Spring 2009

Undergraduate Courses (Meet Major Area Requirements)

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ANTH 101 Introduction to Anthropology [Handler]

MoWe 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)

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ANTH 236 Castaneda and 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)

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ANTH 242 Language and Gender [Sanchez]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | This course introduces students to the study of language and gender. We begin with biological differences between the sexes and consider how these affect language (voice quality, language abilities). Since biological differences cannot fully account for the variation we see, we turn to social explanations. We will consider both how language varieties reflect social conditions (e.g. socioeconomic class, status of women in society), and how women and men construct gender and gendered identities through their use of language varieties. The relevant aspects of these language varieties may be from any level of language (phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, discourse-pragmatic structure). We will examine various approaches to the study of language and gender (deficiency model, dominance theory, biological difference, socialization/cultural difference, and social constructivist approaches). We will consider language and gender in societies around the world. Specific issues include gender differences in language use, gendered language development in children, the role of women in language change, multilingualism and language choice, verbal politeness, sexist language, the language of sexual harassment, and the discourse of sexual assault trials. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 254 Anthropology of God [Mentore]

TuTh 11:00AM - 12:15PM | 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)

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ANTH 258 Anthropology of Reproduction [Donahue-Singh]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:30PM | Anthropology of Reproduction: Fertility and the Future In this course, we will study human reproduction as a cultural process. Among our central questions will be, how do gender, class, race, and religion shape reproductive ideals and practices around the world? How do difficulties in reproduction, ranging from infertility and pregnancy loss to natural disaster and political upheaval, impact those ideals and practices? Our ethnographic examples will come from around the world, but will emphasize South Asia and the United States. We will examine the perspectives of both men and women and situate local examples within national and global struggles to (re)produce the future. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 282 Rise of Civilization [Kovacevich]

MoWe 10:00AM - 10:50AM | A comparative survey of the archaeological evidence on the origins, development, and collapse of early civilizations around the world. We will examine the transformation of human societies from the first settled villages to urban states in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China, Mesoamerica, and South America. Lectures, discussion, and debate will include recent archaeological discoveries, alternative interpretations, and general theories of cultural evolution. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 291A People, Culture and Environment in Africa [Pawlowicz]

MoWeFr 10:00AM - 10:50AM | Humans and the natural environment engage in a complex interaction. Humans transform their surroundings even as those surroundings shape the societies and cultural institutions they create. This course pursues both the question of how this interaction has proceeded in different places and among different peoples in Africa, and the cultural significances given to the environment so that we might better understand why it proceeded in that way. Drawing on evidence from ethnography, archaeology, ethnohistory and folklore we will examine how nature becomes entangled with political power and social ranking, with memory and group identity, and the consequences for the environment, and for the people who live there, which result. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 291B Religion and Relatedness: Caribbean Perspectives [Thomas]

