Department of Anthropology

Last updated: July 12, 2018 at 11:52 a.m.

Objectives

Undergraduate Major

Anthropology is a broadly based discipline concerned with the dynamics and diversity of humankind. Subjects of study include social relations, political organization, economics, religion, medicine and disease, human biology and evolution, languages, aesthetics, and ancient societies. This diversity of topics is linked by the common thread of "culture," a concept which is at the heart of anthropological studies. Anthropology considers why and how people from every part of the world and with diverse cultures are different and the same, how the human species has evolved over millions of years, and the ways people make sense of and order their lives.

The Department of Anthropology offers courses covering the discipline's four major subfields: sociocultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, biological anthropology, and archaeology. The major is structured to provide an introduction to the key concepts, methodologies, and theoretical issues of anthropology, while permitting each student sufficient latitude to pursue her or his own special interests.

Graduate Program in Anthropology

The graduate program in anthropology, leading to the MA and PhD degrees, is designed to produce scholars and professionals who will broaden our knowledge of culture and society. Graduate training is based on required courses in the history, theory, and methods of anthropology and on elective courses in topics in the four subfields of anthropology. Intensive training for independent research is stressed, with particular emphasis on fieldwork and comparative studies. Some graduates of the program accept appointments at colleges and universities; others take employment in government, private institutions, or foundations.

Learning Goals

Undergraduate Major

Anthropology explores the dynamics and diversity of humankind. It asks a most difficult and most important question: What does it mean to be human? The discipline ranges from the study of culture and social relations, to human biology and evolution, to economics and politics, to religion and world views, to languages and the connections between language and social dynamics, to visual cultures and architecture, to medicine and disease, and to what we can learn about past societies mostly through the study of material culture and organic remains.

This diversity of topics is linked by the common thread of "culture," that uniquely human capacity or endowment which is at the heart of anthropological studies. As a discipline, anthropology begins with a simple yet powerful idea: any detail of our behavior can be understood better when it is seen against the backdrop of the full range of human behavior. By focusing on human diversity, the anthropologist learns to avoid "ethnocentrism," the tendency to interpret seemingly strange practices on the basis of preconceptions derived from one’s own cultural background. Moreover, this same process helps us see our own society through fresh eyes. By thus making "the strange familiar and the familiar strange," anthropology pushes forward understandings of ourselves and others, as well as of the nature of humanity as a whole.

The Department of Anthropology offers courses in social-cultural, archaeological, biological and linguistic anthropology. The major is structured to provide an introduction to anthropology’s core concepts, methodologies, and theoretical issues, while permitting each student sufficient latitude to pursue his or her own special interests.

Knowledge
Students completing the major in anthropology will come away with a strong understanding of:

  1. The diversity of human cultures and the interdependence of people around the world;
  2. The inequality in relations of power within and among the world’s societies and nations in the past and present;
  3. What it means to be a human being: who we are, how we came to be that way, and what some of the major challenges we face for the future;
  4. The major questions, concepts, theories, ethical issues and methodologies of anthropology as a professional discipline.

Core Skills
The anthropology major also emphasizes core skills in data collection, critical thinking, analysis and synthesis, and communication. Anthropology majors from Brandeis will be well prepared to:

  1. Conduct scholarly, professional, and original research using a variety of published sources as well as core anthropological research methodologies, including interviews, participant observation, excavation and laboratory analysis;
  2. Evaluate information critically, with particular attention to examining taken-for-granted assumptions using the lens of culture; and
  3. Clearly convey facts, ideas, opinions and beliefs in a variety of written and oral formats, such as traditional, web-based, visual and other media.

Social Justice
The anthropology curriculum provides students with the knowledge and perspectives needed to participate as informed citizens in a global society. Anthropology emphasizes tolerance and respect for other cultures’ ways of conceptualizing the world. Anthropological approaches oriented toward social and political engagement, collaborations with local communities, applied work, and public dissemination of research (through publishing, oral presentations, film, the internet and museum exhibits) also provide specific tools and opportunities for those committed to Brandeis’s ideal of learning in service of social justice.

Upon Graduating
A Brandeis student with an anthropology major will be prepared to:

  1. Pursue graduate study and a scholarly career in anthropology; or
  2. Use the knowledge and perspectives gained from the sustained study of humanity to pursue professional training and a range of careers in any field dealing with people—including healthcare, government, business, law, journalism, education, and human rights work—in local and international settings.

Many of our graduates go on to graduate school in law, medicine, public health, public policy, social work, museum studies, education, and business, as well as anthropology.

Graduate Program in Anthropology

  1. Expertise in the key current debates in Anthropology and ability to relate their research to these debates.
  2. An understanding of the depth of anthropological research in a particular geographic region.
  3. Mastery of the research methods appropriate to their field of research. This includes the ability to translate a scholarly question into on-the- ground research and using data gathered through this process to refine and elaborate this research question.
  4. The ability to carry out research that takes into consideration relations of power, as well as the ethical guidelines set by the American Anthropological Association.
  5. Acquisition of the writing skills necessary to convey effective scholarly arguments in Anthropology.
  6. Expertise in conveying anthropological thought/ modes of analyses to undergraduate students.
  7. Consideration of the potential role of anthropology in relation to diverse publics inside and outside of the academy.

How to Become a Major

Students who wish either to major in anthropology or to study for a minor in anthropology should see the undergraduate advising head, who will discuss specific interests and assign an adviser. Students may wish to study within the general anthropology program or focus on linguistic or archaeological anthropology. ANTH 1a (Introduction to the Comparative Study of Human Societies) and ANTH 5a (Human Origins) should be taken early in the academic career. Majors are encouraged to select honors research projects, particularly those students considering graduate study in anthropology or other professional training.

The department sponsors credit-bearing internships (ANTH 92a and b) for junior and senior majors and minors. Internships combine off-campus and on-campus work that provides a significant anthropological learning experience and academic study supervised by a departmental faculty sponsor. Majors may substitute one internship for the ninth elective course option. Students doing summer internships register for course credit in the following fall semester. A minimum of a B+ grade point average in anthropology courses is required for eligibility. For information, see Guidelines for Anthropology Internships, available from the undergraduate advising head.

How to Be Admitted to the Graduate Program

The general requirements for admission to the Graduate School, specified in an earlier section of the Bulletin, apply to candidates for admission to graduate study in anthropology. Admission decisions are based primarily on the candidate's undergraduate academic record, letters of recommendation, writing sample, and the personal statement that is part of the application form. It is also advisable that the results of the Graduate Record Examination be submitted. A personal interview on campus is encouraged but not required.

MA Programs: Applicants to the master's program in anthropology or in anthropology & women's, gender, and sexuality studies need not have completed an undergraduate major in anthropology. Students enrolled in the MA program in anthropology or anthropology & women's, gender, and sexuality studies may, after having completed the equivalent of their first semester's course work, apply for admission to the doctoral program. Candidates for the MA program in anthropology or in anthropology & women's, gender, and sexuality studies with demonstrated financial need may petition the graduate school for partial tuition scholarships.

