caribbean intellectual life. We do so from the perspective of European imperialism and its influences upon colonized values, slavery, race, class and color. We examine the persistence of these major themes through the 20th century, formalized in the battle of ideas between the elite of the mother country and the Creole upper classes. We will attempt to read the images of the Creole self and explore their claims for a crisis of identity. We will also focus on the so-called spiritual character of the Creole personality. We shall conclude by looking at the way in which the specifics of island culture have directed nation building and how they appear to have helped in the perpetuation of ideological and political dependencies. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 572A        Consciousness and Religion [Turner]

Th 19:00PM - 21:30PM | The seminar faces the knotty question of change of consciousness associated with religious experience and non-medical healing. The seminar studies accounts of the other level of consciousness and the subject's awareness of the soul's existence. Understanding of such awareness is helped in class by ritual performance. The seminar seeks accounts of religious experience in present day cultures, from the point of view of the experiencers. Experience, as Victor Turner said, is anthropology's truest material. The class will bring in examples from personal life and from the student's own fieldwork undertaken in the local area and further afield.

Meets Non-Western Perspectives. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 589A        Astor Collection [Hantman]

We 14:00PM - 16:30PM | This seminar will offer a critical review of the role of museums, exhibits and material objects in the representation of Native American culture. The course focuses on a particular collection of objects - the Astor Collection of Native American art - once exhibited in the Astor Hotel in Times Square, New York City in the early twentieth century and now curated by the University of Virginia Art Museum. We will examine the cultural practice of collecting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the logic and purpose of displaying Native American crafts at that time. We will also examine the material culture itself seeking an understanding of the cultural context of its production from indigenous meanings to the effect of tourist market demands. The objects in the collection were produced by Native people throughout North America. Students in the seminar will develop a seminar paper (20 pages) examining one type of material culture in the collection or one aspect of the Astor Hotel exhibit historical context. This seminar is part of an ongoing project by students, museum staff and faculty at UVa to study the Astor Collection with the goal of developing a new exhibit which will re-examine the original display in the Astor Hotel. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 504          Linguistic Field Methods [Contini-Morava]

We 19:00PM - 21:30PM | In this course we will work with a native speaker of an "exotic" language (i.e., a language that is not commonly taught in the U.S., hence likely not to be familiar to any of the students in the class.) We try to figure out the phonological and grammatical structure of the language based on data collected from a native speaker consultant in class. Attendance is therefore mandatory. Assignments include one paper on phonology, one on morphology, and one on syntax (the nature of the assignments may vary depending on the particular language being studied). (3.0 Units)

ANTH 529A        Concept of House Societies [McKinnon]

Th 14:30PM - 17:00PM | This course will examine the development and contemporary deployment of the concept of "house societies" in both socio-cultural anthropology and archaeology. We will first trace some of the conundrums in classic kinship theory that compelled Lévi-Strauss to propose the concept of "house societies" as a mediating term between the elementary and complex structures of kinship. We will then go on to assess how the idea has been used in contemporary anthropological and archaeological works as an alternative to both "lineage" and "household" theories, as an articulation of structure of hierarchy, as site of ritual elaboration, as a node in complex systems of exchange, as it relates to ideas of "community," and as a symbolic entity that links the human body and the cosmos.

Meets Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 529B        Anthropology of Aesthetics [Sapir]

Tu 14:00PM - 16:45PM | We take as a premise that aesthetic judgment is a universal form of judgment, as universal as ethical, moral, or pragmatic judgments. We also take as a premise that aesthetic judgments are made constantly and are by no means confined to what we call Art. With these two premises in mind we will consider various Western theories of aesthetics and then proceed to see how they might apply to the aesthetics of everyday life in the West and elsewhere. The art of spitting as with baseball pitcher or as an emphatic in Turkana discourse will be given the same treatment as Olympia and the Changing of the Night Watch. This course is run as a seminar and students will give presentations on selected topics. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 529D        Mythodology [Wagner]

