 |
Two-Part Courses: A hyphen indicates a full-year course with
credit granted only for completing both terms. A comma indicates credit is
granted for completing each term.
CORE COURSES
Departmental Seminar: Integrating Perspectives in
Anthropology G14.1000 Subfield core
course. Staff. 4 points. A problem-focused course required of all graduate students
in anthropology. Emphasis is on exploring distinctive subdisciplinary
approaches to anthropological issues. Theme and faculty vary.
Social Anthropology Theory and Practice G14.1010 Beidelman, Martin, Myers, Rapp, Rogers. 4 points. Introduces the principal theoretical issues in contemporary
social anthropology, relating recent theoretical developments and ethnographic
problems to their origins in classical sociological thought. Problems in the
anthropology of knowledge are particularly emphasized as those most challenging
to social anthropology and to related disciplines.
Linguistic Anthropology G14.1040 Core course in linguistic anthropology.
Kulick, Schieffelin. 4 points. Introduces and examines the interdependence of anthropology
and the study of language both substantively and methodologically. Topics
include the relationship between language, thought, and culture; the role of
language in social interactions; the acquisition of linguistic and social
knowledge; and language and speech in ethnographic perspective.
History of Anthropology G14.1636 Beidelman, Myers, Rapp, Rogers. 4 points. The history of anthropology is rooted in philosophical
questions concerning the relationship between human beings and the formation of
society. This course surveys these issues as they relate to the development of
method and theory. Focuses on French, British, and American anthropology and
how they contributed to the development of the modern discipline. Covers key
figures Franz Boas, Emile Durkheim, Marcel Mauss, Bronislaw Malinowski, and
Radcliffe-Brown. Issues: cultural relativism, relation between biology and
culture, functionalism, and structuralism.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
Gender Issues in Archaeology G14.1201 Wright. 4 points. Focuses on recent theoretical and methodological advances in
the study of gender in prehistory. Topics include the ideological biases in the
interpretation of rules attributed to women and men in prehistory; the impact
of major historical transformations known from the archaeological record; and
the effects of long-term historical processes on the lives of women and men.
Fieldwork in Historical Archaeology G14.1206 Does not fulfill the field course requirement
for specialists in archaeology at the M.A. level. 4 points. Examines the theory and techniques of archaeological data
collection through readings, classroom instruction, and fieldwork.
Approximately eight all-day field sessions are conducted on weekends at one or
more archaeological sites in the New
York City area, chosen for the special complexities of
excavation at sites of the historic period.
Prehistory of South Asia
G14.1207 Wright. 4 points. Provides an in-depth study of South
Asia from the earliest sedentary settlements in the region through
the development of food-producing economies, urbanization, and state-level
societies in the third millennium BC. Focuses on processes that led to the
development of the Indus Valley civilization and its collapse, and the growth
of societies on its margins (the Indo-Iranian Borderlands, Central Asia, and
the Arabian Peninsula).
Prehistory of the Near East and Egypt I G14.1208 Crabtree. 4 points. Surveys the prehistory of the Near East and Egypt from the
earliest occupation to the domestication of plants and animals, covering the
period from over one million to eight thousand years ago.
Prehistory of the Near East and Egypt II G14.1209 Wright. 4 points. Covers the period from about ten thousand to four thousand
years ago, the prehistoric to Ur III (Mesopotamia and Old Kingdom periods in Egypt). The
course is comparative and concentrates on archaeological evidence, although
written documentation is considered. Origins of agriculture; development of
towns, villages, and cities; invention of new technologies; and emergence of
state-level societies.
African Prehistory G14.1210
White. 4 points.
Africa has played a major
role in modeling our current conceptions of human biological and cultural
evolution. This course surveys African prehistory beginning with the earliest
evidence for stone tool use. Addresses recent controversies, including
arguments that Africa presents the earliest
evidence for cereal domestication and representational art. Outlines
independent development of complex societies.
