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Main Office |
109D Davenport Hall, PH: 333-3616 |
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Karla Harmon, Courses & Scheduling |
109C Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3492 |
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Ronda Rigdon, Graduate Coordinator |
109E Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3495 |
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Undergraduate Advisor |
109F Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3497 |
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Teaching Assistant Offices |
309 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-1384, 333-1645 |
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Instruction Begins |
August 23, 2000 |
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Labor Day |
September 4, 2000 |
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Thanksgiving Break |
Nov. 18-26, 2000 |
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Last Day of Instruction |
December 8, 2000 |
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Reading Day |
December 9, 2000 |
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Final Examinations |
December 11-16, 2000 |
102 HUMAN ORIGINS AND CULTURE (4 hrs)
Professor Linda Klepinger Office 209G Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3513
klepinge@uiuc.edu
Professor Barry Lewis Office: 209F Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3501
blewis@uiuc.edu
This class explores the fossil and archaeological evidence for human biological and cultural evolution. We examine the fossil and artifact record of the last several million years in order to develop an understanding of why we are interesting animals and a somewhat unique species. The first part of the course considers our biological heritage. We learn the biological bases of human life and carefully evaluate the human fossil record. The second part of the course introduces students to archaeology, the evolution of cultural behavior, and world prehistory. Grades will be based on two examinations, two section quizzes, and two 3-5 page article reviews.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN.ED.REQ.
103 INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY. (4 hrs.)
Professor Andrew Orta Office: 396D Davenport Hall; PH: 244-7108
andyorta@uiuc.edu
Cultural anthropologists are interested in the social organization of human communities, the social organization of meaning within these communities, and the ways this organization varies across communities. The aim of this course will be to present an overview of cultural anthropology focusing on the disciplines central concept: culture. Readings, lectures, assignments, and exams will expose students to a broad range of societies around the world and encourage a comparative awareness of their own. Beyond pursuing enduring questions of how people in different places and times find the world to be a meaningful place, cultural anthropology provides a uniquely informed perspective on a set of very pressing topics, including globalization, multiculturalism, racial and ethnic conflict, and gender relations.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN.ED.REQ.
103(DISCOVERY) INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (4 hrs)
Professor Bill Kelleher Office: 391 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3516
wkellehe@uiuc.edu
Cultural anthropology attempts to make the diverse cultures of the world understandable. It seeks to make the strange, familiar, and the familiar, strange. It assumes that if we learn about different cultures then we learn something about ourselves. This course introduces cultural anthropology. It places it in the field of general anthropology and describes the methods and research problems which both tie it to and distinguish it from anthropology's other subfields. The course focuses attention on cultural anthropology's major research form, ethnography. It delineates its methodologies and its significant research areas - language use, kinship, social structure, religion and ritual, symbolic systems, cultural change, social conflict, ethnicity, economic organization, health and healing, and the artistic dimensions of social life. It places anthropology in the history of Euro-American social thought and introduces some of the contemporary debates in the discipline through lecture and discussion of a variety of world areas. The course consists of three lectures and a discussion section per week. There will be two hour exams during the semester, a short paper and numerous discussion section exercises.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN.ED.REQ.
Professor Brenda Farnell Office: 209E Davenport Hall; PH: 244-9226
bfarnell@uiuc.edu
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. 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.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL SCIENCES GEN.ED.REQ.
105 INTRODUCTORY WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY. (3 hrs.)
Professor David Grove Office: 396B Davenport Hall, PH: 333-8381
E-mail d-grove@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. Topics cover nearly four million years of human prehistory, and include King Tut's tomb, Stonehenge, Viking contacts with the Americas, mound builders of the Midwest, and the search for America's prehistoric 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 prehistory. Anthropology 105, since its inception, has consistently been ranked as EXCELLENT in the CEQ's. 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 site of their very own on the Plato computer. This "Dig" constitutes the term project and is written up as a paper. There are also three one hour exams.
TEXTS: Packet of Readings sold at TIS Bookstore
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
141 RACE: THE CONCEPT IN ANTHROPOLOGY. (3 hrs.)
Professor Leslea Hlusko Office: 188B Davenport Hall; PH: 333-3616
This course critically evaluates concepts of human biological variation. Specifically, we investigate the ways in which human variation has been historically divided into "races," and evaluate the consequences of this way of thinking. We will establish an understanding of the significance of biological variation and its measurement before investigating the human species. Historical perspectives on human biological variation are explored and critiqued. Finally, contemporary evolutionary theory is applied to explaining the origins and maintenance of human biological variability. Human variation is explored at both the genetic and anatomical levels. We explore the causes and consequences of the frequent misapplication of contemporary biological theory to human variation.
Evaluation is based on four written assignments spaced throughout the semester. These assignments will be edited by the instructor, and returned to students for rewrites. Grades will be determined both by evaluation of rewrites and by class participation.
Text:
Gould, SJ (1996) The Mismeasure of Man. New York: WW Norton.
A reader will be available.
