311 - 320 of 335 results for: ANTHRO

Ideas of rights at the center of contemporary politics around the world. An anthropological perspective on how rights are invoked, claimed, and translated into institutional policies in ethnographic cases. The limitations of liberal notions of rights and innovative forms of politics emerging within and against rights talk. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

What does it mean to want to help, to organize humanitarian aid, in times of crisis? At first glance, the impulse to help issui generis a good one. Helping is surely preferable to indifference and inaction. This does not mean that humanitarian interventions entail no ethical ot political stakes ¿ or that they are beyond engaged critique. We need to critique precisely that which we value, and to ask some hard questions, among them these: What are the differences among humanitarianism, charity, and philanthropy? What of social obligations and solidarities? How does the neoliberal world order currently create structural inequalities that ensure the reproduction of poverty and violence? How does the current order of things resemble or differ from the colonial world order? This course examines the history of humanitarian sensibilities and the emergence of organized action in the ¿cause of humanity¿. In the early years of humanitarian intervention, political neutrality was a key principle; it has now come under ever greater analytical and political scrutiny. We will examine the reasons for the politicization and militarization of aid -- be it humanitarian aid in natural disasters or political crises; development programs in the impoverished south (¿the Third World¿), or peace-keeping. We will end with a critical exploration of the concept of human rights, humanity, and personhood. The overall methodological aim of the course is to demonstrate what insights an ethnographic approach to the politics, ethics, and aesthetics of humanitarianism can offer.

This course presents classic and contemporary work on the anthropology of religion: Durkheim Elementary Forms of the Religious Life; Levy-Bruhl; Primitive Mentality; Douglas Purity and Danger; Evans Pritchard Nuer Religion; and recent ethnographies/scholarly work by Robbins, Keane, Keller, Boyer, Barrett, and others.

This course will present a chronologically framed outlined of the three main regions that witnessed the greatest impact of the crusading period. Commencing with the initial capture of Jerusalem and the subsequent establishment of a crusader kingdom in the Middle East in AD1099, till its eventual end in 1291, this will be followed by the `pagan conversions¿ of the Northern Baltic. Centred on Poland (Prussia) and Latvia (Livonia) from the 13th to 15th c., this example will also be compared with neighbouring Lithuania, which never fell under the political hegemony of the Monastic Orders. Finally, the course covers the Iberian case, where the Reconquista ¿ or `reconquest¿ - of lands from Muslim groups concluded with the fall of Granada and the unification of Spain in 1492. Through archaeological and historical evidence, the materials, technologies and ideas of the crusading groups will be compared and contrasted, with a particularly emphasis on bioarchaeological datasets. Ultimately, the course deals with the economic, social and practical mechanisms used by the religious orders to `colonise¿, once the initial conquest had been achieved. Prerequisite: graduate standing or consent of instructor

Focus is on theories of commodification, interests in tourism, national cultures as marketable objects, and how identities are constituted through production and consumption. The formation of global style and taste. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

In this course students will study medical cultures through visual communication ranging from x-rays and PET scans to graphic novels. Course will also include literature on visual theory.

Recent experimental histories of the field. Emphasis is on how, working within anthropology's classic format, the ethnographic monograph, authors have innovatively responded to the challenges of representing amorphous, unspoken, and often violent relationships between the body and social change. The authors' expository techniques, and how they engage and extend theoretical debate. How to assess works within medical anthropology and its allied fields. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

Current research on sexuality from perspectives including paleoanthropology, archaeology, ethnography, and linguistic anthropology. Readings paired with case studies that explore theoretical and methodological issues. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.