European Prehistory I G14.1211 White. 4 points. Development of human existence during the European Stone Age. Complexities of European
geography, geology, vegetation, climate, and their relationship to humans.
Inferences from European glacial history as a basis for comprehending the
dynamic environmental context in which prehistoric peoples lived and changed.
The complex database of the European prehistoric sequence and its relationship
to human biological evolution. Human lifeways during the Stone Age from a
diachronic perspective.
Faunal Analysis for Archaeology G14.1212 Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Crabtree. 4 points. Studies techniques used to identify animal remains found in
archaeological sites. Practical laboratory work is emphasized. Topics include
ethnoarchaeology, taphonomy, and paleoecology.
European Prehistory II G14.1213 Crabtree. 4 points. Surveys the archaeology of temperate Europe
from the end of the Ice Age to the arrival of the Romans. Topics include
Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and post-Pleistocene adaptations; the origins of
agriculture in Europe; the development of
metal technology; the emergence of social inequality; and the beginnings of
urbanism in the later Iron Age.
Ceramic Analysis for Archaeology G14.1221 Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
Wright. 4 points. Ceramics are the most abundant, diverse, and imperishable
objects of material culture present in the archaeological record. This course
approaches ceramic analysis from experimental, ethnoarchaeological, and
archaeological perspectives. Topics include the scope and potential of ceramic
analysis, range of theoretical and methodological approaches, and analytical
techniques archaeologists employ in their study. Students have “hands-on”
experience with ceramics and formulate a research design for the study of
ceramics in a specific geographical and (pre)historical context.
Technology in Preindustrial Societies G14.2210 White, Wright. 4 points. The craftsperson in society; a culture-historical and
functional analysis of technology in the nonindustrial world. Consideration of
prehistoric and contemporary examples, problems, and technologies.
Ancient Societies I: Hunters and Gatherers G14.2211 White. 4 points. Old World origins of culture, comparative analysis of Old
and New World hunting and gathering societies.
Emphasis is on interpretation of settlement patterns and settlement systems,
economic systems (including subsistence and trade), and religion.
Ancient Societies II: Cities and States G14.2212 Crabtree, Wright. 4 points. Critical evaluation of evidence for the origins and
development of cultural complexity that culminated in urban settlements and
state systems of political organization. Compares the processes by which
complex systems developed independently in several areas of the Old and New
Worlds. Examines anthropological theories concerning the evolution of the state
as well as our understanding of the complexities of modern state systems.
Archaeological Theory G14.2213 Crabtree, White, Wright. 4 points. Exposes and assesses in detail the framework of problems and
questions that guides anthropological archaeology. Critically examines the
process of theory construction and the nature and procedures involved in
scientific explanation. Discusses dominant theoretical constructs within which
the archaeological record is understood and/or explained.
Archaeological Methods and Techniques G14.2214 Crabtree, White, Wright. 4 points. Examines how archaeologists bridge the gap between the
theoretical goals of anthropology and a static database. Includes the relationship
between theory and method, excavation techniques, sampling
strategies, survey design, chronology building, taphonomy, faunal analysis,
typological constructs, functional analysis of artifacts, and quantitative
manipulation of archaeological data.
Fieldwork in Archaeology G14.2550 Required for M.A. and Ph.D. students in
anthropological archaeology. Summer session only. 4 points. Students live and work at selected prehistoric and historic
sites in eastern North America. Following
classroom preparation at field school headquarters, students learn excavation
and recording techniques while working on the site. The final week is devoted
to laboratory analysis of the excavated materials and the preparation of
preliminary reports and papers. Special attention to sampling design and
conservation archaeology.
Seminar: Archaeology and the Environment G14.3215 Crabtree, White. 4 points. Use of archaeological data, artifacts, and other materials
for understanding past human-environmental relationships; materials that should
be collected; methods for analysis. Relationships between archaeologically
known cultures and the environmental setting in which these cultures are found.
CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Culture and Media I G14.1215 Open only to graduate students in the Departments of
Anthropology, Cinema Studies, and Performance Studies. Ganti, Ginsburg,
Himpele. 4 points. This course offers a critical revision of the history of the
genre of ethnographic film, the central debates it has engaged around
cross-cultural representation, and the theoretical and cinematic responses to
questions of the screen representation of culture, from the early romantic
constructions of Robert Flaherty to current work in film, television, and video
on the part of indigenous people throughout the world. Ethnographic film has a
peculiar and highly contested status within anthropology, cinema studies, and
documentary practice. This seminar situates ethnographic film within the wider
project of the representation of cultural lives, and especially of “natives.”
Starting with what are regarded as the first examples of the genre, the course
examines how these emerged in a particular intellectual context and political
economy. It then considers the key works that have defined the genre, and the
epistemological and formal innovations associated with them, addressing
questions concerning social theory, documentary, as well as the institutional
structures through which they are funded, distributed, and seen by various
audiences. Throughout, the course keeps in mind the properties of film as a
signifying practice, its status as a form of anthropological knowledge, and the
ethical and political concerns raised by cross-cultural representation.
Culture and Media II: Ethnography of Media G14.1216 Open only to graduate students in the
Departments of Anthropology, Cinema Studies, and Performance Studies.
Prerequisite: G14.1215. Ganti, Ginsburg, Himpele. 4 points. In the last decade, a new field—the ethnography of media—has
emerged as an exciting new arena of research. While claims about media in
people’s lives are made on a daily basis, surprisingly little research has
actually attempted to look at how media is part of the naturally occurring
lived realities of people’s lives. In the last decade, anthropologists and
media scholars interested in film, television, and video have been turning
their attention increasingly beyond the text and the empiricist notions of
audiences (stereotypically associated with the ethnography of media), to consider,
ethnographically, the complex social worlds in which media is produced,
circulated, and consumed, at home and elsewhere. This work theorizes media
studies from the point of view of cross-cultural ethnographic realities and
anthropology from the perspective of new spaces of communication focusing on
the social, economic, and political life of media and how it makes a difference
in the daily lives of people as a practice, whether in production, reception,
or circulation.
Video Production Seminar I, II G14.1218, 1219 Open only to students in the Program in
Culture and Media. Limited to 10 students. Prerequisites: G14.1215, H72.1998,
and permission of the instructor. Ganti, Ginsburg, Himpele. 4 points per term. Yearlong seminar in ethnographic documentary video
production using state-of-the-art digital video equipment for students in the
Program in Culture and Media. The first portion of the course is dedicated to
instruction, exercises, and reading familiarizing students with fundamentals of
video production and their application to a broad conception of ethnographic
and documentary approaches. Assignments undertaken in the fall raise
representational, methodological, and ethical issues in approaching and working
through an ethnographic and documentary project. Students develop a topic and
field site for their project early in the fall term, begin their shooting, and
complete a short (5- to 10-minute) edited tape by the end of the semester. This
work should demonstrate competence in shooting and editing using digital
camera/audio and Final Cut Pro nonlinear editing systems. Students devote the
spring semester to intensive work on the project, continuing to shoot and edit,
presenting work to the class, and completing their (approximately 20-minute)
ethnographic documentaries. Student work is presented and critiqued during
class sessions, and attendance and participation in group critiques and lab
sessions is mandatory. Students should come into the class with project ideas
already well-developed. Students who have not completed the work assigned in
the first semester are not allowed to register for the second semester. There
is no lab fee, but students are expected to provide their own videotapes. In
addition to class time, there are regular technical lab sessions on the use of
equipment.