PhD Program: Applicants to the doctoral program must demonstrate that their anthropological interests are well defined and that these interests are congruent with those of Brandeis anthropology department faculty. Full-tuition scholarships and stipends (fellowships) are awarded to all students in the doctoral program. Assuming satisfactory progress in the doctoral program, scholarships and fellowships are renewable for five years. Doctoral applicants are ordinarily accepted only as direct admissions from Brandeis master's programs.

Faculty

Elizabeth Ferry, Interim Chair
Economic anthropology, collections, social studies of finance, materiality and value, labor, corporations and business, anthropology of mining and minerals. Mexico, U.S.

Patricia Alvarez
Visual anthropology, documentary/ethnographic filmmaking, indigeneity, capitalism, the senses. Latin America.

Jonathan Anjaria, Director of Graduate Studies
Urban anthropology, mobility, ethnographies of citizenship and the state, political ecology; South Asia.

Charles Golden
Archaeology of complex societies. Modern contexts of archaeological research. Political borders. Mesoamerica. The Maya.

Anita Hannig, Undergraduate Advising Head
Medical anthropology; the anthropology of religion, gender, and the body; anthropology of death and dying; medical aid-in-dying; Ethiopia; sub-Saharan Africa; United States.

Sarah Lamb (on leave spring 2019)
Gender, aging, self and person, medical anthropology, religion, migration and transnationalism, ethnographic writing; South Asia, United States.

Janet McIntosh (on leave academic year 2018-2019)
Linguistic anthropology, language ideology, psychological anthropology, personhood, essentialism, colonialism and postcoloniality, identity, whiteness studies, military studies, nationalism; East Africa and United States.

Pascal Menoret (on eave fall 2018)
Urban Anthropology. Infrastructure. Religion. Youth Politics. Islamic movements. Arabian Peninsula, Middle East.

Ellen Schattschneider
Religion. War and memory. Anthropology of the body. Commodification. Psychoanalytic theory. East Asia. Japan.

Javier Urcid
Archaeology. Bioarchaeology. Complex societies. Writing systems. Comparative aesthetics. Material Culture. Mesoamerica.

Elanah Uretsky
Medical anthropology, global health, the anthropology of China, gender and sexuality (with a focus on masculinity), governance, HIV/AIDS, chronic disease, borders, ethnic minorities, migration.

Affiliated Faculty (contributing to the curriculum, advising and administration of the department or program)
Cornelia Kammerer (Heller)
Ann Koloski-Ostrow (Classical Studies)
Sophia Malamud (Computer Science)

Requirements for the Minor

Five semester courses are required, including the following:

A. ANTH 1a and ANTH 5a.

B. Three courses in anthropology, to be chosen in consultation with the student's adviser in the department.

C. A minimum of three of the five courses required for the minor must be taken from Brandeis anthropology faculty.

D. No course with a final grade below C- can count toward fulfilling the requirements for the minor in Anthropology. No course taken pass/fail may count toward the minor requirements.

Requirements for the Major

A. Required of all majors: A minimum of nine semester courses in anthropology from among the ANTH and cross-listed offerings, to include ANTH 1a and ANTH 5a.

B. A minimum of five of the nine courses required for the major must be taken from Brandeis anthropology faculty.

C. A student may petition to receive anthropology credit for the major for one semester course completed at the university outside of the anthropology department and its cross-listed courses, provided that the course is clearly related to the student’s program of study. The petition will be reviewed by the Undergraduate Advising Head, who may consult with other faculty members in the department as appropriate. Students focusing on biological or linguistic anthropology may take up to two courses outside of the anthropology department, to be selected in consultation with the Undergraduate Advising Head or the student’s advisor, and to be approved by petition through the registrar’s office. Cross-listed courses do not require special approval to be counted toward the anthropology major.

D. Students may apply an anthropological internship course (ANTH 92a) only once toward the requirements for the major.

E. No course with a final grade below C- can count toward fulfilling the requirements for the major in Anthropology. No course taken pass/fail may count toward the major requirements.

Honors Candidates: Admission to the honors program in anthropology requires completion of at least five courses in anthropology and a cumulative GPA in anthropology of 3.5 or higher by the end of the junior year. Students submit a thesis proposal to the departmental faculty during the first week of the fall semester for consideration by the department faculty. If accepted to the program, students enroll in ANTH 99a and ANTH 99b. Honors candidates must complete ten courses for the major, including ANTH 99a and ANTH 99b.

General Anthropology
Anthropology majors need not focus on any one of the four main subfields of anthropology (social-cultural, archaeological, biological and linguistic), and can select a range of courses that fit their interests, mastering a "four-fields" approach to the discipline. Alternatively, students may choose to focus their coursework to specialize their training in one or more of the anthropological subfields.

Social-Cultural Anthropology Focus: Exploring Cross-Cultural Diversity and the Human Experience
Social-cultural anthropologists examine contemporary societies and cultures in all their remarkable diversity and complexity. The majority of courses in the department's anthropology curriculum relate to social-cultural anthropology, a subfield that examines important dimensions of human life such as social inequalities and identities, political economies, gender systems, kinship and families, value and exchange, medicine and illness, religion, semiotic systems, visual cultures, migration and transnationalism, the cultural dimensions of globalization, understandings of the body and personhood, and the ways human beings interpret their worlds and make meaning in their lives. Social-cultural anthropologists study both their own and other societies as a means of better understanding both, and investigate vital questions about what it entails to be human.

Archaeology Focus: Digging into Material Culture
The goal of archaeology is to provide an anthropological perspective on societies from the appearance of human beings through to the present mostly via the study of material culture and organic remains. Archaeologists recover, document, analyze and interpret materials including architecture, landscapes, pottery, stone tools, inscriptions, funerary goods, plant remains, and human and faunal skeletons. Patterns in and of material culture provide insight into the nature of political orders, social arrangements, belief systems, the shift from foraging to agricultural economies, the inception of urban life, environmental transformations, and the rise and collapse of ancient polities among many other subjects. Archaeologists often make use of materials science studies, remote imagery (as from satellites), and geographic information systems (GIS), among other tools to facilitate anthropological interpretation. The archaeology curriculum is particularly recommended to those students considering the study of archaeology at the graduate level, as well as careers in conservation, heritage and museum studies, and cultural resource management.

Students may also a take sequence of two half semester courses HS 263f and HS 297f on geographic information systems (GIS) in the Heller School and count this as one full course towards the major.

Biological Anthropology Focus: Human Evolution and the Biocultural Dimensions of Humanity
Biological anthropology looks at the intersection of humans as cultural and biological beings. This subfield examines topics such as the long evolutionary history of the human species, and the intersecting biological and cultural dimensions of humanity in domains such as gender, human development and aging, psychology, mental illness and medicine.

As stated above, students in this track can also petition to take up to two courses in other disciplines, in consultation with the UAH or their advisor.

Linguistic Anthropology Focus: Language, Culture and Communication
Linguistic anthropology focuses on language, the hallmark of the human species and the foundation of culture. Linguistic anthropologists explore the nature of language itself; the relationship between language, thought and behavior; how ethnic, national and gendered identities are fashioned linguistically; and the ways in which language and all other aspects of human culture interrelate.

