ANTH 101          Introduction to Anthropology [Handler]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | In this course we will introduce how and why anthropology examines the uniformities and regularities it perceives as existing in social life -- the perceived order that members of society produce so as to live together. We will read, write, and talk about these instances of eradicated contradictions not as isolated and self-contained institutions but as part of a meaningful and systemic thought process. The study of kinship and marriage, love and moral obligation, economic production and exchange, religious beliefs and values, as well as political power and its distribution will be our principal topics. Satisfies College's Non-Western Perspective Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 222          Buddhism [Seneviratne]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | An introduction to Buddhism as practiced by the Theravada Buddhist societies of South and Southeast Asia. Includes a brief discussion of the rise of Buddhism, the Buddhist doctrine, and the Buddhist critique of ritual. Not suitable for students interested in Mahayana, which this course does not deal with. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 236          Castaneda & Don Juan [Wagner]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | The six books of Carlos Castaneda represent what is perhaps an anthropological ideal--a world in which the native's concepts of power, sorcery, and transformation are "real" rather than the social systems, adaptations, and symbolic processes generally used to explain them. They are not ethnography; in his latest preface Castaneda prefers to treat them as "autobiography." Yet they can be used very effectively to illustrate a wide range of concepts in anthropology and traditional religions, which is what this course is all about. It will not teach you to fly--it may teach you to write--but it will hopefully help you to understand how anthropologists think. The course will be given in an open seminar format, with discussion encouraged. Grades will be based on 3 papers. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 254          Anthropology of God [Mentore]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:20PM | How does the study of society and culture create an intellectual space for any explanation and experience of the Divine? How does anthropology deal specifically with explaining (rather than the explaining away) knowledge and understanding about divinity? Is God an American? If God has a gender and race, what are they? Is God a necessary yet powerful figment of our collective human imagination? Can God be subordinated to humankind? What powers if any does divinity possess? Does any such talk about God reduce our study to the accusation of being pornocratic anthropology? These and many other pertinent questions will be engaged and tackled in this cross-cultural course on the study of the divine. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 256          Peoples and Cultures of Africa [Osotsi]

MoWe 14:00PM - 15:15PM | The course surveys topics in modern Africa, through a variety of readings, films, and music. Historical developments over the last 500 years will be given, including how these historic processes have determined and continue to shape contemporary life in Africa. The effects of Western narratives of Africa and African peoples will be studied, as well as how international aspects of African conflicts, including the DRC and Sierra Leone have affected African cultures. The course will also analyze current cultural issues including religion and cosmology, politics, marriage, family life, and female circumcision, to show the complexity, diversity, and richness of lives and societies in Africa. This is a lecture and discussion course. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 258          Fertility & the Future: Anthropology of Reproduction [Donahue-Singh]

MoWe 15:30PM - 16:45PM | This introductory course will focus on cultural perspectives of human reproduction. We will study how gender, religion, kinship, race, and class shape reproductive ideals and practices around the world. We will also examine how infertility and pregnancy loss (miscarriage), natural disaster, and political upheaval impact those ideals and practices. Our ethnographic examples will emphasize the perspectives of men and women in South Asia and the United States. We will situate local examples within national and global struggles to (re)produce the future. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 281          Human Origins [Hantman]

MoWe 14:00PM - 15:15PM | The course provides an overview and assessment of the theory, methods, and data used by anthropologists to reconstruct human evolution. The course is divided into three topical components: 1) a review of Darwin and evolutionary theory as well as the controversy which surrounds that theory; 2) a survey of the data (sites, fossil remains, stone tools, etc.) used to support current models of the mosaic pattern of human evolution; and 3) a study of the origins of complex language, ritual, exchange, religion and art. Throughout the course we will examine evolutionary studies as a uniquely Western philosophical tradition, looking critically at assumptions made about directed patterns of change and progress. In addition, using the data of human evolution, we will also be evaluating contemporary concerns with how 'natural' or 'innate' a wide range of modern cultural practices are, including gender roles, racial categories, boundary formation and patterns of aggression, territoriality, alliance and cooperation. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 282          Rise of Civilization [Wattenmaker]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:20PM | In this course we will focus on the emergence and collapse of complex societies in both the Old (Middle East and Egypt) and New (Prehistoric Valley of Mexico, Aztec Society, 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. Please note that the course meets for 50 minutes T/R with a third, obligatory discussion section. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 290          Cultural Politics of American Family Values [McKinnon]

