102  ANTHROPOLOGY: HUMAN ORIGINS AND CULTURE  (4 hrs)

Professor Steve Leigh                           Office:  393 Davenport Hall; PH:  244-3503

   s-leigh@uiuc.edu

Instructor Missy Loyet                          Office:  #2 Spurlock; PH:  265-0471

   mloyet@uiuc.edu                                 

 

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.

 

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Jolly, C.J. and R. White.  Physical Anthropology and Archaeology.  5th Edition.  Alfred A. Knopf Publishers, New York.

Lewin, R.  Human Evolution: An Illustrated Introduction.  Third Edition.  Blackwell Scientific Publications, Boston.

Gonick, L.  Cartoon History of the Universe, Volume 2. Sticks and Stones.  Rip-Off Press, San Francisco.

 

 

*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.

 

 

103 INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Professor Alejandro Lugo                     Office:  385 Davenport Hall; PH: 333-0823

   a-lugo@uiuc.edu                              

 

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.

 

 

103 INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (DISCOVERY)

Professor Mahir Saul                            Office:  309J Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3502

   m-saul@uiuc.edu      

 

This course introduces students to a variety of the peoples in the world and the concepts and methods anthropologists use to understand them.  Particular attention will be paid to current debates about the nature of tradition in light of the globalizing forces that touch even the most remote societies.  Students will read both classical and new anthropological works, and, through discussion and debate of those readings, address the crucial social phenomena of this century: race and racism, ethnicity, nationalism and ethnic conflict, the changing nature of kinship units and families, colonialism and political independence, the problems of economic development, the force of religion in social life, and translocal groups, networks, and ideas in the past and in the present.

 

*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 Brian Richmond                    Office: 189 Davenport Hall       Ph: 333-3676

   brich@uiuc.edu

 

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.

 

Sussman, R.W. (1999) The Biological Basis of Human Behavior: A Critical Review. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 382pp.

 

Garber, P.A. and Leigh, S. (1999) Readings in the Biological Bases of Human Behavior. Fourth Edition. Needham Heights, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing.

 

*THIS COURE FULFILLS THE LIFE SCIENCES GEN. ED. REQ.

 

 

150 NOVEL ARCHAEOLOGY  (DISCOVERY).  (3hrs.)

Professor Olga Soffer                           Office: 309 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-2100

   o-soffer@uiuc edu

 

This course is designed for non-anthropology majors and is a survey course of prehistory as seen through the eyes of novelists, science fiction writers, videos, and films.  In this course we will learn something about what happened in the past - during roughly 2,500,000 years of our prehistory, as well as examine the interface between fact and fiction and the present and the past.  Course requirements include reading a lot of novels, viewing films, as well as active participation in the class discussions.  Exams include a midterm and a final as well as a term paper/project. 

 

TENTATIVE TEXTS:

Auel, J.  The Mammoth Hunters.  New York:  Crown Publishing.

Bishop, M.   Ancient of Days.  New York:  T. Doherty Assoc.

Christie, A.   Murder in Mesopotamia.  New York:  Dell Publishing.

Fagan, B.M.   World Prehistory.  IVth ed.  Little, Brown and Co.

 Gear, W.M. and K. Gear  PEOPLE OF THE RIVER,  New York: Tor

Kurten, B.   Dance of the Tiger.  Berkeley: University of California.

Michner, J.   The Source.  New York:  Fawcett paperbacks.

Von Daniken, E.   Chariots of the Gods.  Berkeley:  Berkeley paperbacks.

 

*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.

 

 

179 CULTURE AND ECOLOGY IN HUMAN HEALTH (3HRS)

Professor Linda Klepinger                    Office 209G Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3513

   klepinge@uiuc.edu   

 

An overview of changing patterns of health and illness in human societies from prehistory to the present.  The course emphasizes the relationships between culture, demography, environment, and disease patterns, with examples from western and non-western societies.  It introduces alternative culture theories of health and illness and differing health cares systems.

 

TEXTS:

Cohen, M.N., Health and the Rise of Civilization, 1989, Yale Univ. Press

Desowitz, R., New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers, Norton

Dettwyler, Katherine, Dancing Skeletons: Life & Death in West Africa. 1994 Waveland Press

One of the following books will be used:

Shem, Samuel, The House of God, Dell

Desowitz, R.,  The Malaria Capers, Norton.

