DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY Course Descriptions Spring 2009

 [For Course Descriptions for prior quarters, see the links at the bottom of the page.]

 20701-20702. Introduction to African Civilization I, II. (=AFAM 20701-20702, HIST 10101-10102,  SOSC 22500-22600) General education social science sequence recommended. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies.  As a core sequence, African Civilization introduces students to the history and societies of Africa.  Part one of the sequence focuses primarily on Western and precolonial Africa.  We will use a diverse variety of sources to examine the history of West African kingdoms and the rise and impact of the slave trade.  The second part of the African Civilization sequence examines the process of colonization in Africa, and African responses.  We focus our Investigation primarily on the eastern and southern regions of Africa as well as Madagascar.   J. Cole.  MW 1:30-2:50

 21217.  Intensive Study of a Culture: The Luo of Kenya. (=AFAM 21217). This course is designed to present an introduction to the Luo of Kenya, a Nilotic-speaking group of some 3 million people living on the northeastern shores of Lake Victoria.  It is intended to convey a sense of contemporary Luo culture and society and the complex history that has led to the present moment.  It is equally concerned to use the Luo case in order to give students a sense of the ethnographic practices and theoretical concerns of Anthropology - to show in detail how anthropologists study and represent other cultures.  The Luo are of particular interest in this regard because there are many Luo academics and intellectuals who have published their own analyses and literary accounts of Luo culture and history.  Hence, one has the opportunity to compare alien and indigenous representations.  The Luo are also of particular interest because they have been traditionally a stateless society that has had to adapt over the past century to being incorporated into a colonial and post-colonial state, and this local history exposes in acute form some of the problems and contradictions that are found more generally in current African politics, law and economics.  The course will focus upon such things as Luo kinship and marriage patters, Luo conceptions of space and time, Luo religion and the transformative effects of Christianity, the differences and connections between rural and urban contexts, the role of the Luo in colonial and post-colonial Kenyan history, and transformations of the moral economy and the gendered division of labor.  M. Dietler. TuTh 10:30-11:50.

Anthro 21254.  Intensive Study of a Culture:  Pirates  (=LACS 21254). Pirates, smugglers, and privateers hold a special place in the American cultural imagination, particularly in recent years.  But the value of studying piracy and smuggling goes beyond the titillation of popular entertainment in forms such as Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean.  Many of the questions that arise go to the heart of major anthropological problems.  Some of these topics are venerable, others are of more recent vintage, such as:  the nature of informal economies, the relationship between criminality and the state, transnationalism, the evolution of capitalism, intellectual property and globalization, political revolutions, counter-cultures, and the cultural role of heroic (or anti-heroic) narratives.  Each week we will tackle one of these topics, pairing a classic anthropological work with specific examples from the historical, archaeological, and/or ethnographic literature.  While the pirates and smugglers of the early modern Caribbean (ca. 1492-1820) will serve as our primary case study, we will be comparing this well-known form to examples spanning from ancient ship-raiders in the Mediterranean to contemporary software "piracy." S. Dawdy. TuTh 12:00-1:20.

ANTH 21255. Intensive Study of a Culture: The Senegambia (=AFAM 21255).  This course offers an overview of history, culture, and society in the Senegambia, a territory situated between the Senegal and Gambia Rivers, and roughly corresponding to the political boundaries of modern-day Senegal. We will examine the region in broad historical perspective, beginning with oral accounts of migration and state formation, and tracking the gradual entanglement of local societies with global political economic forces during the Atlantic era, transition to the legitimate trade, French colonialism, and road to political independence. The last portion of the course will focus on cultural, artistic and political experiences in the postcolonial state of Senegal. F.G. Richard. TuTh 1:30-2:50. 

ANTH 21258. Intensive Study of a Culture: Modern India. Amidst imageries in the contemporary global media of India's vast economic expansion, thriving back office industries, and nuclear capabilities, it is also difficult to deny that vast numbers of its poor continue to confront oppressive work conditions, violence along lines of caste, gender, and religious difference, and exclusion and displacement in villages and cities.  This course will examine the workings of oppression and violence and intimations of resistance and collective struggle in modern India, through anthropological readings and films on themes of globalization and work, the caste system, gender and the family, fundamentalism and violence, and struggles for livelihoods and shelter.  While special attention will be given to the lives of the working poor in Delhi, we will study oppression, violence, resistance, and non-violence among subjects in a range of settings, including slumdwellers in Mumbai, Hindus and Muslims in Rajasthan, Dalits in Uttar Pradesh, women in rural Bengal, and tribals in the Narmada Valley.  The course will also discuss the methods and ends of ethnography, and explore the relationship of anthropology to the ideal and practice of non-violence (ahimsa).  S. Ramaswami. TuTh 1:30-2:50, Film Screenings Thurs 6:00-8:00.

ANTH 21311. ModRdgs: The Anthropology of Christianity. While anthropologists often study the religious practices of the societies they describe, Christianity has long been neglected or specifically avoided in ethnographies.  However, as the much-discussed trend of secularization seems to be slowing or reversing, and as Christianity has become an important part of many post-colonial communities, anthropologists are starting to examine this now global religious tradition.  This course will introduce students to the anthropological study of Christianity, particularly in colonial and post-colonial settings.  We will start with early definitions of religion and culture, and gradually move through the history of anthropological investigations into Christianity.  Along the way, several questions will guide the readings:  How has the culture concept affected the ways that analysts have approached Christianity?  How have people understood the relationship between Christian missionization and other institutions of colonialism?  How can an anthropology of Christianity cope with the wide diversity of traditions that go under the 'Christian' label?   C. Handman. MonWed 3:00-4:50.

ANTH 21420.  Practice of Anthropology: Ethnographic Methods.  This course introduces undergraduate students interested in qualitative research to methods commonly employed by anthropologists. Through readings and field exercises, it presents anthropological research as a process that demands constant refinement. The course will familiarize students with a range of techniques that they will find useful as they begin to formulate a larger ethnographic project - i.e. the B.A. project. Techniques and topics covered include: research topic and question formation, research ethics for ethnographers, "participant observation," interviews and oral histories, genealogical, spatial and secondary source analysis, and reading ethnography. Lecture, discussion, a weekly "workshop" and a series of ongoing exercises will help students assess the appropriateness of such techniques to their own research agendas. Student work will culminate in the development of a formal proposal outlining methodological approaches to their specific research. Students are encouraged to treat this proposal as a "first pass" at designing a B.A. thesis project.  C. Fennell. Tues 9:00-10:20, Fri 1:30-2:50.

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.  Dain Broges. MWF 1:30-2:20.

