Download Fall 2012 Course Offerings

Fall 2012
Department of Anthropology
Graduate Course Offerings
APY 512 LEC (dual-listed with APY 488)
Kinship and Social Structure
Dr. David Banks
Reg. #17947
Monday/Wednesday/Friday 12:00 – 12:50 pm
Fillmore 351
A central goal of the course is to enable students to view kinship in this society. We will look at some of
the famous contributions to kinship studies of the past and relate these to recent developments. Classes will
be divided about equally between lectures and discussions and presentations. We will also discuss problems
of the kinship of marriage and of kinship related friendship. Graduates will be asked to write a discussion
of one society using two different approaches, that is, from two points of view. They will also have an
opportunity to lead the discussion of a related group in class.
APY 543SEM
Cognitive Anthropology
Dr. Barbara Tedlock
Reg. #23868
Wednesday 9:30 am – 12:10 pm
Fillmore 354
Cognitive anthropology investigates the link between cultural and psychological processes demonstrating
how people perceive the world based on systems of knowledge embedded in words, stories, actions, and
artifacts. In the 1950s researchers mostly applied linguistic methods to ethnographic data, but by the 1990s
a new generation took their inspiration from the emerging fields of cognitive science and consciousness
studies. In this class we will explore linguistic, cybernetic, cognitive, psychological, computational, and
phenomenological ideas about the nature of the human brain-mind and its connection to culture and
society. Students will gain proficiency in participating in a theory seminar where they will learn about this
rapidly emerging multidisciplinary field which includes linguistics, archaeology, the media arts, biology,
medicine, and industrial engineering. It should be fun!
APY 546SEM
Physical Anthropology Topics: Being Human
Dr. Carol Berman
Reg. #TBA (email Sara Eddleman to be put on wait list: [email protected])
Thursday 3:30 – 6:10 pm
Spaulding 158
The topic for this graduate seminar concerns the question "What makes us human?", or more precisely
"What is the nature and width of the gap that separates humans from other primates and animals?" Our
readings and discussions will focus on a recent volume of essays by anthropologists, primatologists,
biologists and psychologists, edited by Peter Kappeler and Joan Silk and entitled "Mind the Gap: Tracing
the Origins of Human Universals". Kappeler and Silk contend that the gap is largely behavioral and that a
series of important discoveries over the last 50 years has led anthropologists to largely abandon approaches
based on single uniquely human traits or on unitary explanations. Rather they explore new attempts to
explain the nature and origins of human behavior that use comparative cross species and multidisciplinary
approaches that integrate insights from evolutionary anthropology, primatology, psychology, and,
phylogenetics. Six areas will be discussed: Family and social organization; politics and power; intergroup
relationships; foundations of cooperation, thought, language and communication; and innovation and
culture.
APY 548SEM (dual-listed with APY 448SEM)
Human Genetics
Dr. Christine Duggleby
Reg. #21235
Wednesday 2:00 pm – 4:40 pm
Spaulding 158
Recent advances in genetic technology have presented the scientific and lay community with ethical and
legal problems, yet to be resolved. The objective of this course is to provide an opportunity for informed
discussions of such issues relating to contemporary human/medical issues.
APY 549SEM (dual-listed with APY 449SEM)
Maya Civilization
Dr. Barbara Tedlock
Reg. #22078
Tuesday/Thursday 9:30 – 10:50 am
Fillmore 354
This course provides a brief exploration of Maya civilization from its earliest beginnings to the current
situation. We will begin with the pre-Classic, move through classic splendor, post- Classic turbulence, the
European invasion, and into the current period of ethnic resurgence. There are few parts of the world today
where there is such a good match between language and culture so that a line drawn around the area in
which Mayan-speaking peoples currently live would contain all the archaeological remains assigned to
ancient Maya civilization. This seminar will prepare participants to understand and appreciate the process
of cultural historical change by focusing on the techniques of archival, hieroglyphic, and ethnographic field
research among the lowland and the highland Maya.
APY 550SEM
Evolution Colloquium
Dr. Howard Lasker and Dr. Carol Berman
Reg. #12866
Tuesday 12:30 – 1:50 pm
Cooke 435
This seminar is a focal point of the Graduate Group in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology.
Students and faculty will review recent research in evolutionary processes by discussing topics in
evolutionary theory, ecology, ethology and paleobiology. This will also be a forum for students to present
their research ideas and topics.
APY 554SEM
Migration and Culture
Dr. Tilman Lanz
Reg. #24275
Friday 9:30 am – 12:10 pm
Fillmore 354
Today, we inhabit a world of significantly increased mobility of people, goods, and services. At the same
time, we also inhabit a world that conceives of itself as globalized and closed off in itself, as finite. In this
course, we will consider in depth what these two co-existing facts about our world mean for the
formulation and maintenance of meaningful cultural edifices today. The central question we will pursue
reads: What is the fate of culture in the contemporary world of globalization, transnationalism, and
migration? From this central question follows a whole sub-set of related questions and issues: How is
culture shaped, reformed, formulated, or expressed if it is not grounded within specific territory or place?
