Anthropology Department
2009-10
Fall and Spring Course Offerings
Fall Term
Check Banner for recent course updates
ANTH0066J So You Want to Change the World
Examines from an anthropological perspective efforts to address global poverty that are typically labeled as "development." The enterprise of development is considered critically, both with regard to the intentions and purposes that underlie the actions of wealthy countries, donor organizations, and expatriate development workers and with regard to the outcomes for the people who are the intended beneficiaries. Privileging the perspectives of ordinary people in developing countries, but also looking carefully at the institutions involved in development, the course relies heavily on ethnographic case studies that will draw students into the complexity of one of the greatest contemporary global problems: social inequality. In a highly participatory seminar, students will read, discuss, and write about ethnographies that combine theoretically sharp and experience-near accounts of poverty and development in a range of world areas and across numerous specific development problems such as the environment, public health, gender inequality, agriculture, population and economic transformation. Reserved for First Year students.
M 3:5:20 Instructor: B. Dahl
ANTH0066P Transnational Lives: Anthropology of Migration and Mobilities
In an era characterized by globalization, by the increasing and rapid flows of ideologies, information, money, goods, and people across national borders, how do individuals, families, and communities grapple with the new forms of existence brought forth by migration? This course will go beyond macro-economic explanations of why migration happens to explore what migration does: the effects of mobility on a range of practices that include parenting, health, gender roles, marriage, politics, and anthropological research itself. We will consider three overlapping issues: the everyday practices of transnational living in a variety of cross-cultural settings; the theory and methodology anthropologists use to better understand local experiences of migration; and the ways in which migration has been effectively politicized.
TTh 2:30-3:50 Instructor: J. Leinaweaver
ANTH0200 Culture and Human Behavior
The goal is to challenge our beliefs about some taken for granted assumptions about human behavior and psyche by examining cultures with different conceptions of self and cognition. We will examine the issues of the role of nature and nurture in development, the nature of intelligence, coming of age, the association of psychological characteristics with gender and the naturalness of emotions.
MWF 10:00-10:50 Instructor: M. Hollos
ANTH0300 Culture and Health
An introduction to Medical Anthropology, the course explores the complex interaction of culture and biology as it affects human health. Examines the social construction of health and illness across cultures using ethnographic case studies representing a wide range human experience in domestic and international contexts. Emphasizes the social, political, and economic context in which health and behavior and health systems must be understood.
MWF 11:00-11:50 Instructor: D. Smith
ANTH0310 Human Evolution
Examination of theory and evidence on human evolution in the past, present and future. Topics include evolution and adaptation, biocultural adaptation, fossil evidence, behavioral evolution in primates, human genetric variation and contemporary human biological variation.
TTh 9:00-10:20 Instructor: S. McGarvey
ANTH1123 Native North Americans in the Twenty-first Century
An examination of the process of land alienation of Native Americans through the enactment of federal laws to settle the frontiers and protect the wilderness. Through the use of oral history, ethnographies, film, historical documents, and the public record, the course compares Native American and Euro-American perspectives on the ownership of land and rights to resources.
MWF 1:00-1:50 Instructor: D. Anderson
ANTH1124 United States Culture
The United States is often described as "multi-cultural". This course examines dominant cultural values such as equality, choice, privacy, and responsibility. It also investigates aspects of the social structure of the United States such as inequality, power, race/ethnicity, kinship, and gender. Individual lives illustrate the ways that people living in the United States negotiate cultural values and confront social institutions.
TTh 9:00-10:20 Instructor: N. Townsend
ANTH1151 Ethnographies of the Muslim Middle East
This course is an introduction to ethnographic studies of the Muslim Middle East, with particular focus on: religion, language, modernity, gender, and expressive culture. This is not a comprehensive survey of Middle Eastern history or politics. Rather, it is a critical examination of the ways in which anthropologists have sought to capture Middle Eastern life, and the problems that have pervaded anthropological representation, both methodologically and theoretically. Thus, in this course you will learn, through the ways in which American anthropologists have sought to depict Middle Eastern "others," the processes by which we come to understand cultural difference, as well as the ways in which this encounter can shed light on our own selves and practices. A previous course in anthropology is suggested.