24001-24002-24003. Colonizations I, II, III. (=CRPC 24001-24002-24003, HIST 18301-18302-18303, SOSC 24001-24002-24003). PQ: These courses 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.  K. Choi (II), S. Satpathy (II), S. Singh (III), K. Fikes (III)

24101-24102. Introduction to the Civilizations of South Asia I, II. (=SALC 20100-20200, HIST 10800-10900, SASC 2000-20100, SOSC 23000-23100).  PQ  These courses must be taken in sequence.  This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilizations 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, Winter; S. Wilkinson, Spring. MW 1:30-2:50

24511/34502  The Anthropology of Museums II (=SOSC 34600, MAPS 34600, CHDV 38102).  PQ: Open to advanced udergraduates with consent of instructors. This two-quarter seminar will examine various organizational and ideological features of museums from an anthropological perspective.  The readings -- both theoretical and ethnographic -- cover a wide range of subjects, among which are the Columbian Exposition, the Holocaust, interactive exhibitions, and the art market. In addition, the course includes visits to museums around Chicago with guest professionals as guides into the culture of museums. A fieldwork experience will be an integral part of the Spring quarter.  R. Fogelson, M. Fred. Wed 5:30-8:20 pm.

24905/41405.  The Figuration of Social Thought and Action: Rhetoric (Trope) Theory in Anthropology. (= HCUL 41100).  PQ Open to graduate students and to third- or fourth-year undergraduates.  A consideration of the recent revitalization of interest in the role of rhetoric in shaping social relations and social action, as seen presently in Europe, this course will touch base with these recent projects although it will be mainly anchored in developments since the 1960s in American anthropology seeking "meaningful methods" by concentrating on figuration and con-figuration in culture and on the resultant "play of tropes" in and "emplotments" of social relations and social action.  Some attention will be paid to the main anchoring theories from classical rhetoik and poetic thru Vico, Muller, Tylor, Frazer, Malinowski, Boas, Radin, Sapir and Jakobson, to the work of contemporary anthropologists and linguists.  James W. Fernandez. TuTh 4:30-5:50

25225/35225. What is a Human? The New Sciences, the Nature/Culture Divide and Human Rights (=HMRT 26400/36400, CHDV 26302).    In what ways and to what extent have new technologies such as assistant fertilization, surrogacy and cloning refashioned our basic social and biological categories? How has the Internet changed the way we understand ourselves as humans? And, how does new scientific knowledge, and its elaborate technological apparatus, inform and complicate our understanding of human rights? These questions are at the core of our explorations in this course. By reading (mostly) ethnographic accounts of new scientific technologies and of knowledge production processes we will challenge essentialist ideas about nature, culture and the human. Using this critical lens we will then be able to explore the challenges these new ways of understanding the world and ourselves pose to current human rights discourse and practice.  Noa Vaisman. TuTh 1:30-2:50

25325/35325.  The History and Culture of Baseball.  Study of the history and culture of baseball can raise in a new light a wide range of basic questions in social theory.  The world of sports is one of the paradoxical parts of cultural history, intensely intellectually scrutinized and elaborately "covered" by media, yet largely absent from scholarly curricula.  Perhaps more than any other sport, baseball has even drawn a wide range of scholars to publish popular books about it, yet has produced few professional scholars whose careers are shaped by study of it.  In this course, we will examine studies that connect the cultural history of baseball to race, nation, and decolonization, to commodity fetishism and the development of capitalist institutions, to globalization and production of locality.  We will compare studies of baseball from a range of disciplinary perspectives (economics, evolutionary biology, political science, history and anthropology) and will give special attention to the culture and history of baseball in Chicago.  We hope and expect that this course will be a meeting ground for people who know a lot about baseball and want to learn more about cultural anthropology, and people who are well read in anthropology or social theory who want to know more about baseball.  The course will draw heavily on the rich library of books and articles about baseball, scholarly and otherwise, and will also invite students to pursue their own research topics in baseball culture and history.   J.D. Kelly, R.D. Fogelson. Tues 6:00-8:50 pm

25425/45425.  Economic Anthropology: A Short History.  This four-week course will be based on a textbook in preparation which offers a historical approach to the anthropology of economic life.  It has four parts:  1) The rise of modern economics and anthropology (1870s to 1940s);  2) The 'golden age' of economic anthropology (1950s to 1970s);  3) Anthropologists' encounters with neo-liberal capitalism (1980s to 2000s); 4) An anthropology of the financial crisis and after.  An early version of the project, 15,000 words long including a large bibliography, may be found at:  http://thememorybank.co.uk/2007/11/09/a-short-history-of-economic-anthropology/. Substantial course paper required for a regular grade (as opposed to Pass/Fail).  Keith Hart

26015/46015.  Archaeological Imaginations.  'Archaeological Imaginations' is a course on archaeological epistemologies: how archaeologists know what they know, the ideologies of theory and method entailed in doing archaeology, the co-production of facts and ideas implicated in crafting 'sensible' images of the past... Our goal then will be to probe the foundations of archaeological thinking. In this light, the course will examine how, over the past 50 years, different strands of archaeology have 'imagined' the past, what has motivated their portrayals, what has shaped their inquiries, objectives, and forms of writing. The course will mix theoretical texts (philosophy, history, social theory) and their applications in archaeological research. We will spend much time discussing narrative genres, the silent work of interpretation, the role of imagination/belief/subjectivity in archaeological thinking, the constitution of truth and knowledge claims, and how politics and ethics feature in disciplinary practice. My hope to provide you with a map of how archaeologists have thought through the complexities of conjuring the past from its material residues, so that you can develop your own set of tools, strategies, and perspectives - your own 'archaeological imaginations,' in other words. Some amount of familiarity with archaeology and archaeological theory is recommended.  FG Richard. Wed 1:30-4:20.

26720/46720.  Ancient Colonial Encounters and Socio-Cultural Change in the Catalan Countries (Catalonia, Valencia, Balearic Islands) 1st millennium BC (=SPAN xxxxx/xxxxx, Classics/AMW, History).  The purpose of this course is to study the transition from small-scale societies to complex ones in the Catalan Countries (Catalonia, Valencia, Balearic Islands) during the 1st millennium BC.  The role of both endogenous (demography, technological change) and exogenous (Phoenician and Greek colonization; migration) factors will be explores.  Several hypothetical models, based on cultural materialism, structural Marxism, world-systems approaches, and migration theory, will be considered.  The course will also take into consideration similar -- and contemporary -- processes in Southern France. (The course will focus on the long-run history of Catalonian social relations in a format accessible to students from a wide range of disciplines, making it a suitable introduction to Catalan studies for a maximum audience.  Joan Sanmarti Grego. Mon 9:00 am-Noon

26900/46900.   Archaeological Data Sets. This course focuses on the methodological basis of archaeological data analysis.  Its goals are twofold, first to provide students with an opportunity to examine research questions through the study of archaeological data, and second to allow students to evaluate evidential claims in light of analytical results.  We will consider data collection, sampling and statistical populations, exploratory data analysis, and statistical inference.  The course is built around computer applications and, thus, will also provide an introduction to computer analysis, data encoding, and data base structure.  M. Lycett. TuTh 9:00-10:20.