Culture, Meaning, and Society G14.1222 Open to nonanthropology graduate students;
undergraduate senior anthropology honors majors; and undergraduate
linguistics-anthropology joint majors. Staff. 4 points. Explores what is involved in studying the various symbolic
systems in use in various societies—both Western and non-Western—considering
the role of these expressive systems in myth, ritual, literature, and art. Also
reviews the history and development of a specifically anthropological
perspective on the nature of symbolic processes. Close examination of important
theoretical discussions is combined with extended case studies from
ethnographic literature, allowing the nonspecialist to become familiar not only
with the details of symbolic systems in use in a number of actual communities,
but with anthropology’s emerging claim to a special kind of perspective, and a
special kind of method, for their study.
Ethnographic Traditions: Latin America
G14.1314 Abercrombie. 4 points. Examines lifeways of people in rural villages, plantations,
mines, towns, and cities of Central and South America.
Contrasts prehistoric systems of production and distribution with the changed
relationship between human beings and land resulting from the Spanish Conquest
and colonialism, revolution, and industrialization. Explores similarities and
differences between culture areas, institutions, and practices, such as curing,
child rearing, slavery, feasting, art, and warfare.
Ethnographic Traditions: East Asia
G14.1315 Zito. 4 points. Traditional societies and contemporary problems of how
traditional beliefs and behavior have been modified by modern changes. Topics:
caste system and theories of inequality; world religions (Buddhism and Islam)
as locally received; the impact of cash economy and markets on subsistence
agriculture; the relation of religious beliefs to family and community
structure; national culture and the international demands of industry,
bureaucracy, and education. Includes Thailand,
Indonesia, China, and Japan.
Ethnographic Traditions: Sub-Saharan Africa
G14.1316 Beidelman. 4 points. Surveys a range of peoples and problems examined as they
relate to specific ethnographies; lineage theory, interpretations of cosmology
and ritual, oral history, and varying forms of subsistence and their relation
to social organization. Also considered: the effects of Christianity and Islam,
colonialism, and modern economic and political development as these relate to
basic social theory.
Ethnographic Traditions: Europe G14.1317 Rogers.
4 points. How basic anthropological concepts about culture,
methodology, and local studies allow new interpretations of traditional and
contemporary European societies. Topics: community studies; the changing forms
of family and kinship; culture and bureaucracy; patronage; Christianity in
different locales; elites; and the relations between history, education, and
culture.
Ethnographic Traditions: India G14.1318 Ganti. 4 points. Surveys the societies and cultures of the Indian
subcontinent. Relationship of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam to the Indian
worldview and to caste, village society, and modern urban life. Special
attention to problems raised for anthropological theory by Indian studies.
Ethnographic Traditions: The Caribbean
G14.1319 Khan. 4 points. Comparisons of the Hispanic and Afro-Creole regions.
Slavery, plantation structures, racial class stratifications,
political-religious traditions, community family patterns, and the problems of
postcolonial development are analyzed from an anthropological perspective.
Anthropology for Middle Eastern Studies G14.1322 Intended primarily for graduate students and
advanced undergraduates majoring in fields other than anthropology. Gilsenan. 4
points. Assesses the contribution of anthropological research to the
study of Middle Eastern history, politics, literature, and civilization.
Special attention to applying anthropologically oriented techniques to research
problems.
Problems in Contemporary French Society G14.1328 Identical to G42.1328 and G46.1810. Rogers. 4 points. Introduction to the analysis of French society: social
structures and postwar processes of social reproduction and transformation.
Subjects include family organization, class, gender, generational differences,
ethnicity, and regionalism. Local-level ethnographies, life histories, and
national-scale studies are used to explore relationships between individual
experience, local variation, and national trends.
Constructing America:
Seminar on the Anthropology of the United States G14.1330 Dávila, Ginsburg. 4 points. Focuses on ethnographies of and about the United States,
examining the epistemology of fieldwork in a society where “the natives read
what we write,” as well as on the imperative of linking structure and action
and local knowledge with larger processes. More generally, takes a sociology of
knowledge approach, relating what anthropologists have written about American
culture to both the context of the development of anthropology as well as to the
changing character of American society and culture. Explores chronologically
and topically how anthropologists studying American culture are simultaneously
engaged in constructing it.
