First-Year Courses in Cultural Anthropology (Division 319)

Fall Term, 1999 (September 8 - December 22, 1999)

Introductory Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Elisha Renne (erenne@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This introductory course explores the distinctive modes of anthropological inquiry and surveys the field's four subdisciplines (biological, archaeological, cultural, and linguistic anthropology). It provides a first glimpse of the field's overall context, history, present concerns, 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 cultures 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; gender roles and personality; economics, politics, religion, and the arts in global perspective; and the cultural dimension of economic development and contemporary social change. Required readings include an introductory text and two paperbacks. Lectures and section discussion. 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 perhaps a short paper.

Introductory Courses

Section 150.

Instructor(s): Rich Freeman (richfree@umich.edu)

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 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.

Introductory Courses

Section 002 – Culture and Media.

Instructor(s): Alaina Lemon (amlemon@umich.edu)

First-year seminar,

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This freshman seminar investigates ways people produce, read, view or listen to print, television, and radio in various cultural ways, and in various political contexts. We will compare and contrast media from around the world. What are the cultural politics of "indigenous" media? Do cultural ways of speaking and interacting affect media production? What can media mean in everyday life? What is the relation of media censorship to culture? How have international media (from VOA to CNN) affected local cultures and political debates from the cold war to the present? In this course, we will read recent anthropology about media, and in class we will view and discuss international TV clips and other media forms. Students will be required to write papers and to contribute to class discussion.

Introductory Courses

Section 003 – Sex and Gender in the Real World.

Instructor(s): Charlene Makley (makley@umich.edu)

First-year seminar,

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

What is the difference between sex and gender? And why is this important in today's world? In recent years, events in the U.S., from school shootings to the misadventures of the president, have brought to the fore debates about how biological sex influences our behavior. This seminar explores the relationship between sex and gender from an anthropological perspective. In order to understand the various debates and their stakes, we will combine readings of anthropological accounts of cultures in which sex and gender are construed very differently from our own, with discussions of documentary and popular movies and video clips. Through these readings and discussions, as well as through writing assignments and projects both in and outside of class, the course will provide students with ways to understand how we come to consider and express ourselves as "men" or "women", the social forces that constrain us to act and think in certain ways, and the consequences for not conforming to those norms.

Introductory Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Janet Hart (janeth@umich.edu)

Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Anthropologists have long been engaged in the tricky and important process of mapping and describing specific cultures as they take shape over time. Cultural studies, practiced by a mixed collection of sociologists, historians, scholars of English, comparative literature, and communications, as well as anthropologists, is a newer phenomenon (with old antecedents), officially labeled by members of the so-called Birmingham School in the 1970s. According to Richard Johnson their intention, loosely, was to create "an alchemy for producing useful knowledge about the broad domain of human culture." In this course, we will focus on some of the strains that have given rise to something called "cultural studies" over the past 25 years. Particular emphasis will be given to the role of such dominant institutions as schools, families, the mass media, courts, political structures, and law enforcement in shaping people's attitudes, actions, and responses. Four main theoretical concepts will shape our reading and discussions: culture, ideology, practice (or more accurately, praxis) and identity. Among other things, we will want to think about how, during particular historical periods, these notions have not only formed the basis of a range of beliefs and behaviors, but also helped to frame the conversations of scholars and various other students of human expression.

Ethnology-Topical Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Webb Keane (wkeane@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

An introduction to basic problems faced by religions and by the study of religion. Drawing on case studies from around the world, with a particular emphasis on non-scriptural religions, the course examines different ways people have confronted questions such as how one deals with an invisible world, what happens after death, why do bad things happen to good people, what makes life worth living, how can one obtain wealth and power. The emphasis will be on comparison, showing how very different traditions have dealt with the same or similar problems. In the process of examining these issues, the course also raises questions about the difficulties involved in studying other people's most strongly held values and beliefs, and the relations between tolerance and faith.

