DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY Course Descriptions Autumn 2005

20701-20702. Introduction to African Civilization I, II. (=HIST 10101-10102, SOSC 22500-22600) General education social science sequence recommended. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies. The first portion of this two-quarter sequence will begin with some very general introduction to Africa and then focus on two areas/peoples of West Africa: the Mande and the Igbo. Both sections will deal with precolonial, colonial and contemporary issues. The approach throughout will include anthropological, historical and literary analysis. The second quarter of African Civilization explores processes of historical transformation in Africa, and more specifically the complex legacy of the colonial encounter. Over the course of the late 19th century, the African continent was divided up among different European powers. Although sometimes at odds with each other, colonial governments, traders and missionaries all sought, in different ways, to transform African peoples. In this class we will consider some of those interventions, how diverse African peoples responded, and the more general experience of African modernity. R. Austen, Autumn; J. Cole, Winter. TuTh 9:00-10:20

21104: Classical Readings in Anthropology: Explorations in Relativism: An Introduction to Cross-Cultural Perspectives. This course surveys some of the central themes in the study of cultural difference in anthropology. The concept of relativism will be used as a frame to explore issues of cross-cultural understanding, moral values, the practice of anthropology, writing about difference, and reason as a moral practice. A 10 week course with these broad objectives will necessarily contain only a fraction of the relevant bibliography. Attention will be paid to instructive cases, and classic readings in the field. Topics include totemism, exchange, art and aesthetics, myth and oral narrative, authorship, personhood, kinship, law and politics, and indigenous rights. Rather than provide a unified approach to each of these complex fields, the aim is to provide a critical engagement with the texts, and to look at how the concept of culture, the practices of anthropology, and the effects of social and political history have informed our perspective on difference. Edward Labenski. TuTh 12:00-1:20.

21233/36310. Moche Political Systems (=LACS 21233/36310) . This course presents an in-depth exploration of the Moche (Mochica) culture (AD 100-800), a Pre-Inka civilization of the desert North Coast of Peru. World-renowned for their naturalistic art, the Moche are also famed for having constructed monumental adobe pyramids and sophisticated hydraulic systems, unrivaled in scale in the prehistoric Americas. Recent archaeological work has revealed the urbanized and heterogeneous character of Moche society. Moche political systems are thought to have been grounded in religious authority, and it is believed that human sacrifice and ritual violence formed the basis of elite power relations. In this course, intensive examination of the Moche will permit critical study of archaeological methods deployed in the reconstruction of prehistoric religious ideology and political structures. The relationship of state religious programs to economic and coercive forms of social control will be carefully scrutinized. Moreover, we will explore the challenges of analyzing the political and religious strategies of lower class populations from material remains, relying in part on data gathered by the instructor during recent fieldwork. Therefore, emphasis will be placed on problematizing the archaeological record and on evaluating how multiple databases can be effectively mobilized to interpret the full breadth and diversity of Moche society. The course will allow students to partake in archaeological problem solving involving both method and theory while engaging with one of the most intriguing civilizations of the prehistoric Andes. Edward Swenson. TuTh 3:00-4:20

21241. Intensive Study of a Culture: Representing the American Southwest. This course provides an overview of the social, historical, and environmental factors that characterize the American Southwest and an ethnographic introduction to the groups that have settled there, including American Indians, Hispanics, and Anglo Americans. We will examine the politics of cultural representation and the ways in which anthropologists, tourism promoters, artists, and others have inscribed and imaged the Southwest. The course will foreground issues of land, water, race, ethnicity, and identity in the region. Thomas Guthrie. MonWed 3:00-4:20.

21301. Modern Readings in Anthropology: Shamanism. The venerable topic of shamanism is explored in its original Siberian manifestations, North American variations, and extensions into Central and South America and elsewhere. The New Age and not-so-New Age interest in shamanism is also considered. R. Fogelson. TuTh 3:00-4:20