MoWeFr 9:00AM - 9:50AM | This course analyzes the constitution and reproduction of Caribbean religious communities within the social contexts of enslavement, emancipation, postcolonialism, and transnationalism. Assigned readings survey ethnographies of Christianity, Hinduism, and Afro-Caribbean traditions like Rastafarianism, Vodun, and Candomble'. Course discussions and themes consider the contours of Caribbean religious groups as well as means by which ritual, religious ideologies, and kinship discourses enmesh practitioners in religious networks. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 291C Writing Muslim Worlds [Strohl]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | While journalists and talk-show commentators constantly talk about a homogenous "Muslim world," anthropological accounts showcase the diverse approaches that Muslims take to the Islamic religion. This course introduces students to anthropological studies of Muslim communities around the world. By reading a series of short ethnographies on Muslim societies in settings as varied as South Asia, Indonesia, and Lebanon, we will examine a diverse array of institutions, rituals, and social practices associated with Islam. In doing so, we will look at the different ways Muslims have made sense of Islam as a global religion and its local manifestations in different cultural contexts. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 301 Theory and History of Anthropology [Bashkow]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | This course is designed for students majoring in anthropology: it presents a broad historical outline of major approaches and debates in the field, and fosters skills in critically reading and discussing social and cultural theory. By reading sample works we will learn about the approaches of 19th-century social evolutionism, Boasian cultural anthropology, l'Année Sociologique, British structural functionalism, French structuralism, symbolic anthropology, American cultural materialism and neo-evolutionism, later American cultural anthropology, practice theory, feminism, and post-modern theories. We will be concerned to understand these approaches not only as theoretical frameworks for understanding other cultures, but also as commentaries upon, and reflections of, the culture that produced them. The course stresses close reading and analysis of primary texts. The discussion session is obligatory. This is a required course for anthropology majors. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 302A Culture and Materiality [Newell]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | This course examines the way we produce culture by consuming, exchanging, and inhabiting the things around us. We will investigate the hypothesis that objects take on value through the meanings they absorb; that in representing the social world consumer goods take on a social life of their own. We explore other cultures' understandings of objects and value while producing a critical analysis of the role of material culture in our own society. Exploring social practices such as gift exchange, collecting, adornment and display we consider interconnections between cultural understanding and the material world. How do appearance and the manipulation of the body inform our understanding of personhood? Why do people consume across cultures? In what ways is taste and value culturally constructed, and how does it change? Ultimately, how is the material world constructed through culture even as culture relies upon materiality to produce meaning? (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 302B Capitalism [Weston]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | Capitalism is a mode of production that has assumed different forms in different cultural and historical settings. This course examines key concepts in political economy such as commodification and class relations by drawing upon material from various parts of the world. Topics include ethnographies of money and "informal economies"; field studies of work and industrialization; cultural and historical takes on "boom-bust" cycles and financial speculation; anthropological perspectives on shopping, "consumer culture," and advertising; the part played by slavery in capital formation; culture and the corporation; and the debate over whether capitalism is compatible with environmental sustainability. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 302C Transnational East Asia: Focus on China and South Korea [Freeman]

WeFr 10:00AM - 10:50AM | South Korea and China are countries that are “on the move.” By this I refer to their tumultuous histories as well as the increased circulation of people, ideas, and objects within and across their national borders. Through cross-cultural comparison of China and South Korea, this course asks in what ways have border crossing-activities and mobility within circuits of global capitalism altered the way life is lived and imagined both at home and in Korean and Chinese communities overseas? Seeking new understandings of the way power works in a transnational milieu, we will explore the challenges that mobility poses to concepts of ethnic/national identity, citizenship, gender and family formation. Topics include, but won’t be limited to, the new forms of marriage and romance mediated by the global economy; diasporic cultures; migrant laborers and “split transnational families;” consumer practices; overseas entrepreneurs; transnational adoptees; and return migrants and their (re)encounter with their imagined homelands. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 303A Darwin and Culture [Neiman]

Mo 16:30PM - 19:00PM | The coming year (2009) marks the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species. Yet a century and a half later, the implications of evolutionary theory for how we understand human history and culture remain contested within the social sciences and humanities, including anthropology. This course explores aspects of the history, impact, and current status of evolutionary theory in anthropology. We begin with a brief historical overview of both Darwinian and non-Darwinian evolutionary thinking in anthropology in the late-19th early-20th centuries. We will trace the impact of the Modern Synthesis on the scientific study of non-human behavior, and its reverberations in anthropology in the uproar over sociobiology in the 1970's. Next we consider more recent evolutionary approaches to human behavior and culture, including behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, gene-culture co-evolution, and niche construction. Among the substantive topics we will consider are the evolution of culture itself, subsistence intensification, agricultural origins, human disease, cooperation, social inequality, gender, mating and parenting systems, and religious ritual. The course is organized around discussion, with occasional lectures. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 307 Native American History and Representation [Hantman]

MoWe 14:00PM - 15:15PM | 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)

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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) create 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. An additional one hour discussion section is required part of this course. The course meets the Second Writing Requirement. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 331 Sociolinguistics [Harr]

MoWeFr 11:00AM - 11:50AM | 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 thinking about how times, spaces, and social groups are themselves shaped by linguistic variation. Course grade will be based on section exams, an end of term essay, and active participation throughout the semester. No background in linguistics or anthropology is required. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 349 Language and Thought [Danziger]

