Adam Smith

21101. Classical Readings in Archaeological Theory. (Limit 20) The agenda and conceptual apparatus of contemporary archaeological thought rest squarely upon the discipline's early intellectual foundations. This seminar will examine the roots of archaeological thought and practice in classic writings from the early systematic explorations of the past through its material culture through Walter W. Taylor's watershed study of the discipline in 1948. We will examine works of seminal researchers including Layard, Schliemann, Morgan, Petrie, Boas, Kidder, Lubbock, Kossina, Childe, and Morley.

21231/39501. Archaeology of Eurasia. (Limit 20) This course explores the prehistory and early history of the Eurasian Steppe and Caucasia from the appearance of the first settled villages during the Neolithic through the rise of the first complex societies. The goal of the course is to provide students with an overview of the archaeological record from these regions and an understanding of the history of research in the area. The class begins with an orientation to archaeological research during the Imperial Russian and Soviet periods in order to frame the intellectual contexts that guided research. Our discussions will then proceed to focus upon the Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Ages in turn, providing a general account of political, social, cultural, and technological change. We will focus closely upon the extant material culture in order to ground our discussions in the available data. Throughout, we will be concerned to address four general themes central to an understanding of the region's past: 1) social and political relationships between hunting and gathering, agricultural, and pastoral societies; 2) large-scale migrations and long-distance contacts; 3) the impact of technological innovations (e.g., horse domestication, metallurgy) on social transformations; and 4) the impact of Eurasian societies on the surrounding regions of eastern Europe, southwest Asia and Central Asia.

21232//39502. Eurasian Complex Societies. This course will examine the rise and fall of complex societies in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and on the Eurasian Steppe. We will be primarily concerned to outline the unique practices and traditions that promoted the emergence of socially stratified, politically institutionalized polities. Once central concern will be the role of pastoral economies in Eurasian complex societies. We will also work to contrast these traditions with the more canonical complex societies to the south, most notably, in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. During the course of the quarter we will examine the following cases: Tripolye, Sintashta, Bronze Age Oasis Civilization (BAOC), Urartu and its predecessors, and Greco/Scythian settlements on the Black Sea coast.

21247. Intensive Study of a Culture: The Caucasus. The Caucasus occupies a distinctive place within both the ancient and modern anthropologicalimagination. From the summit of Mt. Ararat (Noah's legendary refuge) to the peaks of Mt. Elbrus (mythical prison of the exiled Prometheus), the Caucasus has been consistently anchored to enduring tropes of disobedience, punishment, and redemption. This mythic moral precariousness has long provided profound depth to the regions perceived geographic liminality, betwixt and between the continental worlds of Europe and Asia (a theme central to the early 20th century novel Ali and Nino). The regions extraordinary diversity in languages and ethnicities has generated a deep suspicion of the region by those surrounding it and sparked profound social tragedies. But it has also stimulated an artistic curiosity that has generated profound meditations on culture and social life. This course will explore the Caucasus through an examination of its archaeology, history, literature, music and film. We will examine the entanglement of the regions history with its internal and external representations in order to get a sense of the array of forces shaping the region today.

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 will explore the shaping and reshaping of contemporary archaeology within the two dominant paradigm shifts of the last half-century: the rise of the New Archaeology and the critical response of post-processualism. We will examine key texts and controversial papers, including works by Binford, Flannery, Schiffer, Hodder, Wylie, and Leone.

36000. The Practice of Anthropology: Great Excavations (Limit 20) The emblematic feature of archaeological research is undoubtedly the excavation -- the peeling back of layers of accumulated debris to expose . . . what? History and prehistory? Metahistorical process? The "Other"? Ourselves? The answers to this question provide the discipline's foundation myth, its dominant methodology, its public persona, and its intellectual frame. In this class we will approach the practice of archaeology through the medium of the excavation using a number of pivotal site reports and excavation summaries to examine the intellectual development of the field from the 19th century through today, traditions of scholarly representation, the methodological expansion of fieldwork, and the formation of archaeology's public persona.