 

 

182 PEOPLES AND CULTURES OF SOUTH AMERICA (4 hrs.)

Professor Arlene Torres                        Office: 383 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3511

   a-torres@uiuc.edu    

 

This course will examine the peoples and cultures of South America in historical and contemporary perspectives. We begin with the colonial history of the region which reveals enduring themes and issues central to the understanding of Latin America today. Through case studies, guest lectures, accompanying articles, and visual media, we will explore, contrast, and compare aspects of different cultures from the diverse regions of this vast continent. Areas of exploration will include indigenous and/or  Afro_Latin peoples of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Cultural themes being examined will be colonialism, gender, ethnicity, nationalism, political_economy through ritual and festivity.

 

*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE NON-WESTERN CULTURES GEN. ED. REQ.

 

 

186 SOUTHEAST ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS.  (3hrs.)

Professor F.K. Lehman                        Office:  209H Davenport Hall, PH:  333-8423

   f-lehman@uiuc.edu

 

Same as AS ST 186 and HIST 172

 

This is essentially an institutional history of the lowland civilizations of Mainland and Island Southeast Asia, with a strong anthropological orientation as its analytical/explanatory basis.  It deals chiefly with the histories of the Indianized and Sinicized States in the context of the Indian Ocean-China Sea trade, the institutional history of Buddhism and Hinduism in the region, and the development of regional systems of monarchy and their  local variations.  It deals at length with the rise and development of regional and national cultures in these states, and the effects of Western Colonialism and the rise of new nations.

 

TEXT:

The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, Vol. I, Cambridge U Press.

 

*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE NON-WESTERN CULTURES & HISTORICAL & PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.


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! 

Let’s 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.

 

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.

 

 

220INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY  (3hrs)

Professor Barry Lewis                          Office: 209f Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3501

   blewis@uiuc.edu

 

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.

 

 

243 NATURAL HISTORY & SOCIAL BEHAVIOR OF THE GREAT APES (3 hrs.)

Instructor: TBA

 

This course examines the social organization, mating patterns, feeding ecology and behavior of free-ranging chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans.  Lecture material is presented in a historical perspective and focuses on topics such as social cooperation, mating strategies, inter-and intrasexual social interactions, infanticide, tool use, diet, food sharing, group structure, reproductive behavior and cognition, and the appropriateness of the living great apes as models for understanding human behavior and evolution..

 

Prerequisites:  Anth. 102, 143, 240 or an equivalent course in animal behavior.  There will be a midterm exam, class presentation and a final examination.

 

 

260 PEOPLES OF THE WORLD: INTRODUCTION TO ETHNOGRAPHY (3 hrs.)

Professor F.K. Lehman                        Office:  209H Davenport Hall, PH:  244-8423

   f-lehman@uiuc.edu   

 

This course serves as an introduction to the classical and more recent forms of ethnography, the descriptive and analytical literature First,  it is intended to give anthropology students an introduction to the range of actual/possible cultural and social systems, as a basis for understanding what it is that anthropological theory is supposed to account for. Secondly, it is intended as an introduction to the development of theory and method on the basis of the history of how field work has been done and reported. Finally, it is intended to show how the development of how ethnography is done has depended upon the development of theory and upon the nature of the main issues and problems, both theoretical and pragmatic that anthropologists have been concerned with at different periods. The materials presented will be chiefly books and monographs, but some use will also be made of ethnographic films.

 

*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.

 

 

268  IMAGES OF THE “OTHER” ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES  (3 hrs.)

Professor Alma Gottlieb                        Office:  386C Davenport Hall; PH:  244-3515

   ajgottli@uiuc.edu

 

Are racism, sexism, and other stereotypical ideologies of "the Other" inevitable and universal, or do they have local histories and alternatives?  In comparing a broad array of images of "the Other," the course will challenge you to interrogate the cultural and historical foundations of the widespread ideologies that define "other" populations.  We deliberately examine many kinds of "other" groups--as defined by ethnicity, "race," gender, health, religion and other factors.  In taking a broad sweep both historically and cross-culturally, the course aims to demonstrate the contingent nature of ideologies of "other" groups, and their embeddedness in social institutions ranging from family structure and religion to economy and polity. 