Mo 19:00PM - 21:30PM | This course offers experience in using and understanding a very simple format for the analysis of a myth or story (any myth or story), called obviation. Following an introductory explanation, students will each select one or more myths or stories, and present and explain its obviation in class. Grading will be based on the student's expertise in doing so, final paper plus class participation. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 536          Location, Dislocation, and Relocation [Upton]

Tu 16:00PM - 18:30PM | This seminar investigates the architecture and landscape of change. What happens when people move? How do they interpret what they find? How do their own ways of building and ordering space change? Our range will be worldwide and we will read a variety of primary and secondary sources and some theoretical works. Much of our attention will be given to human encounters, to settings where people with different cultures meet each other in colonial enterprises, in commercial relationships, or through migration, conquest, or travel. In what ways do these encounters challenge received ideas and encourage the formation of new syntheses? Our discussions will range through such issues as the way people attempt to understand each others' landscapes, the architecture and urbanism of colonial power, the transformation of traditional practices after immigration and the creation of new ethnic landscapes, the kind of syncretic new landscapes created from multicultural fusions, responses to the natural environment, and the reinterpretation of contemporary others and past selves by visitors. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 541          Phonology [Dobrin]

Th 16:00PM - 18:30PM | This introductory but fast-moving course teaches students with some linguistic background (1) to analyze and formally represent the organization of sound systems, and (2) to appreciate some of the central problems and methods of phonological theory. Students will apply what they are learning in weekly or biweekly problem sets.

The permission of the instructor is required. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 546          Tesol: Culture, Theory & Method [Ross]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | Study of the theory, problems, and methods in teaching English as a second language, with attention to relevant cultural matters and areas of general linguistics. This course is designed for students intending to specialize in the teaching of English to non-native speakers. The course will include approaches to second language learning, the discussion of learning and social problems in the multilingual classroom, the discussion of trends in the methodology of teaching, the critical examination of currently available teaching materials, and the discussion of problems in English phonology and syntax which present special problems in teaching. The approach used is eclectic and pragmatic. Students in the course are expected to be serious in their goals and to have some background in linguistics or in foreign languages. Appropriate for students applying for the Peace Corps, World Teach, the JET Program, Teach for America, etc.

Permission of instructor required. Meets Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 549          Discourse Analysis [Danziger]

We 14:00PM - 16:30PM | This course offers a linguistics approach to the study of multiparty speech events that are longer than the single sentence. We view these as vehicles through which such central issues as identity, subjectivity and power are negotiated in human societies. Topics to be covered include: methods in the documentation of discourse (including ethical issues), conversational analysis, linguistic pragmatics, narrative analysis, and critical discourse analysis. The course takes a handson approach in which students prepare their own recordings, transcriptions and analyses of naturally occurring speech events. Students will prepare commentaries on readings, and complete a final project for presentation to the class. (3.0 Units)

Prerequisite: An introductory course in Linguistics: Anth 540, Anth 740, LNGS 701, or LNGS 325. 

ANTH 565          Creole Narratives [Mentore]

TuTh 15:30PM - 16:45PM | We begin with 18th- and 19th-century Caribbean intellectual life. We do so from the perspective of European imperialism and its influences upon colonized values, slavery, race, class and color. We examine the persistence of these major themes through the 20th century, formalized in the battle of ideas between the elite of the mother country and the Creole upper classes. We will attempt to read the images of the Creole self and explore their claims for a crisis of identity. We will also focus on the so-called spiritual character of the Creole personality. We shall conclude by looking at the way in which the specifics of island culture have directed nation building and how they appear to have helped in the perpetuation of ideological and political dependencies. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 572A        Consciousness and Religion [Turner]

Th 19:00PM - 21:30PM | The seminar faces the knotty question of change of consciousness associated with religious experience and non-medical healing. The seminar studies accounts of the other level of consciousness and the subject's awareness of the soul's existence. Understanding of such awareness is helped in class by ritual performance. The seminar seeks accounts of religious experience in present day cultures, from the point of view of the experiencers. Experience, as Victor Turner said, is anthropology's truest material. The class will bring in examples from personal life and from the student's own fieldwork undertaken in the local area and further afield.