21411. Practice of Anthropology: Introduction to Pierre Bourdieu. This course is an introductory seminar to the thought and works of French sociologist and anthropologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002). Among other aspects of his contribution, we will see how, meshing the French Durkheimian and structuralist schools of social science with a renewed Marxian critical theory, German Weberian scientific tradition, Merleau-Ponty's and Husserl's breeds of phenomenology, and the French current of rationalist historicism in epistemology (Koyré, Bachelard, Canguilhem), in a work deeply entrenched in empirical research, Bourdieu proposes a workable toolkit as well as a general theoretical framework to break the dualisms still commonly sterilizing what he calls scholastic thought, including: objectivism and subjectivism, individual and society, structure and agency, interests and passions, freedom and determinism, theory and ethnography, the material and the symbolic, thought and action, power and resistance, universality and relativism, science and critique. Theory will never be studied for its own sake but as a practice carried out to increase the efficiency of the actual empirical work it serves. Though epistemological reflection will never be far, we will privilege concrete studies and focus on the main works (notably Distinction) not as external commentators but as active practitioners of the craft of sociology, anthropology and history. It is recommended to have completed your undergraduate social science core before taking this class. It has been designed for anthropology students but is of course open to students of sociology, history, political science and philosophy. Sébastien Chauvin, MonWed 12 Noon -1:20pm

21510/35110 Cultural Psychology (=HUDV 21000/31000, PSYC 2300/330) There is a substantial portion of the psychological nature of human beings that is neither homogeneous nor fixed across time and space. At the heart of the discipline of cultural psychology is the tenet of psychological pluralism, which states that the study of "normal" psychology is the study of multiple psychologies and not just the study of a single or uniform fundamental psychology for all peoples of the world. Research findings in cultural psychology thus raise provocative questions about the integrity and value of alternative forms of subjectivity across cultural groups. In this course we analyze the concept of "culture" and examine ethnic and cross-cultural variations in mental functioning with special attention to the cultural psychology of emotions, self, moral judgment, categorization and reasoning. R. Shweder. TuTh 3:00-4:20

23101-23102-23103. Introduction to Latin American Civilization I, II, III. (=HIST 16101-16102-16103, LTAM 16100-16200-16300, LCAS 34600-34700-34800, SOSC 26100-26200-26300) PQ: Completion of the general education requirement in social sciences. May be taken in sequence or individually. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies. For course description, see History. This three-quarter sequence introduces students to the history and cultures of Latin America, including Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean Islands. The first quarter examines the origins of civilizations in Latin America with a focus on the political, social, and cultural features of the major pre-Columbian civilizations of the Maya, Inca, and Aztec, concluding with the Spanish and Portuguese conquest. The second quarter considers the evolution of colonial societies, the wars for independence, and the emergence of Latin American nation-states in the changing international context of the nineteenth century. The third quarter addresses the twentieth century, with a special emphasis on the challenges of economic, political, and social development in the region. Staff MWF 1:30-2:20

24101-24102. Introduction to the Civilization of South Asia I, II. (=HIST 10800-10900, SALC 20100-20200, SASC 20000-20100, SOSC 23000-23100) PQ: Must be taken in sequence. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies. This sequence of courses provides an introduction to core themes in the formation of culture and society in South Asia before colonialism. In the autumn quarter readings selected mainly from Sanskrit and vernacular sources will address ideas and practices relating to space, time, self, power, language, love beauty, death, and spirit. The winter quarter focuses on Islam in South Asia, Hindu-Muslim interaction, Mughal political and literary traditions, and South Asia's early encounters with Europe. Staff TuTh 1:30-2:50

25401/35401. Consumption (=SOCI 20150/30150). The modern period was associated with industrial production, class society, rationalization, disenchantment, the welfare state, and the belief in salvation by society. Current societies are characterized by a culture of consumption; consumption is central to lifestyles and identity, it is instantiated in our technological reality and the complex of advertising media, structures of wanting and shopping. Starting from the question "why do we want things" we will discuss theories and empirical studies that focus on consumption and identity formation; on shopping and the consumption of symbolic signs; on consumption as linked to the re-enchantment of modernity; as a way to create differences between groups; as a process of the globalization of frames; and as related to time and information. The course is built around approaches that complement the "productionist" focus of the social sciences.It is also the first part of a pairing of courses in economic sociology and anthropology (the second is Markets and Money in Winter 2005). K. Knorr Cetina. Tues 3:00-5:50

25500/42600. Cultural Politics of South Asia. (=SALC 20900/30900) Structured as a close-reading seminar, this class offers an anthropological immersion in the cultural politics of urban India today. A guiding thread in the readings is the question of the ideologies and somatics of shifting "middle class" formations, and their articulation through violence, gender, consumerism, religion and technoscience. WTS Mazzarella. Wed. 9:30-12:20.