143 BIOLOGICAL BASES OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR. (3 hrs.)
Professor Paul Garber Office: 309K Davenport Hall; PH: 333-0075
p-garber@uiuc.edu
This course presents a broadly based survey of the biological components of human behavior. Course content draws on evidence from the evolutionary record (primate and human evolution), comparative ethnology (especially non-human primates), neuroanatomy and psychology. Specific topics include hormones and reproduction, aggression, sociobiology, genetic bases of behavior, language, the human brain, 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.
Text To Be Announced
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE GEN. ED. REQ.
146 HUMAN REMAINS AND THE LAW (3 hrs.)
Professor Eugene Giles Office 209J Davenport Hall, PH: 333-0801
e-giles1@uiuc.edu
Professor Linda Klepinger Office: 209G Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3513
klepinge@uiuc.edu
A survey of forensic anthropology, the application of physical anthropology and ancillary biological sciences in the identification of human remains (or their traces) when standard identification means (e.g., fingerprints) fail. Besides an introduction to forensic anthropology, the course will also briefly introduce students to other forensic specialties such as odontology, pathology, entomology as well as discuss courtroom use of expert witness testimony and ethical problems in forensic anthropology. Case studies will be used to illustrate and document some of the principles discussed.
Students who have received credit for or are currently enrolled in Anthropology 356 will not be admitted.
Text: TBA
150-Honors Program NOVEL ARCHAEOLOGY (3 hrs., or 1 unit)
Professor Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-1315
helaine@uiuc.edu
This course is about the past in the present and, more generally, about the social context of archaeology. Through multiple case studies we examine the ways in which the ancient past has been interpreted, appropriated, represented, used and manipulated for a variety of reasons by people, political parties, national governments and others living in the present. Here are some of the topics and case studies to be covered in class. Anthropological concepts underlying the topics will be presented by the professor.
* Setting the stage for the semester: the Renaissance Revival of Classical Antiquity; the Incas' Ideological Appropriation of Lake Titicaca
* Epistemology: the methods of science; what is archaeology; other concepts
* Ancient astronauts: the pseudo-scientific claim that extraterrestrials made landing strips on a desert plain in southern Peru.
* The politics of the past.
* The Nazis propagandized the past to justify genocide; digging for God and Country ("biblical archaeology"); creating a national identity and claiming political borders (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia)
* "Scientific" creationism.
* The real events that underwrote the great film, "Inherit the Wind" and which have been replayed recently in the State of Kansas.
* Who has the right to claim and represent the past?
* Before Columbus: were there Vikings, Irish, Chinese and others in ancient America? Archaeologists versus Native Americans on the issue of ancient human remains/NAGPRA; repercussions on our campus: Chief Illiniwek is the contested mascot of the U of I sports teams.
* African-American approaches to the past: "Black Athena" and afro-centric theories.
* Public archaeology.
* Entire nations see their future in the development of tourism around ancient ruins, but what happens to the native populations whose ancestors created these sites?
* Museums script their exhibitions with and without input from the public and from descendant communities.
* Looters and the antiquities market
* The highlight of our semester is our class project in which we view and critique a time-sample of the mummy film genre (beginning with the original 1932 Boris Karloff film and its sequels, through Abbott & Costello, Poirot, Christopher Plummer, and Brendan Fraser in 1999) with the explicit goal of understanding how ancient Egypt and modern Egypt have been represented to the American viewing public.
There are weekly written assignments in which students critique the reading relevant to the case study. These critiques will help us focus our discussions which, I think, will be quite lively. Attendance is required.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
199 ASIAN AMERICAN CULTURES (pending approval for Anth 184) 3 hrs.
Professor Martin Manalansan Office: 309C Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3500
manalans@uiuc.edu
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 these multi-faceted dimensions of Asian American lives and communities through the lenses of ethnography. The course aims to provide students with a critical understanding of the scope and range of ethnography in general and with ethnographic studies of Asian American communities in particular.
186 SOUTHEAST ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS (3 hrs)
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 HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
220 INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY (3 hrs.)
Professor Susan Gillespie Office: 386A Davenport Hall; PH: 244-5920
sgillesp@uiuc.edu
This course is designed for anthropology majors and minors, providing an intensive and thorough overview of archaeological techniques, methods, and theories in preparation for advanced archaeology courses. It introduces the science of archaeology as a subfield of anthropology, explaining how archaeologists make inferences and interpretations about past societies from surviving cultural and natural material remains. Students will learn how to find and investigate sites, how to record and analyze remains, and how to assess when in time past events occurred. They will also investigate different interpretive models for understanding cultural processes and culture change, the theoretical perspectives used to frame questions about the past, and current legal and ethical issues pertaining to heritage management.
READINGS:
Sharer and Ashmore : ARCHAEOLOGY: DISCOVERING OUR PAST
Gillespie: ARCHAEOLOGY WORKBOOK
journal articles will be assigned for discussion sections
ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENTS:
Workbook and laboratory exercises during weekly sections
GRADING:
2 midterms and a final, in class and homework exercises, class participation
PREREQUISITE: ANTH 102
225/Women's Studies 225 WOMEN IN PREHISTORY (3 hours)
Professor Olga Soffer Office: 309 H Davenport Hall; PH: 333-2100
o-soffer@uiuc.edu
This course introduces students to gender issues in archaeology and in what archaeologists produce : stories about the past. We begin by studying the history of gender studies in archaeology and focus on the roles that women have played in archaeology. Next we examine the variety of approaches to engendering the past. Armed with these theoretical and practical insights, we focus on how we can reliably identify the presence of women in the archaeological record and reconstruct both their lives and the roles that they played in a variety of prehistoric cultures around the world. This course is run as a lecture/discussion with extensive guided student participation.