MoWe 15:30PM - 16:45PM | This course provides a broad survey of the range of cultural ideas that shape both dominant and alternative forms of family and marriage in the United States. The course is divided in three parts. The first examines the tension between the cultural values of biology and choice as they configure dominant understandings of what counts as family. We will then trace the ways in which these are refracted through and transformed by adoption, the new reproductive technologies, and gay and lesbian kinship. The second explores the cultural ideas that inform legal and political constraints on the possible forms of sexuality, marriage, reproduction, and family in the US. Here, we will focus on legal controversies relating to sexuality, birth control, abortion and gay marriage. The third investigates the economic policies and structures that affect family and class relations in America. In this section, we will focus on debates relating to low-wage work and welfare. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 301          Theory and History of Anthropology [Brand]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | This course is designed to provide an overview of major approaches and debates that shaped the field from the 19th century to the present, with emphasis on those during the last half century. It seeks to familiarize students with different anthropological frameworks for interpreting the world around us, treating such paradigms as products of specific cultural, political and historical contexts. We will trace the genealogy of certain ideas and consider how such ideas may be relevant to our roles as citizens of the world. The discussion session is obligatory. This is a required course for anthropology majors. (4.0 Units)

ANTH 304          France in North Africa & North Africa in France [Lim]

Tu 15:30PM - 18:00PM | This course traces the complex and often controversial relationship between France and North Africa, exploring both French "presence" in North Africa under colonialism, and the later North African "presence" in France through what is generally referred to as "post-colonial migrations." We will interrogate the meaning of "decolonization" and the subsequent construction of mutually exclusive categories "French" and "North African," and ask how the colonial past and the relationship between North Africa and France are conceived by both North Africans and the French. We will pay particular attention to the case of Algeria, which, under colonialism, was considered part of French national territory and where French nationality had been extended to all native-born inhabitants. We will also look at how the ideological construction of a secular France and a Muslim North Africa factored into issues of citizenship under colonialism, and continue to play out in framing the current debates over immigration. This course will combine lecture and seminar formats. Crosslisted as MESA 304. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 307          Native American History and Representation [Hantman]

TuTh 15:30PM - 16:45PM | This class is intended to introduce students to the wide variety of cultures and the diversity of historical experiences of Native Americans. After a review of American Indian histories across North America, the course will review contemporary issues of concern to Native groups in the U.S. and consider especially how Indians and Indian history have been portrayed in popular media including film and television, museum exhibits, literature, and textbooks. This semester we will look back at the 2007 commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown encounter between Indians and Europeans, examining recent films, museum exhibits and popular books. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 309          Ritual and Power in Prehistory [Holeman]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | This course will explore the various and complicated ways in which ritual was an integral component of prehistoric power structures. We will survey the different ways ritual has been approached archaeologically in both interpretations and methodology. This course will use examples from around the globe, but heavy emphasis will be placed on Mesoamerica and the U.S. Southwest. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 310          Houses in Context: Anthropological Approaches to Prehistoric Architecture [Heitman]

MoWeFr 10:00AM - 10:50AM | In this course we will explore the interstices between archaeology and ethnography. How do archaeologists gain access to lived realities of the past? The core of the course will focus on household archaeology. Discussions will include how archaeologists interpret evidence of ritual, kinship, and hierarchy as well as other social forms/practices. Readings will tack back and forth between ethnographic case studies and archaeological investigations. Focusing on North American, African, Asian, and Austronesian contexts; we will explore both specific cultural contexts and the utility of cross-cultural comparisons. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 311          Anthropology of Christianity [Meyer]

