Course Descriptions

 This course is an introduction to the principles and the methods of physical anthropology.  Physical anthropology is the study of human beings in a biological context, and seeks to explain our relationship to other primates and to the rest of the natural world.  In other words, who are we? how are we unique? how, why, an when did we come to be the way we are?The study of physical anthropology requires many different types of knowledge.  Throughout the course, we will examine anatomical, behavioral, and genetic similarities and differences among living primates, learn the basic mechanisms of the evolutionary process, and trace a pathway of human evolution as reconstructed from the fossil record.  The main goal of the course is to obtain a clear understanding of our place in nature.

 This course is an introduction to the principles and the methods of physical anthropology.  Physical anthropology is the study of human beings in a biological context, and seeks to explain our relationship to other primates and to the rest of the natural world.  In other words, who are we? how are we unique? how, why, an when did we come to be the way we are?The study of physical anthropology requires many different types of knowledge.  Throughout the course, we will examine anatomical, behavioral, and genetic similarities and differences among living primates, learn the basic mechanisms of the evolutionary process, and trace a pathway of human evolution as reconstructed from the fossil record.  The main goal of the course is to obtain a clear understanding of our place in nature.

This course focuses on "classic" themes in anthropology such as ethnicity, language, adaptation, marriage, kinship, gender, religion, and social stratification.  We will consider anthropological theory from its 19th-century origins to the present.  The course also explores the nature of ethnographic field work, especially the relationship between the anthropologist and the field community.  
The lectures, readings, and films for this course have been selected with the objective of exploring the social meanings with which diverse groups invest their life.  By comparing and analyzing the similarities and differences between "us" and "others," both within the borders of the U.S. and abroad, the anthropological perspective can expose some of our own cultural assumptions and enable us to better understand diverse cultures.

This course focuses on "classic" themes in anthropology such as ethnicity, language, adaptation, marriage, kinship, gender, religion, and social stratification.  We will consider anthropological theory from its 19th-century origins to the present.  The course also explores the nature of ethnographic field work, especially the relationship between the anthropologist and the field community.  
The lectures, readings, and films for this course have been selected with the objective of exploring the social meanings with which diverse groups invest their life.  By comparing and analyzing the similarities and differences between "us" and "others," both within the borders of the U.S. and abroad, the anthropological perspective can expose some of our own cultural assumptions and enable us to better understand diverse cultures.

This course focuses on "classic" themes in anthropology such as ethnicity, language, adaptation, marriage, kinship, gender, religion, and social stratification.  We will consider anthropological theory from its 19th-century origins to the present.  The course also explores the nature of ethnographic field work, especially the relationship between the anthropologist and the field community.  
The lectures, readings, and films for this course have been selected with the objective of exploring the social meanings with which diverse groups invest their life.  By comparing and analyzing the similarities and differences between "us" and "others," both within the borders of the U.S. and abroad, the anthropological perspective can expose some of our own cultural assumptions and enable us to better understand diverse cultures.

This course focuses on "classic" themes in anthropology such as ethnicity, language, adaptation, marriage, kinship, gender, religion, and social stratification.  We will consider anthropological theory from its 19th-century origins to the present.  The course also explores the nature of ethnographic field work, especially the relationship between the anthropologist and the field community.  
The lectures, readings, and films for this course have been selected with the objective of exploring the social meanings with which diverse groups invest their life.  By comparing and analyzing the similarities and differences between "us" and "others," both within the borders of the U.S. and abroad, the anthropological perspective can expose some of our own cultural assumptions and enable us to better understand diverse cultures.

An introduction to archaeology as a discipline.  Three major themes that deal with issues of the past will be covered:

1.  A brief history of the discipline, changing theories about various aspects of the past, and the role that the reconstructions of the past play in national and/or group identities.

2.  A survey of the development of human culture from its beginnings to the rise of civilizations and proto-historical cultures in most areas of the world.  Prehistoric cultures, archaeological sites, and areas of Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe , and the Pacific will be covered.

3.  Archaeological methods of recovery of information about the past.  Scientific procedures involved in excavation, dating, and preservation of the material record.

An introduction to archaeology as a discipline.  Three major themes that deal with issues of the past will be covered:

1.  A brief history of the discipline, changing theories about various aspects of the past, and the role that the reconstructions of the past play in national and/or group identities.

