Courses
Course Descriptions 40000s
Course Descriptions 10000s-20000s
ANTH 40000 Majors and minors only
Ideology and Politics in Latin America
Elective
Cross-listed from: THEO
Ideological discourse shapes political action in Latin America. Thinkers such as Martí, Mariátegui, Haya de la Torre, Lombardo Toledano, Mella, Recabarren, Prebish, Medina Echavarría, Germani, Cardoso and others and their discourses -- nationalism, revolutionary nationalism, Latin-American Marxism, developmentalism, modernization theory, dependency theory, democratization-acted within specific historical contexts and contributed actively to the conformation of political action. It is our purpose to present the main ideological positions and their impact upon political action in the continent. Their constituent elements conform a unity which we will discuss on the basis of lectures, reading of the texts and debates presented by teams of students.
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ANTH 40001 Majors and minors only
Social Movements in Global Perspective
Elective
This seminar explores how increasing global integration affects political participation and the prospects for democracy. We will briefly review the broader research literature on the sociology of social movements within nations as a first step in our consideration of the relationships between globalization and social movements. Seminar discussions will explore how transnational movements compare with those operating at local and national levels. Readings will reflect a range of cases and analytical perspectives. We will explore relationships between movements and political insitutions, the factors affecting the abilities of relatively powerless groups to mobilize resources and build coalitions, and the ideological and cultural dimensions of transnational mobilization. Considerable attention will be placed on the contemporary global justice movement as we explore these questions, and methodological issues relevant to this field of study will be addressed throughout the course.
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ANTH 40003 Majors and minors only
Social Demography of US Latino Population
Elective
2 credit hour course
This course is an introduction to the social demography of Latino or Hispanic populations in the United States as to historical background, sociological fields, and current statistics and studies. First, in exploring the demographic perspective on the Latino population, a strikingly young and increasing segment of the U.S. population, the processes of fertility, mortality, and migration are presented. Next to be addressed is the literature on conceptualizing and quantifying the U.S. Latino population, legal frameworks for residence status of migrants, and Latinos in the context of social institutions of family, education, and government. In the future, the changing Latino population is expected to contribute to a U.S. population profile different from the U.S. population of the past century. Thus, the course is relevant in contemporary discussions of immigration policy, globalization, and environment.
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ANTH 40004 Majors and minors only
International Migration: Mexico and the US
Elective
Cross-listed from: SOC
2 credit hour course
Designed to be either complementary to or independent of International Migration: Mexico and the U.S. I. Both correspond to relations between theory and methods for the scientific research on the subject. Each course stands by itself inasmuch as the distinction between theory and methods can be made. The common objective of both courses is to prepare students to design research projects on international migration with emphasis on immigration to the U.S. for theses and dissertations. Course II refers to a review of basic questions on this subject and the methods through which these questions have been adequately or inadequately answered. the numbers, the impact, the nature, the structure, the process, the human experience, will be discussed in terms of the research methods commonly used to approach them.
REQUIRED READINGS:
Manuel Gamio, The Mexican Immigration to the United States. New York: Dover Publications, 1971:
Julian Samora, Los Mojados: The Wetback Story. University of Notre Dame Press, 1971;
Plus articles in Antonio Rios-Bustamante (ed.), Mexican Immigrant Workers in the U.S. Regents of the University of California and the Chicago Studies Center, UCLA, 1981; Charles B. Keely, "Counting the Uncountable: Estimates of Undocumented Aliens in the United States," Population Development Review, vol. 3, 1977, pp 473-481;David M. Heer, "What Is the Annual Net Flow of Undocumented Mexican Immigrants in the U.S., Demography, vol. 16, 1979, pp 417-423; Wayne Cornelius, et al., The Mexican Immigrants and Southern California: A summer of Current Knowledge, Research Report Series, 36, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, 1982; Alejandro Portes and R.L. Bach. "Immigrants Earnings: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States," International Migration Review, vol. 14, 1980, pp. 315-341; Clark Reynolds, "Labor Market Projections for the United States and Mexico and Current Migration Controversies," Food Research Institute, Stanford University, vol. 17, No. 2, 1979, pp. 121-155; and various articles by Jorge A. Bustamante.
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ANTH 40009 Majors and Minors only
Evolutionary Psychology and the Sacred
Elective
Cross-listed from: PHIL
Anthropologists and archeologists have long argued that religious rituals and sacrificial ceremonies addressing the most serious aspects of human life are prehistoric and antedate the development of spoken language, perhaps by hundreds of thousands of years. Today evolutionary psychologists look at evidence suggesting that the concept of the sacred arises naturally from the "functional architecture" of the evolved human mind. We take a critical look at the possibility of integrating those two currents of thought.
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ANTH 40011 Majors and minors only
Legacy of Exile: Cubans in the U.S.
Elective
Cross-listed from: SOC
This class deals with one of the most visible and political of all U.S. immigrant groups: Cubans. The theme of the class is that the Cuban presence has been shaped by the experience of exile. In understanding the case of the Cuban immigration to the United States, the students will gain insight into the dynamics of US immigration policy, the differences between immigrants and exiles, interethnic relations among newcomers and established residents, and the economic development of immigrant communities. The class will explore the long tradition of Cuban immigration to the United States, the elements of Cuban culture which have emerged an reinforced this tradition of migration, the impact that Cubans have had on the Miami area as well as the changes within the community as it develops into a well established minority group within the United States.
The class will juxtapose elements of Cuban culture which are well known in the United States - anti-Castro sentiments, economic success and political conservatism-with a fresh analysis of the diversity among Cuban-Americans, including the second generation. In addition to exploring rich ethnography, fascinating vignettes and case studies, this class provides an opportunity to examine issues of current importance within sociology and anthropology, such as social change, transnationalism, displacement, and regional impact of immigration in an easy to understand manner
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ANTH 40013 Majors and minors only
Understanding Story: Culture, Conflict and Identity
Elective
Cross-listed from: AMST
During the last decade interest in narratives has increased dramatically. Feminist studies, cultural studies, and anthropology have broadened our appreciation for the role story plays not simply in personal psychology but also in constructing and mediating our social life. The purpose of this seminar-style course is to investigate the shape, purposes and multiple meanings of narratives both in the lives of individuals and within institutions and cultures. In order to understand how story influences personal identity, contributes to or ameliorates conflict, constructs, deconstructs, and reconstructs history, and advances political agendas, we will examine how story is used by (1) journalists in reporting news as story; (2) medical professionals in collecting case histories; (3)ethnographers in describing unfamiliar cultural practices or investigating inter-group or inter state conflict situations; (4) historians in interpreting the past; (5) political leaders in establishing public policy and political power; (6) advertising and marketing interests.
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ANTH 40016 Majors and minors only
Folklore, Literature and Irish National Culture
Elective
Cross-listed from: IRST
The ideological character of the 19th century concept of folklore allowed it to transcend the social category of peasants from whom it was largely recorded. This course will look at the role of folklore in the building of an Irish national culture from the time of the Gaelic Revival. Programmatic texts in Irish and in English by Douglas Hyde, first president of the Gaelic League, and by Séamus Delargy, director of the Irish Folklore Commission, will be discussed. It will also look at a later polemical text of the Gaelic writer Máirtín Ó Cadhain directed at what he perceived as the essentialism of Irish folklorists.
ANTH 40017 Majors and minors only
Children and Poverty: Developmental Implications
Elective
Cross-listed from: PSY
Every fifth child in America faces hunger or poverty. This course examines the impact of rising levels of child poverty and related concerns from the perspective of developmental and social psychology. Topics will include changing family demographics, the effects of homelessness, educational inequalities, the experience of children among specific ethnic/cultural groups, children and violence, child development and social policy, and the like. Central to the course will be an emphasis on children³s developing cognitive perceptions of self in relation to society, and an examination of potential solutions/model programs (e.g., Headstart).
Requirements:
Readings will be drawn from a variety of sources (e.g., Robert Coles, Jonathan Kozol) and discussed in a seminar format. Independent student research and experiential learning opportunities (with agencies serving children) will contribute to the learning experience and course. Requirements include: 1) brief writing assignments followed by a major research paper, 2) approximately two examinations, and 3) active and consistent class participation.
