102
ANTHROPOLOGY: HUMAN ORIGINS AND CULTURE (4 hrs)
Professor John Polk Office: 188 Davenport Hall PH: 333-3676
Professor Olga Soffer Office: 309H Davenport Hall PH: 333-2100
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, two quizzes, two 3-5 page article reviews, and
discussion section assignments.
Required texts:
Lewis,
Barry, et al. (2007) Understanding Physical Anthropology and Archaeology.9th
Edition. Wadsworth, Belmont, CA.
Lewin,
R. (2005) Human Evolution: An Illustrated Introduction. 5th Edition.
Blackwell Scientific Publications, Boston.
Gonick, L. Cartoon
History of the Universe, Volume 2. Sticks and Stones. Rip-Off Press, San Francisco.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES GEN. ED. REQ.
103 INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (4
hrs.)
Professor Virginia Dominguez Office: 193 Davenport Hall PH:
244-9495
This course introduces students to the work social and
cultural anthropologists do and why they do it, whether it is in a film studio,
a classroom, an international non-profit organization, or a community health
center. It focuses on what they care
about, what motivates them, what excites them, what troubles them, and how they
contribute to changing policies, understandings, and practices in the world
today. The course draws on knowledge of
the diversity of human societies, experiences, and histories to shed light on
contemporary world problems, especially those that reflect, promote, hide, or
reproduce violence. It emphasizes
analytic skills, debated concepts, and ethical implications.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE
SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES, WESTERN AND NON-WESTERN GEN. ED. REQ.
105 WORLD
ARCHAEOLOGY (3HRS)
Professor Lisa Lucero Office: 191 Davenport Hall PH: 244-7896
ljlucero@uiuc.edu
Using archaeological data, this class traces a world
of archaeological discoveries and the processes which led to the development of
agriculture, settled villages, and civilizations. We touch on archaeology's basic philosophy,
methods, and theories in lectures but focus on specific problems, people, and
places to get a big picture understanding of ancient world history. Lectures range from the earliest Homo sapiens
to ancient Sumeria, Egypt, Mexico, Europe, Peru, China, subcontinental Africa,
and the United States. Grades are based
on exams, quizzes, and two short papers.
*This course will fulfill a gen ed.req. for: HISTORICAL
AND PHILOSOPHICAL.
157 THE
ARCHAEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS ( 3HRS)
Professor Tim Pauketat Office: 123 Davenport Hall PH:
244-8818
pauketat@uiuc.edu
Ancient Illinois and the Midwest had pharaoh-like
rulers (at Cahokia), earthen pyramids (along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers),
pre-Columbian colonies (along the Illinois and Apple Rivers), ancient foragers,
gender equity (for awhile), and grotesque death rituals. In fact, pre-Columbian Illinois has a long,
complex history, owing in large part to its location along the Nile of the
mid-continent and the rich environments along its course. Historic Illinois saw intrusive cultures:
relocated eastern tribes-people (including the Illini!), colonial forts,
missionaries, African slaves, and all sorts of European immigrants with their
own distinct cultures. We begin with the
Ice Age and the first known Illinoisans—the Clovis people—and en end with
historic-era peoples as seen through their sites and artifacts. The main theme of class involves
understanding the "prehistory" of Illinois as the history of real
people that matters to us all. You'll
learn the main hallmarks of past cultures, artifact styles and lifeways, and
you'll learn how and why Illinois' past matters.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE HISTORICAL
AND PHILOSOPHICAL GEN. ED. REQ.
175 archaeology and pop culture (3HRS)
Professor Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall PH:
333-1315
helaine@uiuc.edu
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," 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); 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); Taino and Aztlan
(Puerto Rican and Chicano appropriations); "Primitivism" in
20th century art. creating tomorrow's ruins; the traffic in
antiquities; the past we deserve. Grading: 3 exams. Readings: 2 books, e-reserve articles.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL GEN ED.
