Fall 2004
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
102 ANTHROPOLOGY: HUMAN ORIGINS AND CULTURE (3 hrs)
Professor Stanley Ambrose Office: 381 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3504
ambrose@uiuc.edu
This class explores the fossil and archaeological evidence for human evolution and the evolution of culture. We examine the fossil and artifactual 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. Course requirements include a midterm and a final exam, quizzes administered in discussion sections, and two assignments.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Turnbaugh, William A., Robert Jurmain, Lynn Kilgore, and Harry Nelson. (2002). Understanding Physical Anthropology and Archaeology. 8th edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
Lewin, Roger (2005). Human Evolution: An Illustrated Introduction. 5h Edition. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Boston.
Gonick, Larry. Cartoon History of the Universe, Volume 2. Sticks and Stones. Rip-Off Press, San Francisco.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
103 INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (3 hrs)
Professor Bill Kelleher Office: 396B DH PH: 333-3516
wkellehe@uiuc.edu
This course will present the foundational areas of anthropological analysis though a series of cases that emphasize social and cultural relations in global contexts. It will direct attention to the anthropological history of global empires, colonial states, and neoliberal global networks. We shall study transnational family and kinship relations, the exchanges that sustain them, and new forms of marriage. We’ll consider the cultural formations entailed in the development of modern nation states and track the transformations such states undergo in contemporary globalization as both poor and rich countries retract services and rearrange the social and cultural experiences of their citizens. We’ll examine these transformations through case studies of religious fundamentalism, medical emergency, ecological crisis, changing musical and artistic practices, and ethnic violence. We’ll study cases from indigenous America, the U.S.A, the Pacific Islands, China, India, Norway, Brazil, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There will be a mid-term, a one-hour final, two 2-page papers, and a research project.
In Fall 2004 this course will be limited to first year undergraduate students. The course will be connected to 6 other Freshmen-only courses (in history, economics, world literature, geography, religion, and sociology) that relate the discipline introduced to global issues. All the students in these courses will attend 6 lectures given by guest speakers that deal with global themes of interest to the subject matter of all these introductory courses. Students are encouraged to take more than one of these courses during Fall semester 2004.
Required Texts:
A course pack will accompany the following books and several case studies will be added:
Keith Basso, Wisdom Sits in Places: landscape and language among the western apache (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996).
David Crystal, English as a Global Language, 2nd Edition. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
Robert B. Marks, The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002)
Janet MacGaffey & Remy Bazenguissa-Ganga, Congo-Paris: Transnational Traders on the Margins of the Law (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000).
Cathy A. Small, Voyages: From Tongan Villages to American Suburbs (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1997).
Maybury-Lewis, David, Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups, and the State, 2nd edition (Boston: Alllyn & Bacon, 2002).
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
104 TALKING CULTURE (3 hrs)
Professor TBA
This course provides an
introduction to linguistic anthropology, focusing on language as a means to
understand self and society; demonstrating the role of language in the
development of a person's concept of self and in the creation and maintenance
of society and culture; emphasizing language use within community as key to the
analysis of cultural practices and beliefs. We examine how talk and gestures
actually work in different cultural contexts, look at problems of
cross-cultural communication, and explore difficulties among people who speak
the same language, especially when differences of class, age, gender, sexual
orientation, and/or ethnicity are involved.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
143 BIOLOGICAL BASES OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR. (3hrs.)
Professor Paul Garber Office: 109B Davenport Hall, PH: 333-3616
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, sensory system, 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.
*THIS COURE FULFILLS THE LIFE SCIENCES GEN. ED. REQ.
150 NOVEL ARCHAEOLOGY 3 HRS) (Discovery)
Professor Olga Soffer Office: 309H Davenport Hall, PH: 333-3100
o-soffer@uiuc.edu
This course is designed
for non-anthropology majors and is a survey course of prehistory as seen
through the eyes of novelists, science fiction writers, videos, and films. In
this course we will learn something about what happened in the past - during
roughly 2,500,000 years of our prehistory, as well as examine the interface
between fact and fiction and the present and the past. Course requirements
include reading a lot of novels, viewing films, as well as active participation
in the class discussions. Exams include a midterm and a final as well as a
term paper/project.