TEXTS: TBA
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE NON-WESTERN CULTURES GEN. ED. REQ.
230 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY (3 hrs.)
Professor Alma Gottlieb Office: 386C Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3515
ajgottli@uiuc.edu
This course is a broad introduction to the key issues in sociocultural anthropology, especially as practiced in the U.S. and western Europe over the past hundred years. What are the uses, benefits, and risks of cultural relativity? Is patriarchy universal/inevitable? Is anthropology a humanities/science/both/neither? When is a fact not a fact? Was Margaret Mead wrong in her writings about Samoa? These issues, and other equally provocative ones, have engaged the discipline over the past century. In this course, we will venture bravely into some of the most written-about and hotly contested territory of the discipline both to understand the central concerns of the field and to learn productive ways of assessing evidence and evaluating arguments.
This course is required of all anthropology majors. It should also appeal to others interested in key issues and developments in the field of sociocultural anthropology.
Prerequisites: ANTH 103
Writing: Students will write a series of short papers taking stances on key intellectual debates in sociocultural anthropology.
Class format: Class will consist of a combination of lectures by the instructor, general class discussion, and in-class debates conducted by teams of students concerning critical issues in the field.
Texts will include the following:
Tim Ingold, ed., Key Debates in Anthropology
Thomas Barfield, ed., The Blackwell Dictionary of Anthropology
Course pack of articles.
258 PEOPLE OF THE ICE AGE (3 hours)
Professor Olga Soffer Office: 309 H Davenport Hall, PH: 333-2100
o-soffer@uiuc.edu
This course explores a vast period of human prehistory-some 2 million to 10,000 years ago - before people domesticated plants and animals and first cities arose around the world. We will use archaeological, paleoanthropological, and ethnographic evidence to understand past lifeways in Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. The course will emphasize an integration of theory and data for understanding both specific cultures of the past as well as for observed changes in past cultures of the Pleistocene.
TEXTS: TBA
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES GEN.ED.REQ.
265 ETHNICITY IN THE U.S.A: HISTORICAL AND ETHNOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES (3 hrs)
Professor Bill Kelleher Office: 391 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3516
wkellehe@uiuc.edu
This course will focus upon changing ethnicities in the United States. It will emphasize historical, ethnohistorical and ethnographic methods. Throughout the course we will address the controversy surrounding multiculturalism: whether the institutions of liberal democratic government make room - or should make room - for recognizing the worth of distinctive cultural traditions. It will be argued that the anthropological concept of culture and studies attentive to it have much to contribute to debates on this issue. The conquest of Native North America, the cultural construction of U.S. nationalism, "race" and racism, the changing circumstances of immigrants and immigration, the relationship of ethnicity to gender and social class, and contemporary identity politics will be addressed through ethnography, fiction and film. There will be several diverse writing assignments.
269 LATINAS AND LATINOS CHALLENGING THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE (3hrs)
Professor Arlene Torres Office: 383 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3511
E-mail a-torres@uiuc.edu
A major goal of this course is to provide students with various theoretical and methodological perspectives and insights regarding the construction of ethnic and racial difference in American society. It builds on the more traditional approach to ethnicity by offering an in depth look at the construction of stereotypical imagery of self and other. By focusing on the ways by which Latino/Latina identities are constructed as compared to other ethnic and racial groups in American society, students explore the relationship between symbolic representations and complex social processes in historical and contemporary contexts.
The first half of the course focuses on symbolic representations and anthropological literature written about Latino/a culture. Such imagery from diverse media and disciplinary roots is contrasted with imagery (visual and verbal) chosen by Latinos and Latinas to represent themselves. The second part of the course examines how these images and anthropological studies have been embraced and/or contested in various social settings by Latino and Latina scholars and literary figures. Students are provided with an opportunity to analyze visual and verbal imagery to better understand the representation of ethnicity and issues of political, social and cultural consequence which derive therefrom.
The course is structured around four key areas. These include: 1) historical imagery and representation 2) anthropological theory, method and representation, 3) seeking new directions in theory , method and practice, and 4) multiple ways of representing self/others as Latinos/Latinas represent themselves.
These are required Readings:
Robin Fox (ed.) Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press 1991.
Limon, Jose Dancing with the Devil: Society and Cultural Poetics in Mexican-American South Texas. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994
Judith Freidenberg, (ed.) The Anthropology of Lower Income Urban Enclave: The Case of East Harlem. New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Vol. 749, 1995
Additional readings will be required.
Requirements: Class participation: 20% (Active participation will be required throughout the semester) 3 out of 4 papers: 30% (4-5 pgs.), Final Oral Presentation: 10%, Term Paper: 20% (15-20 pgs.), Final Exam 20%
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE US MINORITY CULTURES GEN. ED. REQ.
