A.B. Anthropology

ANT 201 Introduction to Anthropology SA An introduction to anthropology's concept of culture and its relevance to the comparative study of societies. The focus is on the ways in which cultural communities express knowledge, values and commitments through relationships. Themes include culture and cultural identity, race and ethnicity, the organization of social life, the importance of language and symbols, the cultural embeddedness of gender and sexuality, the interrelationship of institutions and value systems, cultural varieties of power and authority, and the relevance of sociocultural inquiry to contemporary issues. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff

ANT 206A Human Evolution (also

AFS 206A

ANT 206B Human Evolution (also

EEB 306

ANT 215 Human Adaptation (also

EEB 315

ANT 232 Social Lives, Social Forces SA Examining "social forces" through social relationships provides a way to examine some key assumptions behind such everyday distinctions as altruism/self-interest, public/private, rules/ norms, regulation/free market, kinship/citizenship, friend/foe. This seminar untangles these binaries by exploring various settings--of family, community, law, and business--where they have been put into practice as organizing principles, and thus into contention. It also follows them beyond the United States into postcolonial and post-socialist environments, so as to further hone our comparative and interpretive questions. One three-hour seminar. C. Greenhouse

ANT 240 Medical Anthropology EM Exploration of cross-cultural constructions of sickness, disease, health, and healing interrogates our basic ethical, moral, and political positions. Our healing and disease models derive from specific cultural assumptions about society, gender, class, age, ethnicity, and race. Categories of disease from one culture can compromise ethical positions held by another. We pursue the moral implications of a critique of medical development and the political and ethical implications of treating Western medicine as ethnoscience as well as universal truth. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute class. J. Biehl

ANT 300 Ethnography, Evidence and Experience Fall SA This course relates key concepts in anthropology (e.g., culture, society, power, meaning) to everyday experience, with the aim of fostering students' ability to think analytically across diverse cultural fields. We alternate between classic theoretical texts and "dossiers" of highly current readings about issues both familiar to students (from experiences at home or abroad) and relevant to ethnographic research and writing. For example: digital media, embodied knowledge, language, ritual and symbols, textual interpretation, and modern forms of power and inequality. Staff

ANT 301 The Ethnographer's Craft Spring SA What are social and cultural facts? And how do we identify these facts using anthropological research methods? This field methods course is for students interested in learning how to work with complex and often contradictory qualitative data. Students will examine how biases and beliefs affect the questions we ask, the data we collect, and our interpretations. Key topics include objectivism, interpretation, reflexivity, participant-observation, translation, and comparison. Staff

ANT 303 Economic Experience in Cultural Context SA This course explores the social and cultural contexts of economic experience in the US and around the world. It considers how the consumption, production, and circulation of goods--today and in times past--become invested with personal and collective meanings. It pays special attention to symbolic and political dimensions of work, property (material, intellectual, and cultural), wealth, and "taste" (i.e., needs and wants). Additionally, course participants do a bit of anthropological fieldwork by learning to draw everyday experiences systematically into conversation with academic sources. R. Lederman

ANT 304 Political Anthropology SA A cross-cultural examination of collective action, power, authority and legitimacy. Topics will include the diversity of systems of leadership and decision making, the sociocultural contexts of egalitarianism and hierarchy, contemporary contests over power-sharing and state legitimacy, forms of power outside the state, and human rights struggles. One three-hour seminar. Staff

ANT 306 Current Issues in Anthropology SA A course taught by different members of the department and visiting faculty on various subjects not normally taught in regular courses. Staff

ANT 308 Forensic Anthropology SA An introduction to the analytical techniques that biological anthropologists apply to forensic (legal) cases. Topics include human osteology, the recovery of bodies, the analysis of life history, the reconstruction of causes of death, and various case studies where anthropologists have contributed significantly to solving forensic cases. Discussions will cover the limitations of forensic anthropology and the application of DNA recovery to skeletal/mummified materials. One three-hour seminar. J. Monge

ANT 310 Fundamentals of Biological Anthropology EC A survey of current data and debates in evolutionary theory, molecular anthropology, primate biology and behavior, primate and human evolution, and modern human biology and adaptation. One three-hour seminar. Staff

ANT 311 Cultural Analysis and International Development Dilemmas SA Designed to give students the anthropological tools to analyze concrete development dilemmas. Specific instances of violent ethnic conflict, international food relief, refugee rights, the global factory, and culturally diverse regional blocs will be considered. Staff