TENTATIVE TEXTS:
Auel, J. The Mammoth Hunters. New York: Crown Publishing.
Bishop, M. Ancient of Days. New York: T. Doherty Assoc.
Christie, A. Murder in Mesopotamia. New York: Dell Publishing.
Fagan, B.M. World Prehistory. 6th ed. Little, Brown and Co.
Gear, W.M. and K. Gear People of the River, New York: Tor
Kurten, B. Dance of the
Tiger. Berkeley: University of California.
Michner, J. The Source. New York: Fawcett paperbacks.
Von Daniken, E. Chariots of the Gods. Berkeley:
Berkeley paperbacks.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED.
REQ.
157 THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. (3 HRS)
Professor Chris Fennell Office: 296 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-7309
cfennell@uiuc.edu
This course provides 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 outside assignments and a museum-based paper.
182 PEOPLES AND CULTURES OF SOUTH AMERICA. (3 hrs)
Instructor Ellen Moodie Office: 187 Davenport Hall, PH; 244-7849
emoodie@uiuc.edu
This class will introduce you to the diversity of Latin American and Caribbean experience. We will begin with a reflection on colonial legacies, exploring enduring themes of identity, culture and power. Through the semester we will consider differences and commonalities in contemporary life in the Americas, following case studies in books, articles and film. Themes will include regional hierarchies of race, class and gender; the complex position of indigenous peoples; regional experiences of violence, social movements and authoritarianism; processes of democratization; the impacts of neoliberal economic reform and globalization; and popular cultures, performance and religion.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE U.S. MINORITY AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN.ED.REQ.
190 AMERICAN JEWISH CULTURE. (3 hrs)
Professor Matti Bunzl Office: 386B Davenport Hall; PH: 265-4068
bunzl@uiuc.edu
This course will examine American Jewish experience in its cultural and historical diversity. In doing so, the course will introduce the approaches of cultural anthropology in order to investigate how an ethnic group has elaborated and continues to elaborate its identity in American culture and society through strategies of individual and collective behavior. In this framework, American Jewish identities will emerge as the products of specific interactions between Judaism's overarching cultural system and local American cultural formations. To understand these processes, we will initially examine the different waves of Jewish immigration, trace patterns of acculturation, and investigate American forms of anti-Semitism. This focus on Jewish migration will be followed by the sustained examination of American Jewish religions and communal life, emphasizing rearticulations of religion community from the nineteenth century to the present. In the final part of the course, we will discuss the ongoing cultural negotiation of American Jewish identities, focusing on questions of race, gender, and kinship and the role of the Holocaust in American life.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE NON-WESTERN/US MINORITY CULTURES GEN. ED. REQ.
209 FOOD,
CULTURE AND SOCIETY (3
hrs.)
Professor Martin Manalansan Office: 309C Davenport
Hall, PH: 244-3500
manalans@uiuc.edu
As American as apple pie
Lets have a coffee break.
I cant eat any more I have to fit into a bikini this summer.
A Thanksgiving dinner without turkey impossible!
You have not eaten French haute cuisine? Oh you poor thing!
You cant be friends with them they eat dogs!
Food is part of our daily life. More importantly, food goes beyond
providing nutrition and biological sustenance. Food establishes
relationships, meanings and
practices that revolve around family, kinship, religion, gender, class, ethnic,
national and other collective identities. It marks routine, important
life events and special holidays. Food influences how we see ourselves against
others. It is a medium for creating intimacy and for discriminating against
people.
The course introduces students to the anthropological and sociological study of
food in order to better understand how food practices, culinary cultures and
dietary rules are embedded in our individual and collective memories, desires,
and struggles. Some of the themes to be explored in this class include:
cookbooks and cooking shows; diet and gender; ethnic foods; haute cuisine and
class inequalities; religion and food taboos; cannibalism, fast-foods and
nationalism; McDonaldization and globalization; and world hunger.
Sidney
Mintz. 1985. Sweetness and Power. New York: Penguin.
Carol Bryant, Kathleen
DeWalt, Anita Courtney, and Jeffery Schwartz. 2003. The Cultural Feast: An
Introduction to Food and Society. Thomson Wadsworth.
Mei Ng. 1998. Eating Chinese Food Naked. New York: Scribner
Carol Counihan and Penny van Esterik. (eds.) 1997. Food and Culture. New York: Routledge.