270 INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY (3 hrs.)
Professor F.K. Lehman Office: 209H Davenport Hall, PH: 333-8423
f-lehman@uiuc.edu
The interaction between linguistics and anthropology is the subject of this course. We will explore issues of language and identity; language and culture; language and mind; and language and social interaction. Universal dimensions of language will be contrasted with those aspects of language which vary from one speech community to the next. You will be introduced to analytical procedures and have opportunities to apply these methods to realistic problems.
This course can be taken as a standard offering or for COMP II credit. Graduate students must sign up for the standard discussion section. Undergraduates may elect to take the course for COMP II by selecting one of the two COMP II sections or may take the course as a standard offering by selecting the standard section.
Text
Alessandro Duranti, Linguistic Anthropology, Cambridge University Press, 1997
**THIS COURSE SATISFIES THE COMP II REQUIREMENT FOR UNDERGRADUATES.
(Section A1+ and A2+ are the Comp.II sections, A3 and A4 are not offered for Comp.II)
280 PERSONAL ANTHROPOLOGY (3 hrs.)
Professor Nancy Abelmann Office: 389 Davenport Hall; PH: 244-7733
abelman@uiuc.edu
Personal Anthropology is not a formal subfield in anthropology. This is nice because it gives us freedom to consider what the possibilities are for a personal anthropology. Many agree that anthropology is a reflexive discipline -- in that we reflect upon ourselves through thinking about Others (people and places); this is this sort of reflexivity that I hope we achieve in this course. Many of the primary readings are memoirs (or fiction/memoirs) in which the writers have in some way attempted to reflect critically on themselves and their place and times. A number of the writers focus particularly on the ways in which the world revealed itself to them, that is the ways in which they began to see themselves in their world (often in childhood). I hope that you will find the readings interesting and provocative and that they will encourage you to reflect on your „place in the world. For each section of the course, one or two days will be devoted to theoretical readings; some write of the intersection of history and biography, others about place and social geography, and still others about the imagination and memory. My hope is that these theoretical works -- their vocabularies and abstractions will inform and enhance your reading of the personal narratives.
Texts will include:
*Annie Dillard. 1987. An American Childhood.
*William Maxwell. 1980. So Long, See You Tomorrow.
*Jean-Paul Sartre. 1964. The Words: The Autobiography of Jean-Paul Sartre.
*Carolyn Steedman. 1986. Landscape for a Good Woman: A Story of Two Lives.
*Heinz lnsu Fenkl. 1997. Memories of My Ghost Brother.
*John Berger and Jean Mohr. 1982, Another Way of Telling.
*Ann Kaplan. 1993. French Lessons: A Memoir.
* Richard Rodriguez. 1981. Hunger of Memory
*C. S. Lewis. 1955. Surprised by Joy
296A "NEANDERTHALS AND THE ORIGINS OF MODERN HUMANS". (3 hrs.)
Professor Brian Richmond 189 Davenport Hall; PH: 333-3676
This course explores the rise and fall of the Neanderthals and the origins of our own species. We discuss a number of topics including whether or not Neanderthals and modern humans should be considered as separate species, how to define "modern human" and "Neanderthal" as species, and recent arguments for interbreeding between the two groups. The course undertakes detailed comparisons of Neanderthal and modern human fossils and anatomy, and discusses how an understanding of anatomy can be used to reconstruct behavior and ecology. Specialized Neanderthal adaptations are reviewed and discussed. Finally, we consider questions of behavior, "intelligence" and "culture" that have been argued to distinguish Neanderthals from anatomically modern humans. Prerequisite: Anth 102 or 240, or permission of the instructor.
296B THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF JEWS AND JUDAISM (3 hrs.)
Professor Matti Bunzl Office: 386B Davenport Hall; PH: 265-4068
bunzl@uiuc.edu
In this course, we will explore the great diversity of Jewish experience across space and time. We will be particularly concerned to understand Judaism as a cultural system that is in constant interaction with larger social fields. In the course of the semester, we will attend to such topics as American synagogue culture, German-Jewish culture before and after the Holocaust, the Jewish past in North Africa, the Jewish culture of the Indian subcontinent, and Israeli culture.
326 THE RISE OF CIVILIZATION IN ANCIENT PERU. (3 hrs., or 1 unit)
Professor Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-1315
helaine@uiuc.edu
This course surveys the rise of civilization in ancient Peru from the earliest evidence of human occupation in the Central Andes to the threshold of the Inca Empire. 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. Art and architecture of these brilliant societies are extensively treated. Each lecture is extensively illustrated with slides. Therefore, attendance is required. Undergraduates: Your readings are on reserve in the library and two books are available for purchase in the campus bookstores. Undergraduates will be graded on the basis of three take-home exams involving straightforward short-answers, map identifications, a chronological chart, figure identifications, short essays and matching statements. Graduate students: You will be expected to do a significant amount of reading and will be graded on the basis of a take-home exam with several comparative and synthetic essay questions.
