11 - 20 of 48 results for: ANTHRO

An introduction to numeric methods in Anthropology and related fields employing the Data Desk statistics package to test hypotheses and to explore data. Examples chosen from the instructor's research and other relevant projects. No statistical background is necessary, but a working knowledge of algebra is important. Topics covered include: Frequency Distributions; Measures of Central Tendency, Dispersion, and Variability; Probability and Probability Distributions; Statistical Inference, Comparisons of Sample Means and Standard Deviations; Analysis of Variance; Contingency Tables, Comparisons of Frequencies; Correlation and Regression; Principal Components Analysis; Discriminant Analysis; and Cluster Analysis. Grading based on take-home problem sets.

What does it mean to claim we are all cyborgs ¿ a hybrid of human and machine? Cyborgs have long captured the popular imagination of people around the world, appearing in various forms of media including films, books, and video games. In these instances, cyborgs are typically imagined as futuristic entities, portrayed as products of anticipated technological advancements yet to come. This course takes a different approach, employing the cyborg as a framework to understand human existence and experience across space and time, and explore the relationship between the body, culture, and technology. Drawing from anthropology and other relevant fields, this course emphasizes how humans and tools co-construct each other, blurring the boundaries between natural and artificial, human and machine. The first section of the course will present different theoretical perspectives for understanding human-machine interactions and relationships. In the second section, we will spend each week examining various types of technological embodiments. Specific technologies explored include smartphones and wearables; biohacking and prostheses; virtual reality; and artificial intelligence. And in the last section, we explore the tensions between narratives of technological pessimism and optimism, comparing the ways different individuals and communities perceive and evaluate emergent technologies' consequences for society, now and in the future. This course will provide students with the opportunity to conduct limited, small-scale ethnographic fieldwork on human-machine interactions. The data collected during these ethnographic exercises will inform the in-class presentation and final paper for the course.

Core course for Urban Studies majors. A majority of the world's population now live in urban areas and most of the rapid urbanization has taken place in mega-cities outside the Western world. This course explores urban cultures, identities, spatial practices and forms of urban power and imagination in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Participants will be introduced to a global history of urban development that demonstrates how the legacies of colonialism, modernization theory and global race thinking have shaped urban designs and urban life in most of the world. Students will also be introduced to interpretative and qualitative approaches to urban life that affords an understanding of important, if unquantifiable, vectors of urban life: stereotypes, fear, identity formations, utopia, social segregation and aspirations. Significant work outside of class time is expected of the student for this course.

The Indian Ocean has formed an enduring connection between three continents, countless small islands and a multitude of cultural and ethnic groups and has become the focus of increasing interest in this geographically vast and culturally diverse region. This course explores a range of topics and issues, from the nature and dynamics of colonization and cultural development as a way of understanding the human experience in this part of the world, to topics such as religion, disease, and heritage The course guides studies in the many ways in which research in the Indian Ocean has a direct impact on our ability to compare developments in the Atlantic and Pacific. Significant work outside of class time is expected of the student for this course.

This course introduces contemporary anthropological perspectives on the phenomenon of addiction with a focus on mental health and incarceration. In the first part, the course will introduce the making of addiction in the history of drug policing and public health through shifting discourses of the legal and cultural significance of drugs and drug scenes. Then, it will situate drugs at the heart of dispossession of specific communities over generations and geographies in the 20th century. In the final part, the course will invite students to go beyond common analytical categories to historically situate drug use on the links between therapeutic approaches and penal mechanisms. Readings and discussion will focus on the centrality of drugs to regimes of violence and dispossession, while developing a theory of illicit drug economies crucial to the development of modern state and medicine across geographies. The course will make use of philosophical, historical and anthropological literature and video clips and films.

In recent years, we have witnessed a growing number of social and political upheavals around the world. With new organizational principles, diversified ways of participation and mediation, and expanding themes and goals, these cases, in bringing the political near to us, also challenge our familiar ways of thinking and doing politics. They are testing the limit of our imagination of a bounded social movement in the forms such as street protest and civil disobedience, as well as the limit of analysis. This course explores the uses of anthropological theories in engaging with a politically animated world.

In recent decades, there has been a surge in archaeological research related to the African diaspora. What initially began as plantation archaeology and household archaeology to answer questions of African retention and identity, has now developed into an expansive sub-field that draws from collaborations with biological and cultural anthropologists. Similarly, methodological approaches have expanded to incorporate geospatial analysis, statistical analysis, and, more recently, maritime archaeological practices. The growth of African diaspora archaeology has thus pushed new methodological and theoretical considerations within the field of archaeology, and, inversely, added new insights in the field of Africana Studies. This course covers the thematic and methodological approaches associated with the historical archaeology of Africa and the African diaspora. Students interested in Africa and African diaspora studies, archaeology, slavery, and race should find this course useful. In addition to an overview of the development of African diaspora archaeology, students will be introduced to the major debates within the sub-field as well as its articulation with biological and socio-cultural anthropology. The course covers archaeological research throughout the wide geographical breadth of the African diaspora in Latin America, North America, the Caribbean, East, and West Africa, and the Indian Ocean. The themes covered include gender, race, identity, religion, and ethics in relation to the material record. Lectures will be supplemented with documentary films and other multimedia sources.

In this course, we will explore the ways archaeology and disability relate to each other, including both the ways archaeologists interpret disability in the past and how ableism shapes the practice of archaeology in the present. We will examine a variety of theoretical frames drawn from Disability Studies and other disciplines and consider how they can be usefully applied to archaeology. Case studies from a variety of geographic and temporal contexts will provide the basis for imagining an anti-ableist archaeology. By the end of the quarter, students will be able to: 1. Articulate several major ideas from disability studies and apply them to archaeological case studies; 2. Explain how disability studies and disabled self-advocates are reshaping the practice of archaeology; 3. Demonstrate improvement in the research and writing skills that they have chosen to develop through the flexible assignment structure of the course.

If you wish to enroll, please use the linked form to request instructor consent: https://tinyurl.com/AncientMaterials - This course examines how concepts and methods from materials science are applied to the analysis of archaeological artifacts, with a focus on artifacts made from inorganic materials (ceramics and metals). Coverage includes chemical analysis, microscopy, and testing of physical properties, as well as various research applications within anthropological archaeology. Students will learn how to navigate the wide range of available analytical techniques in order to choose methods that are appropriate to the types of artifacts being examined and that are capable of answering the archaeological questions being asked. ----- If you wish to enroll, please use the linked form to request instructor consent: https://tinyurl.com/AncientMaterials For full consideration, this form must be submitted by Monday, September 4th.