Fall
2003
Course
Descriptions
102 ANTHROPOLOGY: HUMAN ORIGINS AND CULTURE
(4 hrs)
Professor Steve Leigh Office: 393 Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3503
Professor Olga Soffer Office: 309H Davenport Hall; PH: 333-2100
This course is a basic
introduction to the aims, methods and results of archaeological and physical
anthropological research into human origins and human physical, biological and
cultural evolution. Topics include
the nature of evolution, our primate ancestors, becoming human, human
variation, the origin of technology and tools use, the origin and evolution of
language and art, domestication of plants and animals, and the rise of early
civilizations. Lectures are geared
towards introducing students to the basic concepts of the discipline;
discussion sections clarify the approaches used and permit discussion of the
topics under review. In addition
to a midterm and a final exam, quizzes will be given in discussion sections.
TEXTS: TBA
*THIS COURSE
FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
103 INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY (3 hrs)
TBA Please contact the department at
333-3616
Cultural Anthropology is the study of the
various ways in which contemporary peoples create and are created by cultural
processes. Cultural
anthropologists have contributed to such a study by writing ethnographies which
are based on fieldwork and on the comparative analysis of different societies
from around the world. Thanks to
its unique approaches, cultural anthropology offers a broad perspective on a
wide range of important social issues such as language, gender, ethnicity,
religion, identity, marriage, sexuality, economic systems, ecology, and
politics—all from a cross-cultural perspective.
Understanding these vital areas of human life is
critical because their social consequences influence, ultimately, the well
being of all human beings, especially in the multiethnic and multicultural
world that we now inhabit.
Consequently, this course 1) should help students understand and
appreciate cultural variation in time and space; 2) should enhance their
awareness of and sensibility to cultural diversity and culture change; and,
finally, 3) should help them develop interpretive skills to better grasp the
variety of socio-cultural phenomena with which we are all confronted today.
*THIS COURSE
FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
104 TALKING CULTURE (3 hrs)
Professor Janet
Keller Office: 395 Davenport Hall: PH: 333-3529
This course provides an
introduction to linguistic anthropology, focusing on language as a means to
understand self and society; demonstrating the role of language in the
development of a person's concept of self and in the creation and maintenance
of society and culture; emphasizing language use within community as key to the
analysis of cultural practices and beliefs. We examine how talk and gestures actually work in different
cultural contexts, look at problems of cross-cultural communication, and
explore difficulties among people who speak the same language, especially when
differences of class, age, gender, sexual orientation, and/or ethnicity are
involved.
Texts include the
following books.
Michael Agar Language
Shock 1994
Laurie Bauer and Peter
Trudgill (Eds.) Language Myths 1998
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS
THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
105
INTRODUCTORY WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY. (3hrs.)
Professor Tim
Pauketat Office:
123 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-8818
pauketat@uiuc.edu
Discusses the
basic philosophy and methods of archaeology, provides an introductory survey of
archaeological excavations and discoveries in the Near East, Asia, Europe, and
the Americas, with an emphasis on understanding how change happened in the
unwritten periods of human history. Beginning nearly four million years ago,
topics include King Tut's tomb, Stonehenge, Viking contacts with the Americas,
Cahokia and the mound builders, and the search for America's pre-Columbian
civilizations. This course is planned for non-Anthropology majors, and is meant
to appeal to students who have always had an interest in archaeology and the past.
The course is primarily a survey of archaeological finds around the world.
However, the course is also unique, for the students each have a chance to
excavate a simulated site of their very own. This "Dig" and a
"garbology" project constitute the written assignments for this
class. There are also several quizzes and two one-hour exams.
TEXTS:
Images of the Past, by T. Price and G. Feinman, Mayfield Publishing Company
*THIS COURSE
FULFILLS THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
143
BIOLOGICAL BASES OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR. (3hrs.)