2.  A survey of the development of human culture from its beginnings to the rise of civilizations and proto-historical cultures in most areas of the world.  Prehistoric cultures, archaeological sites, and areas of Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe , and the Pacific will be covered.

3.  Archaeological methods of recovery of information about the past.  Scientific procedures involved in excavation, dating, and preservation of the material record.

The purpose of this course is to introduce the concept of culture as a crucial dimension of human life. Because we tend to think of thought and action as stemming from individual impulses, we find the notion of a shared, highly variable, but influential force in our lives hard to fathom.  Even if we speak of "society" as a familiar concept, we tend to make of it a uniform, oppressive force, some institution outside ourselves that we individually confront and oppose. Yet only if we can learn to recognize how deeply we share certain assumptions and inclinations with others--but only some others, and to varying degrees--can we appreciate the degree to which culture inheres within us and makes us who we are.

The ability to learn and use language is a quintessentially human characteristic—one that distinguishes homo sapiens from other animal species. Language is simultaneously generated through and generative of social life; the former is a primary resource that we humans use in both the structuring and accomplishment of the latter. These dynamics form the subject of study of linguistic anthropology.

This course is an introduction to linguistic anthropology. It is impossible in a single semester to provide a complete overview of all topics that linguistic anthropologists address, so this course covers selected topics, the selection of which is aimed to illustrate how linguistic anthropologists go about doing their work: the range of topics they examine, the kinds of questions they ask, the types of approaches and methods they utilize, and the sorts of conclusions they reach.

This interdisciplinary course explores over two decades of work produced by and about queer subjects of African descent throughout the circum-Atlantic world. While providing an introduction to various artists and intellectuals of the black queer diaspora, this seminar examines the distinct socio-cultural, historical and geographical contexts in which same-sex desire and gender variance are embraced or contested in African diasporic communities. We will interrogate the transnational and transcultural mobility of specific aesthetics as well as racial, gender, and sexual identity categories more broadly. Our aim is to use artisitic experession to highlight the dynamic relationship between African Diaspora Studies and Queer Studies.

TEXTS:

Brand, Dionne. In Another Place, Not Here, New York: Grove Press, 1996

Glave, Thomas. Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from The Antilles, Durham: Duke University Press, 2008

Johnson, E. Patrick and Mae G. Henderson, Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology, Durham: Duke University Press, 2005

Morgan, Ruth and Saskia Wieringa. Tommy Boys, Lesbian Men, and Ancestral Wives: Female Same-Sex Practicies in Africa, Johannesburg: Jacana Media, 2005.

Murray, Stephen O. and Will Roscoe. Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies in African Homosexualities, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.

This course offers students a comparative study in the makings and meanings of diaspora. We begin by defining the differences and similarities between diaspora and related concepts such as race, nation and cultural identity. Focusing specifically on the making of the Black Atlantic world, we then draw a comparative analysis between black diasporic life and that of other global dispersals, particularly among Asian and indigenous populations. Resistance serves as a key link in this comparative study.  As such, we focus on themes such as slavery and colonialism, black revolt in the modern world, Third World/Afro-Asian liberation, Black/Third World Feminism, globalization, the sexual politics of diaspora, Across each of these themes, we work with the premise that diaspora is an open and fluid space through which its participants “make our world anew.” (This is a lower division undergrad course) 

Texts:

1. Saidiya Hartman, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route
2. W.E.B DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk
3. Vijay Prashad, Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections & The Myth Of Cultural Purity
4. C.L.R James, A History of Pan African Revolt
5. Horace Campbell, Rasta and Resistance: From Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney

Why are race and ethnicity such important aspects of our everyday lives? This course critically examines how these forms of identity matter so intensely, both in this country and around the world. We will work at comprehending the fundamental dynamics that shape the development and maintenance of racial identity by drawing on key concepts from anthropology. After a general overview of how racial relations are socially structured in the United States, we will examine some of the symbolic materials and mediums through which people express a sense of ethnic identity and belonging—music, dress, dance, and stories. This portion of the course will also focus on the performance of racial and ethnic identities in various forms of popular culture. Subsequently, we will concentrate on a variety of urban settings where ethnicity is the basis for political and social mobilization. Students will have an opportunity to develop a detailed awareness of a particular ethnic group through a research paper.