REQ.
180 the archaeology of death (3hrs)
Professor Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall PH:
333-1315
helaine@uiuc.edu
This course takes
a very broad view of death, considering the human understanding and
celebration/commemoration of death worldwide and from ancient to modern times
by means of case studies. Death is the
greatest of the life crises and since time immemorial all human societies have
devised ways to cope with and explain it.
Cultural responses to death are highly varied and tightly
patterned. For instance, ancient people
of Peru's desert south coast wrapped their dead in bundles of textiles. Ancient Egyptians believed in a good
afterlife. Indic kings in nineteenth
century Bali went to the otherworld on a fiery prye with as many of their wives
as could be convinced to leap into the fire.
The Victorian Period in England was an era of funerary excess. Mortuary customs in the U.S. today are
restrained and modest. Anthropologists
and archaeologists take a keen professional interest in mortuary customs
because of the information this culture-specific behavior can provide about the
living society. In this course we read
selections from the beautiful Spoon River
Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters; its action takes place in the cemeteries
and towns along the Spoon River of west-central Illinois. We also read Thomas Lynch's best-seller The Undertaking. Life Studies from the
Dismal Trade. Other readings (on e-reserve) are brief articles ranging
from the death and funeral of Princess Diana and Elvis Presley to cannibalism
in ancient and modern times. We watch
and critique six movies ("Truly, Deeply, Madly", "The Loved
One", "The Funeral", "Death Takes a Holiday/Meet Joe
Black", "My Girl," "Soylent Green"), which range from
comedic to tragic to frightening. There are no exams. Tentatively,
the graded assignments are: (1)
conduct a small independent project at Mt. Hope Cemetery on the south side of
campus; (2) write a "Last Will and Testament"; (3) analyze one
episode of "Six Feet Under"; (4) conceive of a memorial. These assignments are spaced out throughout
the semester.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE
SOCIAL SCIENCES AND WESTERN COMPARTIVE CULTURE GEN ED. REQ.
199LL
INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY. (3 HRS)
Professor Lisa Lucero Office:191
Davenport Hall PH: 244-7896
ljlucero@uiuc.edu
This course introduces the field of
anthropology, the study of humankind, and the four major subfields of
anthropology: physical anthropology, archaeology, cultural anthropology, and
linguistics. The study of humankind attempts to answer questions about
where humans came from, how societies live and communicate, and why human
cultural groups are both similar and unique. Also, this course introduces
to the student how and why anthropologists study humans.
199SN WITCHCRAFT AND CULTURES OF TERROR (3 HRS)
Professor Sasha Newell Office: 386A
newell@uiuc.edu
This class considers the role
of fear in social organization, cultural forms, and conflict. The witch represents evil within one's midst,
disguised as a neighbor or even family member, whose entire being is driven by
antisocial impulses. Taking the
literature upon witchcraft in societies around the world as our starting point,
we examine questions of what witchcraft ideology represents, why it is seems to
be so convincing, and the effects of witchcraft beliefs on society. Throughout the course we consider how these
questions apply to analogous representations of otherness and fear such as
deviance, enemies in war, terrorism, McCarthyism, Satanic Ritual Abuse, and
anti-Semitism. We consider the
techniques of eradication people resort to in the effort to free themselves
from internal evils, and ways in which witchcraft discourse functions
metaphorically as an idiom for social conflicts both local and large scale.
209 FOOD, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY (3 HRS)
Professor Martin
Manalansan Office: 387 Davenport Hall PH:
244-3500
manalans@uiuc.edu
“As American as apple pie! “
“Let’s have a coffee break.”
“I can’t eat any more – I have to fit
into a bikini this summer.”
“What? A Thanksgiving dinner without
turkey? Impossible! “
“You have not eaten French haute
cuisine? Oh you poor thing!”
“You can’t be friends with them –
they eat dogs!”
