Spring 2004 Course
Descriptions
102 ANTHROPOLOGY: HUMAN ORIGINS AND CULTURE (4 hrs)
Professor Steve Leigh Office: 209J Davenport Hall PH: 244-3503
Professor Stan Ambrose Office:
381 Davenport Hall PH: 244-3504
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.
Texts:
Turnbaugh, William, et al. (2002)
Understanding Physical Anthropology and Archaeology. Eighth Edition. Wadsworth, Belmont, CA.
Lewin, R. (1999) Human Evolution: An Illustrated
Introduction. Fourth\Edition. Blackwell
Scientific Publications, Boston.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN.
ED. REQ.
103 INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (4 hrs.)
Professor Martin Manalansan Office: 387 Davenport Hall PH: 244-3500
Cultural
anthropology seeks to examine the complexities of human communities and the
creation of meaning. While cultural
anthropology’s provenance or origin is rooted in the study of “other” cultures
(traditionally read as ‘non-Western”), in recent years, anthropologists have
steadily focused on the paradoxes between self and other, east and west, and
the “right here” and the “over there. We
will address enduring questions about how people come together as groups (e.g.
ethnic/racial, occupational, national or international) and how they make sense
of various life events such as birth and death and of differences such as those
of skin color and/or traditions. Through
a critical examination of ethnographies, we will explore the diversity of
cultures and the intricacies of identity formation. The ethnographic readings will enable us to
question stereotypical notions about seemingly mundane and ordinary practices
and institutions such as eating, family relationships, the idea of being
“modern,” or even the notion of being “American.” The readings, films, lectures and discussions
of various cultures are aimed at providing critical lenses from which to view
the interconnections and histories that link different cultures and peoples
together.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN.
ED. REQ.
104 TALKING CULTURE
(3hrs)
Professor Brenda Farnell Office: 209E Davenport Hall PH:
244-9226
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 PERSPECTIVES GEN.
ED. REQ.
107 ARCHAEOLOGY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. (3hrs)
Instructor: Missy Loyet Office
320 Wohlers
Hall PH: 265-5527
A survey of Egyptian archaeology
from prehistoric times through the New Kingdom. The first
part of the semester will focus on modern archaeological techniques, including
techniques developed in Egypt, as well as the earliest archaeological materials
in Egypt. This part of the course will
deal with pre-dynastic archaeology, or those materials
which pre-date Pharaonic Egypt.
The second half of the semester will focus on Dynastic Egypt, and will
include presentations on the history, life, gods, religion, and architecture of
this ancient civilization. In this
section, we will examine in depth some of the better known aspects of Egyptian civilization , including the pyramids, hieroglyphic writing,
and mummification.
There are no prerequisites for this course, but Anthropology 102 or 105
would be helpful. Course requirements
include 2 midterms and a final exam, as well as periodic homework assignments.
Texts:
Brewer/Teeter. Egypt and
the Egyptians. Cambridge University Press.
Midant-Reynes/Shaw. The
Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Pharaohs. Blackwell Publishers.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS: A) THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL
PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQUIREMENT AND B) COMP I
175
ARCHAEOLOGY, POPULAR CULTURE AND THE PUBLIC (3hrs.)
Professor Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall PH:
333-1315
This
course explores the manner in which archaeologists and the public have
reconstructed and conversed about the past -- their own past and that of
others. Through multiple case studies we
examine the ways in which the ancient past has been interpreted, appropriated,
represented, used and manipulated in the present for a variety of reasons by
many different groups in many different societies.
Among the topics covered are: science vs. pseudo-science; racializing the past (ancient astronauts; Atlantis; the
"myth of the moundbuilders", Afrocentrism, "Black Athena", and the Olmecs of Mexico); politics of the past (Nazi
archaeology; contemporary Peruvian politics); contested places and shared
spaces (modern-age cultists at Stonehenge, tourists at Maya sites, museums
and exhibitions, the landscape of contemporary Australian aborginals);
orientalism and the construction of ancient Egypt
(the concept of orientalism, the discovery of Tutankamon's tomb, the 1932 Mummy film with Boris Karloff, the 1999 Mummy film with Brendan Fraser);
science or sacrilege? (U.S. archaeologists vs. U.S. Native American tribes,
Chief Illiniwek); the present and future of the past (the pasts of Other
Americans: Puerto Ricans/Tainos, Chicanos/Aztlan; "Primitivism" in 20th century art, creating
tomorrow's ruins through memorials and memory, the traffic in antiquities,
archaeological ethics, the past we deserve).