W 3:00-5:20 Instructor: S. Hamdy
ANTH1224 Human Trafficking
We will retrace the development and impact of the 2000 UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Human Trafficking, Especially Women and Children. The course will deal with the protocol as both a legal text and as a living document, with a history and ongoing political relevance. After dealing with the creation of the protocol document, we will trace the circulation and use of this legal framework in a variety of interventions to combat trafficking throughout the world. We will study the intended and unintended consequences of the appropriation of international norms in different national settings and political climates.
Th 6:30-8:50 Instructor: K. Warren
ANTH1233 Ethnographies of Global Connection: Politics, Culture and International Relations Historically, IR and Anthropology examined interactions within and among bounded objects, whether sovereign states or small-scale societies. Increasingly, through, they explore flows, circulations and exchanges across borders, and their impact on different societies. Through case-studies, the course will analyze evolving understandings of "globalization" and "culture," and explore how effectively different genres of research and representation capture their complex interactions.
MWF 12-12:50 Instructor: K. Brown
ANTH1234 Anthropology and Utopia
Utopia: designs for good societies and efforts to create them; and Anthropology: observation and description of societies. A wide-ranging reading and discussion class that will address such questions as: Does Anthropological description contribute to the design of good societies? Have Anthropologists been looking for Utopia? What does Anthropology suggest is wrong with existing societies? Whose job is it to judge societies? How would Utopias be like to live in? How have people tried to build Utopias? Have they failed completely? Is failure inevitable? Is a better world possible? What would it look like? How would we get there?
MWF 1-1:50 Instructor: N. Townsend
ANTH1240 Religion and Culture
This course will provide an intellectual history of anthropological theory about religion and demonstrate its usefulness in understanding the cultural varieties of religious experience and religious change in an increasingly globalizing world.
MWF 11:00-11:50 Instructor: P. Leis
ANTH1320 Anthropology and International Development: Ethnographic Perspectives on Poverty and Progress
Examines international development from an ethnographic perspective, looking critically at issues of poverty and progress from local points of view. Course is organized around the premise that culture is central to understanding processes of development. Broad development themes such as public health, agriculture, democracy, and the environment will be explored through readings representing a wide range of regions and cultures. Not Open to: First Year Students, Sophomores. Reserved for certain concentrations; please check Banner for the list.
M 3:00-5:20 Instructor: D. Smith
ANTH1623 Archaeology of Death
Explores the study of death and burial from archaeology's unique comparative and long-term perspective. What insights does it provide about the human condition? How have human remains illuminated the lived experiences of people in the past? What do funerary objects reveal about beliefs and social relations? Gravestones and monuments about emotions and memory? Also examines current challenges to the excavation and study of graves.
W 10-12:20 Instructor: D. Loren
ANTH1640 - Mesoamerican Archaeology
This course examines the archaeology of Mesoamerican civilizations. Students will learn the similarities and differences between such cultures ads the ancient Olmec, Zapotec, Maya, Toltec, and Aztec that inhabited this region from 1200 BC through the Spanish conquest. Readings and lectures will highlight the different ways in which scholars look at the past as they reconstruct ancient ways of life.
MWF 2-2:50 Instructor: T. Garrison
ANTH1810 Language and Power
This course considers how language and power relate to each other in social life. We first consider theoretical approaches to the politics of language use, such as Foucault on discursive formations, Bourdieu on language as social capital, and Bakhtin on the oppression inherent in standard languages. We then consider specific issues, including joking as linguistic resistance, language death and revitalization, the cochlear implant debate, and racializing discourses. We end with language use in the U.S. "culture wars," covering such topics as the Ebonics controversy, language and electoral politics, hate speech, and English language legislation.
TTh 10:30-11:50 Instructor: P. Faudree
ANTH1900 History of Anthropology
Focuses on the formative years of the discipline of anthropology. Who were the significant figures? What were the significant questions and assumptions in the 19th and early 20th centuries? How did they shape the institution, theories, and methods that are the basis for understanding the dominant concerns in present-day anthropology? Prerequisites: two anthropology courses, including ANTH 0100.
