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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 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: Win | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI

ANTHRO 49: Violence and Belonging in the Middle East

This course examines politics in the Middle East from an anthropological perspective. We will explore the symbolic expression of political identities, the effects of religious revival on political institutions, and the tumultuous culture of protest in the region. Readings discuss the historical development of rights and citizenship, Islamic politics, sectarian tensions, and imaginings of revolution. Course materials are drawn from ethnographic studies and films, which provide a rich contextualization of social life and cultural politics in the region.
Last offered: Autumn 2014 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

ANTHRO 64Q: These languages were here first: A look at the indigenous languages of California (LINGUIST 64Q, NATIVEAM 64Q)

Stanford was built on land originally inhabited by the Muwekma Ohlone tribe, and Native American students have always held an important place in the university community from the writer and journalist John Milton Oskison (Cherokee) who graduated in 1894 to current enrolments of over three hundred students who represent over fifty tribes. Two hundred years ago, the Muwekma language was one of a hundred languages that made California one of the most linguistically-diverse places on earth. Today, less than half of these languages survive but many California Indian communities are working hard to maintain and revitalize them. This is a familiar pattern globally: languages around the world are dying at such a rapid rate that the next century could see half of the world's 6800 languages and cultures become extinct unless action is taken now. Focusing especially on California, this course seeks to find out how and why languages die; what is lost from a culture when that occurs; and how `sleeping¿ languages might be revitalized. We will take a field trip to a Native American community in northern California to witness first-hand how one community is bringing back its traditional language, songs, dances, and story-telling. We will learn from visiting indigenous leaders and linguistic experts who will share their life, language, and culture with the class. Through weekly readings and discussion, we will investigate how languages can be maintained and revitalized by methods of community- and identity-building, language documentation and description, the use of innovative technologies, writing dictionaries and grammars for different audiences, language planning, and data creation, annotation, preservation, and dissemination. Finally, the course will examine ethical modes of fieldwork within endangered-language communities.
Last offered: Winter 2017 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

ANTHRO 82: Medical Anthropology (ANTHRO 282, HUMBIO 176A)

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: 4 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

ANTHRO 90C: Theory of Ecological and Environmental Anthropology (HUMBIO 118)

Dynamics of culturally inherited human behavior and its relationship to social and physical environments. Topics include a history of ecological approaches in anthropology, subsistence ecology, sharing, risk management, territoriality, warfare, and resource conservation and management. Case studies from Australia, Melanesia, Africa, and S. America.
Terms: Win | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
Instructors: Ives, S. (PI)

ANTHRO 91: Method and Evidence in Anthropology

This course provides a broad introduction to various ways of designing anthropological questions and associated methods for collecting evidence and supporting arguments. We review the inherent links between how a question is framed, the types of evidence that can address the question, and way that data are collected. Research activities such as interviewing, participant observation, quantitative observation, archival investigation, ecological survey, linguistic methodology, tracking extended cases, and demographic methods are reviewed. Various faculty and specialists will be brought in to discuss how they use different types of evidence and methods for supporting arguments in anthropology.
Terms: Aut | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI

ANTHRO 93B: Prefield Research Seminar: Non-Majors

Preparation for anthropological field research in other societies and the U.S. Data collection techniques include participant observation, interviewing, surveys, sampling procedures, life histories, ethnohistory, and the use of documentary materials. Strategies for successful entry into the community, research ethics, interpersonal dynamics, and the reflexive aspects of fieldwork. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center).
Terms: Spr | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
Instructors: Ipek, Y. (PI)

ANTHRO 101B: Archaeology of Technology (ANTHRO 201B, ARCHLGY 100, ARCHLGY 200)

The course is an introduction to the social organization of material production and to the theoretical, ethnographic, and historical frameworks used by archaeologists to link the technologies of the past to salient sociocultural information about the people who employed them. Comparison of metallurgical, ceramic, lithic, and textile industries in different cultural and historical settings will inform critical discussions of how and to what extent analyses of artifacts, workshops, and industrial installations can provide insight into past societies.
Last offered: Winter 2015 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI

ANTHRO 101S: Introduction to Cultural and Social Anthropology (ANTHRO 1S)

This course introduces basic anthropological concepts and presents the discipline's distinctive perspective on society and culture. The power of this perspective is illustrated by exploring vividly-written ethnographic cases that show how anthropological approaches illuminate contemporary social and political issues in a range of different cultural sites.
Terms: Sum | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
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