330 HISTORY OF ANTHROPOLOGY (1/2 or 1 unit)
Professor Matti Bunzl Office: 386B Davenport Hall, PH: 265-4068
bunzl@uiuc.edu
This course will provide a selective overview of the history and historiography of anthropology in the 19th and 20th centuries. The class will move chronologically and topically, paying particular attention to the social, institutional, and historical contexts of paradigmatic shifts, the interconnections between various national traditions, and the negotiations of the discipline's boundaries. Within this framework, we will be especially concerned with the historicization of American anthropology, comparing its conceptual organization to other national traditions and exploring the unique perspectives it engenders. Students will be encouraged to pursue their individual interest in the history and theory of anthropology.
341 HUMAN EVOLUTION II (3 hrs or 3/4 or 1 unit)
Professor Leslea Hlusko Office: 188B Davenport Hall; PH: 333-3616
This course explores the use of genetics in answering anthropological questions. Terminology and methodological concepts will be taught in the first part of the semester. We will then turn to primary literature focusing on a variety of topics within anthropological genetics, including: population genetics (modern human origins, phylogenetic divergence dates, paleodemography), ancient DNA (Neanderthals, the black death), forensics (who was Anastasia?), coding and non-coding genetic variation, and developmental biology (hopeful monsters?). Evolutionary theory provides the framework for this course.
Evaluation will be based on one exam, two or three short research papers, and class participation.
Texts: To be announced.
348 AFRICAN PREHISTORY. (3 hrs. or 3/4 or 1 unit)
Professor Stanley Ambrose Office: 189 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3504
ambrose@uiuc.edu
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).
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.
367 CULTURES OF AFRICA (3 hrs.)
Professor Mahir Saul Office: 309J Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3502
m-saul@uiuc.edu
This course is an anthropological introduction to the populations of Sub-Saharan Africa. We will read a few classic ethnographies as well as books on current cultural, political, and religious issues in different parts of the continent. The readings will include a packet of photocopied articles. There will be a mid-term and final essay exam and term paper.
374 MESOAMERICAN ART AND ICONOGRAPHY (3 hours, 3/4 or 1 unit)
Professor Susan Gillespie Office 386A Davenport Hall, PH: 244-5920
sgillesp@uiuc.edu
The precolumbian artworks of Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Aztecs, Mayas, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Olmecs, are studied in terms of their iconic (as opposed to formal) content and their spatial and social contexts. The goal is to understand how imagery functioned to communicate ideas about the cosmos and the state. Certain shared themes in Mesoamerican cosmology are investigated: the nature of power, ritual landscapes (focused on cave, mountain, and tree), and transformative actions (ballgame, sacrifice, costuming, long-distance travel). A cross-cutting organizing principle is the use of the human body as an orienting model for communication and negotiation within an ego-centric cosmos. We examine how these themes were represented in portable artworks, stone monuments, and architecture of different societies, especially in association with rulership and statecraft. This comparative method reveals that the themes were shared, yet they varied in significant ways between highland and lowland peoples throughout the c. 3000-year time span from the earliest decorated pottery to Spanish contact.
READINGS:
Miller: THE ART OF MESOAMERICA FROM OLMEC TO AZTEC
Townsend: STATE AND COSMOS IN THE ART OF TENOCHTITLAN
Big reader compiled of articles and book chapters.
EXAMS: 2 midterms and 1 final. Exams include questions based on viewing slides.
OTHER ASSIGNMENTS: 2 written critiques OR a research paper
Graduate students taking the course for 1 unit will submit a research paper in addition to the critiques, and may be required to attend discussion sections outside of normal class hours.
PREREQUISITE: ANTH 102 or 105, or consent of instructor
375 PREHISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF MEXICO. (3 hrs. or l unit)
Professor David Grove Office: 396B Davenport Hall, PH: 333-8381
E-mail d-grove@uiuc.edu
This a very thorough course on Mexican prehistory from about 20,000 B.C. to 1300 A.D. The content is primarily with the early farming villages and the evolution of civilization. Stress is placed on cultures such as the Olmec, Teotihuacanos, and Zapotecs. Lectures usually include many slides. Although the presentation is intensive, non-anthropologists and non-archaeologists interested in Mexico and Mexican prehistory frequently take this course and do well in it. Eight short take-home assignments are required in addition to a midterm and a final exam. Undergraduates not meeting the prerequisites must obtain consent of the instructor. This course does not deal with either the Aztecs or Maya. These are specially presented in Anthropology 276 and 376, general courses (for majors and non-majors) dealing with these two well-known civilizations and offered in the spring semesters.
TEXTS: Prehistoric Mesoamerica (revised edition) by R. E. W. Adams.
384 FAMILY, GENDER, AND POPULATION IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA (3 hrs)
Professor C.K. Shih Office: 387 Davenport Hall; PH: 333-7507
ckshih@uiuc.edu
Population overgrowth has become one of the most powerful factors shaping contemporary China's political, social, and economic constructions. As a result of the increasing population pressure as well as the government policies in reaction to it, the family as a cornerstone of Chinese social structure has been fundamentally changed in the past few decades. In this changing process the traditional Chinese gender system, with itself being continually transformed by the social movements of the 20th century, has played a significant role. In this seminar we will examine this process by viewing demographic regime, gender, and the family as systems constantly interplaying with each other and the changing government policies as potent agents catalyzing the interactions of these systems. Topics to be covered include social conditions in the pre- communist Chinese society; overview of change and frameworks for analyzing change; family, gender, and development; demographic transformation; and family gender, and population among the Chinese ethnic minorities.
