Courses

Courses

Fall 2009

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Anthropology


024. Culture at the Top of the World
Jan Brunson T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55 Adams-202
As the highest mountains on earth, the Himalayas have held the fascination of many people around the world. Investigates two divergent cultures that exist at the “Top of the World”: the culture of climbing expeditions on Everest, and the culture of the ethnic group commonly referred to as Sherpas. How do the extreme conditions on Everest create a shared culture among mountaineers? Who are the Sherpas, and how has their interaction with climbers altered their identity? What is the nature of the interdependence and the brokerage of power between two such parties? Explores the issues of cultural identity that accompany global tourism by examining the intersection of these two groups.

101. Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Sara Dickey T 1:00 - 2:25, TH 1:00 - 2:25 Searles-315
Cultural anthropology explores the diversities and commonalities of cultures and societies in an increasingly interconnected world. Introduces students to the significant issues, concepts, theories, and methods in cultural anthropology. Topics may include cultural relativism and ethnocentrism, fieldwork and ethics, symbolism, language, religion and ritual, political and economic systems, family and kinship, gender, class, ethnicity and race, nationalism and transnationalism, and ethnographic representation and validity.

102. Introduction to World Prehistory
Leslie Shaw M 11:30 - 12:55, W 11:30 - 12:55 Adams-208
An introduction to the discipline of archaeology and the studies of human biological and cultural evolution. Among the subjects covered are conflicting theories of human biological evolution, debates over the genetic and cultural bases of human behavior, the expansion of human populations into various ecosystems throughout the world, the domestication of plants and animals, the shift from nomadic to settled village life, and the rise of complex societies and the state.

201. Anthropological Research
Jan Brunson T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25 Adams-202
Anthropological research methods and perspectives are examined through classic and recent ethnography, statistics and computer literacy, and the student’s own fieldwork experience. Topics include ethics, analytical and methodological techniques, the interpretation of data, and the use and misuse of anthropology.

203. History of Anthropological Theory
Chad Uran M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55 Sills-117
An examination of the development of various theoretical approaches to the study of culture and society. Anthropology in the United States, Britain, and France is covered from the nineteenth century to the present. Among those considered are Morgan, Tylor, Durkheim, Boas, Malinowski, Mead, Geertz, and Lévi-Strauss.

231. Native Peoples and Cultures of Arctic America
Susan Kaplan M 1:00 - 2:25, W 1:00 - 2:25 Adams-406
For thousands of years, Inuit, Native American Indian, and Aleut peoples lived in the Arctic regions of North America as hunters, gatherers, and fishermen, harvesting resources from the sea, rivers, and land. Examines the characteristics of Arctic ecosystems and how they are being affected by climate change. Explores the social, economic, political, and religious lives of various Arctic-dwelling peoples in an effort to understand how people have adapted to this dynamic environment and to contact with various Western groups.

233. Peoples and Cultures of Africa
A MacEachern M 11:30 - 12:55, W 11:30 - 12:55 CT-16 Harrison McCann
Introduction to the traditional patterns of livelihood and social institutions of African peoples. Following a brief overview of African geography, habitat, and cultural history, lectures and readings cover a representative range of types of economy, polity, and social organization, from the smallest hunting and gathering societies to the most complex states and empires. Emphasis upon understanding the nature of traditional social forms. Changes in African societies in the colonial and post-colonial periods examined, but are not the principal focus.

243. Modernity in South Asia
Sara Dickey T 8:30 - 9:55, TH 8:30 - 9:55 Adams-103
What is modernity? How does it differ cross-culturally, and what forms does it take in South Asia? In the countries of South Asia—including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal—many aspects of everyday life are both affected by and shape modernity. Economic liberalization, religious nationalism, and popular media are examined, while investigating changes in caste, class, work, gender, family, and religious identities in South Asia.

280. Race, Biology, and Anthropology
A MacEachern M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55 Adams-202
Critically examines the biological justifications used to partition humanity into racial groups. Investigates the nature of biological and genetic variability within and between human populations, as well as the characteristics of human biological races as they have traditionally been defined. Considers whether race models do a good job of describing how human populations vary across the earth. Critically appraises works by a variety of authors, including J. Phillippe Rushton, Charles Murray, and Michael Levin, who claim that racial identity and evolution work together to structure the history and the potentials of human groups in different parts of the world.