These statements illustrate
how food is part of our everyday life.
Furthermore, they demonstrate how food goes beyond providing nutrition
and biological sustenance. Food is a symbolic
and material medium for establishing relationships, meanings and practices that
revolve around family, kinship, religion, gender, class, ethnic, national and
other collective identities. It marks
routines, important life events and special holidays. Food influences how we see ourselves in
relation to others. It is a vehicle for
creating intimacy between 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 everyday
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-food: globalization; and world hunger.
*THIS COURSE
FULFILLS THE SOCIAL SCIENCES GEN ED REQ.
230 SOCIOCULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY (3 hrs)
Professor Alejandro Lugo Office: 396C Davenport Hall PH: 333-0823
a-lugo@uiuc.edu
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 today's social debates (i.e.
identity, cultural difference, global/local dimensions of everyday life, and so
forth). The class will cover the kind of
ethnography and theory that has shaped the type of anthropology practiced in
the last two decades. The issues
addressed in the course will be presented in the larger context of the history
of socio-cultural anthropology.
240 BIOLOGICAL
ANTHROPOLOGY. (3 hrs.)
Professor Charles Roseman Office: 209G Davenport Hall PH: 244-3513
This course covers the theoretical and empirical basis
of modern biological anthropology.
Topics include basic evolutionary biology, population genetics, basic
anatomy, the natural history and phylogeny of primates, the fossil evidence for
origins of the earliest primates to modern humans and human genetic
variation. This course will furnish
students with the basic skills to take advanced courses in biological
anthropology and evolutionary biology.
241 HUMAN VARIATION
AND RACE (3 hrs)
Instructor Melissa Raguet Office: 309R
Davenport Hall
raguet@uiuc.edu
This course surveys the patterns of biological
variation within and between human populations.
After covering the basic principles of genetics and evolutionary theory,
we will examine the genetic, physical, and behavioral traits found in our
species. We will consider these traits
from an anthropological and scientific perspective, and will discuss both the
micro-evolutionary and cultural processes that have shaped these traits. We will also explore how culture can
influence our understanding of human biology, and we will discuss how studies
of human variation have impacted society in the past and present. We will pay particular attention to the
history and impact of the race concept.
242 HISTORY OF
HUMAN EVOLUTION (3 hrs)
Professor Stan Ambrose Office: 381 Davenport Hall PH:
244-3504
ambrose@uiuc.edu
How has the study of human
origins and human evolution and its socio-political setting developed during
recorded human history? We will compare
and contrast different models and paradigms for human origins, including those
of western and eastern religions, and early and modern scientific theories. This course will trace the history of the
science of human evolution from before Darwin to the debates taking place today
in public schools, courtrooms, college campuses and laboratories about creation
and intelligent design versus
evolution. An accurate understanding of
our evolutionary history – how we have become modern humans – is essential for
developing a critical approach to the interface between science and
society. We will explore the history of
the controversies of our human evolution, within anthropology and in wider
society, and how they have affected each other.
Special emphasis will be placed on how assumptions about how evolution
works influence scientific and common interpretations of the fossil record, and
scientific versus popular conceptions of race.
Grading and evaluation of student performance
will be based on participation in class discussions, three in-class exams, and
three short essays.
Prerequisite: An understanding of biology is very
useful. ANTH 102, 143, or a similar
biological anthropology or biology course is recommended.
TEXTS: Howells, William W. (1997) Getting
Here. The story of human evolution (new edition). Compass Press, Washington DC.
Lewin, Roger, and Robert A.
Foley (2004) Principles of Human
Evolution. 2nd edition.
Blackwell, Malden, MA.
Additional required reading
assignments will be available through library e-reserve.