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ANTH 40020 Majors and minors only
Child Development and Family Conflict
Elective
Cross-listed from: PSY
Current trends and findings pertaining to conflict within families and the effects of conflicts within families on children will be considered. A focus will be on interrelations between family systems (marital, parent-child and sibling), and methodologies for studying these questions. A particular concern will be how positive and negative conflict processes in the marital relationship affects children. The role of interparental conflict in various family contexts (divorce, parental depression, violence and abuse, custody, physical illness or disability), and relations between family and community conflict and violence, will be examined. The positive side of family conflict will also be considered, including the elements of constructive marital and family conflict, and strategies for promoting for constructive conflict processes within families.
Requirements:
Class attendance, active participation in class discussions and activities, including leading discussions on two articles, participation and report of the results of a small-scale field study, completion of a long research paper, and completion of a take-home exam and a final in-class exam.
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ANTH 40025 Majors and minors only
Ethnicity in America
Elective
Cross-listed from: SOC
A study of the dynamic process of formation and development of the society of the United States and its cultural, religious, and racial pluralism; a review of the history and theory of interethnic relations, and their manifestation in the basic institutions of family, education, religion, economics, and government.
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ANTH 40030 Major and minors only.
Mental Health and Aging
Elective
Cross-listed from: PSY
This course provides an introduction to mental health issues relevant to an older population. Although the primary focus will be on psychopathology and potential therapeutic interventions, the course will also overview the positive aspects of functioning in later life (Successful Aging). Both clinical and research findings will be discussed.
Requirements:
1-2 exams; 3-4 short (5 page) papers.
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ANTH 40031 Majors and minors only, Pre-professional students only
Psychology and Medicine
Elective
Cross-listed from : PSY
This course has two basic objectives. First, it will examine from a life-span and psychobiological perspective the factors that place individuals at different stages of life at risk for illness and assist them in maintaining their health. In addition, it will address a variety of challenging psychological and social issues that physicians and other health care professionals must face in the practice of medicine. The course covers a range of topics dealing with health issues related to different stages of human development (childhood, adolescence and adulthood), disabled populations, culture and gender, stress, physician-patient interactions, death and dying, professional ethics, and social policies relating to health care. The course is primarily intended for students intending to enter medical school.
Format: Most classes will involve brief formal presentations by the instructors and invited guests, followed by discussion of assigned readings pertinent to the day’s topic. In addition, students will be exposed, via a limited practicum, to a variety of medical settings.
Requirements: Regular attendance, active class participation, brief written reflections on class readings, completion of a short (10 page) paper, and two exams that will require the integration of readings and class discussions.
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ANTH 40033 Majors and Minors only
Cultural Sociology
Elective
Cross-listed from: SOC
In this class we will examine cultural dimensions of important social processes, and we will survey contemporary sociological approaches to analyzing culture. Examples will include readings on home and work, social hierarchies, political culture, media and the arts, and social change.
Cannot take if previously taken SOC 30109 (309) - course content may overlap.
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ANTH 40038
Race Relations in the US
Elective
Cross-listed from: SOC
This course focuses on racism and race relations in the United States. Current cases involving racial issues will be presented and discussed in class. Readings, discussion and lectures will examine the background and current status of the dominant ethnic minority groups in the United States today. The issue of race will also be viewed in relationship to police practices, housing patterns, economic opportunities, gender relations and politics. Class participation and student experiences will be emphasized.
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ANTH 40040 Majors and minors only
Cross-Cultural Psychology
Elective
Cross-listed from: PSY
This course will examine issues of culture and race in the United States from a social and psychological perspective. Race and culture are not synonyms. So, this class will examine some of the ways that each affects the quality of our psychological functioning.
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ANTH 40043 Majors and minors only
Deviant Behavior
Elective
Cross-listed from: SOC
This course is concerned primarily with the sociological conceptions and theories of deviance. At the onset, deviance is differentiated from those phenomena designated as social problems and social disorganization and the remainder of the course focuses on deviant acts and deviants. Various responses are explored to such questions as who are deviants? What does it mean to be a deviant--to the deviant himself, as well as to others? What common social processes and experiences do most deviants undergo? Various theories or models of delinquency, crime, suicide, sex deviation, and drug use are utilized to aid in constructing a sociological understanding of deviance, the analysis of deviant acts and the formation of deviant careers or roles.
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ANTH 40048
Psychology of Race: Examining Racial and Ethnic Identity Development
Elective
Cross-listed from: PSY
This course will look at the general ideas of identity development from a psychological basis as well as the personal identities of American groups. The main course objectives are: to increase students' cultural awareness of their own and others' racial and ethnic identities; to develop relevant knowledge of identity constructs in understanding different populations; and, to develop critical thinking skills in studying and evaluating research on the role of racial and ethnic identity development in psychological processes and human behavior.
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ANTH 40051 Majors and minors only
Irish Film and Culture
Elective
Cross-listed from: ENGL
This course will examine some of the dominant images of Ireland in film and literature, and will place their development in a wider cultural and historical context. Comparisons between film, literature and other cultural forms will be featured throughout the course, and key stereotypes relating to gender, class and nation will be analyzed, particularly as they bear on images of romantic Ireland and modernity, landscape, the city, religion, violence, family and community. Particular attention will be paid to key figures such as Yeats, Synge, and Joyce, and contemporary writers such as John McGahern, William Trevor, Patrick McCabe and Roddy Doyle will be discussed in terms of the wider implications of their work for contemporary Irish culture. The resurgence of Irish cinema and new forms of Irish writing in the past two decades will provide the main focus of the second part of the semester, tracing the emergence of new distinctive voices and images in an increasingly globalised and multi-cultural Ireland.
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ANTH 40058 Majors and minors only
Comparing European Societies
Elective
Cross-listed from SOC
This course offers students a review of major patterns of difference, along with some similarities, among the fifteen member states of the European Union. Despite the larger contrasts with the United States, and the pressures toward convergence generated by the process of European integration, European societies remain remarkably different from one another on a number of dimensions including: the overall level and form taken by employment and unemployment, systems of social protection and welfare state organization, demographic trends ranging from extremely low birth rates in most of southern Europe to significantly higher birth rates further north, the connections between urban and rural life, and the impact of education on inequalities. The role of institutions, cultures, national histories and policies in accounting for this pattern of difference will be reviewed. The course will also examine the combinations of identities - national, regional and European - found among citizens of Europe. Students will be encouraged to develop their expertise on at least one country while also doing comparative reading.
ANTH 40062 Majors and minors only
Aesthetics of Latino Cultural Expression
Elective
Cross-listed from: SOC
This course analyzes the philosophy and principles underlying the social and political aspects of Latino art.
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ANTH 40064 Majors and minors only
Global Sociology
Elective
Cross-listed from: SOC
Globalization, or the spread of international communications and exchange, has impacted many aspects of contemporary societies. This course helps students understand the global economic and political forces that shape people's local and national experiences, and it considers the ways that citizens and states help shape the course of global change.
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ANTH 40070 Majors and minors only
Evolutionary Psychology and Its Critics
Elective
Cross-listed from: PHIL
All evolutionary psychologists use the tools of neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory to study the human mind. But both evolution and the human mind can be studied in many different ways. The logical consequence, that there must be a complete rainbow of different approaches to evolutionary psychology, has been realized in the last three decades of scientific research. Some scientists tell us “selfish genes” program hard-wired brain modules solving specific problems in ways that insure replication of those same genes. Those at the other end of the spectrum argue that brain and culture co-evolve: culture so heavily influenced the chances of human survival and reproduction that the invention of a new tool or a new social practice shaped and accelerated the evolution of the human mind. The proponents of these alternate approaches actually disagree in answering the basic question, “Is there a common human nature, shared by all members of Homo Sapiens?” As a result, the common enterprise of evolutionary psychology has attracted a comparable range of critics.
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ANTH 40072 Majors and minors only
Our America: Exploring the Hyphen Between African-American
Elective
Cross-listed from: ENGL
This course is interested in the shaping of national identity and the historical, cultural and moral assumptions about America that facilitate such a shaping. How does one become American? We will read 20th century African-American literature with focus on how "black subjectivity" is created. How does an author's literary imagination construct a character and hail a reader? We will explore the relationship between literature, history and cultural mythology; the American obsession with race; sexual ideology and competing representations of domesticity. In light of the way blackness is often construed as the ultimate sign of race in America, how do these texts approach the American political landscape to offer a critique of power, identity and social subjectivity in a manner that interrogates whiteness and its ascribed universality?
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ANTH 40073
Latinos in American Society
Elective
This course will examine the sociology of the Latino experience in the United States, including the historical, cultural and political foundations of Latino life. We will approach these topics comparatively, thus attention will be given to the various experiences of a multiplicity of Latino groups in the US.