The goal of this course is to provide a framework for understanding contemporary Latin America. In particular, we will analyze Latin American history, politics, economics and forms of cultural and social change. We address anthropological understanding of the role of colonialism, urbanization, gender, race, social movements, transitions to democracy and market economies, migration, transnational communities, and the impacts of globalization in the Latin Americancontext. This is not a standard survey course, covering the region as a whole however. Instead, following an introductory unit which provides socio-historical context, students will engage in critical reading of four ethnographies on specific countries on different sub-regions within Latin America in order to explore particular topics and questions in more depth. This year’s country focus is on Nicaragua, Peru, Ecuador, and Cuba. In each of the units of the course,we will supplement ethnographies with textbook readings and news articles that provide further historical and contemporary context.

Description:

This class provides an overview of language, language evolution, and sociolinguistics, within the particular context of the history of German. The goal is to enlarge participants’ understanding and appreciation of German, its historical and dialectal development, and the rich ways speakers of German express meaning.  The course will begin with a discussion of German’s Indo-European origins, and progress from there through Germanic, West Germanic, Old, Middle, and Early New High German to the modern language.  The class will also examine examples from a broad range of Germanic languages, social and regional dialects, and pidgins and creoles, with an eye to developing a better understanding of the characteristics, origins and development of language and communication systems.  Other topics discussed in class will include the social roles of dialect as a divider and a unifier, Gastarbeiterdeutsch, the effects of TV and other forms of mass media on language, language acquisition, and language contact. 

No prior training in linguistics is required.  The course will be conducted in English.

Required texts:

A course packet will be made available, containing excerpts from the following sources (among others): Fortson, Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, Robinson, Old English and its Closest Relatives, the OSU Language Files, Stevenson, The German-Speaking World, and Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe.

Homework and assignments:

Essays, written exercises, participation, term paper

Grading scheme:

Essays:        25%

Written exercises:    25%

Final paper:        25%

Participation:        25%

This course is a comparative survey of the institution of slavery on the American mainland (with some discussion of the Caribbean) from the era of seventeenth-century European colonialism through the antebellum period.  We will begin by exploring Portuguese, French, Dutch, British and Spanish colonizing efforts in the Americas, and their varying roles in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.  The class proceeds with discussions of the Middle Passage, and the development of plantation societies.  Whileplantation economies will be covered, the emphasis will be on issues related to society, culture, and identity formation, particularly amongst the enslaved.Thus, the course will cover the daily life experiences of enslaved peoples within a variety of sociohistorical contexts marked by relations of domination and resistance.  Through historical and archaeological evidence, one begins, however, to understand that there existed no monolithic enslaved experience.  Rather, a diversity of experiences, and a range of cultural and social institutions characterized enslaved life.  The issue of identity formation is central here: race, as a social construct, was variously instituted and negotiated under different colonial powers, but nonetheless served as a powerful marker in slave societies.  We will, therefore, consider racial formation from a comparative perspective. 

The “Artifact Analysis” course will introduce methods/techniques for artifact analysis. Beyond the theoretical premises of artifact analysis and interpretation will be the hands-on experience of working with an artifact set. Materials (lithics, ceramics, etc.) will be brought into the classroom and students (either individually or as small groups) will undertake an analysis and interpretation of the data set. The analysis will then be written up as part of an archaeological report that may be published. Ideally, every student will experience the post-excavation requirements of the professional archaeologist --- analysis, interpretations, write-up, and publication (and the range of research for each step).

This course examines 20th century approaches to Marxism through the black liberation tradition. It focuses on the works of key theorists and writers from Africa and the diaspora, with an emphasis on expanding existing theories to incorporate analyses of gender/sexuality. The course explores political economies and libidinal economies from nineteenth century enslavement to twenty-first century mass incarceration. 

