First-Year Courses in Cultural Anthropology This page was created at 6:47 PM on Mon, Jan 21, 2002. Winter Academic Term, 2002 (January 7 - April 26) Open courses in Cultural Anthropology (*Not real-time Information. Review the "Data current as of: " statement at the bottom of hyperlinked page) Wolverine Access Subject listing for ANTHRCUL Winter Academic Term '02 Time Schedule for Cultural Anthropology. ANTHRCUL 101. Introduction to Anthropology. Introductory Courses Section 001. Instructor(s): Stuart A Kirsch (skirsch@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 course introduces students to the four subfields of anthropology: cultural anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology and biological anthropology. It emphasizes a set of fundamental concerns: the nature of culture, human variation and universals, cultural relativism and how knowledge of evolution and pre-history inform our understanding of what it means to be human. Specific topics include: primate (monkey and ape) behavior, evolution and the concept of race; the origins of agriculture and the rise of social complexity; language and culture, kinship and family, sex and gender roles, ethnicity, and religion; and the emergence of the world system, culture and political economy, and globalization. This course is intended to help students develop a coherent view of the essential concepts, structures and intellectual methods that characterize the discipline. It stresses the unifying principles that link the subdisciplines and thereby create anthropology's comprehensive, holistic world view. It teaches students new 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. Required readings include an introductory text and several paperbacks. Lectures and discussion. Two objective exams (primarily multiple choice), each covering one-half of the term; the second exam will be given on the final day of class. Section leaders require several short papers (no more than ten pages total) and other brief assignments or quizzes. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: 3 Waitlist Code: No Data Given. ANTHRCUL 101. Introduction to Anthropology. Introductory Courses Section 026. Instructor(s): Rachel Caspari (rcaspari@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; 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 will be four short papers due in section, and section leaders may have other requirements. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: No Data Given. ANTHRCUL 158. First Year Seminar in Cultural Anthropology. Introductory Courses Section 001 – The Conceptual Politics of Race: Why People Think About Difference the Way They Do. Instructor(s): Lawrence A Hirschfeld (lhirsch@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. Where does our notion of race come from? Are racial classifications different from other ways of cataloguing humans? Does the act of classifying people into racial and ethnic groups necessarily entail prejudice and produce hierarchy? Is race a universal concept? If so, is there a single system of racial thinking or are there multiple systems? What does it mean to say that race is a social construction? What is the nature and scope of public and private representations of race? What are the best ways to interpreting these representations? These are a few of the questions that this seminar will explore. Finding answers requires that we distinguish between, and compare the meaning of, two dimensions of racial thinking. Race is both a category of the mind and a category of power. As a result, research on race generally has generally adopted one of two perspectives: a psychological one focusing on the beliefs and attitudes held by individual persons, or an interpretive one focusing on the social, cultural, and political properties of systems of racial classification. Saying that race is a category of mind is saying that race is an idea, and as such is a topic of interest to behavioral scientists, particularly psychologists. Research by these scholars tends to approach race in the context of general cognitive processes like perception, stereotyping, and category bias. Saying that race is a category of power is saying that race is a principle for organizing inequitable distributions of resources and authority, and as such is a topic of interest to anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and political scientists. Researchers from these disciplines typically focus on the ways race functions within systems of power and authority and is articulated in specific systems of domination. The seminar seeks to coordinate and integrate findings from both these perspectives, working to gain a more comprehensive understanding of race and racism. Course Requirements: Weekly journal ("reaction paper") of notes and queries (2-4 pages, typed and double-spaced) dealing with issues raised in readings and class discussions. Students will lead discussion in at least one class during the term and will make at least one in-class presentation. There will be a short answer final. Active classroom participation is required. Grades will be based on the following: reaction papers will account for 30% of grade, class participation 40%, and the final 30%. All required reading will be posted on the Coursetools Website and can be downloaded without cost. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: No Data Given. ANTHRCUL 222. The Comparative Study of Cultures. Introductory Courses Section 001. Instructor(s): Julie A Skurski (skurski@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (SS). Does not count toward anthropology concentration requirements. Credits: (4; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. In today's society, culture is frequently offered as an explanation as to why people differ from each other or act in certain ways. Yet how do we know what culture is and how can we approach analyzing it? This course explores the organization and representation of fundamental aspects of social life in a variety of non-Western and Western societies. We will be concerned in particular with the formation and the transformation of societies in the context of colonizing and globalizing processes. We also will analyze the ways that cultural difference has been described and accounted for, and the assumptions that underlie long-standing concepts of the West and its others. Our goal is to develop a historically grounded and analytically reflexive approach to the study of human diversity and social change. Topics with which we will be concerned include race, gender, power, ritual, and language. Our readings will center on several in-depth studies, including controversies and debates surrounding certain topics and peoples. These texts will allow us to study not only a wide range of cultural formations, but also differing methods and theoretical perspectives used to interpret them. Classes will be organized around the discussion of texts, films, and supplementary materials, and will include student presentations. Students are expected to attend regularly and be prepared to participate in class. They will be asked to write commentaries and brief papers on the central texts. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: 2 Waitlist Code: 1 ANTHRCUL 272 / LING 272. Language in Society. Introductory Courses Section 001. Instructor(s): J. Dickinson Prerequisites & Distribution: Primarily for first- and second-year students. (4). (SS). (R&E). Credits: (4; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course offers students an introduction to linguistic anthropology, the study of language in social and cultural context. Some of the questions we will consider in this course include: What is "language," and why do anthropologists study it? How do our linguistic perceptions influence the ways we recognize social differences, such as those based on ethnicity, race, class, and gender? How do perceptions of language contribute to the transformation of social differences into relationships of unequal power? In pursuing these questions, we will cover a range of topics related to understanding how understandings of language contribute to the social construction of racial and ethnic identity, as well as discrimination based on these perceived differences. Most importantly, we will consider how divisions such as "grammatical" and "ungrammatical" or "educated" and "uneducated" are founded in social, rather than linguistic judgments. Some of the themes that recur throughout this course are: (1) Differences and similarities across languages and cultures, including language structures, language use, and patterns of language change; (2) the relationship between language and social life as seen in the interaction between language and social understandings of group membership, such as race, class and gender; (3) issues of language politics, including policies regarding bilingualism/multilingualism, the development and alteration of official and unofficial linguistic standards, and the social consequences of language change and language death. Throughout the course we will consider examples and case studies from the United States and throughout the world, with the goal of using comparisons to highlight differences and similarities across languages and communities. There are no prerequisites for this course. Requirements for the course include a midterm, a final, and a series of short assignments. The materials for this course include a textbook and articles that will be available on electronic reserve. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: 2 Waitlist Code: 4 ANTHRCUL 285. Cult Archaeology. Introductory Courses Section 001. Instructor(s): Lisa C Young (lcyoung@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (SS). Credits: (4). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. Cult archaeology examines popular and fantastic interpretations of archaeological remains presented in the press and on television. We focus particularly on claims that cultural achievements by indigenous peoples are a consequence of contact with superior beings, such as aliens from outer space or other "more advanced" cultures. We will examine the logical flaws in these pseudoscientific explanations and the racist assumptions that underlie them. The goal of this course is for students to learn critical thinking skills that will enable them to assess popular interpretations of archaeological remains in the future, to understand ethical issues related to interpreting the past, and to recognize the harm of cultural racism. The course format is lecture and discussion sections. Evaluations are based on section exercises, participation, and two exams. The textbook is Kenneth L. Feder's Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries. A course pack and readings from web sites will supplement the text. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: 2 Waitlist Code: 1 ANTHRCUL 298. Topics in Cultural Anthropology. Introductory Courses Section 001 – Gender, Environment, and Poverty. Meets with RC Social Sciences 360.002. Instructor(s): Sharad Chari (schari@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (SS). May be repeated for a total of twelve credits. Credits: (3). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. See RC Social Science 360.002. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: No Data Given. ANTHRCUL 298. Topics in Cultural Anthropology. Introductory Courses Section 002 – Danger and Disorder: An Anthropology of Crime. Instructor(s): Ellen E Moodie (emoodie@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (SS). May be repeated for a total of twelve credits. Credits: (3). Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~emoodie/Danger298.html This course will look at crime through anthropological lens, seeking new ways to understand a complicated, frustrating, and fascinating topic. It aims to interrupt "common-sense" talk as well as legalistic discourse and expose crime as a social construction carrying different meanings to different people and communities. Through the term we'll move around the globe – among our likely stops Cameroon, Indonesia, England, Brazil, the United States, South Africa, Mexico, and the Trobriand Islands – as we explore how crime is conceptualized in various cultures. We will watch films, read newspapers and book chapters, listen to popular music, and study ethnographies as we address a series of themes, including storytelling; racialized "others"; gender; urban space and policing; vigilantism and terrorism; law in non-Western cultures, and religion and morality. Class meetings will entail short lectures, discussions, films, guest speakers, and student presentations. Course requirements will include a take-home essay exam, writing assignments, and a short research project. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: 2 Waitlist Code: 4 This page was created at 6:47 PM on Mon, Jan 21, 2002. 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