Introduction to Cultural Anthropology   (Anth 140)

An introduction to central concepts, methods, and findings in cultural anthropology, including culture, cultural difference, cultural hegemony and resistance, the interpretation of culture, and participant-observation. The course uses cross-cultural comparison to question scholarly and commonsense understandings of human nature. Topics vary to include sexuality, kinship, political and economic systems, myth, ritual and cosmology, and culturally varied ways of constructing race, gender, and ethnicity. Students undertake small research projects and explore different styles of ethnographic writing.

Anthropological Theory   (Anth 201)

The aim of this course is to provide a broad overview of anthropological theory from its origins in the Enlightenment to the present day, and to explore the ways in which theory is integrally related to method and modes of ethnographic representation.

Anthropological Approaches to Myth, Ritual and Symbol   (Anth 272)

What is the place of myth, ritual, and symbol in human social life? Do symbols reflect reality, or create it? This course considers answers to these questions in social theory (Marx, Freud, and Durkheim) and in major anthropological apporaches (functionalism, structuralism, and symbolic anthropology). It then reviews current debates in interpretive anthropolgy about order and change, power and resistance, and the role of ritual in the making of history. Ethnographic studies include Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, 16th century Italy, the Seneca Nation, and the U.S.

The Pacific   (Anth 240)

An introduction to the cultures and histories of peoples of the Pacific, and to important anthropological issues that have resulted from research in the Pacific. Using historical and ethnographic documents and films, the course explores the vareity of Pacific societies, from the chiefly kingdoms of Polynesia to the egalitarian societies of Papua New Guinea. The course analyzes the European cultural fascination with the "exotic" Pacific as well as Pacific islanders' own visions and versions of their history and goals in the encounter with European colonialism and Christianity, and in the post-colonial present.

Ethnography of India   (Anth 240)

This course introduces the cultural diversity and complex history of India. The focus is on kinship, gender and family life, examined in the context of colonial and post-colonial transformations, and rural, urban and overseas dynamics. Using texts and films focused on individuals, families and kin groups, the course also engages such topics as hierarchy and caste, religion and ritual, subaltern perspectives and Diaspora.

Culture, Power and History   (Anth 270)

This course examines the turn to historical questions in current anthropology. What are the implications of cultural difference for an understanding of history, and of history for an understaning of culture? Recent works which propose new ways of thinking about Western and non-Western peoples and the power to make history read. Theoretical positions include structure and history, world system, hegemony and resistance, and discourse approaches. Historical/ethnographic situations range from New Guinea cargo cults to the English Industrial Revolution, from the history of sugar as a commodity to the colonizing of Egypt, from debates about the sexuality of women and Hindu gods in Fiji to the role of spirit mediums in the struggle for Zimbabwe.

Asian Diasporas   (Anth 366)

Focusing on Asian diasporas, this course engages the current surge of diaspora studies from both anthropological and geographical perspectives. Attention is given to issues of colonial and post-colonial struggles, formation and transformation of ethnic identities, roles of middlemen minorities, and nationalism and transnationalism of Asian diasporas. The principal cases are drawn from East Asian and South Asian communities in Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the U.S.       Co-Taught by Professor Yu Zhou, Geography.

Colonial and Post-Colonial Societies   (Anth 366)

This course examines anthropology's contribution to the study of colonial and post-colonial societies. Beginning with critiques of the discipline's neglect of the colonial encounter, the course then examines anthroplogy's increasingly attentive analysis of colonialism and the response on non-Western peoples to the colonial experience. This course reviews important current analytic paradigms and critiques from world-systems to discourse, and then focuses on culturally and historically particular cases drawn from South Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas.

Imagining Asia   (Anth 366)

Does the "Orient" exist? On the other hand, does "the West" exist? This course explores Western scholarly images of Asia. It also traces the impact of Asian ideas and institutions on the West. Each time offered, the seminar has at least three foci, on topics such as: Asia and capitalism, Asia and the concept of culture, Asia and feminism, Asia and knowledge, Asia and Marxism.