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DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY Course Descriptions Winter 2008
20701-20702. Introduction to African Civilization I, II. (=AFAM 20701-20702, HIST 10101-10102, HUDV 21401 [II], SOSC 22500-22600]) General education social science sequence recommended. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies. African Civilization introduces students to African history in a two-quarter sequence. Part One shows how literary, oral, and archeological sources can be used to investigate African societies and states from the early iron age through the emergence of the Atlantic World: cases studies include the empires of Ghana and Mali, and Great Zimbabwe. The course also treats the diffusion of Islam, the origins and effects of European contact, and the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Part Two of the sequence surveys 1800 through the 1990s and examines processes of colonization, transformations in Africa in the period of colonial rule, decolonization, and society and culture in contemporary Africa. Sources include historical documents, novels, and film and music. Themes of study include government and society under colonial rule; gender, sexuality, and family; nationalism and independence; urbanization; youth and popular culture; and civil society and conflict in contemporary Africa. Regional cases to be studied include Mali, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal, Rwanda and South Africa. Aut. Emily Osborn, Win. Rachel Jean-Baptiste. MW 1:30-2:50
21102/38400. Classical Readings in Anthropology: History and Theory of Human Evolution (=EVOL 38400, HIPS 23600). A seminar on racial, sexual and class bias in the classic theoretic writings, autobiographies, and biographies of Darwin, Huxley, Haeckel, Keith, Osborn, Jones, Gregory, Morton, Broom, Black, Dart, Weidenreich, Robinson, Leakey, LeGros-Clark, Schultz, Straus, Hooton, Washburn, Coon, Dobzhansky, Simpson, and Gould. R. Tuttle. MonWed 1:30-2:50 (NOT Fri.)
21249. Intensive Study of a Culture: The Inkas. The first part of the course analyzes current empirical evidence and theoretical perspectives of how the Inkas produced and imagined their state throughout both the Inka Imperial and Spanish Colonial periods. The second part of the course considers how Colonial and modern narratives have also produced and reproduced politicized images of the Inkas. Lectures and discussion provide an intensive introduction to the Inkas, while allowing for the assessment of broader anthropological theories regarding the state, the politicization of the past, and the social production of history. S. Kosiba. TuTh, 3:00-4:20
21303. Making the Natural World: Foundations of Human Ecology. (ENST 21301). Required of all ENST majors. In this course we consider the conceptual underpinnings of contemporary Western notions of ecology, environment, and balance, and also examine several specific historical trajectories of anthropogenic landscape change. We approach these issues from the vantage of several different disciplinary traditions including environmental history, philosophy, ecological anthropology, and paleoecology. M. Lycett. MonWed 1:30-2:50
21419. The Practice of Anthropology: The Anthropology of Islam. This course provides a historically grounded, ethnographic introduction to Islam. In addition to introducing students to the contextual diversity of Muslim communities, reading across the ethnographic archive will allow us to theoretically probe the limits and possibilities of anthropological analysis. The first half of the course will examine various efforts at defining an anthropology of Islam. As a discipline that has historically focused on local manifestations of transregional phenomena, anthropology is particularly well suited to contribute to an understanding of Islam. Yet in studying local contexts, anthropologists of Islam also confront seemingly unchanging doctrinal matters that command the studied interest of local informants. The tension between contextual specificity and the textual authority of scripture raises questions about the categories of anthropological study: what is the relationship between doctrine and ritual practice, scripture and piety, tradition and history? In the second half of the course, we turn to ethnographic case studies in South Asia, Turkey, and France, which will allow us to explore these conceptual questions with greater contextual detail. Kabir Tambar. TuTh 9:00-10:20.
22603/33103. Native North American Ethnography. (=CHDV 33103). R. Rogelson. 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: May be taken in sequence or individually. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies. This course introduces the history and cultures of Latin America (e.g., Mexico, Central America, South America, Caribbean Islands). Autumn 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. The quarter concludes with consideration of the Spanish and Portuguese conquest and the construction of colonial societies in Latin America. Winter Quarter addresses the evolution of colonial societies, the wars of independence, and the emergence of Latin American nation-states in the changing international context of the nineteenth century. Spring Quarter focuses on the twentieth century, with special emphasis on the challenges of economic, political, and social development in the region. Winter:Mauricio Tenorio. MWF 1:30-2:20.