WeFr 10:00AM - 10:50AM | There is almost always more than one way to think about any problem. The fact that different individuals often find different solutions to the same problem is partly a matter of differences in their individual history and experience. But could using a particular language be one kind of experience which makes certain cognitive strategies seem more natural than others to individuals? This course examines the proposal that the different ways of making sense of the external world could correspond to language-related cultural presuppositions. The classic hypothesis of linguistic relativity as enunciated by Benjamin Lee Whorf is examined in the light of recent cross-cultural psycholinguistic research, and highlighting the interplay between social intelligence, linguistic structure and general cognition. In the course of this discussion we ask how culturally-particular ways of talking about language itself might actually 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)

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ANTH 350 Reading in Ethnography [Khare]

Mo 14:00PM - 16:30PM | Reading and discussion of selected ethnographies, both old and new, illustrating different forms and purposes of ethnographic writing, interpretations and analyses, with emphasis on exploring trans-cultural and transnational issues, topics and problem areas. Building on some basic readings in ethnography and ethnographic method, the class will explore ethnography as a method and medium for studying (a) identity under inequalities; (b) changing food culture; (c) health and wellness issues, and (d) globalizing religious ways. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 367 Tibet and the Himalayas [Sihlé]

TuTh 14:00PM - 15:15PM | This course aims at providing a balanced, anthropological outlook on a complex and culturally diverse area, on which the West and others have massively projected their own fantasies: Tibet and the Himalayas. We will learn to mistrust these myths and will develop an understanding of these societies both in their own terms and by relating Tibetan and Himalayan ethnography to larger anthropological issues and debates. The main topics investigated shall include ethnicity, social and political organization, and religious forms; we will also engage in a thorough discussion of recent political developments. The course materials will center on academic articles and books, but will include also biography, news articles, fiction, poetry, and films. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 384 Archaeology of the Middle East [Wattenmaker]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | This course introduces students to the prehistory and early history of the Middle East and Egypt, focusing mainly on the period from ca. 11,000 to 4000 BP. Through both lectures and discussion, we will examine archaeological research and findings on the origins of food production (the domestication of plants and animals), the earliest village communities, the origins of social ranking, the advent of state societies, urbanism and the origins of writing systems. (3.0 Units)

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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)

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ANTH 398 Archaeology of the Andes [Arkush]

TuTh 9:30AM - 10:45AM | This course is an introduction to the archaeology of Andean South America (modern-day Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador), from the first human settlement through the Spanish conquest of the Incas in 1532. We will focus in particular on the lifeways of the first human settlers in the region, the origin of agriculture, cities and monumental construction, the relationship between Andean environments and cultural developments, the economic and ideological underpinnings of Andean states, and their collapse. In the process we will draw on ethnohistoric information collected in the contact period, and explore the rich artistic achievements of Andeans in architecture, pottery, textiles, and metalwork. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 401A Anthropology of Warfare [Arkush]

We 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)

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ANTH 401B Ritual in Anthropological Perspective [Sihlé]

MoWe 18:00PM - 19:15PM | 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)

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ANTH 401C Maya Archaeology [Kovacevich]

TuTh 11:00AM - 11:50AM | The ancient Maya civilization flourished for two thousand years in the lowland jungles of Central America and achieved extraordinary levels of sophistication in astronomy, mathematics, writing, and engineering. In examining ancient Maya society, we will take a holistic anthropological view of their evolving political structures, rich cosmology and belief systems, relationship with the natural environment, and economic structure. Using recent and ongoing archaeological research we will also grapple with the facts and fiction of the collapse of lowland Maya civilization at around AD 900. Finally, we will cast a critical eye on how the Maya past is reconstructed, how it has been exoticized and how these popular perceptions impact the Maya of today. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 401D Anthropology of Dissent [Bonilla]

TuTh 12:30PM - 13:45PM | This course will investigate various processes of opposition, resistance, and revolution. The first half of the course will survey foundational works of revolutionary theory, while the second half will examine political practice from an ethnographic perspective, with an eye towards the lived experience of political participation and the formation (and transformation) of resisting subjects. We will consider these themes across a wide spectrum of movements and moments: from early Marxist, nationalist, and anti-colonial models of struggle to the more recent uprisings against global capitalism and neo-liberal policies in the US, Latin America, and Europe. The geographical focus will be global, emphasizing connections and influences across borders and epochs, while highlighting the connections between cultural politics in "the margins" and "the center". (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 480 The Astor Collection [Hantman]

Th 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)

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ANTH 504 Field Methods [Sanchez]