MoWeFr 9:00AM - 9:50AM | Is Christianity a religion? This course takes an anthropological perspective on this apparently familiar Western phenomenon to address what may look like a question that contains its own answer. We will approach Christianity not primarily as a closed belief system derived from canonical texts (scripture), but as a broader and manifold cultural phenomenon with a variety of ritual, social, and institutional expressions. What unity, if any, is there to the multiplicity of global Christianities? Asking this question will lead us to a series of issues or themes relevant to the contemporary anthropology of Christianity. Among them may be: its localization and indigenization, its globalization, its poetics and politics (whether right-wing market individualism or South African "resistance"), the process of conversion, its opposition to Islam, its teleology and forms of narrative time, millenarianism, its connection to Western individualism, its ecstatic dimensions, its creation of heretics, liberation theology, and the rise of charismatic/neo-Pentecostal evangelism. Eventually we will have to come to terms with some fundamental anthropological categories, such as "religion," "belief," and "meaning," that may be tools developed from within a Judeo-Christian culture, rather than the objective instruments of a universal social science that they are often taken for. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 313          Queer Anthropology [Schroeder]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | This course broadly surveys the critical anthropology of sexuality-an anthropology that exposes and analyzes the construction of gender and sexual normativity across cultures. Of major interest is the way other cultures' understanding of sexuality challenges the perception of "the normal" in ours. Thus, the course encourages students to perceive the cultural specificity of their own ideas. The period covered is long: from Margaret Mead's account of Samoan girls' sexuality in the early 20th century to contemporary analyses of the emergence of gay and lesbian identities and movements in diverse parts of the globalized world. Besides exploring concepts such as kinship, cultural constructionism, identity formation, performativity, and others, the class will be interested to assess the limits of contemporary queer theory in the analysis of non-Western sexual cultures, thereby examining the position of anthropology in the emergent field of queer theory. (Caveat: This course will not entertain debate on the origins and causes of homosexuality except to engage the cultural logic behind such questions and to uncover the way their particularity motivates our own inquiry.) (3.0 Units)

ANTH 329          Marriage, Mortality, Fertility [Shepherd]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | This explores the ways that culturally formed systems of values and family organization affect population processes in a variety of cultures. Topics to be discussed will include (1) disease history, the impact of epidemics and famine, the differential impact of morality, gender, age, and class, and the impact of improved nutrition and modern medicine; (2) marriage strategies and alternatives, the problem of unbalanced sex ratios at marriageable age, systems of polygamy and polyandry, divorce, widowhood and remarriage; (3) fertility decision-making, premodern methods of birth control and spacing, infanticide; and (4) migration, regional systems, and variation through time and space in the structure of populations. ANTH 101 or equivalent recommended as background. This is an advanced course, adding to general offerings in social organization, kinship, marriage, and gender. This course is intended for upper-level majors and non-majors. Satisfies the second writing requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 334          Ecology and Society [Damon]

MoWeFr 11:00AM - 11:50AM | This course attempts to 1) mediate the divide between the Arts and the Sciences; 2) introduce students new to anthropology aspects of culture theory and contemporary ecological/environmental anthropology; 3) forge a synthesis between culture theory and historical ecology; 4) provide new insights on how human both fashion and are fashioned by their environments; 5) provide a seminar-like context in which we can evaluate, as anthropologists and citizens of our world, aspects of the current environmental debate in our culture; and 6) facilitate independent study on environmental issues by each student. Although case studies will be drawn from throughout the world, there will be a stress on the social systems and environments triangulating South Asia, East Asia, Australia, and the Americas. A dominant theme will be the relationships between climate and human culture. The course will be taught in two parts. Lectures based on readings will occupy every Monday and Wednesday. Fridays shall be devoted to a seminar-like format in which the class collectively discusses and each student reads one of several books mediating one or another aspect of the environmental debate dealing with both research and contemporary policy. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 341          Sociolinguistics [Harr]

MoWeFr 9:00AM - 9:50AM | Every "single" living language is in practice an unbounded array of linguistic forms, functions, and feelings distributed unequally among speakers. Sociolinguists take such variety and inequality as starting points for investigating language as a crucially social (rather than essentially mental) phenomenon. In this introductory course, we will survey how languages vary through time, across space, and among social groups while also examining how times, spaces, and social groups are themselves shaped by linguistic variation. We will be concerned throughout the semester with links between language and social inequality. Course grade will be based on a midterm exam, an end of term essay, and active participation throughout the semester. No background in linguistics will be presupposed. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 345          Native American Languages [Danziger]

Th 14:00PM - 16:30PM | 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: LGS 325, LGS 701 or ANTH 740. This course fulfills the Language Structure requirement for Linguistics majors. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 349          Language and Thought [Danziger]