23320/33320. Immigrant Experiences (=LACS 29102/39102). This course will examine the causes and consequences of international immigration through a comparison of immigration to the U.S., especially from Mexico, and to Europe, especially from its former colonies. What factors induce and perpetuate immigration? How does immigration affect sending and receiving societies? In answering these questions, the course will consider some of the major economic and political factors that shape immigration patterns, placing contemporary immigrations in their historical contexts. The main goal of the class, however, is to investigate how socio-cultural beliefs and practices inform who immigrates, how they immigrate, and why they immigrate. Through this investigation we will consider a range of immigrant experiences, including labor migration, sex slavery, and undocumented border-crossing. We will also consider the intellectual history of immigration scholarship, comparing different theories of the causes and consequences of immigration. Hilary Parsons Dick. Wed 1:30-4:20.
24001-24002-24003. Colonizations I, II, III (=SOSC 24002-24002-24003, CRPC 24001-24002-24003; HIST 18301-18302-18303) Must be taken in sequence. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies. This three-quarter sequence approaches the concept of civilization from an emphasis on cross-cultural/societal connection and exchange. We explore the dynamics of conquest, slavery, colonialism, and their reciprocal relationships with concepts such as resistance, freedom, and independence, with an eye toward understanding their interlocking role in the making of the modern world. Themes of slavery, colonization, and the making of the Atlantic world are covered in the first quarter. Modern European and Japanese colonialism in Asia and the Pacific is the theme of the second quarter. The third quarter considers the processes and consequences of decolonization both in the newly independent nations and the former colonial powers.
24101-24102. Introduction to the Civilization of South Asia, I, II (= SALC 20100-20200, HIST 10800-10900, SASC 2000-20100, SOSC 23000-23100). Must be taken in sequence. This course meets the general education requirement in civilization studies. This sequence introduces core themes in the formation of culture and society in South Asia before colonialism. 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. The Spring Quarter analyzes the colonial period (i.e., reform movements, the rise of nationalism, communalism, caste, and other identity movements) up to the independence and partition of India. M. Alam. MW 1:30-2:50.
24510-11/ 34501-02. The Anthropology of Museums I, II (=SOSC 34500-01, MAPS 34500-01, CHDV 34501-02). Using anthropological theories and methodology as a conceptual framework, this seminar will explore the organizational and ideological aspects of museum culture(s). The course includes visits to museums with guest museum professionals as guides into the culture of museums. The seminar continues in the Spring quarter, when students will conduct ethnographic fieldwork in a Chicago-area museum. (NOTE: Winter quarter is a prerequisite for participation in Spring Quarter.) R. Fogelson, M. Fred. Wed 5:30-8:20 pm.
25416/35416. Economies of Sex and Gender (=GNDR 25402). This course offers an anthropological examination of sex, gender, and economic life at their intersection. We read ethnography and social theory to explore the economic dimensions of gender and sex as they are experienced and organized. Simultaneously, we question how key aspects of "economy" (e.g., money and production) are themselves sexed and gendered in theory and practice. Topics include kinship, sex and exchange; work; gendered currencies; and colonialism and development. J. Cattelino. TuTh 1:30-2:50.
26710-26711/36710-36711. Ancient Landscapes I, II (=NEAA 20061-20062/30061-30062; GEOG 25700-25800/35700/35800). The landscape of the Near East contains a detailed and subtle record of environmental, social and economic processes that have obtained over thousands of years. Landscape analysis is therefore proving to be fundamental to an understanding of the processes that underpinned the development of ancient Near Eastern society. This class provides and overview of the ancient cultural landscapes of this heartland of early civilization from the early stages of complex societies in the fifth and sixth millennia B.C to the close of the Early Islamic period around the tenth century A.D. S. Branting. TuTh 10:30-11:50.