Meets Non-Western Perspectives. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 589A        Astor Collection [Hantman]

We 14:00PM - 16:30PM | This seminar will offer a critical review of the role of museums, exhibits and material objects in the representation of Native American culture. The course focuses on a particular collection of objects - the Astor Collection of Native American art - once exhibited in the Astor Hotel in Times Square, New York City in the early twentieth century and now curated by the University of Virginia Art Museum. We will examine the cultural practice of collecting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the logic and purpose of displaying Native American crafts at that time. We will also examine the material culture itself seeking an understanding of the cultural context of its production from indigenous meanings to the effect of tourist market demands. The objects in the collection were produced by Native people throughout North America. Students in the seminar will develop a seminar paper (20 pages) examining one type of material culture in the collection or one aspect of the Astor Hotel exhibit historical context. This seminar is part of an ongoing project by students, museum staff and faculty at UVa to study the Astor Collection with the goal of developing a new exhibit which will re-examine the original display in the Astor Hotel. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 702          Current Theory [Bashkow]

MoWe 14:00PM - 15:15PM | The course continues the agenda of ANTH 701, reviewing the development of anthropological theory from the nineteen forties to the present. Special attention is devoted to the relationship between system, structure, process, and agency as they developed in theoretical engagements with the concepts of power, practice, personhood, symbol and meaning, history, time/space/body, and political economy. The course also draws on recent debates within anthropology and across disciplinary boundaries in relation to globalization, trans-"nationalism," post-"modernism," and post-"colonialism."

The course is required of, and normally restricted to, all graduate students in their first year. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 704          Research Design & Theory [Marshall]

Mo 18:00PM - 20:30PM | Seminar on ethnographic method and research design in the qualitative tradition. Readings include issues in ethnographic methods and explorations of the relationships between theories and methodologies. Students will design a summer pilot research project and develop a protocol for a human subject review panel. (3.0 Units)

Prerequisite: Graduate Students in Anthropology or Instructor's Permission.

ANTH 706          Grant Writing [Metcalf]

Tu 19:00PM - 21:30PM | A workshop for graduates preparing dissertation proposals and writing grant applications. Each student prepares several drafts of a proposal, revising it at each stage in response to the criticisms of classmates and the instructor. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 708          Advanced Archaeological Methods & Theory [Neiman]

Mo 16:00PM - 18:30PM | An intensive investigation of current research in the principles, methods, findings, and analysis of anthropological archaeology. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 711          Paper and Presentation [Laviolette]

Th 18:00PM - 20:30PM | This seminar focuses on current methodological and theoretical issues in archaeology. Topics we will consider this semester include subsistence and population dynamics, social inequality, cooperation and competition, consumption, identity, and gender. The course emphasizes how explicit theoretical models not only inform the methods we use to make sense of archaeological data, but also facilitate evaluation of the resulting interpretations. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 717          Visual Anthropology [Sapir]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | This course is concerned with visual representation in Anthropology as it has been practiced and might be practiced. It is divided primarily into two major topics: the use of still photography in the early days of modern anthropology and film. Film (and now video) has played a seminal role in Visual Anthropology with many classic films starting with Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North and running up to recent work of such filmmakers as David MacDougall. A brief time will be devoted to aspects of documentary photography, though topics will be more thoroughly covered in the course to be given in the Fall of '04. Students will divide up into teams that will be responsible for giving oral presentations covering specific films and photographic topics. Course is limited to 4 graduate students. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 737          Power and the Body [Mentore]

Th 15:30PM - 18:00PM | The human individual, as subject of 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 a constitutive element of power and as its field of knowledge. In this course, we will cover such topics as the tortured body, the gendered body, the racial 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. (4.0 Units)

