331 - 340 of 390 results for: ANTHRO

Models and examples of the social evolution of stratification and political centralization in prehistoric human societies. Inferences from the archaeological record concerning the forces and mechanisms behind the rise and fall of complex societies, particularly in S. America. (HEF II; DA-B)

This course has three related goals pertinent to medicine and healing in South Asia. The first is to understand the experiences of illness, and therapy in ordinary South Asian communities. How do social and economic inequality, religious commitments, available healing traditions, and community and family contexts shape the experience of illness and healing? The second goal is to think about South Asian medical systems using a broad historical perspective. How had biomedicine been used during the colonial period to manage the health of native populations? What is the legacy of this colonial history on current practices? What happens when South Asian medical traditions (such as Ayurveda) become global? Third, we will explore crucial health problems in South Asia from the perspective of medical anthropology. Possible topics for the third portion of the course include: child birth and maternal health, sex-selection technologies, malnutrition, metabolic diseases, the selling of organs, medical tourism, tuberculosis, HIV, suicide, and schizophrenia.

This course examines the neglect and management of socially marginalized persons including the mentally ill, youth runaways, child wards of the state, drug addicts and prisoners. In this course, we will approach the concept of marginality by investigating the spaces and institutions of decay, neglect and rehabilitation to which unwanted and indigent individuals are relegated. Readings are focused on qualitative research conducted within institutions of health, welfare, and reform. There will be two comparative public mental health sections in this course: one focused on South Asia and the second on Africa. This course is relevant for students interested in medical anthropology, applied anthropology, public health policy, or clinical careers in medicine, psychology, or social work.

Human ecology, human environments, adaptation and plasticity, and their relationship to health and well-being. Comparative context. Topics include human population history, subsistence ecology, demography, reproductive decision making, migration, infectious disease, risk management, and social inequalities. Particular attention will be paid to small-scale subsistence populations. Small-scale societies demonstrate an enormous range of variation in both environmental challenges faced and adaptations thereto. The process of human adaptation cannot be understood in the absence of a grounding in this range of challenge and adaptation.

Mobility, whether in the form of seasonal or permanent migration, is an ancient practice necessary for many subsistence strategies, including hunting-and-gathering and pastoralism. Many new forms of mobility have emerged and now it is nearly impossible to consider a patch of human society that is not engaged in or directly impacted by habitual, patterned geographic mobility. Today, almost everywhere in the world, people can get farther, faster; urbanization, environmental degradation, and civil unrest are driving groups of people who do not have a cultural tradition of nomadic migration to adopt a mobile lifestyle¿sometimes permanently, sometimes temporarily¿in search of new economic or resource opportunities. In this seminar course, we will explore modern patterns of human mobility and migration as adaptive strategies for predictably and unpredictably changing environments. Using a framework of biological and cultural adaptation, we will discuss the major types of current human mobility (e.g. nomadism, immigration, migrant labor, displacement) and how they influence and are influenced by social systems, resource access, and health.

In this course we will examine the place of Africa in global health discourses while reading in-depth histories and ethnographies of the varied causes and consequences of some of the most difficult problems facing African countries today. We will study the effects of colonialism and conflict on health, explore the military and humanitarian connections in the fight against HIV/AIDS, weigh the risks and benefits of population genetic studies on African populations, examine biomedical interventions on, and erasures of, local health problems, and query the role of violence, memory, insecurity, and power in daily life on the continent.

May be repeated for credit.

The course prepare students for the methodological and practical aspects of doing ecologically oriented, quantitative anthropological field research. The primary goal is to explore what it means to ask anthropological questions in a systematic way. We will focus on understanding what can constitute an interesting question, how to frame a question in way that facilitates investigation, and how to design methods to begin investigating a question. In turn, the course will provide a format to refine research projects in preparation for doing more extensive fieldwork.

History of evolutionary theory from the 19th century to present, emphasizing anthropological applications. Theory and concept in evolutionary biology; evolutionary theories of culture; and interactions of genetic, social, and cultural evolution and their implications. Emphasis is on tools of analysis and the value of evolutionary thinking for formulating research questions in anthropology today. Prerequisite: graduate standing or consent of instructor. (HEF II, III)