25700/35700. Globalization: Empirical and Theoretical Elements (=SOCI 20114/30114, GEOG 21700/31700, LAWS 73901). This course will examine how different processes of globalization transform key aspects of, and are in turn shaped by, major institutions, such as sovereignty and citizenship, and major processes, such as urbanization, immigration, digitalization. Particular attention will got to analyzing the challenges from theorization and empirical specification. Transnational processes such as economic globalization confront the social sciences with a series of theoretical and methodological challenges. We want to go beyond international economic analyses focused on macro level cross-border flows and understand what it means to study globalization at a variety of scales of analyses, down to the most detailed approaches requiring field work. Saskia Sassen. Tues, 3:00-5:50.

26100/46500. Ancient Celtic Societies. This course explores the prehistoric societies of Iron Age "Celtic" Europe and their relationship to modern communities claiming Celtic ancestry. The course aims to impart an understanding of (1) the kinds of evidence available for investigating these ancient societies and how archaeologists interpret these data, (2) processes of change in culture and society during the Iron Age, and (3) how the legacy of Celtic societies has both persisted and been reinvented and manipulated in the modern world. Issues include the relationship between language, material culture, and society; colonial interaction; urbanization; art and religion; gender roles; and cultural identity in the construction of tradition. M. Dietler. TuTh 1:30-2:50.

26710/36710. Ancient Landscapes-1 (=NEAA 20061/30061; GEOG 25400/35400; ANST 22600). This course, along with Ancient Landscapes II in the Spring Quarter, will expose you to both numerous spatial theories underlying Landscape Archaeology as well as to the methodologies and tools used to collect and analyze spatial data within the landscape. It is relevant to anyone who may need to conduct an archaeological survey one day or who wishes to analyze the locations of archaeological data, or in textual data, within their spatial contexts. This course is comprised of both a classroom and a laboratory component. The classroom component will consist of lectures and discussions, while the laboratory component will allow you to get hands on experience applying the concepts discussed in class to archaeological data. That said, this course is not a simple introduction to GIS course. You will be using the software for advanced analysis, not just learning how to make maps. As such it assumes some prior familiarity with the ArcGIS software, perhaps through previous coursework or experience, or a willingness to put in some time outside of class to explore the software on your own. Scott Branting. TuTh 10:30-11:50.

26715/36715. Rise of the State in the Near East (=NEAA 20030/30030) This course provides an introduction to the background and development of the first urbanized civilizations in the Near East in the period from 9000 to 2200 BC. In the first half of the course we will examine the archaeological evidence for the first domestication of plants and animals and the earliest village communities in the "fertile crescent" - the Levant, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia. The second half of the course will focus on the economic and social transformations which took place during the development from simple, village based communities to the emergence of the urbanized civilizations of the Sumerians and their neighbors in the fourth and third millennia BC. G. Stein. MWF 11:30-12:20

27001-27002-27003//37001-37002-37003. Introduction to Linguistics I, II, III (= LING 20100-20200-20300/30100-30200-30300, SOSC 21700-21800-21900). PQ: Must be taken in sequence. This course is an introductory survey of methods, findings, and problems in areas of major interest within lin¬guistics and of the relationship of linguistics to other disciplines. Topics include the biological basis of language, basic notions of syntax, semantics, pragmatics, basic syntactic typology of language, phonetics, phonology, morphology, language acquisition, linguistic variation, and linguistic change. S. Mufwene. TuTh 1:30-2:50.

27605/37605. Language, Culture and Thought (=HUDV 21901/31900, PSYC 21950/31900). This is a survey course exploring the role of natural language in shaping human thought. The topic will be taken up at three levels: semiotic-evolutionary (the role of natural language in enabling distinctively human forms of thinking - the rise of true concepts and self-consciousness), structural-comparative (the role of specific language codes in shaping habitual thought - the "linguistic relativity" of experience), and functional-discursive (the role of specialized discursive practices and linguistic ideologies in cultivating specialized forms of thought - the pragmatics, politics, and aesthetics of reason and expression). Readings will be drawn from many disciplines but will emphasize developmental, cultural and critical approaches. J. Lucy. TuTh 1:30-2:50.

29700. Readings in Anthropology. PQ: Consent of instructor and program chairman. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. At the discretion of the instructor, this course is available for either Pass or letter grading. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

29900. Preparation of Bachelor's Essay. PQ: Consent of instructor and program chairman. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. At the discretion of the instructor, this course is available for either Pass or letter grading. For honors requirements, consult the honors section under Program Requirements. Staff. Autumn, Winter, Spring.