Sutton, David. 2001. Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory. New York: Berg Publishers.
Schlosser, Eric. 2002. Fast Food Nation. New York: Harper Collins/Perennial
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
220 INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY (3hrs)
Professor Barry Lewis Office: 209F Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3501
blewi@uiuc.edu
This course provides an introduction to theory and methods in archaeological research, data collection, and analysis. The objective is to familiarize the student with the strategies that are employed in the investigation of archaeological remains and how these strategies further the aims of an anthropological archaeology. Grades will be based on 2 in-class exams, 2 section quizzes, and weekly assignments.
Required texts:
Renfrew, Colin and Paul Bahn (2000) Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice. 3rd edition. Thames & Hudson.
Daniels, Steve and Nicholas David (1982) The Archaeology Workbook. University of Pennsylvania Press.
241 HUMAN VARIATION AND RACE (3 hrs)
Professor Steve Leigh Office 209J Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3503
s-leigh@uiuc.ed
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 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.
Required Text:
Gould, SJ (1996) The Mismeasure of Man. New York: WW Norton
259 LATINA/O CULTURES (3 hrs)
Professor Alejandro Lugo Office: 385 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-0823
a-lugo@uiuc.edu
In this class, we will examine the cultures and histories of U.S. Latinas and Latinos. Although we will focus on recent ethnographic studies about AND by Latinos and Latinas, we will also explore other genres: poetry, short story, film, video and historical and sociological texts. Topics to be discussed include: identity, language, ideology, sexuality, power, racial discourse, gender inequality, and diasporas. We will critically examine the imagined, the intended, and the invented communities constituting the Latina/o population of this country. In particular, we will explore (though not exclusively) the experiences of Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans, both "white" and "non-white."
266 AFRICAN FILM AND AFRIAN SOCIETY (3 hrs)
Professor Mahir Saul Office: 309J Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3502
A course on
recent feature films produced in African countries. These films are used to
provide an introduction to contemporary Africa. Some of these films have
received prestigious international awards. The films shown in the class are treated
as entertainment, as art, and as documents revealing social issues in
contemporary Africa. The course will include readings on Africa, on the countries
where the films were made, and on the topics that they deal with. After
the first two introductory weeks the students will watch one film per week. Attendance
of these screenings and of the period of lecture and discussion is obligatory. There
will be exams and weekly writing assignments.
Texts:
I. Bakari & M. Cham, African Experiences of Cinema
M. Diawara, African Cinema, Politics & Culture
N. Thiong’o, Decolonizing the Mind
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE NON-WESTERN CULTURES GEN ED. REQ.
268 IMAGES OF THE OTHER (3hrs)
Professor Alma Gottlieb Office: 386C Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3515
ajgottli@uiuc.edu
Are racism, sexism, and other stereotypical ideologies of "the Other" inevitable and universal, or do they have local histories and alternatives? In comparing a broad array of images of "the Other," the course will challenge you to interrogate the cultural and historical foundations of the widespread ideologies that define "other" populations. We deliberately examine many kinds of "other" groups--as defined by ethnicity, "race," gender, health, religion, and other factors. In taking a broad sweep both historically and cross-culturally, the course aims to demonstrate the contingent nature of ideologies of "other" groups, and their embeddedness in social institutions ranging from family structure and religion to economy and polity.
The course is divided into six sections. In the first part, we briefly explore some conceptual models that will help us think about and understand notions of "the Other." In the second section, we survey a small selection of mainstream Western images of "other" groups from classic Greek times to late nineteenth century Europe and the U.S. In the third part, we bring that study of Western images of "the Other" up to the contemporary period, including readings on Christians' images of Muslims in the post-9/11 era, Christians' images of Jews over the past century-plus, and able-bodied people's images of the disabled. In the fourth section, we reverse our gaze to look at Western social traditions as "Other"--from the viewpoints of a variety of selected non-Western peoples in Africa and Polynesia during the era of European colonialism. In the fifth section, we bring that study of non-Western peoples' images of "the Other" into the contemporary era, exploring how a group of Native Americans have caricatured non-Native peoples. In the sixth part we briefly conclude our intellectual odyssey and stand back to compare where we have been and what we have learned.