Can we, in a globalized, transnational world, still speak of ‘bounded’ cultures or should other
understandings replace this traditional one? In a global age, will cultures represent themselves as
predominantly open or closed off from the rest of the world and why is this so? Should we consider culture
as a safe-haven against the perils of globalization and transnationalism and how might this be possible?
These questions will be pursued, in varying intensity, as we discuss salient case studies from a wide range
of contexts. Some of them include: the trafficking of women across the globe, the fate and meaning of
global Neoliberalism, refugees and forced migrations, religion and migration, the fate of nationalism in a
world of migration, global inequities and injustices and their effect on migratory cultures, migration as
retreat from the world, etc.
APY 567LEC (dual-listed with APY 434)
Advanced Areal Archaeology of Mesoamerica
Dr. Warren Barbour
Reg. #22126
Thursday 3:30 – 6:10 pm
Fillmore 354
This course traces the emergence of Mesoamerican civilization in four major regions: The Valley of
Oaxaca, the Mava Lowlands, and West Mexico, devoting time to archaeological, ethnohistoric, and
linguistic sources. Issues addressed include the origins of agriculture, the advent of sedentism, trade and
exchange, conquest and colonization, ethno genesis, linguistic change, and collapse. The course is in
seminar format, and a paper is required.
APY 575SEM
Gender and the Politics of Health in Africa
Dr. Frederick Klaits
Reg. #13635
Monday 3:30 – 6:10 pm
Fillmore 354
This course examines the values, practices, and social conditions that have shaped women’s and men’s
experiences of health and illness in sub-Saharan Africa. Through a focus on gender, we will explore how
physical illnesses may be experienced as crises of social reproduction. We will discuss how
transformations in gender roles brought about by colonial and postcolonial governance have contributed to
men’s and women’s illness experiences, and the ways in which diseases, in turn, have driven social
changes. We will consider the theoretical and practical contributions anthropologists have made in writing
about gender and health in Africa, focusing on the intersections between anthropological, humanitarian,
feminist, and a range of local discourses on suffering and healing. Topics will include maternal and child
survival; male and female circumcision; contraception and infertility; population control; and HIV/AIDS.
APY 593SEM
Anthropology of Policy
Dr. Vasiliki Neofotistos
Reg. #18551
Tuesday 3:30 – 6:10 pm
Fillmore 354
The basic premise of this course is that policy is a legitimate object of anthropological analysis. The course
is thus concerned with the study of policy as a social, political, and cultural artifact and organizing principle
of modern-day societies. We will investigate some of the underlying assumptions and beliefs that shape and
guide policy formulation and debate. We will focus on issues at the heart of anthropological inquiry, such
as power, institutions, discourse, and identity, and will explore policy issues and processes pertaining to
cultural heritage, natural resources and the environment, health care, immigration and multiculturalism,
development, and international conflict resolution and peace-making. We will also examine
methodological, theoretical, and ethical considerations involved in studying policy.
APY 594SEM (dual-listed with APY 443)
Advanced Physical Anthropology: Paleopathology
Dr. Joyce Sirianni
Reg. #22925
Tuesday 3:30 – 6:10 pm
Spaulding 158
This seminar will address the topic of Human Paleopathology, i.e. the study of disease in ancient
populations. After a brief introduction to the history of paleopathology, and to what constitutes pathology
vs. Pseudopathology, students will, learn the distinctive features of various infectious diseases which effect
bone, skeletal trauma, effect bone, and dental disease. Student presentations and discussion will be the
format of the seminar.
APY 601TUT
Individual Readings – Archaeology
variable credit
ARR ARR
PERMISSIONOF INSTRUCTOR
If, after speaking to the Instructor and he/she agrees to work with you, the graduate student must fill out an
Independent Study Form (form available outside the Anthropology Graduate Office), have the instructor
and the Director of Graduate Studies sign it then give it to Maria to put in your file which becomes part of
your Application to Candidacy. Then the student should contact Sara to register for the appropriate number
of credit hours.
APY 602TUT
Individual Readings – Cultural Anthropology
variable credit
ARR ARR
PERMISSIONOF INSTRUCTOR
If, after speaking to the Instructor and he/she agrees to work with you, the graduate student must fill out an
Independent Study Form (form available outside the Anthropology Graduate Office), have the instructor
and the Director of Graduate Studies sign it then give it to Maria to put in your file which becomes part of
your Application to Candidacy. Then the student should contact Sara to register for the appropriate number
of credit hours.
APY 607TUT
Individual Readings – Physical Anthropology
variable credit
ARR ARR
PERMISSIONOF INSTRUCTOR
If, after speaking to the Instructor and he/she agrees to work with you, the graduate student must fill out an
Independent Study Form (form available outside the Anthropology Graduate Office), have the instructor
and the Director of Graduate Studies sign it then give it to Maria to put in your file which becomes part of
your Application to Candidacy. Then the student should contact Sara to register for the appropriate number
of credit hours.