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ANTH 40075 Majors and minors only
Moving in New Directions: African Diaspora
Elective
Cross-listed from: AFAM
Migration and the emergence of new identities have defined the formation and evolution of the African Diaspora in the modern era. This course is designed to introduce students of African American Studies to the concept of African Diaspora and to provide a framework for understanding how it has changed over time. What constitutes the African Diaspora? How was it formed? How have people of African descent forged new identities in the Atlantic World and what are the implications of identity construction for people of African descent in the future? These questions form the basis of our historical study of the African Diaspora. We examine themes of migration and cultural change through comparative case studies of black communities in the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, and Latin America.
The first half of the course will focus on the Atlantic slave trade, the middle passage, and slavery in the Americas. We will examine identity and culture for people of African descent in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Jamaica. The second half of the course will deal with the problem of freedom in the nineteenth century Atlantic World. We will direct our attention to free black populations and Creole communities in Louisiana, Brazil, and Sierra Leone, West Africa. We will also consider the impact of emancipation at the end of the nineteenth century through an examination of black American emigration movements, "back to Africa" and to the U.S. West, and Afro-Brazilian identity in a post-emancipation society. This course will conclude with a discussion of the state of the African Diaspora today and its implications for future transformations in African American identity.
ANTH 40079 Majors and minors only
International Migration and Human Rights
Elective
Cross-listed from: SOC
This course is an extension from the "minicourse" to a full term offered by Professor Bustamante, with a wider coverage of international migration experiences in the world with an emphasis on human rights. It starts with a historical approach to various immigration waves to the United States, from the years of the "industrial revolution" to the present. It focuses on the current debate on the impact of the undocumented immigration from Mexico and Central America, with a discussion of the gap between public perceptions and research findings. Differences between Mexico and the United States' migration policies, and its social and economic implications, are discussed. The recent developments within the context of the United Nations' Commission of Human Rights on the relationship between migration and human rights are also covered.
ANTH 40082 Majors and minors only
The Latino Image in American Films
Elective
cross-listed from SOC
This course traces the historical depiction of Chicanos, Mexicanos, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and other Latinos in Hollywood-made movies. Cinematic plots, roles, and motifs - from the earliest of silent films through the onset of the 1980s - are examined to explore the changing physical, social, and cultural definitions of Latinos in the United States. All films and filmmakers are considered within their historical context. Though the main object of study is the Latino image, the course also surveys corresponding images for other ethnic minority groups.
ANTH 40083 Majors and minors only
Social Demography of U.S. Minorities
Elective
Cross-listed from: SOC
This course will focus on the demographic status of ethnic minorities in the United States. Some of the major topics include population size and projections, geographical distribution, and residential patterns. Other issues are educational attainment, occupational status, and personal and family income. The course will cover the basics of demographic methods and techniques.
ANTH 40087 Majors only
Comparative Slavery
Elective
Cross-listed from: HIS
For many Americans, the history of slavery is synonymous with plantations in the Atlantic world. This course seeks to expand our view of Atlantic slavery by looking to the Ancient World, Africa, Asia and Europe in historic and contemporary contexts. This course examines slavery as a labor system and a social form intimately connected with the political economies and cultural groups within which it arose. It will also examine debates about contemporary forms of bonded labor and slavery emerging from global encounters today. By examining different types of bonded and unfree labor, such as chattel, domestic, and wage slavery, we will form an inquiry about slavery's relationship to the following: person-hood and social death; the emergence of market economies; systems of differentiation used to maintain the social condition of the enslaved; and power and violence. This course will take an interdisciplinary approach relying on archaeology, anthropology and history for our case studies in understanding this particular social form.
ANTH 40303 Majors and minors only
Anthropology of Art
Elective
Prerequisite: ANTH 10109, 10195, 30101, 30102, 30103, or 30104
This course is an examination of art as a functional part of culture from an anthropological point of view. Attention will be given to both the evolution of art as part of human culture and to the evolution of the study of art by anthropologists.
ANTH 40311
Topics in Social and Cultural Anthropology
Elective
Prerequisites: ANTH 10109, 30103, or 30104
This course explores the latest developments in social-cultural anthropology including, but not limited to, nationalism and transnationalism; colonialism and post-colonialism; political-economy; gender; religion; ethnicity; language; and medicine and the body. Emphasis will be on social and cultural transformations in specific historical contexts.
ANTH 40312
Topics in Asian Anthropology
Elective
Pre-requisites: ANTH 10109, 30103, or 30104
This course explores the latest developments in the anthropology of Asian societies and cultures. The course may include the study of nationalism and transnationalism; colonialism and post-colonialism; political-economy; gender; religion; ethnicity; language; and medicine and the body. Emphasis will be on social and cultural transformations of Asian societies in specific historical contexts.
ANTH 40319 Juniors and seniors only
Anthropology of Multiculturalisms
Elective
Prerequisite: ANTH 30103 or 30104
This course explores anthropological approaches to the study of multiculturalism. The very idea of multiculturalism is problematic to anthropologists because it implicates the culture concept, yet it does not seem particularly useful as an analytic tool. How then might we engage the study of multiculturalism while taking seriously both its normative and ethnographic dimensions? We will first study the political philosophical debates that posit the relationship between multiculturalism and liberalism as problematic. Then we will consider how anthropologists and other social scientists have worked to reframe the terms of the debate through ethnographic research. Throughout the class, we will consider how issues of race, class, gender, and ethnicity are pertinent to discourses of multiculturalism, and we will discuss which ethnographic practices are most appropriate when researching such discourses.
ANTH 40333 Majors and minors only, Juniors and seniors only
Gender and Violence
Elective
This seminar interrogates the intersections among male, female, violence, and nonviolence. How is gender related to war and peace across cultures? We explore the biological, psychological, ritual, spiritual, social, political, and military entanglements of sex, gender and aggression in this course. We examine the lived realities of women and men in zones of conflict as both survivors and perpetrators of violence, and consider the potential of each as peacebuilders.
ANTH 40340
Native Americans in Fact and Fiction
Elective
Prerequisites: 10109, 10195, 30101, 30102, 30103 or 30104
This course focuses on images of Native Americans and how these images may have been shaped by popular and scientific writing, fine art, advertisement, and film. Using an anthropological perspective, the student reads fictitious and factual accounts of Native Americans and their cultures, both past and present, allowing them to build a more accurate image of Native Americans. The course uses books and film to broaden the understanding of Indian stereotypes, and the student will compare them to ethnographic studies which use a scientific approach to Native American beliefs, life styles, and material culture. Some of the literature will be from Native American authors and the art from contemporary Native American artists. Together the readings, artworks, and films will also reveal the great diversity of both people and ideas which all too often are lumped under one category which we label "Native American."
ANTH 40355 Juniors and seniors only
Race, Ethnicity and Power
Elective
Prerequisites: ANTH 10109, 30101, 30102, 30103 or 30104
Presents a review and discussion of social scientific research concerning the nature of race and ethnicity and their expression as social and cultural forces in the organization of multiethnic societies. The focus is multidisciplinary, while giving primary focus to literature drawn from anthropology, political science, and sociology. The course uses a mixed case study/theoretical approach.
ANTH 40370
Anthropology of the Muslim World
Elective
This course will be a survey examination of ethnographic work on the Muslim world appropriate for students with all levels of background in anthropology and Islam. The course will look at the Muslim world broadly defined, including ethnographic work on the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America. The course will consider many aspects of life in Muslim societies, not just religion, including trade, travel, identity, literature, and politics. Because of its relevance to current events, a significant portion of the course will deal with gender relations and constructions of masculinity/femininity in the Muslim context. We will consider such questions as the impact of religion on gender relations, negotiations between textual traditions and "popular"
traditions in determining gender relations, and the circumstances in which gender constructions in the Muslim world attract attention from the "West." The aim of this course is to give students an understanding of a wide array of approaches to ethnography. Lectures and supplementary reading material will situate the central texts in the dominant theories and assumptions of the discipline.
ANTH 40400 Majors only, juniors and seniors only
Perspectives in Anthropological Analysis
Theory
REQUIRED OF ALL ANTHROPOLOGY MAJORS.