All students will do a variety of written assignments and will keep a running diary of how images of various "others" operate in the popular media. A short-term local fieldwork project on a related topic is also an option.
Readings will include a course pack of articles plus the following books
(tentative list):
William O'Barr, Culture & the Ad
Robert Murphy, The Body Silent
Marshall Sahlins, Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities
Keith Basso,
Portraits of the "Whiteman"
Prerequisites: a prior
course in cultural anthropology or one of the other social sciences would be
helpful.
**THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE "CULTURAL STUDIES: WESTERN/COMPARATIVE CULTURES" GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENT FOR THE CAMPUS
** THIS COURSE ALSO FULFILLS THE "HUMANITIES AND THE ARTS: HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES" REQUIREMENT FOR THE CAMPUS AS WELL AS THE COLLEGE OF L.A.S.
270 LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY (3 hrs)
Professor Janet Keller Office: 395 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-3529
jdkeller@uiuc.edu
This course provides an
in-depth introduction to the subfield of linguistic anthropology by examining
the dynamic intersections between language, self, culture and society. We
explore language and identity; language and mind; language and culture; performance
in social interaction, and just talk. We also investigate languages in
comparative perspective. Students will be introduced to a variety of
theoretical approaches and learn basic analytical procedures.
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
286 SOUTHEAST ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS (3 hrs)
Professor F.K. Lehman Office: 209H Davenport Hall, PH: 333-8423
f-lehman@uiuc.edu
Same as AS ST 286 and HIST 272
This is essentially an institutional history of the lowland civilizations of
Mainland and Island Southeast Asia, with a strong anthropological orientation
as its analytical/explanatory basis. It deals chiefly with the histories of
the Indianized and Sinicized States in the context of the Indian Ocean-China
Sea trade, the institutional history of Buddhism and Hinduism in the region,
and the development of regional systems of monarchy and their local
variations. It deals at length with the rise and development of regional
and national cultures in these states, and the effects of Western Colonialism
and the rise of new nations.
TEXT:
The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, Vol. I, Cambridge U Press.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE NON-WESTERN CULTURES & HISTORICAL & PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
326 THE RISE OF CIVILIZATION IN ANCIENT PERU (3 hrs)
Professor Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall; PH: 333-1315
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 state formation. 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. Each lecture is
extensively illustrated with slides.
The requirements for undergraduates are an in-class midterm and final.
Graduate students will do a take-home exam.
362 BODY, PERSONHOOD, AND CULTURE. (3hrs)
Professor Karen Kelsky Office: 386A Davenport Hall, PH: 244-5920
kelsky@uicu.edu
Addresses cultural conceptions of the body through the lens of gender identity and performance, bodily adornment and mutilations, sexualities both queer and straight, definitions of health and illness, and practices of birth and death. Geographical areas will include Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the United States.
408 HUMAN EVOLUTIONARY ANATOMY (3 hrs OR 1 UNIT))
Professor John Polk Office: 393 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-3676
jdpolk@uiuc.edu
Over
the course of primate and human evolution natural selection has shaped human
anatomy and physiology. Human Evolutionary Anatomy is an in depth comparative
study of human anatomy, particularly musculoskeletal anatomy, that will focus
on the function and development of facial skeleton, neurocranium, trunk, and
limbs in primates and humans. This provides the comparative basis with which
to investigate the fossil record of primate and human evolution, with emphasis
placed on reconstructing phylogenetic relationships, understanding mechanical
and physiological function, and adaptation to different environments. 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 TEXT:
Aiello, L and Dean, C. (1994). Introduction to Evolutionary Human Anatomy. New
York, Academic Press (ISBN 0120455919).
409 HUMAN EVOLUTIONARY ANATOMY LAB (3 HRS OR 1 UNIT)
Professor John Polk Office: 393 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-3676
jdpolk@uiuc.edu
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 cadavers, 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.
1.
Sauerland, EK (1991) Grant’s Dissector. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore.
2. Agur, AMR (1991) Grant’s Atlas of Anatomy. Williams and Wilkins,
Baltimore.
410 ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH DESIGN (formerly Anth 318). (3hrs.)
