Spring 2002
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
102
ANTHROPOLOGY: HUMAN ORIGINS AND CULTURE (4 hrs)
Professor Leslea Hlusko Office: 188B
Davenport Hall PH: 244-4914
Professor Barry Lewis Office: 209F Davenport Hall PH: 244-3501
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.
Final grades will be based on two examinations, discussion section
assignments, and two 3-5 page article reviews.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
103 INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (4
hrs.)
Professor Matti Bunzl Office:
Davenport Hall PH: 265-4068
Cultural anthropology seeks to illuminate the diversity of the world's
cultures with an eye toward sameness and difference. In doing so, it seeks to make the strange familiar, and the
familiar strange. This course
introduces cultural anthropology, placing it in the field of general anthropology
and describing its methods and research problems. The course focuses attention on cultural anthropology's major
reserach form, ethnography. It
delineates its methodologies and significant research areas -- culture,
ethnicity, "race," language, religion, economic organization,
political organization, marriage & kinship, and gender &
sexuality. It places anthropology in
the history of Euro-American social thought and exapansion, and introduces the
contemporary debates in the discipline through lectures and weekly discussions
of a variety of cultural areas.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
103(DISCOVERY)
INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
(4 hrs)
Professor Mahir Saul
Office: 309J Davenport Hall PH: 244-3502
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.
157 THE
ARCHAEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS (3 hrs.)
Professor Tim Pauketat Office:
123 Davenport Hall PH:
244-8818
This is a survey of the archaeology of pre-Columbian and early historic
Illinois. We trace the human past of
Illinois from the first entry of people into the state more than 13,000 years
ago until the 17th century and the beginning of written records. The class follows a chronological framework,
but seeks to explain why the past happened the way it did through more detailed
examinations of the migrations and trading patterns of hunter-gatherers, the
origins of plant domestication, the inception of large-group identities and
social inequalities, the dramatic emergence of Cahokia and Mississippian
economies, and the historic invasion and colonization of the state by
Europeans. Objective exams and quizzes
are complemented by a museum-based paper and outside assignments.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES
GEN. ED. REQ.
175 Archaeology
and the Public (3 hrs.)
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: midterm; final; 2-page critique of
Mummy films; 2-page position paper on the Chief Illiniwek controversy.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES
GEN. ED. REQ
184 ASIAN
AMERICAN CULTURES (3 hrs.)
Professor Martin Manalansan Office: 309C Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3500
Asian
Americans have increasingly become a visible part of the American national
landscape in recent years. While images
of exotic Chinatowns, inscrutable math wizards, and strange rituals have long
dominated the American popular imagination of post-1965 Asian American
communities and cultures, there are emerging images and narratives that defy
these conventions and stereotypes. The
class will examine the heterogeneous and multi-faceted dimensions of Asian
American lives and communities through the lenses of culture, race, ethnicity,
and social organization.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE U.S.
MINORITY AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN.ED.REQ.
199 Culture,
Ethnicity and Conflict in a Globalizing World
(3 hrs.)
Professor Bill Kelleher Office
396B Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3516
This course introduces the fundamental concepts of sociocultural
anthropology as it examines a specific problem area: the anthropology of
conflict. The course will begin by
introducing a variety of debates on the relationship of nature versus culture
and will relate this to the question of human violence. After reviewing these debates we shall
examine a series of case studies that we shall evaluate in terms of the
questions raised in this literature. In
each of these cases we shall discuss the organization of space and time
(geography and history), the relationship of culture to ethnicity, and the
intersection of group formation and nation states. The cases we shall study are Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Rwanda,
Bosnia, and Guatemala.