ANTH 747          Language / Culture Middle East [Lefkowitz]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | This course provides an introduction to the people, cultures, and histories of the Middle East, through an examination of language-use in contemporary Middle Eastern societies. The course focuses on Israel/Palestine, and the contract between Hebrew and Arabic, as a microcosm providing insight into important social processes - such as colonization, religious fundamentalism, modernization, and the changing status of women - affecting the region as a whole. Readings contrast ethnographic with novelistic representations of language, society, and identity. A primary concern will be to compare social scientific and literary constructions of self and other in the context of the political and military confrontation between Israel and Palestine. This is a lecture and discussion course. A number of feature films from the Middle East are incorporated into the course material. Requirements include three short essays, a book review, and a research paper. Prerequisite: previous course in anthropology or Middle Eastern studies, or permission of the instructor. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 748          Language and Prehistory [Danziger]

MoWe 10:00AM - 10:50AM | This course covers the basic principles of diachronic linguistics-the study of how languages change over timeand discusses the uses of linguistic data in the reconstruction of prehistory. We will consider for example the use of linguistic evidence in tracing prehistoric population movements, in demonstrating contact among prehistoric groups, and in the reconstruction of daily life. Examples and case studies will be drawn from the Mayan languages of Central America, and will include discussion of pre-Columbian Mesomerican writing systems and their ongoing decipherment. Over the semester, students will be responsible for completing several homework assignments bases on course content, presenting results of their own research into a particular case study, and a final exam. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 753          Anthropology of Eastern Europe [Makarova]

Tu 15:30PM - 18:00PM | The course explores current changes in East European societies through an examination of the practices of everyday social life. Topics include the changing cultural meanings of work and consumption, the nature of property rights and relations, family and gender, ethnicity and nationalism, and religion and ritual. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 759          Ethnophotography [Sapir]

Mo 19:30PM - 22:00PM  | This course will be composed of two parts - academic and workshop. The academic part of the course will exam specific photographic works that can be thought of as "ethnographic" in some way. The materials will be drawn from documentary photography and photojournalism. Particular attention will be given to the "photo essay" as exemplified in "LIFE" Magazine. Students will give oral reports, to be written up, on selected photographers and topics. The workshop will be an ethnophotography project. Students will find an appropriate field subject to photograph. The work will be displayed in a "photo essay" form and presented to a jury. Digital photography will not be used. (3.0 Units)

Prerequisite: permission of the instructor and knowledge of darkroom techniques.Open to one graduate student only.

ANTH 770          Contemporary India [Khare]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | A study of selected major socio-cultural, religious, political and media related forces and issues for understanding India since independence. This course offering will focus on (a) caste/class, kinship and family; (b) the Indian middle class, gender issues and marriage; (c) social problems in modern India; (d) modern India of the cities, industries and democracy; (e) religious diversity and Islam in India; and (f) India and Indians in Indian media. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 788          African Archaeology [Laviolette]

MoWeFr 10:00AM - 10:50AM | This course surveys the archaeological knowledge currently available about the African continent. The emphasis will be on the Late Stone Age, when fully modern humans dominate the cultural landscape, and the subsequent Iron Age, but will also briefly cover pre-modern humans and the archaeology of the colonial period. We will discuss the great social, economic, and cultural transformations in African history known primarily through archaeology, and the most important archaeological sites and discoveries on the continent. Throughout the course a theme will be the politics of the past, and the changing role of the practice of archaeology in Africa. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 791          Ceramics in Archaeology [Bon-Harper]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | Ceramics comprise one of the major categories of material culture in archaeology. This course introduces ceramics in their technological and social contexts. Emphasis will be placed on recognizing physical attributes of archaeological ceramics in terms of clay preparation, forming, firing, and finishing. Past ceramic studies will be used to explore the role of ceramics in archaeological research. The course combines lecture and hands-on ceramic study. (3.0 Units)