Th 10:00AM - 10:50AM | There is almost always more than one way to think about any problem. But could speaking a particular language make some strategies and solutions seem more natural than others to individuals? Can we learn about alternative ways of approaching the external world by studying other languages? The classic proposal of linguistic relativity as enunciated by Benjamin Lee Whorf is examined in the light of recent cross-cultural psycholinguistic research. We highlight the interplay between social intelligence, linguistic structure and general cognition. In the course of this discussion we approach the question of how language-specific cognitive preferences could develop in the course of children's language acquisition. Finally, we ask how culturally-particular ways of talking about language itself might reflect and reinforce the `common-sense' ideas about the nature of language that underlie most linguistic research. During the term, students will prepare short written summaries of assigned readings, and a longer research paper. This class fulfils the Linguistics requirement for Anthropology and for Cognitive Science majors. It fulfils the Theory requirement for Linguistics majors. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 350          Readings in Ethnography [Metcalf]

Mo 16:00PM - 18:30PM | Ethnographies are the characteristic mode of presenting the result of research in social and cultural anthropology. They constitute a literary genre, and they provide the basis of whatever truth claims we make. Yet they vary enormously in style, accuracy, insight, credibility, and agenda. Consequently, it is crucial that we read them critically, appreciating both their strengths and weaknesses. This course is designed to promote such critical readings. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 353          Eastern European Societies [Makarova]

We 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, and religion and ritual. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 362          Cinema in India [Seneviratne]

Mo 14:00PM - 16:30PM | A discussion of the history, sociology and aesthetics of the popular Indian film. The non-popular or the "art" film is briefly discussed. The course is conducted in a seminar format. In addition to participation in discussing assigned readings, all students make presentations on selected films. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 390          Archaeology of Europe [Laviolette]

MoWeFr 11:00AM - 11:50AM | This lecture course covers topics in the archaeology of Europe from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age, including: the peopling of Europe; the Neanderthals; early modern humanity, cave art, and other social and cultural developments; the emergence of settled villages and towns and accompanying ritual earthworks and henges; encounters between Romans and other Europeans; and political networks, palaces, and urban centers of the Bronze Age. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 394          Archaeological Approaches to Atlantic Slavery [Neiman]

Mo 16:30PM - 19:00PM | This course explores how archaeological 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. We will focus on the Chesapeake, South Carolina, and Jamaica. 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 techniques in archaeological data analysis that jointly are required to make and evaluate inferences about the meaning of archaeological 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 (http://www.daacs.org). (3.0 Units)

ANTH 401A        Anthropology of Warfare [Arkush]

Tu 14:00PM - 16:30PM | This seminar examines major current debates in the anthropology of warfare. Among other topics, we will consider the causes of war at multiple scales of analysis, cross-cultural variation in the practice of war, relationships between warfare, gender, and political power, and the effects of war on the individual and society. Case studies come from different parts of the world and from the archaeological past as well as the ethnographic present. Meets second writing requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 401B        Ritual in Anthropological Perspective [Sihlé]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | We may want to understand ritual for instance in Leach’s (1954) very wide sense as the communicative aspect of social behavior, or more restrictively, arguing that using “ritual” to refer to British handshakes as well as Dinka cattle sacrifices deprives the term of quite some of its analytical usefulness. At any rate, the category of “ritual” figures prominently in anthropological accounts of religion and society. Through ethnographies, theoretical statements and films, this seminar will examine critically this key term of the anthropological vocabulary and the realities that we have attempted to grasp through it. Course meets Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 401C        Contemporary African Societies [Laviolette]

Tu 17:00PM - 19:30PM | This seminar engages the human landscape of modern Africa, through the close reading of a selection of monographs and African feature films from diverse cultural and geographical areas. The texts are drawn from fiction, ethnography, life history, and social history, and are taught against a backdrop of economic strategies, forms of social organization, and challenges facing modern African women and men. We will discuss urban and rural transformations, the elite and poor, and the forces that draw them together; transnational migration; and belief systems. How relationships between men and women are contextualized and negotiated is a theme found throughout the readings and films, as well as the struggle of people in different circumstances to build new relationships with older beliefs and practices, and with new forms of government. Meets second writing requirement if you submit a draft of your paper for comments prior to your final submission. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 401D        Gendered Work and Economies [Shutt]

Th 19:00PM - 21:30PM | This weekly seminar will explore the way gender and economic life come together through the examination of a wide range of ethnographic examples. Each week, we will be concentrating in depth on a particular cultural group or world region. Using examples of both classic and contemporary ethnography, we will investigate the way categories of gender intersect with societal divisions of labor, movement and migration, household authority and entitlement, workplace culture, and the construction of large-scale economies. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 528           Topics in Race Theory: White Supremacy [Marshall]