In addition to the two courses required for the anthropology major, students focusing on linguistic anthropology may also petition to count a maximum of two courses from Language and Linguistics as anthropology electives. Students are encouraged to take LING 100a early in their academic career.

Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts

Program of Study

Students admitted to the MA program in anthropology must fulfill the Graduate School residence requirement of one full year of course work. Course requirements include the foundational course, ANTH 203b (Contemporary Anthropological Theory). In addition, all candidates for the MA must meet the following requirements:

A. Complete a program consisting of seven elective courses designed around their anthropological interests, selected with the approval of a faculty adviser to be assigned to each student upon matriculation. Graduate students also must participate in the departmental graduate proseminar (ANTH 340d), a yearlong, credit/no-credit course that does not count toward Anthropology graduate degree course requirements.

B. Master’s research paper requirement: Completion of a master’s research paper of professional quality and length (normally twenty-five to forty pages). The paper will be evaluated by two faculty members.

C. There is no foreign language requirement for the master's degree in anthropology.

D. The program may take an additional one or two semesters to complete as an Extended Master's student.

Requirements for the Joint Degree of Master of Arts in Anthropology & Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Students pursuing the joint MA in Anthropology & Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies combine their interests in anthropology and the study of women, gender, and/or sexuality. Candidates may undertake a freestanding terminal joint master’s degree or complete the joint master’s as they work toward a doctoral degree.

The terminal master’s degree can be achieved in one year, but students may benefit from the rich array of course offerings by extending their studies into a second year. Doctoral students in the anthropology program may enroll in the joint master’s degree program at any time during their graduate studies with the approval of their adviser and of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program.

Students interested in the joint degree program should consult with Ms. Lamb, the anthropology department Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies liaison.

Program of Study
Candidates for the joint MA in Anthropology & Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies must fulfill the residence requirement of one full year of course work (eight semester courses), and complete the following course requirements:

A. ANTH 203b Contemporary Anthropological Theory (or ANTH 201a History of Anthropological Thought, by petition).

B. ANTH 244a Gender and Sexuality Seminar (or ANTH 144a Anthropology of Gender, by petition).

C. WMGS 205a or another course designated as a graduate foundational course in women's, gender, and sexuality studies.

D. A course in feminist research methodologies (WMGS 208a, the Feminist Inquiry course offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies, or an approved alternative).

E. Four elective graduate courses, including one in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from a field other than anthropology, selected with the approval of the student's faculty adviser. Normally only one of these courses may be a Directed Reading course.

F. Joint MA paper requirement: Completion of a master's research paper of professional quality and length (normally twenty-five to forty pages) on a topic related to the joint degree. The paper will be read by two faculty members, one of whom is a member of the anthropology department, and one of whom is a member of the women's, gender, and sexuality studies core or affiliate faculty. In consultation with the primary advisor, a student may register for WMGS 299 (Master's Project). However, this course does not count toward the eight required courses.

G. The program may take an additional one or two semesters to complete as an Extended Master's student.

Language Requirement
There is no foreign language requirement for the joint master's degree.

Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Program of Study
Flexibility in the curriculum allows doctoral students to organize a program of study around their particular anthropological interests. At the same time, the program is structured so that a broad familiarity with the anthropological discipline is achieved. Students must complete ANTH 201a (History of Anthropological Thought). ANTH 202b (Designing Anthropological Research) and ANTH 203b (Contemporary Anthropological Theory) within the first two years of residence. These three graduate foundational courses in anthropology emphasize epistemological issues in cross-cultural research and the relationship between scientific and humanistic modes of inquiry. Additional courses may be required as determined by the student's advisory committee. From their courses and outside reading, students must obtain a high level of competence in a specific topical field of anthropological research and in at least one culture area. Graduate students also must participate in the departmental graduate proseminar (ANTH 340d), a yearlong course that does not count toward Anthropology graduate degree course requirements.

Graduate-level course offerings at Brandeis are augmented by the university's participation in a cross-registration program with Boston College, Boston University, and Tufts University. Anthropology students are eligible to take courses at these institutions with the approval of their adviser. Students with an interest in archaeology may also take courses offered through the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology, a Boston-area consortium comprising faculty from Brandeis, Boston University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Wellesley College. Students interested in gender and women's studies may enroll in interdisciplinary courses offered through the Graduate Consortium in Women's Studies.

Candidates for the doctoral degree work closely with an advisory committee consisting of at least two anthropology department faculty members, one of whom, the principal adviser, is in a field of specialization related to the interests of the student. The advisory committee has the following responsibilities: (1) to aid the student in constructing a coherent program of coursework leading to a high level of competency in one or more areas of anthropological theory and methodology; (2) to make certain that the courses selected include exposure to other areas within the discipline; (3) to ensure that a component of interdisciplinary study is included; and (4) to ensure that the student is knowledgeable in the anthropology of one or more of the world's culture areas. The department faculty meet annually to evaluate the progress of students in the doctoral program.

Teaching Requirement
The development of college-level teaching competency is an integral part of the department's professional training for the PhD. All funded students are required to serve as teaching fellows, typically for one course per term over a period of six semesters.

Residence Requirement
Candidates for the PhD in anthropology are required to meet the residence requirement as set forth by the Graduate School.

Qualifying Procedure
Upon completion of course requirements (normally by the end of the third year of full-time study), students must take a General Examination that tests their overall theoretical, topical, and area knowledge based on a reading list developed in consultation with their advisory committee. Subsequently, they engage in independent study in their areas of specialization and complete additional coursework, including reading courses and language training, as needed. Students then write an extended dissertation proposal that demonstrates mastery of relevant theoretical issues, historical and ethnographic material, and epistemological problems relevant to the proposed dissertation research. The proposal clearly articulates a research problem, specifies the kinds of data to be elicited, and proposes a cogent research design. Following preliminary approval by their advisory committee, students formally defend their proposals at a hearing before the department faculty. Students then normally apply for research grants to fund their project, engage in fieldwork and/or data gathering, and write and defend a doctoral dissertation.

Language Requirements
A reading knowledge of at least one foreign language must be demonstrated by written examination.

Dissertation and Defense
The completed dissertation must be successfully defended in an oral examination, as required by university regulations, before it can be formally accepted. At that point the department will recommend to the dean of arts and sciences that the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in anthropology be awarded to the candidate.