30405. Anthropology of Disability (=MAPS 36900, SOSC 36900). M. Fred, Tues 3:00-5:50

30410. Anthropology of Law-1 (=SOSC 46800, MAPS 46800, LAWS 93802).  M. Fred, Thurs. 3:00-5:50.

33101-33102. Native Peoples of North America I, II. Must be taken in sequence. This course is a comprehensive review of Native American cultural history, including consideration of intellectual context, prehistory, ethnology, history, and the contemporary situation. The last half of the third quarter is devoted to a mutually agreed-on topic in which stu¬dents pursue individual research, the results of which are presented in semi¬nar format. R. Fogelson, J Cattelino. TuTh 10:30-11:50

34000. Introduction to Chicago Anthropology. PQ: Open only to first-year Anthropology graduate students. An introduction to the current faculty of the Department of Anthropology, their intellectual genealogies, and their current work. Staff. WedFri 12-1:20. Haskell 315.

34101-02. Development of Social/Cultural Theory-I (200 units) PQ: Open only to first-year Anthropology graduate students. This course is designed for (and enrollment is limited to) students beginning graduate study in anthropology. It is intended to provide a broad perspective on the history of social theory in the West, and critical skills for reading in and contributing to social and cultural theory. We will use the history of theorizing about society and culture as a means to discuss the past, present, and future of anthropology and its relations with other scientific and humanistic disciplines. This is the first half of a two-quarter course. D. Rutherford. TuTh 1:30-4:20. Haskell 315.

34803. Anthro/Lit: Brothers Karamazov/Russian Culture (=SCTH 32550). Close reading of select passages, intense discussion of basic issues such as soul, guilt, forgiveness, depravity, innocence, lust hatred, sin, Christian love, jealousy, shame, brotherly love. Some attention to Biblical subtexts, cultural-historical context (e.g., Russian Orthodoxy, Western rationalism), and certain questions about the language of Dostoevsky. Theoretical issues to be explored include dialogue and polyphony, poetics vs prosaices, skepticism versus faith, and tropology and typology. Some collateral reading from Pesmen's Russia and Soul, Bakhtin, and Figges. The Pevear/Volokhonsky translation. Knowledge of Russian helpful but not necessary. P. Friedrich. MonWed 9:30-12:20.

362. Ceramic Analysis for Archaeologists. This course introduces students to the theoretical foundations and analytical techniques that allow archaeologists to use ceramics to make inferences about ancient societies. Ethnographic, experimental, and physical science approaches are explored to develop a realistic, integrated understanding of the nature of ceramics as a form of material culture and to assess both the kinds of interpretations of ancient people that can plausibly be made on the basis of their pottery and which techniques and research strategies may best serve to obtain useful information. Practical training in the use of the Ceramic Laboratories is included. M. Dietler. TuTh 10:30-11:50

37201. Language in Culture I (LING 3110, Psych 47001). Must be taken in sequence. This is a two-quarter sequence to introduce some of the central theoretical issues involved in the semiotic, cognitive and sociopolitical study of language in its contexts of communicative "use." By developing and using semiotic concepts, the first quarter concentrates on two major problems that organize a vast literature and diverse theoretical approaches. The first problem is to understand interpersonal communication is carried on in-and-by the medium of language. Such communication manifests itself both in an orderly, or at least ‘(non-in)coherent' unfolding of information and in the structured and culturally consequential social action that is accomplished in-and-by that unfolding. The second problem is to understand how language is a medium of and factor in so-called ‘conceptual' representations or mental "knowledge." There are various sources of such knowledge ‘coded' in the forms of language, and this diversity reveals the modes of semiosis of which language is composed at its various planes. We concentrate in particular on the semiotic characterization of dialectially emergent "cultural knowledge" or "cultural conceptualization," the nature of which is a current research frontier between social and cognitive sciences, between modernist and post-modernist humanities. M. Silverstein. WF 9:30-11:20

37110 Language, inequality and symbolic power (=HUVD 30203). This course explores how language as an area in which power relations are created and exercised on the individual, collective, and institutional levels. Through the study of different interactional settings, well examine the ways interactions are influenced by sociolinguistic inequalities. Well study how power is internalized by speakers and shape their ways of looking at other speakers and languages. Well also focus on Pierre Bourdieu's notion of symbolic power, according to which power is identified as something natural. Well address the question of how symbolic power is transformed into symbolic violence. Cécile Vigouroux MW 1:30-2:50.
37701. Phonetics (= LING 20600/30600). PQ: Ling 201, 202, or 203; or consent of instructor. This is an introduction to the study of speech sounds. Speech sounds are described with respect to their articulatory, acoustic, and perceptual structures. There are lab exercises both in phonetic transcription and in the acoustic analysis of speech sounds. J. Riggle. MW 1:30-2:50.