T 1:30-3:50 Instructor: P. Leis
ANTH1910A Senior Seminar: Anthropological Approaches to World Issues
Capstone seminar for Anthropology concentrators that explores how anthropology can challenge conventional or dominant wisdom about global social problems. Original research project required. Prerequisite: ANTH 1900 Enrollment Limited to 20. Prereq: ANTH 1621 or ANTH 1900 or ANTH 1940 or ANTH 1950;
M 12:30-2:50 Instructor: P. Symonds
ANTH1940 Ethnographic Research Methods
To understand the different theoretical assumptions that shape research efforts; to examine how hypotheses and research questions are formulated; and to appreciate the ethical and scientific dimensions of research by hands-on experience in fieldwork projects. Prerequisites: One anthropology course. Enrollment Limited to 20.
Th 3:00-5:20 Instructor: L. Fruzzetti
ANTH1970 Individual Research Project
Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.
Primarily for Graduates
ANTH2000 History of Ethnological Theory
A seminar investigating some themes in the history of anthropological theory. Starting with the delineations of the scope and nature of social science by Marx, Durkheim, and Weber, the seminar then considers various explorations of the concepts of structure, function, and agency, concluding with Bourdieu's reformulation of social anthropology for a new generation in the form of practice theory.
Th 10-12:20 Instructor: J. Leinaweaver
ANTH2025 Research Design in Anthropology
The purpose of this seminar is to help graduate students conceptualize ethnographic research, formulate a research problem, develop a research design, consider its ethical implications, design appropriate methodologies and prepared the proposal for IRB approval. The methodologies will be discussed with a view to arriving at a critical understanding of the ethical, political and theoretical issues embedded in them and the way in which they fit into our conception of anthropological practice. Not Open to: First Year Students, Sophomores, Juniors.
T 1:30-3:50 Instructor: M. Hollos
ANTH2321 Coming to Terms with India: Anthropology of Colonialism and Nationalism
This course is designed to look into the impact of colonialism, nationalism and the postcolonial identities of the person in India. In addition to the primacy of the anthropological focus, the seminar will also draw from cultural studies and history. Our engagement will bewith topics of nationalism, religion, and caste and class formation during colonial and post colonial rule. Additional topics using the anthropological approach will include orientalism and gender; the location of national minorities within the Indian democracy and the future of fundamentalism; post-colonialism and the emerging new person.
W 3:00-5:20 Instructor: L. Fruzzetti
ANTH2501 Principles of Archaeology
Examines theoretical and methodological issues in anthropological archaeology. Attention is given to past concerns, current debates, and future directions of archaeology in the social sciences.
M 3:00-5:20 Instructor: S. Houston
ANTH2550 Archaeological Research Methods, Theory and Practicum
The seminar is designed to help the student development good research and analytical skills in archaeology. By focusing on research design, analytic techniques, the relationship between theory and methodology, and the development of research proposal and/or reports, we shall examine how both scientific and humanistic theoretical concerns can be sources of meaningful archaeological questions, and how these questions can be transformed into viable research problems.
F 3:00-5:20 Instructor: D. Anderson
ANTH2900 Teaching Practicum
Fall ANTH2900 S01 10769 'To Be Arranged'
ANTH2970 Preliminary Examination Preparation
For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing for a preliminary examination.
ANTH2980 Reading and Research
Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.
ANTH2990 Thesis Preparation
For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing a thesis.
Fall XLIST Courses of Interest to Students Concentrating in Anthropology
The following Semester 1 cross-listed courses may be of interest to students concentrating
in Anthropology and fulfill certain concentration requirements:
AFRI0600 Race, Gender and Urban Politics (Perry)
AFRI1050G Black Women's Political Autobiography (Perry)
ARCH0300 13 Things (Ryzewski)
ARCH0351 Introduction to the Ancient Near East (Harmansah)
ARCH0770 Food and Drink in Classical Antiquity (Alcock)
ARCH0801 Alexander the Great and the Alexander Tradition (Cherry)
ARCH1160 The World of Museums: Logistics, Laws, and Loans (Kersel)
ARCH1200F City and the Festival: Cult Practices (Harmansah)
ARCH1900 Archaeology of College Hill (Ryzewski)
COGS0320 Biology & Evolution of Language (Lieberman)
COGS1240 Research Methods Physiologic & Acoustic Phonetics (Lieberman)
EAST1950C After Empire: History, Memory and Mourning (Koga)
EDUC0410C Literature of Children & Young Adults (Brice Heath)
EDUC1280 International Perspectives on Informal Education (Brice Heath)
JUDS1981 Minority News: Radical Reporting & Reading (Brink Danan)
LAST1510I Urban Latin America (Oliven)
SCSO0490 Introduction to Science Studies (Hamdy)
Spring Term
ANTH0066D Who Owns the Past?