398G NEW AND EXPERIMENTAL DIRECTIONS IN WRITING ETHNOGRAPHY (4 hrs. or 1 unit)
Professor Alma Gottlieb Office: 386C Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3515
ajgottli@uiuc.edu
In recent years, conversations in the discipline have questioned the unbroachable theoretical divide between fiction and social science, questioned the unique authority of the scholar/author, questioned the relevance of the audience for scholarly texts. In this course we will explore these current debates by reading a selection of contemporary texts (as well as some early ones) that experiment with ethnographic writing in a variety of ways. As part of the course, students will try their hand at experimenting with several ethnographic writing styles themselves.
Readings will include some or all of the following:
Anna Banks and Stephen P. Banks, eds., Fiction and Social Research: By Ice or Fire (1998)
Ruth Behar, The Vulnerable Observer (1996)
Carolyn Ellis and Arthur P. Bochner, eds., Composing Ethnography: Alternative Forms of Qualitative Writing (1996)
Judy S. DeLoache and Alma Gottlieb (eds.), A World of Babies: Imagined Childcare Guides for Seven Societies (2000)
Kirin Narayan, Love Stars in All That (1994)
David Plath, Long Engagements (1980)
Paul Stoller, Jaguar (1999)
Dennis Tedlock, Days from a Dream Almanac (1990)
Marjorie Wolf, Thrice-Told Tale (1992)
plus work by Richard and Sally Price, Barbara Tedlock and Zora Neale Hurston, as well as a course pack of articles.
398L GIS FOR ANTHROPOLOGISTS (4 hrs or 1 unit)
Professor Barry Lewis Office: 209F Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3501
blewis@uiuc.edu
This course covers the basic principles of geographical information systems (GIS) and explores the potential applications of GIS in archaeological, biological, and cultural anthropological research. Topic to be covered include GIS database fundamentals, linking to non-spatial data, spatial analysis and inference, spatial data sources, anthropological applications of GIS. The class will meet for four hours each week in our new, state-of-the-art GIS lab facilities in 206 Lincoln Hall, which were provided by a grant from Intel Corporation. Problem sets that apply the course materials to anthropological data will be assigned throughout the semester. Each student will complete the course by designing and implementing a GIS-based research project.
398M GLOBILIZATION AND ASIAN DIASPORAS (4 hrs. or 1 unit)
Professor Martin Manalansan Office: 309C Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3500
manalans@uiuc.edu
The course situates Asian diasporic movements within a comparative and transnational framework that broadens the conceptual and theoretical foundations of traditional area and ethnic studies. Using Asian American communities as points of comparison with other Asian diasporic communities in the world, the course also brings together the histories, methodologies and theories of ethnic, area, postcolonial and global/transnational studies. By utilizing various texts from anthropology, sociology, geography, urban studies, economics, and cultural studies, the course aims to provide students the opportunity to examine Asian American issues within emerging debates around globalization. The course presents concepts and theories of globalization, diaspora and transnationalism as they are implicated in Asian immigration, travel and mobility in the late twentieth century and in the new millennium.
398R "RECONSTRUCTING SPECIES & BEHAVIOR IN THE HOMINID FOSSIL RECORD". (4hrs./1 unit)
Professor Brian Richmond Office: 189 Davenport Hall; PH: 333-3676
Current issues and methods in reconstructing key aspects of fossil biology, with an emphasis on the human fossil record. The course focuses on investigations of taxonomy (how to define genus and species categories, and how to allocate fossils to them), relationships, anatomical function, behavior, and adaptation in human ancestors. Special emphasis is placed on reconstructing diets, foraging patterns, locomotion, dexterity/tool behaviors, "intelligence", speech, social organization, and landscape use. We discuss the roles of nonhuman primate models, the comparative method, biomechanics, and other methods in efforts to understand the evolution of hominid behavior and adaptation.
Prerequisite: Anth 240, 340, 343 or permission of the instructor.
398S TRANSNATIONAL ISLAM: EUROPE, US, ASIA & AFRICA (4 hrs. or 1 unit)
Professor Mahir Saul Office: 309J Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3502
m-saul@uiuc.edu
This is a new course for undergraduate and graduate students, focusing on Islam in places that are not conventionally thought of as part of the Muslim world. England, France, Germany, and many other European countries have now a large population of Muslim origin. It consists of emigrants and their children who have settled down there and sometimes have acquired citizenship. The presence of such groups opens up new national issues in those countries and a new window to understand Islam. The same is true for the US states where in addition to emigration there is a high rate of conversion to Islam. Civil rights, education policy, race issues become entangled with world politics in matters concerning these communities. In addition, Muslim pilgrimage has acquired a new global dimension. The course will explore the post-colonial roots of this phenomenon and will present a window on a new exciting scholarship that deals with it.