221/398 Archaeometry:
Scientific Methods in Archaeology (3 hrs)
Professor
Stanley Ambrose Office: 381 Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3504
Archaeometry is the application of instrumental methods from the physical, and natural sciences to address problems in archaeological research. This lecture/lab course will provide a basic introduction to advanced scientific methods used by archaeologists to analyze archaeological materials, including underlying principles of scientific methods and instruments, appropriate techniques for archaeological problems, strengths, potentials and limitations of techniques, properties of analytical materials, sampling strategies and sampling requirements. Topic covered include chronometric dating, tephrostratigraphy, climatostratigraphy, environmental and dietary reconstruction with elemental and isotopic analysis, determination of chemical and isotopic compositions of materials (lithics, ceramics, metals) for provenience studies, analysis of material properties, biochemical methods of residue identification, bone chemistry and ancient DNA recovery and analysis.
Prerequisites: Anth 220 or equivalent, and a basic
understanding of physics and chemistry.
Grading and evaluation of student performance will be based on
participation in class discussions, midterm and final exams, and for graduate
students, a term project involving laboratory analysis of archaeological or
modern materials, including a term paper in the format of a report for an
archaeometric journal. Readings from
required texts and on library reserve will be assigned on a weekly basis.
TEXTS:
Lambert,
Joseph (1997) Traces of the Past. Addison-Wesley, Reading MA. 319 pp.
Pollard,
Mark and Carl Heron (1996) Archaeological
Chemistry. Royal Society of
Chemistry, Cambridge. 375 pp.
Taylor,
R.E., and Martin J. Aitken (1997) Chronometric Dating in Archaeology. Plenum Press, New York. 395 pp.
225 WOMEN IN PREHISTORY(Same as Women's Studies 225) (3 hrs.)
Professor Olga
Soffer Office: 309H Davenport Hall; PH: 333-2100
Description:
This course introduces students to gender issues in archaeology and in
what archaeologists produce: stories about the past. We begin by considering the multiple ways of "knowing"
the past and evaluate the potential biases in each. We then examine the history of gender studies in archaeology and
the roles that women have played in archaeology. Next we consider the variety of approaches to engendering the
past. Armed with these theoretical and
practical insights, wethen 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.
We do this through focused case studies.
This course will be run in a lecture/discussion format with extensive
guided student participation.
Texts: 1. Sorensen, M.L.S. 2000 Gender Archaeology. Polity Press, Cambridge
2. Additional readings TBA and on reserve in Department Library, Davenport
Hall #193
230
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY (3 hrs)
Professor Norman Whitten Office: 382 Davenport Hall PH: 244-3514
This course explores the social anthropological study of human
societies by focusing on the development of anthropological theories of social
relations and social structures, culture history, ritual and power, aesthetics
and social movements, and modernity and alternative modernities in a changing
world. We begin with an examination of
critical works in the discipline of anthropology. The complex anthropological task of creating models that weave
structure, social relations, history, symbolic interpretations and
representions is then addressed and illustrated by reference to two African
American ethnographies: the Saramaka of Suriname and the Black Frontiersmen of
Ecuador and Colombia . Finally, we
re-examine these concepts and techniques by specific reference to two
contemporary people of the Republic of Ecuador: the Afro-Latin Americans of the
Western rain forest, and the Canelos Quichua indigenous people of the Upper
Amazon.
Texts:
Adam Kuper. Anthropology for
Anthropologists: The Modern British
School (1983).
Roger Keesing. Kin Groups
and Social Structure (1975).
Norman E. Whitten, Jr, Black Frontiersmen: Afro-American Culture of Ecuador and
Colombia (1994: fourth edition).
Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney (editor). Culture
Through Time: Anthropological
Approaches (1990).
Dorothea S. Whitten and Norman E.
Whitten, Jr. From Myth to
Creation: Art From Amazonian Ecuador
(1988).
Selected readings on the Saramaka
of Suriname and the Canelos Quichua of Amazonian Ecuador will be distributed.
These include readings on the Indigenous Uprising of 1990, and the Indigenous
March for Land and Life in 1992.
240
INTRODUCTION TO BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY (3 hrs.)
Professor Steve Leigh Office:
393 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3503
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 a class paper and examinations (midterm
and final).
Text: Relethford, J (1999) The Human Species. Mayfield Press.
Supplemental readings will be
distributed during the course.