We 19:00PM - 21:30PM | Who is "white"? What is white supremacy? What is the relationship between white supremacy and globalization, whiteness and class power? If "race" is a "social construct," is it also an alibi for white supremacy? How and where is white supremacy deployed in the U.S. and the world? Is the white supremacy manifest by low wealth "whites" a product of hegemony, or false consciousness? If the discourse on non-whites centers on pathological behaviors, what might we construe as (im)proper white behavior? These questions will guide our explorations into the practices and ideologies, structures and discourses of whiteness in post-Reconstruction U.S. and elsewhere. Course Meets: Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 529A        Tibetan Religion [Sihlé]

Mo 15:30PM - 18:00PM | This seminar approaches a complex, major religious tradition, Tibetan Buddhism in its larger sociocultural contexts, from an analytical, anthropological perspective. Through ethnographies, a selection of comparative and theoretical elements, and film, we will analyze the diverse array of Tibetan religious forms, from mass and elite monasticism to spirit-mediums, from the complexities of Tantric ritual to conceptions of the cosmos and the person. Through this focus on Tibetan religion, we will address larger anthropological issues and debates on religion and society (e.g., issues pertaining to Buddhism and modernity), religion and politics, ritual (central here to an unusual degree in Buddhist traditions and, as such, a major emphasis in this course), and the anthropology of texts. Course meets Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 529B        House Societies [McKinnon]

Th 18:00PM - 20:30PM | 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 Levi-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 a way of thinking about hierarchy and social complexity, as site of ritual elaboration, as a symbolic entity that links the human body and the cosmos, and as a node in complex systems of exchange. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 529C        World Mental Health [Merkel]

We 18:00PM - 20:30PM | This course will examine world mental health from the perspectives of both biomedicine and anthropology, emphasizing local traditions of illness and healing and evidence from epidemiology and neurobiology. Included will be various understandings of mental health, psychosis, depression, PTSD, Culture Bound Syndromes, substance use, suicide, and culturally sensitive treatment efforts. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 537           Mythodology [Wagner]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | 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. The course grade is based on a final paper plus class participation. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 544           Morphology [Dobrin]

Tu 15:30PM - 18:00PM | This course provides an overview of morphological theory within the field of linguistics, focusing on recurring themes that have arisen as the subfield has sought to find its place within the generative linguistic paradigm. The issues we will cover fall mainly into two broad groupings: those that relate morphology to phonology (such as allomorphy and word formation), and those that relate it to syntax (this semester we will be focusing especially on grammatical agreement). Throughout the course we will be mindful of whether there is such a thing as pure morphology, a core set of phenomena having to do with word structure which motivates a distinct component of grammar. This course fulfills the linguistics program "theory" requirement. Prerequisite: An introductory course in linguistic analysis, such as LNGS 325. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 547           Language and Identity [Lefkowitz]

Mo 15:30PM - 18:00PM | This seminar explores the relationship between language and identity. In anthropology, where identity has become a central concern, language is seen as an important site for the construction of, and negotiation over social identities. In linguistics, reference to categories of social identity helps to explain language structure and change. The course explores the overlap between these converging trends by focusing on the notion of discourse as a nexus of cultural and linguistic processes related to identity. Readings will juxtapose social theoretic with linguistic treatments of identity, toward identifying theoretical frameworks that generate promising means for investigating and describing the phenomenon of identity. Prerequisite: some coursework in both anthropology and linguistics; or permission of the instructor. (3.0 Units)

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        Communitas and Sociality [Turner]

We 18:00PM - 20:30PM | Communitas is a social phenomenon occurring apparently at random throughout human society, a group's pleasure in sharing common experiences with one's fellows, creating an essential and generic human bond. The class will research the circumstances that engender communitas and do local field research to engage with it, in rites of passage, in collective musical occasions, and in times of stress. We will follow the connection that Victor Turner made between liminal periods within the processes of society and the consciousness, in those moments, of communitas and antistructure, using his article, "Betwixt and Between" and book, The Ritual Process, with a consideration of Buber and Bakhtin, the early Marx, the religions, nature and environmentalism, and violent and non-violent "human rights" revolutions. The characteristics of communitas show it to be well-nigh beyond strict definition, extending in great variations, and often appearing unexpectedly. When it does appear one is conscious that it overrides psychological and sociological constructs. Sociality will be examined as an inherent natural feature of the human being, though easily broken by gross forms of power. Communitas being the recovered condition of what we were born with, the contexts of its reappearance will be sought, with an attempt to understand the principles behind such occasions. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 589A        GIS in Archaeology [Arkush]