Prerequisite: ANTH 30103 or 30104
This course provides an introduction to anthropological theory, including its relation both to other intellectual approaches within the social and natural sciences, and to anthropological practice. The course will be structured around a series of themes or concepts central to anthropological inquiry; we will read both classic and modern theoretical approaches to those themes and will discuss the various strengths and weaknesses of each approach, keeping in mind the contexts within which those approaches were introduced. We will also consider questions of ethnographic methods and ethics. By the end of the course, students should feel comfortable both discussing and applying various theoretical approaches, have a strong grasp on the relationship between theory and practice, and have a sense of the principal debates within the discipline, as well as why those debates tend to remain unresolved.
This is a seminar course, which means that each student should participate actively in discussions. There are no right or wrong answers (although your contributions should be informed by the readings); your opinion and analysis is valuable, both to your grade and to the class as a whole. I will provide an introduction to the major themes under consideration in each class, including the social and political context within which each theory was developed and some biographical background on the relevant theoreticians. The second half of class will consist of student-led discussions of particular texts and ideas. Students will be evaluated on these discussions (both leading and participating in them), as well as on response notes and critical essays.
ANTH 40510
Archaeology of Catholic Missions
Prerequisite: ANTH 30102
The Catholic Church has sponsored missions for centuries. As colonial forces seeking land, labor, and resources spread European influence across the globe, Catholic missions became a global phenomenon that continues to this very day. This course is designed to look at Catholic missions in the "New World" (North and South America) during the colonial period using historical and material evidence. The course will take a comparative approach by studying missions in different geographic and cultural areas, and in different colonial contexts. Historical sources are used to contextualize how Catholicism and missionary activities were a part of broader colonial endeavors. Material evidence is used to tell us about day to day activities and local living conditions, as well as how missions affected the lives of local native populations. In this course we will attempt to use historical and material sources in tandem to learn more about these institutions than either type of source could provide alone.
ANTH 40800
Topics in Biological Anthropology
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Prerequisite: ANTH 10109, 20105, or 30101
This course explores the latest developments in biological anthropology including, but not limited to, population genetics, human diversity, the concept of race, primate evolution and behavior, patterns of adaptation, and evolutionary medicine. Emphasis will be on the role played by culture in the development of biological systems.
ANTH 40805
Humans and the Global Environment
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Prerequisites: ANTH 30101and (30102 or 30103 or 30104)
All human populations, from the simplest to the most complex, interact with their natural environment. Humans alter the environment, and are in turn altered by it through biological or cultural adaptations. Global environmental changes helped to create and shape our species and modern industrial societies are capable of altering the environment on scales that have never been seen before, creating many questions about the future of human-environmental coexistence. This course explores the ways that humans are altering the global environment and the ways that global environmental changes alter humans in return. Four major topics are examined: global climate change, alterations of global nutrient cycles, biodiversity and habitat loss, and ecosystem reconstruction. Students will complete the course with an understanding of the metrics and physical science associated with each type of change, their ecological implications, and the ways in which environmental changes continually reshape human biology and culture.
This course is for graduate students and upper-division undergraduates. This course meets a core requirement for GLOBES students.
ANTH 40808
Genes, Human Culture, and the Environment
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Prerequisite: ANTH 30101 and (30102 or 30103 or 30104)
Globally humans inhabit and alter landscapes creating anthropogenic ecologies impacting all resident organisms. The distribution and structuring of genomes, the movement and virulence of pathogens, and the patterns of coexistence of organisms are all interconnected at multiple levels. In this course we focus on the dynamic transaction between organisms and environments at these multiple levels, with a specific consideration of impacts on health, interspecies interfaces, and population genetics. We will consider theoretical perspectives and specific examples from population genetics, ecology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and political ecology to examine scenarios of interaction between humans, genes and the environment.
Objectives:
a) Understand the transactional nature of organism-environment interactions and the important of collaboration in its study
b) Recognize the importance of considering disparate theoretical perspectives in understanding the patterns and processes of behavioral, genetic and cultural interactions in anthropogenic contexts.
c) Gain the ability to construct scenarios and plans of approach to issues facing humans, genes and the environment integrating diverse disciplinary orientations
ANTH 40810
Human Diversity
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Cross-listed with: AFAM, SC
Prerequisites: ANTH 10109 or 30101
Issues concerning the nature of human diversity (race, intelligence, sex, gender, etc.) are a continuing source of social and scientific debate. This course is designed to present the issues and methods used by physical anthropologists to study both the biological basis of human differences, as well as the ongoing process of human adaptation and evolution in response to climate, nutrition, and disease. Integration of the social, biological, and medical sciences will be employed to investigate modern human variation.
http://www.nd.edu/~sheridan/HD2003.html
ANTH 40815
Advanced Perspectives on Human Evolution
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Pre-requisites: ANTH 30101 and (30102 or 30103 or 30104)
This course takes an in-depth integrative approach to issues in human evolution. Beginning with an overview of current innovation and discourse in evolutionary theory we will move on to tackle various topical issues related to human evolutionary history and its relevance to being human today. Focal points of discussion will include; in-depth analyses of fossil hominin species and their ecologies, a detailed assessment of nonhuman primate behavior as used in modeling the patterns and contexts of human behavior, a review and analyses of current debate surrounding the origin of modern humans, and current topics in the field of human evolution and paleoanthropological theory. Students will be required to produce a focused research paper and be involved in course presentations and discussions. Readings will be drawn from relevant fields including biology, anthropology, ecology and occasionally, philosophy.
ANTH 40820 Seniors only
Evolutionary Medicine
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
This course will reconceptualize a variety of human diseases, syndromes and disorders from the standpoint of evolution, in the modern cultural context. The evolution of infectious diseases will be considered, especially the evolution of HIV and the role of antibiotics in promoting antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Menopause, women's reproductive cancers, allergy, pediatric topics (colic, physiologic jaundice, sleep problems, SIDS), breast feeding, obstetrics, geriatric medicine, structural and genetic abnormalities, psychiatric disorders, psychological health, eating disorders, nutrition, obesity, myopia, emotional disorders, touch therapy and massage will be examined in the context of this exciting and emerging new field. Four person teams of students will explore one area of evolutionary medicine and present a joint poster session as his or her final project.
ANTH 40825
Gender and Health
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Prerequisites: 30103
This course looks at the intersection of gender, health policy, and health care organization around the world. Some of the issues to be discussed include: medicalization of the female body; critical medical anthropology; the politics of reproduction; social production of illness and healing; politics, poverty, and health; national and international health and development policies.
ANTH 40830
Transnational Societies and Cultures
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Prerequisites: 30103 and (30101 or 30102 or 30104)
This course analyzes how cultural identities and behaviors are formed in the context of global systems. Through specific case studies, students will explore how different social groups construct their cultures in interaction with other cultures; and how, in so doing, these groups are both responding to and shaping global agendas. Focusing on linkages between local and international systems, this course will investigate issues such as: the globalization of western media; the rise of transnational corporations and their effects on indigenous economies; population displacement (e.g., refugee populations); tourism and its effects on local populations; the growth of transnational social movements (particularly those active in human rights policy); the role of missionaries in the creation of transnational society; and the effects of "free trade" and structural adjustment policies in the Third World. This course will expose students to different theories of globalization and discuss why the study of regional, national and international linkages has become a critical component of contemporary anthropological research.
ANTH 40835
Global Media and Migration
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Prerequisites: 10109 or 30101 or 30102 or 30103 or 30104
From YouTube to Al Jazeera and CNN, the global mass media industry plays a fundamental role in the production, circulation, and consumption of identities, meanings, representations, and regulations. This course investigates the mass media coverage of the topic of “immigration,” focusing on the complex practices and issues involving the producers, consumers, and subjects of media representation. Among the latter, we will focus on the cases of “Mexican,” “Muslim,” and refugee migration, with an eye to the 2007 Notre Dame Forum and problems of religion, gender, language, race, terrorism, sovereignty and borders. To this end, we will examine, discuss, and evaluate documentary and feature films, newspapers and magazines, ads, the Internet, TV and radio talk shows. Deploying a comparative approach and mainly examining the US arena alongside the European one, we will be able to appreciate both global and distinctive trends in the coverage of migration. In addition to building our expertise on media and migration through lectures, discussions, and hands-on analyses, we will work with mass media professionals and collectively produce a “white paper” with recommendations and practical tools toward a more empirically-based coverage of migration.