266 AFRICAN
FILM AND AFRICAN SOCIETY (3hrs)
Professor Mahir Saul Office:
309J Davenport Hall PH:
244-3502
A course on recent feature films produced in African countries. These films are used to provide an
introduction to contemporary Africa.
Some of these films have received prestigious international awards. The films shown in the class are treated as
entertainment, as art, and as documents
revealing social issues in contemporary Africa. The course will include readings on Africa, on the countries
where the films were made, and on the topics that they deal with. After the first two introductory weeks the
students will watch one film per week.
Attendance of these screenings and of the period of lecture and
discussion is obligatory. There will be
exams and weekly writing assignments.
Texts:
I. Bakari & M. Cham, African
Experiences of Cinema
M. Diawara, African Cinema, Politics & Culture
N. Thiong’o, Decolonizing the Mind
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE NON-WESTERN CULTURES GEN ED. REQ.
277 Anthropological
Perspectives on Cities (3 hrs.)
Professor
Alejandro Lugo Office: 385 Davenport Hall; PH: 333-0823
In this
undergraduate course we will examine socio-cultural studies of cities. Through the discussion of specific cases
from different continents, we will analyze the multiplicity of human
experiences in urban settings. More
specifically, we will examine how gender, class, ethnicity, and race are
articulated in urban contexts and how these social processes manifest
themselves in different kinds of cities: global, border, modern, and postmodern
cities, for instance. In the process,
the students will be exposed to the many ways socio-cultural anthropology is
contributing, through concrete urban ethnographies, to our understanding of
human social life at the turn of the twenty-first century.
269 LATINAS AND LATINOS CHALLENGING THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND
LITERARY LANDSCAPE (3 hrs.)
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 indepth 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/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
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 required readings
will include poetry, novels, and literary criticism.
282 BODY,
PERSONHOOD, AND CULTURE (3 hrs.)
Professor Andy Orta Office:
396D Davenport Hall PH:
244-7108
Many
anthropologists travel to other places to better learn about „culture,‰ but
they need not look farther than their own bodies to observe this basic
anthropological concept. In this course
we will explore the anthropological concept of culture through an examination
of the human body as a site of sociocultural processes. From fashion and bodily adornment, to gender
and sexuality, to debates about pornography, to concerns to specify the
beginning and end of human life, to the ethical challenges of research on human
genetic material, to the basic premises of human rights and notions of
individualism, these facets of social life some hotly contested, others rarely
drawing our attention, rest upon and help shape fundamental understandings of
the human body and its connection to social personhood. The course will engage classic discussions
in the social and behavioral sciences regarding the relationship of the
individual and society, and of nature and culture. We then turn to examine in
closer detail the issues of body, personhood, and culture in a variety of
Western and non-Western contexts. The
final section of the course brings this comparative perspective to bear on a
set of issues of contemporary debate or concern. Requirements include bi-weekly reaction papers, an ethnographic
project, and a final paper or final take home essay exam.
308 Human
Evolutionary Anatomy (3 hrs. or 1 unit)
Professor Brian
Richmond Office: 393 Davenport Hall; PH: 333-3676
Over the course
of human evolution, selection acting on anatomical design has resulted in
significant changes in behavior, ecology, and adaptation. Human Evolutionary Anatomy is an in depth
comparative study of primate anatomy, particularly musculoskeletal anatomy, in
light of these behavioral, ecological, and adaptive differences. Course lectures and discussions focus on the
function and development of facial skeleton, neurocranium, trunk, and limbs in
primates. This provides the comparative basis with which to investigate the
fossil record of human evolution, with emphasis placed on reconstructing
relationships, function, behavior, and adaptation in fossil hominids. The course includes of a combination of lecture
and in-class lab activities in which students will compare fossil morphology to
that of modern primates to address current issues in human evolution. Prerequisites: Anthropology 340, 343, or
356, or a course in human or comparative vertebrate anatomy.