Courses of Instruction

(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students

ANTH 1a Introduction to the Comparative Study of Human Societies
[ nw ss ]
Examines the ways human beings construct their lives in a variety of societies. Includes the study of the concept of culture, kinship, and social organization, political economy, gender and sexuality, religion and ritual, symbols and language, social inequalities and social change, and globalization. Consideration of anthropological research methods and approaches to cross-cultural analysis. Usually offered every semester.
Jonathan Anjaria, Elizabeth Ferry, Sarah Lamb, or Janet McIntosh

ANTH 5a Human Origins
[ ss ]
Studies major evolutionary transformations of humanity from early hominins to fully modern Homo sapiens, and offers an introduction to the theoretical frameworks and biological processes that explain these transformations. Fossils and archaeological evidence serve to highlight the origins of bipedalism, and symbolic practices including art and language, and the shift from foraging to agricultural and pastoral societies. Usually offered every year.
Charles Golden or Javier Urcid

ANTH 7a Great Discoveries in Archaeology
[ nw ss ]
Delves into the origins of great civilizations of the ancient world - Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Africa, and the Americas - and explores how these cultures set the stage for the modern world. Examines the history and prehistory of politics, economy, warfare, art, science, and more through archaeological discoveries. Usually offered every year.
Charles Golden

ANTH 20b Feast and Famine: Food and Social Relations
[ ss ]
Food brings together our physical bodies and our capacity for making culture; this has made it a central topic for writers, artists, historians, anthropologists, and others. Examines ways of eating (and not eating) that mediate, express, and exemplify relations among people. The course concludes with an in-depth view of contemporary food systems and reform movements. Usually offered every second year.
Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 26a Communication and Media
[ ss ]
An exploration of human communication and mass media from a cross-cultural perspective. Examines communication codes based on language and visual signs. The global impact of revolutions in media technology, including theories of cultural imperialism and indigenous uses of media is discussed. Usually offered every second year.
Janet McIntosh

ANTH 36a U.S. Policing in Context: Past, Present, Future
[ ss ]
An interdisciplinary analysis of policing in the United States which considers policing narratives, training, culture, and technology. Case studies focus on Occupy Wall Street and Ferguson, Missouri. Theoretical frameworks utilized include anthropology of power, critical race theory, and criminal justice. Special one-time offering, spring 2018.
Jara Connell

ANTH 55a Anthropology of Development
[ nw ss ]
Examines efforts to address global poverty that are typically labeled as "development." Privileging the perspectives of ordinary people, and looking carefully at the institutions involved in development, the course relies on ethnographic case studies that will draw students into the complexity of global inequality. Broad development themes such as public health, agriculture, the environment, democracy, poverty, and entrepreneurship will be explored. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

ANTH 60a Archaeological Methods
[ ss ]
Focuses on the exploration of archaeological sites on and near campus to offer a practice-oriented introduction to field methods, including surface-survey, mapping, and excavation of archaeological features. Other topics include principles of stratigraphy and relative/chronometric dating methods. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Golden or Javier Urcid

ANTH 60b Archaeological Analysis
[ ss ]
An introduction to archaeological laboratory methods and analyses, emphasizing hands-on experience. Students engage in discussion of field and laboratory methods, ethical issues, and the challenges of interpreting human behavior from material remains. Students conduct independent analyses ancient artifacts in the classroom and also conduct independent research in surrounding communities in locations such as the Boston area's graveyards. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Golden or Javier Urcid

ANTH 61b Language in American Life
[ ss ]
Examines the relations between language and some major dimensions of American social life: social groupings (the structures of ethnic, regional, class, and gender relations); social settings (such as courtrooms, workplaces, and homes); and social interaction. Usually offered every second year.
Janet McIntosh

ANTH 62a Archaeology in Politics, Film and Public Culture
[ oc ss ]
Examines the use of archaeology in national politics, popular culture, and continued international debates revolving around issues of cultural patrimony. After a brief look at the history of the field and its inception within colonialism, this course centers on the contemporary uses of archaeology, including archaeology in totalitarian Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy, nationalist projects and the establishment of nation-building narratives (such as in Israel, Egypt, China and Mexico), and portrayals of archaeology in popular films and modern hoaxes. Importantly, this course also focuses on national and international laws concerning cultural objects and sites, and the ethical dilemmas of stewardship, repatriation, and looting. Usually offered every third year.
Javier Urcid

ANTH 70a Business, Culture and Society
[ ss ]
In a diverse and rapidly changing global marketplace, it is crucial to understand local traditions, customs and cultural preferences. In this course, we adopt anthropological approaches to understand their impact on business practices, products, services, clients and ideas. Usually offered every second year.
Patricia Alvarez or Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 80a Anthropology of Religion
[ nw ss ]
An introduction to the anthropological study of human religious experience, with particular emphasis on religious and ritual practice in comparative perspective. Examines the relationship between religion and society in small-scale, non-Western contexts as well as in complex societies, global cultures, and world historical religions. Usually offered every second year.
Sarah Lamb or Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 81a Conducting Ethnographic Fieldwork: Methods and Practice of Anthropological Research
[ ss wi ]
Formerly offered as ANTH 181aj.
Examines principal issues in ethnographic fieldwork and analysis, including research design, data collection, and ethnographic representation. Students will develop a focused research question, design field research, and conduct supervised fieldwork in a variety of local settings. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Anjaria, Elizabeth Ferry, or Pascal Menoret

ANTH 92a Internship and Analysis
Students may take no more than one departmental internship for credit.
The department sponsors internships for junior and senior majors and minors. Internships combine off-campus and on-campus work that provides a significant anthropological learning experience and academic study supervised by a departmental faculty sponsor. Majors may substitute one internship for the ninth elective course option. Students doing summer internships register for course credit in the following fall semester. A minimum GPA of B+ in anthropology courses is required for eligibility. For additional information, see the Guidelines for Anthropology Internships, available from the undergraduate adviser. Usually offered every year.
Staff

ANTH 95a Anthropology Research Lab
Corequisite: Varies by section. See the schedule of classes. Course may be taken as a prerequisite within the past year with permission of the instructor. Yields half-course credit.
Provides firsthand experience conducting anthropology research on a topic related to the base course. Activities may include the following: participate in data collection and analysis, conduct literature searches through the library and internet, learn analysis and data management skills, help to prepare a research report for a professional meeting, journal or blog, and develop and pursue your unique research questions. Maybe taken concurrently with the base course or within one year after completing the base course. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Lamb

ANTH 98a Individual Readings and Research in Anthropology
Individual readings and research under the direction of a faculty supervisor. Usually offered every year.
Staff

ANTH 98b Individual Readings and Research in Anthropology
Individual readings and research under the direction of a faculty supervisor. Usually offered every year.
Staff

ANTH 99a Senior Research
Seniors who have a 3.5 or higher GPA in anthropology courses and who wish to be considered for honors submit a thesis proposal to the department faculty and, if accepted, enroll in this course with permission of the instructor. Usually offered every year.
Staff

ANTH 99b Senior Thesis
Prerequisite: Satisfactory completion of ANTH 99a. Does not count toward the major in anthropology.
Seniors who wish to complete a senior honors thesis normally enroll in this course. Usually offered every year.
Staff

EL 42a Sages and Seekers: A Fieldwork Practicum in Gender across Generations
Corequisite: ANTH 1a, ANTH 111a, ANTH 144a, or PSYC 37a. Course may be taken as a prerequisite within the past year with permission of the instructor. Yields half-course credit.
Students participate in a 9-week Sages and Seekers program designed to bridge the generational gap between seniors and youth in order to foster the exchange of wisdom and dissolve age-related segregation. Each student also designs and carries out an individual fieldwork and/or community service project. Hands-on experiences complement concepts and questions explored through the base classes, regarding aging, gender, and generational change in socio-cultural context. Usually offered every year.
Sarah Lamb