ANTH 40840 Juniors and seniors only
Person, Self and Body
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Prerequisite: ANTH 10109, 30103, or 30104
How is "person" different from "self"? What do these have to do with the body? In anthropological usage, the "person" is often regarded as public and the "self" as private, though we will explore this distinction in a variety of settings. The body seems straightforward enough, but anthropologists and other scholars have shown in recent decades that it is conceived of differently in different places. Some cultures see the self at the control tower operating the body; some see the self as the body. In some societies, people in social groups regard themselves as sharing bodily substance (as in southern India). In some societies a single physical ideal shapes people's perception of themselves (as in the U.S.), with many finding themselves falling short. In every society, there are norms that shape notions of the life cycle, thought and feeling, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, social class, power, morality, health and illness, and nation, and these intersect in fascinating ways with how people are seen both as individuals and as members of their social groups.
We will read contemporary and classical theoretical works as well as ethnographic accounts of persons, selves, and bodies. Students will do projects of their own design, incorporating ideas from course material.
ANTH 40855
Cultural Difference and Social Change
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Pre-requisites: Overseas Study or service in the developing world, permission
Research or service in the developing world can generate questions about our own role as "the elite" and "privileged" in contexts where our very presence marks us as "outsiders." In such situations we frequently grapple with balancing our research objectivity with the oftentimes stark realities we have witnessed and experienced. This course is designed especially for students returning from service projects or study abroad programs in the developing world to help make sense of these experiences. This process will be achieved through additional scholarly research (frequently self-directed) to better understand the sites that the students visited during their overseas projects, orienting them in relation to broader global, regional, and national patterns; the eventual outcome will be the analysis of each student's data that is framed by the larger context. Course readings will cover such topics as world systems theory, globalization, development, NGOs, various understandings of 'human rights,' applied anthropology, activism, and the relation between cultural relativism and service. Through discussions, readings, presentations, and writing students will develop an analysis based on their overseas experience, and will focus on the site where they worked, a problem that they observed in cross-cultural perspective, and an examination of strategies for redressing this sort of problem. The overall goal of the course will be for students to gain an understanding of how social science analysis might help to understand and confront problems in cross-cultural contexts. Students can only enroll with the permission of the instructor.
ANTH 40860 Majors and minors only
Genocide, Witness, and Memory
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Cross-listed from: IIPS
Pre-requisite: ANTH 10109, 10195, 30101, 30102, 30103, or 30104
How are episodes of mass killing experienced, survived, and remembered? In this course we consider political, social and cultural trauma as expressed in memoir, documentary, fiction, and academic text. Witness as an ethical stance is examined; the role of memory in shaping morality is questioned. (Does "Never Again" actually work?) We also look at the perpetrators of genocidal killing: who are they? What prompts their actions? Moreover: are any of us incapable of this kind of violence?
ANTH 40870
Indian Ocean: Trade and Interaction
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Pre-requisite: ANTH 10109, 10195, 30102, or 30103
This course offers an multi-disciplinary approach to studying one of the oldest forums for inter-continental trade and interactions: The Indian Ocean. This geographical entity has linked peoples of Africa, Europe and Asia through the exchange of technology, ideas, goods and peoples from the dawn of the first systematic inter-continental trade between the Bronze Age polities of Egypt, Mesopotamia and India-Pakistan, ca (4th millennium BC) to the present era. The class has two objectives: a) to understand the nature of trade and exchange mechanisms in the Indian Ocean world from both temporal and spatial perspectives and, b) to underscore the interdependency between trade/exchange and political-economy, climate, society and history. The required readings include works from various disciplines, including economics, history, political sciences, and geography as well as archaeology and cultural anthropology. Students will be encouraged to add to the broader understanding of Indian Ocean trade provided by the course by undertaking comparative research projects that examine two periods, two areas or two processes within this larger interactional complex.
ANTH 40875
Archaeology of South Asia
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Prerequisite: ANTH 10109, 10195, 30101, 30102, 30103, OR 30104
This course will survey the rich and varied past of South Asian societies and cultures including those of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka from an archaeological perspective. The topics surveyed and discussed through lectures, readings, films and group projects will include the rise and fall of the Bronze Age Civilizations of South Asia, the emergence of Buddhism, and the invasion of Alexander the Great during the Imperial period in the 4th century BC. This course will also cover recent archaeological efforts to understand the historical period in South Asia, from the Indo-Roman trade to the rise and decline of the Mogul (Mughal) Empire.
ANTH 40880
Household Archaeology
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Prerequisite: ANTH 20540, 30101, 30102, 30590, 30591 or 30592
This course explores the theoretical and methodological challenges faced by archaeologists excavating ancient households, one of the most common contexts encountered in archaeological excavations throughout the world. With the household as the unit of analysis, household archaeologists believe that the archaeology of single households are essential elements in reconstructing the greater community in which the household was situated. Students will explore topics which include the social, economic, political and physical characteristics of households, the relationship between households and communities, and the contribution of household archaeology to architectural, artifactual, and social analyses of ancient communities.
ANTH 40885
Environmental Archaeology
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Prerequisites: ANTH 30101, 30102, 30590, 30591 or 30592
Environments and human use of them have both changed dramatically over time. This course explores the relationships between past societies and the ecosystems they inhabited and constructed. It will show how archaeologists investigate the relations between past societies and their environments using concepts from settlement archaeology, human geography, and paleoecology (the study of ancient ecosystems). We will review theories and techniques used in environmental archaeology and will learn about new approaches for the study of prehistoric human ecology. Modern data processing techniques (such as geographical information systems, data base software, spatial statistics, and computer-aided mapping programs) will be introduced along with new theoretical approaches that attempt to decode the social meanings of built environments.
The materials will be presented through a mixture of lectures, demonstrations, and assignments designed to introduce you to the basic concepts and techniques presented in the course. Your term paper will explore some aspects of environmental archaeology of interest to you.
ANTH 40890
The Archaeology of Death
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Prerequisite: ANTH 30101, 30102, 30103, 30104, or taking concurrently
Our species is unique because it is the only species that deliberately buries its dead. Mortuary analysis (the study of burial patterns) is a powerful approach that archaeologists use for the study of prehistoric social organization and ideology. This course explores the significance of prehistoric human mortuary behavior, from the first evidence of deliberate burial by Neanderthals as an indicator of the evolution of symbolic thought, to the analysis of the sometimes spectacular burial patterns found in complex societies such as ancient Egypt and Megalithic Europe. We will also examine the theoretical and practical aspects of the archaeology of death, including the applications of various techniques ranging from statistics to ethnography, and the legal and ethical issues associated with the excavation and scientific study of human remains.
ANTH 44810
Patterns and Contexts of Human-Monkey Interactions on Gibraltar
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
Permission required.
This field course centers around 4 weeks of intensive training, data collection, and analyses on topics related to the behavior, biology and cultural contexts of the interactions between humans and macaque monkeys (Macaca sylvanus) in Gibraltar. Students will be trained in behavioral observation techniques and collect data on human and monkey interactions and general behavior. Students will also obtain experience by conducting supervised field physiological examinations and learning assessment techniques for evaluating macaque health. Lectures, field practicum, interactions with diverse specialists and local experts will provide the instructional aspects of this course. Special foci of the course include macaque behavior and evolution, human behavior and epidemiology, and the cultural and ecological history of Gibraltar. All students will be required to propose and perform a brief original research project which will result in a research paper due shortly after the completion of the field portion of the course.
ANTH 44850
Archaeological Fieldwork on the Kerak Plateau, Jordan
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
Eight weeks of intensive archaeological fieldwork to investigate the earliest period of urbanism on the Kerak Plateau, Jordan. Students will be introduced to archaeological methodologies of surface survey, impact assessment, and test excavations. Students will also learn analytical techniques by working with material culture and other archaeological remains they've excavated, namely ceramics, lithics, architecture, fauna, and paleobotanical remains. Students will also learn about the prehistory and history of Jordan through a series of lectures and field trips in the region. Students must have taken ANTH 30102 as a prerequisite, or another upper-level archaeology course. By permission of instructor only, application necessary (see Dept of Anthropology for application).
http://www.nd.edu/~mchesson/khirbet
ANTH 45030 Majors and minors only
Mexican Immigration: A South Bend Case Study
Methods or Elective
Cross-listed from: ILS
This course uses experiential learning in the Mexican community of South Bend in order to understand how Mexican migrants conduct their lives across the vast distances separating South Bend and their homeland. The course begins with readings in social science and fiction about transnationalism, Mexican-U.S. migration and the history and sociology of the local community. Next we learn ethical fieldwork methods in preparation for community research. Students working in two-person teams will gather data on local and transnational households and kin networks, political involvement, employment, consumption practices, cultural activities and religious life, working through contacts with social service agencies, the Mexican consulate, and Mexican- or Latino-run media, businesses, food stores, and sports leagues. We will document the innovative adaptations of this migrant community, especially the growth of an ethnic enclave of small businesses that both unite Mexicans as an ethnic group and sustain their ties to their homeland. We intend to compile the research in a volume published by Latino Studies to be given to those who shared their lives with us and to entities that are committed to helping them.
