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21 - 30 of 438 results for: ANTHRO

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.
Last offered: Winter 2013

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."
Last offered: Autumn 2012

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: Win | Units: 3-5

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.
Last offered: Autumn 2016 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

ANTHRO 30Q: The Big Shift (CSRE 30Q)

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 deadlynworld 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 journeyninto 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 consciousnessnin 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 thenconstruction 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 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
Instructors: Wilcox, M. (PI)

ANTHRO 31: Ecology, Evolution, and Human Health

Ecology, Evolution, and Human Health Human ecology, environments, adaptation and plasticity, and their relationship to health and well-being considered in the broad comparative context. Topics include human population history, subsistence ecology, demography, reproductive decision making, urbanization, migration, infectious disease, the physiology of stress and the inflammatory response, social capital and social networks, nutrition, nutritional deficiencies, growth, and social inequalities. No prior course work in ecological or medical anthropology required.
Last offered: Spring 2011 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-GlobalCom

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.
Last offered: Spring 2018 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci

ANTHRO 34: Animals and Us (ARCHLGY 34)

The human-animal relationship is dynamic, all encompassing and durable. Without exception, all socio-cultural groups have evidenced complex interactions with the animals around them, both domesticated and wild. However, the individual circumstances of these interactions are hugely complicated, and involve much more than direct human-animal contact, going far beyond this to incorporate social, ecological and spiritual contexts.n This course delves into this complexity, covering the gamut of social roles played by animals, as well as the methods and approaches to studying these, both traditional and scientific. While the notion of `animals as social actors¿ is well acknowledged, their use as proxies for human autecology (the relationship between a species and its environment) is also increasingly recognized as a viable mechanism for understanding our cultural and economic past. It will piece together the breadth of human-animal relationships using a wide geographic range of case studies.
Last offered: Winter 2018 | UG Reqs: WAY-ER, WAY-SI

ANTHRO 39: Sense of Place

This course examines the life of places as shaped by environmental events and projects aimed towards rural or urban development. Drawing methodological insights from anthropology, cultural geography and environmental studies, we examine the forces that generate place problems for humans and nonhumans. Each encounter with place and displacement sets up a particular issue for us to grapple with: How would we address issues created by natural disasters, the seizure of land through legal means that fall under eminent domain or gentrification projects? Through a critical dialogue with interdisciplinary fields that inform the readings, the seminar aims to bring theoretical and methodological insights to inform our practical suggestions for how to address placeness and displaceness at different scales.
Last offered: Autumn 2017

ANTHRO 41: Genes and Identity (AFRICAAM 41, CSRE 41A)

In recent decades genes have increasingly become endowed with the cultural power to explain many aspects of human life: physical traits, diseases, behaviors, ancestral histories, and identity. In this course we will explore a deepening societal intrigue with genetic accounts of personal identity and political meaning. Students will engage with varied interdisciplinary sources that range from legal cases to scientific articles, medical ethics guidelines, films, and anthropological works (ethnographies). We will explore several case studies where the use of DNA markers (as proof of heritage, disease risk, or legal standing) has spawned cultural movements that are biosocial in nature. Throughout we will look at how new social movements are organized around gene-based definitions of personhood, health, and legal truth. Several examples include political analyses of citizenship and belonging. On this count we will discuss issues of African ancestry testing as evidence in slavery reparations cases, revisit debates on whether Black Freedman should be allowed into the Cherokee and Seminole Nations, and hear arguments on whether people with genetic links to Jewish groups should have a right of return to Israel. We will also examine the ways genetic knowledge may shape different health politics at the individual and societal level. On this count we will do close readings of how personal genomics testing companies operate, we will investigate how health disparities funding as well as orphan disease research take on new valences when re-framed in genetic terms, and we will see how new articulations of global health priorities are emerging through genetic research in places like Africa. Finally we will explore social implications of forensic uses of DNA. Here we will examine civil liberties concerns about genetic familial searching in forensic databases that disproportionately target specific minority groups as criminal suspects, and inquire into the use of DNA to generate digital mugshots of suspects that re-introduce genetic concepts of race.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI
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