ANT 314 The Anthropology of Development (also

ENE 314

ANT 316 Cultural Diversity: Money, Sex, Nation SA This course explores the use of money, sex, and national belonging in processes of cultural diversification. Its focus is anthropological: making and understanding difference in space and time. Its method is primarily ethnographic: relating face-to-face or personal encounters to macro-political factors and to contemporary issues. Drawing from film, music, and selected readings, it examines how money, sex, and national form create value and interact to create people. Students will be asked to examine critically and reflexively their own prejudices as they influence the perception and evaluation of cultural differences. One three-hour seminar. J. Borneman

ANT 318 Understanding Muslim Social and Political Movements SA Introduces students to a number of contemporary movements claiming to restore Islam as the central norm for practice in the social, economic, and political life of Muslim communities and societies. These movements are studied from an anthropological perspective, using anthropological studies as well as writings by orientalists and others. The course is centered on the reconfiguration of religion, self, community, identity, and power. Emphasis on the Arab world and Iran. One three-hour seminar. Staff

ANT 321 Ritual, Myth, and Worldview SA An exploration of classic and modern theories of religion (belief, ritual, myth, worldview) as they pertain to a cross-cultural understanding of these phenomena. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute class. Staff

ANT 322 Cross-Cultural Texts HA This seminar closely reads descriptive and fictive works replete with cross-cultural representations and juxtaposed histories. What makes a given comparative account--whether colonialist or postcolonialist--compelling? Various genres--ethnographic essays, intense travel narratives, translated tales and myths, and novels--receive concerted attention. One three-hour seminar. Staff

ANT 323 Japanese Society and Culture (See EAS 225)

ANT 330 The Rights of Indigenous Peoples EM Using American Indian sovereignty, Australian Aborigine land claims, the Canadian Bill of Rights, the Maori Treaty of Waitangi, and various international conventions, students will consider whether there is a fundamental right to cultural integrity, and the historical, legal, and ethical implications posed by the relations between modern states and their indigenous populations. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute class. Staff

ANT 336 The Anthropology of Selected Regions (also

LAS 384

ANT 337 Social Change in Contemporary India (also

SAS 337

ANT 340 Medicine and the Humanities A course taught by different members of the department or visiting faculty on various subjects that connect student interests in the humanities with the sub-field of medical anthropology. Staff

ANT 341 The Anthropology of Gender SA Comparative perspectives on sexual divisions of labor, sex-based equality and inequality, and the cultural construction of "male'' and "female.'' Analysis of gender symbolism in myth and ritual, and of patterns of change in the political participation and power of the sexes. Two 90-minute lectures with discussion. Staff

ANT 342 The Anthropology of Law EM Study of the relation between formal legal institutions and the social and cultural factors influencing their development. Western and non-Western systems compared in terms of their forms of judicial reasoning, implementation through law of moral precepts, fact-finding procedures, and dispute settlement mechanisms. Two 90-minute lectures. Staff

ANT 352 Pacific Islanders: Histories, Cultures, and Change SA This course concerns histories of Pacific Islanders from the first settlements through colonial rule. It will also look at the diversity of cultures and their sociocultural transformation in more recent times. Throughout the semester, we will also use Pacific ethnography to shed light on general questions concerning cultural difference, inequality, and issues of interpretation/translation. Two 90-minute classes. R. Lederman

ANT 359 Acting, Being, Doing, and Making: Introduction to Performance Studies (See THR 300)

ANT 360 Ethics in Context: Uses and Abuses of Deception and Disclosure EM Stage magic delights us with expert illusions; biomedicine and other fields use deception as a research tool (e.g., placeboes); and everyday politeness may obscure painful truths. With deception and disclosure as springboards, this course explores the contextual complexity of personal and professional ethical judgment, with special but not exclusive attention to knowledge circulation. Topics include: social fictions in daily life across cultures; the tangled histories of science and stage magic; ethically controversial cases from popular culture ("reality" TV, journalism), the arts (fictive memoirs), academia (sharing/plagiarizing), and more. R. Lederman

ANT 366 Mesoamerican Art (See ART 267)

ANT 375 Culture and International Order (also

GSS 374

ANT 380 Critical Perspectives in Global Health (See GHP 350)

ANT 390A History of Anthropological Theory Fall HA A review of the main currents in anthropological theory with particular emphasis on major issues in American and European anthropology and the intellectual climate within which they developed. Staff

ANT 390B History of Anthropological Theory Fall HA A review of the main currents in anthropological theory with particular emphasis on major issues in American and European anthropology and the intellectual climate within which they developed. Anthropology seniors enroll in ANT 390B; all others should enroll in ANT 390A. Staff

ANT 403 Race and Medicine (also

AAS 403