APY 609SEM (dual-listed with APY 421)
Women and Men in Prehistory
Dr. Tina Thurston
Reg. #23864
Monday 9:30 am – 12:10 pm
Fillmore 354
The goal of this course is to understand the problems and potential of gender in archaeological research and
explore and critically evaluate recent efforts to incorporate questions about sexual division of labor, social
constructions of male, female and other genders, and various theoretical perspectives on gender and how
they are integrated into archaeological concepts. We will deal simultaneously with two kinds of topics: 1)
what we know and what we don't know, what we can and what we can't learn about women and men and
the ideas of male and female in prehistory, and 2) how archaeologists develop and use their array of
methods and theories to learn about the past, and how modern politics and social trends influence this
process. Course readings will include archaeological and ethnographic case studies from the Old and New
Worlds, plus some recent research in biological anthropology and what it tells us about our "gender
heritage" from our pre-modern and early modern ancestors. We will specifically devote a portion of our
time to historic cultures, since the presence of historical documents for the recent past, combined with our
subconscious assumptions about gender, often influences us in ways that might prejudice our work. Class
discussion will focus on the problems and potential of explicitly (rather than implicitly) considering gender
in an analysis of prehistoric and historic societies, and students will be encouraged to address these issues
in their own areas of interest.
APY 651SEM
Graduate Survey of Physical Anthropology
Dr. Christine Duggleyby
Reg. #13742
Monday 1:00 pm – 3:40 pm
Spaulding 158
Comprehensive review of physical anthropology for first year graduate students.
APY 652SEM
Graduate Survey of Archaeology
Dr. Peter Biehl
Reg. #11703
Tuesday 12:30 – 3:10 pm
Fillmore 354
The aims of this course are to provide: 1) a broad overview of the development of human societies in the
Old World from ca. 2.5 million years ago to 2000 B.C.; 2) an examination of controversies concerning the
subsistence strategies of the earliest humans, the transition to farming, explanations for the transition to
farming, the origins of state societies and urbanism, and the explanation of state formation; and 3) main
theoretical trends in Anglo-American archaeology: culture history, processual archaeology, and
postprocessual explanations.
APY 655SEM
Graduate Survey of Social Anthropology
Dr. Ann McElroy
Reg. #11683
Wednesday 12:30 – 3:10 pm
Fillmore 354
The course is designed to give first year graduate students a solid grounding in social theory developed in
Britain and the United States between the mid-19th century and the end of World War I. The course also
addresses subsequent trends in social theory, up to and including the 1970's. Throughout the course, our
emphasis will be on the ways in which social theory can be used as a tool to help illuminate contemporary
issues in anthropology. This course in concert with APY 654, which is offered in Spring 2012, will also
help first year Cultural Anthropology graduate students to prepare for the Cultural Qualifying Exam.
APY 700TUT
PhD Dissertation Guidance
variable credit
ARR ARR
PERMISSION OF INSTRUCTOR
Graduate students should register for at least 1 credit hour of their major professor's section of this (every
semester until the dissertation is complete) when they are writing their PhD dissertation.
APY 729SEM (dual-listed with APY 420SEM)
Human Impacts on Ancient Environments
Dr. Tina Thurston
Reg. #23870
Tuesday 9:30 am – 12:10 pm
Fillmore 352
For some decades now, people have realized that that human impacts are profoundly changing our earth
and its ecosystems, but most neither realize nor understand that present-day ecosystems are not the result of
recent activities, but of centuries or millennia of human-environment interactions. Ecosystems are not
static. They are merely a current expression of long-term, complex interactions between non-living
materials and living creatures, and between humans and many other types of organisms and materials.
Thus, modern ecosystems are historically contingent, and part of a complex recursive path extending back
into the past and ahead into the future. Some of the stops along this continuum provide positive snapshots
of human-environment interactions, while some show unfortunate pictures indeed. More and more case
studies indicate that what many have long thought to be 'natural' environments are not natural at all, and
archaeologists have discovered that the links between human action and environmental consequence are
usually indirect, 'non-linear' and almost impossible to predict.
Using a global array of case studies, with a variety of theoretical perspectives, this course examines both
the technical and intellectual ways in which archaeologists, historical geographers, paleoecologists, and
geomorphologists, among others, are trying to play a larger role in understanding this complex “history” first, to answer scholarly questions about the political, economic, social and religious causes and
consequences of human-environment interactions (the so-called socio-natural connection)but also to
improve current perspectives on the nature of human impacts.
APY 730SEM
Advanced Problems in Areal Archaeology
Dr. Sarunas Milisauskas
Reg. #13609
Wednesday 3:30 pm – 6:10 pm
Fillmore 352
A seminar in European Neolithic and Bronze Age. This is a required course for those students specializing
in archaeology. It will be taught in a seminar format; students are expected to be active participants.
Requirements: A number of articles or chapters will be assigned for reading on archaeology of the various
regions or countries. You are expected to read all the assigned articles or chapters. Class sessions will
consist of presentations of assigned articles or chapters and discussion of the material.