398T HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY (4 hrs. or 1 unit)
Professor Arlene Torres Office: 383 Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3511
a-torres@uiuc.edu
This course introduces students to African American Anthropology. In an era where ìculture warsî and debates about ìcanonsî have taken center stage, how does the anthropological community define itself? By addressing the legacy of African American scholarship in the discipline of anthropology we will examine the political economy of ìraceî and ìcanon-buildingî in America. We will also discuss the theoretical and methodological contributions of African American ethnographers to further develop our understanding of how social stratification on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender and class throughout the African American Diaspora has informed anthropological thought.
DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk New York: Signet Classic, 1995 [1903]
DuBois, W.E.B. The Philadelphia Negro [1899] (Strongly recommended - Selections will be read)
Davis, Allison, Burleigh B. Gardner, Mary R. Gardner Deep South: A Social Anthropological Study of Caste and Class. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965 [1941]
Drake, St. Clair and Horace R.Cayton Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993 [1945]
Harrison, Faye (ed.) Decolonizing Anthropology: Moving Further Toward an Anthropology for Liberation Washington, D.C. : Association of Black Anthropologists: American Anthropological Association, 1991
Harrison, Faye V. and Ira Harrison (ed.) African American Pioneers in Anthropology Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 1998
Mintz, Sidney & Richard Price The Birth of African American Culture: An Anthropological Perspective Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1992
McClaurin, Irma Women of Belize: Gender and Change in Central America New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1996
Mullings, Leith In Our Own Terms: Race, Class and Gender in the Lives of African American Women New York: Routledge, 1997
Additional readings will be placed on reserve.
443 PROBLEMS IN PRIMATE BEHAVIOR AND ECOLOGY. (1/2 or 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. These include the relationships between group size, group spacing, and feeding ecology, kinship, social organization and group cohesion, dispersal, cooperation, parental behavior, breeding strategies, mate competition, and the ecology of group movement. Readings will cover all major primate taxa and be taken from recent issues of anthropological journals. Articles will be assigned for weekly discussions. Each student will be required to make in-class presentations, participate in class discussions, complete essay assignments, and write a research paper. Prerequisites: One of the following courses: Anthropology 308, 310, 340, or 343, or the consent of the instructor.
450A ARCHAEOLOGY OF HUMAN ORIGINS IN AFRICA ( 1/2 or 1 unit)
Professor Stanley Ambrose Office: 381 Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3504
ambrose@uiuc.edu
Africa is the birthplace of the earliest hominids, the first toolmakers and possibly the first modern humans. We will closely examine archaeological, paleontological, geological and paleoecological evidence for human origins from the Middle Miocene to the Later Pleistocene, and current issues in the interpretation of the fossil and archaeological record. The effects global tectonic and other geological events and processes on climates, environments, the course of hominid evolution and the origin of the archaeological record will be explored. We will compare non-human and human tool use, evaluate competing claims for the earliest archaeological traces, examine models for the role of lithic technology and subsistence change in human origins, and the role of technology in the subsequent spread of humans throughout the Old World. The role of language in human evolution and the controversy over molecular versus paleontological evidence for the origins of modern humans will also be explored.
Requirements: One term paper, and one or more class presentations.
Prerequisites: Permission of the Instructor.
Readings: To be assigned from journal articles and books on a weekly basis.
Recommended texts: The Human Career , 2nd edition, by Richard G. Klein. University of Chicago Press (1999).
The Human Evolution Source Book. R. Ciochon and John Fleagle (eds). Frentice
450J HISTORY AND ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE ANDES (1/2 or 1 unit)
Professor Nils Jacobsen Office: 309 Gregory Hall; PH: 333-2324
njacobse@uiuc.edu
Professor Andrew Orta Office: 396D Davenport Hall; PH: 244-7108
andyorta@uiuc.edu
This course will examine the complex and sometimes contentious relationship between history and anthropology through a close reading of key historical, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic studies of the Andean region. How have assumptions and perceptions of contemporary Andean society shaped the inquiry into the regions past? How have assumptions and received wisdom about the regions pre-Columbian and colonial past helped set the terms for describing and understanding the postcolonial present? At stake quite broadly will be understandings of the relationship between the past and the present, between history and culture. At issue in the details will be varying disciplinary approaches to the production of knowledge and the intertwining of theory, method, and data. The readings will introduce students to some of the major debates within each of the disciplines concerning the Andes. What sorts of questions do historians/anthropologists ask _ and why? How do they go about answering them? When are they satisfied that they have? At a time when disciplinary walls are said to be tumbling down, we anticipate finding enduring and meaningful disciplinary distinctions in the classical and contemporary Andeanist literature. While the course will focus largely on the Andean case, the issues raised here will be of interest to students of many world areas, where anthropologists find themselves increasingly engaged in archival research, and where historians find themselves increasingly accountable to contemporary ethnography. The case of the Andes is of comparative interest both as a colonial/postcolonial formation, and as a prototypical example of that contemporary interdisciplinary academic beast known as "area studies." Familiarity with the Andes will be helpful but is not required.