Possible Texts:

Aime Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism

Amilcal Cabral, Revolutionary Leadership and People’s War

C.L.R. James, American Civilization

Robin Kelley, Hamer and Hoe

Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery

Saidiya Hartman, Scenes of Subjection

Cedric Robinson, Black Marxism

W.E.B. Du Bois, The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States (excerpts); Black Reconstruction (excerpts) (Project Guttenberg)

Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto (Project Guttenberg)

Angela Y. Davis, “Women and Capitalism: Dialectics of Oppression and Liberation”

Walter Rodney, How Capitalism Underdeveloped Africa

Carole Boyce Davies, Left of Karl Marx: Claudia Jones

Frank Wilderson, “Prison Slave as Hegemony’s Silent Scandal”

This course explores the convergences and divergences between ethnographic and narrative journalistic writing, and their potential for producing powerful, richly textured accounts that capture the depth of human experience and the complexity of social life.  Why is good writing so good, and what makes it last?  Borrowing from the toolkits of anthropologists and so-called “literary journalists,” students will learn different strategies for making their writing truer and more memorable.  The primary goal of the course is to reveal the literary possibilities in anthropology and other scholarly disciplines that employ ethnographic methods, and to make evident the potential for social inquiry within story-driven nonfiction writing. 

This course explores the complex relationship between anthropological ideas and ethnographic practice. The goals of the course are two-fold: (1) to introduce a broad spectrum of concepts, issues, and theories of culture, and (2) to critically examine how these theories and ideas shape anthropological methods and writings. To do this, we will read and critiquefive ethnographies on five different cultures, each with vastly different approaches to their respective subjects. In teaching, I use a combination of lecture and discussion, interspersed with various classroom exercises, films and creative writing assignments. We begin the semester by asking, “what is ethnography?” and “what is theory?” Eventually we address more complicated issues such as how the construction of an ethnographic subject is shaped by pre-existing or dominant ideas about culture and how scholarly, political and personal agendas shape research projects, fieldwork strategies and ethnographic texts. We conclude the course by assessing where the study of culture is today, and by writing our own brief, creative ethnographies.

Instructor:  Hancock, I            Areas:  IV / D

Unique #:  35485            Flags:  Global Cultures

Semester:  Fall 2012            Restrictions:  n/a

Cross-lists:  ANT 324L, LIN 322, MES 322K            Computer Instruction:  No

E 350E (Topic: Gypsy Language and Culture) and 379N (Topic: Gypsy Language and Culture) may not both be counted.

Prerequisites: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: This course presents the linguistic history of the Romani ("Gypsy") people, from 11th Century AD India to the present day. Theories relating to this exodus out of the Subcontinent and the subsequent migrations into Europe are discussed on the basis of the social and linguistic evidence available to us. In addition to studying aspects of the lexicon and syntax of the modern American and European dialects of the Romani language, an introduction to Gypsy history and culture will also form part of the course. We will examine the sociology of this Diaspora people, the Indian roots of their music, cuisine and social traditions, external linguistic and cultural influences, and interactions with non-Gypsy peoples. The reasons for the persistence of the stereotypical image of the Gypsy among non-Gypsies will be discussed, and also examined will be the five hundred years of slavery, transportation to the American plantations, the fate of the Romani people in the Holocaust, and the current struggle for civil and political rights since Gypsies gained admittance to the United Nations Organization in 1979.

Texts: Required: Hancock, We Are the Romani People. Course supplement available from Speedway Copying in Dobie Mall.

Requirements & Grading: 1 term paper, 25%; 3 written tests, 60%; 1 book or film report, 15%.

In this course, we will endeavor to navigate some of the extensive anthropological literature that has been written on Japanese conceptualizations of self and body and explore how these concepts intersect with ideas about religion and morality.  The “self” has been one of the central themes in ethnographic writing about Japan since Ruth Benedict’s work The Chrysanthemum and the Sword was published in the 1940’s.  We will consider how Japanese educational approaches contribute to the formation of particular forms of behavior; how selves change over the life course; Japanese conceptualizations of the body and person; and how Japanese ideas about self and body are expressed in medical practices.  The course is discussion-based and will incorporate films in addition to ethnographic writings.  Grading will be based upon five response papers and mid-term take-home and final take-home exams. 

Texts:

Gilbert Ryle.  2000.  The Concept of Mind.  University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 0226732967Traphagan, John.  2000.  Taming Oblivion: Aging Bodies and the Fear of Senility in Japan.  Albany:  SUNY Press.  ISBN: 0791445003Kondo, Dorinne. 1990.  Crafting Selves : Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace. University of Chicago Press.  ISBN: 0226450449Cave, Peter.  2007.  Primary School in Japan: Self, Individuality and Learning in Elementary Education.  Routledge.  ISBN: 0415545366Ozawa-de Silva, Chikako.  2006. Psychotherapy and Religion in Japan: The Japanese Introspection Practice of Naikan.  Routledge.  ISBN: 0415545684.