ANTH 45075 Majors and Minors Only
Addiction Science and Values
Cross-listed from: PHIL
Students take one of two paths through this course. One involves community based learning; the other is purely academic. The two paths share common sessions during the first seven weeks of the class. These deal with best current clinical approaches to prevention of and recovery from drug abuse. The two paths diverge during the next five weeks when those on the CBL path in the course focus upon 2 hr/week observational visits to the South Bend Life Treatment Center for those recovering from substance abuse and dependence, while those who choose the academic path focus, during the second half of the semester, upon current field and laboratory research into the biological and cultural aspects of substance abuse and substance dependence.
Students who enroll in the CBL course path must notify the instructor of that intent before the end of the Spring semester, 2006.
ANTH 45105
Advanced Human Ethology
Methods or Elective
This class is intended for students who completed Human Ethology, a prerequisite for enrollment. It provides the opportunity to discuss the material and topics presented in the lecture course and will culminate with each student choosing a research topic and presenting it in the form of Powerpoint to the class. A second requirement in addition to weekly readings, discussion and or reviews of many articles read previously will be the completion of a significant observational study of some aspect of human behavior covered by class material. The topics to be investigated include but are not limited to the evolutionary and cultural perspectives on human aggression, sleep, laughter, grief, sex differences in behavior, institutional sports, play, parenting, infant care practices, or communication (especially non-verbal). The class fulfills a methods requirement for the anthropology major.
ANTH 45150
Life Histories: Genetics and Evolution
Methods or Elective
This is an upper-level course on methods and models for understanding primate life histories--their patterns of growth and development, maturation, reproduction, and aging--from an evolutionary perspective. After a basic introduction to the field, it consists of units on population demography, within-population analysis of phenotypic microevolution, life history trade-offs, and between-species comparisons addressing macroevolutionary trends. The place of humans within primate and mammalian diversity will be a broad theme of the course dealt with in each unit. Particular attention will be given to quantitative genetic and optimality models of life history evolution. Presentation of techniques will be done in lectures and in-class discussion of selected readings. Students will complete projects in each unit to demonstrate competence.
ANTH 45200 Seniors Only
Evolutionary Medicine
Methods
This course will reconceptualize a variety of human diseases, syndromes and disorders from the standpoint of evolution, in the modern cultural context. The evolution of infectious diseases will be considered, especially the evolution of HIV and the role of antibiotics in promoting antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Menopause, women¿s reproductive cancers, allergy, pediatric topics (colic, physiologic jaundice, sleep problems, SIDS), breast feeding, obstetrics, geriatric medicine, structural and genetic abnormalities, psychiatric disorders, psychological health, eating disorders, nutrition, obesity, myopia, emotional disorders, touch therapy and massage will be examined in the context of this exciting and emerging new field. Four-person teams of students will explore one area of evolutionary medicine and present a joint poster session as his or her final project.
ANTH 45308
Native North American Art
Methods or Elective
Native North American art existed for thousands of years and continues to be created today. Its original context was often sacred (both public and private) and/or political or decorative. Contact with Western Europeans and their art traditions along with the art traditions of Africans, Asians, and South Americans beginning about 1600 A.D. and thereafter modified form, technique, and context of Native North American art. However, traditional form, techniques, and context continued through the centuries since 1600.
The perception of this art also changed. Most frequently until into the 20th century, the art of Native North Americans was viewed as craft by non-native North Americans and Europeans, but during the 20th century that view was modified. Native American artists also began to view their own art differently. This change occurred among artists working in traditional mediums as well as those producing art using non-traditional mediums.
The collections of Native North American art curated at the Snite Museum exemplify the changing content, techniques, and contexts of this art. This course will allow students to work with our collections under direct supervision. The use of our collections will permit students to observe some of the changes in art which have occurred in the last hundred and fifty years. The students’ final projects will include a visual presentation of a particular change in material, context, or technique which they have determined through research and direct examination of selected pieces from our collections. For this reason the course will be limited to 15 students and will be sometimes held in the Snite Museum, during hours when the museum is not usually open to the public.
The culminating activity will be to create a small exhibit which will be displayed at the Snite opening sometime at the end of the semester.
ANTH 45337 Majors and minors only
Film and Society
Methods or Elective
This course will examine the "American experience" via cinematic representation and analysis. It will center on the work of American directors whose films skirt the periphery of the mainstream and focus on American culture. Students will contextualize the films via a reader packet drawing on articles from anthropology, film studies, basic film production and culture theory. Course work will include research papers and the production of a short visual narrative piece representing students' conceptualizations of Americana.
ANTH 45339
Cultures of Fear/Horror Film
Methods or Elective
Horror and fear play seminal roles in the construction of cultural mythos and practice. In the modern and post-modern eras, the horror film and a culture of fear have come to prominence as core elements of cinematic expression. In this course we will examine the construction and application of central themes in the scope of international horror cinema and how they reveal salient aspects of cultural similarities and differences including: gender, sexuality, violence and socio-political climates. Students will contextualize the films via texts drawing from anthropology, film studies, basic film production and culture theory. Course work will include research papers and the production of a short visual video piece representing the students' interpretations of "What is scary?"
ANTH 45390 Juniors, seniors, graduate students only
Ethnographic Method and Writing for Change
Methods or Elective
The notion that a written text can itself be a “site of resistance,” a location where political commitment and rigorous scholarship intersect, undergirds this course on ethnographic method. We study the construction and interpretation of field notes, subjectivity and objectivity in research, ethical issues in fieldwork, feminist and postcolonial critiques of ethnographic practice, “voice” and oral history, and aspects of ethnographic inquiry that impact on change processes. Students engage in field projects in the local community and produce experimental ethnographic text as a central part of coursework. We also examine the writing process, rhetorical style, the responsibilities of the author, and polyvocalism and inclusivity. Ethnography as a nexus of theory and practice, of scholarship and action, emerges from our work in the course.
ANTH 45500
Theory and Method in Archaeology
Methods or Elective
Archaeology is an approach toward understanding the human condition which relies on an analysis of the material culture remains of a society. Many different disciplines (e.g. anthropology, history, theology, classics and art history) can benefit from archaeological approaches, and the course may be useful for individuals from any of these disciplines who may have an interest in the archaeological problems of their own field of study.
This course is an examination of the growth of American archaeology as a unique discipline. Both the history of archaeology and modern archaeological theories will be examined by selected readings, lectures, and seminar-style discussions. The procedures used for archaeological research will also be covered, from the various methods of identifying sites, through excavation procedures, to the analysis of materials in the laboratory. (These topics are covered in the classroom because this is not a field course.)
Theory and Method in Archaeology provides an in-depth review of modern archaeological theory and practice and is intended for anthropology majors or other advanced students who have taken courses in anthropology.
ANTH 45510
Historical Archaeology
Methods, or Elective
This course examines the methodological and theoretical foundations for the archaeology of European colonization and the post-colonial material world. Course materials focus on material life and the diversity of sociocultural experiences in North America since 1492. The class examines how historical archaeologists have interpreted life in the world of global capitalism and colonization over the last half millennium and how archaeological insights can be used to understand and critique our own world. The distinctive analytical techniques of historical archaeology will be studied, including documentary research, artifact analysis methods, and field excavation techniques. The course will probe the interdisciplinary nature of historical archaeology, assess the social significance of archaeological knowledge, and scrutinize cultural, class, and gendered influences on archaeological interpretation.
ANTH 45816
Mother-Baby Behavioral Sleep Laboratory
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
Permission required
This course examines Western sleeping arrangement of infants and children, nighttime nurturing patterns by parents, and the cultural values and ideologies that underlie them. Research will be conducted in a sleep laboratory on the sleep behavior of mothers, fathers and children from the local community.
Students will be responsible for running overnight observational studies, in a "problem" oriented context. Feeding patterns, parental attitudes and expectations, and nighttime nurturing, as well as behavior during sleep, will be examined in relationship to the particular social and developmental goals parents describe. Data collected by students in the form of video tape overnight studies and questionnaires will contribute new knowledge to the field of pediatric sleep medicine.