Course requirements: two in-class exams; participation in class debates and
discussions
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL
PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ
221 MATERIALS AND CIVILIZATION: AN OVERVIEW OF ARCHAEOMETRY. (3hrs)
Professor Sarah Wisseman Office: 116 Observatory PH: 333-6629
"Materials and Civilization..." is an
introduction to archaeometry, the interface between
archaeology, art history, and the natural and physical sciences. This interdisciplinary field requires close
collaboration between different specialists who employ modern instrumental
techniques (e.g. carbon-14 dating and neutron activation analysis) to study
aspects of ancient materials.
Applications range from archaeological fieldwork to conservation of
museum objects and historic monuments, including such topics as ancient nutrition
and diet, early tool use, sourcing of ceramics, prospection
and geoarchaeology, dating, and art forgery. The class will be enlivened by guest
lectures, classroom debates on topics such as the Shroud of Turin and the First
Americans, and field trips to campus museums and laboratories. Evaluation will be based both on written work
and oral participation.
Prerequisites: Campus Honors Program or consent of instructor; no prior
coursework.
230 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY (3hrs)
Professor Alejandro Lugo Office: 385 Davenport Hall PH: 333-0823
This course is intended to be an advanced introduction to sociocultural anthropology.
It examines the encounter between the anthropologist and the people he
or she studies and the many ways anthropologists produce knowledge through such
concepts as culture, structure, gender, power, personhood, symbol, and
political economy. More specifically,
the students will read key theoretical essays (recent and not so recent) and
concrete ethnographic texts that speak to late twentieth century contemporary
debates (i.e. identity, cultural difference, global/local dimensions of
everyday life, and so forth). Thus, the
class will cover the kind of ethnography and theory that has shaped the type of
anthropology practiced in the 1990's.
The issues addressed in the course will be presented and (hopefully)
understood in the larger context of the history of socio-cultural anthropology.
240 INTRODUCTION TO BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY. (3hrs.)
Professor
John Polk Office: 393 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-3676
This course provides an in-depth review of fields of study in
biological anthropology. Key issues and
topics in contemporary biological anthropology are examined. The course investigates include genetics and
adaptation in human populations, humans in biological and comparative context,
and the fossil evidence for human evolution.
Students should develop an appreciation of problems in this field, and
should be prepared to enter 300-level courses in the subject. Evaluation is based on discussion and
examinations (midterm and final).
Texts: Relethford,
J (2003) The
Human Species. McGraw
Hill.
243 NATURAL HSITORY AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR OF THE GREAT APES (3hrs)
Professor
Rebecca Stumpf Office: 289 Davenport Hall PH:
333-8072
This course examines the biology and behavior of our closest
living relatives, the great apes.
Beginning with an overview of the taxonomic relationship between the
great apes and humans, we will then cover the social organization, mating
patterns, feeding ecology and behavior of chimpanzees, bonobos,
gorillas, and orangutans. Lecture
material focuses on topics such as social cooperation, mating strategies,
inter-and intrasexual social interactions, infanticide,
tool use, diet, food sharing, reproductive behavior, cognition and
conservation. We will evaluate the
appropriateness of the great apes as models for understanding human behavior
and evolution.
Prerequisites: Anth. 102, 143, 240 or an equivalent course in animal behavior.
260 PEOPLES OF THE WORLD: INTRODUCTION TO ETHNOGRAPHY (3hrs)
Professor F.K. Lehman Office: 209H Davenport Hall, PH:
333-8423
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.
262/WS 262 CULTURAL IMAGES OF WOMEN (3hrs.)