Theories of Modernity G14.1323 Grant. 4 points. Analyzes classic social theories of modernity,
anthropological debates about the grand dichotomy, and contemporary critical
theory. Questions the nature and significance of features attributed to
modernity: rational thought, scientific knowledge, individuality, political
development, and sexual liberation. Explores the roles the modern and nonmodern
have played in the social theory, the political process, and the lives of
people in the non-Western world and examines “alternative modernities.”
Art and Society G14.1630
Myers. 4 points. Considers art and aesthetic practice as both specific
historical categories and as a dimension of human activity. Considers
non-Western societies but shows relation to broader theories of aesthetics,
iconography, and style, with reference to art everywhere. Considers mainly
visual and plastic arts but also oral literature and crafts.
Political Systems G14.1633
Beidelman, Merry, Myers, Rapp, Siu. 4 points. Analyzes political structures, politics, and political
culture (symbols and ideology) in different egalitarian and hierarchical
settings. Culturally defined forms of autonomy, dominance-subordination, and
inequality in the context of varying ways of controlling material resources and
organizing people. The power dimensions of rituals, speech events, gender
relations, ethnicity, and other cultural activities. Forms of governing and
resisting are compared in such societies as tribal and centralized states,
colonial and postcolonial nations, and transnational organizations.
Transnational Processes G14.1634 Prerequisite: G14.1010 or permission of the
instructor. Khan, Merry, Siu. 4 points. Focuses on studies of “deterritorialized” social and
cultural processes that have emerged from the new global traffic in capital,
peoples, and cultures. Topics include transnational and diasporic identities
and cultures of migrating Third World peoples;
urban public cultures produced by the globalization of capital, commodities,
media, literacy, and international political and religious movements; current
models for analyzing transnational social and cultural phenomena; and
methodologies for research. Students develop a research project on the
transnationalization of social relations and cultures.
Anthropological Perspectives on New Social Movements
G14.1637 Ginsburg. 4 points. Examines forms of collective action referred to as “new
social movements” (e.g., women’s grassroots and international movements, youth,
environmental justice, human rights, and other forms of urban movements), which
display new patterns of political action and organization that researchers have
associated with the rise and spread of global capitalism. Analyzes case studies
of select social movements and their related theoretical literature.
Race and Power G14.1638
Khan, staff. 4 points. Examines the formation and deployment of the category “race”
in historical and cross-cultural perspectives. Investigates how racism operates
within systems of complementary exclusions tied to gender, class, national, and
imperial identities. Topics include race in the construction of colonial and
postcolonial hierarchies and ideologies; the production of “whiteness” in U.S. cultural
politics; global (re)articulation of race cum ethnocultural identities; and the
environmental justice movement as a contemporary terrain of struggle in the
elaboration of a politics of difference.
Anthropological Theory G14.2310 Beidelman, Grant, Martin, Myers, Rapp. 4
points. Follow-up to core course G14.1010. Considers selected
classics and contemporary works derived from them, showing the interplay
between past and current theory. Emphasis varies with the instructor. Themes
include systems of thought, exchange theory, political and economic domination,
social organization and kinship, bureaucracy, and history.
Ethnography: Theory and Techniques G14.2312 Beidelman, Ginsburg, Martin, Myers, Rogers. 4 points. Examines various classic and contemporary ethnographies with
two broad aims: how the collection of field data relates both to theory and to
methodology and how such research has influenced the history of cultural
anthropology.
Anthropology of Religion G14.2330 Beidelman, Khan, Myers, Zito. 4 points. The study of religion has been central to the
anthropological understanding of systems and thought, categorization, and
belief in both “simple” and complex societies. The study of ritual, myth,
symbolism, and sacrifice also has major implications for secular activities:
politics, bureaucracies, and notions of responsibility and obligation. Examples
are drawn from Australian Aborigines, Africans, Classical Greeks, the Americas,
Islam, Buddhism, European Christianity, and Judaism.