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 oif 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.  M. Silverstein.. TuTh 1:30-1:50

27350. Linguistic Anthropology of Contemporary Identities (=LING 27135). Identity is a psychosocial fact of self-imagination and other-projection, actualizing individuals as members of culturally understood groupings of people as they locate individuals in categories of personhood.  Individuals are socialized to do identity work at institutionalized sites of social interaction, principally discursive interaction in-and-by which Ego's and Alter's identities emerge relationally as intersubjectively real states of being.
          In a seminar format, we examine some of the key contemporary interventions of linguistic anthropology in theorizing and describing such identity work through the close analysis of discourse and discursive interaction.  Included here are several recent ethnographies focusing on identity that are either rich in language materials or elaborate in linguistic anthropological analysis.         
         Students should come to this course with some prior familiarity with social psychological, sociological or anthropological approaches to such issues.  Regular seminar participation, and a Quarter project culminating in a presentation and paper are expected.   M. Silverstein, Wed 9:30-12:20

27705/47905. Language & Globalization (=LING 27500/37500, BPRO 24500, CRPC 27500/37500).  PQ: Third- or fourth-year standing for undergraduates. Globalization has been a buzz word in our lives over the past few decades. It is also one of those terms whose varying meanings have become more and more challenging to characterize in a uniform way. The phenomena it names have been associated with important transformations in our cultures, including the languages we speak. Distinguishing myths from facts, this course will articulate the different meanings of globalization, anchor them in a long history of socio-economic colonization, and highlight the specific ways in which the phenomena it names have affected the structures and vitalities of languages around the world.  We will learn about the dynamics of population contact in class and their impact on the evolution of languages. S. Mufwene, W. Wimsatt. MW 1:30-2:50

28105. Primate Evolution. (=BIOS 23241, EVOL 38700) This course is the first of three in the Primate Biology and Human Evolution sequence (see also BIOS 23248 and 23253). This course introduces the evolution of nonhuman primates and humans. We focus on taxonomic classification; the use of fossil and genetic evidence for phylogenetic reconstructions; the evolution of primate morphological and physiological characteristics (e.g., body and brain size, skull and skeleton, sense organs, and dietary and reproductive adaptations); the adaptive radiation of Prosimians, New World Monkeys, Old World Monkeys, and apes into their current areas of geographic distribution; and an overview of the hominid fossil record. R. Martin.  Thurs  10:30-1:20.

2860/38600. Apes and Human Evolution (= BIOS 23253, HIPS 23700, EVOL 38600). A critical examination of the ways in which data on the behavior, morphology and genetics of apes have been used to elucidate human evolution, with particular emphasis on bipedalism, hunting, meat-eating, tool behavior, food sharing, cognitive ability, language, self-awareness, and sociability. Visits to local zoos, films, and demonstrations with casts of fossils and skeletons.  R. Tuttle. MW 9:30-10:20, Fri 9:30-11:20

29100/39100.  Archaeobotanical Analysis.  This class introduces the theory, method, and technique of a range of archaeobotanical analyses.  We will discuss field methods in archaeobotany, sampling, presentation and interpretation of data, and specific applications such as crop processing studies, vegetation reconstruction, and fire history.  Both a lecture and a lab course, students will combine written work with lab exercises in macrobotanical (seeds, wood) and microbotanical (pollen, charcoal) analysis.  K. Morrison. TuTh 12:00-1:20

29700.  Readings in Anthropology.  PQ: Consent of instructor and Director of Undergraduate Studies.  Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. 

29900.  Preparation of Bachelor's Essay.  PQ: Consent of instructor and Director of Undergraduate Studies.  Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. 

32215.  Gender, Generations and Social Change in Africa. (=CHDV 32215, GNDR 32400). This course explores the dynamics of gender and generation in contemporary social change in Africa.  We draw on recent ethnographies and historical studies to examine social reproduction and transformation.  We may also read some classic Western theory on generations and social change, interrogating to what extent they might be revised in the African context.  Texts include Jennifer Johnaon Hanks, Uncertain Honor; Kristen Dheney, Pillars of the Nation; and Nicholas Argenti, The Intestines of the State.  J. Cole. Tues 3:00-5:50.

33101-33102. Native Peoples of North America I, II. PQ: Part I or consent of instructor. 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 stu­dents pursue individual research, the results of which are presented in semi­nar format. R. Fogelson.  TuTh 12:00-1:20

34201-34202.  Development of Social Cultural Theory-2: The Making of Modern Anthropology. PQ: Open only to first year graduate students in the Anthropology Department. The second part of "Systems" explores the interplay of theory and ethnography, professional practice and historical context, in the development of anthropology as a modernist and postmodern discipline.  Rather than offer an overview of contemporary theoretical and methodological discourses, we shall examine, in critical depth, several of the 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) their significance for modern theoretical concerns and critical discourses in the social sciences at large.  J & J Comaroff. TuTh 1:30-4:20.

34817.  Woman's Voices: Poetry and Prose. (=SCTH 32730). PQ Open to graduate students and 3rd and 4th year undergraduates) Taking a global point of view, we will examine the work of about 8 women poets (e.g., Ho [Vietnamese], Plath, Anna Akhmatova [Russian], and Li Ch'ing-chao [Sung Chinese] and 4 novelists (e.g., Chapin, The Awakening; Murasaki, The Tale of Genji, part I)  The goal is to explore if there is such a thing as "woman's voices," and to sketch and adumbrate some possible answers: external (e.g., feelings about independence), internal (e.g., the role of passive constructions) P. Friedrich.  Fri 9:30-12:20

34818.  Dostoevsky: Short Works.  (=SCTH 32740). (Open to graduate students and 3rd and 4th year undergraduates)  Careful reading of five short works, probably Poor Folk, The Gambler, The Double, Notes from the Underground, and Netochka Nezvanova (possibly also "A Gentle Creature").  Two weeks on each short work for an average of 70 pages per week.  We will explore his ideas and representations of the following: suffering and empathy, status hierarchies and sincerity, honor and shame, schizophrenia and paranoia, humility, humiliation and pride, crime and guild, love and lust, chance and fortune, soul.  Collateral with this, about 60 pages per week from Notes from the House of the Dead (creative non-fiction based on his four years in a Siberian prison).  Minimal, suggested collateral reading from Frank, Mochulsky, Pesmen, Terras.  P. Friedrich. Thurs 9:00-11:50

37302. Phonology II (=LING 20900/30900). PQ: Anthro 373. The principles of generative phonology are introduced and studied in detail, emphasizing the role of formalism and abstractness in phonological analysis. The emphasis is on Sound Pattern of English theory, with brief discussion of more recent autosegmental and metrical models. Alan Yu. TuTh 10:30-11:50

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. Farquhar. Fri 11:30-2:20

49502.  Remaking Eurasia: Emerging Themes in Regional Archaeology. This course examines recent efforts to rethink the key themes, processes and practices at the heart of Eurasian archaeological research.  By critically engaging with canonical new work from the Caucasus, the Steppe, and Central Asia, the class will attempt to chart future intellectual directions of the field.  While the emphasis of the course will not be on recent discoveries, we will try to ground new theoretical approaches in an understanding of key ongoing field projects.  The goal of the course is to not only give students an understanding of where Eurasian archaeology is now, but to also involve them in forging its future directions. AT Smith.Tues 10:30-1:20

52210.  Archaeological Research Design. This a practicum course for archaeology graduate students (typically in their third or fourth year) to prepare the dissertation research proposal and dissertation grant applications.  The focus of the course will be the intellectual as well as the pragmatic issues involved in developing a strong archaeological research design.  Issues related to professional development will also be incorporated.  Steady work on proposal writing is expected.  Most of the required work will consist of weekly writing and critique exercises.  Shannon Dawdy.  10:30-1:20