Professor Alma Gottlieb Office: 386C Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3515
Why isn't Miss America ever fat? Is menstruation everywhere viewed as a curse
or handicap? Why do some girls and women
prefer to undergo "circumcision"? Is childbirth seen universally as an illness
to be medicated? Is motherhood by definition a heterosexual experience? This course will explore these and related
questions, investigating how women around the world experience their bodies
through the life cycle. Throughout the
semester we will inquire how not only social roles but also images, uses and
meanings of the bodies that all women inhabit are shaped in deep, though often
invisible, ways by culture. Through a
variety of readings, films, and inquiries on these topics, the course will
introduce you to critical approaches to the gendered experience of the body
offered by cultural anthropology.
Course Requirements:
Students will do a variety of writing and other work for the class,
including the following:
-In-class quizzes
-Short reaction papers to films shown in class
-Short piece based on personal fieldwork (24 hours without looking in a
mirror)
-Mid-term, final exam
Prerequisites:
You will get more out of this course if you have already taken at least
one introductory course in cultural anthropology (e.g. ANTH 103), history, or
one of the other social sciences (sociology, political science, economics), or
another women's studies course.
Texts:
Readings will include a packet of articles as well as the following
books:
Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Feminism,
Western Culture, and the Body
Colleen Ballerino Cohen, Richard Wilk, and Beverly Stoeltje, eds.,
Beauty Queens on the Global Stage
Robbie Davis-Floyd and Carolyn Sargent, eds.,
Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge
Bettina Shell-Duncan and Ylva Hernlund, eds., Female "Circumcision":
Culture, Controversy, and Change
Karen Houppert, The
Curse: Confronting the Last Unmentionable Taboo: Menstruation
Ellen Lewin, Lesbian Mothers
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE "SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES" GEN. ED. REQUIREMENT
269 LATINAS AND LATINOS CHALLENGING THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND
LITERARY LANDSCAPE. (3hrs)
Professor Arlene Torres Office:
383 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3511
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 there from.
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/other 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
Jose
Limon Dancing with the Devil: Society and Cultural Poetics in Mexican
American South Texas. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press 1994
Centro
de Estudios Puertorriquenos
Centro Journal Special Issue on Chicago
New
York: Hunter College Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, 2002
Judith
N. Freidenberg Growing
Old in El Barrio. New York: New York University Press 2000
Sandra
Cineros Caramelo New
York: Alfred Knopf (paperback
edition)
Additional
required readings will include poetry, novels, and literary criticism.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE "US MINORITY CULTURES" GEN ED.
REQUIREMENT
270
INTRODUCTION TO
LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY (3hrs.)
Professor Janet Keller Office: 395H Davenport Hall, PH: 333-3529
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. We also investigate languages in historical
and comparative perspective and issues of language and power in the
contemporary world. As background we
contrast human and nonhuman communication systems. 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 will include the following three volumes and may be supplemented by
occasional xeroxed readings.
Suzanne Romaine 2000 Language in Society: an Introduction to
Sociolinguistics. 2nd edition. Oxford
University Press.
Basso, Keith 1990 Western Apache Language and
Culture. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Gerry Philipsen 1992 Speaking Culturally:
Explorations in Social Communication. Albany:SUNY Press.
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
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. We also investigate languages in historical
and comparative perspective and issues of language and power in the
(Cont)
contemporary world. As background we contrast
human and nonhuman communication systems. 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 will include the following three volumes and may be supplemented by
occasional xeroxed readings.
Suzanne Romaine 2000 Language in Society: an Introduction to
Sociolinguistics. 2nd edition. Oxford
University Press.
Basso, Keith 1990 Western Apache Language and
Culture. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Gerry Philipsen 1992 Speaking Culturally:
Explorations in Social Communication. Albany:SUNY Press.
Prerequisites: None, but ANTH 104 recommended.
**THIS COURSE SATISFIES THE COMP II REQUIREMENT FOR
UNDERGRADUATES
296 AMERICAN INDIANS OF ILLINOIS (3hrs)
Professor Brenda Farnell Office 209E Davenport
Hall, PH: 244-9226
This course provides an introduction
to American Indian peoples of the Illinois region, present and past, from the
perspectives of sociocultural anthropology, history
and archaeology. We ask how do these
disciplines document and construct the Native American experience in the
Illinois region? The class includes archaeological field site
and museum visits, plus guest lectures by Native American scholars and
community members.