Professor Barry Lewis Office: 209F Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3501
blewis@uiuc.edu
This is a first course in the basic principles of research design, designed to address the special needs of anthropologists. It is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students in any of the subdisciplines. Topics to be covered include research ethics, different approaches to framing questions and designing research, proposal writing, sampling, the design of questionnaires and other kinds of data collection forms, data collection techniques, and general problems of measuring quantitative and qualitative data in anthropological research.
An important component of Anth 318 is for the student to select a research problem, design an approach to solve the problem, execute a small pilot study to test how well the approach will work, and then write a grant proposal for the full project. The successful completion of the research project requirements will count for 35% of the final grade. There also will be homework assignments worth 35% of your grade and two essay-type take-home exams worth a total of 30%. An introductory statistics course is no longer a prerequisite of Anth 410.
Required texts:
Bailey, Kenneth D. (1994) Methods of Social Research. 4th edition. Free Press, NY.
Gould, Stephen J. (1996) The Mismeasure of Man. Rev. edition. W.W. Norton, NY (#24 on the Modern Library's "100 Best Nonfiction Books of the 20th Century").
Other assigned articles will be available on the class website or on e-reserves in the Undergrad Library.
Recommended:
Eugene Webb et al. (1999) Unobtrusive Measures. Rev. edition. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
440 HUMAN PALEONTOLOGY (3 hrs)
TBA
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.
448
PREHISTORY OF AFRICA. (3 hrs.)
Professor Stanley Ambrose Office: 189 Davenport
Hall, PH: 244-3504
ambrose@uiuc.edu
Africa is the cradle of
humanity, the sole source of evidence for the first six million years of
hominid evolution and cultural development, and the place where many of the
most significant advances in cultural evolution and innovations in technology
occurred. 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 African environments, ecology and climate change,
models of hominid origins, alternative models for the development of
intellectual, cultural, economic, linguistic 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. Prerequisite: Anthropology 102 or 220
Requirements include one mid-term exam, a final exam, and a term paper.
Texts:
African Archaeology 2nd edition (1993), by David W. Phillipson, Cambridge University Press.
Human Beginnings in South Africa (1999), by Hilary J. Deacon and Jeanette Deacon, Altamira Press.
Additional required and supplementary articles and book chapters will be placed on e-reserve in the library.
449 NORTH AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY (3 hrs)
Professor Chris Fennell Office: 296 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-7309
cfennell@uiuc.edu
This course provides a contemporary understanding of the pre-Columbian and historic-era cultural histories and social landscapes north of Mesoamerica. The course readings, activities, and discussions will review all portions of the continent from early Paleoindians to later sedentary, warring, and agricultural peoples. Particular regions and time periods contribute to an understanding of theoretical issues concerning the timing and process of the initial peopling of the Americas, food production and the origins of domestication, regional systems of exchange, development of social hierarchies, the rise and fall of chiefdoms, colonial encounters between Europeans and Native Americans, and the historical archaeology of Europeans and Africans in colonial America. These subjects present us with whole chapters of the human experience brought into view through archaeology. Class evaluation will be based on active participation in class discussions, two midterm exams, and a final seminar paper (15-20 pages in length).
461 HISTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL THEORY. (3 hrs)
Professor Olga Soffer Office: 309H Davenport Hall, PH: 333-2100
o-soffer@uiuc.edu
This course is an undergraduate/graduate seminar on the history of theory in archaeology designed as a "capstone" course for undergraduates and a "founding stone" course for graduate students in archaeology. We will examine the waxing and waning of a number of theoretical approaches in our sub-discipline within the context of both 1) the specific place and time period during which they emerged, and 2) general developments in anthropology at large. An in depth critical analysis of the different approaches (antiquarianism, evolutionism, historicism, neo-evolutionism, functionalism, cultural ecology, Marxism in all its permutations, structuralism, post-processualism in it many permutations (including agency, gender, practice, performance, etc.) will be augmented by specific examples of archaeological research done within the framework of the paradigm in question.
Since theoretical constructs in American anthropological archaeology cannot be fully understood outside of the anthropological context and the history of anthropology, this course should be taken either in the same semester as Anth. 430(The History and Historiography of Anthropology) or after taking that course.
TENTATIVE TEXTS
Hodder, I. ed. 2001, Archaeological Theory Today. Polity Press
Trigger, B. G. l989 A History of Archaeological Thought.Cambridge U. Press.