 

   The course is divided into six sections.  In the first part, we will explore three conceptual orientations that will help us theorize notions of "the Other."  In the second section, we will survey a small selection of mainstream Western images of "other" groups from classic Greek times to late nineteenth century Europe and the U.S.  In the third part, we will bring that study of Western images of "the Other" up to the contemporary era.  In the fourth section, we will reverse our gaze to look at Western social traditions as "Other"--from the viewpoints of a variety of selected non-Western peoples during the era of European colonialism.  In the fifth section, we will bring that study of non-Western peoples' images of "the Other" into the contemporary era.  In the sixth part we conclude our intellectual odyssey and stand back to compare where we have been and what we have learned.

 

   All students will do a variety of written assignments and will keep a running diary of how images of various "others" operate in the popular media.

 

Readings will include a course pack of articles plus the following books (tentative list):

William O'Barr, Culture & the Ad

Robert Murphy, The Body Silent

Marshall Sahlins, Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities

Keith Basso, Portraits of the "Whiteman"

 

Prerequisites: a prior course in cultural anthropology or one of the other social sciences would be helpful.

 

**THIS COURSE SATISFIES THE COMP II REQUIREMENT.

*THIS COURSE FULFILLS HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES, COMPARATIVE WESTERNA ND NON-WESTERN CULTURE AND COMP. II FOR GEN ED. REQ.


270  INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY    (3 hrs.)

Professor Janet Keller                                       Office: 395H Davenport Hall, PH:  333-3529

   jdkeller@uiuc.edu                                   

 

This course provides an in-depth introduction to the subfield of linguistic anthropology, and examines the dynamic intersections between language, self, culture and society.  We explore language and identity; language and mind; language and culture; discourse, power and performance in social interaction and just talk.  Students will be introduced to a variety of theoretical approaches; learn basic analytical procedures, and have opportunities to apply these to problems.  This course may be taken as a standard offering (270) or for COMP II credit (271).

 

Texts are still under consideration and will be assigned in conjunction with selected readings made available through reserve or xerox.

 

Prerequisites:  None, but ANTH 104 recommended.

 

**THIS COURSE SATISFIES THE COMP I REQUIREMENT FOR UNDERGRADUATES

 

 

271  INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY (ADVANCED COMPOSITION) (3hrs.)

Professor Janet Keller                                       Office:  395 Davenport Hall, PH:  333-3529

   jdkeller@uiuc.edu

 

This course provides an in-depth introduction to the subfield of linguistic anthropology, and examines the dynamic intersections between language, self, culture and society.  We explore language and identity; language and mind; language and culture; discourse, power and performance in social interaction and just talk.  Students will be introduced to a variety of theoretical approaches; learn basic analytical procedures, and have opportunities to apply these to problems.  This course may be taken as a standard offering (270) or for COMP II credit (271).

 

Texts are still under consideration and will be assigned in conjunction with selected readings made available through reserve or xerox.

 

Prerequisites:  None, but ANTH 104 recommended.

 

**THIS COURSE SATISFIES THE COMP II REQUIREMENT FOR UNDERGRADUATES

 

 

277  ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CITIES & THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT (3hrs.)

(Honors Section)

Professor Helaine Silverman                              Office: 295 Davenport Hall, PH:  333-1315

   helaine@uiuc.edu      

 

Cities have existed for thousands of years.  In this course we examine the evolution of cities from earliest times through the present and into the future.  The course is set up in lecture-discussion form.  There are three small field projects in town that are conducted with the professor. Several feature-length films will be shown. There are no exams. Students will be graded on the basis of five written assignments.

 

*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE WESTERN & SOCIAL SCIENCES GEN ED. REQ.

 

 

318 ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH DESIGN.  (3hrs.)

Professor R. Barry Lewis                                  Office:  209F Davenport Hall; PH:  244-3501

   blewis@uiuc.edu

 

This course examines the basic principles of research design.  It is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students in cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, and archaeology.  Topics to be covered include research ethics, different approaches to framing questions and designing research, proposal writing, sampling, the design of questionnaires and other kinds of data collection forms, data collection techniques, and general problems of measuring quantitative and qualitative data in anthropological research.