REQUIRED
READINGS:
Aiello, L and Dean,
C. (1994). Introduction to Evolutionary Human Anatomy. New York, Academic Press
(ISBN 0120455919).
310 Human
Evolutionary Anatomy Lab (3 hrs. or 1 unit)
Professor Brian
Richmond Office: 393 Davenport Hall; PH: 333-3676
This course
investigates human anatomy in an evolutionary and comparative perspective. The goals of this course are to understand
how human anatomy is like that of other primates and how it is unique, and to
investigate the evolutionary history of human anatomy. Students will dissect nonhuman primate
cadaver material, with detailed reference to human anatomy, and make
comparisons among species and among individuals within species. Laboratory work is designed to complement
Anthropology 308 and is intended to give students intensive exposure to human
and nonhuman primate anatomy. The class
format includes in-lab lectures coupled with dissection and demonstrations of
cadaver material. Enrollment in
Anthropology 308 during the same semester is required.
REQUIRED
TEXTS. Texts should be available at
local bookstores. In addition, readings
will be assigned throughout the semester.
These will typically be available in the box outside my office.
1. Sauerland, EK (1991) Grant‚s Dissector. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore.
2. Agur, AMR (1991) Grant‚s Atlas of
Anatomy. Williams and Wilkins,
Baltimore.
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, I (3 hrs., 3/4 or 1 unit)
Professor Leslea Hlusko Office: 188 Davenport Hall PH:
244-4914
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.
352 THEORY
AND METHOD OF LITHIC ANALYSIS (3 hrs., 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.
TEXTS: Whittaker, John C. (1994) Flintknapping. Understanding and Making Stone Tools. University of Texas Press, Austin. 341 pp.
Inizan,
M. -L., M. Reduron-Ballinger, H. Roche and J. Tixier (1999) Technology and Terminology of Knapped
Stone. CREP : Meudon, France.
A
manual of lithic analysis and typology will also be required.
353 FIELDWORK
IN CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY: THEORY AND METHODS (3 hrs. or 1 unit)
Professor Alma Gottlieb Office: 386C Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3515
Field
work has long been considered the central ritual of the tribe (of cultural
anthropology). Is it art or
science? Both or neither? Does how you answer this question shape how
you conduct fieldwork?
In
this course we will look at field research in cultural anthropology as a
continuing process of mutual discovery on the part of the field worker and
members of the host community. As such,
we will explore a set of interrelated issues:
*Are
data gathered and/or created? Depending
on how you answer this question, what are the implications for how you will
design and conduct your research?
* How do our own identities
and roles--as field workers and as people--shape both the questions we ask and
the answers we receive in fieldwork?
* What are the advantages and
disadvantages of being a "native" vs. “outside” fieldworker? How “native” is the “native
anthropologist”? Conversely, to what
extent is it possible—or desirable—to “go native”?
* How might the classic
anthropological techniques--including individual and group interviews, charting
of social networks, construction of genealogies, and the taking of
surveys--still be useful in the 21st century?
* Given the uniqueness of
each fieldwork experience, what can be learned, to avoid others'
mistakes? What ethical challenges can
be anticipated, and how can we best prepare to deal with them?
* How can we write up our
material to reflect most accurately what we have seen and experienced during
fieldwork?
The above issues will all be
explored both in the course of readings and of your own fieldwork
explorations. This is a
"hands-on" course: all students will conduct local fieldwork
projects during the semester. To
ease our way into fieldwork, early in the semester we will conduct
mini-interviews with one another during class.
Each of you will then outline a modest field project that you can
undertake locally during the semester.
We will have you begin your local fieldwork by focusing on small
fieldwork exercises to be guided by readings, to be followed up by other
research foci of your choosing. Once
you undertake your own field projects, we will be diminishing our readings and
will devote an increasing portion of each class period discussing your field experiences
of the prior week, while continuing to read short, relevant readings to keep
guiding you through issues you may be encountering.
N.B. The local fieldwork that you undertake
through this course may be directly related to later, more long-term (master’s
or doctoral) fieldwork that you plan to undertake, but this is not
necessary. Either way, you should gain
valuable experience that should help you both shape and anticipate field
situations in whatever research you may undertake in the future.