26800/36800. Rise and Fall of Early Complex Societies. The advent of complex societies marks a signal transformation in human culture, society, politics, economy, and psychology. The geographically and temporally irregular emergence of "the State" has been variously described as the point of origin for social struggle, the source of sublimation and neurosis, and the genealogical root of a wide range of institutions predicated upon specialization and radical inequality. In this course we will examine contemporary approaches to the problems associated with the rise and fall of early complex polities and undertake a comparative examination of five pivotal case studies: Sumer, Egypt, China, the Maya lowlands, and Teotihuacan. The course will begin with an introduction to the role of early complex societies in 19th and 20th century social thought followed by an evaluation of the major theoretical frameworks archaeologists have constructed to explain the rise of states. In this context, we will undertake a critical examination of current theoretical debates in political anthropology, including problems associated with existing systems of classification (e.g., the chiefdom/state controversy), schemes of social development (e.g., sociocultural evolution and historicism), and the epistemological foundations of the field. We will then proceed to evaluate various theoretical models in reference to our five case studies. In addition to exploring pivotal historical and archaeological remains, we will address key aspects of social complexity illustrated by each case, such as the constitution of political authority or the ordering of political economy. The class will conclude with a critical discussion of the collapse of early complex polities and their relevance to modern social and political thought.

39001-02. Theory and Method in Archaeology. PQ: Required for first-and second-year graduate students in archaeology; open to undergraduates only with consent of instructor; this course carries 200 units of credit. This course provides an intensive critical orientation to the logics of archaeological interpretation and aesthetics of archaeographic representation from the 19th century to the present. Students will engage in close readings of canonical theoretical texts in order to track the major philosophical shifts in the discipline from its antiquarian origins through postmodernity. Simultaneously, we will examine the reports from a group of landmark research projects in order to document how theory was put into practice. In addition to lectures and discussion sessions, students will conduct a series of debates intended to expose the central tenets underlying the primary paradigm shifts of the last century.

46400. Ancient States and Empires of Caucasia and Eastern Anatolia. (Ident NELC 4xx). (Limit 15) This course provides an in-depth look at the earliest complex societies to emerge in eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus. We will begin with a consideration of the roots of regional sociopolitical complexity as revealed in archaeological contexts dating to the second millennium B.C. This extended discussion will be followed by detailed considerations of the polities of Urartu and Colchis. We will critically evaluate current and classic theories of political coalescence in the region with a particular emphasis upon the rise of Urartu, the constitution of its political apparatus, and its transformation into empire.

46805/26805. Material Cultures. (Primarily a graduate course) This course explores recent efforts to theorize the materiality of human social, political, and cultural life. We will draw broadly from contemporary works in archaeology, socio-cultural anthropology, art, social thought, media studies, and literary theory to piece together a sense of the analytic possibilities afforded by analytical engagement with the world of things. We will take historical materialism and anthropological investigations of exchange as our points of departure, broadening our perspective to take in contemporary arguments for objects as constitutive elements of mind, affect, and order. The goal of the course is to juxtapose the experience, perception, and imagination of materiality in order to re-structure critical anthropological problems. As such, we will attempt to forge a more archaeological sense of anthropology and plot new possibilities for anthropological archaeology. Prior experience with archaeological theory will be helpful.

48000. Vision, Image and Aesthetics. This seminar considers the relationship between social practices and cultural imaginations as mediated by diverse forms of visual representation. We will ground our survey of current theory in cases drawn from contemporary, historical, and archaeological contexts. Readings will explore issues such as modernism and the avant-garde, cultural anthropology’s movement beyond the modern, archaeology and European romanticism, the post-modern critique of mimesis, and the return of the real.