37801. Syntax I (=LING 20400/30400). PQ: Ling 201, 202, or 203; or equivalent. This course is devoted to detailed study of the major syntactic phenomena of English, combined with exposition and critical evaluation of the principal accounts of phenomena proposed by transformational gram¬marians and the theoretical frameworks within which those accounts are developed. Class discussion focuses on ideas advanced in or arising out of transformational grammar with regard to the relation between syntax and semantics and the psychological status of linguistic analyses. J. Merchant. TuTh 10:30-11:50

42500. Anthropology of the Afro-Atlantic World. Although originally pioneered, more than three generations ago, by scholars and critics such as C.L.R. James, Eric Williams, W.E.B. DuBois, or Walter Rodney, conceptions of an "Atlantic World" have only recently come to prominence in Anthropology. In the past decade, however, students of Africa and the Americas have increasingly begun to phrase their inquiries in terms transcending entrenched geographical divisions of labor within the social sciences, aiming to include Africa, the Americas, and, to a certain extent, Europe into a single analytic field. Parts of this course will be devoted to a concise introduction to some of the major theoretical positions within, and controversies surrounding the new "Atlantic" anthropology of Africa and its New World diasporas. After this, we will examine a number of recent monographs and/or major articles exemplifying the promises and pitfalls of theoretical conceptions and methodological procedures that attempt to go beyond mere transregional comparison or linear historical narratives about "African influences", and aim at analytically situating specific ethnographic or historical scenarios within integrated perspectives on an "Afro-Atlantic World". S. Palmié. Tues 12:00-2:50

46705. Urbanization, the City, and Social Theory. This seminar offers a comparative examination of the rise and organization of ancient cities through a detailed investigation of urban social theory. We will explore competing anthropological interpretations of urban process while probing the political, ideological, and economic structures of the world's earliest cities. Students will have the opportunity to examine a broad range of subjects, including mechanisms of city genesis; urban-rural relations; the intersections of city and state; and historical variation in urban landscapes, ideologies, and political economies. Discussion will focus in part on the spatial practices, structural inequalities, and political institutions linking ancient urbanism with industrial and post-industrial cities. Ultimately, class members will become familiar with processes of prehistoric urbanization while contemplating the social foundations of contemporary city life. E. Swenson. Wed 1:30-4:20

48100. Advanced Problems in Paleoanthropology (=EVOL 48100). This course includes tutorial museum, laboratory, and field studies on the hom¬inoid fossil record and contextual information relevant to its interpretation. R. Tuttle. Autumn, Winter, Spring. Annually.

48500. Advanced Problems in Primate Locomotion and Comparative Morphology (=EVOL 48500). This course is a seminar and/or laboratory study of the morphological and behavioral adaptations of selected primates and implications for primate phylogeny. R. Tuttle. Autumn, Winter, Spring. Annually.

52200. Proposal Preparation. (PQ: Open only to anthropology graduate students preparing for field work) This is a required course for (primarily third-year) graduate students who are preparing field work grant applications and dissertation proposal during the current academic year. The course is taken pass/fail and provides each student the opportunity to present a pre-circulated draft research proposal for discussion and critique. The course focuses on preparation and discussion of students' draft proposals. Jean Comaroff/ Joseph Masco. Wed. 1:30-4:20 (1:00-3:50?).

53701. The 21st Century: Law and Disorder in the Postcolony. A course sponsored by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory. (Limit: 25 graduate students, no auditors. Preference for students from doctoral departments) Postcolonial and post-totalitarian polities across the world appear to be caught in a pervasive paradox. On one hand, they manifest a pronounced faith in the law, in the capacity of the constitution and litigation, to produce social order amidst radical economic, political, and ideological change. Indeed, it might be argued that political processes are increasingly being displaced into the legal arena. On the other hand, postocolonial polities are haunted by a metaphysics of disorder: by the collapse of the Weberian ideal of the state in the face of apparently uncontrollable violence and unpoliceable crime and by the sheer difficulty of imagining a politics adequate to the present global moment. How might we understand the co-presence of these two things, the fetishism of the law and the metaphysics of disorder? And why has the growth of democratic institutions across the world been accompanied by a dramatic expansion of more-or-less organized, increasingly violent crime? What general theoretical issues do these questions raise for an understanding of the Twenty-first Century? Jean & John Comaroff. Tues. 3:00-5:50. Wilder House.

55505. AdvSeminar: Legal Anthropology. John Comaroff. Wed. 2:30-5:20. Wilder House