 

An important component of Anth 318 is for the student to select a research problem, design an approach to solve the problem, and execute the data collection portion of the design.  The research project will count for 35% of the final grade.   There also will be homework assignments worth 35% of your grade and two essay-type take-home exams worth a total of 30%. An introductory statistics course is no longer a prerequisite of Anth 318.

 

Anth 318 or Anth 353 qualify you to apply for the department's NSF Ethnographic Research Training Fellowship.

 

Required texts:

Bailey, Kenneth D. (1994) Methods of Social Research. 4th edition. Free Press, NY. 

 

Institutional Review Board. (1995) Handbook for Investigators: For the Protection of Human Subjects in Research. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. (copies will be distributed in class or made available on-line)

 

Gould, Stephen J. (1996) The Mismeasure of Man. Rev. edition.  W.W. Norton, NY (#24 on the Modern Library's "100 Best Nonfiction Books of the 20th Century").

 

Other assigned articles will be on e-reserves in the Undergrad Library.

 

Recommended:  Unobtrusive Measures, by Eugene Webb et al. (1999) Revised Edition.  Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

 

321  SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE  (3 hrs. or 1 unit)

Professor Mahir Saul                                        Office:  309J  Davenport Hall;  PH:  244-3502

   m-saul@uiuc.edu      

 

This course deals with fundamental issues of social structure.  It is organized loosely chronologically, moving from classical British Social Anthropology to French Structuralism and then to interpretive approaches and recent American developments.  The emphasis, however, is on basic ideas and their applications rather than the history of the field.  The core of each class session consists of discussion about the assigned reading.  The course grade is based upon three short take-home examination papers.  The texts will be photocopied articles and excerpts.

 

 

327  ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE INCAS  (3 hrs. or 1 unit)

Professor Helaine Silverman                              Office:  295 Davenport Hall;  PH:  333-1315

   helaine@uiuc.edu                                          

 

The Incas were the culmination of cultural development in Ancient Peru.  This course examines the Inca Empire and the great pre-Inca states so as to understand how the Incas built on ancient Andean patterns of statecraft and how they modified these. Throughout the course we will try to identify the distinctly Andean features that define these societies.  Lectures will be illustrated with slides.

 

The requirements for undergraduates are a midterm and final exam.

 

Graduate students will read extensively from a large bibliography and do a take-home exam.

 

 

328  NORTH AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY  (3 hrs. or 3/4 or 1 unit)

Professor Tim Pauketat                                     Office:  123 Davenport Hall;  PH:  244-8818

   pauketat@uiuc.edu                                       

 

This course presents a contemporary understanding of the pre-Columbian and early contact era culture histories and social landscapes north of Mesoamerica. Lectures, activities, discussions, and readings review all portions of the continent from pre-PaleoIndian to later sedentary, warring, and agricultural peoples. Particular regions and time periods contribute differentially to an understanding of theoretical issues. Thus, this course is more than a survey. It looks at specific regions of North America to help understand specific problems in archaeology: Poverty Point and Chaco Canyon and the co-optation of community by polity, Paquime and the limits of Mesoamerican imperial control, the Thule expansion and cultural adaptation, Coles Creek and the transmission of culture, Cahokia's collapse and the genesis of the Plains tribes, European missions and plantations and the "resistance" of native and African cultures. Sites and artifacts are reviewed in class to help understand the ways that material culture and space embody such processes of change. Field trips to museums and sites round out the experiential component of the class. There are weekly lab or take-home assignments and two exams.

 

TEXTS: Ancient North America, by Brian Fagan (3rd edition), course-pack.

 

*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.

 

 

343  INTRODUCTION TO PRIMATE MORPHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR  (3 hrs. 3/4 or 1 unit)

Instructor:  TBA  Please contact the department at 333-3616

 

Survey of primate social behavior and the classification, morphology, and distribution of living and extinct species; emphasis on interrelationships among behavior, biology, and ecology. 

 

Prerequisite: ANTH 240 or EEE 246; or consent of instructor.

