Spring 2005 Courses

This course examines human anatomy and behavioral biology within an evolutionary context. It includes an introduction to: the history of evolutionary thought from before Darwin to the present; basic human genetics and molecular biology; human variation and adaptation; evolutionary influences on behavior; the anatomy, ecology, and behavior of our closest living relatives, the nonhuman primates; and the evolution of our lineage as reflected in the hominid fossil record. We will pay special attention to the complex interrelations of biology, behavior, and culture and the challenges of studying these interactions. There will be three hours of lecture and one hour of lab/discussion per week.  No prerequisites.

Requirements: There is one midterm, a final exam, and weekly quizzes. Participation in the lab/discussion section is mandatory and will include weekly quizzes/labs.

Required texts: "Introduction to Physical Anthropology" 10th ed., Jurmain, et al., Wadsworth 2005
"The Human Evolution Coloring Book" 2nd Ed. by A. Zihlman, Harper Collins 2000
Recommended text: "The Tangled Wing" 2nd Edition by M. Konner, Owl Books, Henry Holt & Co. 2002

Archaeology is concerned with how material remains, including texts, can be used to address questions about past human life. Archaeologists make inferences about the experience of people who are no longer alive through the fragmentary traces of their existence.

No introductory course on archaeology can be comprehensive. Most take either a topical approach (surveying topics that are explored through archaeology and the practice of archaeology) or a historical approach (reviewing world prehistory). This course takes the topical approach and is aimed at students who are interested in learning how archaeologists attempt to understand a variety of anthropological issues through the material remains of past people: social relations, including gender, power, and kinship; economic practices, including subsistence, craft production, and trade; political structures, from families to states; and experiences that enrich human life and thought, from music to visual arts, from religion to science all are subjects of study for anthropological archaeology. This course will provide students with an overview of the methods, techniques, theories and goals of anthropological archaeologists today. We will also discuss how archaeology plays a role in contemporary socio-politics, contributing to global tourism, cultural heritage and the production of national and factional identities.

There is nothing traditional about this course in its Spring 2005 format. It is taught in a way which demands active participation by students (as well as instructors) at every step. There is no mid-term exam, no final exam, and no papers. Traditional "lectures" will rarely be given during the lecture meetings. Instead "information guides" to Internet and library sources, including the textbook(s), and to the broader aspects of the archaeological process will be provided on-line in advance. You will also be able to print out these guides. Each of you will receive the summary of the guides at the beginning of the semester. 

This is an inquiry-based course. That means that you will be expected to carry out research and contribute to a real research database. The "information guides" will act as the first step in your own inquiries. You will be guided and coached in your inquiries about archaeology by your instructor-coaches who lead your discussion sections. You will collaborate with your section-mates as a research team that investigates a particular archaeological site.  Your coach will also guide you through the work that each team does in the "forums". 

The topics of the "information guides" will be discussed, debated, and explicated in various ways during the lecture meeting times in what we are calling "forums".  You will participate in the forums not as individuals but as research teams.  Preparation for the forum exercises will take place in section meetings.  They will enable you to explore in depth the tools that archaeologists use in their examination of anthropological issues through material culture, as well as current theories and controversies in the field.

Prerequisites: None, except regular access to email and the Internet
Required Texts: Renfrew, C. & P. Bahn 2004 Archaeology: theories, methods, & practice.(4th ed.) Thames &Hudson, London.
Praetzellis, A. 2003  Dug to Death: A tale of Archaeological Method and Mayhem. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, Ca.

This course is run concurrently with Anthropology 2, the Introduction to Archaeology and is designed to  give students taking that course greater insight and in-depth experience of the role of multimedia in relation to the themes being discussed in the larger Anthropology 2 class. Priority will be given to students concurrently enrolled in Anthropology 2. The course introduces students to multimedia authoring for archaeology and guides them towards a critical appraisal of the multimedia presentation of archaeology through commercial and educational WWWeb-sites and CDROMs. Guest speakers from education, edutainment and the computing industry will shed additional light on how multimedia is reshaping the way archaeology is perceived and performed.

Through self-paced tutorials and assignments, and the weekly studio sessions you will gradually gain skills in authoring multimedia products yourself, culminating in a creative, final multimedia project.