Additional readings - on reserve in Department library, Davenport Hall # 193
465 OCEANIA'S PEOPLES AND CULTURES (3 hrs)
Professor Janet Keller Office: 395 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-3529
jdkeller@uiuc.edu
This course will introduce cultural traditions and contemporary social issues in the Pacific through ethnography, film and museum exhibits. Topics to be explored include: the flows of people into and out of island societies; political geography; global warming; culture history; colonialism and trajectories of nation-statehood, religious transformations; tourism. The place of Oceania in the development of anthropological theory and in critiques of anthropological practice will also be addressed.
Student projects for the
class will involve opportunities to trace the history of a material artifact or
artifacts, investigate the mix of traditional and foreign ideas in island
lifeways, explore islanders' perspectives on issues such as nuclear testing or
fishing rights, and/or interrogate stereotypes of island life as
"paradise."
Texts will be drawn from:
Cathy Small _ Voyages: From Tongan Villages to American Suburbs
1997.
Lissant Bolton - Unfolding
the Moon: Enacting Women's Kastom in Vanuatu 2003.
Nicholas Thomas _ Entangled
Objects: Exchange, Material Culture and Colonialism in the Pacific
1991
Ben Burt and Michael Kwa'ioloa _ Living Tradition: A Changing Life in
Soloman Islands 1997
Jan Rensel and Margaret Rodman (eds) _ Home in the Islands: Housing and
Social Change in the Pacific 1997
Epeli Hau'ofa _ Tales of the Tikongs 1983.
Holly Barker - Bravo for the Marshallese: Regaining
Control in a Post-Nuclear, Post-Colonial World 2004
Deborah Gewertz and Frederick Errington Emerging Class in Papua New Guinea 1999
467 CULTURES OF AFRICA (3 hrs)
Professor Mahir Saul Office: 309J Davenport Hall; PH: 244-3502
This course is
an introduction to the populations of Sub-Saharan Africa. It will deal with
topics of contemporary and historical relevance to Africa, exemplifying the
diversity of social, political, and economic realities of the continent. The
class readings will include recent publications and a few pieces considered
classical, written by anthropologists and others in the humanities. The class
grade will be based on a midterm and final essay exam, and an oral presentation
made in class. Graduate students will also write a final rsearch paper.
470 MIND, CULTURE AND SOCIETY (3 hrs or 1 unit)
Professor F.K. Lehman Office: 209H Davenport Hall, PH: 333-8423
f-lehman@uiuc.edu
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.
484 ASIAN DIASPORAS (3 hrs 1 unit))
Professor Martin Manalansan Office: 309C Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3500
Comparative
study of Asian migration and diasporas worldwide. The course considers the
mobility of Asian peoples as part of emerging political-economic and cultural
forces of globalization and transnationalism. Of particular interests are the
gendered and sexualized dimensions of human movement across political and
cultural borders.
Selected Readings:
Aihwa Ong. 2003. Buddha is Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship, the New America
Joshua Roth. 2002. Brokered Homeland: Japanese Brazilian Migrants in Japan
Sandya Shukla. 2003. India Abroad: Diasporic Cultures of Postwar America and
England.
Nicole Constable. 1999. Maid in Hongkong: An Ethnography of Filipina Workers
488 MODERN EUROPE (3 hrs or 1 unit)
Professor Matti Bunzl Office: 386B Davenport Hall, PH: 265-4068
bunzl@uiuc.edu
In the past two decades ethnographic work in Europe has proliferated. This literature has addressed a variety of anthropological problems but has had modernity and the sociocultural processes entailed in it as a nearly constant theme. This course, likewise, organizes the anthropology of Europe around the theme of modernity - the social, cultural, political and economic processes which constitute it and the dilemmas which it creates. The course will offer a theorization of European modernity in the context of the pre- and postmodern, paying particular attention to approaches that intersect history and anthropology. Topics to be addressed include ethnicity, nationalism, and supranationalism; gender and sexuality; class formation; the rural/urban divide; contemporary immigration; the transformations in the formerly socialist states; and the move toward a United States of Europe. Prerequisite: Anthropology 230.