Examines the roles of the past in the present: Why study the past, and why preserve it? How has the materiality of the past been represented in different historical and cultural contexts and for what purposes? How do the global realities of indigenous, ethnic, and nationalist struggles shape current archaeological practice? The course uses case studies from around the world to explore the conflicts in the interpretation and presentation of the past and their broader implications.
W3:00-5:20 Instructor: P. Rubertone
ANTH0066Q Crisis of Identities in the Global Order
The seminar is intended to engage first-year students in discussion and analysis of one of the perplexing questions of the modern age. Why, with globalization and an attendant world-view shaped by the technological revolutions of communication that appeal to commonalities, we find more emphasis on local differences, more conflicts related to identities determined by opposition to "the other"? A concordant question will be: how do different disciplines address the concept of identity?
T 1:30-3:50 Instructor: P. Leis
ANTH0100 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
This course examines what it means to be human in different cultures. We will study a range of theories and methods used to study culture, including ethnography, the intensive and personal study of cultures that is a hallmark of anthropology. We will learn how anthropology contributes to understanding social problems like racism, genocide, disease, militarism, and social inequalities of all kinds.
MWF 1:1:50 Instructor: R. Peters
ANTH0301 - Gender, Medicine and Care
This class explores how the production of medical knowledge and the provision of health care are gendered through close readings of ethnographic case studies of care delivery, reproduction, and aging. Theoretical readings in medical anthropology and feminist science studies will consider the scientific principles upon which sex dimorphism is based and the diverse practices that gender health and illness.
T 4:00-6:20 Instructor: A. Mazzarino
ANTH0500 Discovering the Past: Introduction to Archaeology and Prehistory
This course is an introduction to the biological origins and cultural developments of mankind over the past 4 millions years. In particular we shall address the following: human evolution, the methods and aims of archaeological research, human dispersal throughout the world, first from Africa to Eurasia, and from there to North and South America, Australia and the Pacific. We will look into hunting and fishing and gathering lifeways. We will study the beginnings and results of settled life, agriculture, and animal domestication, the evolution of complex societies and rise (and fall) of Civilization.
MWF 12:00-12:50 Instructor: D. Anderson
ANTH0800 Sound and Symbols: Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology
An introduction to the relationship between language and culture. Questions we consider include: how does language create social realities? How does language construct us as individuals and mark us as members of groups? What role does language play in processes like socialization, globalization, and domination? Topics we cover include theories of language as a symbolic system, language differences and inequality, political speech, and creative use of language in performance, literature, advertising, and mass media. We also consider language use in specific social contexts, such as classrooms, courtrooms, medical and scientific settings, policy debates, and political campaigns.
MWF 10:00-10:50 Instructor: P. Faudree
ANTH1020 AIDS in Global Perspective
Communities around the world are affected in different ways by the HIV-AIDS pandemic. This course is concerned with cross-cultural variation in knowledge, perception, and treatment of AIDS in a global context. Twenty-five years into the global epidemic, how does social and cultural variation influence the continued spread or management of the disease? In addition to reading significant anthropological works related to the meaning of AIDS in cultural context, the course will address major public health initiatives related to the global AIDS pandemic, and offer an anthropological critique of their design, implementation and success.
MWF 10:00-10:50 Instructor: A. Harrison
ANTH1100 Circumpolar Ethnography
An examination of the traditional and modern lifeways of native peoples across the Arctic and subarctic from European Lapland through Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Topics covered are society; ethnic relations; religion (Shamanism); art; and politics, including issues of land claims and home rule.