Pre-Requisites: None, except access to an email and the Internet. Participation is at the instructor's discretion. Priority will be given to students concurrently enrolled in Anthropology 2. Students are not required to have any prior knowledge of multimedia authoring, but a good deal of enthusiasm, patience, and imagination is essential.

This course introduces students to major currents in social and cultural anthropology, past and present.  Throughout the course we will examine research tools and theoretical approaches that have helped to shape and define the discipline during its hundred-year history.  The course focuses on several specific topics, including, but not limited to, language and culture, gender, visual anthropology, ritual and religion, globalization, popular culture, and food and drink.  Films will be shown throughout the course to supplement readings and lectures and to provide an introduction to visual anthropology as a sub-field.  The films are an  integral part of the course curriculum, not a mere appendage to readings and lectures.   Students are required to attend three hours per week for lecture, plus one hour per week for discussion section. 

This course will provide an opportunity for interested students to read poetry, mythology, and history written in native languages by Maya and Aztec authors in the sixteenth-century. Using the Roman alphabet introduced by the Spanish, Maya and Aztec scribes recorded their own rich oral tradition, and created new compositions that integrated native texts and oral literature in written form. While some of these texts were recorded for Spanish administrators and missionaries, much was written for indigenous audiences. We will draw on the many excellent modern translations to explore the poetics and literary imagination of the first few generations of Maya and Aztec people living under the new colonial regime. This course is especially appropriate for students who are interested in anthropology or history of Latin America, and who might already have some basic knowledge of Aztec or Maya culture. Because all the works we will read have been translated from native languages into Spanish as well as English, students who have a reading knowledge of Spanish may find this course especially congenial, but we will be reading everything in English translation.

Required texts:  Dennis Tedlock's edition of Popol Vuh (Revised ed. 1996, Touchstone)
Miguel Leon-Portilla and Earl Shorris's In the Language of Kings (2002, W. W. Norton)

Six hours of lecture and fourteen hours of laboratory per week.  An intensive study of the human skeleton, reconstruction of individual and population characteristics, emphasizing methodology and analysis of human populations from archaeological contexts; introduction to use of statistics in osteological analysis. Also listed as Integrative Biology C142.
Prerequisites: Anthropology 1, Biology 1B.

The diversity and adaptation of living and fossil primates will be surveyed. We will track the evolutionary history of primates, with an emphasis on the origins of the basic characteristics that define humans such as grasping hands, binocular vision, color vision, tool making, and intelligence. The strengths and limitations of using primate models to explain modern human behavior will be examined.

This course will present a history of anthropological thought from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century and will draw upon the major subdisciplines of anthropology. It will focus both upon the integration of the anthropological subdisciplines and upon the relationships between these and other disciplines outside anthropology. Three hours of lecture; one hour of required discussion section per week.

This is the core upper division course in Critical Medical Anthropology. It begins from the traditional, but radical, anthropological premise of epistemological openness to alternative understandings of the body, illness, disease, healing, and curing.  Thus, it assumes a 'body' that is biologically given as well as culturally 'made-up' and historically situated so that one can speak of "local biologies".  The course is comparative, exploring human afflictions, disability, and healing in societies ranging from highland New Guinea, Native California and the Amazon, to urban Brazil, Japan, China and the United States.  Bio-medicine is treated here as one among many effective systems of medical knowledge, power, and healing.  The course opens with the anthropology of the mindful body; the social production and various meanings and uses of illness/disease; sickness, medicine and power/knowledge; the regulation and management of dis-eased and distressed bodies and minds; body, mind and society relations in western/nonwestern medical systems; the cultural shaping of emotions, memory and healing; madness, reason and psychiatry; the new bio-technologies and the redefinition of life, death and human value that they bring, with particular focus  on transplant surgery.  Then we will explore the logic of sorcery and witchcraft as explanations of sickness and other unfortunate events and the power of shamanism, spirit possession and the efficacy of symbols. The next unit of the course deals with 'small wars and invisible genocides': colonialism, post colonialism and mass death through two case studies: the 'extinguishment' and ethnocide of native populations' in North America; everyday violence and the social reproduction of hunger, infant mortality, and "nervousness" in Brazil during the military dictatorship years (1964-1984) and the decades following the democratic transition.  The class ends with an examination of medicine and human rights via the engaged research, doctoring, and human rights activism of the anthropologist/physician Paul Farmer.  In all, medical anthropology is a critical reflection on the ways that people (and threatened populations) live, suffer, sicken, and die and on the divergent and necessarily combative paths towards reaching a goal of -- if not 'health for all' -- at the very least less death for the many. 