262 WOMEN'S
LIVES
(HONORS) (3 hrs)
Professor Alma Gottlieb Office: 386C Davenport Hall, PH:
244-3515
ajgottli@uiuc.edu
v Is menstruation everywhere viewed as a curse or handicap?
v Why are some African girls eager to undergo
"circumcision"?
v Is childbirth seen universally as an illness to be
medicated?
v Why isn't Miss America ever fat?
v Is motherhood by definition a heterosexual
experience?
This course explores these
and related questions, investigating how women around the world experience
their lives and their bodies through the life cycle. We’ll 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. We do this by comparing women's experiences
of their bodies in the contemporary U.S. with those of women elsewhere around
the world. Through readings, films,
guest speakers (including a practicing doula or midwife), and hands-on research
and fieldwork exercises, the course introduces you to the gendered experience
of the body as understood by cultural anthropology.
Written
and Other Work will include the
following:
Film Reaction (10%)
Personal Ethnography (20%)
Interview-based Paper (20%):
Female Genital Operations Controversy Paper(20%)
Final Essay Exam (20%)
Class Participation (10)%)
Readings
will include a selection of articles on e-reserve as well as the following
books (tentative list):
Karen Houppert, The Curse: Confronting the Last Unmentionable
Taboo: Menstruation
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
Ellen Lewin, Lesbian Mothers
Prerequisites:
This course is open in the first instance only to students enrolled in the
Campus Honors Program. Following the
beginning of the semester, anyone else interested in the course must contact
the Campus Honors Program and the instructor to apply for permission to enroll,
if there are places available.
*THIS COURSE
FULFILLS THE SOCIAL SCIENCES GEN ED REQ.
270 LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY (3 HRS) (meets w/ Anth 271)
271
LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY (ADVANCED COMP. II) (3HRS)
Professor Brenda Farnell Office: 209E Davenport Hall PH: 244-9226
bfarnell@uiuc.edu
This course provides an in-depth
introduction to language in culture and examines the dynamic intersections
between language, self, culture and society.
We explore language and identity; language and mind; language and
culture; and discourse, power and performance in social interaction. Students will be introduced to a variety of
theoretical approaches; learn basic analytical procedures, and have
opportunities to apply these to intellectual and social problems that interest
them. This course can be taken as a
standard offering or for COMP II credit (271).
Prerequisites: None, but ANTH 104 recommended.
**271 satisfies the COMP II REQUIREMENT FOR
UNDERGRADUATES
275 THE WORLD OF JEWISH SEPHARAD (3 hrs)
Professor
Mahir Saul Office:
309J Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3502
m-saul@uiuc.edu
This is a course on the society and culture of the
Sephardim, a large sector of World Jewry who were expelled by royal decree from
Spain at the end of the fifteenth century and settled in various parts of the
world. They became a conduit between
Christianity and Islam. Focusing on the
communities the Sephardim established in the Mediterranean countries and later
in America, the course will cover the flourishing cultural life they created in
their new lands, their Judeo-Spanish language, literature, music, participation
in the economy and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the political
movements of the emerging nations.
THIS
COURSE FULFILLS THE HIST & PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE, NON-WESTERN CULTURES
AND WESTERN COMPARTIVE CULTURE GEN. ED. REQ.
286 SOUTHEAST ASIAN CIVILIZATIONS (3 HRS) Asian Studies 286, History 225
Professor F.K. Lehman Office: 209H Davenport Hall PH: 244-8423
f-lehman@uiuc.edu
This course provides a broad
perspective on the development of civilizations in Southeast Asia over the past
2,000 years, from the earliest Indianised states to the present independent
nations. Emphasis will be placed upon
the role of commerce, the development of complex forms of political and social organization, the place of the great
religions — Hinduism, Theravåda Buddhism, Islam and Christianity — in the
growth of cultures of the region, and the impact of European colonialism and
the world economy.
THIS
COURSE FULFILLS THE HIST & PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE, NON-WESTERN CULTURES
GEN. ED. REQ.