ANTH 45817 Majors only; Juniors, seniors only
Human Osteology
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
4 Credit Hour Course
This lab-intensive course will explore the methods used in physical anthropology for studying individual human skeletal remains, as well as those employed to establish biocultural connections at the population level. Forensic techniques utilized in individual identification will be developed in the first third of the course. Students will become very familiar with human skeletal anatomy and bone physiology. In the latter portions of the course, students will develop skills using bio-ethnographic tools such as paleodemography and paleopathology, and the techniques used in the reconstruction of ancient health and nutrition. Ultimately, each student will be able to identify fragmentary skeletal material typical of that found in many archaeological settings, and, using independent lines of evidence, establish a bio-ethnographic framework for ancient populations.
http://www.nd.edu/~humosteo
ANTH 45818
Fieldschool in Biocultural Anthropology
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
The Jerusalem field school will engage students in an experiential learning environment which immerses them in anthropological method and theory. Using the large Byzantine St. Stephen's skeletal collection as the cornerstone, historical and archaeological information will be synthesized in a biocultural reconstruction of ancient monastic life. Students will conduct original research, share in a field trip program visiting numerous Byzantine sites and area research institutions, and will participate in a lecture program delivered by top scholars in the fields of biological anthropology, classics, and Near Eastern studies. Students will develop a suite of methodological skills in the natural and social sciences, explore regional topography for an appreciation of the environmental constraints effecting human adaptability, delve into the pertinent literature using several world-class libraries, develop skills for collaborative research, and discover the importance of a holistic approach to a fuller understanding of life in the past.
ANTH 45820
Researching Disease: Methods in Medical Anthropology
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
This class will provide extensive classroom and hands-on training in research methods for medical anthropology. It will place slightly greater emphasis on qualitative methods, such as participant observation and interviewing, but will provide an overview of quantitative methods (including building surveys and some basic statistical analysis). Students will learn by doing, conducting original research on contemporary health issues in the local community (such as HIV/AIDS and substance abuse).
ANTH 45826 Juniors and Seniors
Anthropology of Reproduction
Senior Honors Experience or Methods
In this course we will examine a variety of issues related to reproduction. We will concentrate on anthropological studies related primarily to reproductive health throughout the life cycle, such as sexuality, pregnancy and childbirth, midwifery, reproductive freedom, and the politics of the nation-state as they affect women¿s (and men¿s) reproductive lives. We will use ethnographic readings and examples from around the world to illustrate our discussions and gain an understanding of the complex intertwining of local and global politics regarding reproductive experiences and choices. An integral part of the course will be an ethnographic research project wherein you will apply anthropological theories and methods.
ANTH 45830
Documentary: Critical Analysis and Method
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
We see documentaries in many different forms every day via journalism, reality television, the Discovery channel and the non-fiction film. Documenting ourselves and others has become a major component of the American discourse for education, entertainment and propoganda purposes. This course turns a critical, anthropological and methodological eye towards interpreting, constructing and contextualizing the docummentary. The students will view and analyze a variety of documentary formats as well as participate in the production of a short video documentary. Lectures and readings will be drawn from anthropology, culture theory, film theory and practice with an emphasis on elements of production.
ANTH 45832
Anthropology of War and Peace
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
This class will explore the human capacity for war and for peace. Research suggests that for 90% of human history (which extends back tens of thousands of years) there was no war. Today, war is firmly entrenched in the world. At the same time, peace is critical to human advancement, social stability, and, some would argue, cultural creativity. Anthropology provides a unique perspective on violence and conflict resolution as anthropologists often go to the frontlines to document the experience of war and peacebuilding firsthand. They observe and collect stories of war and peace told by those directly involved; across cultural, ethnic, gender, and age differences--they interview soldiers and civilians, rogues and heroes, adults and children. The course will explore examples of the many forms of war in the world today, from tribal conflicts through guerrilla warfare to conventional and nuclear war. It will also study societies without war and populations with innovative ideas about peace. Questions about war and peace are really questions about the human condition. The class will discuss such issues as what is the place of war and peace in human society; whether violence is inherent in human nature or learned; and what the future of war and peace is likely to be on our planet. We will investigate answers that range from four-star generals to tribal elders; from arms merchants to ND students.
ANTH 45833
Global Crime and Corruption
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
As the world of the 21st century globalizes, so too does crime. Millions of people and trillions of dollars circulate in illicit economies worldwide. This represents power blocks larger and more powerful than many of the world’s countries.
This class will look at what constitutes the illegal today, who is engaged in crime and corruption, and what kinds of economic, political and social powers they wield. It will also look at the societies and cultures of ‘out-laws’. For example, internationalization has influenced crime in much the same ways that it has multinationals and nongovernmental organizations: criminal networks now span continents, forge trade agreements and hone foreign policies with other criminal organizations, and set up sophisticated systems of information, exchange, and control. Anthropology – with its studies of cultures – provides a dynamic approach to the illegal: what customs inform law abiders and criminals, what values guide their actions, what behaviors shape their worlds? The course will explore the many kinds and levels of criminality and corruption: how do we consider the differences (or similarities) among, for example, drug and arms smugglers, white collar corruption, gem runners or modern day slavers, and governmental or multinational corporate crime? What impact does each have on our world and in our lives? What solutions exist?
Class is interactive in nature, and in addition to the normal reading and writing, students will do an anthropological class project on a topic of their choice concerning global crime and corruption.
ANTH 45835 Majors and minors only
Anthropology of Christianity
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
This course considers Christianity as a topic of anthropological study. Our goal is to explore the vast diversity of ways Christianity has been articulated and experienced through time and within different cultures, even as we seek out some of the fundamental tenants, themes, and continuities that have characterized its emergence as a global religious system, faith, and practice. Among the variations of Christianity to be studied are first century churches in the Mediterranean region, early Roman, Byzantine, and Reformation churches, Victorian era missionary movements, indigenous churches in Africa and South America, contemporary Catholic and mainline Protestant churches, and the rapidly growing evangelical, charismatic, and Pentecostal movements. In addition to the historical and cross-cultural framework embedded within the course, topics to be considered include: definitions and theories of religion; the question of conversion in Christianity; Christianity, colonialism, and capitalism; religious syncretism and enculturation; gender and women’s experience within Christianity; and contemporary Christianity and the twin trends of fundamentalism and secularization. In addition to reading and participating in our in-class seminar, each student will conduct an ethnographic research project that explores some facet of Christian experience in the Notre Dame area and relates it to broader trends in America and beyond.
ANTH 45836
Applied Anthropology: Immigrant Labor Rights
Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
4 credit hour course
Within local Michiana communities, one of the most economically challenged groups is that of immigrant workers. Nationwide, there has been a steady decline in access to worker rights, and this decline is even more acute for non-native workers, who are frequently unaware of the rights they are entitled to under U.S. law. Ethnographic research in nearby Elkhart suggests that Spanish-speaking immigrant population numbers are much higher than is reflected in census results, and that many of these workers are being treated unfairly by employers based on their immigration status or national origin.
In conjunction with local organizations and social science researchers, students will work within Elkhart, collecting data from immigrant community members at a monthly workshop held each Sunday at a local church and throughout the community of Elkhart. Students will make their field notes available to one another on-line, and will read each other's notes before the classroom meeting. The classroom component of the course will include lectures on background readings, ethnographic methods, and issues of ethics, discussion of field notes, and discussions of how to turn our joint ethnographic research into applicable policy or approaches to community service.
In this course, students will learn to conduct ethnographic research and record results. They will also learn how to apply the data they have collected to models for serving the community. Finally, this is a community-based research course, in which students, professors, community organizations, and community members will work together to find ways to better serve the local community and meet its needs.
ANTH 45838
Ethnography of Notre Dame
ANTH Honors Experience , ANTH Methods
The ultimate goal of this course is for students, together, to produce a book on the culture and student life of Notre Dame. In doing this project, students will learn all the core skills of a practicing anthropologist: ethnography/research, analysis, exploration of theory, professional writing, and the production of a polished work of anthropology worthy of being in a library. This work will be done as a group ¿ while each student will be responsible for developing a particular topic for the book, the class as a whole will decide how the book should be developed and produced.
ANTH 45842 Juniors and seniors only
Doing Things with Words
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
Flattery, cheating, self-expression, prayer, superiority, solidarity, distancing, play: all these and many more things may be done with language. This course looks at some of the ways humans do things with words. Topics include religious language; silence; politeness and sincerity; truth, deception, lying, and cheating; linguistic variety, identity, and stereotypes; moral evaluations made of language; and language used for power and solidarity.