Requirements:  Open to upper division undergraduates and to graduate students in the humanities, social sciences, biological sciences and to  'pre-med', medical, and public health students.  The course assumes a general background and familiarity with social science concepts and ideas. The reading schedule is demanding and active participation in discussion groups is required. There is a research training and methodological skills component to the course. Grading is based as follows: participation in discussion 10%; midterm: 20%;  each research paper 20%; take home final (due on last day of class): 30%. 

Discussion Sections: Discussion sections are mandatory.  You must come to class prepared to discuss the readings assigned for that week. The readings required for each session are found directly under the title for that day's class.

Required Texts: A  Class Reader  and the following 8 books:
Albie Sachs,  2000. The  Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter. University of California Press. 
Orin Starn.  2004.   Ishi's Brain.  New York:  WW. Norton
Mark Andrew Ritchie, 1996    Spirit of the Rainforest: A Yanomamo  Shaman's  Story.  Island Lake Press: Chicago, IL,
Nancy Chen.   Breathing Spaces: Qigong, Psychiatry, and Healing in China.  Berkeley: University of California Press.
Anne Fadiman,   The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, her American Doctors,and the Collision of two  Cultures.   New York: Farar, Straus and Giroux. 
John Berger and Jean Mohr, 1997. A Fortunate Man: the Story of a Country Doctor.  N.Y.: Vintage.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes. 1993. Death without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. University of California Press.

This seminar/course examines some major theoretical approaches and debates that have shaped and informed anthropological research, fieldwork practices, analysis and writing concerning medicine and the body in the Middle-East from the mid 20th century to the present. .  It is open to upper division undergraduates and to graduate students.  Graduate students will be expected to write a major research paper only.

The seminar is divided into two parts. We begin by problematizing the question of the body as a biosocial locus where truths and contradictions are expressed, as well as the site of resistance, creativity, and struggle. This part discusses theroretical issues such as the racial\ethnic\national body, the disabled body, Middle Eastern and Western systems of medicine, the politics of medicalization, and the politics of reproduction and infertility in the context of nation-building.

The second part focuses on the Middle East. Is there a "Middle-Eastern body" in a similar manner to the "German body" (Linke) or the "Jewish Body" (Gilman)? And, conversely, are there Israeli, Lebanese, Palestinian, and Egyptian bodies? These questions will be explored by discussing cases of reproductive technologies, organ transplantation, genetic testing, identification, forensics, etc. in Middle-Eastern contexts.

Requirements:  This seminar is limited to 15 participants.  Active, thoughtful participation in seminar discussions based on a careful and critical reading of the assigned readings is mandatory. Participants are expected to divide themselves into reading groups. Each week one of the reading groups is responsible for co-leading the discussion and presenting relevant background context for the readings. The reading group will meet independently to decide on the themes they would like to discuss and present. Each student is responsible to sign up to write 2 short critical reaction papers (2-3 pages each) in response to the assigned readings for each of two pre-selected seminar meetings.  A sign up sheet will be distributed during the first meeting. Students will be required to keep a media journal describing and interpreting at least one relevant news story. Finally, each member of the seminar will write a final paper of 20 pages plus bibliography on a topic to be approved in consultation with the professor.  An abstract of the proposed paper and bibliography is due on week 8.  The final paper is due at the last seminar meeting. Due to the instructors‚ summer research travel, no late papers will be accepted.