Prerequisite:
Undergraduate students: at
least one prior 200-level course in cultural anthropology, or instructor’s
permission.
Graduate students: in
anthropology, or another social science, or education; or permission of the
instructor.
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
-Carol A. B. Warren, Gender
Issues in Field Research
We will also read a selection
of relevant journal articles and book chapters on various aspects of fieldwork
challenges, to be assembled as a reader available for purchase at a local copy
shop.
Writings: Over the course of the
semester you will write the following:
-a
critical analysis of a published fieldwork memoir
-a research proposal to conduct local fieldwork
on a project of your choosing
-one
or more short paper(s) analyzing brief field exercises (e.g., focus group, life
history, survey questionnaire, genealogy, social networks)
-one
final paper analyzing your semester-long fieldwork project
*THIS COURSE IS REQUIRED OF GRADUATE STUDENTS WHO INTEND TO APPLY FOR
NSF FUNDS TO DO SUMMER FIELD RESEARCH.
358 PALEO-FAUNAL ANALYSIS (4
hrs. or 1 unit)
Professor Douglas Brewer Office: #4 Spurlock Museum; PH: 244-3518
Instructor Michelle Loyet Office: #2 Spurlock Museum; PH: 265-0471
Prerequisite: Completion of Anth 220, absolutely no
exceptions, will not accept concurrent enrollment in 220 and 358.
This course is designed to
introduce you to the use of faunal remains as they pertain to archaeological
research programs. By the end of the
semester, you will be familiar with a number of independent approaches to the
analysis of faunal remains, and should be able to use this knowledge in dealing
with your own research. This course
will help you develop the ability to critically asses the validity of faunal
work conducted by others, and as a result, to assess the usefulness of that work
for your own studies. The laboratory
component of the course will serve as an introduction to the recognition and
identification of both vertebrate and invertebrate faunal remains from
archaeological sites.
This course is
reading-intensive. All students will be
expected to have read and be prepared to critically discuss a number of
articles each week, and will also be responsible for an in-class presentations
on a topic of their choosing. In
addition, students will be expected to complete laboratory projects and
assignments. If these assignments are
not completed in the laboratory time allotted in class, students will be
expected to complete them on their own time.
Students will be responsible for a midterm and final, as well as at
least one in-class presentation.
366 CLASS,
CULTURE AND SOCIETY (4 hrs. or 1 unit)
Professor Nancy Abelmann Office: 389 Davenport Hall; PH: 244-7733
This course will
primarily consider how anthropology (specifically ethnography as both practice
and writing) has contributed to the social analysis of class and culture. The course does not offer a sustained
review of the history of the social sciences on class, but rather focuses on
the particular window that is afforded by close examination of key ethnographic
works that have engaged class (and culture) over the last 25 years. The course is very ethnography-centered,
with almost every week devoted to a single ethnographic monograph; for the most
part. The ethnographies will be read in
chronological order so that we can consider how anthropological and social
scientific thinking on class has changed and in order to appreciate these
shifts in the context of important transformations in the doing and writing of
ethnography. We will see that over time
ethnographers and theorists alike have come to appreciate that class, race, and
gender are always articulated; as such the domain of the ethnographies we
examine necessarily turns to these intersections. Several weeks will be reserved for the reading of supplementary
articles and class-informed memoirs that enhance the ethnographic
readings. My aim is that this class
should be particularly helpful for those of you (undergraduates, please do not
let this keep you away) who are interested in working with the construct of
class in your own research design. The
texts (subject to some alteration) are as follows.
Rubin, Lillian
Breslow. 1976. Worlds of Pain: Life in the Working-Class Family.
NY: Basic Books.
Willis, Paul. 1977. Learning to Labor:
How Working Class Kids get Working Class Jobs. NY: Columbia University
Press.
Frykman, Jonas and Orvar Löfgren.