Grading:

Mid-term exam:  20%Final exam: 30%Five 2-page response papers: 50%

Course Description:

Have you ever wondered why German is spoken in places like New Braunfels and Fredericksburg, Texas? This course explores the relationship between immigrants in the U.S. and their languages and cultures, as pertains to the German speaking immigrants who came to Texas starting in the 1840s. Readings, discussions, and assignments will explore the following questions, among others:

•    What are the linguistic and cultural consequences of immigration?

•    How are immigrant languages changed by contact with the host country’s language – and vice versa?

•    What generalizations can be made about language choice and functions, language learning, and inter-lingual            communication in immigrant settings?

•    What effect do national policies have on immigrants and their languages?

•    What is the relationship between language and identity?

•    What are the advantages and disadvantages of bilingual education?

Discussing topics such as cultural identity, language contact, and language maintenance and shift, we will focus on immigration in the United States, with particular reference to German speakers in Texas. Linguistic insights are augmented by relevant work from historians, anthropologists, and geographers.

Although helpful, no knowledge of German is required since the course is taught in English. All texts are in English.

Focusing on the idea of religious and cultural diversity, this course introduces to various holy figures and sainthood practices in South Asia as they are understood in modern times. Our emphasis will be on the intersections of classical and modern realms of these sainthood practices. We also try to understand their role in the everyday life in contemporary South Asia.  At the turn of modern times, several saints and yogis began to appear on the South Asian landscape and public sphere. In dialogue with modernity, these saints - from various backgrounds such as Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Christianity - made a profound impact on the emerging modern discourses and increasingly technological life-styles. Focusing on their life stories, teachings and cultic practices, this course explores their role in the making of modern South Asia at various intersections of history, religion, literature and philosophy. In this course, we will read the works of these saints and very few carefully selected secondary materials that put their practices and teachings in a perspective.  We will watch and analyze two documentaries made on these saints. We explore two major questions: 1. what role these “classical” models of holy persons are playing in a fast-changing and constantly shifting modern world? 2. If each religion has a discrete sainthood tradition, what are the specific religious/philosophical/everyday aspects that connect these saints of diversified worlds?

The analysis of human and animal movement patterns has become increasingly pertinent to a wide variety of fields. For example: Conservation biologists analyze wildlife travel paths in order to minimize human-wildlife conflict. Public health officials study human movements to identify the sources of disease outbreaks. And criminologists employ these methods to determine where a repeat-offender is most likely to strike again. This course provides an introduction to spatial data analysis and agent-based modeling within a GIS framework, through a topical focus on movement analyses.Lectures draw on examples from diverse fields, including anthropology, wildlife ecology, criminology and public health, in order to introduce students to the theory behind movement analyses as well as to potential applications. Topics covered include methods used widely for spatial data analysis (e.g. introductory spatial statistics, basic raster analysis, individual-based movement models, etc.) that are applicable both within and beyond the field of movement studies. Laboratory sections focus on allowing students to garner practical experience with pertinent software (examples: Ranges 6, CrimeStat, Geoda, ArcView Spatial and Tracking Analysts, Agent Analyst, etc.). Prior coursework in GIS is required (or consent of instructor). Familiarity with basic statistical principles will also be helpful.

The "War on Drugs" in the United States can be dated back to the US Opium Exclusion Act of 1909 and the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914, which provided the model for drug prohibition legislation over the next hundred years both in the United States and around the world. President Richard M. Nixon officially declared an official "war on drugs" in 1971, two years after he identified drug abuse as "a serious national threat." This course examines the ongoing struggle between prohibitionist values and policies on one side and public demand for drugs on the other. At the same time, we must distinguish between two types of "drugs." The first category comprises the so-called "recreational drugs" that have been used by millions of people as mood-altering substances; this category includes alcohol, heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and Ecstasy among many others. The second category comprises drugs that are believed to enhance human performance in various ways. These drugs include amphetamines, the anti-narcoleptic Modafinil (Provigil), blood-boosting drugs such as Erythropoeitin, the anti-depressant Prozac, as well as testosterone and the other anabolic steroids. While all of these drugs have been used by elite athletes, much greater numbers of people have used them for other goal-oriented purposes either on the job or to pursue an ideal of self-enhancement. This course focuses primarily on these performance-enhancing drugs that are consumed in pursuit of allegedly therapeutic or utilitarian goals. Regulating these drugs is more problematic than in the case of first-category drugs, because they can be presented as serving useful or therapeutic purposes. The evolving social and medical status of these drugs will be one of the important scientific dramas of the twenty-first century.