Tu 15:30PM - 18:00PM | 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 the 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 assignment may vary depending on the particular language being studied). (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 529A Globalization, Inequalities and Human Rights [Khare]

We 14:00PM - 16:30PM | The seminar will critically discuss globalization as an uneven socio-economic and cultural-moral process, with a review of how social inequality and social justice issues have fared among widely different societies, including US and India. The approach will be anthropologically comparative and transnational, interrelating experience and theory, culture and morality, and power and contestation. The workshops, adapted to class members' requirements, will be on the globalizing class-race-caste-gender inequalities, human displacement problems and religious-political conflicts. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 529C 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)

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ANTH 537 World Mental Health [Merkel]

We 18:00PM - 20:30PM | The purpose of this class is to bring together social science and medically oriented students to try and learn from and with each other about the role of culture in mental illness. There is an increasing realization that mental health issues are among the most frequent public health issues facing the world today. Yet it is also becoming clear that present day health care system, including psychiatry, is not prepared to meet this need. Many question the appropriateness and effectiveness of western based mental health care in non-western societies. On the other hand, some of the largest barriers to adequate mental health care are cultural. Both social science, especially anthropology, and biomedical science, including psychiatry, have valuable perspectives on these issues and both are needed, if the world is to improve the quality of life for those with mental illness. However, this is a very complicated area and historically anthropologic and psychiatric perspectives have not always been compatible. It is therefore hoped that this course may contribute to the increasing dialogue that is occurring in this area. This course will examine mental health issues from the perspectives of both biomedicine and anthropology, emphasizing local traditions of illness and healing as well as evidence from epidemiology and neurobiology. Included topics will be psychosis, depression, PTSD, Culture Bound Syndromes, and suicide. We will also examine the role of pharmaceutical companies in the spread of western based mental health care and culturally sensitive treatment efforts, combining western biomedical treatments with traditional methods. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 549 Speech, Play, Verbal Art [Lefkowitz]

Mo 14:00PM - 16:30PM | This seminar examines the linguistics and politics of poetics. We will explore cross-cultural and cross-linguistic diversity in ideas about what can be considered poetic in language, and we will link such formal analyses to ideas about what can be considered rhetorically effective and politically (or ideologically) powerful in language. Requirements will include seminar presentations and a research paper. Prerequisite: some coursework in both anthropology and linguistics; or permission of the instructor. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 554 Africa and Social Theory [Newell]

We 15:30PM - 18:00PM | The encounter between Europe and Africa has produced some of the most important social theory and some of the most problematic misrepresentations. This course tracks the social imaginary of Africa in relationship to the development of theoretical frameworks through which Africa is represented. If the concept of the fetish was born out of cross-cultural misunderstandings between Europe and Africa, to what extent is Africa itself a fetish through which the European self is produced? Exploring the anthropology of exchange, bodies and persons, kinship, witchcraft, and colonialism in Africa, we investigate the implications for collective representations of Africa. At the same time we consider Africa's symbolic role within theories of modernity, race, economy, and religion through which Europe sets itself apart in the global hierarchy. This class thus explores the ambiguous zone between the 'real', the imaginary, and the theory of Africa, and the way each has fed into the construction of the other. This class will fulfill the second writing requirement. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 557 Recent Ethnography of Minorities in China [Shepherd]

Tu 14:00PM - 16:30PM | This will be a small group seminar for students who have previous background in China studies or anthropology. This course explores the distant and recent history of Han and non-Han nationalities in the Chinese empire and nation-state, primarily through the medium of recently published ethnographies. The course will examine the reaction of minority nationalities to Chinese predominance, and the bases of Chinese rule and cultural hegemony. The course explores changes in gender roles, ethnic and subethnic (i.e., intra-Han) identity formation, processes of ethnic conflict, and the emergence of separatist and nationalist movements. The course also examines the role of minorities (religious and sexual as well as ethnic minorities) in the definition of Chinese nationalism, and China as a multi-cultural society. The course will offer a critique of Eurocentric theories of colonialism, modernity, and world system. This course will fulfill the second writing requirement and the non-Western requirement. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 559 Topics in Ethnology of Melanesia [Bashkow]

Tu 16:00PM - 18:30PM | Advanced seminar on Melanesian ethnography, emphasizing recent work on the Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 589 Political Economy in the Archaeological Record [Kovacevich]