Professor TBA Please contact the department office at 333-3616
What makes us
act the way we do? Is our behavior
a product more of our biology or our upbringing? In this course, we critically consider current controversies
and ideas on the origin and development of human behavior, and the extent to
which human behavior is influenced by ënatureí versus ënurtureí. We investigate the bases of human
behavior by drawing on evidence from the evolutionary record (primate and human
evolution), comparative ethology (especially non-human primates), neuroanatomy
and psychology. Specific topics
include hormones and reproduction, growth & development, sociobiology,
genetic bases of behavior, language, the human brain, intelligence, and the
evolution of human behavior. The
course should be of interest to students in a wide variety of disciplines
including biological and social sciences and humanities as well as anyone
interested in the study of human behavior.
*THIS COURE
FULFILLS THE LIFE SCIENCES GEN. ED. REQ.
165
LANGUAGES AND PEOPLES OF NATIVE NORTH AMERICA (Discovery) (3hrs)
Professor
Brenda Farnell Office: 209E Davenport Hall; PH: 244-9226
This course develops an
understanding of, and appreciation for, the rich diversity of languages and
cultures found among contemporary indigenous peoples of the United States and
Canada. We focus on a selection of
nations and address some contemporary issues rather than attempt a survey. Questions include; What effects have
mainstream representations of the "Indian" had on our knowledge of
Native American peoples today? How do different languages create particular
views of "reality"? How
do indigenous communities conceive of the connections between language and
landscape? How is a nation's
history, cosmology, and moral worldview transmitted through myth and
storytelling? What are
"endangered languages" and why is preservation so important? We will attend Native American cultural
events in the area, and learn firsthand from Native American visitors to the
classroom. Students develop their
own research project around topics introduced in the course.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE NON_WESTERN CULTURES
GEN. ED. REQUIREMENT
180 ANTHROPOLOGICAL
AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON DEATH (HONORS) (3hrs)
Professor
Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall; PH: 333-1315
helaine@uiuc.edu
Death is the greatest of
the life crises and since time immemorial all human societies have devised ways
to cope with and explain death.
Cultural responses to death are highly varied and tightly
patterned. This course is a
cross-cultural introduction to the celebration of death across time and space.
Readings are gathered in a course packet.
The semester is
structured as follows:
SEPTEMBER:
do cemetery project with professor at Mt. Hope Cemetery on south
side of campus
OCTOBER:
in-class lectures and discussion of readings
NOVEMBER:
watch feature-length films ("The Loved One," "The Funeral,"
"Soylent
Green" "My Girl", "Between Two Worlds", "Death
Becomes Her") and
discuss them in class
DECEMBER:
discussion of cemetery project results; course summary
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE NON-WESTERN
CULTURES GEN. ED. REQ.
184 ASIAN AMERICAN CULTURES. (3 hrs.)
Professor Martin Manalansan
Office: 309C Davenport Hall;
PH: 244-3500
Asian Americans have increasingly become a visible part of the American
national landscape in recent years.
While images of exotic Chinatowns, inscrutable math wizards, and strange
rituals have long dominated the American popular imagination of post-1965 Asian
American communities and cultures, there are emerging images and narratives
that defy these conventions and stereotypes. The class will examine the heterogeneous and multi-faceted
dimensions of Asian American lives and communities through the lenses of
culture, race, ethnicity, and social organization.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE U.S. MINORITY AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES
GEN.ED.REQ.
186 SOUTHEAST
ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS. (3hrs.)