T 1:30-3:50 Instructor: D. Anderson
ANTH1110 African Issues in Anthropological Perspective
Western ideas of Africa are dominated by images of a primitive and timeless past and of a present characterized by poverty, AIDS, famine, and violence. In reality, Africa is a vast continent with a rich history and a population of half a billion people who live in very varied physical, economic, political, and cultural environments. In this course we will read detailed ethnographic accounts and general depictions of the continent by Western and African scholars. We will also read some fiction by African authors, see some African films, look at some African art, and listen to some African music. The goals of the course are: 1) To learn about the lives of a variety of Africans at particular times and in particular places, 2) To know the outline of the history that has formed the African present, 3) To understand specific world views and patterns of belief that have been described as typically African, and 4) To investigate the possibility, and the problems, of generalizing about Africa.
TTh 1:00-2:20 Instructor: N. Townsend
| ANTH 1133 - Ethnonationalism- The Asian Arena |
| Three Asian countries-China, Thailand, and Myanmar-are unique national arenas to examine and compare specific definitions, representations, and contentions among nationalistic discourse, ethnic legitimization, and ethnonationalism as they are played out in response to cultural politics, national ideology, European colonial expansion, religious identity, and ethnic identity. Nationalistic movements, ethnic nationalism, and transnational politics are explored. F 3:00-5:20 Instructor: W. Anderson |
ANTH1211 Cross Cultural Perspectives on Child Development
The course explores how the behavior and psychological functioning of children are shaped by culture and how different cultures tend to produce children with characteristic personalities, selves, thought pattern and behaviors. Every cultural community provides developmental pathways for its children. These pathways are shaped by history, and by the goals of parents, communities and children themselves. The course will focus on how human knowledge is transmitted through multiple cultural channels in both informal and formal contexts.
TTh 10:30-11:50 Instructor: M. Hollos
ANTH1251 Violence in the Media
The role of media in shaping perceptions of violent conflict. Analysis of constructions of the "violent other", "victims", and "suffering", the use of culture, ethnicity, and psychopathology as tropes for articulating the motivations of violent perpetrators. Multiple subject positions and political interests will be considered. Case studies include the Cold War, conflicts, insurgencies urban riots, the genocide, and terrorism.
TH 4-6:20 Instructor: K. Warren
ANTH1260 Indigenous People and Nature: Birds
An exploration of intersections of indigenous peoples with the natural world; this semester with the avian world. Through a sustained focus on one class of living things, the hope is to gain access to a range of issues concerning the relationship between people and the environment.
MW 8:30-9:50 Instructor: S. Krech
ANTH1624 Indians, Colonists, and Africans in New England
The course explores the colonial and capitalist transformation of New England's social and cultural landscapes following European contact. Using archaeology as critical evidence, we will examine claims about conquest, Indian Extinction, and class, gender and race relations by studying the daily lives and interactions of the area's diverse Native American, African American, and European peoples.
TTh 10:30-11:50 Instructor: P. Rubertone
Primarily for Graduates
ANTH1910D Senior Seminar: Faces of Culture
The seminar is designed to allow you as anthropology majors to question to debate and examine some of the assumptions of the discipline, and critically explore the multfacious uses of the concept. We will contextualize the study of culture with the history of anthropology and across other disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences. Limited to 20. Prerequisite: ANTH1900
W 3:00-5:20 Instructor: L. Fruzzetti
ANTH2010 Principles of Cultural Anthropology
A seminar exploring fundamental theoretical and ethnographic currents in 20th-century cultural anthropology.
W 3:00-5:20 Instructor: M. Gutmann
ANTH2035 Professional Preparation for Anthropologists
This course covers research ethics and politics, writing of proposals, theses, and articles, publishing, public speaking, CVs and resumes, and the job search.
Th 3:00-5:20 Instructor C. Lutz
ANTH2110 Anthropological Theories in Africa
Fieldwork experience in Africa has had a profound influence on the development of theory in anthropology, while theoretical considerations in turn, have guided fieldwork. This seminar examines this dialogic relationships in selected problems. Open to seniors with previous course work in anthropology and African topics.