Social Organization G14.2341
Beidelman, Myers, Rapp, Rogers.
4 points. Comparative analysis of family and kinship organizations and
of the nature and social functions of such organizations in their social and
historical contexts. Specific examples are drawn from classic studies of
kinship and social organization.
Symbolic Anthropology G14.2342 Ginsburg, Grant, Kulick, Myers. 4 points. Considers the relationships between the formal properties of
signs and their place in social life. Examines methodologies of interpretation
(hermeneutic problems locating and interpreting cultural meanings), issues in
the poetics of meaning, and rhetorical approaches to signification. Also
explores classical anthropological approaches to the study of symbols and
meaning in light of recent work in semiotics, literary criticism, Marxist
theory, structuralism, phenomenology, philosophy of language, and
poststructuralist critique.
Anthropology and Economic Analysis G14.2343 Beidelman, Rogers. 4 points. Economic institutions and economic behavior in prehistoric
and contemporary societies. Anthropological studies of economic behavior.
Relationships between anthropological studies of economic systems and classic
economic theory. Applicability of economic theory to the methods and data of
social anthropology.
Urban Anthropology G14.2345
Staff. 4 points. Critical survey of various models and conceptual frameworks
used by anthropologists in the study of urban society. Definitions of urbanism,
the preindustrial city, culture, central place theory, and networks. Emphasis
on interplay between comparative ethnography and theory development.
Sex/Gender Systems: Issues and Theory G14.2346 Ginsburg, Kulick, Martin, Rapp. 4 points. Implications of new research on gender for anthropological
models of society and culture and for theories concerning production, wealth,
and exchange; stratification, domination, and inequality; kinship and family roles;
and the role of gender constructs in cultural ideologies.
Anthropology of Human Rights G14.2600 Merry. 4 points. Examines the contemporary elaboration and dissemination of
human rights law and discourse in the post-World War II period. Explores the opposition
between culture and rights and examines current anthropological work on human
rights in political struggles in various parts of the world. Specific areas of
focus include indigenous rights and women’s rights. The course also examines
transnational, deterritorialized, and multisited ethnographic research methods
for studying human rights.
Cultures of Biomedicine G14.2610 Rapp. 4 points. Over the last 100 years, biomedicine as a sphere of ideas
and practices has made increasingly powerful claims to define the conditions of
human life and death. How did medical authority get established? This seminar
looks at the many historical processes through which biomedical power is
constituted by addressing topics such as the discovery/ invention of bodies,
systems, populations; public health and governance; the material culture of
scientific medicine; the emergence of diagnostic categories and pharmacologies;
the role of biostatistics. This course is located on the intersection of
science studies and anthro-pological approaches to biomedicine.
Ethnographic Methods G14.2700 Martin, Rapp, Schieffelin. 4 points. Examines theories and methods of ethnographic research,
paying particular attention to the role of language. In addition to readings,
students have the opportunity to design and carry out ethnographic research
projects in New York City.
Seminar: Modernization and Social and Cultural Change
G14.3213 Staff. 4 points. Changes in the culture and social patterns of colonial and
contemporary postcolonial societies in the context of changes in the
relationship between Western and Third World
societies. Covers political, economic, and cultural factors, and the
institutional forms through which the two-way processes of change are mediated.
Medical Anthropology G14.3214 Martin, Rapp. 4 points. Overview of central issues in medical anthropology. Focuses
on the relationship of theory to practice. Examines problems in international
health, occupational health, health care delivery, and clinical issues,
illustrating the roles of anthropologists at the interface of the medical and
social sciences. Implications of cross-cultural variation and commonality in
health institutions; behavior and beliefs for change in health care systems.
Students critique the literature in a particular area of medical anthropology;
research projects utilize the New
York University
hospital and medical school.