Professor
Emeritus Clark E. Cunningham
Office: 282 Davenport Hall; PH:
328-3658
E-mail: ccunn@uiuc.edu
Same as AS ST 186 and
HIST 172
This
course explores the histories and development of lowland civilizations of
Mainland and Island Southeast Asia in anthropological perspective. It considers the growth of political,
commercial, social, and cultural institutions of the early Indianized and
Sinicized states in the context of the Indian Ocean-China Sea trade, and the
spread of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity in the region. It deals with the development of
regional systems of monarchy and their local variations; with the rise and
development of regional and national cultures in these states; and with the
effects of Western imperialism and the rise of new nations. It concludes with discussion of some
major problems facing the region today.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE NON-WESTERN
CULTURES & HISTORICAL & PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
188 CULTURE, ETHNICITY, & CONFLICT IN A
GLOBALIZING WORLD. (3 hrs)
Professor Bill
Kelleher Office: 396B Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3516
This course
introduces fundamental concepts of sociocultural anthropology as it examines a
specific problem area: the anthropology of conflict and violence. The course begins by introducing a
variety of debates on the relationship of nature and culture. Is violence a
natural and/or a natural predisposition?
After reviewing these debates, we shall examine a series of case studies
that we shall evaluate in terms of the questions raised in this literature. In each of these cases, we shall
examine the organization of space and time (geography, history, and memory),
the relationship of cultural politics to ethnicity, and the intersection of
group formation and the development of nation states. The cases to be studied include Northern Ireland, Rwanda,
Bosnia, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, and India.
190 AMERICAN JEWISH CULTURE.
(3 hrs)
Professor Matti
Bunzl
Office: 386B Davenport Hall; PH:
265-4068
bunzl@uiuc.edu
This course will
examine American Jewish experience in its cultural and historical
diversity. In doing so, the course
will introduce the approaches of cultural anthropology in order to investigate
how an ethnic group has elaborated and continues to elaborate its identity in
American culture and society through strategies of individual and collective behavior. In this framework, American Jewish
identities will emerge as the products of specific interactions between
Judaism's overarching cultural system and local American cultural formations. To understand these processes, we will
initially examine the different waves of Jewish immigration, trace patterns of
acculturation, and investigate American forms of anti-Semitism. This focus on Jewish migration will be
followed by the sustained examination of American Jewish religions and communal
life, emphasizing rearticulations of religion community from the nineteenth
century to the present. In the
final part of the course, we will discuss the ongoing cultural negotiation of
American Jewish identities, focusing on questions of race, gender, and kinship
and the role of the Holocaust in American life.
*THIS COURSE
FULFILLS THE NON-WESTERN/US MINORITY CULTURES GEN. ED. REQ.
199AK ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE UNIVERSITY
(3hrs)
Professor
Nancy Abelmann Office: 389 Davenport Hall; PH: 244-7733
Professor
Bill Kelleher Office: 396B Davenport Hall; PH; 244-3516
This course introduces the methods, theories, and practices of anthropological (ethnographic) fieldwork through the development of student research projects that focus on the University of Illinois. Students will learn the principles and methods of ethnographic fieldwork and how to use a set of web based technologies that enable research and writing. The course will examine the organizational aspects of the university, from administration to student life, and the results of student research will be archived on the web. This archive will serve as an ethnographic and historical repository as well as a resource for students taking this course in the future. There will be a variety of readings assigned. We shall read theoretical and methodological articles, ethnographies of higher education, and the narratives of professors, students, and university workers. The collection of narratives, the depiction of networks, and their analysis will form important parts of students’ participant observation. This course welcomes students from all majors.
199H HUMAN EVOLUTION
(3hrs)
Professor
Leslea Hlusko Office: 188 Davenport Hall; PH: 244-4914
This class will review
the history of the controversy of our own evolution, looking at debates within
the discipline, society at large, and how one often affects the other. The course will follow the history of
the science of human evolution from before Darwin to the debates taking place
today in laboratories and courtrooms
209 FOOD,
CULTURE AND SOCIETY (3 hrs.)
Professor Martin Manalansan
Office: 309C Davenport Hall, PH:
244-3500
manalans@uiuc.edu
As American as apple pie
Lets
have a coffee break.
I
can’t eat any more I have to fit into a bikini this summer.
A
Thanksgiving dinner without turkey impossible!
You
have not eaten French haute cuisine? Oh you poor thing!
You
can’t be friends with them they eat dogs!