52610.  AdvRdgs: Africanist Anthropology.  Jean Comaroff. Wednesday, 3:30-6:20

53505. Ethnographic Narrative.  (Cap 18) This seminar is designed for upper level graduate students engaged in conceptualizing or writing an ethnography.  Its focus is on the narrative form and writerly strategies that constitute ethnography as a specific form of analysis and communication.  The course is structured in three parts: 1) readings on narrative theory, hermeneutics, and interpretation; 2) written exercises designed to explore questions of voice, style, and structure in ethnographic writing; and 3) critical study of key ethnographic texts.  The basic proposition of this seminar is that the form and style of writing is crucial to the success of the ethnography in communicating cross-cultural insight.  Thus, we will collectively consider the historical development of ethnographic writing as a genre, as well as pursue a model for producing contemporary ethnographic texts.  J. Masco. Wed 2:00-4:50

53815 Public Affect. Affect is everywhere in cultural theory today, and public life is supposedly more affective than it ever was before. Affect represents freedom from the prison-house of reason. Affect represents enslavement to sentiment and passion. Affect is emotion. Affect is not emotion, but rather something more corporeal. Affect is intuitive. Affect is deliberate. Affect is transcendent. Affect is socially and historically mediated.
How can we begin to grasp this ubiquitous yet enigmatic concept? In this advanced graduate seminar, we will engage with a series of texts that seek, in very different ways, to mobilize affect as a category of social analysis. A continuous conceptual thread will be a consideration of how a notion of affect might serve to mediate between dialectical and immanentist critical traditions.  W. Mazzarella. Tues 9:00-11:50

55506.  AdvSem: Legal Anthropology-2 PQ: Open only to students who were in Part I in Autumn 2008. JL Comaroff. ARR

56500. The Archaeology of Colonialism.   This seminar is a comparative exploration of archaeological approaches to colonial encounters.  It employs temporally and geographically diverse case studies from the archaeological and historical literature situated within a critical discussion of colonial and postcolonial theory.  The course seeks to evaluate the potential contribution of archaeology both in providing a unique window of access to precapitalist forms of colonial interaction and imperial domination and in augmenting historical studies of the expansion of the European world-system.  Methodological strategies, problems, and limitations are also explored.  M. Dietler. Tues 1:30-4:20.

58700.  Archaeological Approaches to Political Life.  This seminar examines archaeological approaches to political life from the Cold War debates over the origins of the state to contemporary descriptions of ideology, order, and world systems.  Along the way we will consider both the impact of influential strands of political theory upon archaeology and the reverberation of archaeological research upon contemporary studies of political transformations.  Our focus will be on the central issues orienting political archaeology, including: contemporary theories of the emergence of early complex polities, critiques and counter-critiques of social evolutionism, ongoing debates over the sufficiency, autonomy, and identity of the State, and emerging criticisms of classical approaches to ideology, authority, and community.  Readings will draw broadly from cases in both the Old and New Worlds in order to provide a foundation for critical comparison.  We will engage with theory from both within archaeology and outside it in order to establish the broad inter-disciplinary parameters for investigations of political life.  We will also consider the role of archaeology within contemporary visions of political action.     A.T. Smith, G. Emberling. Thurs. 1:30-4:20

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DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY Course Descriptions Winter 2009

 [For Course Descriptions for prior quarters, see the links at the bottom of the page.]

 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. Win. Ralph Austen, Spr. Jennifer Cole.  MW 1:30-2:50

 21107/3000. Classical Readings in Anthropology: Anthropological Theory.  Since its inception as an academically institutionalized discipline, anthropology has always addressed the relation between a self-consciously modernizing West and its various and changing others. Yet it has not always done so with sufficient critical attention to its own concepts and categories a fact that has led, since at least the 1980s, to considerable debate about the nature of the anthropological enterprise and its epistemological foundations. This course provides a brief critical introduction to the history of anthropological thought over the course of the disciplines long twentieth century, from the 1880s to the present. Although it centers on the North American and British traditions, we will review important strains of French and, to a lesser extent, German social theory in chronicling the emergence and transformation of modern anthropology as an empirically based, but theoretically informed practice of knowledge production about human sociality and culture.  S Palmié. MonWed 11:30-12:50

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

 21406.  Celebrity and Science in Paleoanthropology (= HIPS 21100). A seminar to explore the balance among research, show biz, big business, and politics in the careers of Louis, Mary, and Richard Leakey; Alan Walker; Donald Johanson; Jane Goodall; Dian Fossey; and Biruté Galdikas through films, taped interviews, autobiogra­phies, biographies, pop publications, instructor's anecdotes, and samples of their scientific writings. R. Tuttle. TuTh 9:00-10:20

21601.  Reading Ethnographies: Ethnographies of Religious Ritual. 21601.  (PQ: The new 216xx sequence of courses count as "Introductory Courses" [like 211xx, 212xx, 213xx, 214xx] for anthropology undergraduate majors.) This course focuses on a close reading of ethnographies of religious ritual. The thread linking these readings is a concern with the conceptualizations of the relationships between religious ritual and politics - politics, that is, both within the ethnographic world represented, and at the level of ethnographic representation itself.  
The readings engage with conceptualizations of religious ritual within the contexts of differing social and political groupings or imaginings thereof, ranging from the self within society, to the state, the state in moments of contact, the colony, the post-colony, and transnational diasporas. We will study the semiotics and politics of the processes, histories, historicities of religious ritual within these different forms of groupings. The course will further be punctuated by three sessions devoted to the study of critiques of the three categories of the title: ethnography, religion and ritual. These three critical sessions, together with the ordering of the ethnographies in relation to each other over the weeks, will facilitate the analysis of the relationships between representations of religious ritual and the politics of ethnography. The aim of the course is thus to study ethnographies of religious ritual, with a focus on politics, both in relation to this conceptual site, and in relation to its representations. Urmila Nair. TuTh  12:00-1:20.

22525/41025. South Asian Visual Culture (= SALC 22500/32500, ARTH 24709/34709, HCIL 4100)  What is the relation between economic liberalization and aesthetic production? At a time when economic reforms have produced new social inequalities alongside an efflorescence of middle class consumerist fantasy, South Asian cultural production has witnessed an extraordinary explosion in both creativity and global visibility. Future historians may well discuss early twenty-first century Mumbai and Delhi in terms similar to those used during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries for evoking Paris and New York. But what can we learn today from a close exploration of contemporary South Asian cultural production? How do artists, filmmakers, advertisers and writers envision their work, and how does their work encode dreams of the future and fantasies of the past? What are the relevant genealogies by which we might interpret the present? This jointly taught class will feature a range of visiting speakers and a series of engagements with films, exhibitions, quotidian visual materials and textual fictions. Graduate students and advanced undergraduates with some background in South Asian studies are welcome to participate.  W.T.S. Mazzarella & C. Pinney.  Fri 10:00-2:00

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.