(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students

AMST/ANT 117a Decolonization: A Native American Studies Approach
[ ss ]
Examines "What is decolonization?" through the lens of Native American Studies. We will discuss issues ranging from settler colonialism, stereotypes, social movements, identity, cultural revitalization, landscape, and interventions into natural and social sciences. Usually offered every second year.
Lee Bloch

ANTH 107a Wealth, Value, and Power in a World without Money
[ nw ss ]
Examines the relationships of value, wealth, power, and authority in the Aztec Empire, Inka Empire and Classic period Maya kingdoms of the Prehispanic Americas. In so doing it raises questions about the origins of these relationships in modern states. Usually offered every third year.
Charles Golden

ANTH 109a Children, Parenting, and Education in Cross-Cultural Perspective
[ ss ]
Examines childcare techniques, beliefs about childhood and adolescence, and the objectives of school systems in different areas of the world, in order to illuminate cross-cultural similarities and differences in conceptions of personhood, identity, gender, class, race, nation, and the relationship between the individual and society. Usually offered every third year.
Keridwen Luis

ANTH 110b Control Freaks: Discipline, Rules and Power
[ ss ]
Examines diverse methods of control across society from an anthropological perspective. Students will study how control and surveillance operate in modern science, capitalism, prisons, education, medicine, and self-discipline. The course links these topics with classical anthropological theory about culture itself as a mode of control. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Prentice

ANTH 111a Aging in Cross-Cultural Perspective
[ nw ss wi ]
This course offers a 2-credit optional Experiential Learning practicum.
Examines the meanings and social arrangements given to aging in a diversity of societies, including the U.S., India, Japan and China. Key themes include: the diverse ways people envision and organize the life course, scholarly and popular models of successful aging, the medicalization of aging in the U.S., cultural perspectives on dementia, and the ways national aging policies and laws are profoundly influenced by particular cultural models. Usually offered every second year.
Sarah Lamb

ANTH 113b Race and Ethnicity: Anthropological Perspectives
[ ss ]
Examines theories and ethnographies of race and ethnicity through three units: literary and social scientific theories of race and othering; the race system in the U.S. today; and a comparative look at the American racial system to explore ways in which America’s race system varies cross-societally and cross-historically. One goal of the course is to understand changing ideas of race and ethnicity that have emerged from anthropologists and cultural critics. Usually offered every fourth year.
Patricia Alvarez

ANTH 115b Borderlands: Space, Place, and Landscape
[ ss ]
Studies human behavior framed by and creating the spaces and landscapes in which we live. This seminar examines archaeological and ethnographic understandings of the relationships between culture, space, and landscapes with a particular focus on the political and social dynamics of borderlands. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Golden

ANTH 116a Human Osteology
[ sn ss ]
Anthropology majors have priority for enrollment. Students wishing to enroll during early registration should waitlist themselves.
Skeletal anatomy and application of forensic techniques to archaeological problems. Hands-on laboratory sessions focus on methods of estimating age at the time of death, determining sex, assessing skeletal variability, detecting instances of bone remodeling, and identifying cultural and natural modifications to bony tissue. Case studies exemplify bioarchaeological approaches. Usually offered every second year.
Javier Urcid

ANTH 118b Culture and Power in the Middle East
[ ss ]
Examines the peoples and societies of the Middle East from an anthropological perspective. Explores problems of cross-cultural examination, the notion of the Middle East as an area of study, and the role of anthropology in the formation of the idea of the “Middle East.” To this end, the course is divided into sections devoted to understanding and problematizing key concepts and themes central to our understanding of the region, including tribe and state, family and kinship, gender and sexuality, honor and shame, tradition and modernity, and religion and secularism. Course materials will include critical ethnographies based on field work in the region as well as locally produced materials such as literature, music, film and other visual arts. Usually offered every fourth year.
Pascal Menoret

ANTH 119a Conquests, Resistance, and Cultural Transformation in Mexico and Central America
[ nw ss wi ]
Examines the continuing negotiation of identity and power that were at the heart of tragedy and triumph for indigenous peoples in colonial Mexico and Central America, and which continue in the modern states of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Golden

ANTH 121a Crossing Cultural Boundaries
[ ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who have taken ANTH 33b in prior years.
An examination of situations where individuals, either actually or imaginatively, willingly or unwillingly, cross over the boundaries separating their own culture and other cultural traditions. The understandings and misunderstandings that result from these encounters are examined in primary texts and images and in scholarly reconstructions. Transient experiences are compared with sites that develop over a long period of time (colonial settlements, plantations, frontiers). Potentials for reflexive self-understanding and meaningful dialogue are sought in fictional and nonfictional representations of boundary crossings. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

ANTH 121b Archaeology and Environment
[ nw ss ]
Provides an introduction to environmental archaeology, exploring how human history and prehistory have been defined by moments when political, cultural, economics, and ecological systems collide. Topics include climate change, food systems, plant and animal relations, and natural resources. Usually offered every second year.
Franco Rossi

ANTH 127a Medicine, Body, and Culture
[ nw ss ]
Examines main areas of inquiry in medical anthropology, including medicine as a sociocultural construct, political and economic dimensions of suffering and health, patients and healers in comparative medical systems, and the medical construction of men's and women's bodies. Usually offered every year.
Sarah Lamb or Anita Hannig

ANTH 128a Meaning and Material Culture
[ ss ]
Whether indexing identities, exchange valuables, or representations of cultural meanings, objects are seen as means to mediate social interaction and practices. This course focuses on how materials that express culturally coded meanings (whether contextual, formal, or conventional) can be adequately studied in the relative absence of indigenous interpretation. The course has a hands-on component based on the artifact collection in the department’s Material Culture Research Center. Usually offered every second year.
Javier Urcid

ANTH 129b Global, Transnational and Diasporic Communities
[ ss ]
Examines the social and cultural dimensions of diasporas and homelands from an anthropological perspective. It starts by critically engaging with more fundamental concepts such as state, identity, and movement. It then proceeds to debate the various contributions that anthropologists have presented to the understanding of human life in transnational and diasporic contexts. Topics to be discussed include homeland, place, migration, religion, global sexual cultures, kinship, and technology—all within a global perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Anjaria or Sarah Lamb