 

351  ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEYING: TECHNIQUES AND APPLICATIONS  (3 hrs. or 1 unit)

Instructor TBA.  Please contact the department at 333-3616

 

Familiarization with methods used in the location and recording of archaeological sites, including techniques of mapping especially adapted to the needs of archaeology; attention given to means of presenting results and interpreting data derived from this work; and work both in the field and in the laboratory.

 

Prerequisite:  Anth 102 or consent of instructor.

 

 

356  HUMAN OSTEOLOGY.    (3 hrs. or 1 unit)

Professor Linda Klepinger                          Office: 209G Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3513

   klepinge@uiuc.edu

 

Identification of human skeletal material and basic techniques of measurement; morphological methods of assessing age at death, sex, ancestry and stature from the human skeleton.  Exams include five lab quizzes, one lab final and one written final.  No paper.

 

TEXT:

Bass, William M., Human Osteology,  Columbia:  Missouri Archaeological Society.

 

Recommended:   Steele and Bramblett, The Anatomy and Biology of the Human Skeletal, Texas A & M University Press.

 

 

366  CLASS, CULTURE AND SOCIETY  (3 hrs.)

Professor Arlene Torres                        Office:  383 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3511

   a-torres@uiuc.edu    

 

This course examines anthropological studies of work, class, and gender in variety of sociohistorical and modern contexts. It addresses debates about the salience of class, particularly when we consider the global and (U.S. national) transformation of labor; the racialization, ethnicization and feminization of the manufacturing industry; and the importance of consumption.  The course begins with an examination of slave, indentured, and free labor. We will then examine how these labor patterns were examined and interpreted by various theorists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  As such we will examine classical theories of class and how they inform contemporary theories about the gendered, racial and cultural dimensions of class via our critical analysis of ethnographic work.

 

Brice Heath, Shirley Ways with words: language, life, and work in communities and classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

 

Centro de Estudios Puertorriquenos Centro Journal Special Issue on Chicago 2002

 

Davis, Lloyd and Paul Thomas (ed.) Culture and the State Routledge 1998.

 

Gewertz Deborah and Frederick K. Errington Emerging class in Papua New Guinea: the telling of difference.  New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

 

Joyce, Patrick (ed) Class. Oxford University Press1995.

 

Lamming, George In the Castle of My Skin (with an introd. by Richard Wright) New York: Collier Books, 1970, c1953

Lewis, Earl In their own interests: race, class, and power in twentieth-century Norfolk, Virginia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

 

Martinez-Vergne Teresita  Shaping the discourse on space: charity and its wards in nineteenth-century San Juan, Puerto Rico. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999.  And/or Eileen Suarez-Findlay Imposing decency: the politics of sexuality and race in Puerto Rico, 1870-1920. Durham, NC : Duke University Press, 1999.

 

McCarthy, Cameron The Uses of Culture. New York: Routledge, 1998.  Whalen, Carmen From Puerto Rico to Philadelphia: Puerto Rican workers and postwar economies.  Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001.

 

Willis, Paul Learning to labour: how working class kids get working class jobs. Columbia University Press, 1977.

 

Additional readings will provided as well.

 

 

367  CULTURES OF AFRICA  (3 hrs.)

Professor Mahir Saul                            Office:  309J Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3502

   m-saul@uiuc.edu

 

This course is an introduction to the populations of Sub-Saharan Africa.  The readings will illustrate the diversity of social, political, and economic systems of Africa as well as the different style of research.  They will include works considered classic as well as more recent writings. 

 

There will also be a packet of photocopied articles

 

 

371  ETHNOGRAPHY THROUGH LANGUAGE  (3 hrs.)

Professor Janet Keller                           Office:  395 Davenport Hall; PH:  333-3529

   jdkeller@uiuc.edu     

 

This is a course in ethnography focusing on how cultural processes are revealed in language and speech.  We will review a number of ethnographic works that use linguistic data (each in a different way) to illustrate sociocultural processes and advance theoretical frameworks.  Although the class focuses on language, the intent is not to privilege this aspect of human symbolic capacities but rather to illustrate its potential as a resource for anthropologists studying matters well beyond the strict domain of linguistics.  Language is increasingly used as a tool by ethnographers to investigate the concepts, practices and textured nuances of "culture."  What this does is place theory and methods, once the hallmark of linguistic anthropology, in a wider arena.  This class emphasizes this wider arena by exploring topics such as translation, orthography, literacy, language and power, gendered speech, dialect and identity, literal and symbolic dimensions of meaning, emplaced narratives, memories, the arts of speaking, childhood socialization, the integration of gesture and word, and expressions of emotion.