358 PEOPLES OF
THE ICE AGE. (3HRS)
Professor Olga Soffer Office: 309H Davenport Hall, PH: 333-2100
o-soffer@uiuc.edu
This course explores a vast period of human prehistory
in the Old and New Worlds, some 4 million to 10,000 years ago, before people domesticated plants and animals
and first cities arose. Archaeological,
paleoanthropological, and ethnographic data will be used to understand past
lifeways in Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. The course emphasizes an integration of both
theory and data for understanding specific lifeways as well as for understanding changes in
cultures during the Pleistocene.
Prerequisite : Anth. 102 or equivalent or permission of the instructor.
Texts: 1. Bogucki, P.
1999. The Origins of Human Society.
Blackwell
Publishers,
Malden, Mass.
2.
Additional readings available on or through the course Website.
*THIS COURSE FULFILLS THE
HISTORICAL & PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE
GEN ED. REQ.
Professor Gilberto Rosas Office: 389 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-4117
grsosas2@uiuc.edu
This course explores how
questions of culture and power infuse ethnographies about Latinos and Latina,
such as those of racism, sexism, immigration, and activism. We will critically explore the theoretical,
methodological, and political implications and questions generated by a range
of material on Latinas and Latinos, including works in the humanities with an
ethnographic pulse and works written by Latinas/os. Fundamental to the course is the following:
students are required to work in small groups to produce ethnographies of
Latinas/os on the University of Illinois campus, as part of the Ethnography of
the University initiative.
421 SOCIAL
ORGANIZATION (3 or 4 hrs)
Professor Mahir Saul Office: 309J Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3502
m-saul@uiuc.edu
This course deals with fundamental issues of social
structure. It is organized loosely chronologically, moving from classical
British Social Anthropology to French Structuralism and then to the recent
theoretical developments in the study of society. The emphasis, however, is on basic ideas and
their applications rather than the history of the field. The core of each class session consists of
discussion about the assigned reading.
The course grade is based upon three short take-home examination papers. The texts will be photocopied articles and
excerpts.
440
HUMAN PALEONTOLOGY (3 or 4 hrs)
Professor John Polk Office 188 Davenport Hall, PH: 333-3676
jdpolk@uiuc.edu
The course will provide students with a comprehensive
overview of the hominin fossil record, and an understanding of the patterns and
processes involved in human evolution. Evolutionary
theory will provide the framework for understanding the data and for generating
testable hypotheses.
441 HUMAN
GENETICS (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Charles Roseman Office: 209G Davenport Hall , PH; 244-3513
croseman@uiuc.edu
This course is an introduction to population genetics,
the branch of evolutionary biology that examines the causes of changes in
genetic variation through time.
Population genetics is foundational to the study of evolution as changes
in genetic variation through time underlie all evolutionary phenomena. The course consists of a number of modules
dealing with topics such ranging from non-random mating and random genetic
drift to basic molecular evolution and evolutionary quantitative genetics. Empirical examples are drawn from the
literature on humans and other primates to illustrate theoretical and
methodological points. Student progress
will be evaluated on the basis of homework assignments and three exams. A basic understanding of algebra, calculus,
evolution, molecular biology, Mendelian genetics, and probability theory is
required for successful participation in the course.
444
METHODS IN BIOANTHROPOLOGY (3 or
4 hrs)
Professor Ripan Malhi Office: 185 Davenport Hall, PH: 265-0721
malhi@uiuc.edu
This laboratory intensive course introduces the basic
skills needed to perform Molecular Anthropology research. Molecular biology techniques such as DNA
extraction , PCR, electrophoresis, and DNA sequencing will be the focus of the
first half of the course. The second
half of the course will focus on the analysis of genetic data from public
databases.
452 STONE TOOL TECHNOLOGY ANALYSIS ( 3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor
Stanley Ambrose Office: 381 Davenport Hall PH: 244-3504
ambrose@uiuc.edu
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 e-reserve
will be assigned weekly.