Th 14:00PM - 16:30PM | This course covers the basic theoretical background and methodological skills necessary to manage and analyze spatial data sets using GIS (Geographic Information Systems). We will emphasize the GIS concepts and techniques that are most useful to archaeologists, such as data acquisition, spatial queries, working with rasters, cost-surface and visualization analysis, and locational modeling. Class sessions include lectures, case studies from the literature, and lab assignments designed to teach specific techniques and develop problem-solving. For the final project, students will develop and analyze a dataset in an area of interest. The course is intended for graduate students in anthropology and related fields, although advanced undergraduate students may enroll with the instructor's permission. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 589B        Current Issues in SW Archaeology [Plog]

Tu 14:00PM - 16:30PM | A discussion of current research issues in the Pueblo Southwest that will focus on issues of sociopolitical organization, ritual, demography, and subsistence. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 528           Topics in Race Theory: White Supremacy [Marshall]

We 19:00PM - 21:30PM | Who is "white"? What is white supremacy? What is the relationship between white supremacy and globalization, whiteness and class power? If "race" is a "social construct," is it also an alibi for white supremacy? How and where is white supremacy deployed in the U.S. and the world? Is the white supremacy manifest by low wealth "whites" a product of hegemony, or false consciousness? If the discourse on non-whites centers on pathological behaviors, what might we construe as (im)proper white behavior? These questions will guide our explorations into the practices and ideologies, structures and discourses of whiteness in post-Reconstruction U.S. and elsewhere. Course Meets: Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 529A        Tibetan Religion [Sihlé]

Mo 15:30PM - 18:00PM | This seminar approaches a complex, major religious tradition, Tibetan Buddhism in its larger sociocultural contexts, from an analytical, anthropological perspective. Through ethnographies, a selection of comparative and theoretical elements, and film, we will analyze the diverse array of Tibetan religious forms, from mass and elite monasticism to spirit-mediums, from the complexities of Tantric ritual to conceptions of the cosmos and the person. Through this focus on Tibetan religion, we will address larger anthropological issues and debates on religion and society (e.g., issues pertaining to Buddhism and modernity), religion and politics, ritual (central here to an unusual degree in Buddhist traditions and, as such, a major emphasis in this course), and the anthropology of texts. Course meets Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 529B        House Societies [McKinnon]

Th 18:00PM - 20:30PM | 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 Levi-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 a way of thinking about hierarchy and social complexity, as site of ritual elaboration, as a symbolic entity that links the human body and the cosmos, and as a node in complex systems of exchange. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 529C        World Mental Health [Merkel]

We 18:00PM - 20:30PM | This course will examine world mental health from the perspectives of both biomedicine and anthropology, emphasizing local traditions of illness and healing and evidence from epidemiology and neurobiology. Included will be various understandings of mental health, psychosis, depression, PTSD, Culture Bound Syndromes, substance use, suicide, and culturally sensitive treatment efforts. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 537           Mythodology [Wagner]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | 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. The course grade is based on a final paper plus class participation. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 544           Morphology [Dobrin]

Tu 15:30PM - 18:00PM | This course provides an overview of morphological theory within the field of linguistics, focusing on recurring themes that have arisen as the subfield has sought to find its place within the generative linguistic paradigm. The issues we will cover fall mainly into two broad groupings: those that relate morphology to phonology (such as allomorphy and word formation), and those that relate it to syntax (this semester we will be focusing especially on grammatical agreement). Throughout the course we will be mindful of whether there is such a thing as pure morphology, a core set of phenomena having to do with word structure which motivates a distinct component of grammar. This course fulfills the linguistics program "theory" requirement. Prerequisite: An introductory course in linguistic analysis, such as LNGS 325. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 547           Language and Identity [Lefkowitz]