We 15:30PM - 18:00PM | This seminar will examine "Political Economy" as a concept, including its theoretical origins, especially relating to control and legitimization of power. Case studies exploring the production, distribution, and consumption of goods will be drawn from early societies from around the world. Some of the theoretical and methodological issues covered will include the creation of value, gifts and commodities, inalienable possessions, and how these structures appear (or do not appear) in the archaeological record. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 592 Archaeology of Colonial Expansion [Laviolette]

Tu 14:00PM - 16:30PM | This seminar will examine "Political Economy" as a concept, including its theoretical origins, especially relating to control and legitimization of power. Case studies exploring the production, distribution, and consumption of goods will be drawn from early societies from around the world. Some of the theoretical and methodological issues covered will include the creation of value, gifts and commodities, inalienable possessions, and how these structures appear (or do not appear) in the archaeological record. (3.0 Units)

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Course Number Index

Courses that meet Major Area Requirements:

Prin. of Social AnalysisEthnographyArchaeologyLinguistics

236,254,258,303A,334,
302A,302B,529A,529B,537

291A,291B,291C,302C,353,
367,350,554,557,559

282,384,390, 398,480,588,589,592

242,341,349,504,549

Major Requirements
301,401A,401B,401C,401D

Beyond the West
(for the major: note that some of these courses do not meet the College's Nonwestern requirement)

101,291A,B and C,307,367,554,557,559

Senior Seminars

401A,401B,401C,401D

Graduate Courses

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ANTH 504 Field Methods [Sanchez]

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ANTH 529A Globalization, Inequalities and Human Rights [Khare]

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ANTH 529C Mythodology [Wagner]

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ANTH 537 World Mental Health [Merkel]

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ANTH 549 Speech, Play, Verbal Art [Lefkowitz]

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ANTH 554 Africa and Social Theory [Newell]

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ANTH 557 Recent Ethnography of Minorities in China [Shepherd]

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ANTH 559 Topics in Ethnology of Melanesia [Bashkow]

Tu 16:00PM - 18:30PM | Advanced seminar on Melanesian ethnography, emphasizing recent work on the Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 589 Political Economy in the Archaeological Record [Kovacevich]

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ANTH 592 Archaeology of Colonial Expansion [Laviolette]

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ANTH 702 Current Theory [Mentore]

We 18:00PM - 20:30PM | The course continues the agenda of ANTH 701, exploring the history of anthropological theory up to our own times. The course is principally for Anthropology graduate students in their first year, for whom it is a requirement, but it is also open to all interested graduate students at the University. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 704 Research Design and Methods [Marshall]

Mo 18:00PM - 20:30PM | The course continues the agenda of ANTH 701, exploring the history of anthropological theory up to our own times. The course is principally for Anthropology graduate students in their first year, for whom it is a requirement, but it is also open to all interested graduate students at the University. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 706 Grant Writing [McKinnon]

TBA | 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)

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ANTH 711 Paper and Presentation [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)

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ANTH 734 Ecology and Society [Damon]

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ANTH 740 Linguistic Anthropology [Danziger]

Th 14:00PM - 16:30PM | 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, the nature of symbolic meaning, language and nationalism, universals and particulars in language, language in history and prehistory, the ethnography of speaking. The implications of each of these topics for the general conduct of anthropology will be addressed. Evaluation is based on take-home essays and problems-sets which are assigned throughout the semester. (3.0 Units)

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ANTH 750 Rituals of Remembrance in the Afro-Atlantic World [Bonilla]

Th 17:00PM - 19:30PM | An interdisciplinary graduate seminar, co-taught by Yarimar Bonilla (Anthropology) and Jalane Schmidt (Religious Studies), will examine the politics of memory, the production of history, and the formation of collectives identities in the context of Africa and the African Diaspora. We will explore ritual performances of memory, and both discursive (oral and written) and non-discursive (embodied, sensorial, spatial, ritualized, etc) forms of remembrance. Throughout we will pay close attention to the particular challenges that the histories of slavery, colonialism, and collective trauma pose to the development of collective identities in the Atlantic World. At the end of the semester, students will be expected to write a seminar-length paper which interprets the themes of ritual and remembrance with respect to their own arena of research. (3.0 Units)