Memory and Heritage
G14.3390 Abercrombie. 4 points. This course surveys the realms of memory, social continuity,
and representation of the past and of historical process or change. It seeks especially to understand the kinds
of social memory that bridge the gap between remembered personal experience and
the externally received representations of museology and school-book history.
On the one hand, the course is a survey and history of historians’ and
anthropologists’ approaches to the study of the past, of cultural change over
time, and of representations of the past; on the other, it is a treatment of
the role of narration in the subject’s construction of itself. The course
includes in-depth treatment of the issue of time, memory, and the past as
cultural constructs, including recent studies of the perception of time and of
constructions of “social memory.”
Seminars: Ethnographic Areas G14.3490 to 3499 4 points per term. Geographic or cultural areas selected.
LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
Language and Problem Solving: The Legal Process and Narrated
Self G14.1702 Schieffelin. 4 points. Analysis of language as a particular type of problem-solving
activity. Language is viewed as a significant form of social action and, as
such, is a resource for participants and researchers. Grounded in comparative
materials, theories, and methodologies drawn from the literature on studies of
dispute resolution, symbolic interaction, political economy of language,
narrative, and the “narrated self,” the course explores how two speech
genres—disputing and narrating—come together in the context of small claims
court, an important legal institution in contemporary American society.
Introduction to research in the ethnography of speaking, pragmatics,
conversation analysis, narrative analysis, and interpretive sociolinguistics.
Language Ideologies, Social Change, and Language Use
G14.2701 Kulick, Schieffelin. 4 points. Language choice is one of the principal arenas of struggle
in achieving individual and group status in multicultural societies. This
course explores various approaches to analyzing language ideologies and their
relation to language choice and use in multilingual societies undergoing social
change. Through study of language practices and language-related institutions,
students examine how authority, identity, and power are contested,
reformulated, and changed and how (or whether) linguistic diversity is valued.
Acquisition of Cultural Practices G14.2702 Kulick, Schieffelin. 4 points. Critically explores the notion of “practice” from a number
of perspectives, including symbolic interactionism, phenomenology,
ethnomethodology, language socialization, and contemporary social theory,
utilizing ethnographic studies on the acquisition of a variety of cultural
practices, including speech and gender practices, across a range of societies
and contexts. Analyzes selected social practices in terms of how they are
framed, keyed, and constituted through speech and other expressive resources,
through use of video and transcription.
BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Paleobiology of the Primates G14.1512 Harrison. 4
points. Detailed survey of current problems and debates in the study
of primate evolution. Considers the practical and theoretical issues concerned
with evaluating the fossil evidence. Problems include those relating to
phylogenetic interpretation, taxonomy, and paleobiological and paleoecological
reconstruction.
Population Genetics G14.1513
Disotell, Jolly. 4 points. In order to understand evolutionary change over time,
population geneticists describe the generic compositions of living populations
according to the laws of probability. This course examines the assumptions
about mating patterns and evolutionary forces that are part of these
probabilistic models and investigates the potential of such models for
explaining variability and measuring evolutionary change in living populations.
Primate Behavior G14.1514
Di Fiore, Jolly. 4 points. Examines the diversity of primate social organization from
an ethological perspective. Starting with a review of the basic observational
and analytical methods of ethology, examines the structure of primate behavior,
the determinants of patterns of spatial grouping and social interaction, and
the oncogeny of the individual behavioral repertory. These data are then
related to the explanatory frameworks provided by socioecological and
sociobiological theory.
Comparative Morphology of the Primates G14.1515 Harrison,
Jolly. 4 points. Detailed review of the comparative anatomy and behavior of
the living primates. Surveys the morphology of the musculoskeletal system, the
dentition, the viscera, the nervous system (including the brain and sensory
organs), and the reproductive system. These structural/functional systems are
examined from an ecological and behavioral perspective, and their significance
for assessing taxonomic and phylogenetic relationships is reviewed.