 

The aim of the course is to provide students with an intellectual tool kit for research and critical reflection.

 

Texts will be drawn from:

Feld, Steven, Sense and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics and Song in Kaluli Expression.  2nd edition.  1990.

Duranti, Alessandro From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village. 1994.

Basso, Keith, Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache.  1996.

Errington, J. Joseph, Shifting Languages: Interaction and identity in Javanese Indonesia.  1998.

Kulick, Don, Language Shift and Cultural Reproduction: Socialization, Self and Syncretism in a Papua New Guinea Village.  1992.

Lindstrom, Lamont, Knowledge and Power in a South Pacific Society.  1990.

Besnier, Niko  Literacy, Emotion and Authority on a Polynesian Outlier. 1995.

Kathleen A Place On the Side of the Road. 1996.

 

Supplementary readings will be provided by xerox and may include excerpts from Dell Hymes In Vain I Tried to Tell You 1986, Dennis Tedlock 1983 The Spoken Word and the Work of Interpretation, Gary Witherspoon Language and Art in the Navajo Universe 1977 and assorted articles.

 

 

380  SYMBOLIC AND INTERPRETIVE ANTHROPOLOGY  (4 hrs. or 1 unit)

Professor Alma Gottlieb                        Office:  386C Davenport Hall; PH:  244-3515

   ajgottli@uiuc.edu      

 

This course explores a range of symbolic and interpretive approaches within anthropology.  The course is divided into two sections.  In the first section we will briefly review early precursors of symbolic and interpretive anthropology, including early French symbolist and surrealists, Freud, Weber, Cassirer, Langer, Durkheim and Mauss, and Maurice Halbwachs.  Then we will jump to the first wave of contemporary symbolic and interpretive anthropologists, focusing on Berger and Luckmann, Mary Douglas, Victor Turner, Clifford Geertz, Roy Wagner and Sherry Ortner.  During the remainder of the course we will concentrate on works by more recent and contemporary authors.  Throughout the course, we will consider such topics as: the cultural construction of memory; the cultural constitution of space and place; the symbolics of power/representing the colonial encounter; the efficacy of ritual and performance; the politics and art of writing the ethnographic text; and, throughout, the powers and limitations of symbolic and interpretive approaches in anthropology.

 

PREREQUISITES: All students should have some background in cultural anthropology.  Undergraduates students should have already taken at least one of the following: ANTH 230, 321, 363 (or equivalent elsewhere).  Graduate students in departments other than anthropology are encouraged to consult with the instructor to see if their background is optimal before enrolling for this course.

 

Readings will include a course pack of articles and the following books (tentative list):

 

Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss, Primitive Classification

Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory

Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality

Roy Wagner, The Invention of Culture

James Clifford and George E. Marcus, eds., Writing Culture: The Politics and Poetics of Ethnography

Barbara Myerhoff, Remembered Lives: The Work of Ritual, Storytelling, and Growing Older

James Fernandez, Persuasions and Performances: The Play of Tropes in Culture

Rosalind Shaw, Memories of the Slave Trade: Ritual and Historical Imagination in Sierra Leone

 

 

398I  INTEGRATED FOUR FIELDS SEMINAR.  (4 hrs. or 1 unit)

Professor Steve Leigh                           Office:  209J Davenport Hall; PH:  244-3503

   s-leigh@uiuc.edu

Professor Andy Orta                            Office:  391 Davenport Hall; PH:  244-7108

   andyorta@uiuc.edu                           

 