Introductory Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): David Akin (dwakin@umich.edu)

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course provides a wide-ranging introduction to the field of ecological anthropology, focusing on issues related to the management of common property. The main goal for the course is to help students acquire an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of competing approaches to the question of the relationship of ecology to the social world. On the natural science side, the major approaches to be considered are behavioral and systems ecology. From the social sciences, we will investigate the basic techniques of social anthropology, as well as evolutionary game theory. Why combine the social and natural sciences in a single course? Traditionally, social scientists study social systems, and natural scientists study ecosystems. But many of the most important problems in environmental studies only come into focus when we are able to combine both perspectives. This is particularly true of one of the most pressing issues of our time – the management of common property (resources that are held in common and utilized by a social group). Today, the oceans are our common property, and the recent collapse of many fisheries illustrates the dangers posed by over-exploitation, the so-called "tragedy of the commons." To investigate systems of common property, we need to know something about how they function as ecosystems, as well as how societies relate to them. In this course, we will explore systems of common property utilized by a wide range of societies, including Native American salmon fishermen, African nomads, and Asian rice farmers.

Museum, Honors, Reading, Research, and Field Courses

Section 001 – World's First Cities.

Instructor(s): Norman Yoffee (nyoffee@umich.edu)

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nyoffee/wfcsyll.htm

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."

Museum, Honors, Reading, Research, and Field Courses

Section 002 – Anthropology of the Bible.

Instructor(s): Gillian Feeley-Harnik (gfharnik@umich.edu)

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course explores the Bible from the comparative perspective of anthropology. Since the late 19^th century, anthropologists have done archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork, trying to recapture the ancient social worlds in which the biblical texts were first created. Anthropologists also study the historical and contemporary societies in which biblical books were and are read, showing how key themes are translated, reinterpreted, and relived in new cultural circumstances. This course will introduce students to the broad range of anthropological approaches to the Bible. In the process, students will become acquainted with anthropological methods of documentation and analysis used in cross-cultural research. Readings will include selected articles and such books as Barton’s Cambridge Companion To Biblical Interpretation; Goldberg’s Judaism Viewed From Within And From Without: Anthropological Studies; Douglas’ Purity And Danger: An Analysis Of Concepts Of Pollution And Taboo; Feeley-Harnik’s The Lord’s Table: The Meaning Of Food In Early Judaism And Christianity; Delaney’s Abraham On Trial: The Social Legacy Of Biblical Myth; Beidelman’s Colonial Evangelism: A Socio-Historical Study Of An East African Mission At The Grassroots; Toumey’s God’s Own Scientists: Creationists In A Secular World; And Heilman’s The People Of The Book: Drama, Fellowship, And Religion. This is a small, seminar-style course in which students can expect lots of reading for discussion in class. Each student will be responsible for making an oral presentation and leading the discussion for one of the week’s readings in the term. In addition, there will be an essay-style midterm and an essay-style final exam. Grades will be based on class presentations and exams, as well as on class participation.

Introductory Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): John O'Shea (joshea@umich.edu)

Credits: (4; 2 in the half-term).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course combines an introduction to the techniques, methods, and theories of modern archaeology with a general survey of world prehistory. In the first half of the course we will consider how archaeologists learn about the past. In the second half of the term we will take a ‘greatest hits’ tour of world prehistory. In this tour we will focus on the culture of early humans, the peopling of the New World, and on the changing character of culture and society in Europe and North America from the earliest inhabitants through to the beginnings of recorded history. The course is designed to be accessible without prerequisites, but students will find previous coursework in Anthropology useful. There will be three one-hour lectures, plus one discussion section, per week. Requirements: two one-hour exams plus three take-home exercises.

Introductory Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Richard Ford (riford@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The course will examine foods from around the world from a cultural-historical perspective. The place of origin and the cultural significance of domesticated plants and animals will be highlighted. It will examine the history of domesticated plants and animals and their consequences in the diets of people around the world. The economic, social and political consequences of food problems will be discussed – ranging from maize in the New Word, the Irish potato blight, population increases in China and Africa, and health problems related to cultural definitions of food and life-style in various societies, including the United States. There are two textbooks and Web readings. In the lecture, there will be three examinations. In discussion, there will be problems and reports to prepare (2-4 pages in length) about different foods.