Course Offerings

Anthropology

Current Semester Course Offerings

Course Information from Course Catalog

109. Cultural Anthropology (I or II; 3, 0; U)
Nature and scope of the field: method and theory, institutions of human beings in cross-cultural perspective, case studies.

200. Urban Anthropology (I; 3, 0; U)
Anthropological perspective and the study of the city; problems of methodology, comparative urbanism, case studies, culture of poverty.

201. Field Research in Local Communities (I or II; 3, 0; U)
Participant observation, interviewing and other field research methods. Students will carry out exercises and projects in local communities. Crosslisted as SOCI 201.

227. Witchcraft and Politics (I; 3, 0; U)
Explores witchcraft, spirit possession, and cults of the dead as idioms of power and as vehicles for protest, resistance, and violent social change.

228. Ritual, Myth, and Meaning (II; 3, 0; U)
The anthropological analysis of cultural symbolism. Rituals of the life cycle such as birth, initiation, and death; taboo, witchcraft, and the interpretation of supernatural powers.

235. Modern Africa (I; 3, 0; U)
Introduction to complexity, richness, and vitality of contemporary African clutures.  Interdisciplinary perspectives on issues including economy, politics, family and community, art, literature, religion. Crosslisted as IREL 235.

244. South Asian Culture and Society (II; 3, 0; U)
An introduction to contemporary South Asia. Religion, politics, gender, kinship, social organization, ethnic conflict, arts, transnationalism.

245. Consumption and Material Culture (I; 3, 0; U)
Anthropological studies of consumption of material goods in their cultural contexts, American and Japanese studies from fast food to shopping habits. Crosslisted as EAST 245.

246. Japanese Culture and Society (I; 3, 0; U)
Anthropological perspective and contemporary Japan; cultural origins, variations within Japanese culture; aspects of social organization, culture, and personality. Crosslisted as EAST 246.

247. Japanese Film as Anthropology (I or II; 3, 0; U)
The use of Japanese film as a key to understanding both the intricacies of Japanese culture and society and the perspective of anthropology. Crosslisted as EAST 247.

249. Inside the Japanese Corporation (I or II; 3, 0; U)
Ethnographic approaches to the study of the Japanese corporation. A critical examination of industrial familialism, the lifetime employment system, and the work ethic. Crosslisted as EAST 249.

251. Women and Development (I or II; 3, 0; U)
This course takes a historicized and cross-cultural look at the relationship between women and the institution of Third World development. This includes an examination of the influence of local forms of feminist thought and practice on development policy, planning and projects. Crosslisted as WMST 251.

252. Peoples and Cultures of the Andean World (II; 3, 0; U)
The cultural and social groups inhabiting the South American west coast in historical context; implications for anthropological and social issues concerning Third World societies.

256. Native Americans, Past and Present (AI; 3, 0; U)
Origins, prehistoric development, historic contact, resistance and suppression of Native North Americans, and their struggle as sovereign nations inside the United States and Canada.

260. Perspective-Human-Environment  Relations
In this course we compare Western, scientific models of the environment with non-Western ones.

265. Food, Eating, and Culture
Social significance of food and eating. Taboos and ritual, food and identities, eating and political hierarchy, food and gender, global culture. Materialist and symbolic interpretations.

266. Economies and Societies: Beyond Money
Introduction to the study of economic systems within specific cultural contexts.  We will consider how economic systems interact with other aspects of daily life on the level of the individual, the family, and society. (Must have taken ANTH-109)

267. Anthropology of Tourism:
Connect broad issues to an analysis of specific cases, culminating with a question that vexes academics, government officials, and local peoples alike:  Under what condidtions, and by what criteria, can tourism be considered a positive (or negative) force?

270. Sexuality and Culture (II; 3, 0; U)
Explores diverse cultural constructions of sexual identity, power, transformation, and taboo, and examines gender as a primary principle of social and cosmic organization.

273. Women Writing Culture (II; 3, 0; U)
This course explores the genre of ethnography as it has been used to examine womens lives and issues of gender around the world. Crosslisted as WMST 273.

282. Performance and Culture (I or II; 3, 0; U)
Interdisciplinary approaches to the study of culture and performance: dance, music, theatre, and ritual. Explores issues of embodiment, identity, gender, ethnicity, colonialism, nationalism, and globalization.

283. Interpreting Culture (I; 3, 0; U)
Explores into the major theoretical trends - both historical and contemporary - in cultural anthropology; conceptualizations of culture, society, and humankind; history and current status of the concept of culture.

319 and 320. Honors Course in Anthropology (I and II; U)
Each student selects a project to be developed individually. Prerequisite: permission of the department.

325 and 326. Advanced Reading in Anthropology (I or II; R; 0, 12; U) Half to two courses.
Readings developed around the interest of individual students. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.

329. Religions in Africa: Spirits, Saints, and Sufis (I or II; 3, 0)
Explores the diversity of religious beliefs and practices in Africa. Religious change, syncretism, and ritual debates. Prerequisite: any anthropology course or permission of the instructor.

330. Advanced Seminar in Anthropology (I or II; 3, 0; U)
Focuses on selected topics of ethnographic and theoretical interest, varying from year to year. Prerequisite: ANTH 283 or permission of the instructor.

351. Field Research (AII; R; 3, 0; U) Half to two courses.
Independent investigation in the field; formulation of hypotheses, construction of measuring instruments, data collection, data analysis, and test of hypotheses.

410. Environmental Issues from a Cross-Cultural Perspective
In this course, we explore the interactions between people, cultures, and environments.