330 The History and Historiography
of Anthropology. (4 hrs. or 1 unit)
Professor Matti Bunzl Office: 386B Davenport Hall PH:
265-4068
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.
340 HUMAN EVOLUTION
(3hrs)
Professor John Polk Office: 393 Davenport Hall PH:
333-3676
Where did we come from? How
did we get here? How do we know what we
know about our evolutionary history?
These questions are explored in this course using evidence from the
fossil record. Ever since Darwin, the
evolution of our own species has proven to be an exciting field of discovery,
recovery, and interpretation. We will
spend the semester reviewing what is currently known about the fossil record of
human evolution, the methods employed in recovering and analyzing fossil
material, the history of discovery, and how these data have been and currently
are interpreted.
Professor
Rebecca Stumpf Office: 289 Davenport Hall PH:
333-8072
This
course focuses on primate social behavior and the classification, morphology,
and distribution of living and extinct primate species. Particular emphasis will be placed on the
interrelationships between ecology, behavior, and morphological adaptations.
Prerequisites: ANTH 240
or EEE
246
352 THEORY AND METHOD OF LITHIC ANALYSIS (3hrs., 3/4
or 1 unit)
Professor Stanley Ambrose Office: 381 Davenport Hall PH:
244-3504
Stones and bones modified and transported by prehistoric humans
are two of the main classes of archaeological evidence of prehistoric human
behavior. In order to integrate these
classes of data into archaeological analyses and for informed anthropological
interpretations one must have a clear understanding of physical properties of
stone and bone raw materials, and of principles and techniques of artifact
manufacture. This course will involve
lectures, readings, discussions and practical laboratory exercises on a variety
of aspects of lithic analysis, including
identification, description, experimental manufacture, illustration,
determination of function, metrical measurement, statistical analysis, graphic
presentation of data and typological classification systems. The conceptual emphasis will be on the use of
lithic analysis of test anthropological models of
human behavior.
Grading and evaluation of student performance will be based on
participation in class discussions, two practical exams (midterm and final
exams), artifact illustrations, and the accuracy, completeness and organization
of the laboratory and lecture notebook.
Readings on library reserve will be assigned on a weekly basis.
Prerequisite: Anthropology
220, or consent of the instructor.
TEXTS: Andrefsky,
William, Jr. (1998) Lithics: Macroscopic Approaches to Lithic
Analysis. Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press.
Inizan, M. -L., M. Reduron-Ballinger,
H. Roche and J. Tixier (1999)
Technology and Terminology of Knapped Stone. CREP: Nanterre,
France.
A manual of lithic analysis and typology
will also be required.
353
FIELD
WORK IN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY: THEORY AND METHODS. (3hrs)
Professor Alma Gottlieb Office: 386C Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3515
Fieldwork has long been considered the central ritual
of the tribe (of cultural anthropology).
Is it art or science? Both or neither? In
this course we'll look at field research in cultural anthropology as a
continuing process of mutual discovery by researcher and members of the host
community.
* Given the uniqueness of each fieldwork experience,
what can be learned ahead of time to avoid others' mistakes?
*
How do our own identities and roles--as fieldworkers and as people--shape both
the questions we ask and the answers we receive in fieldwork?
*
What are the (dis)advantages of being a
"native"/“outsider” researcher?
How “native” is the “native anthropologist”? Is it possible—or desirable—to “go native”?
*
How are classic anthropological techniques--interviews, charting social
networks, constructing genealogies, taking surveys--best adapted in the 21st
century?
*
What ethical challenges can be anticipated, and how can we prepare for them?
*
How can we write up our material to reflect most accurately what we've seen and
experienced during fieldwork?
This
is a "hands-on" course: in exploring the above issues, all
students will conduct local research projects during the semester. Small research exercises guided by
readings will be followed by other research foci of your choosing. Once you start your field projects, we'll
reduce our readings and devote an increasing portion of each class to
discussing your field experiences of the prior week, while continuing to read
short texts guiding you through issues you may be encountering.