54500. Political Anthropology. This course is an exploration of major theoretical approaches to the study of political insti-tutions, structures, and processes in different societies, with special refer-ence to the nature of power, the role of symbolism and ideology in poli-tics, and images of the state. We will explore the constitution of political authority in reference to both ethnographic and archaeological investigations that will take us from the problems of early state origins to the transformations of the post-colonial. Throughout, our discussions will attempt to bring forward problems of structure and process, history and practice, that animate anthropological approaches to political life. (with John Comaroff)

56900. Landscapes: Theory & Interpretation. (Limit 15) Space is a fundamental dimension of anthropological data and interpretation. Archaeological research programs invest much of their energy and resources in detailing location, arrangement, dispersal, and distribution of material culture and built form. Cultural anthropologists regularly probe the ways in which values, histories, and meanings create place out of space. Historians point to the iconographic potency of representations of space in both picture and text. Architects and urban planners detail the impact of form upon culture, behavior, and belief. Yet despite this acknowledgement of the spatiality of social life across the social sciences, anthropological theory has for many years considered space to be epiphenomenal to more fundamental temporal processes of social and cultural change. In the last decade, space has come to be seen increasingly as an active element in cultural processes, shaping actions and constraining possibilities. Consequent with this shift in the epistemological status of space, landscape has emerged as a unifying concept for the interpretation of “social space”. This course will consider some of the varying interpretive approaches to landscape by considering works both within and outside anthropology. We will consider three overlapping dimensions of human spatial practice: experience (e.g., flows of goods, people, and information), perception (e.g., symbolic spaces, spatial semiotics), and imagination (e.g., iconography, cartography, spatial aesthetics). The goal of the course is to provide students with both a strong foundation in current spatial theory drawn from geography, social theory, architecture, cultural anthropology, and archaeology, as well as critical tools for operationalizing theoretical perspectives in reference to spatial data. // We will attempt to critically assess the utility to anthropological analysis of a wide variety of perspectives and analytical techniques encompassing both quantitative and qualitative data. During the term, students will be expected to present a case study to the class, write three short theoretical treatises, and complete a research paper dealing with spatial data. The course is conceived of as broadly interdisciplinary of value to archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, geographers, architects, sociologists, and urban planners.

58100. Current Directions in Archaeological Theory. This seminar examines the most pressing concerns of contemporary archaeological theory. Since the advent of the post-processual critique in the 1980s, a host of issues -- ontological, epistemological, theoretical, practical -- have served to focus debate and frame attempts at constructive theory-building. The purpose of this class will be to interrogate both the content of these models and their philosophical foundations. We will focus on four primary schools of thought : "rump" or "late" processualism (including behavioral and evolutionary schools), Critical Marxism, interpretive post-processualism, and the various attempts at synthesis. Our goals will be to evaluate each school in reference to both general philosophy and their value to the illumination of the archaeological record and to identify possible openings for the future development of archaeological thought.

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.

AncStud 271. Ancient Studies Seminar: Politics and Governance in Ancient Societies. Arguably the dominant preoccupation orienting studies of early complex societies since at lesat the late 19th century has been the concern to elucidate the formation of political orders and the structure of governmental apparatus in the ancient world. Varying accounts of the historical antecedents of modern political systems, of the origins of complex governmental institutions and the roots of socio-political inequality, undergrid the dominant traditions of Enlightenment political thought. Rousseau's assault on the legitimacy of kingly rule, Marx's critique of class interests, and contractarian senses of self-interested consent all presuppose an account of politics in early complex societies. Archaeological and historical inquiry has, for most of the last half-century, focused resolutely upon the problems posed by the Sate: what is it and from whence does it arise? Yet as an increasing number of critics have pointed out, this framework for discussion has left us rather unprepared to address the question of what civil authorities actually did in archaic polities. How did regimes form? By what means was legitimacy secured? How was sovereignty maintained? What ties amongst institutions constituted governance? This seminar will address questions of politics and governance in ancient societies through a comparative examination of several critical case studies from both the New and Old Worlds. These case studies will be contextualized within an intellectual history of the study of ancient politics that will range from early historicist and modern evolutionary approaches to current critiques and responses. (Once only, INACTIVE)