Prerequisite: Anthropology 220 or consent of the
instructor.
TEXTS: Odell, George H. (2004) Lithic Analysis.
Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
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 (available at Notes & Quotes).
460 HERITAGE MANAGEMENT (3 or 4 hrs)
Professor
Helaine Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall
helaine@uiuc.edu
The purpose of
this course is to present theoretical
and practical issues of heritage
management. Heritage management concerns
local, regional, national and international cultural patrimonies in a
historically and socially informed multivocalic present. The course will be run as a seminar, focusing
on discussion and debate of the readings and case studies. Note that two major heritage conferences will
be held on campus this spring, which students are expected to attend: “Heritage
Cities” (March 7-8) and “Contested Cultural Heritage” (April 25). Students also must attend a major heritage
lecture (April 24, 4-6 p.m.). Many readings, most on e-reserve. A research project
or paper.
Among the topics
covered in the course are the following:
462 MUSEUM THEORY AND PRACTICE (3 OR 4 HRS)
Professor Susan Frankenberg Office: 309A Davenport Hall PH: 244-1984
sfranken@uiuc.edu
Museum theory and practice
examines the history and development of museums in light of world events and
intellectual trends. Topics covered
include: Early history of museums; Museums and colonialism; Collecting and
exhibiting Africa; Museums and nationalism; Anthropology, science, art and
outdoor museums; Issues of inclusion and exclusion in museums; Museums as
memory, education and entertainment; Museum politics and controversies; Ethics
of collecting and exhibiting; Major issues in contemporary museum studies; and
the Future of museums. This is a lecture
and discussion course with an extensive reading list (mostly articles and book
chapters on E-Reserve), some video presentations, and two independent museum
visits outside of class time. Course
requirements include class attendance, participation in discussions, and
development of an exhibition proposal that includes a critical analysis of the
exhibition script and venue, a catalog prospectus and a relevant annotated
bibliography.
470 MIND, CULTURE AND SOCIETY (3 OR 4 HRS)
Linguistics 470, Communications
470
Professor F.K. Lehman Office: 209H Davenport Hall PH: 244-8423
f-lehman@uiuc.edu
The course explores the
interface of culture and mind by analyzing the relations between public events
and statements and private knowledge, intention and meaning. We shall investigate the dynamic relations
between structural descriptions of systems and actual behavior and
practices. The application of ideas in
performance and the reciprocal construction of knowledge and experience are
central to this course. The interplay between continuity of tradition and
innovation in practice and in thought is also a major theme. The relevance of linguistic and ethnographic
methods for documenting practice and inferring
conceptual principles will be made clear. Material artifacts will also be considered as
a data source and a part of practice itself.
We shall examine the complementarities of linguistic and visual
reasoning and other modes of mental representation for accounts of
culture. General issues such as the universality/relativity
debate, the private as against the public foundations of culture, and the
connection between individual cognition and cultural models will be taken up in
detail throughout this course.
473
MUSEUMS AND COMMUNITIES (3 or 4
hrs)
Professor Helaine
Silverman Office: 295 Davenport Hall
helaine@uiuc.edu
The engagement of communities
in museum research and exhibition is one of the most important developments in
museology since the rise of modern museums.
This course examines collaborative research involving museums and
members of ethnographic source communities, and the development of a new
curatorial praxis that incorporates source community needs and
perspectives. Strong, sustained, and
mutually beneficial relationships with communities are critical to museums,
cultural, and heritage organizations and not-for profit organizations seeking
to play timely, relevant, positive, and socially responsible roles in
society. Successful relationships between
museums and communities require an ability of the museum staff to assess their
ideological/philosophical and organizational readiness and to have sufficient
cultural competency so as to initiate community partnerships; identify
community characteristics and needs; define potential community roles and
relationships; build and sustain reciprocal, mutually beneficial relationships
with diverse groups through a range of appropriate and collaborative
initiatives; interact with communities in respectful and culturally appropriate
ways; include and balance diverse perspectives associated with effective
community cultural and social development activities; deal with controversy and
resolve conflict; measure the effectiveness of community partnerships at the
conclusion of projects. Many readings, most on e-reserve. A research
project or paper.