N.B. The fieldwork that you undertake in this
course may be directly related to later research that you plan to undertake
(honor's thesis, master’s or doctoral), but this isn't necessary. The course should help prepare you for
whatever research you undertake in the future.
For graduate students, this class counts as one of the courses required
for you to apply for departmental NSF summer funding.
Prerequisite:
This
course is intended primarily for two groups of students: graduate students in
cultural anthropology, and undergraduate anthropology majors who've already
taken ANTH 103 and/or ANTH 230, plus at least one other 200-level course in
cultural anthropology. All others: please
contact the instructor before registering.
Readings:
-Robert Emerson, Rachel Fretz
and Linda Shaw, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes
-Jeffrey
C. Johnson, Selecting Ethnographic Informants
-Grant
McCracken, The Long Interview
-David
L. Morgan, Focus Groups as Qualitative Research
-Maurice Punch, The
Politics and Ethics of Fieldwork
-Harry
Wolcott, The Art of Fieldwork
We'll
also read some journal articles and book chapters from a course pack.
Writings include: a critical analysis of a published fieldwork memoir;
a research proposal to conduct local fieldwork on a project of your choosing;
short papers analyzing brief fieldwork exercises (chosen from: focus group,
life history, survey questionnaire, genealogy, and social networks); and a
final paper analyzing your semester-long research project.
366
CLASS,
CULTURE, AND SOCIETY (3
hrs)
Professor Arlene Torres Office: 383 Davenport Hall, PH:
244-3511
This
course examines anthropological studies of work, class, and gender in a 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. We examine how 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.
Readings
Centro de Estudios Puertorriquenos Centro Journal Special Issue on Chicago
New York: Hunter College Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, 2002.
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 Press 1995.
Lamming, George In
the Castle of My Skin (with an introd. by Richard
Wright) Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999.
Lewis, Earl In their own interests: race, class,
and power in twentieth-century Norfolk, Virginia. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1993.
McCarthy, Cameron The
Uses of Culture: Education and the Limits of Ethnic Affiliation New York: Routledge, 1998.
Suarez-Findlay, Eileen Imposing decency: the
politics of sexuality and race in Puerto Rico, 1870-1920. Durham, NC : Duke University Press, 1999.
Willis, Paul Learning to labour:
how working class kids get working class jobs. Columbia
University Press, 1981.
370
MIND,
CULTURE AND SOCIETY (3hrs)
Professor F.K. Lehman Office: 209H Davenport Hall, PH: 333-8423
Same as Communications 370 and
Linguistics 370. An examination of the
cognitive foundations of social and cultural systems.
This course explores the interface of culture and
mind by analyzing the relations between public events and private
intentions/interpretations. We will
investigate the application of ideas in cultural practices and
performances. The reciprocal construction of knowledge from experience is also
examined. The interaction between
tradition and innovation is a primary theme throughout the semester. Investigating the strategic use of language,
material culture and space lies at the core of the class. We will develop the application of linguistic
and ethnographic methods to selected problems in this research arena. We will also examine the complementarity
of linguistic and non-linguistic, primarily visual, reasoning in cultural
practice. General issues such as the
nature of meaning and the universality/relativity debate in Anthropology will
be addressed as we go along.
Prerequisites: Anthropology 230, 270 or one
course in communications or in linguistics, or consent of the instructor(s).
Grading
will be based on a mid-term examination, a final examination, and a research
proposal.
Texts:
Shore, Bradd. Culture in Mind. (1996) Oxford University Press.
Keller, Charles M. and Janet Dixon Keller (1996) Cognition
and Tool Use: The Blacksmith at
Work. Cambridge University Press .
D'Andrade, Roy (1995) The
Development of Cognitive Anthropology. Cambridge
University Press.
Hutchins, Edwin (1995) Cognition in the Wild.
MIT Press
Quinn, Naomi and Strauss, Claudia (1997) A Cognitive Theory of Cultural Meaning.
Cambridge
University Press.