ANTH 130b Visuality and Culture
[ ss ]
Introduces students to the study of visual, aural, and artistic media through an ethnographic lens. Course combines written and creative assignments to understand how culture shapes how we make meaning out of images and develop media literacy. Topics include ethnographic/documentary film, advertising, popular culture, viral videos and special effects, photography, art worlds, and the technological development of scientific images. Usually offered every second year.
Patricia Alvarez or Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 131b Latin America in Ethnographic Perspective
[ ss wi ]
Anthropology and LALS majors and minors have priority for enrollment.
Examines issues in contemporary Latin America and the Spanish Caribbean from the perspective of sociocultural anthropology, based primarily on books and articles drawing on long-term ethnographic research. Topics may include: the Zapatista Rebellion in Mexico; tin mining and religion in Bolivia; mortuary cannibalism in the Amazon; the role of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexican national identity; love and marriage among young migrants from Mexico and the United States; weaving, beauty pageants, and jokes in Guatemala; and daily life in revolutionary Cuba. Usually offered every second year.
Patricia Alvarez or Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 133b Colonialism and Post-coloniality in Africa: Encounters and Dilemmas
[ nw ss ]
Uses an anthropological lens to explore colonialism and post-coloniality in sub-Saharan Africa. Topics include colonial racism; missionary encounters; African experiences of colonial medicine; African nationalism; the politics of land alienation; colonial memory; post-colonial modernities. Usually offered every third year.
Janet McIntosh

ANTH 135a Contemporary Israeli Society: Identities and Dilemmas
[ ss ]
Explores a wide range of materials about social experience in Israel, with a particular focus on marginalized or frequently overlooked social groups. Topics include women in Israeli society, critical perspectives on ethnicity and religion, the relationship between gender and citizenship, disability and identity, and nationalism and sexuality. Usually offered every fourth year.
Staff

ANTH 136a Archaeology of Power: Authority, Prestige, and Inequality in the Past
[ nw ss ]
Anthropological and archaeological research and theory provide a unique, long-term perspective on the development of inequality and rise of hierarchical societies, including the earliest ancient states such as the Moche, Maya, China, Sumerians, Egyptians, and others through 5000 years of human history. A comparative, multidisciplinary seminar examining the dynamics of authority, prestige, and power in the past, and the implications for understanding the present. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Golden

ANTH 136b Contemporary Chinese Society and Culture
[ nw ss ]
Introduces students to contemporary Chinese society, with a focus on the rapid transformations that have taken place during the post-Mao era with a focus on family, gender, sexuality, migration, ethnicity, and family planning. Usually offered every third year.
Elanah Uretsky

ANTH 137a Mapping the Human Past from Air and Space
[ ss ]
Designed to train undergraduate students in basic methods of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sense (RS) technologies in archaeology. Students will design and present a geodatabase. Usually offered every third year.
Charles Golden

ANTH 138a Digital Cultures
[ ss ]
Examines how anthropology can contribute to the understanding of new media as transformative social-cultural forces. Explores various forms of computer-mediated and digital communication (e.g., instant messaging, blogging, social media, on-line dating) and the ways in which people interact in these different contexts of cyberspace. Explores how new forms of digital technologies are shaping forms of identity, community and society today. Involves participatory research projects with a digital public-facing life. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

ANTH 138b All-Under-Heaven: Global China and the Anthropological Imagination
[ nw ss ]
Examines from an anthropological perspective Global China "in the details." These include both the soical, cultural, and political presence of China in the world beyond the boundaries of the Chinese nation-state, and also the manifestations of globalization(s) within China. Special one-time offering, spring 2018.
Derek Sheridan

ANTH 139a Identity and Technology
[ ss ]
Examines the links between identity and technology. How much is identity something we decide for ourselves and how much is it decided by formal technologies, like DNA, biometrics, or passports? This cousre combines readings in cultural anthropology and science & technology studies (STS) to understand competing ideas about who or what can determine identity and why fixing identities is so important in the modern world. The course will connect these issues to broader anthropological topics around representation and virtualism. Usually offered every second year.
Michael Prentice

ANTH 139b Language, Ethnicity, and Nationalism
[ ss ]
It is often assumed that language differences divide people, while a common language unites them. To what extent is this true? Taking cross-cultural and historical approaches, we examine the role of language in creating concepts of tribe, ethnicity, and nation. Explores what kinds of social groupings these terms might label, some ideologies connected with their use, and their relationship with communication systems. Usually offered every second year.
Janet McIntosh

ANTH 140a Human Rights in Global Perspective
[ ss ]
Explores a range of debates about human rights as a concept as well as the practice of human rights work. The human rights movement seeks the recognition of universal norms that transcend political and cultural difference while anthropology seeks to explore and analyze the great diversity of human life. To what extent can these two goals--advocating for universal norms and respecting cultural difference--be reconciled? The course examines cases from various parts of the world concerning: indigenous peoples, environment, health, gender, genocide/violence/nation-states and globalization. Usually offered every third year.
Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 140b Critical Perspectives in Global Health
[ nw ss ]
What value systems and other sociocultural factors underlie global public health policy? How can anthropology shed light on debates about the best ways to improve health outcomes? This course examines issues from malaria to HIV/AIDS, from tobacco cessation to immunization. Usually offered every third year.
Elanah Uretsky

ANTH 141a Islamic Movements
[ ss ]
Examines the social and cultural dimensions of contemporary Islamic movements from an anthropological perspective. It starts by critically engaging with such fundamental concepts as Orientalism, colonialism, and nationalism. Topics to be discussed include the difference between the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafism, Islamist feminism, Islamic public arguments, Al-Qaeda and ISIS, victimization and martyrdom, and the relationship between humanitarianism and terrorism. Usually offered every second year.
Pascal Menoret

ANTH 142b Global Pandemics: History, Society, and Policy
[ nw ss ]
Takes a biosocial approach to pandemics like HIV/AIDS, SARS, and Ebola as shaped not simply by biology, but also by culture, economics, politics, and history. Discussion focuses on how gender, sexuality, religion, and folk practices shape pandemic situations. Usually offered every fourth year.
Elanah Uretsky

ANTH 144a The Anthropology of Gender
[ nw ss wi ]
This course offers a 2-credit optional Experiential Learning practicum.
Examines gender constructs, sexuality, and cultural systems from a comparative perspective. Topics include the division of labor, rituals of masculinity and femininity, the vexing question of the universality of women's subordination, cross-cultural perspectives on same-sex sexualities and transsexuality, the impact of globalization on systems, and the history of feminist anthropology. Usually offered every year.
Anita Hannig, Sarah Lamb or Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 145a Anthropology of the Body
[ ss ]
Explores a range of theories that use the body to understand society, culture, and gender. Topics include how social values and hierarchies are written in, on, and through the body; the relationship between body and gender identity; and experiences and images of the body cross-culturally. Usually offered every third year.
Sarah Lamb or Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 146a Gender and the City
[ nw ss ]
Examines the ways in which cities reflect gender relations and in turn how gender relations impact the very fabric and politics of cities. The course will reflect on questions of gendered embodiment, belonging, identity, femininity, masculinity, sexuality, respectability, risk, surveillance, and resistance as it navigates the everyday worlds of cities. Special one-time offering, spring 2018.
Shilpa Phadke

ANTH 147b Mesoamerican Civilizations and Their Legacies
[ nw ss ]
Traces the development of social complexity in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, from initial colonization in the Late Pleistocene to the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century. Reviews major societal transformations like food production, the role of competitive generosity and warfare in promoting social inequalities, and the rise of urban societies. It also examines indigenous social movements against Spanish colonialism, and considers the legacies and role of indigenous peoples in the contemporary nations of Middle America. Usually offered every third year.
Javier Urcid

