131 - 140 of 273 results for: ANTHRO

The South Asian subcontinent (comprising of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka) is one of the most diverse and densely populated regions in the world and increasingly prominent in new global political and cultural economies. South Asia has also provided the inspiration for cutting edge theories about the colonial state, postcolonial studies, democracy, popular culture, and religious conflict. The course will provide an overview of major historical events and social trends in contemporary South Asia and focus on themes such as gender, religion, caste, migration and movement, new technologies, the urban and rural, the state, and new forms of consumption among others.Thus, the course will give students historically and theoretically informed perspectives on contemporary South Asia, as well as how to apply insights learned to larger debates within the political and social sciences.

How do choices relating to bearing, nursing, and raising children influence women's participation in the labor force? Cultural, demographic, and evolutionary explanations, using crosscultural case studies. Emphasis is on understanding fertility and work in light of the options available to women at particular times and places.

Anthropological theories and concepts as applied to Japan. Postwar demographic trends. Delayed marriage.  Declining nuclear family.  Re-structuring of education and workplace. Problems for the seniors.  Foreign laborers shaking fundamentals of Japan.

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.

The ¿tragedy of the commons¿ is a classic social dilemma ¿ a situation in which individual interests conflict with collective ones ¿ and key to understanding past, present and future environmental degradation. This course surveys a variety of scientific perspectives on the essence of the tragedy: common property resources will ultimately be destroyed by overexploitation. Major themes include the effects of human population density and social organization on the health and management of commons, self-interest versus collective action, and potential solutions to commons problems. Modern and prehistoric case studies are examined from ecological and evolutionary perspectives.

Theory, method, and application in anthropology. How theory in behavioral ecology developed to understand animal behavior is applied to questions about human economic decision making in ecological and evolutionary contexts. Topics include decisions about foraging and subsistence, competition and cooperation, mating, and reproduction and parenting.

Humans face essentially the same adaptive challenges as all organisms but are unique for having successfully adapted to virtually every environment on Earth. The resulting diversity of phenotypes and cultures¿past and present¿is key to understanding how interactions with environments shape the economic, social, and cultural lives of hunter-gatherers, pastoralists and agriculturalists. This course surveys the range of human adaptations from an ecological and evolutionary perspective to understand human adaptive capacity and vulnerability to climate change.

The social and cultural consequences of contemporary environmental problems. The impact of market economies, development efforts, and conservation projects on indigenous peoples, emphasizing Latin America. The role of indigenous grass roots organizations in combating environmental destruction and degradation of homeland areas.

This course is an interdisciplinary approach to understanding human food consumption and nutrition, incorporating biological, evolutionary, ecological and social perspectives. Topics include a broad survey of primate diets and their physiological and behavioral correlates; fossil and archaeological evidence for early human diets; adaptations to dietary shifts since the Neolithic; infant and early child feeding practices and their role in shaping human social arrangements, metabolic syndrome, food security, food taboos; the origins of spices; cultural diversity in the social uses and meanings of food and the sharing of food; gathering, hunting and locavorism as high hipster cuisine. Emphasis is on understanding the diversity of human foodways through time and space: how biology, culture, and ecology interact to shape the food we eat, and how the food we eat shapes us.