371
ETHNOGRAPHY THROUGH LANGUAGE (3hrs)
Professor Janet Keller Office: 395 Davenport Hall, PH:
333-3529
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, language ideologies, multi-ligualism, gendered speech, dialect or language and
(national/community/personal) identities, literal and symbolic dimensions of
meaning, language and memory, language and place, the arts of speaking,
childhood socialization, the integration of gesture, writing and words, and
expressions of emotion.
The aim of the course is to provide students with an intellectual tool kit for
research and critical reflection on the topics of their choice.
Texts will be drawn from the following list. In order to represent current uses of language
in ethnographic projects we may read selectively from some volumes rather than
covering each work in its entirety in the class.
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.
Besnier, Niko
Literacy, Emotion and Authority on a Polynesian Outlier. 1995.
Stewart, Kathleen A Place On the Side of the Road. 1996.
Kelleher, William The Troubles in Ballybogoin. 2003
Ryang, Sonia North Koreans in Japan: Language,
Ideology and Identity. 1997.
Nancy Abelmann The
Melodrama of Mobility: Women, Talk and Class in Contemporary South Korea 2003
Supplementary readings may be provided by xerox
or online copies
378
ADVANCED
COMPUTER-ASSISTED METHODS IN ARCHAEOLOGY. (4 hrs or 1 unit)
Professor Barry Lewis Office: 209F Davenport Hall PH:
244-3501
This
course is designed for archaeology students who wish to master a selection of
the most common advanced methods for the analysis of archaeological data. The tentative topic list includes: database
design; how to make CAD drawings from field sketches; seriation;
cluster analysis, correspondence analysis; stratigraphy
by the Harris method; calibration and interpretation of radiocarbon dates. The class will meet for 4 hours each week—2
hours devoted to examining theoretical and methodological issues and 2 hours in
lab analyzing archaeological data. Problem sets that apply the course materials
to archaeological data will be assigned throughout the semester. There will be two take-home exams. This course assumes you have had an
introductory statistics course (descriptive statistics through an introduction
to the linear model) or other training roughly equivalent to the first 150
pages of the Shennan book referenced below.
The
texts are:
Shennan,
Stephen. (1997) Quantifying Archaeology. 2nd edition. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City.
Harris,
Edward. (1989) Principles of Archaeological Stratigraphy. 2nd edition.
Academic Press, New York.
Middlebrook, Mark (2003) AutoCAD 2004 for
Dummies. Hungry Minds, New York.
386
PEOPLES
AND CULTURES OF MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA. (3hrs)
Professor F.K. Lehman Office: 209H Davenport Hall, PH: 333-8423
This course defines the region as a system of
interdependencies amongst peoples founded upon the way largely Indian models of
statecraft and society were adapted by the lowland states to the Southeast
Asian environment. The course surveys
these systems and the peoples living in the area, and analyzes selected social
and cultural structures, both lowland and tribal, in the context of the
regional system of dependencies.
There is a map quiz, a mid-term, a final examination;
the two examinations combine essay questions and questions requiring
identification of peoples and places and items of social and cultural
importance to the region. There will be
no term paper, because I prefer to have the students in the course read both
deeply and widely over the region as a whole.
The course depends upon grasping certain theoretical questions from
social and cultural anthropology, but I make every attempt to explain these in
the lectures so that a student with little or no previous exposure to
anthropology, but with an interest in the region from some other point of view
may take the course with profit.
The format of the course is overwhelmingly a series
of formal lectures, but there is ample scope given for pursuing questions
raised by the students in class. No
textbook exists for the course but selected anthropological books are required,
such as C.F. KEYES’S ETHNIC ADAPTATION AND IDENTITY: KARENS ON THE THAI
FRONTIER WITH BURMA; ER. LEACH’S POLITICAL SYSTEMS OF HIGHLAND BURMA AND G.B.
MILNER’S NATURAL SYMBOLS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA.
Moreover, every student ought to ready thoroughly C.F. KEYES’S THE
GOLDEN PENINSULA, which was the textbook for such a course until it went out of
print, and of which numerous copies are available in the library. In addition, an extended syllabus, together
with a large list of readings on Reserve in the Education and Social Science
Library is handed out.
Prerequisite: Anth 220 or 230 or consent of instructor.
390 Archaeological</