23325/33325. US/Mexico Broderlands (=LACS 29900/38900; CRPC 28900/38900). This seminar explores the contradictory interpretations of the US-Mexico border region: its conceptualization as a site of violence, of immigrant and of Mexican American subjugation, and of environmental degradation, often privileged in the social sciences, versus the often avowedly decolonizing orientations found in the Humanities and in Ethnic Studies, and the latter orientations' emphases on transformative often cultural politics.  The seminar also explores the profound omission of the Mexican spaces of the borderlands; scholars in US Latina/o-Chicana/o studies and those in hegemonic social sciences tend to privilege the US side of the border at the expense of the Mexican scholarship on the borderlands.  In addition, the seminar explores the ethno-cultural politics of policing in the US-Mexico border region, maquiladoras, and their relation to social movements and transnationality, or "transpolitics."  We will read texts on other immigrant and border experiences in order to track the tensions between the specificities of the US-Mexico borderlands and similar dynamics elsewhere.  Does the intensification of migration across the globe, and in this case from Mexico and other parts of the Americas to the US and often across the border region, produce critical new transnational forms of consciousness and political thinking?  Gilberto Rosas. Wed 3:00-5:50.

23805/43805.  Nature/Culture.  This seminar examines recent ethnographic work situated at the intersection of science studies and political ecology.  It explores not only how our understandings of nature are informed by scientific investigation, but also how nature is shaped, manipulated, and transformed by social processes. The constitution of ocean life, the genome, human-animal interactions, and the social life of forests will provide the framework for thinking about the making of nature/culture. J. Masco. Fri 9:30-12:20

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.

25220/35220. Practices of Othering and the Logic of Human Rights Violations (=HMRT 26300/ 36300; Hist 25006/35006, CHDV 26301). How are mass violations of human rights thought up? What scientific theories and political doctrines have been invented and implemented to justify murder, mass rape, and incarceration? These questions serve as our starting point for the course where through exploration of different doctrines and theories we will learn how mass human rights violations were reasoned and justified.  In the first part of the course we read both primary texts and secondary sources on central theories and ideologies that contributed to, or formed the foundations for, mass human rights violations. We ask questions such as: how has mass murder been shaped and informed by scientific understandings about the "correct" (i.e. valuable) genetic makeup in places like Nazi Germany? And, how has the torture of thousands been reasoned through doctrines that "protect" civilization and progress in places like Argentina? In the second part of the course we turn to look at the aftermath of genocide and killing and ask how individuals and groups explain away their participation in acts of human rights violations. What theories have developed to explain these acts after the event? Specifically, we will look at the work of psychologists and political scientists who have found ways (though not always satisfactory) to make sense of these acts and events.  In the last part of the course we explore a number of mechanisms developed to redress the effects of violence and the violation of human rights. Specifically, we look at the question of reparation and how these have been negotiated in different cultural settings such as South Africa and Peru; and, we look at the growing demand for truth as a form of reparation for past wrongs.  Noa Vaisman. TuTh 1:30-2:50

26100/46500.  Ancient Celtic Societies (=ANST 24700). 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 10:30-11:50

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.

27001-27001-27003//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.

27111/37110. 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       TuTh 1:30-2:50.

22932/47932.  Beginning K'iche' Maya-2 (= LACS 27102/37102; LGLN 30800). R. Shoaps. MWF 10:30-11:20.

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.  

29910.  BA Essay Seminar. (Limited to students writing BA papers in Anthropology). Jeremy Walton.  Mon 3:00-5:50.

30410.  Ethnography of Law-1 (=MAPS 46800, LAWS 93800, SOSC 46800). Readings and assignments will allow participants in this two-quarter seminar to examine the methodology of ethnographic research as it applies to the study of law-related topics and legal institutions, and to consider how such research can be useful in the practice of law.  Students will conduct fieldwork in the Chicago area, presenting the results of their ethnographic research in the latter half of the second quarter. M. Fred. Thurs 3:00-5:50

32100. Culture, Power, Subjectivity (=CHDV 32100). This course takes up the classic, yet endlessly fascinating subject of the relationship of historically produced cultural structures and their relationship to individual and collective forms of subjectivity.  Since the topic is huge, we will address it by reading classic texts in depth, analyzing them for the diverse ways in which classic social thinkers like Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Althusser, Bourdieu and Foucault have thought about the relationship between individuals and collectivities.  Key questions we will address include the ways in which social and economic formations structure the possibilities for individual human action, the relationship between religious formations and historical transformations, the role of class in the inculcation of taste and desire, and the ways in which, throughout the 19th century, new power/knowledge formations have created new ways through which subject formation takes place.  Jennifer Cole. Wed. 1:30-4:20.

33101. Native Peoples of North America-1 (=CRPC 33101).  (PQ. Open to undergraduates with consent of instructor) This course is a comprehensive review of Native American cultural history, including consideration of intellectual context, prehistory, ethnology, history, and the contemporary situation.  R. Fogelson. TuTh 3:00-4:20.

36200. Ceramic Analysis. 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 1:30-2:50.

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. TuTh 1:30-2:50.

37802.  Syntax-2 (=Ling 20500/30500).  PQ. Part 1.  Karlos Arregui Urbina. TuTh 10:30-11:50.

47300.  Historical Linguistics (=LING 21300/31300). Yaroslav Gorbachov. TuTh 12:00-1:20.

47400.  The Development of Creole Vernaculars and Culture (=LING 45400).  The central hypothesis to be verified in this course is that competition and selection (which account for the evolution of some languages -- by some sort of hybridization -- into creole vernaculars) can also be observed in other, non-linguistic cultural domains, such as cuisine, dance, music, religion, and folk medicine. We hope to articulate ways in which findings in one domain can enrich research in another. The course is based primarily on my book The Ecology of Language Evolution (2001, Cambridge University Press) and on Robert Chaudenson's Creolization of Language and Culture (2001, Routledge). These books are complemented by recent literature in anthropology and cultural studies that is relevant to specific issues discussed in the course. Salikoko Mufwene. MW 3:00-4:20.

50515. Alternative Social Theory: Tarde, Lévi-Strauss, Deleuze. (PQ-Systems-1, Consent of Instructor)  M. Carneiro da Cunha. Thurs 10:30-1:20.

50700.  Seminar: Biopower. The politics of life in modernity has come to occupy center stage in the human sciences.  Studies of modern techniques of governmentality, the naturalizations of transnational neoliberalism, the medicalization of social and historical experience, and the growing hegemony of an interventionist bioscience offer some of the most interesting and challenging models for a contemporary and cosmopolitan anthropology.  This seminar will read a number of recent studies in anthropology, science studies, and critical social theory in an effort to better grasp the centrality of the life sciences and biotechnology in modern and contemporary arrangements of power. 
            We will presume that most students will have already read the germinal writings of Georges Canguilhem (The Normal and the Pathological), Michel Foucault (The Birth of the Clinic, Madness and Civilization, Discipline and Punish, "Governmentality"), and Giorgio Agamben (Homo Sacer). These works will not be assigned.  (Students who have not read this work are also welcome to enroll, of course.)  The materials assigned for the course will first address broad social-theoretical concerns with life and modernist forms of power, then turn to some powerfully analyzed ethnographies of medicine and other institutions that govern life.  The third part of the course will turn to science studies and some methodologically innovative approaches to the ethnography of power/knowledge in the "contemporary" moment.  J. Farquhar. Tues 1:30-4:20.