Mo 15:30PM - 18:00PM | This seminar explores the relationship between language and identity. In anthropology, where identity has become a central concern, language is seen as an important site for the construction of, and negotiation over social identities. In linguistics, reference to categories of social identity helps to explain language structure and change. The course explores the overlap between these converging trends by focusing on the notion of discourse as a nexus of cultural and linguistic processes related to identity. Readings will juxtapose social theoretic with linguistic treatments of identity, toward identifying theoretical frameworks that generate promising means for investigating and describing the phenomenon of identity. Prerequisite: some coursework in both anthropology and linguistics; or permission of the instructor. (3.0 Units)

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        Communitas and Sociality [Turner]

We 18:00PM - 20:30PM | Communitas is a social phenomenon occurring apparently at random throughout human society, a group's pleasure in sharing common experiences with one's fellows, creating an essential and generic human bond. The class will research the circumstances that engender communitas and do local field research to engage with it, in rites of passage, in collective musical occasions, and in times of stress. We will follow the connection that Victor Turner made between liminal periods within the processes of society and the consciousness, in those moments, of communitas and antistructure, using his article, "Betwixt and Between" and book, The Ritual Process, with a consideration of Buber and Bakhtin, the early Marx, the religions, nature and environmentalism, and violent and non-violent "human rights" revolutions. The characteristics of communitas show it to be well-nigh beyond strict definition, extending in great variations, and often appearing unexpectedly. When it does appear one is conscious that it overrides psychological and sociological constructs. Sociality will be examined as an inherent natural feature of the human being, though easily broken by gross forms of power. Communitas being the recovered condition of what we were born with, the contexts of its reappearance will be sought, with an attempt to understand the principles behind such occasions. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 589A        GIS in Archaeology [Arkush]

Th 14:00PM - 16:30PM | This course covers the basic theoretical background and methodological skills necessary to manage and analyze spatial data sets using GIS (Geographic Information Systems). We will emphasize the GIS concepts and techniques that are most useful to archaeologists, such as data acquisition, spatial queries, working with rasters, cost-surface and visualization analysis, and locational modeling. Class sessions include lectures, case studies from the literature, and lab assignments designed to teach specific techniques and develop problem-solving. For the final project, students will develop and analyze a dataset in an area of interest. The course is intended for graduate students in anthropology and related fields, although advanced undergraduate students may enroll with the instructor's permission. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 589B        Current Issues in SW Archaeology [Plog]

Tu 14:00PM - 16:30PM | A discussion of current research issues in the Pueblo Southwest that will focus on issues of sociopolitical organization, ritual, demography, and subsistence. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 702           Current Theory [Metcalf]

MoWe 14:00PM - 15:15PM | The course continues the agenda of ANTH 701, exploring the history of anthropological theory up to our own times. We will read works by authors such as Victor Turner, David Schneider, Clifford Geertz, Marshall Sahlins, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Nancy Munn, Marilyn Strathern, Eric Wolf, James Clifford, George Marcus, Michel Rolph-Trouillot, Lila Abu-Lughod, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Sherry Ortner, and James Ferguson. The course is restricted to Anthropology graduate students in their first year, for whom it is a requirement. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 704           Research Design and Methods [Marshall]

Mo 18:00PM - 20:30PM | Linda Tuhiwai Smith (Smith 2005: 6) has argued that research must be situated and critically examined within historical, political and cultural contexts. As such, the course will be attentive to both practical aspects of designing research methodologies as well as to the theories and epistemologies that ground methods as a distinct set of beliefs and practices reflecting the Western tradition of social science research. The course will help graduate students design methods for their dissertation projects, IRB submissions and grant proposals as well as to critically reflect on what it is they are doing when they are "in the field." All students will be expected to produce grant proposals for (eventual) submission. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 711           Second Year Qualifying Exercise [Shepherd]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | This workshop is designed for second-year anthropology graduate students as they prepare the MA-qualifying exercise. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 729           Marriage, Mortality, Fertility [Shepherd]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | This explores the ways that culturally formed systems of values and family organization affect population processes in a variety of cultures. Topics to be discussed will include (1) disease history, the impact of epidemics and famine, the differential impact of morality, gender, age, and class, and the impact of improved nutrition and modern medicine; (2) marriage strategies and alternatives, the problem of unbalanced sex rations at marriageable age, systems of polygamy and polyandry, divorce, widowhood and remarriage; (3) fertility decision-making, premodern methods of birth control and spacing, infanticide; and (4) migration, regional systems, and variation through time and space in the structure of populations. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 734           Ecology and Society [Damon]

