printer friendly pageANTHRO 24N: Maya Hieroglyphic Writing
Preference to freshmen. Decipherment of classic Maya writing. Principles of archaeological decipherment. Maya calendrical, astronomical, historical, mythological, and political texts on stone, wood, bone, shell, murals, ceramics, and books (screenfold codices). Archaeology and ethnohistory of Maya scribal practice and literacy. Related Mesoamerican writing systems. The evolution of writing and the relevance of writing to theories of culture and civilization.
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-GlobalCom
ANTHRO 25N: Contemporary Japanese Popular Culture
This is a seminar focusing on the intersection between politics and popular culture in contemporary Japan. It will survey a range of social and political implications of practices of popular culture. Topics include representations of gender in J-pop, manga, and anime, the otaku culture and its pathologization. Students will be introduced to theories of popular culture in general, and a variety of contemporary anthropological studies on Japanese popular culture in particular as well.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Inoue, M. (PI)
ANTHRO 26N: God and the Supernatural
This course explores the conditions under which people have experiences that they identify as "supernatural": experiences of something that is not physically present. We will explore the cultural and psychological dimensions of this very real phenomenon. We will not, however, make ontological judgments about whether something which is experienced as externally present is in fact externally present: in other words, this is a class about culture and psychology, not about metaphysics. We will do experimental work, using our selves and fellow classmates, as subjects, to understand who, when and how people have experiences that they deem "supernatural."
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
Instructors:
Luhrmann, T. (PI)
ANTHRO 27N: Ethnicity and Violence: Anthropological Perspectives
Ethnicity is one of the most compelling and most modern ways in which people - in the midst of considerable global and local uncertainty - all across the world imagine and narrate themselves. This seminar will take an anthropological look at both the modernity and the compulsions of ethnic allegiance, and, why struggles over ethnic identity are so frequently violent. Our questions will be both historical ¿ how, why and when did people come to think of themselves as possessing different ethnic identities - and contemporary ¿ how are these identities lived, understood, narrated, and transformed and what is the consequence of such ethnicisation. We follow this through anthropological perspectives which ask persistently how people themselves locally narrate and act upon their experiences and histories. Through this we will approach some of the really big and yet everyday questions that many of us around the world face: how do we relate to ourselves and to those we define as others; and how do we live through and after profound violence? The seminar will take these larger questions through a global perspective focusing on cases from Rwanda and Burundi, India, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, Guatemala, and the countries of Former Yugoslavia among others. These cases cover a broad canvas of issues from questions of historicity, racial purity, cultural holism, and relations to the state, to contests over religious community, indigeneity, minority identities, globalization, gender, and generation.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
Instructors:
Thiranagama, S. (PI)
ANTHRO 28N: Secularism and its Critics
Secularism is often taken to be a necessary prerequisite for democracy in the modern world. The separation of religion and politics is often written into constitutions as a fundamental priority. Yet around the world, growing numbers of religious movements have sought to dispute the legitimacy of secularism. Social scientists, including anthropologists, are beginning to research the forms of domination and political violence that have been justified in the name of secularism. This course seeks to make sense of this global debate about secularism. It does so by taking up an anthropological perspective: much as anthropologists might study culture, religion, or kinship, we will interrogate secularism as a comparative social artifact, constituted by historically specific repertoires of signs, identities, everyday practices, and institutional powers. The course focuses on case studies in the United States, Western Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Tambar, K. (PI)
ANTHRO 30Q: The Big Shift: An Anthropological Approach to Wealth, Migration, and the New Margins of America
Is the middle class shrinking? How do people who live at the extremes of American society- the super rich, the working poor and those who live on the margins, imagine and experience "the good life"? How do we understand phenomena such as gang cultures, addiction and the realignment of white consciousness? This class uses the methods and modes of ethnographic study in an examination of American culture. Ethnographic materials range from an examination of the new American wealth boom of the last 20 years (Richistan by Robert Frank) to the extreme and deadlynnworld of the invisible underclass of homeless addicts on the streets of San Francisco (Righteous Dopefiend by Phillipe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg). The experiences of Hispanic immigrants and the struggle to escape gang life in Los Angeles are highlighted in the story of Homeboy Industries a job creation program initiated by a priest working in LA's most deadly neighborhoods (G-Dog and the Homeboys by Celeste Fremon). Finally in Searching for Whitopia: an improbable journeynninto the heart of White America, Rich Benjamin explores the creation on ethnic enclaves (whitopias) as fear over immigration and the shrinking white majority redefine race consciousnessnnin the 21st century. Each of these narratives provides a window into the various ways in which Americans approach the subjects of wealth and the good life, poverty and the underclass, and thennconstruction of class, race, and gender in American society. Students will not be required to have any previous knowledge, just curiosity and an open mind.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Wilcox, M. (PI)
ANTHRO 32: Theories in Race and Ethnicity: A Comparative Perspective (CSRE 32)
This undergraduate course employs an anthropological and historical perspective to introduce students to ideas and concepts of race and ethnicity that emerged primarily in Europe and the United States in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and that continue to shape contemporary racial attitudes, interactions, and inequalities. Ideas about race and ethnicity forged outside the U.S. and case studies from other nations are presented to broaden students' understanding and to overcome the limitations of an exclusive focus on the U.S. This course is geared to sophomores and juniors who have already taken at least one course on race and ethnicity, anthropology, African American Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Jewish Studies or Native American Studies.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
Instructors:
Yanagisako, S. (PI)
ANTHRO 33: Introduction to Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE 196C, ENGLISH 172D, PSYCH 155, SOC 146, TAPS 165)
How different disciplines approach topics and issues central to the study of ethnic and race relations in the U.S. and elsewhere. Lectures by senior faculty affiliated with CSRE. Discussions led by CSRE teaching fellows.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Brody, J. (PI)
;
Fullwiley, D. (PI)
ANTHRO 4: Language and Culture
Comparative approach, using examples from many languages. Emphasis is on generally non-Western speech communities. Topics include: the structure of language; the theory of signs; vocabulary and culture; grammar, cognition, and culture (linguistic relativism and determinism); encodability of cultural information in language; language adaptiveness to social function; the ethnography of speaking; registers; discourse (conversation, narrative, verbal art); language and power; language survival and extinction; and linguistic ideology (beliefs about language).
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
ANTHRO 82: Medical Anthropology (ANTHRO 282)
Emphasis is on how health, illness, and healing are understood, experienced, and constructed in social, cultural, and historical contexts. Topics: biopower and body politics, gender and reproductive technologies, illness experiences, medical diversity and social suffering, and the interface between medicine and science.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
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