Courses

Fall 2018–Winter 2019

On leave (no courses).

Winter 2018

Gender, Age, and Culture (Anthr 110-B1)

In any given community, two important factors in a person’s social roles and attributes are their gender and age. Yet different communities not only understand these roles and attributes differently, but they define and divide gender and age categories differently. This course studies gender and age distinctions in a cross-cultural perspective, asking what it means to be a man, woman, and other, and a child, adult, or elder in any given society.

“Living with Spirits, Gods, and other Non-Human Others” (Anthr 487/587-B2)

Anthropologists are increasingly examining the question of how people become capable of acting, speaking, thinking, and experiencing in certain ways. We often call this the question of “agency” and “subjectivity.” Usually, our assumption—which traces back to the founders of social science—has been that the only actors, speakers, thinkers, and experiencers worth talking about are humans. Most people in the world would probably disagree with social scientists on this point. What if we take seriously people’s claims that their social reality is populated by other sorts of agents as well, such as spirits, witches, saints, ancestors, god(s), animals, and even features of the landscape? In this course, we examine the necessity of taking such claims seriously as well as the limitations and pitfalls of anthropological methods and description in handling such things. We read accounts from anthropologists who, sometimes against their inclinations, felt compelled to expand their understanding of “social reality” beyond the human realm.

Fall 2017

Anthropological Perspectives on Discursive Practices (Anthr 322-A1)

How does language make us who we are? How are relationships and meanings created and negotiated through concrete instances of linguistic exchange, or discourse? How does language use contribute to creating, maintaining, and undermining distinctions such as class, gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality? When people of different linguistic backgrounds inhabit the same communities, does linguistic diversity melt away or does it persist? This course brings together perspectives from disciplines such as anthropology, sociolinguistics, ethnomusicology, and folklore studies. The topics we will discuss include narratives in their cultural context; inter-ethnic communication; language in work, school, and institutions; code switching and other inter-linguistic practices; and electronic communication.

Prerequisite: ANTHR 208 or consent of Department.

Winter 2017

Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology (Anthr 208-B1)

Linguistic Anthropology is the subfield of anthropology that studies how language and communication work in human societies. This course explores several questions: What do we mean when we say “language” or “a language”? How does language make us who we are and the world what it is? How does language “mean” and “do” things? How can language marginalize, empower, differentiate, inspire, advocate, and so on? This course combines discussions of readings from linguistic anthropologists, sociolinguistics, and theorists of language with assignments requiring students to transcribe and analyze actual speech. Students will learn to apply an anthropological approach to thinking about and analyzing language. They will learn to approach it not merely as a system of sounds for communicating but as a central part of the experience of self and other, social context, political struggle, and any human undertaking.

Fall 2016

The Anthropology of Gender (Anthr 310-A1)

This course explores anthropological approaches to understanding sex and gender as they are understood in different societies and how gender intersects with culture, class, globalization, race and ethnicity. Gender concerns the social and cultural ideas and practices associated with biological sex distinction, or the contrast between men and women, masculinity and femininity, in any particular cultural context. Gender is inherently paradoxical: members of society experience gender oppositions as absolutely natural—perhaps even the most fundamental part of a person—yet what it means to be a man or a woman not only differs from society to society but is hard to define in any cultural context. This course examines several topics: the history of feminism and the study of sex and gender in anthropology; the mutual influence between cultural and scientific/medical concepts of sex and gender; the relationships between gender and colonialism, capitalism, globalization, ethnicity, and the state; gender metaphors that serve to describe domains other than sex; the construction of gendered identities and subjectivities; and gender identities and practices beyond heteronormative binaries. Students will learn to approach gender not as a specialization in anthropology but as a crucial dimension of any phenomenon we may want to understand and of any problem we may want to address. Prerequisites: ANTHR 110 or 207 or 209 or consent of Department.