This course -- co-taught by an archaeologist, a biological anthropologist, and a cultural anthropologist -- is designed to explore the nature of anthropology as an integrated discipline.  To do so, faculty and students will engage in an ongoing dialogue across sub-disciplinary lines, examining the theoretical, conceptual, and empirical domains that unite and divide us as practitioners of anthropology.  We will pay particular attention to some of the discipline's "classic" issues; and in probing how the different sub-disciplines approach them, we will seek new avenues of integration.  Specific topics that will be covered include: the culture/nature problem; language, gesture, and communicative strategies; spirituality, religion, and ritual; ecology; kinship and the genetic basis of behavior; the relationship of behavior to practice and prehistory to history; evolutionary theory and its uses in each subfield; the cultural concept of race and the biology of human variation; social hierarchy, cooperation, and aggression in human and non-human primates; cognition, decision making, and space; sex, gender, and mating/marriage systems, etc.  Evaluation is based on 1) class discussion and 2) a term paper that explores a contemporary topic in anthropology from a multidisciplinary perspective.  The course is open to graduating seniors and graduate students in anthropology. First-year graduate students are required to enroll in the course.

 

 

398L  PEOPLES AND CULTURES OF SOUTH ASIA.  (4 hrs. or 1 unit)

Professor F.K. Lehman                        Office:  209H Davenport Hall;  PH:  333-8423

   f-lehman@uiuc.edu   

 

This is a survey of issues in the anthropology of India (and also Pakstan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka).  In many ways, professional anthropology ad its start under the British colonial regime there with the establishment of the Anthropological Survey of India.  This is intended to be an introduction to the vast anthropological literature of this region, both culture-historical and ethnographical. The purpose is to characterize the region as a domain of anthropological study and to deal with the special issues for cultural and social anthropological theory raise by specifically South Asian sociocultural phenomena. Not least is a re-examination upon rigorous grounds, of the nature of Caste, and of questions about the cultural relativity of notions of Self/Individuality.

 

 

398P  Culture and Society in Russia and the Successor States:  Ethnographies of Change  (4 hrs. or 1 unit)

Instructor: Sarah Phillips           

   sdphilli@students.uiuc.edu    

 

What was daily life like under socialism?  How have recent transformations in the Newly Independent States shaped people's national and personal identities?  In post-socialism, how are states dealing with the "minority question," the "woman question," etc.?  What is ethnography, and how can it help us answer these questions?  To explore these issues, this course will examine a broad range of historical and anthropological studies of the NIS, focusing particularly on Russia and Ukraine.  Major themes include byt (everyday life) during and after state socialism; cultural transformations among indigenous peoples; nationalism, memory, and nostalgia; religion and ethnicity in flux; language and identity; gender politics; consumption and the new market; and youth cultures.  Along with many articles, students will read several books, including Ries's Russian Talk: Culture and Conversation during Perestroika; and Wanner's Burden of Dreams: History and Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine.

 

 

398S  HISTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGY THEORY  (4 hrs. or 1 unit)

Professor Olga Soffer                           Office:  309H Davenport Hall; PH:  333-2100

   o-soffer@uiuc.edu    

 

This "capstone" undergraduate course/"groundstone" graduate course is a seminar, which will focuses on the history of theory in archaeology.  We will examine the waxing and waning of a number of theoretical approaches in our sub-discipline within the context of both 1) the specific place and time period during which they emerged, and 2) general developments in anthropology at large.  An in depth critical analysis of the different approaches (antiquarianism, evolutionism, historicism, neo-evolutionism, functionalism, cultural ecology, Marxism in all its permutations, structuralism, post-processualism including practice and agency theories, etc.) will be augmented by specific examples of archaeological research done within the framework of the paradigms in question.

 

Requirements:  For undergraduates - senior status and majoring in anthropology, or permission of the instructor.  For graduate students - graduate student status in the Dept. of Anthropology or permission of the instructor.  IT IS ADVISED TO TAKE THIS COURSE TOGETHER WITH ANTH. 330 

 

TEXTS: 1

1.  Trigger, B. G.  l989   A History of Archaeological Thought.  Cambridge U. Press.

2.  other - TBA

3.  Additional readings on reserve in Department library, Davenport Hall # 193

 

 

443  PROBLEMS IN PRIMATE BEHAVIOR AND ECOLOGY.    (1 unit)

Professor Paul Garber              Office: 309K Davenport Hall, PH: 333-0075

   p-garber@.uiuc.edu      

 

This course focuses on current topics and debates in primate behavior and ecology.