51304.  Intellectual History of Psychological Anthropology. R. Fogelson. ARR

51410.  Amazonian Ethnology. (PQ Systems-1 and/or consent of instructor)  M. Carneiro da Cunha. Tues 10:30-1:20.

52710.  Publics, Privates, Secrets. George Simmel once wrote that secrecy was "one of the greatest achievements of humanity" because it added complexity to social life, making every social encounter a complex negotiation over concealment or revelation.  This course explores the critical theory of secrecy, and its others -- the public and the private.  We will assess how the deployment or withholding of knowledge is constitutive of experiences of self, social life, and state power.   J. Masco. Wed 9:30-12:20.

52815.  Anthropology of Sociality. In this course we examine approaches to the ways subjects are realized in relation to others.  We explore these approaches through four fields of thought: historical materialism; existentialism; ethics; and anti-essentialist criticism.  These themes are designed to think through mediums of relationality that range from intersubjective experience to material and legal differentiations.  The course presents different ethnographic strategies for describing hierarchical sociality in conversation with these four modes of thought.  K. Fikes.  Tues 12:00-2:50

 53315.  Rethinking Travel and Migration (=CRPC 52215). Migration and travel are unusual themes in the social sciences, humanities, and even policy studies areas.  These themes, for a variety of reasons, have been taken up by each of the disciplines in these fields; but rarely do writers from these disciplines engage each other.  Consequently, we have amassed an enormous literature on travel-related topics that has no center/core and few points of connection.  This seminar is about identifying some points of connection from the discipline of anthropology.  We will identify problem spots that have emerged through various approaches to the study of travel (and political/economic migrations in particular) and then address how a selection of ethnographies have worked to bind concepts of travel to broader socio-cultural themes.  K. Fikes. Thurs 10:30-1:20.

57715.  Linguistic Anthropology Seminar: Narrative (=LING 57715). The goal is to find and analyze narratives in ethnographic materials: what counts as narratives, how they are (sometimes) institutionalized, their effects on social organizations and their implications for various cultural processes such as, for instance, memory and tradition, political conflict, career building, nation-making, regionalization, health-maintenance, among others. We will try various modes of narrative analysis to see how they work and why.  In the first few weeks, we review some philosophical questions about time and its experience via linguistic/textual representations, then move to some literary and theory-of- history opinions/traditions, including the question of emergent story practices and their cultural categorizations. Most of the course will focus on recognizing and analyzing various genres or their fragments in fieldnotes and interviews, in interactions, mass media products and in the ethnographic accounts of others. Seminar participants will present their own field materials or critically read ethnographies focused on narratives (or ones that include such but do not highlight them) and discuss how storytelling-in-action and in interaction operates: e.g. how it might orient and align speakers and produce the textures of social life.  S. Gal. Thurs 1:30-4:20.

58510.  Anthropology of Space/Place. Materiality has emerged as a central and fertile interest in anthropology and other social sciences. Within this broad conceptual umbrella, space, place, and landscape have become critical points of focus for analyzing and interpreting peoples engagement with their physical surroundings. Once an inert backdrop to social life, a mere epiphenomenon, the material world is now perceived as a generative medium and terrain of cultural production: at once socially produced and framing sociality, shaping human actions and understandings while constraining social possibilities. The twin-question is how to go about analyzing the spatial production of social worlds, and how to account for the many different ways in which these processes unfold in varied cultural and historical settings. This course aims to expose you to the contemporary literature on spatial thought and explore various situated approaches to space/place/landscape. We will draw on several fields, anthropology and geography chiefly, but also art history, architecture, philosophy, and social theory, to understand how the triad of space/place/landscape work on, in, and through different social worlds, and their role in the formation of social experience, perception, and imagination. The objective of the course is to provide you with a solid foundation in contemporary spatial theory and help you develop critical tools for thinking through the articulation of space and the social in your research setting. F.G. Richard. Wed. 1:30-4:20.

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DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY Course Descriptions Autumn 2008

 [For Course Descriptions for prior quarters, see the links at the bottom of the page.]

20405/30405. Anthropology of Dis/ability (=MAPS 36900, SOSC 36900, CHDV 30405)  This seminar undertakes to explore "dis/ability" from an anthropological perspective that recognizes it as a socially constructed concept with implications for our understanding of fundamental issues about culture, society, and individual differences. The course will explore a wide range of theoretical, legal, ethical and policy issues as they relate to the experiences of persons with disabilities, their families, and advocates. At the conclusion of the course, participants will make presentation on fieldwork projects conducted during the quarter. M. Fred. Thurs 3:00-5:50

21105.  Classical Readings in Anthropology: Foundational Concepts in the Anthropology of Religion: Animism, Totemism, Shamanism.  Raymond Fogelson, . TuTh 3:00-4:20.

21256. Intensive Study of a Culture: Northern Mexico and the Border (LACS 21256). As the US-Mexico border has become a focus of national attention, it has often been portrayed as out of control, unsecured, the site of an "invasion," where obscure and threatening forces penetrate the US.  We will consider the formation of the border in historical context and ponder its function vis-à-vis US and Mexican national identities, state consolidation, and flows of labor and capital-though with particular emphasis on changing social forms on the Mexican side.  As we read historical and ethnographic (and other) accounts of the border, we will draw on an assortment of classic anthropological and social-theoretical approaches to the nation, the state, domination, identity, and boundaries.  We will examine: 1. the formation of the border in the 19th century, 2. bureaucracy and border policing, 3. identity and built environment in today's border cities, and 4. the maquiladora or assembly-plant industry.  Reading across these disparate literatures, we will draw connections between them even as we question the coherence of "the border" as a place and attempt to grasp its socially constituted nature.  Rihan Yeh. MonWed 3:00-4:20

21257.  Intensive Study of a Culture: Jazz Music in American Culture. (PQ Anthropology majors only.)  This course is an in-depth introduction to the cultural history of jazz music in American culture, examined through the lens of a number of key cultural themes that have mediated the way jazz music has been imagined and approached both in popular and scholarly discourse throughout the 20th century. We will explore how jazz has been experienced and perceived as both a local and global, commodified and autonomous, highbrow and lowbrow art form. Tensions between notions of music orality and literacy, merging and separation of composition and execution in musical practice, and formal and informal artistic socialization have also contributed to the complex status of jazz. The course draws upon anthropological and ethnomusicological writings in order to understand the often ambiguous position of jazz music in American culture with respect to key notions about art and aesthetics in the United States. Eitan Wilf. TuTh 12:00-1:20.

21308. Modern Readings in Archaeological Theory.  Since 1950, archaeology has undergone a series of wrenching intellectual transformations that have shaped and reshaped the field's intellectual agenda, its relationship with anthropology, and its understanding of the human past.  This seminar explores the shaping and reshaping of contemporary archaeology witnin the two dominant paradigm shifts of the last half-century: the rise of the New Archaeology and the critical response of post-processualism.  We examine key texts and controversial papers, including works by Binford, Flannery, Schiffer, Hoder, Wylie, and Leone. A.T. Smith. Wed 1:30-4:20. 

