51 - 60 of 75 results for: ARCHLGY

This interdisciplinary research workshop will critically engage the issue of the growing currency of human rights discourse within cultural heritage. Epistemological and practical areas of tension between rights discourse and cultural discourse will be surveyed within the context of current global challenges facing heritage practice, conservation and archaeology. Topics will include the inequities of cultural recognition between North-South globalizations, questions of cultural property and rights, the role of tourism, and the impact of environmental conservation discourse on cultural rights.

The practice of historical archaeology through methodologies including archival research, oral history, material culture analysis, and archaeological excavation. Students use these methods to analyze the history and archaeology of a local park, the Thornewood Open Space Preserve.

Early China from the perspective of material remains unearthed from archaeological sites; the development of Chinese culture from early hominid occupation nearly 2 million years ago through the development of agriculture in the Neolithic period and complex society in the Bronze Age to the political unification of China under the Qin Dynasty. Continuity of Chinese culture from past to present, history of Chinese archaeology, relationships between archaeology and politics, and food in early China.

This course explores the emergence of heritage from within the broader field of modern historical thought. Readings explore how transformations in economic theory and changes in traditional philosophies of history have shaped how the historical event and historical figures are cast and recast within heritage. The distinctive modes by which archaeological sites and heritage sites are spatialized, linked and narrated are explored as these relate to corresponding turns in the modern concepts of freedom, inequality, personhood, sovereignty, community and culture.

This course deals with the skeletal biology of past populations, covering both the theoretical approaches and methods used in the study of skeletal and dental remains. Issues surrounding the reconstruction of the individual and population, which include age, sex and other paleodemographic factors, will be explored. The health and disease of teeth and bones, and the biomechanical and chemical analyses of bone will also be explored to illustrate how the variety of methods available to bioarchaeologists can be used to reconstruct past lifeways. While this course will be of primary interest to students interested in skeletal biology and archaeology, it is not exclusive to those pursuing careers in biological anthropology. The emphasis is on critical analysis, research skills, and communication skills that can be useful to students pursuing careers in other sub-disciplines of anthropology, laboratory research, or other lateral health-related fields. Required readings will be selected from current literature, and in some classes there will be practical material/exercises so that students can learn some of these techniques. The class is intended to be an interactive learning process in discussion format, and students are required to take an active part in class along with lectures.

This seminar will explore foundational concepts currently employed within heritage practice and debates. Readings will examine the historically formative context of colonial-era and nationalist discourses on stewardship and culture, as well as postcolonial reformulations of such concepts as cultural property, cultural recognition and public history. The seminar will engage the question of the relationship between foundational concepts and the current cosmopolitan and internationalist vision for heritage, probing the enduring dynamics of North-South divides in heritage development and archaeological practice.

How have ethnographic and archaeological methods been combined in anthropological research? What methodological and theoretical implications do these kinds of projects generate? Seminar topics will include ethnoarchaeology, ethnographies of archaeological practice, public archaeology and heritage ethics. Lecture and discussion.

This course provides a survey of Aegean prehistory (7th-2nd millennium BC), focusing on traditions that were picked up or renegotiated, instead of taking a standpoint that evaluates phenomena as steps leading up to a `state-like¿ `palatial¿ society. It will draw on the region¿s wealth of data, and will be set within a theoretically informed, problem-oriented framework, aiming to introduce students to current interpretations and debates, mainly through discussion of specific case-studies.

This course provides an introductory survey of Africa¿s past from prehistoric times through the 19th-century. The course will challenge Western depictions of Africa as a dark continent `without history¿ by highlighting the continent¿s vibrant cultures, sophisticated technologies, complex political systems and participation in far-reaching commercial networks, all predating European colonization. In tandem, the course explores how these histories are mobilized in the production of negative ideas about Africa in contemporary discourse.