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Course Criteria
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3.00 Credits
A survey of prehistoric cultures of South America. Concentrates on (1) the initial entry and spread of human populations into South America and the West Indies, (2) origins of tropical and highland agriculture, (3) the rise of urbanism, civilization, and the state in the Andes, and (4) the impact of prehistoric cultures on the environment. Mode: Lecture/Seminar.
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3.00 Credits
This course places Pompeii in its Mediterranean Old World Setting and then creates a discourse with its rich material evidence. Pompeii’s intimate presentation of ancient Roman urban life, its rich array of material culture, its iconic place in world archaeology, and its spectacularly preserved archaeological record is discussed from the anthropological perspectives of gender, race, status, and social change. Students are confronted with its religious, economic, and social life as revealed by its holistic context. Finally Pompeii’s continual influence on our own society is explored and discussed.
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3.00 Credits
This course surveys the cultural development of native peoples from the time of the initial colonization of North America to the historic period and the arrival of European explorers and settlers. Coverage is organized by cultural/geographic regions, or areas, and chronological periods. Common and contrasting themes in cultural development are stressed. The course develops an appreciation of: the debates and data surrounding the initial colonization of North America; the cultural diversity and complexity evident in Native American cultures across space and through time; the interaction of Native cultures with different and changing environments, and the impact that each had on the other; the range of environmental, social, and cultural issues capable of being addressed with archaeological data. Mode: Lecture/Seminar.
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3.00 Credits
Ancient Mesoamerica is a general survey of the pre-Columbian cultures of Mexico and Middle America before the Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire in A.D. 1521. In this course we will examine the long history of Mesoamerica beginning with the first peopling of the Americas at least 15,000 years ago and ending with the Spanish Conquest and the creation of “Latin America”.
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3.00 Credits
The course explores popular culture in Italy, starting from the Italian historical awareness of popular culture that emerged in the 19th century foundation of the nation up to the present day. The course focuses especially on popular culture in the 20th century using a variety of approaches, from lectures to readings, from the screening of video material to the study of audio recordings. By the end of the course, students will have attained a significant understanding of the variety of popular culture in modern Italy and will have mastered an analytical framework for understanding these phenomena. The course carries up to contemporary times with an exploration of the impact global trends have had on popular culture, making particular reference to contemporary popular music.
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3.00 Credits
An anthropological approach to systems of visual communication that are central to understanding Japanese society and culture. Visual sign systems of everyday life such as writing, food, and clothes plus visual aspects of popular culture such as comic books and ads. Ethnographic films, feature films, and network RV programs plus field trips to Japanese cultural sites in Philadelphia. Mode: Seminar.
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3.00 Credits
This course conceptualizes law from an anthropological perspective. The class acquaints students with key concepts in the anthropology of law and develops an introduction to theories that continue to guide the anthropological approach to formal and informal dispute processes. We will learn what qualitative research methods can reveal about why and when people do or do not conform to law. In lectures, readings, and films, we will explore the critical and complex relationship between law and culture. The course provides students with examples of field research in a variety of legal, illegal, and extralegal arenas in our own and in other societies. It is informed by the instructor’s research and fieldwork in the anthropology of law. Topics, conceptual approaches, and regional specialization will vary. Please contact the instructor for additional information.
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3.00 Credits
This course may serve as a starting point for undergraduate majors in Visual Anthropology. We will question the idea that American culture is best characterized as a variety of many immigrant cultures; specific institutions have produced a shared conception of the American Dream and how fault lines based on race, ethnicity, gender, and generation have come to be “made in America.” Emphasis will be given to the contrast between the ways in which American popular culture is represented through media and the way in which ethnographic studies present insights into the ways in which Americans live. Special emphasis will be given to the ways in which fault lines between groups have been socially and culturally constructed and transcended over time and the role that overarching institutions like schools, public policies and media representations play in producing both the diversity and homogeneity of American culture.Note:
Course is appropriate for students in American Studies, Media Studies, Sociology and Education. Mode: Seminar.
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3.00 Credits
Starting in 1492, Native American isolation from Europe and Africa ended in the region of the Americas that became Latin America. Despite five hundred years of colonial and nation-state domination, indigenous peoples in Latin America continue to assert their basic human right to resist cultural hegemony. Not only have indigenous populations survived, they are also growing. Today they constitute a majority in Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Peru and a substantial plurality in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. The focus here is on this remarkable struggle for physical and cultural survival. Attention will be given to the lived experiences of people struggling for human dignity on the lowest strata of regional class structures. Issues of land rights, environmental, health, political, and economic self-determination will be examined. Mode: Seminar.
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3.00 Credits
Shaped by conquest and colonial transnational desires, first of sugar and then of tourism, the Caribbean has been wrought since its very inception by the displacement of people, goods and ideas from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, presenting a challenge for the anthropological study of socio-cultural change through time and space. In this introductory course on the Caribbean we will critically examine “creolization” processes at social, religious, political, economic, and artistic levels as they were driven by various groups, from pirates, privateers, maroons, exiles, to tourists, in the context of colonialism, nation building, and globalization. Examining specific sites such as music, display events, folklore, and religion we will ponder about, for instance, the effects of European revolutions on the creation of elites in the Caribbean, and the impact of slave cultures and peasantries on the formation of creole religions. How has the image of the sensuous/threatening mulatta evolved since the plantation? On what kind of histories and emotions do “zombies” feed upon? Why did Reggae and Merenge succeed on the global stage? How does the display of national icons in Trinidadian carnival reflect on their socio-political conflicts? How is the colonial past re-packaged for global consumption? Mode: Seminar with short lectures, class presentations, video screenings and class discussions.
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