Food
is part of our daily life. More
importantly, food goes beyond providing nutrition and biological
sustenance. Food establishes
relationships, meanings and practices that revolve around family, kinship,
religion, gender, class, ethnic, national and other collective
identities. It marks routine, important life events and special holidays. Food influences how we see ourselves
against others. It is a medium for
creating intimacy and for discriminating against people.
The
course introduces students to the anthropological and sociological study of
food in order to better understand how food practices, culinary cultures and
dietary rules are embedded in our individual and collective memories, desires,
and struggles. Some of the themes to be explored in this class include:
cookbooks and cooking shows; diet and gender; ethnic foods; haute cuisine and
class inequalities; religion and food taboos; cannibalism, fast-foods and
nationalism; McDonaldization and globalization; and world hunger.
Selected
Required Texts:
Carol
Counihan and Penny van Esterik. (eds.) 1997. Food and Culture. New York:
Routledge.
Eric Schlosser Fast Food Nation. 2002. Fast
Food Nation. New York: Harper Collins
Sutton,
David. 2001. Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory.
New York: Berg Publishers.
Weismantel,
Mary. 1988. Food Gender, and Poverty in the Ecuadorian Andes.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
220 INTRODUCTION TO
ARCHAEOLOGY
(3hrs)
Professor Stanley
Ambrose
Office: 381 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3504
This course provides an introduction to theory and methods in archaeological
research, data collection, and analysis.
The objective is to familiarize the student with the strategies that are
employed in the investigation of archaeological remains and how these
strategies further the aims of an anthropological archaeology. Grades will be based on 2 in-class
exams, 2 section quizzes, and weekly assignments.
Required texts:
Colin Renfrew & Paul Bahn (2000) Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and
Practice.
3rd edition. Thames & Hudson.
Other assigned articles will be on e-reserves in the Undergrad Library.
223 MEMOIRS OF AFRICA
(3 hrs)
Professor Alma
Gottlieb Office: 386C Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3515
Aims
of the Course:
If you've read little or
nothing about the continent that is the cradle of humanity, this course will
offer you a user-friendly introduction to Africa, which is so often (mis-)
represented in stereotypic terms in Western mass media. The texts are a
combination of memoirs written by African men and women (about their childhood
experiences growing up in various regions of Africa), sometimes written in
conjunction by a Western visitor to the continent. In looking back at their engagements with Africa, the authors
of these books weave individual, society and history in complex tapestries,
affording multiple windows into what might appear as distant historical eras
and cultural settings, making the exotic approachable while still retaining a
sense of the extraordinary. We
will read books in pairs, to compare and contrast two experiences that are in
some ways related. In encountering
these works, the class offers you approaches into the daily lives of individuals
whose leaders may make newspaper headlines but whose own daily struggles and
joys alike are largely invisible to the wider world.
Readings:
We'll read a few essays
and articles as well as the following books:
Camara Laye, Dark Child (James
Kirkup and Ernest Jones, transl.)
Wambui Waiyaki Otieno, Mau Mau's
Daughter: A Life History
Marjorie Shostak,
Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman
Mark Mathabane,
Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South
Africa
Bernard Dadié,
The City Where No One Dies
Buchi Emecheta, Head above Water: An
Autobiography
Assignments:
No quizzes or tests will
be given. Instead, through your
writings you'll be challenged to think through the material and, in so doing, to
confront previous stereotypical images that you may have held, and that popular
Western media images regularly reproduce, about Africa. Assigned work will include several
genres,including media drop files and commentaries; a final media poster; and
three short essays. If possible, we may organize a class trip to the
Field Museum and an African restaurant in Chicago.