Requirements

Two examinations                  40%

Four papers                           50%

Attendance                            10%

Possible Texts

John Hoberman, Mortal Engines: The Science of Performance and the Dehumanization of Sport

Peter D. Kramer, Listening to Prozac

John Hoberman, "Listening to Steroids," The Wilson Quarterly

Verner Møller, The Doping Devil

Richard Davenport-Hines, The Pursuit of Oblivion: A Global History of Narcotics

David T. Courtwright, Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World

John Hoberman, Testosterone Dreams: Rejuvenation, Aphrodisia, Doping

Upper-division standing required. Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing

This course provides an overview of human biological and cultural evolution in Africa from approximately 6 million years ago to the colonial period.  The African continent is over three times the size of the United States and current evidence indicates that the ancestors of all humankind evolved there.  Today there are more than a thousand different languages spoken in Africa; ethnic and ecological diversity are great. Apart from Egypt, Ethiopia and North Africa, however, written sources only document the last two centuries or less – and most of these have been from non-African perspectives.  In this class, archaeological data will be used to expand upon anthropological and historical accounts in order to provide a less "Eurocentric" or outsider view of the continent and its historical development.  No prior knowledge of Africa or of archaeology is assumed.

This course introduces students to a burgeoning field of  American Jewish cultural studies that deals with what one theorist calls, “the social value of things” (Arjun Appadurai). Focusing on the interplay between material culture and Jewish identity and thought in contemporary America, the course explores how Jews think about, work with, display and “perform’ objects in the course of their everyday lives. This is not a course on the production of fine art by or about Jews, so much as it is about the everyday arts of adornment, celebration, memorialization and identity negotiation through the material cultures of our everyday lives.

“The Photographic Image” applies concepts and practices from visual ethnography to the study of memory, place, and everyday life.  The course aims at developing counter-intuitive and subversive approaches to practices of looking and techniques of representation.  Whereas photographs are often taken to be archival technologies, we will invert this idea and explore how images can be transient and ephemeral by focusing on sites of encounter and orders of engagement.This course is organized as a split theory/hands-on exploration of the image and image-making.  At all points in the course students are drawn into the use of image-making as an interpretive and critical engagement with course readings.  We will begin with techniques of visual inquiry established by visual anthropologists, documentarians, and artists working on the margins of documentary traditions.  This course will work primarily with still images.  Students will be expected to have at their disposal a camera (digital or analogue).

Description  

This course is an upper division introduction to topics in linguistic anthropology.  Languages, like other communication systems, are adapted to new and different environments in which they are spoken, creating and maintaining social realities, reproducing cultural traditions, and conveying messages in a complex interplay of new and old information, sometimes necessary and sometimes frivolous, packaging meaning in various ways that generally conform to standards that can be articulated,  As speech is an important mode of human communication, we start by outlining basic concepts allowing for the description of linguistic form,  In the end we will focus as much on language use as on language structure, and in the process we will examine various expressive speech genres, metaphors that we live by, the power of language, gender preferences in communication, language learning, proverbs, jokes, and multilingualism, among other topics. We will examine these forms, processes, and contexts in an effort to deliver the tools necessary for describing and understanding the multiple ways in which language, culture, and society interact.

Goals

The goals of this course are to introduce students to the study of language use from a sociocultural perspective and to develop skills (through fieldwork and data analysis) in analyzing the role that language plays in the structure and interpretation of human interaction. Students will collect language data from a "speech community" in a setting of their choice, and will use this data: 1) collectively as a basis for examining and questioning concepts discussed in lectures and readings such as ethnicity, identity, power, and gender as they are constructed through language, and 2) individually as a basis from which to generate an analytical paper, which shows an understanding of the major ideas covered in the course but which is specific to student interests.