450L Border Cultures and Border Theory (3hrs)
Professor Alejandro Lugo Office: 285 Davenport Hall; PH: 333-0823
a-lugo@uiuc.edu
Course Description: This advanced graduate seminar examines recent theory and ethnography of the border experience cross-culturally and cross-nationally. We will use the U.S.-Mexico border and the literature on cultural borderlands produced by U.S. Latino/a scholars as points of reference and as points of departure to analyze other border regions and border crossings around the world. Selected ethnographic and theoretical examples of border communities in South America, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Europe will be examined in relation to the border literature and border theorizing produced in U.S./Mexican-Cuban-Puerto Rican cultural settings. Finally, we will discuss the theoretical relevance this body of literature has for recent intellectual discussions of border cities, diaspora, the nation-state, transnationalism and interdisciplinarity in anthropology and beyond.
450W RADICAL CHANGE AND CULTURAL ENDURANCE IN LATIN AMERICA (1/2 or 1 unit)
Professor Norman Whitten Office: 382 Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3504
nwhitten@uiuc.edu
This advanced graduate seminar focuses on the intersection of interpretive ethnography and interpretive history. Our primary focus is South American indigenous and black cultural systems as these have been (and are) imagined, described, distorted and revealed. We make significant reference to literature on the Caribbean, where the European Conquest of the Americas began. We begin with readings in Early Images of the Americas: Transfer and Invention, edited by Jerry M. Williams and Robert E. Lewis. Next we zoom down on the first ethnography of the Americas, undertaken and written by Ramón Pané, on the order of Christopher Columbus. This is followed by a critical examination of Sir Walter Ralegh's imaginative essay on The Discoverie of the Large, Rich and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana, as interpreted by Neil L. Whitehead. After this we turn to the Saramaka Maroons of Suriname and French Guiana to understand the power of native historicity, our primary reading being that of Richard Price, First-Time: The Historical Vision of an Afro-American People. We supplement this by sections of Richard Burton's Afro-Creole: Power, Opposition and Play in the Caribbean, and Michel-Rolph Touillot, Power and the Production of History. This moves us to Colombia, where we read with care the extended essay on the Amazon Rubber Boom in the Putumayo area, followed by a sweeping and dramatic interpretation of the historical significance’s of indigenous shamanism as a revelatory cultural agent of structures of montage. After we complete Michael Taussig's Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man: A Study in Terror and Healing, we move to Bolivia with the book by Thomas A. Abercrombie, Pathways of Memory and Power: Ethnography and History among an Andean People. We conclude with David Guss's new book The Festival State. Supplemental readings are provided in the two edited works by Jonathan D. Hill: Rethinking History and Myth: Indigenous Perspectives on the Past, and Culture, Power and History: Ethnogenesis in the Americas, 1492-1992.
This seminar should allow graduate students at any level the opportunity to range widely through interpretive techniques and bolster a deeper understanding of the rich and varied cultural substance of this large region of the world. Although we focus on South America with significant reference to the Caribbean, students with no background in the region itself are especially invited to participate. The instructor can fill in lacunas of substantive knowledge, and plans to do so.
I regard this course as an area course as well as a course focusing on substantive and topical issues.
457 THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF SPACE. (1 unit)
Professor Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-1315
helaine@uiuc.edu
We consider critical theoretical and empirical perspectives on space, place, landscape and the built environment using material from the disciplines of anthropology, archaeology, architecture, landscape architecture and geography. Among the topics to be covered are the following.
* space and time
* social space
* lived space/phenomenology of space, place, landscape
* architectural space and the afterlife of monuments
* non-architectural space
* representation of space, landscape, place: maps, scale, language
* symbolism and iconography/society and cosmology in architecture/worldviews
* pilgrimage and the space of representation
* sacred space, sacred place
* place and meaning
* tourism, otherness and place
* settlement pattern analysis
* power and place
* public space
* virtual space
Graduate students are expected to write written critiques of each week's readings. The readings will usually consist of one book and a couple of articles. It is necessary to do the reading so that we can have meaningful discussions of the topics in class. A term paper is required at the end of the semester. Each student will present its essential points in class during the last two or three weeks of the semester. The term paper is due in final form ten days after the last class session.
460 PROSEMINAR IN ETHNOLOGICAL THEORY (1 unit)
Professor Brenda Farnell 209E Davenport Hall; PH: 244-9226
bfarnell@uiuc.edu
This course examines selected fundamental theoretical problems in anthropology, situating them in historical context vis a vis the contributions of classical theorists such as Durkheim, Weber and Marx and in relationship to contemporary debates in the discipline since the 1970’s. Topics include: structure and agency; embodiment; action and practice; reflexivity (subjective /objective); culture; discourse and power; critical anthropology. The format of the class will combine lectures and discussions and is required of all second year graduate students.
TEXTS INCLUDE:
Reinventing Anthropology by Dell Hymes (1969; 2nd Edition 1999).
Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present by Richard G. Fox. 1991.
The Fate of Culture: Geertz and Beyond edited by Sherry Ortner, 1999.
Culture by Adam Kuper, 1999.
Rethinking the Subject edited by James D. Faubion 1995.
The Blackwell Reader in Contemporary Social Theory edited by Anthony Elliot, 1999.
anthro@uiuc.edu
Last updated 03/19/00