Course
Prerequisites: None
Eligibility: This course is
restricted in the first instance to students who are enrolled in the Campus Honors
Program. If there are still openings toward the end of the enrollment
period, others may be permitted to enroll at the discretion of the
instructor--please inquire first.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS
THE FOLLOWING TWO GEN. ED. REQUIREMENTS: NON-WESTERN CULTURES AND CIVILIZATIONS
AND COMP II REQUIREMENT
266 AFRICAN FILM AND AFRICAN SOCIETY (3 hrs)
Professor Mahir
Saul Office: 309J Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3502
A course on
recent feature films produced in African countries. These films are used to provide an introduction to
contemporary Africa. Some of these
films have received prestigious international awards. The films shown in the class are treated as entertainment,
as art, and as documents revealing
social issues in contemporary Africa.
The course will include readings on Africa, on the countries where the
films were made, and on the topics that they deal with. After the first two introductory weeks
the students will watch one film per week. Attendance of these screenings and of the period of lecture
and discussion is obligatory.
There will be exams and weekly writing assignments.
Texts:
I. Bakari &
M. Cham, African Experiences of
Cinema
M. Diawara, African
Cinema, Politics & Culture
N. Thiong’o, Decolonizing
the Mind
*THIS COURSE
FULFILLS THE NON-WESTERN CULTURES GEN ED. REQ.
281
INTRODUCTION TO CHINESE CULTURE AND SOCIETY (3hrs)
Professor
TBA Please contact the
department office at 333-3616
323 ECONOMIC ANTHROPOLOGY (3 hrs)
Professor
Mahir Saul Office: 309J Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3502
Economic anthropology deals with economic
activity in its social and cultural matrix. The course will start with an overview of the field, a
sample of its core literature, and then will move on to its current
concerns. It will cover themes
such as the gift, gender roles, the representations of work, trade and markets,
and the impact of colonialism.
There will be an emphasis on the divers approaches within the
discipline.
Texts:
Theory in Economic Anthropology, ed. by Jean Ensminger
M. Sahlins, Stone Age Economics.
Arjun Appadurai, The Social Life of Things
J. Parry, M. Bloch, Money and the Morality of Exchange
Jane I. Guyer, Money Matters: Instability, Values, and Social Payments in the
Modern History of West African Communities
326 THE RISE OF CIVILIZATION IN ANCIENT
PERU (3 hrs)
Professor Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall; PH: 333-1315
This course surveys the
Central Andes from the earliest evidence of human occupation in the Central
Andes to the rise of states. The
course emphasizes the major archaeological cultures and considers the social,
political, economic, ideological and environmental factors that promoted the
development of complex society in the Central Andes from various theoretical
perspectives. Architecture,
landscape, and art are extensively illustrated with slides. Required readings include a textbook
and course reader. The
requirements are an in-class midterm and final.
341
HUMAN EVOLUTION II (3 hrs)
Professor Leslea Hlusko Office
188 Davenport Hall; PH: 244-4914
This course is designed to help you read,
understand, and critically evaluate primary literature in anthropological
genetics. You will gain an
understanding of how genetics is used to investigate anthropological questions
and how it could be used in your own research.
348 PREHISTORY OF AFRICA. (3 hrs.)
Professor Stanley Ambrose Office:
189 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3504
Africa
is the cradle of mankind and the sole source of evidence for the first four
million years of hominid evolution and cultural development. For the most
recent periods the archaeological record is a major source of evidence for the
precolonial history of modern African populations. This course surveys the fossil and archaeological evidence
for the evolution of human behavioral patterns from the earliest hominids to
modern humans in Africa. Topics
will include a survey of the fossil hominids, models of hominid origins,
alternative models for the intellectual, cultural, economic and technical
abilities of early hominids, a survey of regional cultural sequences, the
diversification and specialization of cultural traditions in later prehistory,
and the processes and events resulting in the present distribution of
hunter-gatherer, pastoral and agricultural adaptations. Ecological and evolutionary approaches
to understanding the processes of hominid evolution and culture change will be
stressed.
Requirements
include one mid-term exam, a final exam, and a short term paper.
Prerequisite: Anthropology 102.