499L LIFE HISTORY (3 hrs or 1 unit)
Professor Steve Leigh Office: 209J Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3503
s-leigh@uiuc.edu
The course investigates primate (including human) life histories. We examine why primates appear to have prolonged life courses. We begin with investigations of the foundations of life history theory (demography and quantitative genetics). Detailed comparative study of primate life history adaptations comprise the remainder of the course. Students will be required to engage in computer-intensive analyses of demographic and allometric data. Evaluation is based on written exercises and a final project.
Required texts: Roff DA. 2002. Life History Evolution. Sunderland, MA. Sinauer Associates, Inc.
Kappeler PM and Pereira ME. 2002. Primate Life Histories and Socioecology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Recommended text: Periera, M and Fairbanks, L (1993) Juvenile Primates. Oxford:Oxford Univ. Press.
Additional readings will be assigned throughout the semester.
504 COLONIALISM AND POSTCOLONIALISM (1 unit)
Professor Alejandro Lugo Office: 385 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-0823
a-lugo@uiuc.edu
This course takes the position that the history of colonialism concerns us in our present, that it fashions it and deserves ongoing reinterpretation. It interrogates anthropology's relationship to colonialism and the politics of anthropological representations of it. The course considers contemporary theories of coloniality/postcoloniality and the literature which takes exception to the generalities of those theories. The bulk of the reading will be historicized, ethnographic investigations of colonialism, "postcolonialism," and neocolonialism. We will read theoretically informed works on "development" and "race." Reading requirements are heavy. A research paper is required. The course is a graduate seminar. At least one course in social and/or cultural theory is a prerequisite for this course.
508 FEMINISM, GENDER AND SEXUALITY ( 1unit)
Professor Alma Gottlieb Office: 386C Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3515
ajgottli@uiuc.edu
What is feminist anthropology, how does it relate to broader feminist theory, and how does it relate to anthropology? Can feminism and cultural relativity engage in a productive dialogue? What is feminist ethnography, and is/can/should it be written "differently"? In this graduate seminar we will take a roughly chronological look at how a range of authors, from founding mothers to contemporary scholars, have reshaped the subdiscipline of cultural anthropology by reminding us that we are all gendered. We explore a range of theoretical perspectives, from political economy to postcolonial to literary. Although we mostly focus on writings by anthropologists, we will also look at relations between feminist anthropology and some other related disciplines.
Weekly reading notes and a final research paper are among the required writings to be produced for the course. Readings will include the following books as well as a course pack of articles:
Lila Abu-Lughod,
Writing Women's Worlds (Univ. of California Press, 1993)
Ruth Behar and Deborah
Gordon, eds., Women Writing Culture (Univ. of California Press, 1993)
Nancy Oestreich Lurie, Women and the Invention of American Anthropology (Waveland Press, 1999)
Sherry B. Ortner,
Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture (Beacon Press, 1997)
Bettina Shell-Duncan and
Ylva Hernlund, eds., Female "Circumcision" in Africa:
Culture, Controversy, and Change (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001)
Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing,
In the Realm of the Diamond Queen (Princeton U. Press, 1993)
Wolf, Margery, A Thrice-Told Tale: Feminism, Postmodernism, and Ethnographic Responsibility (Stanford Univ. Press, 1992)
515F DISCOURSE (1/2 or 1 unit)
Professor Brenda Farnell Office: 2009E Davenport Hall, PH: 244-9226
bfarnell@uiuc.edu
As ethnographers, we collect, translate and interpret “discourses” of all kinds. We engage in conversations with our informants/consultants, shift to an internal dialogue when trying to analyze what it all means, talk with teachers/colleagues in the discipline and engage in writing texts. Discourse centered approaches to anthropology consider language-in-use to be the primary means by which social action, cultural knowledge and social institutions are achieved, maintained and enacted. “Culture” thus becomes a dynamic, emergent, dialogical process arising from the embodied interaction of agents in social and cultural spaces. In this course, we explore a number of theories and methods from linguistic anthropology for analyzing discursive practices in some detail. We connect these with Foucault’s use of the term “discourse” and “discursive formations” as they apply to language and power. Students will be encouraged to apply the theories and methods of transcription and analysis learned in the course to their own research interests.