Grading and Requirement:

Two midterm exams 25% each

10 page analytical paper based on fieldwork due on the last class day 25%

Comprehensive final exam 25%

No penalty for one unexcused absence, but further such absences can lower one’s course grade by two and a half percentage points for each instance.  Exams include information from lectures,readings, and films.

Texts:    

Susan Blum    2009.  (ed.)  Making sense of Language.  Oxford  

"Cultures in Contact" is a multi-disciplinary course which combines Historical, Anthropological, Geographical and Literary analyses of the continuing "contact period" in the New World.  The issues addressed span the last 500+ years of cultural interaction in the Americas, looking especially at the processes of cultural interaction, competition, cooperation, and synthesis that have taken place among people from the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

This course focuses on the study of primate social behavior. It explores the basic theoretical principles that guide primatologists. Topics covered include: evolutionary theory, primate diversity, social and mating systems, sexual selection, life history, cooperation, competition, intelligence, communication, and human behavior.

Comparative Primate Ecology will explore the following topics with respect to primates: population ecology, community ecology, feeding adaptations, foraging strategies, ranging behavior, and life history strategies.

This course explores the intersection of genetics and anthropology.  We will cover the basic principles of molecular genetics and population genetics as relates to the study of humans and other primates.  We will examine the ways in which genetics can contribute to the field of anthropology, as well as how anthropological knowledge can illuminate genetic findings.  Topics to be covered include the genetic structure of human populations, race and gender issues, primate evolution and behavior, ancient DNA, gene/language/culture co-evolution, behavioral genetics, genetic testing/counseling, the Human Genome Project, identity and genetic essentialism, and the ethical, legal, and social implications of human genetics research.

Primate Sensory Ecology is a course designed for advanced undergraduates in physical anthropology and the biological sciences. This course provides an opportunity for detailed study of primate sensory systems from an ecological and comparative phylogenetic perspective.
    The core topics covered in this course are the special senses of hearing, vision, and smell, with a special emphasis on the adaptive and ecological significance of sensory adaptations in primates. For each of these senses, lectures and readings will provide a comprehensive review of the following concepts: 1) general anatomy and physiology, 2) development and genetic regulation, 3) functional morphology and mechanics, 4) neural control and regulation, 5) psychophysics, 6) biological role and behavioral ecology, 7) phylogenetic history and fossil record. Additional senses that will be covered in a less-comprehensive fashion include touch, taste, balance and equilibrium, and the Jacobson's organ.
In studying each sensory system, a strong emphasis will be placed on understanding the relationship between variant morphologies and behavioral capabilities. This dual focus on morphology and behavioral ecology will provide students with an explicit understanding of the effect that the  functional design of a sensory system has on an organism's adaptive niche. All information will be presented within a comparative phylogenetic framework, so that evolutionary novelties (e.g., the haplorhine retinal fovea) can be understood in terms of the macroevolutionary processes responsible for the novel feature's appearance. This approach will further emphasize the importance of certain evolutionary changes in primate sensory systems as key innovations. Toward this end, discussions of current literature will cover a number of special topics in addition to the more basic aspects of sensory system morphology and function.

This course is an examination of the fossil record for (nonhuman) primate evolution.  The fossil record will be examined after a basic grounding in the anatomy, ecology, and systematics of living primates.  Each of the major radiations of fossil primates will be explored with respect to adaptive diversity, functional morphology, and systematics.

The purpose of this course to provide you (the course participants) with a background to “the kinds” of archaeological analyses that often occur, “what” is involved in archaeological analysis, and “how” archaeological analysis may be approached. This means learning what questions to ask about a field or laboratory project and the steps needed to understand the type of analysis required. From this course you should also become aware of “how to do” an analysis from start (first learning about certain material culture) to completion (doing the analysis and the report writing).

Prerequisite: Anthropology 304 or Archaeology 301.

This course introduces the student to an in-depth study of the human skeleton. Class sessions combine lecture and laboratory sessions and cover topics including developmental biology, functional morphology, and skeletal identification, with a special focus on the latter skill as it relates to forensics and archaeological studies. Students will also be introduced to new 3D imaging techniques for studying the skeleton. 

This class requires both intensive in-class and out-of-class preparation. Participants must be prepared to handle actual human osteological specimens and have a professional approach to this subject and the human remains. An interest in human skeletal identification is especially applicable to the fields of archeology, physical anthropology, health sciences, law, and law enforcement.