ANTH 151b Nature, Culture, Power: Anthropology of the Environment
[ ss ]
Examines the relationships among human and natural worlds. Topics include: the cultural production of 'wildness', the politics of conservation, indigeneity and the environment, colonialism and natural resource extraction. Ethnographies based on research in the United States, Africa and Asia will enable students to explore how anthropology offers insight into the pressing environmental issues of today. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Anjaria

ANTH 153a Writing Systems and Scribal Traditions
[ nw ss ]
Explores the ways in which writing has been conceptualized in social anthropology, linguistics and archaeology. A comparative study of various forms of visual communication, both non-glottic and glottic systems, is undertaken to better understand the nature of pristine and contemporary phonetic scripts around the world and to consider alternative models to explain their origin, prestige, and obsolescence. The course pays particular attention to the social functions of early writing systems, the linkage of literacy and political power, and the production of historical memory. Usually offered every second year.
Javier Urcid

ANTH 154a Culture and Mental Illness
[ ss ]
Without underestimating the importance of biological causes and treatments, this course challenges the hegemony of bio-medical models in psychiatry by seeking to conceptualize emotional problems and mental illness as historically situated and culturally constructed. Examines how factors related to political circumstances, social institutions, religious belief systems, socio-economic status, and ethnic background participate in shaping forms of distress and the ways they are dealt with in various socio-cultural settings. The course will also consider alternative therapies such as art therapy, community-based treatments, and culturally specific approaches to emotional healing and accommodation. Usually offered every third year.
Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 155b Psychological Anthropology
[ ss ]
An examination of the relationship between sociocultural systems and individual psychological processes with a critical evaluation of selected theories and studies bearing on this problem. Usually offered every second year.
Janet McIntosh

ANTH 156a Power and Violence: The Anthropology of Political Systems
[ nw ss ]
Political orders are established and maintained by varying combinations of overt violence and the more subtle workings of ideas. The course examines the relationship of coercion and consensus, and forms of resistance, in historical and contemporary settings. Usually offered every second year.
Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 157a Kinship, Families and Households
[ ss ]
Describes and analyzes several family types and households in contemporary American life, interpreting them in their cultural contexts and comparing them with similar arrangements in other cultures. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

ANTH 158a Urban Worlds
[ ss ]
Explores some of the essential concepts of urban theory and conducts an in-depth study of urban experiences around the world. Topics include the city and marginality, urban modernity, gender and public space, gentrification, suburbanization, transgression, and urban nature. Case studies may be from cities such as Mumbai, Lagos, New York, Paris, Dubai, and Rio de Janeiro. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Anjaria

ANTH 159a Museums and Public Memory
[ ss ]
Explores the social and political organization of public memory, including museums, cultural villages, and memorial sites. Who has the right to determine the content and form of such institutions? Working with local community members, students will develop a collaborative exhibition project. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 161a Infrastructure
[ ss ]
There’s a problem with infrastructure – electricity networks, water supply systems, pipelines, ports, roads, and railroads. Most of us would agree that infrastructure should be a public thing, serve society, and allow for better life, communication, and activity. Yet infrastructures are often hidden, subterranean, and therefore prone to exploitation and hijacking. The anthropology of infrastructure aims in part at making it more visible and at deciphering the complex interaction between things, society, and politics. But anthropologists end up unearthing more than utility networks and urbanism plans. They stumble upon the very power of inanimate things to orient our experiences, from the most intimate (having sex) to the least material of them (browsing the internet). From politics to ethics and back, this course will explore our relationship to infrastructure. Usually offered every second year.
Pascal Menoret

ANTH 163b Production, Consumption, and Exchange
[ nw ss ]
Prerequisite: ANTH 1a, ECON 2a, ECON 10a, or permission of the instructor.
We read in newspapers and books and hear in everyday discussion about "the economy," an identifiably separate sphere of human life with its own rules and principles and its own scholarly discipline (economics). The class starts with the premise that this "common sense" idea of the economy is only one among a number of possible perspectives on the ways people use resources to meet their basic and not-so-basic human needs. In the course, we draw on cross-cultural examples, and take a look at the cultural aspects of finance, corporations, and markets. Usually offered every second year.
Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 164a Medicine and Religion
[ nw ss ]
Prerequisite: ANTH 1a or equivalent.
Considers the convergence of two cultural spheres that are normally treated as separate: medicine and religion. The course will examine their overlap, such as in healing and dying, as well as points of contention through historical and contemporary global ethnographies. Usually offered every second year.
Anita Hannig

ANTH 165b Anthropology of Death and Dying
[ nw ss ]
Explores how different societies, including our own, conceptualize death and dying. Topics include the cultural construction of death, the effects of death on the social fabric, mourning and bereavement, and medical issues relating to the end of life. Usually offered every second year.
Anita Hannig

ANTH 166b Queer Anthropology: Sexualities and Genders in Cross-Cultural Perspective
[ ss ]
Explores ethnographic approaches to the study of sexuality and gender in diverse cultural contexts, such as the US, Brazil, India, Indonesia and Mexico. Examines how sexuality intersects with other cultural forms, including gender, race, ethnicity, labor, religion, colonialism and globalization. Explores also how the discipline of anthropology has been shaped by engagements with questions of sexuality and the field of queer studies. Usually offered every second year.
Sarah Lamb, Keridwen Luis or Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 167a Sports, Society and the Body
[ ss ]
Examines sports from an anthropological perspective. Students will study sports cultures globally and historically. Topics include: sports and colonialism, doping controversies, gender, nationalism, spectacle, pain and ideas of the body. This course also emphasizes hands-on research and documentation of diverse sports cultures through writing and film. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Anjaria

ANTH 168a The Maya: Past, Present and Future
[ nw ss wi ]
Explores the culture of the Maya in Mexico and Central America through nearly 3000 years of history. Using archaeology, ethnohistory, and ethnography, studies their ancient past and their modern lives. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Golden

ANTH 170b Us and Them: Multispecies Ethnography
[ ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 70b in prior years.
We save and destroy other species; they comfort and threaten us. Can anthropology illuminate multispecies relationships? Can we do participant observation with a chimp or interview a tree? This course examines how human desires to know and conquer other species blur the lines between "us" and "them." Usually offered every second year.
Staff

ANTH 178b Culture, Gender and Power in East Asia
[ nw ss ]
Examines the role of culture in changing gender power relations in East Asia by exploring how the historical legacy of Confucianism in the region influences the impact of changes such as the constitutional proclamation of gender equality and rapid industrialization. Usually offered every third year.
Elanah Uretsky

ANTH 180b Playing Human: Persons, Objects, Imagination
[ ss ]
Examines how people interact with material artifacts that are decidedly not human and yet which, paradoxically, deepen and extend experiences of being human. Theories of fetishism; masking and ritual objects across cultures; play and childhood experience; and objects of imagination, memory and trauma. Usually offered every second year.
Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 182b Applied Anthropology
[ oc ss ]
Examine the historical, theoretical foundations and practical dimensions of socially-engaged and "applied" anthropology; structural relations between academic anthropology, international development and social activism; and ethics in "action anthropology." Usually offered every second year.
Staff

