21:070:204 INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (3)
A study of various ways of life, from hunting and gathering to industrial societies. Topics such as marriage, economics, politics, and religion examined; comparisons made to illustrate the principles underlying cultural similarities and differences.
21:070:209 MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY (3)
Designed to teach students key concepts of anthropology through the cross-cultural study of health and healing. Topics include global health and healthcare disparities; anthropology of infectious disease; suffering and subjectivity; One World One Health; pharmaceutical markets and medical ethics.
070:215 INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY (3)
An examination of the interactions of living beings and social groups in environments that have been degraded by human economic activity. Combines ecological and anthropological knowledge to investigate how pollution, global warming, population growth and carbon emissions play out in stratified communities, and how ecosystems and communities may demonstrate resilience. (Cross-listed with Earth and Environmental Sciences)
21:070:220 ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY AND METHODS (3)
General historical framework; nineteenth-century and contemporary evolutionism, functionalism, structuralism, cultural ecology, Marxism, and postmodernism; the impact of feminism; and anthropological research in libraries and museums, and in the field.
21:070:275 POPULAR CULTURE (3)
Description pending.
21:070:285 DRUGS AND SOCIETY (3)
An examination of the socio-cultural contexts, results, and realities of psycho-active drugs both legal and otherwise. The course considers drugs in both a current and an historical context as well as being comparative when possible. Issues such as narco-trafficking and “drug legalization” are considered in both a local and global context.
21:070:301 ANTHROPOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT (3)
Theoretical approaches to the study of developing nations. Ethnographies that describe the impact of development on peoples' lives, cultures, and identities.
21:070:303 ANTHROPOLOGY OF POSTCOLONIALISM (3)
Postcolonial responses to cultural and economic domination in locations such as multinational corporations, media productions, tourist attractions, and religious sites.
21:070:305 CULTURE AND PERSONALITY (3)
Comparative study of the dynamics of human development and its cultural patterning; readings include autobiographies and ethnographies from several societies and theoretical approaches to understanding the cultural structuring of perception, interaction, and experience; emphasis on interpreting observed social inter-actions and utilizing life histories.
21:070:306 ANTHROPOLOGY OF POWER (3)
The body politic and the politics of bodies are ways in which anthropologists analyze the formal and informal organization of power and authority. Anthropological studies of kings and chiefs, lawmakers, and ritual leaders.
21:070:310 ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION (3)
Tribal and folk religions of the world in reference to their social context; sociopolitical and economic accompaniments of tribal and folk religions at different stages of social evolution.
21:070:314 TOPICS IN ANTHROPOLOGY (3)
Topics vary each term. Consult department for current information.
21:070:316 PEOPLES AND CULTURES OF AFRICA (3)
Culture areas of Africa south of the Sahara, from the Bushman and Pygmy hunters to advanced empires of Uganda and the west coast. Technology, society, art, and religion of the indigenous cultures; African cultural history; continuity and change in African cultures today.
21:070:319 ANTHROPOLOGY THROUGH FILM (3)
Examination and analysis of selected societies and cultures through films and complementary written texts. Study of the process of making documentary and ethnographic films and the related problems of representing "realities" through visual media.
21:070:320 HUMAN RIGHTS IN A GLOBAL WORLD (3)
This course explores the origins and recent proliferation of concepts, practices, and institutions related to human rights. It considers how human rights claims are contested, appropriated, and transformed in particular contexts. Struggles for human rights reconfigure social and cultural norms, and they transform local and global politics. Topics include the relationships of human rights to individual agency, culture, suffering, body, memory, law, justice, security, violence, citizenship, and group difference.
21:070:321 GENOCIDE (3)
If the 20th century, which has been called "the century of genocide," ended with the horrors of Bosnia, Rwanda, and Kosovo, genocidal violence has continued unabated into the new millennium, as illustrated by Darfur, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and even Iraq. Such genocidal violence raises many questions examined in this course. How does genocide come to take place? How is it patterned? What motivates people to participate in such violence? Are there special dynamics at work in the world in which we live that are conducive to political violence and genocide? How, for example, might mass murder and its remembrance be linked to modernity and globalization? How is genocide represented, coped with, and remembered? How might it be prevented? This considers a number of cases (including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Darfur, Guatemala, the Holocaust, Rwanda, and Turkey). It addresses leading theories about the about the origins, dynamics, endings, and aftermaths of genocide, and how genocide is shaped by cultural understandings and institutions.
21:070:324 HUMAN RIGHTS THEORY INTO PRACTICE (1)
How do human rights discourses impact our daily lives, and the world around us? In this course, students will have access to speakers, seminars, and opportunities to gain experience with major human rights and social justice organizations.
21:070:325 HUMAN RIGHTS APPLIED (1)
This course explores human rights careers, fellowships, and volunteer work, and teaches students how to prepare for human rights work at home or abroad. The course will develop skills in fundraising/grant writing, drafting applications, and networking in the international development field, and it will offer guidance on careers in social science fields.
21:070:328 GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (3)
This course will provide an understanding of the challenges facing the global community as it contemplates sustainable development and will introduce strategies and instruments for achieving the UN’s ambitious, global sustainable development goals.
21:070:331 URBAN ANTHROPOLOGY (3)
Examines the theoretical underpinnings of a variety of urban studies done by anthropologists; individual or group research project.