TEXTS:
David
W. Phillipson (1993). African Archaeology, 2nd edition (Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge).
Hilary J. Deacon and Jeanette Deacon
(1999) Human Beginnings in South Africa. Altamira Press.
368
RELIGIONS
OF AFRICA ( 3 hrs)
Professor Alma Gottlieb Office: 386C Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3515
Fetishism -- witchc doctors
-- superstition -- primitive -- juju . . . Western images of African religions
abound. What do these images say
about Western stereotypes and racist ideologies? And (how) do they speak to actual African traditions? In this course, we explore a rich
selection of religious acts, beliefs and experiences as they relate to a
variety of issues. Engagements
between religion and the nation-state, commodity capitalism and other aspects
of modernity; cosmological definitions of the life cycle; gender norms and
markers in religious practices; ritual aesthetics and performance; religious
defiitions of personhood and their ramifications for social relations--these
will be among the many topics we'll explore in this course. We will emphasize religious traditions
originating in sub-Saharan Africa, but we will also give some consideration to
local experiences of Christianity and Islam. And toward the end of the semester, we will briefly explore
some diaspora experiences of African religious traditions transplanted to
contemporary Europe and North America.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing, or
at least one prior course either in cultural anthropology, religious studies or
African studies.
Assignments: Graded work will
largely be in the form of essays as well as weekly reading notes. In the
beginning of the semester, we'll do some web work looking at internet images of
African religions. Then each
student will select an individual topic relating to course readings and work on
a research paper and class presentation.
Readings: Will include
(selections from) the following books as well as some articles:
Benjamin Ray, African
Religions: Symbol, Ritual and Community
E. E. Evans-Pritchard,
Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande
Marcel Griaule,
Conversations with Ogotommeli
Edith Turner, The
Spirit and the Drum
Patrick McNaughton,
The Mande Blacksmiths: Knowledge, Power and Art in West Africa
Mariane
Fermé, The Underneath of Things: Violence, History, and the Everyday in
Sierra Leone
Adeline Masquelier,
Prayer Has Spoiled Everything:
Atieno
Odhiambo and David William Cohen, Burying S.M.: Sociology of Power in Africa
Sandra Barnes, ed.,
Africa's Ogun: Old World and New
Karen McCarthy Brown,
Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn
383
SELF AND SOCIETY IN JAPAN (3 hrs)
Professor Karen Kelsky Office: 386A Davenport Hall; PH: 244-5920
This course provides an
overview of contemporary Japan. In
the first part of the course we will sketch the contours of mainstream society,
exploring the traditional family structure and its continuing impact on
contemporary families, and branch out from there to consider the organization
of households, communities, educational institutions and men's and women's
workplaces. In the second half of
the course, we complicate this picture by addressing people and groups outside
the mainstream, looking at the gay community, ethnic minorities and migrant
workers, and "alternative" groups devoted to anti-nuclear activism,
environmentalism, and other causes.
Throughout the course, we will focus on questions of Japanese
nationalism and constructions of national and racial identity in a rapidly
globalizing world, and consider changes Japan is confronting in the face of
ongoing economic downturn, gender transformations, and a rapidly aging society.
391 TOPICS IN MUSEUM STUDIES (3 hrs)
Professor Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall; PH: 333-1315
This course is a survey
of the history of museums and their varied manifestations and roles in
contemporary societies across the world. This course is not about collections
management or exhibition design.
Rather, the focus is on issues of representation, empowerment and
disenfrachisement of communities, nationalism and culture politics, museum
architecture, and overt scripts and hidden narratives. Various theoretical
frameworks are presented. As part
of the course we will compare and contrast the Spurlock and Krannert museums on
campus as a class research project. A selection of books and articles will be
read. Students are required to do a term paper.