477
POTTERY ANALYSIS (3 or 4 hrs)
Professor Timothy
Pauketat Office: 123 Davenport Hall, PH:244-8818
pauketat@uiuc.edu
This is a how-to course on the anthropological study
of earthenwares covering pottery technology, function, style, and assemblage
formation. We skim over pottery
provenance studies—archaeometric tecchniques—since this is the domain of other
UIUC coursses. The goal is to teach
aspiring archaeologists basic ceramic analysis (of production, formal
variation, use-wear, and breakage) and then how to interpret pottery
assemblages from actual archaeological sites. We will do as many hands-on
activities as possible.
486 PEOPLES OF MAINLAND SE ASIA (3 OR 4 HRS)
ASST 486
Professor F.K. Lehman Office: 209H Davenport Hall PH: 244-8423
f-lehman@uiuc.edu
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.
499AK
YOUTH AND GLOBAL FUTURER: EAST ASIA
(4 hrs)
Professor Nancy
Abelmann Office: 230A Intl. Studies Bldg., 910 S. Fifth, PH:
333-7273
nabelman@uiuc.edu
Professor Karen
Kelsky Office: 2090 Foreign Lang. Bldg., PH: 244-9077
kelsky@uiuc.edu
This course will examine how
youth in East Asia (China/s, Japan, and the Koreas) are making their way in our
globalizing world. We will examine
various domains of their lives including: family/home, popular culture/leisure
(both on- and off-line), education, and employment. East Asian youth have experienced perhaps the
world’s most compressed development as well as among the world’s most
aggressive globalization policies. The
examination of East Asian youth offers a window on many fascinating scholarly
topics: the transnational popular culture industries, changing consumer
subjectivities, regional economies, neoliberal restructuring and
part-time/contract employment, newly emerging communities (e.g., LGBT). Indeed, with a consideration of East Asian
youth, this class will engage issues of youth transformation world-wide. The U of I offers a fascinating window on
East Asian youth because of the many college (and pre-college) students who
make their
way here – through
participation in the Ethnography of the University Initiative (EUI), students
will conduct local field research that reveals the global processes at issue.
Readings might include: Karen Kelsky’s Women on the Verge, Vanessa
Fong’s Only Hope: Coming of Age Under China’s One-Child Policy, Merry
White’s The Material Child, Aihwa Ong’s Flexible Citizenship,
Saskia Sassen’s The Global City, James Watson’s Golden Arches East,
James Farrar’s Opening Up: Youth Sex Culture and Market Reform in Shanghai,
Ian Condry on Japanese Hip-Hop as well as fictional selections.
499BF
BODY MOVEMENT LITERACY: LABANOTATION IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE. 3 or 4 hrs)
Professor Brenda
Farnell Office: 209E Davenport Hall, PH: 244-9226
bfarnell@uiuc.edu
In this course students learn to
conceptualize and analyze dynamically embodied human action for the purposes of
ethnographic research. This involves
learning to think about and observe human movement and performance spaces in
new ways, as well as acquiring the skills to read and write body movement with
the Laban script. From an
anthropological perspective it is crucial to translate what we see into
ethnographically accurate transcriptions according to the mover's point of
view. This involves understanding
indigenous concepts of the body, space, time and person/self as well as
categories and classifications of movement/action. Field research techniques for achieving this
goal are explored. Movement and
performance genres of interest include idioms of dance, gestural systems,
theater, sign languages, martial arts, ritual and ceremonial practices, and
sports. Students will have the
opportunity to explore their own research interests and may choose to take the
(internationally recognized) Elementary Certification exam in Labanotation if
they wish. Labanotation is recognized
as a research tool and meets the anthropology department PhD language
requirement.