Homeland of the Maya, Mexica (Aztec) and Olmec civilizations, Central America was the site of some of the most complex sociopolitical developments in the Americas prior to European colonization.  The goals of this course are to provide participants a basic knowledge of the history of the region prior to European colonization; to develop an ability to recognize products of its major prehispanic cultural traditions; and to achieve an understanding of how archaeologists build interpretations of these societies, drawing on different kinds of information. The first part of the course will briefly consider the general outlines of change through time from the earliest evidence of hunter-gatherers to the sixteenth century and beyond. The second part of the course will be structured around a key issue that archaeologists studying many different times and places in Mesoamerica have examined:  social stratification, or the division of society into more and less privileged segments.  The third section of the course will consider those cultural practices which make the archaeology of this region a coherent field of study, including writing, mathematics, calendrics, visual culture, craftworking, ritual practices, and concepts of personhood. 

Required texts:  Julia Hendon and Rosemary Joyce (eds.) Mesoamerican Archaeology (Blackwell, 2003)
Rosemary A. Joyce, Gender and Power in Prehispanic Mesoamerica (2001, University of Texas Press)
Optional texts:  Diane Z. and Arlen F. Chase, Mesoamerican Elites (1992, University of Oklahoma Press)

One of the most diverse environments in the world hosts rich, intriguing continuity in its history of human life.  With
occupation beginning sometime before 10,000 years B.C., we have evidence for social and ritual complexity in the archaeological record dating to before 2000 B.C. (B.C.E.).  This ebbs and flows throughout the region up until today, with opposites of rich well preserved tapestries on the coast 600 B.C. to impoverished foragers surrounding saline lakes in recent times.

This course follows the evolution of pre-Hispanic and hispanic society in the Andean region of South America.  The lectures and readings emphasize major political, economic, and social processes in the development of the major Andean civilizations.  Particular attention will be paid to causes of the early states along the coast of Peru, the development of major politics in the highlands, how the political and economic systems of the later empires were based on earlier social structures and elaborate ritual imagery.  The traditions of Chavin, Nazca, Moche, Tiwanaku, Wari, Chimor, and Inka will be presented.  In addition we will study the archaeological sequence to see what we can learn from this long temporal perspective about modern political issues.

The goal of this course is to provide an overview of hunter-gatherer archaeology.  Specifically, the course covers (1) the history of hunter-gatherer archaeology in North America and Britain, (2) long-term changes in hunter-gatherer subsistence, settlement, mortuary/ceremonial practices and crafts/trade, (3) social archaeology of hunter-gatherers including studies of gender, cognition and cultural landscapes, and (4) discussions on the relevance of hunter-gatherer archaeology in contemporary society. The course also exposes students to case studies of both prehistoric and historic hunter-gatherer cultures in various parts of the world, including those of California, the Northwest Coast of North America, the Arctic, Europe, Near East and East Asia.  By reviewing these case studies, conditions, causes and consequences of the development of hunter-gatherer cultural complexity are critically examined.   By the end of the course, students are expected to have a solid knowledge of various approaches to hunter-gatherer subsistence, settlement society, and understand the importance of hunter-gatherer studies in the context of world archaeology.

*Additional requirement: off-campus after-school mentoring, one afternoon each week (Tues, Wed, or Thurs)

Note:  This course meets the method requirement for the anthropology major.
This course is about ethnographic fieldwork, public archaeology, the anthropology of pedagogy and education, the anthropology of technology, and collaborative learning and the material and media representation of culture.  The course is designed to provide an opportunity for undergraduates to work with 6th graders in exploring the worlds of archaeology, history, and computer-based technologies. There is no mid-term or final examination for this course. Students enrolled in Anthropology 128m are expected to mentor and interact with children (predominantly 6th graders) in Expedition, an after-school program at Roosevelt Middle School in Oakland.  Additionally, this course fulfills the methods requirement for Anthropology majors, providing an opportunity to learn and use a variety of ethnographic skills, guided by adjunct faculty member Dr. Charles Underwood. The focus of the course this semester is encouraging the awareness of the multicultural nature of the meaning of material culture and its expression through digital storytelling.

The Expedition after-school program, which is voluntary, is designed to bring the archaeological experience to 6th graders through facilitated play with a variety of media, including: digital storytelling (video production), computer games, web browsing, hands-on exploration of real artifacts, etc. The facilitator for the Expedition program is Tamara Sturak.

Pre-requisites: Students from fields other than archaeology and anthropology are welcome to participate. Bilingual students are strongly encouraged to apply. The Introduction to Archaeology (Anthro.2) or its equivalent or the permission of the instructor are the only prerequisites.   Regular access to an email and Internet account are essential. Students who have not had any multimedia authoring experience will be assisted in catching up through workshops held in the Multimedia Authoring Center for Teaching in Anthropology (MACTIA).

Requirements: This course is essentially a practical research/service-learning course. Participation in the Roosevelt School after-school program (approx. 2-3 hrs one afternoon each week) is a required part of the course. You will be expected to keep a running log/diary of your observations. Required reading:  Kozol, J.   2000  Ordinary Resurrections: children in the years of hope. Crown Publ, New York.  A course reader of weekly required readings will also be available for course.

Three hours lecture and self-guided laboratory per week.  This course capitalizes on a successful approach of using definitional formulas to emphasize concepts of statistics, rather than rote memorization in both qualitative and quantitative anthropology. While an introductory course in statistics would be helpful, the course does not assume a statistical background.  The course is strongly electronic using “stat links” that aid in the understanding of the various elements and concepts in the course.  This is not a course in statistics, but designed to aid the anthropology student in the understanding of the application of qualitative and quantitative methods in the field and laboratory. Prerequisites: 2 and/or consent of instructor.

This course will provide students with an introduction to the methods and theories used in the construction/writing of historical anthropologies.  The course will combine lecture, seminar discussion and hands-on archival research.  The class will fulfill the methods requirement for the major.

This class involves the analysis of archaeological materials from prehistoric shell mounds in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.  Students will be working with archaeological samples from excavations undertaken by Nels Nelson, an early UC Berkeley archaeologist.  During the period of 1906-1911, Nelson collected survey information from more than 400 sites, and did additional excavation work at about eight large shell mounds, most of which are found  in Marin, Contra Costa, and Alameda Counties.  Specifically, we will be focusing our analysis on the Ellis Landing Site (CCO-295), a large mounded site that Nelson excavated in Richmond.  In addition to archaeological materials, students will also be working with archival materials produced by Nelson and field crews (black/white photographs, maps, field notes, journal accounts).  We may also be undertaking analyses of the Brooks Mound Site (CCO-290), an extensive mounded complex located on Brooks Island, not far from the Ellis Landing site.  It was excavated by George Coles in the 1960s.

The purpose of this class is to familiarize students with methods for analyzing archaeological materials, including artifacts, maps, field notes, and photos, in order to generate interpretations about prehistoric sites.  The ultimate purpose is to develop a better understanding of the structure of the shell mounds and the context of the artifacts recovered.  This will provide the necessary foundation to begin generating interpretations about the function, ecology, chronology, and significance of these very impressive shell mounds. 

Prerequisites: Class reserved for declared Anthropology majors.  Students must also have completed Anthro 2 (or its equivalent). It is highly recommended that you have taken at least one upper division course in archaeology, but this may be waived by the instructor.

Readings: Required Text: Archaeological Laboratory Methods: An Introduction by Mark Q. Sutton and Brooke S. Arkush (2002) Kendall/Hull Publishing.   Third Edition.  There will also be a required Anthro 134 Course Reader, available from Copy Central on Bancroft Way.  The reader is a compendium of pertinent articles on shell mound archaeology.

Course Requirements.   Students are required to attend six hours of lecture/laboratory sections
per week.  Grades will be based on participation in class, two mid-term exams, and a research paper (described below).  An oral presentation that summarizes briefly the results of your research paper will be delivered at the end of the semester.  Grades will be calculated as follows: two mid-term exams (40% total), the research paper (50%), and participation (with possible surprise quizzes)(10%). 

Research Paper: Students will complete a paper that involves their analysis and interpretation of materials from one of the shell mound sites.   Students will learn how to write a descriptive site report, which includes information on field methods, site stratigraphy, archaeological contexts, and the salient characteristics of the archaeological assemblage (e.g., artifact types, counts, and proveniences). The paper will also present your interpretations of the archaeological materials, as well as your recommendations for future research on the collection.  The research paper should be about 20-40 pages in length (double spaced) and include data tables and appropriate figures.  

This course meets the method requirement for Anthropology majors.  This class is a collaborative, hands-on experience in ethnographic video production.  Students work together in teams to produce short video projects in the Bay Area.  Projects will be chosen from proposals submitted by students of 138A.  Students share equally the responsibilities of fieldwork, directing, camera, sound recording, and editing.  Please note that students will often need to meet with the instructor and/or with their teammates outside of class time.  Prerequisite:  Anthro 138A in the preceding Fall semester.

Satisfies the method requirement for the major.  This course will discuss key theoretical concepts related to power and control and examine indirect mechanisms and processes by which direct control becomes hidden, voluntary, and unconscious in industrialized societies.  Readings will cover language, science and technology, law, politics, religion, medicine, sex, and gender.  The manner of thinking about controlling processes emphasizes linkages rather than disciplinary boundaries in the anthropological perspectives.  Prerequisites:  There are no prerequisites.  Scientists and engineers welcome.

In recent years, anthropologists have articulated perspectives on citizenship that are neither reduced to narrow legalistic notions nor generalized in broad universalistic terms.  This course explores changing notions of citizenship in a world of great flux and global connectivity, and yet paradoxically of proliferating forms of citizenship and notions of the human.

The first half of the course reviews domination approaches that focus on the complex relationship between formal citizenship and radical politics.  Themes explored in such debates include the public sphere, the weakening of the welfare state, the collapse of socialism, cultural diversity and multiculturalism.  These discussions tend to view citizenship within the framework of a contained nation-state and in the language of rights.

The second part of the course considers how emerging spaces of governing create possibilities of new forms of citizenship and claims on humanity.  The human rights discourse is one such approach, linked to concepts of multi-level citizenship and cosmopolitan citizenship. In contrast, analyses of particular constellations of power develop concepts such as flexible citizenship, urban citizenship, cultural defense, ethical citizenship, biological citizenship, and internet citizenship to capture the variety and contingency of human claims within and outside the nation-state and the rights discourse.

This course is limited to juniors and seniors, and preference is given to Anthropology majors. Please read assigned work before class, and class participation is both encouraged and expected. There will be a midterm and a final examination.

Required texts:  A. Ong, Flexible Citizenship, Duke University Press & A. Ong, Buddha is Hiding, U.C. Press

The course views the traditional oral (myths, legends, tales, poetry, songs), customary (folk religion, festivals, dances, "law of love") and material (architecture, food, costume) culture of different and mostly less known socio-cultural groups and border regions of Georgia in the Caucasus. Special emphasis will be given to the traditional regional folklore as a peasant culture of the peripheries. The course will also present a history of folklore and ethnographic studies in Georgia. Among different topics the course will discuss how the broadening of anthropological knowledge created a basis for the development of a widespread criticism towards different elements of the traditional life-style, and how this criticism aided a process of innovation of some of the old traditions. The website for more information is [http://webdisk.berkeley.edu/~shorena/shorena.html].

This course is organized around the student's research project and the question of method.  As an intense practicum in method, course size is limited.

We begin with a set of questions. What is a problem?  What is an anthropological problem?  What is a method?  What are anthropological methods?  What is an ethic?  Who decides?  What are anthropological ethics?  What is "ethnos," what is ethnography, and what is their relation?  Can there be ethnography not organized around ethnos?  What besides attention to ethnos makes ethnography anthropological? Are there other forms of inquiry besides ethnography central to anthropological work?  How do these relate to ethnography?  Why has much of the discipline found formal training in methodology to be a mixed blessing? Is "ethnographic method" an oxymoron? 

The course will be divided into a series of debates on methodology that build on our responses to these questions, accompanied by talks by practicing anthropologists on questions of method in their work. 

Students will be expected to produce the first draft of a proposal for a short research project two weeks into the course.  Sections and some of lecture time will be used to refine these proposals and to develop research plans.  Once a plan has been agreed upon, students will begin formal research.  The course grade is based primarily on the proposal, research notes, and final (15-30 page) research paper, though performance in lecture and section will also be assessed (i.e., have students done the short reading assignments and are they prepared to discuss them?)

Readings will be excerpts from a variety of anthropological writings in a course reader.  There is also a required text, Michael Agar's The professional stranger, chosen not because it is the last word on method or the one we will necessarily adopt, but because it is both an interesting book and perhaps symptomatic of the possibilities and limits of organizing our thinking through the category of methodology. 

The class will start with a review of the social science literature on China, and then move to deal with the central problems confronting 20th century China, and finally arrive at an analysis of the current situation of China as a mirror for some crucial aspects of the global changes. What is "China"?  How can we understand it today? What is China to us? What does it mean to us? What is the significance of it in understanding ourselves in today's world? These questions, simple and yet fundamentally important, are what this class hopes to address.

Required texts:
1) Liu, X. 2000. In One's Own Shadow.  2) Lee, C-K. 1998. Gender and the South China Miracle.
3) Harrell, S. 2001. Ways of being Ethnic in Southwest China.  4) Liu, X. 2002. The Otherness of Self.

The course will focus on African societies and cultures, as well as on issues relating to the history of Africanist anthropology.  Images and constructs of Africa or Africans will thus be contextualized in relation to prevailing anthropological theories at different times and in different regions of the continent.

Postcolonial and poststructuralist theory has been crucial to the development of feminist debates in the last century.  In this course we will focus on some of the key concepts that have been central to the reformulation of feminism including power, subject, agency, embodiment, performativity, and cultural translation.  We will draw upon materials that cut across a range of historical and cultural locations with an eye toward the kind of theoretical interventions these texts stage within dominant paradigms in feminist theory.  Please bear in mind that this course assumes a certain familiarity with debates in both critical theory and poststructuralism.  While we will devote some time to discussing key tropes within this philosophical tradition, most of class time will be taken up with the transformations these tropes have enacted in the field of feminist theory and politics.

The 20th century was dominated by utopian visions of how to achieve a happy future society. Artists in competing social systems -- capitalist, communist, fascist and others -- played a central role in the development of these utopian visions. In the beginning of the century futurists, constructivists, and other avant-garde artists believed that the purpose of art was greater than autonomous pursuits of beauty and aesthetics. They aspired to involve art in the construction of the new society and the New Man. However, these sincere experiments contributed to the creation not only of the most liberating and progressive ideals and values but also to the most oppressive regimes and ideologies. At the same time, even the most vile political regimes of the century inspired some of the most remarkable works of art that expose the best and worst that art can achieve.

Many artistic movements that developed in these diverse modern contexts, under each other’s influence, came to incorporate stark contrasts of good and evil, serious and ironic, rational and absurd. Because of the unpredictable and changing nature of art forms and strategies, 20th century art offers excellent ethnographic material to discuss many issues that are central for the understanding of art in general: what is the nature and purpose of art; what aspects of art are good and bad; what can art achieve at its best and destroy at its worst; what is beauty; what is artistic freedom; what is an artist’s role and responsibility in the society; what is the relationship of art to ethics and power, etc?

This course grapples with these questions by focusing on the transformations of artistic forms and the role of artists in Europe and the US from an anthropological, rather than art history, perspective. Treating art forms, artistic writings, and details of artists’ lives as ethnographic material the course questions what they can tell us about the cultural, social and political forces that dominated the century and continue to shape our lives today.

The course will be conducted as a combination of lecture-course and seminar, and the students will be invited to participate in the discussions of the topics in class.

An upper division seminar surveying the historical and current theorizing about the process of evolution as it applies to biological, social, and cognitive processes.  Topics covered will include: the 19th century development of evolutionary theories, the question of directionality in evolution, controversies about sociobiology and the evolution of cooperation, the logic of evolutionary psychology, the relationship of natural selection to self-organization processes, co-evolution and niche construction, selection processes in embryonic development and immune response, evolutionary epistemology, the nature of emergent phenomena in evolution, memetic theories, and evolutionary semiotic theories.  Students will be expected to write two research papers and contribute to discussion.  Prerequisites: at least one course focusing on biological evolution from Biology or Anthropology and one or more advanced courses in relevant subjects in biology, psychology, or anthropology.  Students who do not have the prerequisites will need the permission of the instructor to take the class.