22530/32530.  Ethnographic Film. This seminar explores ethnographic film as a genre for representing "reality," anthropological knowledge and cultural lives.  We will examine how ethnographic film emerged in a particular intellectual and political economic context as well as how subsequent conceptual and formal innovations have shaped the genre.  We will also consider social responses to ethnographic film in terms of 1) the contexts for producing and circulating these works, 2) the ethical and political concerns raised by cross-cultural representation and 3) the development of indigenous media and other practices in conversation with ethnographic film.  Throughout the course, we will situate ethnographic film within the larger project for representing "culture," addressing the status of ethnographic film in relation to other documentary practices including written ethnography, museum exhibitions and documentary film.  Julie Chu. Thurs 1:30-4:20.

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.  Emilio Kouri. MWF 1:30-2:20.

24001-24002-24001. Colonizations I, II, III (=CRPC 24001-24002-24003, HIST 18301-18302-18203, SOSC 24001-24002-24003).  PQ: These course 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.  S. Dawdy, Aut. TuTh 10:30-11:50.

25201. Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality (=CHDV 20205).  The course provides an overview and introduction to how gender and sexuality have been conceptualized and empirically investigated in anthropology. The empirical literature discussed in the course extends from early studies by Margaret Mead and Bronislaw Malinowski to recently published monographs on topics like transgenderism, obesity and disability. Theoretically, the course offers an introduction to the theories of gender and sexuality developed by Simone de Beauvoir, 1970s feminist anthropologists, Michel Foucault and scholars working in both ethnomethodological and performative paradigms.  Don Kulick. TuTh 10:30-11:50.

25215/35215.  Human Rights: An Anthropological Perspective (=HMRT 26200/36200) This course offers an entry point into the world of human rights from an anthropological perspective. In this course we explore what human rights are and how they have been defined, argued with, and fought for in different parts of the world and in different historical epochs. Ethnographic accounts and case studies will serve to illustrate the complexities of the discourse and fight for human rights. The course is built on three modules the first looks at how human rights have been defined over the years; the second looks at how these human rights have been fought for in different socio-cultural contexts; the third looks at the different mechanism of reparation and redress that have been developed in the aftermath of mass violation of human rights.  Noa Vaisman. TuTh 1:30-2:50

25420.  Anthropology of Policymaking.  In this course, we will use anthropological and social theories of knowledge, power, ritual, and authority to interrogate the contemporary domains of policymaking.  While anthropology has played a vital role in ascertaining the effects of the spread of capitalism at the local level, it has had comparatively little to say about the institutional structures of the contemporary geopolitical order -- the very sites through which transnational flows of money, ideas, and goods are legitimated and articulated.  This course attempts to broaden the scope of the anthropological inquiry into globalization by shifting the ethnographic emphasis from the daily practices of local actors "on the ground" to the daily practices of policymakers, government bureaucrats, and the staff of international financial agencies such as the IMF and the World Bank who are explicitly and implicitly engaged in the negotiation and mediation of capitalism at the national and international levels.  It does so by asking the following questions:  How is the hegemony of the state and specific transnational policy agendas constituted and contested by the daily practices of policymakers, bureaucrats, and international economic advisers?  How is the relationship between national and international contexts of policy making discursively constructed and coordinated?  We begin by looking at how newly emerging subfields within anthropology conceptualize the state, modes of governance, and global economic flows as ethnographic objects.  In the second half of the course, we consider how we might construct an alternative framework for analyzing policymaking dynamics within the geopolitical order.  Tara Schwegler.   Wed. 1:30-4:20.

26710/36710.  Ancient Landscapes-1: GIS and Landscapes (=NEAA 20061/30061; GEOG 25400/35400; ANST 22600).  This course, along with Ancient Landscapes II in the Winter Quarter, will expose students to numerous spatial theories underlying studies of ancient and historical landscapes.  It will also provide students with practical experience in the methodologies and GIS tools that can be used to collect and analyze spatial data within these landscapes.  As such it is relevant to anyone who wishes to analyze data about and within the landscape in their spatial and temporal contexts.  The course has both a classroom and a laboratory component.  The classroom component consists of lectures and discussions while the laboratory component will allow students to get involved applying the concepts discussed in class through the hands on use of GIS software.  That said, the course is not a simple introduction to GIS, but rather enables students to use GIS software for advanced analysis of landscapes. Scott Branting. TuTh 10:30-11:50.27001-27002-

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. Staff. TuTh 1:30-2:50

27505.  Professional Persuasions: The Rhetoric of Expertise in Modern Life (=LING 27220). This course seeks to dissect the linguistic forms and semiotics processes by which experts (often called professionals) persuade their clients, competitors and the public to trust them and rely on their forms of knowledge.  We will consider the discursive aspects of professional training (e.g., lawyers, economists, accountants), and take a close look at how professions such as social work, psychology and medicine stage their interactions with clients.  The goal of the course is to examine a central feature of modern life:  the reliance on experts, by analyzing the rhetoric and linguistic for m of expert knowledge. S. Gal. TuTh 10:30-11:50.

2793l-27932-27933/47931-47932-47933.  Beginning Spoken K'iche' Maya I, II, III (=LACS 27101-27102-27103/37101-37102-37103, LGLN 30700.  Robin Shoaps. MWF 9:30-10:20.

29500/59500.  Archaeology Lab Practicum  (PQ Only w/ Consent of Instructor) This is a hands-on lab practicum course in which students will be exposed to various stages of artifact processing on a collection from a recently excavated site, including: washing, sorting, flotation, identification, data entry, analysis, report preparation and curation.  The primary requirement is that students commit to a minimum of 9 hours of lab work per week, with tasks assigned according to immediate project needs.  In addition, undergraduates will be required to submit a final writing assignment researching one artifact (or group of related artifacts) while graduate students will be required to make a specific contribution to the project report, as assigned by the instructor. S. Dawdy, ARR  SuAWSp.

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.

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+some Mondays  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 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.   J. Kelly. TuTh 1:30-4:20.  Haskell 315.

34803.  Anthropology and Literature: The Brothers Karamazov & Russian Culture (=SCTH 32550, RUSS 34300).  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 prosaics, 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.Thurs 9:30-12:20. Open to undergraduates.

35005. Classical Theories of Religion (=HREL 32900, AASR 32900).  Bruce Lincoln. MW 10:00-11:20.

36700:  Archaeology of Race and Ethnicity. (PQ: Some background in archaeological theory and method.)  Open to undergraduates with consent of instructor.)  How can we tell whether material differences in the archaeological record correspond to boundaries human groups draw between themselves? This question lays bear the heart of the problem of archaeological inference, which has cycled through several controversies in the discipline.  We will review these debates and pursue related questions, such as: Can we see ethnic diversity or ethnogenesis in the archaeological record? Can race be constructed through artifacts?  Did race exist in prehistory or antiquity?  What are the political stakes involved in archaeological studies of race and ethnicity? Over the last several years, a new emphasis on the social construction of racial and ethnic identities has invited a re-examination of the ways in which aspects of the material world (architecture, pottery, food, clothing, etc.) may participate actively in the dialectical process of creating or obscuring difference, suggesting both new avenues of research and new problems to confront in a topic that remains highly relevant to today's society. S. Dawdy. Wed 9:30-12:20

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. Michael Silverstein. WedFri 9:30-11:20

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. Staff. 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 gram­marians 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. A. Dahlstrom. TuTh 10:30-11:50 