Sociology

010. Racism
H. Partridge T 11:30 - 12:55, TH 11:30 - 12:55 Adams-114
Examines issues of racism in the United States, with attention to the social psychology of racism, its history, its relationship to social structure, and its ethical and moral implications. Note: This course counts toward the major and minor in gender and women’s studies.

101. Introduction to Sociology
Dhiraj Murthy T 10:00 - 11:25, TH 10:00 - 11:25 Adams-208
The major perspectives of sociology. Application of the scientific method to sociological theory and to current social issues. Theories ranging from social determinism to free will are considered, including the work of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Merton, and others. Attention is given to such concepts as role, status, society, culture, institution, personality, social organization, the dynamics of change, the social roots of behavior and attitudes, social control, deviance, socialization, and the dialectical relationship between individual and society.

101. Introduction to Sociology
Marie Gaytan M 11:30 - 12:55, W 11:30 - 12:55 VAC-Kresge Auditorium
The major perspectives of sociology. Application of the scientific method to sociological theory and to current social issues. Theories ranging from social determinism to free will are considered, including the work of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Merton, and others. Attention is given to such concepts as role, status, society, culture, institution, personality, social organization, the dynamics of change, the social roots of behavior and attitudes, social control, deviance, socialization, and the dialectical relationship between individual and society.

211. Classics of Sociological Theory
Susan Bell T 2:30 - 3:55, TH 2:30 - 3:55 The Hazelton Room (Kanbar 109)
An analysis of selected works by the founders of modern sociology. Particular emphasis is given to understanding differing approaches to sociological analysis through detailed textual interpretation. Works by Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and selected others are read.

216. Food, Culture, and Society
Marie Gaytan M 2:30 - 3:55, W 2:30 - 3:55 Adams-406
Food has economical, cultural, and social significance beyond its importance as a source of sustenance. Examines individual and group relationships to food and employs them as rich lenses through which to study political arrangements, concepts of community, and expressions of identity. Readings examine the ways in which what, when, how and with whom people eat enforces structures of inequality, establishes the roots of social solidarity, and creates the potential for social change. Case studies will include Milk, Chicken, Coffee, and Tequila.

224. Global Health Matters
Susan Bell T 11:30 - 12:55 Adams-406
Introduces students to international health, healing, and medicine from individual experiences in local contexts to global practices. Locates health and health care within particular cultural, social, historical, and political circumstances. How do these diverse forces shape the organization of healthcare providers and systems of health care delivery? How do these forces influence people’s symptoms, health beliefs, utilization of healthcare, and interactions with healthcare providers? How are local practices of health and healthcare linked to large-scale social and economic structures? Topics include structural violence; global pharmaceuticals; the commodification of bodies, organ trafficking, and organ transplantation; pregnancy and reproduction.

236. South Asian Popular Culture
Dhiraj Murthy T 1:00 - 2:25, TH 1:00 - 2:25 Adams-202
Examines transnational South Asian popular culture (encompassing Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka), as a medium to understand larger sociological themes, including diaspora, "homeland," globalization, identity, class, gender, and exoticization. Music, film, and fashion are the prime cultural modes explored. Largely structured around specific "South Asian" cultural products--such as Bhangra, Asian electronic music, and Bollywood--and their circulation between the subcontinent and South Asian diasporic communities (particularly in Britain).

275. Cultural Encounters with/in Hawai`i
Nancy Riley M 8:00 - 9:25, W 8:00 - 9:25 Adams-202
Examines Hawai`i as a site of cultural encounter. Topics include the ways that Hawai`i’s tourism industry is connected to constructions of and consumption of ethnic identities by those within and outiside Hawai`i; the ways historical and contemporary encounters between different ethnic groups (Hawai`ian, haole, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Pacific Islanders) have created the contemporary Hawai`ian social landscape; and the relations between mainland United States and Hawai`ian culture and politics, particularly the rising Hawai`ian sovereignty movement. Draws from theories of ethnic tourism, race/ethnicity, and colonialism.

312. Resistance and Accommodation: Comparative Perspectives on Gender
Nancy Riley M 10:00 - 11:25, W 10:00 - 11:25 Adams-114
In societies across the world, many face discrimination and oppression because of gender stratification and because of inequalities that arise from both local norms and expectations and from societal-level and even global-level forces. In response to the inequities they face, people have found ways to live in, accommodate, challenge, and change those inequalities. Examines gender inequalities and the ways that those in different communities and societies have reacted to them. Each student conducts a major research project on an issue of gender.