MoWeFr 11:00AM - 11:50AM | This course attempts to 1) mediate the divide between the Arts and the Sciences; 2) introduce students new to anthropology aspects of culture theory and contemporary ecological/environmental anthropology; 3) forge a synthesis between culture theory and historical ecology; 4) provide new insights on how human both fashion and are fashioned by their environments; 5) provide a seminar-like context in which we can evaluate, as anthropologists and citizens of our world, aspects of the current environmental debate in our culture; and 6) facilitate independent study on environmental issues by each student. Although case studies will be drawn from throughout the world, there will be a stress on the social systems and environments triangulating South Asia, East Asia, and Australia, and the Americas. A dominant theme will be the relationships between climate and human culture. The course will be taught in two parts. Lectures based on readings will occupy every Monday and Wednesday. Fridays shall be devoted to a seminar-like format in which the class collectively discusses and each student reads one of several books mediating one or another aspect of the environmental debate dealing with both research and contemporary policy. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 739           Language and Thought [Danziger]

WeFr 10:00AM - 10:50AM | There is almost always more than one way to think about any problem. But could speaking a particular language make some strategies and solutions seem more natural than others to individuals? Can we learn about alternative ways of approaching the external world by studying other languages? The classic proposal of linguistic relativity as enunciated by Benjamin Lee Whorf is examined in the light of recent cross-cultural psycholinguistic research. We highlight the interplay between social intelligence, linguistic structure and general cognition. In the course of this discussion we approach the question of how language-specific cognitive preferences could develop in the course of children's language acquisition. Finally, we ask how culturally-particular ways of talking about language itself might reflect and reinforce the `common-sense' ideas about the nature of language that underlie most linguistic research. During the term, students will prepare short written summaries of assigned readings, and a longer research paper. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 740           Linguistic Anthropology [Contini-Morava]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | This is an advanced introduction to the study of language from an anthropological point of view. No prior coursework in linguistics is expected, but the course is aimed at graduate students who will use what they learn in their own anthropologically oriented research. Topics include an introduction to such basic concepts in linguistic anthropology as language in world-view, language as a symbolic system, universals and particulars in language, language in history and prehistory, the ethnography of speaking, the nature of everyday conversation, and the study of poetic language. Evaluation is based on take-home essays and problem-sets which are assigned throughout the semester, and may also include a short field project. The course is required for all Anthropology graduate students. It also counts toward the "Theory" requirement for the M.A. in Linguistics. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 745           Native American Languages [Danziger]

Th 14:00PM - 16:30PM | This course is 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: LGS 325, LGS 701 or ANTH 740. This course fulfills the Language Structure requirement for Linguistics graduate students. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 753           Eastern European Societies [Makarova]

We 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. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 762           Cinema in India [Seneviratane]

Mo 14:00PM - 16:30PM | A discussion of the history, sociology and aesthetics of the popular Indian film. The non-popular or the "art" film is briefly discussed. The course is conducted in a seminar format. In addition to participation in discussing assigned readings, all students make presentations on selected films. (3.0 Units)

ANTH 794           Archaeology Approaches to Atlantic Slavery [Neiman]

Mo 16:30PM - 19:00PM | This course explores how archaeological 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. We will focus on the Chesapeake, South Carolina, and Jamaica. 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 techniques in archaeological data analysis that jointly are required to make and evaluate inferences about the meaning of archaeological 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 (http://www.daacs.org). (3.0 Units)

SWAHILI 102      Introduction to Swahili II [Wairungu]

MoWeFr 9:00AM - 9:50AM | This is the second part of a two-semester beginning Swahili course. It will focus on developing the already acquired Swahili listening, speaking, reading and writing skills so as to understand basic Swahili, and actively participate in day-to-day Swahili cultural activities. Enrollment in this course is subject to Instructor's Permission as the student is required to have completed SWAH 101 at UVa. Upon completion of this course, students will be expected to demonstrate evidence of the acquisition of: a) basic skills in performing day-to-day interactions such as greetings, interpersonal conversations, and comprehension in Swahili; b) use of simple but fairly communicative grammatical constructions; c) appreciation of basic cultural practices of the Swahili-speaking people. Class meetings shall be supplemented by technology sessions where deemed appropriate. (3.0 Units)