Skeletal Morphology G14.1516
Antón, Bailey, Harrison. 4 points. An in-depth survey of the various ways in which biological
anthropologists employ human osteology, the study of bones and the skeleton. In
addition to presenting a detailed review of the anatomy of the human skeleton
and its associated musculature, examines a series of thematic issues and topics
that emphasize the multidisciplinary nature of the study of skeletal
morphology. Topics include bone biology and development, comparative osteology,
biomechanics, bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, and taphonomy.
Biological Variation Among Human Populations G14.1517 Antón, Disotell, Jolly. 4 points. Despite the significance of culture in human adaptation,
genetic variation and biological adaptability continue to affect human survival
and reproduction in important ways. This course explores genetic,
physiological, morphological, and behavioral variability in human populations
today; its role in human adaptation; and its significance to our understanding
of human evolution.
Natural History of the Primates G14.1518 Di Fiore, Jolly. 4 points. Designed to provide a rigorous introduction to primate
ecology. Starts with a consideration of the methods of tropical ecological
research and with a review of the major features of tropical ecosystems. Covers
the extensive literature on the ecology of wild monkeys, apes, and prosimians
and examines this information in the light of theoretical models of optimum
foraging strategy, predator-prey relationships, and ecosystem diversity.
Fossil Evidence for Hominid Evolution G14.1519 Antón, Bailey, Harrison. 4 points. Detailed review of the fossil remains that document the
major stages of human evolution from the Miocene through the Pleistocene.
Emphasis is on the morphology and paleobiology of hominid species, rationale
for taxonomic decisions, and interpretation of phylogeny.
Interpreting the Skeleton G14.1520 Prerequisite: strong knowledge of fragmentary
human skeletal anatomy. Antón, Bailey. 4 points. Provides an intensive introduction to the methods and
techniques used to reconstruct soft tissue anatomy and behavior from the human
skeleton. Focuses on techniques and applications to all areas of skeletal
biology, including bioarchaeology, paleoanthropology, forensics, and anthropology.
Addresses bone biology, developmental processes, and soft tissue anatomy.
Students learn (1) fundamentals of aging, sexing, and individuating human
skeletal remains; (2) how to estimate stature, weight, and, to the extent
possible, geographic ancestry; and (3) how to recognize and evaluate pre- and
postmortem modification, including evidence of disease and activity.
Paleopathology G14.2516
Antón, Bailey. 4 points. The study of disease in prehistory provides important
epidemiological data for the study of contemporary disease and critical
information about the health status and evolutionary success of ancient human
populations. This course reviews skeletal responses to age, hormonal stimuli,
nutrition, trauma, and infection; their distribution in prehistoric
populations; and the medical and evolutionary significance of such patterns of
health and disease.
Human Evolution: Problems and Perspectives G14.2519 Antón, Bailey, Harrison.
4 points. Major problems raised by contemporary theories of human
evolution. Analysis of problems of systematics, phylogeny, natural selection,
and variation from the points of view of classic as well as contemporary
research.
Primate Evolution: Problems and Perspectives G14.2520 Disotell, Harrison,
Jolly. 4 points. Detailed examination of current problems in the study of
primate evolution. Considers the practical and theoretical problems concerned
with evaluating fossil evidence. Students review the evidence critically and
formulate ideas or propose further areas of research. Topics include analyses
of key problems in phylogenetic interpretation, taxonomy, and dating.
Seminar: Physical Anthropology I, II G14.3217, 3218 Antón,
Bailey, Di Fiore, Disotell, Harrison, Jolly. 4
points per term. Designed for advanced graduate students and faculty who
present and discuss their research and current topics in the literature.
GENERAL SEMINARS
Ph.D. Seminar G14.3210, 3211 4 points per term. Professionalization seminars.
Topical Seminar G14.3390 to 3399 4 points per term. Theoretical topics selected by students and faculty in
consideration.
Reading in Anthropology G14.3910 to 3914 Variable points.
Research in Anthropology G14.3990 to 3999 4 points per term.
Back to Top
|