ANTH 184b Cross-Cultural Art and Aesthetics
[ nw ss ]
A cross-cultural and diachronic exploration of art, focusing on the communicative aspects of visual aesthetics. The survey takes a broad view of how human societies deploy images and objects to foster identities, lure into consumption, generate political propaganda, engage in ritual, render sacred propositions tangible, and chart the character of the cosmos. Usually offered every second year.
Javier Urcid

ANTH 185a Archaeological Science
[ ss ]
Prerequisites: One year of college-level chemistry, biology, and physics, or the equivalent. Signature of the Brandeis liaison, required. Topics vary from year to year. May be repeated for credit.
A lecture course in which leading experts from the faculty of the seven major Boston-area universities and the Museum of Fine Arts that comprise the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology (CMRAE) consortium discuss how they apply scientific technology and engineering methods to archaeological analysis. Deals with topics such as radioactive and other methods of age determination, archaeological site formation and soil micromorphology, and the study of materials used in ancient building construction. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

ANTH 186b Linguistic Anthropology
[ ss ]
Advanced topics in linguistic anthropology, including the study of linguistic meaning in context, pragmatics, the construction of social relationships through language, language and authority, language and religion, and linguistic ideologies. Usually offered every second year.
Janet McIntosh

ANTH 187a Materials Research in Archaeology, I
[ ss ]
Enrollment limited to advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Topics vary from year to year, and the course may be repeated for credit.
A series of courses, each focusing on a specific topic, such as archaeological analysis of animal or plant remains; the analysis of lithic materials, pottery, or metals; GIS; and statistical analysis. Courses are offered each semester, taught by faculty from the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology, a consortium that includes Brandeis, Boston University, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Wellesley College. Usually offered every year.
Staff

ANTH 188b Materials Research in Archaeology, II
[ ss ]
Enrollment limited to advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Topics vary from year to year, and the course may be repeated for credit.
See ANTH 187a for course description. Usually offered every year.
Staff

(200 and above) Primarily for Graduate Students

ANTH 201a History of Anthropological Thought
A historical examination of major ideas and perennial problems in social thought that have led to the development of modern theory and method in anthropology. Usually offered every year.
Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 202b Advanced Ethnographic Research Methods
An intensive study of anthropological research and ethnographic practice, with particular attention to topic formation, field notes and evocative writing. Combines discussions ethnography with writing workshops. Readings include essays on research methodology and critiques of ethnographic practice, as well as ethnographic monographs that demonstrate sophisticated fieldwork practices. Writing workshops cover issues such as taking notes in the field and describing scenes, speech in action, characters, language and affect. Usually offered every second year.
Jonathan Anjaria

ANTH 203b Contemporary Anthropological Theory
Recommended prerequisite: ANTH 201a.
Intensive survey of the major theoretical trends in contemporary anthropology. Examination of comparative, semiotic, materialist, Marxist, feminist, poststructuralist, post-colonial and phenomenological approaches, as well as core concepts: culture, social change, practice, agency, structure, power, modernity and the global. Usually offered every second year.
Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 204a Advanced Seminar in Archaeological Theory
Open to advanced undergraduates with permission of the instructor.
Explores archaeological theoretical approaches to interpreting material culture and human behavior in the past. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Golden

ANTH 211a Anthropology of the Military and Policing
Explores cultural dimensions of military and policing organizations, including institutional, embodied, linguistic, and ritualistic instantiations of military and policing ideologies. Topics include experiences of military and police service, social and cultural dynamics in military and policing organizations, gender and LGBTQ issues, and the Human Terrain Team controversy. Usually offered every third year.
Janet McIntosh

ANTH 213a Advanced Topics in Medical Anthropology
Examines recent theoretical debates and disciplinary conversations in medical anthropology. Topics include the cultural authority and construction of medical knowledge; biopolitics; citizenship, and sovereignty; the ontological turn; and birth and death. Students will develop their own research projects. Usually offered every third year.
Anita Hannig

ANTH 218a Readings and Research in Anthropology
Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 219b Readings and Research in Anthropology
Jonathan Anjaria

ANTH 220a Readings and Research in Anthropology
Charles Golden

ANTH 221a Readings and Research in Anthropology
Anita Hannig

ANTH 222a Readings and Research in Anthropology
Sarah Lamb

ANTH 223a Readings and Research in Anthropology
Janet McIntosh

ANTH 224b Readings and Research in Anthropology
Pascal Menoret

ANTH 225b Readings and Research in Anthropology
Ellen Schattschneider

ANTH 226b Readings and Research in Anthropology
Javier Urcid

ANTH 227a Readings and Research in Anthropology
Keridwen Luis

ANTH 239a "Burning Questions:" The Work of Michel-Rolph Trouillot
Explores the anthropology and theory of the Caribbean, political economy, and history, power and epistemology through the work of acclaimed anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot and those whom he influenced. Usually offered every second year.
Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 244a Gender and Sexuality Seminar
Examines gender constructs, sexuality, and cultural systems from a comparative perspective, and major theoretical trends in feminist and queer anthropology. Usually offered every year.
Sarah Lamb

ANTH 297a Internship
Staff

ANTH 300a Directed Research for MA Students: Master’s Paper
Does not count toward 8 course requirement for degree.
Semester-long research project culminating in a Master’s paper. Students select a specific research topic in consultation with the adviser. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

ANTH 305d Anthropology Colloquium
Staff

ANTH 340a Anthropology Graduate Proseminar
Normally required of PhD and MA students during the coursework phase. Offered on a credit/no-credit grading basis. Does not count toward anthropology graduate degree course requirements.
A seminar that meets weekly. Focuses on professional development and presentations of new research by invited scholars, faculty and students. Offered every year.
Jonathan Anjaria

ANTH 398a Pre-Dissertation Research
Specific sections for individual faculty member as requested. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

ANTH 400d Dissertation Research
Specific sections for individual faculty member as requested. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

Cross-Listed in Anthropology

CLAS 133a The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Greece
[ ca hum ]
Surveys the main forms and styles of Greek art and architecture from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period in mainland Greece and on the islands of the Aegean. Archaeological remains and ancient literary evidence help explore the relationships between culture, the visual arts, and society. Usually offered every second year.
Ann O. Koloski-Ostrow or Staff

CLAS 134b The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Rome
[ ca hum ]
Surveys the art and architecture of the ancient Romans from the eighth century BCE to the end of the empire in Sicily, mainland Italy (with focus on Rome, Ostia, Pompeii, and Herculaneum), and in the Roman provinces. Usually offered every second year.
Ann O. Koloski-Ostrow or Staff

ENG 111b Postcolonial Theory
[ hum ]
Introduces students to key concepts in postcolonial theory. Traces the consequences of European colonialism for politics, culture and literature around the world, situates these within ongoing contemporary debates, and considers the usefulness of postcolonial theory for understanding the world today. Usually offered every third year.
Ulka Anjaria