511 RESEARCH PROPOSAL SEMINAR (4 hrs)
Professor Alma Gottlieb Office:
386C Davenport Hall, PH: 244-3515
ajgottli@uiuc.edu
Designing a doctoral research
project and writing a grant proposal to secure funds that will enable you to
carry out that project can be an exhilarating/terrifying experience. This workshop helps you through this
rite-of-passage stage in your graduate training by providing you with written
guides to the process and helpful feedback from your peers.
Defining and sharpening the
conceptual focus of your project . . .covering relevant bodies of scholarly
literature (ethnographic, historical, theoretical, and methodological alike) .
. .communicating your ideas effectively – these are all skills that we will
work to develop. Toward the end of the
semester, we will also start thinking about professionalization issues—life beyond fieldwork--by having you
envision future publications that might result from your eventual doctoral
research.
To get a sense of how well-planned projects are
conceived, organized, and described, we will read a selection of successful
doctoral grant proposals covering a wide variety of topics and approaches. During our class time, we will
"workshop" grant proposals produced by each student. All seminar participants will work to hone
their own rhetorical skills in suggesting productively challenging but gently
offered feedback to the students whose proposals we have read before
class.
You should expect to consult
closely with your advisor throughout the semester about issues and strategies
raised in the class concerning your own research project.
Writing: This is a
writing-intensive workshop, and you’ll be working on your own proposal
throughout the semester. You should
expect to produce:
-an
abstract of your proposal
-a statement concerning
ethical issues that you anticipate might arise during research
-at least two versions of
your proposal intended for two different funding agencies (e.g., NSF, SSRC,
Fulbright, Fulbright-Hays, NIH, UIUC Grad. College, UIUC Dept. of Anthropology
Summer Fund, etc.).
-a
list of journals to which future dissertation chapters might be submitted
-a list of
book publishers to which your future dissertation might be submitted.
Text: L. Locke, et
al., Proposals that Work: A Guide for Planning Dissertations and Grant
Proposals. We’ll also read a number
of successful grant proposals from former UIUC students.
Prerequisites: This seminar
is primarily intended for graduate students in cultural anthropology who are
beyond their first year of graduate study.
Interested graduate students from other subdisciplines within
anthropology, or from other departments, are encouraged to discuss their background
with the instructor before enrolling.
All students should consult with their advisors in making the decision
to take the workshop.
515GR ANTHROPOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY MEXICO ( 4 hrs)
Professor Gilberto Rosas Office: 389 Davenport Hall, PH: 244-4117
grsosas2@uiuc.edu
Drawing on
theories of culture, power, and subjectification, and regionally specific,
ethnographies, social histories, and other writings about Mexico and its
diaspora, this seminar delves into questions involving this nation-state’s
political economy, its formative state processes and other technologies of
power, and how they articulate to historically and politically constructed
power relations. The seminar also
explores both the everyday and broad-based political mobilizations such
processes have generated. We will
rigorously explore how the Mexican people themselves, its women and men, mestizos and non-mestizos, and immigrants, understand these and other complexities.
515IA ILLINOIS ANTHROPOLOGY (1/2 unit or 2 hrs)
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.
541 ONTOGENY AND PHYLOGENY (4 hrs)
Professor Steven Leigh Office: 109B Davenport Hall, PH: 333-3616
sleigh@uiuc.edu
This course investigates how
ontogeny (growth and development) relates to phylogeny (evolutionary change)
across the course of human evolution.
The course focuses on the expectional nature of human size and shape
development and its evolution, with particular attention to the evolution of
the human skull and brain. We cover
theoretical principles of allometry and scaling, then apply these to problems
in human evolution. Grading is based on
class discussion, performance on problem sets, a final class paper and
presentation.
Prerequisites: ANTH 102, ANTH 240, ANTH 440 or equivalent.