41901.  The Crowd: From Mass to Multitude.  At the end of the nineteenth century, the figure of the unruly, affect-laden crowd appeared as both the volatile foundation and the dystopian alter ego of the democratic mass society. By the middle of the twentieth century, following the traumatic excesses of communism and fascism in Europe, the crowd largely disappeared from polite sociological analysis - to be replaced by its serene counterpart, the communicatively rational public. At the turn of the twenty-first century, however, the previously demonized crowd has unexpectedly returned, now in the valorized guise of ‘the multitude' - in part as a result of a growing sense of the exhaustion of the categories of mainstream liberal politics. This seminar tracks the trajectory of the crowd, from mass to multitude, through a series of classic readings and recent interventions. Students will be responsible for classroom presentations as well as a term paper based on the readings.    W. Mazzarella. Tues 9:00-11:50

42500.  Anthropology of the Afro-Atlantic World (=CRPC 42500)  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

43200.  Orientalism, Historiography & Postcolonial Studies. This course takes as its point of departure Edward Said's seminal text, its impact, and the variety of responses to it.  Among other issues, we will explore how Said's writings  affected area studies beyond the Middle East and brought into sharp focus long standing debates over the forms of knowledge produced in the Humanities and Social Sciences; how literary criticism became a focal point of critical studies of colonialism and imperialism; and how contemporary scholarship has welcomed or rejected Saidian interventions. We will also consider the critiques of areas studies that grew out of these debates, and explore the relation between the state and the production of knowledge in the academy. J. Hevia. Wed 3:00-5:50.

48100. Advanced Problems in Paleoanthropology (=EVOL 48100). This course includes tutorial museum, laboratory, and field studies on the hom­inoid 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.  Susan Gal. Thurs. 1:30-4:20

52610.  Advanced Readings: Africanist Anthropology.  Jean Comaroff.  (Moved to Spring 2009).

54410.  Hybridity. Ever since the late 1980s when James Clifford discovered that the "pure products" had "gone crazy", and Ulf Hannerz alerted us to the fact that the "world" was "in creolization", notions of "hybridity" and "hybridization" (and their various conceptual relatives such as mestizaje, creolization, syncretism, and so forth) have enjoyed increasing currency in our discipline. Often seen as the results of globalization-induced and medially accelerated Hyperdiffusionism, "hybrids", it seems, are the ubiquitous sign of a postmodern denouement of both "cultures" as "we knew them" (once, when we were "modern"), and the antidote to older anthropological reifications. How ironic then that while the "hybrid" obviously gestures toward what Marilyn Strathern has called "post-plural" conceptions of culture, the languages that are supposed to make it analytically visible often hearken back to the vocabularies of regimes of "breeding" ("hybrid" or "creole"), religious orthodoxies ("syncretism"), systems of racial exclusion and domination ("mestizaje"), or other institutional mechanisms and practices that reproduce and police categorical boundaries - often in order to stabilize particular distributions of power and privilege.     This experimental course aims less to scrutinize the analytical utility of the conceptual language these terms appear to put at our disposal, than to probe into the epistemological conditions and taxonomic politics that make "the hybrid" thinkable in the first place, and seemingly "good to think" at the current moment. The central question it poses is: how do we know that something is "hybrid" (or not)? After a very brief initial survey of contemporary "hybridology" and the forms of analysis it seeks to supercede, we will take our departure from Bruno Latour's suggestion that "hybrids" are the inevitable products of practices of categorical "purification". In line with this, we will examine the politics of classificatory discernment, recognition, and naturalization that are productive of both the "purities" and the "hybrids" that appear to stand out, and even ostensibly militate, against them. After a foray into taxonomics and "natural kind" philosophy, we will discuss an array of case studies concerning the maintenance of classificatory infrastructures and categorical boundaries in regard to species, sex, language, race, and distinctions between humans and animals, nature and society, persons and things, and life and death.         My hunch is that we might conclude that contemporary "hybridity"-talk is epistemologically problematic and politically troubling because far from destabilizing normalized categorical schemes, it necessarily reinforces precisely those distinctions that make "hybrid anomalies" visible in the first place. However, I remain entirely open to be convinced of the merits of hybridity (or rather: conceptualizations of it that I have, so far, failed to take into account).   S. Palmié.  Wed 1:30-4:20.

ANTH 54815.  Pushing the Boundary: Current Debates on Animals and the Species Divide (=CHDV 45205).  For the past two decades, social science and the humanities have been concerned to demonstrate how almost everybody, no matter how seemingly oppressed or disenfranchised, has or should have subjectivity and agency. While this concern has resulted in groundbreaking insights and theories of action and resistance, a consequence of focusing on agency is that it leaves unexamined the condition having a mysterious or unknowable subjectivity and of having little or no agency. This is a condition that characterizes the lives of animals.
          Animals embody a reality that is not adequately reflected in traditional thinking. This has been increasingly recognized in recent years, which have witnessed the vigorous interrogation and deconstruction of traditional Western views of a human-nonhuman divide. Philosophers as diverse as Peter Singer, Jacques Derrida, Giorgio Agamben and Martha Nussbaum; social scientists like Donna Haraway; humanities scholars such as Cary Wolfe and Marjorie Garber, and legal scholars from a wide range of perspectives have all recently written at length about the untenable nature of the supposed division between humans and nonhuman animals. What Singer in Animal Liberation (1975) referred to as ‘speciesism' is faltering as an ethical, philosophical, scientific and legal position in the face of the current wave of examination and criticism.
       This course will provide an orientation to current philosophical, legal, humanistic and social science thought on animals, with the goal of linking that work to a larger critical project concerned with the anthropology of vulnerability.  Don Kulick. Thurs 1:30-4:20.

55505.  AdvSem: Legal Anthropology. John Comaroff  (Moved to Spring 2009)

 57716.  LingAnthSem:  Conversation Analysis and Discursive Interaction (=LING 57716). With the recent publication of Sequence Organization in Interaction.  A Primer in Conversation Analysis, vol. 1 by Emanuel A. Schegloff, a certain reflexive sense of mature codification is implied for the field of CA.  I propose a Quarter's seminar to read this "primer" and several related works, in order to get a detailed understanding of what CA has to contribute to understanding discursive interaction, the mutual engagement of cultural actors/agents that is mediated by language-in-use.  We will begin with a paper by Schegloff on "Turn organization: one intersection of grammar and interaction," and an interview [2003] with him about CA, to be distributed in pdf form, before moving to read and discuss the book, which has been ordered at Seminar Cooperative Bookstore for participants to purchase.   Each seminar participant should, as well, investigate a CA monograph and prepare a critical seminar presentation of ca. 1 hour on it, distributing beforehand a pdf of a central or significant portion of the source monograph of a reasonable length.      Michael Silverstein. ARR  (Students interested in this course should contact m-silverstein@uchicago.edu before September 29.)

58305.  Andean Archaeology & Ethnohistory (200 units)   Alan Kolata.  ARR

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Course Descriptions from prior quarters

Autumn 2008
Spring 2008
Winter 2008
Autumn 2007
Spring 2007
Winter 2007
Autumn 2006
Spring 2006
Winter 2006
Autumn 2005