ANTH 45850 Majors and minors or by permission
Archaeology of Everyday Life
Seniors Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
While archaeology is most famous for investigating the temples and tombs of “lost civilizations,” the vast majority of the archaeological record encompasses the material traces of ordinary people in their everyday lives. In this course, students will explore the archaeological remains of peoples’ houses, daily tasks, deaths, jobs, communities, and religions. We will pay particular attention to how archaeologists reconstruct the social, economic, ritual, and political fabric of daily life in the archaeological past, and thus will be drawing on anthropological frameworks for understanding issues of identity, gender, sexuality, race, mortuary practices, constructing communities, and social differentiation.
ANTH 45854 Majors and minors only or permission of instructor
Museum Anthropology: An Introduction
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
An introduction to the history, philosophy, and professional practices of museums. It includes an examination of the ethical and practical issues of museum work, including current controversies, through readings, discussions, and hands-on experience. Emphasis is on the role of anthropologists in museums and the exhibition of non-Western European art in museums, which focus on art, ethnography, or history. Students will work individually and collaboratively on projects, including an exhibition for display within the anthropology department.
ANTH 45855
Archaeology and Material Culture
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
This will be an archaeology lab class which will provide an activity-based setting to explore the meanings and interpretations of archaeological artifacts. It will provide an in-depth introduction to basic laboratory methods for the organization, curation, and analysis of artifacts such as pottery, stone tools, metals, soil samples, and floral and faunal remains. Lab exercises will introduce course concepts which students will use to analyze a small collection of artifacts from an archaeological site, housed in the Reyniers Building. By the end of the semester, students will present the results of a team project based on one class of materials from the collections.
ANTH 45856
Pottery in Archaeology
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
In many archaeological sites, pottery is the most common type of artifact recovered. The analysis and interpretation of ceramic remains allow archaeologists to accomplish several goals: establish a chronological sequence, track interaction between different areas, and suggest what types of activities people may have conducted at the site. This course will focus on the ways that archaeologists bridge the gap between the analysis and the interpretation of ceramic data. Class meetings will involve discussion of the readings, student presentations, lectures, and the analysis of archeological ceramics in the archaeological collections of the Department of Anthropology.
ANTH 45857
Archaeological Materials Analysis: Lithic Technology
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
4 credit hour course
$30 lab fee for raw materials
Prehistoric stone tools represent the oldest form of Human technology. Much of human prehistory worldwide and throughout ancient times is decipherable primarily through stone tools. In this class experimental replication of stone technologies is viewed as an essential method to understanding past technologies. Organized as a series of practical laboratory exercises, in this class we deal with a broad survey of the fundamental concepts of stone tool technology, including mechanical properties of tool stone; stone heat treatment; prehistoric quarrying and mining strategies and elementary concepts of flaking stone. Students gain familiarity with these topics in a laboratory context by participating in flint knapping practice and working intensively with several archaeological collections. In addition to the laboratory exercises, students will present the results of a team project based on hands-on manufacture of tools, or analysis of materials from archaeological collections.
http://www.nd.edu/~ikuijt/lithics
ANTH 45860
Food and Culture
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
3 credit hour course
$30 lab fee for raw materials
All humans eat, but the variations in what, how, and why we eat are dazzling. This course examines the many roles of food played in a variety of cultures. We consider food choices and taboos, religious and symbolic meanings of food, dining and social interactions, obesity and thinness, and the political and industrial issues of fast food and the slow food movement. There will be practical and field studies associated with the course. Materials fee $30.
ANTH 45862 Majors and minors only
Anthropology of Emotion
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
Do people within different cultural and historical contexts “feel” in the same ways? Are the emotions we recognize universal, or are they learned? How has language shaped the way we define and think about emotions, and what role do these ideas play in shaping our thinking about personhood and gender, our perceptions of the body, and our experiences of health and illness? This course addresses these questions by surveying the most important anthropological, historical, and psychological approaches to the study of emotion. We will also think about affect as that quality or state which exceeds or escapes being captured by categories, including nameable “emotions,” and which can never quite be completely controlled. The course will conclude with specific ethnographic and historical case studies, including examinations of love, anger, jealousy, sympathy, and shame. Course requirements include active class participation, several short exercises in methods, presentations, a midterm exam, and a final research paper on a course-related topic of each student’s choice.
ANTH 45865 Juniors, seniors, graduate students only.
The Anthropology of Childhood and Education
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
Concepts of human growth vary extraordinarily across time and space. When children become full-fledged persons, when they can reason, when or whether they should be independent from their parents, and how all this happens are variable and illuminating. Education–-either formal or informal-–reflects and also constitutes a society’s view of childhood. This course provides a (selective) cross-cultural survey of childhood and education, looking at stages from pregnancy and infancy to late adolescence. Students will devise and conduct projects of their own.
ANTH 45870
Terrorism
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
Looking at terrorism through the anthropological lens means studying violent actors close up and face-to-face. It also means exploring the culture of counter-terrorism, with its own discourse, belief system, and rituals. In this seminar we question basic assumptions of the “war on terror,” using ethnographic literature to challenge conceptions and policies on terrorism today. Is “terrorism” in fact a definable term? How can we use the experience-near methods of anthropology to study people cognitively and politically placed as irretrievably distant? Differences among terrorism, crime, and revolution are explored through examination of specific cases. Building peace in a climate of violence is the ultimate aim of our study.
ANTH 45875
Anthropology of Poverty
Seniors Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
What is poverty? What does it mean to be poor, destitute and powerless? Does poverty in the developed world refer to the same conditions and factors that determine poverty in developing and undeveloped countries? What does genteel poverty mean? Does the ability to possess material goods and to consume indicate lack of poverty? What is the cycle of poverty? Can one break out of it? This course will address these and other questions on poverty through anthropological analysis. The course is divided into two parts: a) poverty in the pre-industrial era, and b) poverty in contemporary societies. Topics covered in Part A include the beginnings of poverty and social inequality in the earliest complex urban societies of the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, urbanism, production, distribution and poverty in various time periods including classical Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era, and slavery, colonialism and poverty. Part B will address issues such as the relationship between industrialism, colonialism and poverty in 19th and 20th centuries, instituted poverty in post-colonial and post-industrial societies, and global manifestations of poverty in the 21st century. The course materials include readings from anthropology (archaeology, cultural anthropology, and biological anthropology), history, economics, theology, political science, as well as documentaries and films.
ANTH 45880
Archaeology of Gender
Senior Honors Experience, Methods, or Elective
In this course, students will explore the potential for studying and reconstructing a prehistory of people through archaeology. We will consider the historical and theoretical foundations of creating an engendered past, the methodological and practical aspects of "doing" engendered archaeology, and the intersection between political feminism, archaeological knowledge production, and the politics of an engendered archaeology. Topics for consideration include feminist perspectives on science, anthropology, and archaeology; concepts of gender in prehistory and the present; women's and men's relations to craft production, state formation, and space; and the complex relationship between feminism, archaeology, and the politics of women and men in archaeology and the archaeological past. Under the broad theoretical, political and historical umbrella of feminism, archaeologists today are negotiating their own paths toward an engendered past from multiple directions, and this course will explore the diversity of these approaches toward creating a prehistory of people.
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ANTH 46xxx
Directed Readings in
46100: Biological Anthropology
46110: Bioarchaeology
46200: Medical Anthropology
46300: Sociocultural Anthropology
46400: Linguistic Anthropology
46500: Archaeology
Permission Required. Junior or Senior standing, Dean's list, consent of instructor.
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Intensive independent readings on a special problem area in the chosen field about which the student will be expected to produce a detailed annotated bibliography and write a scholarly paper.
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ANTH 48xxx
Directed Research in
48100: Biological Anthropology
48110: Bioarchaeology
48120: Sleep Lab
48300: Sociocultural Anthropology
48500: Archaeology
Permission Required. Junior or Senior standing, Dean's list, consent of instructor.
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
Intensive independent research on a special problem area in the chosen field about which the student will be expected to produce a detailed annotated bibliography and write a scholarly paper.
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ANTH 48900
Anthropology Senior Thesis
Permission Required. Senior standing, Dean's list. By invitation of instructor.
Senior Honors Experience or Elective
This course, which continues for two semesters, provides the student with the opportunity for independent study and the development of skills in research and writing during the senior year of undergraduate work. The effort is the student's own from the decision on the topic to the conclusion presented in the final paper. A thesis director is chosen to guide the student and provide assistance.
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