398B
Reconstructing Behavior in Fossil Primates and
Humans (4 hrs or 1 unit)
Professor John Polk Please contact the department office at 333-3616
Prerequisites:
398F BODY MOVEMENT (4 hrs or 1 unit)
Professor
Brenda Farnell Office: 209J Davenport Hall;
PH: 244-9226
In this seminar we
examine anthropological approaches to understanding the moving body as a constituent
of personal and cultural being-in-the-world. Human beings everywhere utilize a wide range of movement
skills, from mundane daily activities, gestures and sign languages, to highly
skilled performances in sports, martial arts, dances and theatrical
performances. We ask, in what ways
can detailed attention to body movement, viewed as culturally laden action in
discursive spaces, facilitate a deeper understanding of cultural practices and
performances?
Texts:
The following books are available for purchase in the Illini Union
Bookstore
Farnell, Brenda. 1995. "Do You
See What I Mean?": Plains Indian Sign Talk and the Embodiment of Action. Austin: U of Texas Press.
Farnell, Brenda (ed.). 1995. Human
Action Signs in Cultural Context: The Visible and the Invisible in Movement and
Dance. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
Savigliano. Marta E. 1995. Tango
and the Political Economy of Passion. Boulder: Westview Press.
Talor, Julie. 1997. Paper Tangos.
Williams (ed.) 1996.
Signs of Human Action. Special Issue of Visual Anthropology. Reprint.
Williams, Drid 1997. Anthropology and
Human Movement Vol 1: The Study of Dances. London and Lanham, MD: Scarecrow
Press.
Williams, Drid 2000. Anthropology and
Human Movement Vol 2: The Problem of Origins. London and Lanham, MD:
Scarecrow Press.
Additional Readings will be available in
a course pack.
398I Dimensions
of Anthropological Inquiry. (4 hrs. or 1 unit)
Professor
Steve Leigh Office: 209J Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3503
Professor
Andy Orta Office: 391 Davenport Hall; PH: 244-7108
Professor
Olga Soffer Office: 309H Davenport Hall; PH: 333-2100
osoffer@uiuc.edu
This
course, co-taught by an archaeologist, a biological anthropologist, and a
cultural anthropologist, is designed as an ongoing dialogue across
sub-disciplinary lines, examining the theoretical, conceptual, and empirical
domains that unite and divide us as anthropologists. In exploring our various
modes of anthropological inquiry --the questions and methods that we bring to
our study of the human condition-- we seek to identify points of integration,
or complementarity among different subdisciplinary approaches. An equally
important goal of this course, however, is to arrive at a more informed
understanding of subdisciplinary distinctions. This is not a `Berlitz’ course in four-field
anthropology. Rather, we approach these anthropological borders as
boundaries and
points
of convergence from which we can appreciate the promises and limitations of our
always-partial anthropological endeavors.
Evaluation is based on 1) class participation and in-class
presentations, and 2) a research paper developed in consultation with the
instructors. The course is open to
graduating seniors and graduate students in anthropology. First-year graduate
students are required to enroll in the course.
Readings: TBA
398P/450P
The Archaeology and Historical Anthropology of Chiefdoms and Archaic States
Dr. Tim Pauketat 123 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-8818
This is a comparative and historical seminar on
"chiefdoms" ( and tribes and archaic states) and the processes that
we study by focusing on them. The
class will review theoretical approaches of the 20th century chronologically
using their case studies from around the world. We will seek out specific themes in the readings:
projduction, labor appropriation, tradition, resistance, presistance, prestige
goods, politics, chiefs, classes, warfare, religion.
Readings are heavy and for this reason we do two things: partition and gut. We divide up outside readings and gut books. Much coffee will be consumed; greats thoughts will take expression in profound words. Each student will do assigned readings every week and then analyze and evaluate those readings in class. Course grade will be based on student participation (50%), a course paper (40%), and an in-class presenation (10%). Paper topic will be selected in class and is to be an analysis of some context (elite, village, specialized, subsidized, gendered), process (historical, demographic, environmental, selective, linguistic), or dimension of material culture (display, projection, technology) that has a bearing on class topics. An application paper is fine if it dovetails w