printer friendly pageANTHRO 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.
ANTHRO 260: Social and Environmental Sustainability: The Costa Rican Case (ANTHRO 160)
Seminar focused on issues of tropical sustainability with a particular emphasis on the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. Offered in conjunction with the Osa Initiative in the Wood¿s Institute for the Environment, the course highlights issues of human development in the tropics, through such means as agricultural development, ecotourism, conservation efforts, private and indigenous reserves, and mining. The course will draw from diverse disciplines including anthropology, rural sociology, conservation biology, geosciences, history, political science, and journalism. In addition to weekly discussions, students will development a research paper throughout the term which will be presented to a panel of selected Wood¿s Faculty during the final week of the term.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
Instructors:
Durham, W. (PI)
ANTHRO 261: Human Behavioral Ecology (ANTHRO 161, HUMBIO 117H)
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.
Last offered: Spring 2013
ANTHRO 262: Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Problems (ANTHRO 162)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
Instructors:
Durham, W. (PI)
ANTHRO 263A: Endangered Languages and Language Revitalization (ANTHRO 163A, LINGUIST 163A, LINGUIST 263, NATIVEAM 163)
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. This course looks at how and why languages die, and what is lost from a culture when that occurs. We will investigate how this trend can be reversed by methods of language documentation and description, the use of innovative technologies, multimodal fieldwork, writing dictionaries and grammars for different audiences, language planning, and data creation, annotation, preservation, and dissemination. We will focus on a number of current programs around the world to revitalize languages. Finally, the course will examine ethical modes of fieldwork within endangered language communities, and the possibilities of successful collaborations and capacity building, focusing especially on Northern California Indian peoples and their languages.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
Instructors:
Ogilvie, S. (PI)
ANTHRO 266: Political Ecology of Tropical Land Use: Conservation, Natural Resource Extraction, and Agribusiness (ANTHRO 166)
Seminar. The state, private sector, development agencies, and NGOs in development and conservation of tropical land use. Focus is on the socioeconomic and political drivers of resource extraction and agricultural production. Case studies used to examine the local-to-global context from many disciplines. Are maps and analyses used for gain, visibility, accountability, or contested terrain? How are power dynamics, land use history, state-private sector collusion, and neoliberal policies valued? What are the local and extra-local responses?
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
Instructors:
Curran, L. (PI)
ANTHRO 269: The Ecology of Cuisine: Food, Nutrition, and the Evolution of the Human Diet (ANTHRO 169)
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.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
Instructors:
Bird, R. (PI)
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."
ANTHRO 270: Australian Ecosystems: Human Dimensions and Environmental Dynamics (ANTHRO 170, EARTHSYS 172)
This cross-disciplinary course surveys the history and prehistory of human ecological dynamics in Australia, drawing on geology, climatology, archaeology, geography, ecology and anthropology to understand the mutual dynamic relationships between the continent and its inhabitants. Topics include anthropogenic fire and fire ecology, animal extinctions, aridity and climate variability, colonization and spread of Homo sapiens, invasive species interactions, changes in human subsistence and mobility throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene as read through the archaeological record, the totemic geography and social organization of Aboriginal people at the time of European contact, the ecological and geographical aspects of the "Dreamtime", and contemporary issues of policy relative to Aboriginal land tenure and management.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Bird, R. (PI)
ANTHRO 271: The Biology and Evolution of Language (ANTHRO 171, HUMBIO 145L)
Lecture course surveying the biology, linguistic functions, and evolution of the organs of speech and speech centers in the brain, language in animals and humans, the evolution of language itself, and the roles of innateness vs. culture in language. Suitable both for general education and as preparation for further studies in anthropology, biology, linguistics, medicine, psychology, and speech & language therapy. Anthropology concentration: CS, EE. No prerequisites.
Last offered: Winter 2014
Filter Results: