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First-Year Courses in Cultural AnthropologyThis page was created at 12:05 PM on Thu, Oct 4, 2001. Fall Academic Term, 2001 (September 5 - December 21)Open courses in Cultural Anthropology Wolverine Access Subject listing for ANTHRCUL Fall Term '01Time Schedule for Cultural Anthropology. ANTHRCUL 101. Introduction to Anthropology.Introductory CoursesSection 001.Instructor(s): Andrew Shryock (ashryock@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: Primarily for first- and second-year students. (4). (SS). (R&E). Does not count toward anthropology concentration requirements.
Credits: (4). Course Homepage: http://coursetools.ummu.umich.edu/2001/fall/anthrcul/101/001.nsf This introductory course exposes and explores the structures of inquiry characteristic of anthropology and surveys the field's four subdisciplines (biological, archaeological, cultural, and linguistic anthropology), providing a first glimpse of the field's overall context, history, present status, and importance. The principal aim of the course is to help students develop a coherent view of the essential concepts, structures, and intellectual methods that typify the discipline. It stresses unifying principles that link the subdisciplines and thereby create anthropology's comprehensive, holistic world view. It teaches students various ways of learning and thinking about the world's many designs for living in time and space. It prepares them to integrate and interpret information, to evaluate conflicting claims about human nature and diversity, and to think critically. Topics covered include: the nature of culture; human genetics, evolution and the fossil record; the concept of race; primate (monkey and ape) behavior; language and culture; systems of marriage, kinship and family organization; sex-gender roles; economics, politics, and religion in global perspective; the cultural dimension of economic development and contemporary social change, and the emergence of a world system. Required readings come from one introductory text and additional paperbacks. Lectures and discussion-recitation. Two objective exams (multiple choice and true or false questions) cover the two halves of the course. The second exam is given on the last day of class. There is no final exam and no term paper. Section leaders require quizzes and, perhaps a short paper.
ANTHRCUL 101. Introduction to Anthropology.Introductory CoursesSection 150.Instructor(s): Holly Peters-Golden (hollypet@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: Primarily for first- and second-year students. (4). (SS). (R&E). Does not count toward anthropology concentration requirements.
Credits: (4). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This introductory course exposes and explores the structures of inquiry characteristic of anthropology and surveys the field's four subdisciplines (biological, archaeological, cultural, and linguistic anthropology), providing a first glimpse of the field's overall context, history, present status, and importance. The principal aim of the course is to help students develop a coherent view of the essential concepts, structures, and intellectual methods that typify the discipline. It stresses unifying principles that link the subdisciplines and thereby create anthropology's comprehensive, holistic world view. It teaches students various ways of learning and thinking about the world's many designs for living in time and space. It prepares them to integrate and interpret information, to evaluate conflicting claims about human nature and diversity, and to think critically. Topics covered include: the nature of culture and ethnicity; human genetics, evolution, and the fossil record; the concept of race; primate (monkey and ape) behavior; language and culture; systems of marriage, kinship and family organization; sex and gender roles; economics, politics, and religion in global perspective; the cultural dimension of economic development and contemporary social change; and globalization. Required readings may include an introductory text and various paperbacks. Lectures and discussion/recitation. Two objective exams (multiple choice) cover the two halves of the course. The second exam is given on the last day of class. There is no final exam and no term paper. Section leaders require quizzes and one or two brief writing assignments.
ANTHRCUL 158. First Year Seminar in Cultural Anthropology.Introductory CoursesSection 002 – Secrecy & Lying.Instructor(s): Stefan J Senders (ssenders@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: Only first-year students, including those with sophomore standing, may pre-register for First-Year Seminars. All others need permission of instructor. (3). (SS). May not be included in an anthropology concentration. First-year seminar, Credits: (3). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. In this course we will investigate the role of secrecy and lying in our lives and in the lives of others. Our readings will include psychoanalytic theories of memory, repression, and recall; sociological and anthropological accounts of secret societies; and investigations into institutionalized secret keeping in modern state societies, particularly Germany and the United States. We'll also be asking about the role of lying in our everyday lives; how do we make sense of our experiences as liars, and how do we interpret the lying of others? What role have secrecy and lying in a democracy? How does lying influence "identify"? And what do we mean when we talk about "telling the truth"?
ANTHRCUL 158. First Year Seminar in Cultural Anthropology.Introductory CoursesSection 003 – Anthropology Of The Bible.Instructor(s): Gillian Feeley-Harnik (gfharnik@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: Only first-year students, including those with sophomore standing, may pre-register for First-Year Seminars. All others need permission of instructor. (3). (SS). May not be included in an anthropology concentration. First-year seminar, Credits: (3). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course explores the Bible and biblically inspired religions for the comparative perspective of anthropology. We will examine case studies of archaeological, historical, and contemporary societies in which biblical books were and are read, exploring how key themes are expressed, translated, reinterpreted and relived in new social, cultural, and material circumstances. In the process, students will become acquainted with anthropological methods of documentation and analysis used in cross-cultural research.
ANTHRCUL 256 / NRE 256. Culture, Adaptation, and Environment.Introductory CoursesSection 001.Instructor(s): David W Akin (dwakin@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (Excl). Credits: (3). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course provides an introduction to anthropological perspectives on the relationships of human societies to their environments. The methods and perspectives of ethnology, systems ecology and behavioral ecology will be explored through the use of case studies. Topics include the behavioral ecology of Homo sapiens; comparative studies of foraging, tribal, etc...
ANTHRCUL 258. Honors Seminar in Cultural Anthropology.Museum, Honors, Reading, Research, and Field CoursesSection 001 – Culture & Medicine.Instructor(s): Holly Peters-Golden (hollypet@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: Admission to the College Honors Program. (3). (Excl). Credits: (3). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. In this seminar, we will examine the ways in which health and illness are both constructed out of, and interpreted within, cultural settings. Focusing on Western biomedicine, we will discuss a broad range of illness experiences – from schizophrenia to cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder to asthma, Tourette's to Alzheimer's, among others – to address a number of questions currently central to medical anthropology. Topics may include (but will not be limited to) the meaning and alteration of self and personhood in illness; the ways in which medical knowledge is produced and imagined, the culture of science and technology, immunity and risk, illness narrative, and social and historical views of the body. Classes will be largely discussion based, with students expected to prepare for active participation and leadership in discussion. By keeping enrollment small, I hope we will be able to include students' suggestions for additional topics to explore.
ANTHRCUL 258. Honors Seminar in Cultural Anthropology.Museum, Honors, Reading, Research, and Field CoursesSection 002 – World's First Cities.Instructor(s): Norman Yoffee (nyoffee@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: Admission to the College Honors Program. (3). (Excl). Credits: (3). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This seminar introduces students to the archaeological study of the world's first cities. Many of the first states (and civilizations: the distinction between the two terms is reviewed in the seminar) are in fact cities: in Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, north China, the Maya there are not large, stable territorial states but city-states, some of which try to effect hegemony over the countryside and other city-states. In other areas of the world, cities are the "primate" governmental and ceremonial centers of early states, e.g., Teotihuacan in Mexico, Huari and Chan Chan in Peru, Jerusalem in ancient Israel, Axum and Zimbabwe in east Africa. Of course, Greek city-states are independent political entities. The importance of urbanism in the evolution of ancient states and civilizations is undeniable and a matter of systematic investigation by anthropological archaeologists (and ancient historians). The seminar introduces students to the comparative study of the world's first cities. Requirements include participation in seminar discussions, two take-home exams, one term paper. Term-paper assignment: "The term paper is a creative project in which you will pretend to be a citizen of an ancient city. Based on your reading of books/articles you will describe your life. What does your city look like? What kind of job do you have? Who are your kinsmen, friends? To whom do you pay taxes? How has life changed for you and your group? How do you regard your past and what do you think of your future? You may be a king/queen, noble or commoner, male or female; you choose your place, time, personal circumstances. However, your project should NOT be wholly imaginary. You must write an appendix to your paper in which you list your sources and justify the statements you make by reference to scholarly literature."
ANTHRCUL 258. Honors Seminar in Cultural Anthropology.Museum, Honors, Reading, Research, and Field CoursesSection 003 – Culture & the Production of History.Instructor(s): Ann L Stoler (astoler@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: Admission to the College Honors Program. (3). (Excl). Credits: (3). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course is about the ways in which people imagine they can know the past, the techniques they use to remember it and how the past is made usable to speak to contemporary concerns in different societies. History is not just something that happened but something produced, crafted, contested, and recorded differently throughout the world. This course explores that production process, its practitioners, and what counts as evidence and proof. It will look at the ways in which a variety of material objects – monuments, photographs, tree stumps, letters, trails, home furnishings – mat reflect notions of a "usable" past, and different cultural and political criteria for what is worth remembering.
ANTHRCUL 282. Introduction to Prehistoric Archaeology.
Introductory CoursesSection 001.Instructor(s): John M O'Shea (joshea@umich.edu)Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (SS). Credits: (4). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course combines a presentation of the techniques, methods, and theories of anthropological archaeology with a general survey of world prehistory. Discussion of method and theory will cover field and laboratory techniques for acquiring information about past cultures, methods for using that information to test ideas about past cultural organization and evolution, and current theoretical developments in anthropological archaeology. The survey of world prehistory will focus on four major topics: (1) the emergence in Africa of the first proto-humans, between two and six million years ago; (2) the appearance of the first anatomically and behaviorally "modern" humans; (3) the origins of domesticated plants and animals, and the development of the first village farming communities; and (4) the rise of more complex stratified "state-level" societies. The course will be oriented as much toward students with a general curiosity and interest in the human past as toward students who will become eventual concentrators. There will be three one-hour lectures plus one discussion section per week. Requirements: three in-class hourly exams and a final examination, plus 3-4 take-home exercises that give students firsthand experience with the analysis and interpretation of archaeological data. Required readings: Archaeology: Down to Earth, by David Hurst Thomas and Images of the Past, by G. Feinman and D. Price.
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