26711/36711. Ancient Landscapes-2 (=NEAA 20062/30062; GEOG 25800/35800; ANST 22601). (PQ: Ancient Landscapes I or the consent of the instructor.) This course follows on from Ancient Landscapes I, taught last quarter. The sequence is designed to 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. They are 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. As with the first course, this one is comprised of both a classroom and a laboratory component. Additional laboratory exercises during this second quarter will allow you to get hands on experience in areas such as Spatial Statistics, Simulation and Virtual Reality modeling. In addition a large portion of the class will revolve around working individually or in small groups on the actual implementation of some of the projects you designed during Ancient Landscapes I. Scott Branting. TuTh 10:30-11:50.
26820/46820. Social Life of Things (And Beyond): Objects, People, Value. Twenty years ago, Arjun Appadurai published a seminal collection on The Social Life of Things, marking a watershed in anthropological understandings of consumption, circulation, and production, and the role of objects in mediating between cultural sensibilities and economic flows. This work has stimulated a wealth of interest in materiality, and over the years, research has sought to expand the insights of Appadurai's collection to shed greater light on the relationship between mind, matter, and subjectivity. Drawing on these recent developments, this course aims to explore the material dimensions of cultural life and cultural production. As we engage with contemporary and classic writings in cultural anthropology, archaeology, philosophy, and social theory, we will grapple with several key issues: the boundaries between objects and subjects; the agency of persons and things; the relationship between objects and meaning, between experience and imagination; and the production of sociality in the actions/transactions linking people to their material world. The question of value is crucially implicated in these processes, and will require particular attention. And because material transactions are embedded in overlapping fields of power and politics, we will remain attentive to the ways in which objects make/mark/transgress difference, inequalities, and social boundaries. While we will discuss theories of materiality per se, our focus will rest mostly in theorizing how things work in and through concrete social and historical contexts. In this light, ethnographic studies will provide precious resources in helping us outline the logics, terrains, and lineaments of material and cultural production. Indeed, a central goal of this course is to examine how we can mobilize ethnographic insights on object worlds to reframe or expand archaeological inquiries and possibilities, and how, in turn, archaeological imaginations may help to enhance anthropological understandings of materiality. This course complements the seminar on 'Material Cultures' taught by Adam Smith in Autumn 2007. Prior familiarity with archaeological literature is advisable but not required. F. Richard. Wed.2:30-5:20
27001-27002-27003//37001-37002-37003. Introduction to Linguistics I, II, III (= Ling 201-202-203/301-302-303, SocSci 217-218-219). PQ: Must be taken in sequence. This course is an introductory survey of methods, findings, and problems in areas of major interest within linguistics 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. John Goldsmith. TuTh 1:30-2:50.
27400/37400. Language, Power, and Identity in Southeastern Europe: A Linguistics View of the Balkan Crisis (=SLAV 23000/33000, HUMA 27400, LING 27200/37200). Language is a key issue in the articulation of ethnicity and the struggle for power in Southeastern Europe. This course familiarizes students with the linguistic histories and structures that have served as bases for the formation of modern Balkan ethnic identities that are being manipulated to shape current and future events. The course is informed by the instructor's thirty years of linguistic research in the Balkans as well as his experience as an adviser for the United Nations Protection Forces in Former Yugoslavia and as a consultant to the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Crisis Group, and other organizations. Course content may vary in response to on-going current events. V. Friedman. TuTh 10:30-11:50
27916/37916. Talk Radio and Discourses of the American Right (=LING 27320). Talk radio -- traditionally associated with a conservative political message -- has received much attention as a "new medium" that plays a major role in American politics and the tenor of public discourse. Rather than a critique of conservative political philosophy, this seminar course is designed to enable students to bridge fine-grained analyses of radio broadcasts with the macro-level concerns of political groups. A major focus of the class will be on "hands-on" analysis of talk radio data and examination of communicative practices found there. Students will be responsible for collecting and transcribing the talk radio broadcasts that will make up the material for class analysis and discussion. The rigorous focus on data collection and analysis will provide students with a basic training in discourse analytic methods, while the nature of the material allows examination of political discourse as an ethnographic object. Larger questions to be considered include whether or not there is a unified rhetorical style associated with the American Right; the nature of the relationship between a message, its form and persuasion; and how moral stances are taken in political contexts. R. Shoaps. TuTh 9:00-10:20; Lab sections Tues 1:30-2:20 or 3:00-3:50.