21:070:337 ANTHROPOLOGY OF INEQUALITY (3)
Class, race, and gender and how they intersect with power and domination. Study of how systems of inequality work, how they are maintained, and how they are transformed.
21:070:340 COMPARATIVE ROLES OF WOMEN (3)
Women's roles in societies that range from hunting and gathering bands to agricultural and pastoral chiefdoms, from ancient China to socialist Cuba. Women's experience in the family and community setting, as workers, as individuals, and as leaders. The impact of class, race, and gender on women's experience and consciousness.
21:070:341 HUMAN NATURE (3)
Explores the extremely contentious area of the intersection between biology and culture, what is called the "nature versus nurture" debate. Students are challenged to consider how much of who they are as a person is influenced by inborn characteristics, and how much is acquired by growing up within a particular social world--or is it both? A survey course with trans-disciplinary readings, it includes discussion of genetics, evolution, race, chimpanzees, IQ, evolutionary psychology, development, brain and mind, gender, violence, and other applied topics, such as politics, crime, aesthetics, and religion.
21:070:346 THE CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK POLICE (3)
Explores the role of policing in modern society by examining the origins and development of the New York City Police Department, from the events leading up to the founding of a unified day and night force in 1845, to the reforms following the Knapp Commission in the early 1970s. Uses extensive readings to ask how changing social and political forces affected the organization and policies of the police, and how police actions in turn shaped the character of urban life.
21:070:350 ENVIRONMENTAL ANTHROPOLOGY (3)
Study of anthropological works that interpret cultural phenomena from an ecological viewpoint; basic principles of ecology used to analyze communities and human populations in indigenous, colonial, and developing societies; cultural methods of adaptation and the critical role of technology and economic organization in human ecosystems.
21:070:352 PEOPLES AND CULTURES OF LATIN AMERICA (3)
Latin-American cultures studied with emphasis on contributions and interactions of native Americans, Iberians, and Africans. Examines the impact of colonialism and neocolonialism; structures of class, race, and gender; and ongoing efforts to implement change. Readings focus on Brazil, Guatemala, and Peru.
21:070:353 PEOPLES AND CULTURES OF SOUTHEAST ASIA (3)
Analysis of the societies of Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other countries of Southeast Asia which include the tribal peoples of the jungle, the peasantry and fishing groups, the large merchants, and princes; impact of the new Western technology on rural and urban family life and other cultural changes occurring in the area.
21:070:361 SELECTED AREAS STUDIES (3)
Analysis of selected cultures and societies, such as those indigenous to North America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and/or New Guinea and Australia.
21:070:363 ANTHROPOLOGY OF SOCIAL LIFE (3)
Traditional anthropological concerns of kinship, marriage, house-hold formation, and networks. Recent focuses on the construction of sexuality and gender.
21:070:381 INTERNSHIP IN ANTHROPOLOGY (3)
21:070:385 ANTHROPOLOGY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (3)
This course introduces students to the anthropological study of science and technology. Scientists are supposed to think differently than lay people and to have a distinctive and privileged access to nature, reality, and truth. Yet, as any other human activity, science and technology reflect and depend on the particular social, cultural, and political contexts in which they are produced, circulated, and consumed. As such, similarly to any other cultural product, they can be objects of anthropological and historical inquiry. By critically looking at these particular contexts, and how they matter to the kinds of knowledge and artifacts scientists and engineers make, the course explores how scientific knowledge and technological development emerge with claims of universality and cultural neutrality. Discussions include such questions as what counts as scientific fact;how scientists “see” the world; what objectivity is; what a technological artifact is; how machines “think;” how big data and algorithms “govern” our behavior; the “political lives” of infrastructures; robotics and human bodies; and whether science and technology might help us to cope with climate change.
21:070:390 CULTURE, POLITICAL VIOLENCE, AND GENOCIDE (3)
Explores the cultural dimensions of political violence and genocide; focuses loosely on perpetrator motivation. Includes discussion of the cultural, socioeconomic, and historical origins of political violence in countries such as Cambodia, Rwanda, Nazi Germany, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, India, and the former Yugoslavia; the conceptual meanings of terms like "violence" and "genocide" and the aftermaths of mass violence and terror.
21:070:420 WAR (3)
An overview of anthropological knowledge about war. This course covers biological explanations; archaeological evidence; and the relation of war to ecology, economy, social structure, gender, politics, and beliefs in tribal societies. Also covered is the link between war and states, and the impact of Western expansion on indigenous warfare. The last part of the term focuses on recent ethnic conflict and other identity-linked violence, future prospects for war in the world, and peace. One week will be devoted to events since 9/11.
21:070:425 RESEARCH IN ANTHROPOLOGY (3)
Prerequisites: Three anthropology courses or permission of the instructor. Topics vary dependent upon current focus of instructor.
21:070:475 CULTURE AND GLOBALIZATION (3)
Analysis of the cultural dimensions of globalization. Examines how global flows of people, information, resources, identities, ideas, commodities, symbols, and images impact upon and are transformed in local contexts.
21:070:492 SEMINAR IN ANTHROPOLOGY (3)
Prerequisites: 21:070:204 and two 300-level anthropology courses, or permission of instructor. Intensive study of a single topic or area of anthropological relevance conducted through the exchange of information by participating members of the seminar.
21:070:495 INDEPENDENT STUDY IN ANTHROPOLOGY (3)
Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing and permission of instructor.
Special--Individualized study of an anthropological topic with intermediate reporting to the assigned professor.