515G ILLINOIS ANTHROPOLOGY (1/2 or 1 unit)
Professor Paul Garber Office: 109B Davenport Hall, PH: 333-3616
p-garber@uiuc.edu
This course meets once a week to introduce first-year graduate students to the anthropology faculty at the University of Illinois. Students will be required to prepare for the meetings by reading selections of faculty members’ work.
515K RACE AND RACIALIZATION (1/2 or 1 unit)
Professor Bill Kelleher Office: 396B Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3516
wkellehe@uiuc.edu
This graduate seminar will examine a variety of theoretical positions on race, its construction, and its effects. It will survey the position of race in the development of anthropological thought and the debates surrounding it. It will attempt to discern the interconnections between racialization practices and racist institutions in a variety of geographical locations. Throughout the course emphasis will be placed on the articulation of racism to other social practices/ institutions/ categories. The course will examine issues of whiteness, normativity, and race/class struggles in the U.S.A. Racist institutions, particularly in settler states, will be taken up throughout the semester and analyzed at length. Australia, the United States, South Africa, Northern Ireland, and Israel will be important sites of examination on this topic. Racialization processes will be explored from both a comparative perspective and from a globalizing, interactive one. Liberalism’s relation to racism will be discussed and examined. Capitalist social formations of the past and present will be related to these considerations. Immigration and emerging racial formations in Europe will be addressed. Neoliberalism’s articulation to contemporary transformations of global race relations will be a focus. Essays by Franz Boas, Ashley Montague, George Stocking, Leith Mullings, Faye Harrison, Jane Hill, Lee Baker, Jr. and other anthropologists will be assigned along with ethnographic and historical works throughout the semester. These anthropologists and their ideas will be subjected to rigorous debate and discussion by relating them to these empirical works. The differences between ethnicizing and racializing processes and theorizations of them will be discussed, critiqued, and examined.
*** Students taking this course should have a background in both anthropological and social theory and should be prepared not only to read abundantly in several disciplines but also to discuss those readings cogently and constructively.
Readings for the course will be derived from the following texts among others:
George Fredrickson, Racism: A Short History.
W.E.B. DuBois, Dusk of Dawn, The Philadelphia Negro, Souls of Black Folk.
Gargi Bhattacharyya, J. Gabriel, S. Small, Race and Power: Global Racism in the 21st Century.
Vernon J. Williams, Jr. Rethinking Race: Franz Boas and His Contemporaries.
Don Mitchell, The Lie of the Land: Migrant Workers and the California Landscape.
Gillian Hart, Disabling Globalization: Places of Power in Post-Apartheid South Africa.
Cathy Cohen, The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics.
Unni Wikan, Generous Betrayal: Politics of Culture in the New Europe.
Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, selections from ‘There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack:’ the cultural politics of race and nation.
Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein, Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities.
George Lipsitz, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics.
Greg Grandin, The Blood of Guatemala: A History of Race and Nation.
Seth Garfield, Indigenous Struggle at the Heart of Brazil: State Policy, Frontier Expansion, and the Xavante Indians, 1937-1988.
Elizabeth A. Povinelli, The Cunning of Recognition: Indigenous Alterities and the Making of Australian Multiculturalism.
Dan Rabinowitz, Overlooking Nazareth
557 SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF SPACE (1/2 or 1 unit)
Professor Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-1315
helaine@uiuc.edu
A critical review of
current literature offering major theoretical and empirical perspectives on
space, place, landscape and the built environment. Readings are drawn from the
disciplines of anthropology, archaeology, architecture, landscape architecture,
geography, and cultural studies. Among the topics to be covered are the
following.
* social space
* lived space/phenomenology of space, place, landscape
* architectural space
* monuments and memorialization
* the afterlife of monuments
* representations of space, landscape, place
* symbolism and iconography/society and cosmology in architecture/worldviews
* pilgrimage
* sacred space, sacred place
* tourism, place, and placelessness
* otherness: gender, race, ethnicity
* abandoned space
* settlement pattern analysis, spatial analysis
* urban space and spatiality
* the spaces of colonialism
* landscapes of power
* contested public space
* virtual space
The professor will contextualize each topic. Students will lead the discussion
of the week's readings. Students will write critical notes about the readings
so as to facilitate discussion. A term paper is required, a summary of which
is to be presented in class during the final weeks of the semester. The final
written version is due one week after the last class session.