28400/38800. Bioarchaeology and the Human Skeleton (=BIOS 23247). This course is designed to provide students in archaeology with a thorough understanding of bioanthropological and osteological methods used in the interpretation of pre-historic societies. The integration of archaeology and human biology has been an especially dynamic area of anthropological endeavor during the past two decades, giving archaeologists important data on the genetic identity, health and diet of ancient societies. When combined with contextual data on mortuary treatment and cemetery structure, bioanthropology has been a critical part of the technical arsenal of modern archaeologists. The goal of this course will be to introduce students to bioanthropological methods and theory. In particular, laboratory instruction will stress hands-on experience in analyzing the human skeleton; whereas, seminar classes will integrate bioanthropological theory and application to specific cases throughout the world. There will be one laboratory class and one seminar-format class per week. M.C. Lozada. TuTh 1:30-3:20 BSLC 402.
28410/38810. Zooarchaeology. (=NEAA 20035/30035) PQ: Any introductory course in archaeology. This course provides undergraduates and graduate students with an introduction to the use of animal bones in archaeological research. Students will gain hands-on experience analyzing faunal remains from an archaeological site in the Near East. The class will also address some of the major theoretical and methodological issues involved in the use of animal bones as a source of information about prehistoric societies. The course will consist of lectures, laboratory sessions, and original research projects using collections of animal bone from the archaeological excavations at Hacnebi, Turkey. Topics to be covered include: 1) identifying, ageing and sexing animal bones; 2) zooarchaeological sampling, measurement, quantification, and problems of taphonomy; 3) computer analysis of animal bone data; 4) reconstructing prehistoric hunting and pastoral economies, especially: animal domestication, hunting strategies, herding systems, seasonality, and pastoral production in complex societies. G.Stein. ARR.
29910. BA Essay Seminar. (Limited to students writing BA papers in Anthropology). Gregory Beckett. Mon 3:00-5:50.
34201, 34202. Development of Social and Cultural Theory II: The Making of Modern Anthropology (200 units). PQ: Open only to first-year Anthropology graduate students. The second quarter of "Systems" explores the interplay of theory and ethnography, professional practice and historical context, in the development of anthropology as "modern" and "postmodern" discipline. Rather than offer an overview of contemporary theoretical and methodological discourses, we shall examine, in depth, the relations among several major orientations that have shaped the history of Anglo-American anthropology this century. In so doing, we shall be concerned with (i) the historical roots and philosophical foundations of particular perspectives and (ii) its significance for modern theoretical concerns and critical approaches in the social sciences at large. M. Carneiro da Cunha. TuTh, 1:30-4:20 Haskell 315
37202. Language in Culture II (=Ling 31200, PSYC 47002). PQ: Must be taken in sequence. This is the second part of a two-quarter sequence about the role of language in culture. Building on the first quarter's discussions of the interactional order, this quarter's class explores the semiotics of sociocultural differentiation in institutions such as schools, nations, colonial projects and liberal polities, and the simultaneous construction of those very institutions through modes of linguistic interaction. The more general aim is to investigate the constitutive role of language and semiotic figuration in sociopolitical processes.
We start with the notion of "ideology" and specifically language ideology, within the scholarly tradition of ideological critique. Language ideologies shape understandings of language and interaction by users -- both professional and non-expert -- and shape assumptions about the supposedly "natural" indexicality of linguistic forms. Language ideologies are both embedded in practices and reflexive of them; they are pervaded by the moral and political positions within a social field. To study language ideologies is to explore the nexus of language, culture and politics. We thus examine the repesentations - implicit and explicit - that create language's role in a social and cultural world, and that are themselves acts within it.