[1979]1987. Culture Builders: A Historical Anthropology of Middle-Class Life.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Dillard, Annie. 1987. An American Childhood. NY: Harper
& Row.
Rodriguez, Richard. 1982. Hunger of
Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez. NY: Bantam Books.
Heath, Shirley Brice. 1983. Ways With
Words: Language, Life, and Work in Communities and Classrooms. NY:
Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Steedman, Carolyn Kay. 1986. Landscape
for a Good Woman. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Hartigan, John Jr. 1999. Racial
Situations: Class Predicaments of Whiteness in Detroit. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
Gewertz, Deborah B. and Frederick K.
Errington. 1999. Emerging Class in Papua New Guinea: The Telling of
Difference. NY: Cambridge University Press.
Gill, Lesley. 2000. Teetering on the
Rim: Global Restructuring, Daily Life, and the Armed Retreat of the Bolivian
State. NY: Columbia University Press.
Reay, Diane. 1998. Class Work: Mother's
Involvement in their Children's Primary Schooling. Bristol, PA: UCL Press.
Joyce, Patrick, ed. 1995. Class. NY: Oxford University
Press.
370 MIND,
CULTURE AND SOCIETY (3 hrs or 3/4 or 1 unit)
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.
378 ADVANCED
ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHODS (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 measured
field sketches; seriations; 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 the new Lincoln Hall computer 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 that you have had an introductory statistics course
(descriptive statistics through an introduction to the linear model, or
training equivalent to what is covered in roughly the first 150 pages of the
Shennan book).
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 and Bud E. Smith (2001) AutoCAD 2002 for
Dummies. Hungry Minds, New York.
379 MEDICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY: THE CULTURE OF HEALTH AND
ILLNESS (3 hrs., 3/4 or 1 unit)
Professor Martin Manalansan Office: 309C
Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3500
Introduction to concepts and
social aspects of health, illness and curing in different cultures with
consideration also of the interaction between folk and modern medicine in
developing nations and the delivery of health care as an international social problem.
386 PEOPLES AND CULTURES OF MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA (3 hrs., 3/4 or 1 unit)
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.
221/398A ARCHAEOMETRY: SCIENTIFIC METHODS IN ARCHAEOLOGY (3 hrs., 3/4 or 1 unit)
Professor Stanley Ambrose Office: 381 Davenport Hall PH: 244-3504
Archaeometry is the application of instrumental methods from the
physical, and natural sciences to address problems in archaeological
research. This lecture/lab course will
provide a basic introduction to advanced scientific methods used by
archaeologists to analyze archaeological materials, including underlying
principles of scientific methods and instruments, appropriate techniques for
archaeological problems, strengths, potentials and limitations of techniques,
properties of analytical materials, sampling strategies and sampling
requirements. Topic covered include
chronometric dating, tephrostratigraphy, climatostratigraphy, environmental and
dietary reconstruction with elemental and isotopic analysis, determination of
chemical and isotopic compositions of materials (lithics, ceramics, metals) for
provenience studies, analysis of material properties, biochemical methods of residue
identification, bone chemistry and ancient DNA recovery and analysis.
Prerequisites: Anth 220 or equivalent, and a basic understanding of
physics and chemistry. Grading and
evaluation of student performance will be based on participation in class discussions,
midterm and final exams, and a term project involving laboratory analysis of
archaeological or modern materials, including a term paper in the format of a
report for an archaeometric journal.
Readings from required texts and on library reserve will be assigned on
a weekly basis.
TEXTS:
Lambert,
Joseph (1997) Traces of the Past. Addison-Wesley, Reading MA. 319 pp.
Pollard, Mark and Carl Heron
(1996) Archaeological Chemistry. Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge. 375 pp.
Taylor, R.E., and Martin J.
Aitken (1997) Chronometric Dating in Archaeology. Plenum Press, New York. 395 pp.
398L THE EVOLUTION OF PRIMATE LIFE HISTORIES (3
hrs.)
Professor Steve Leigh Office: 393 Davenport Hall,