M 3:00-5:20 Instructor: P. Leis
ANTH2240 Anthropological Approaches to the Body
Pending Approval. This course is an in-depth exploration of theoretical and analytical approaches to the body in socio-cultural anthropology. Topics covered include: the body as site and sign of the social order; theories of embodiment and the cultivation of the self; bodily order and social ritual; the senses; the relationship between bodily epistemology and socio-political structures; the commodification of the body; technological intervention in the body; the visualization of the bodily interior; and state interventions and regulations of bodily processes.
M 3:00-5:20 Instructor: S. Hamdy
ANTH2250A Psychology of Gender
This course critically examines the role of gender in development and maturation, or the psychological differentiation of males and females, in the context of their socio-cultural environment.
T 1:30-3:50 Instructor: M. Hollos
ANTH2300 Anthropological Demography
A seminar devoted to the investigation of the interface of anthropology (especially sociocultural anthropology) and demography. A wide variety of demographic topics-fertility, mortality, marriage, migrationare considered, and the links between anthropological and demographic writings on and approaches to these areas are examined.
M 3:00-5:20 Instructor: N. Townsend
ANTH2500C GIS and Remote Sensing
This course will train advanced students in the laboratory methods needed for the successful application of GIS and remote sensing technologies in archaeology. We will conduct an exhaustive literature review of spatial research in archaeology to place GIS and remote sensing within a broader conceptual framework. Each student will design their own geodatabase that they will be able to build upon in future research.
T 4-6:20 Instructor: T. Garrison
ANTH2520 Mesoamerican Archaeology and Ethnohistory
Seminar focusing on current issues in the archaeology and history of Mesoamerica, including Mexico and Northern Central America. Draws on rich resources at Brown, including the John Carter Brown Library.
M 3:00-5:20 Instructor: S. Houston/P. Faudree
ANTH2800 Linguistic Theory and Practice
An introduction to theoretical and methodological issues in the study of language and social life. We begin by examining semiotic approaches to language. We turn to classical research on language as a structured system - covering such topics as phonology and grammatical categories - but we focus on the implications of such work for broader social scientific and humanistic research. We then consider areas of active contemporary research, including cognition and linguistic relativity, meaning and semantics, pronouns and deixis, deference and register, speech acts and performativity, interaction, verbal art and poetics, reported speech, performance, and linguistic ideology.
T 1:30-3:50 Instructor: P. Faudree
ANTH2900 Teaching Practicum
Spr ANTH2900 S01 20553 'To Be Arranged'
ANTH2970 Preliminary Examination Preparation
For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing for a preliminary examination.
ANTH2980 Reading and Research
Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.
ANTH2990 Thesis Preparation
For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing a thesis.
UNIV1700 Transformation of the Research University
This seminar will focus on recent transformations of the academic, instructional and administrative character of the elite American research universities. Emphasis will be on selected pressure points (such as research funding, diversity, technology, market influence) that drive change and shape the future.
W3:5:20 Instructor: William Simmons
Spring XLIST Courses of Interest to Students Concentrating in Anthropology
The following Semester 2 cross-listed courses may be of interest to students concentrating
in Anthropology and fulfill certain concentration requirements:
AFRI0710A Racial Politicalism in Brazil (Perry)
AFRI1440 Theorizing the Black Diaspora (Perry)
ARCH0100 Field Archaeology in the Ancient World (Alcock)
ARCH0330 Archeology Under the Volcano (Holmberg)
ARCH0440 Archaeologies of the Ancient “Middle East” (Kersel)
ARCH1050 Old World & New World Perspectives in Archaeology (Cherry/Garrison)
ARCH1810 Under the Tower of Babel: Arch, Politics & Identity (Harmansah)
ARCH1820 The Location of Theory (Straughn)
ARCH1860 Engineering Material Culture (Ryzewski)
ARCH2010C Architecture, Body and Performance ...(
Harmansah)
ARCH 1820 The Location of Theory (Straughan)
CLAS0210 Sport in the Ancient Greek World (Cherry)
JUDS0870 Israeli Society (Brink-Danan)
LAST1510J The Making of Modern Brazil (Ruben)
POBS1600O Displacement: Colonialism, Migration and Transnationalism... (Bastos)