The metapragmatic/ ideological regimentation of language in use gives rise to forms of shifting "subjectivity" or inhabitable identities. The course therefore takes up the processes by which identities are produced, and critically examines a number of concepts that have been the traditional subject matter of sociolinguistics, such as: "language" "dialect" "register" "speech community" "code" and "standardization." We treat these as normative cultural constructs -- folk concepts as well as scientific ones. How are these implicated in nation-building, state-making, colonialism, and other aspects of "modernity" as a discursive project? The course also explores "boundary practices": multilingualism, translation, register-formation, and codeswitching. These require some understanding of circulation (interdiscursivity) and "locality" as part of global capitalist flows. We end with a look at historical change in linguistic norms, integrating the synchronic and diachronic in real-time interactions and institutions. What is the role of linguists' own ideologies in these processes? Susan Gal. TuTh 10:30-11:50
37301. Phonology I (=Ling 20800/30800). PQ: Ling 201, 202, 203, 206, or equivalent. This is an introduction to general principles of phonology, with emphasis on nongenerative theory. Jason Riggle. MW 1:30-2:50.
37802. Syntax-2 (=Ling 20500/30500). PQ. Part 1. Jason Merchant. TuTh 12:00-1:20.
42000. Anthropological Methods. (PQ: Required of 2nd year social/cultural/linguistic anthropology graduate students. Others only with consent of the instructor.) This course provides a critical introduction to the methods of anthropology, paying special attention to topic formation, deployment of theoretical resources, techniques of engagement in "fields," and the politics and ethics of fieldwork and ethnographic knowledge production. Our approach will combine readings in critical anthropology relevant to methodological practice with workshop-style demonstrations of particular techniques for gathering and analyzing field material. The limits and powers of ethnography (broadly construed) will be explored through exploratory engagement with students' ongoing projects and a few examples of anthropological writing. This course is intended to help students develop the tools needed to develop their own research objects and strategies while reflecting critically on anthropology as a practice. J. Cattelino. Fri 1:30-3:20
42410. Liminal Beings: Vampires and Others (=HREL 48400). Bruce Lincoln. TuTh 10:30-11:50.
47300. Historical Linguistics (=LING 21300/31300). Staff. TuTh 10:30-11:50.
50501. Žižek. Academic stand-up? Intellectual rock star? Slavoj Žižek's frenetic, eclectic style has often led the theoretical and political seriousness of his project to be eclipsed by his celebrity. Through a series of readings from his most substantial works, this seminar explores the originality of Žižek's attempt (in a poststructuralist, post-socialist world) to bring Lacanian psychoanalysis into conversation with the Kant-Hegel-Marx lineage of theorizing modernity. Since this is an advanced graduate seminar, some grounding in Marxist and Freudian theory will be presumed. W. Mazzarella. Wed. 9:30-12:20.
52810. Stigma. This course explores the history of analyses of "abnormality" in anthropology and in the social sciences more broadly. As ideals of ‘accountability' or ‘fault' shift from institutions to selves, research questions pertaining to "difference" and "abnormality" likewise change, as the lives and activities of the persons we study reflect the impact of the shift in question. Today, for instance, the politicization of "stigma" involves a process of externalization that occurs through the co-participation of the "different" and the "tolerant" subject. In this course we explore the historical conditions that enable interplays such as this one, with attention to Goffman's seminal description of "stigma." K. Fikes. Mon 8:30-11:20
54305. Empires in Asia (=HIST 52401). This course seeks to consider the Ottoman, Russian, Qing, Persian and British empires in comparative perspective. The focus will be on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and will consider geo-political and geo-strategic influences on patterns of empire-building, administrative structures, and socio-cultural policies of each of the empires. Special attention will be given to Central Asia as a meeting point of the five empires, and with the role the khanates of Central Asia played in the expansion or contraction of each of the empires. Attention will also be given to the kinds of questions historians ask when dealing with one or another of the empires; and to the forms of historical narratives constructed as a result of these questions. J. Hevia. Tues 3:30-6:20.
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