19217

ANTH 101 A Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Megan Callaghan

. T . Th .

9:00 -10:20 am

OLIN 205

SSCI / DIFF

Related interest: GISP; Gender and Sexuality Studies, Human Rights During the past few decades, ‘culture’ has suddenly become pervasive in popular discourses, with phrases such as ‘internet,’ ‘fetish,’ and ‘corporate cultures’ automatically conjuring certain sets of images and assumptions. This course explores the intellectual angles through which anthropologists have engaged culture as a central, and yet often elusive concept in understanding how societies work. The analysis of culture has undergone many transformations over the past century, from arguing for the existence of integrated systems of thought and practice among so-called ‘primitives’, to scrutinizing the cultural values of colonial subjects, to attempting to decipher the anatomy of enemy minds during World War II. In recent years, anthropology has become more self-reflexive, questioning the discipline’s authority to represent other societies, and critiquing its participation in the creation of exoticized others. Thus, with our ethnographic gaze turned inward as well as outward, we will combine discussions, lectures, and films to reflect upon the construction of social identity, power, and difference in a world where cultures are undergoing rapid reification. Specific topics we will examine include the transformative roles of ritual and symbol; witchcraft and sorcery in historical and contemporary contexts; cultural constructions of gender and sexuality; and nationalism and the making of majorities/minorities in post-colonial states.

19219

ANTH 101 B Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Omri Elisha

M . W . .

1:30 pm -2:50 pm

OLIN 204

SSCI / DIFF

See above.

19546

ES 101 Introduction to Environmental Studies

Yuka Suzuki

. T . Th .

1:00 pm-2:20 pm

OLIN 204

SSCI

See Environmental Studies section for description.

19545

HIST 179 People and Power in Colonial And Contemporary Mexico

Annette Richie

. T . Th .

2:30 pm -3:50 pm

OLIN 301

HIST

See History section for description.

19215

ANTH 208A History of Anthropology: How the Victorians put the “Others” in their Place

Mario Bick

M . W . .

9:00 -10:20 am

OLIN 305

HUM / DIFF

Cross-listed: Africana Studies, Victorian Studies Confronted by their sudden control of much of the world, Europeans and Americans in the nineteenth century sought to both know and understand the subordinated and exotic "other." Anthropology developed in the nineteenth century primarily to provide such an understanding. This course will explore how the Victorians sought to know the "other" through ethnographic, missionary, government and travel encounters, through the science of race, through the objects of archaeology and museum collections, and through photography. How the "other" was then related to the Europeans will be examined within the framework of evolutionary and diffusionary theories. Not available for on-line registration.

19221

ANTH 212 Historical Archaeology

Christopher Lindner

M . W . .

1:30 pm -2:50 pm

OLIN 304

SSCI

Cross-listed: American Studies. Environmental Studies, History Field trips on campus and in neighboring towns provide first-hand contact with diverse groups who left their vestiges here: Native Americans, African-Americans, German, and British settlers. The class will work with their artifacts in the lab and visit excavations after reading background material on their history, culture, and archaeological interpretation. Limited to 12, by permission of instructor. *Note that  every 3rd Wednesday, class will run from 1:30 to 5:30 with the Monday  before or after class not meeting. Contact Prof. Lindner prior to on-line registration. On-line

19216

ANTH 213 Anthropology of Medicine

Diana Brown

M . W . .

1:30 pm -2:50 pm

OLIN 203

SSCI

Cross-listed: Gender Studies; GISP; Human Rights; Science, Technology & Society From an ethnomedical perspective, all notions of health and illness and forms of treatment are taken as socioculturally constructed, embedded within global systems of knowledge and power and hierarchies of gender, class and race. This course will explore medical knowledge and practice in a variety of healing systems including that of western biomedicine, focusing on the human body as the site where illness is experienced, and upon which social meanings and political actions are inscribed. We will be concerned with how political economic systems, and the inequalities they engender--poverty, violence, discrimination--affect human well-being. Readings and films will represent different ethnographic perspectives on embodied experiences of illness and bodily imagery and treatment within widely differing sociopolitical systems. Topics will include biomedical constructs and body imagery, non-biomedical illnesses and healing systems including those in contemporary American society, the shaping of epidemic diseases such as malaria, TB and AIDS, colonial and post-colonial constructions of diseased bodies, cosmetic medical interventions, and new medical technologies. Not available for on-line registration.

19597

HR / ANTH 233 Problems in Human Rights

John Ryle

M . W . .

12:00 – 1:20 pm

ASP 302

SSCI

See Human Rights section for description.

19220

ANTH 238 The Sacred, the Uncanny, and the Divine: The Anthropology of Religion

Omri Elisha

M . W . .

3:00 -4:20 am

HEG 106

SSCI

Cross-listed: Religion The course surveys anthropological studies of religious cultures and ritual traditions in modern societies. The first part of the semester focuses on classic anthropological and social theories on religion, followed by a range of ethnographic case studies highlighting the consequences of religiosity – and the category of “religion” altogether – in the lives of real communities that conceive of the sacred in relation to the uncanny and/or the divine. Strong emphasis is placed on the dynamics of religion and ritual in relation to “secular” realms such as politics, economy, popular culture, sexuality, and the new media technology. Topics include Islamic revivalism in the Middle East, Haitian Vodou festivals, Appalachian snake-handling churches, African witchcraft and possession rituals, and Hindu asceticism. This course is meant to provide students with necessary skills to analyze religious practices from ethnographic as well as comparative perspectives.

19214

ANTH 265 Race & Nature in Africa

Yuka Suzuki

. T . Th .

10:30am –11:50 am

OLIN 303

SSCI

Cross-listed: Africana Studies, Environmental Studies, Global & Int’l Studies, Human Rights Western fantasies have historically represented Africa as the embodiment of a mythical, primordial wilderness. Within this evocative imagery, nature is racialized, and Africans are constructed as existing in a state closer to nature. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness perhaps best exemplifies this process, through its exploration of the ‘savage’ dimensions of colonialism in the African interior. Imperial discourses often relied on these tropes of savagery and barbarism to link understandings of natural history with ideas about racial difference. Similarly, by blurring the boundary between the human and the nonhuman, colonial policies created a zone of anxiety around racialized domestic relationships, particularly in the context of employers and their servants. Many of these representations were contradictory, as evidenced by Rousseau’s image of the noble savage: indigenous people who lived as gentle custodians of the environment, while at the same time preying upon the resources desired for exclusive colonial use. After investigating the racialization of nature under imperial regimes, we will consider the continuing legacies in post-colonial situations. How have certain ethnic identities, for example, been linked to nature? How do these associations reproduce social hierarchies and inequalities? In what ways is race invoked in struggles for land and resource rights? Through an exploration of ethnographic accounts, historical analyses, and works of fiction based in Africa, this course offers a new way of deciphering cultural representations of nature, and the fundamentally political agendas that lie within.

19556

ANTH 266 Anthropology of Youth and Youth Politics

Jeff Jurgens

M. W . .

12:00 -1:20pm

SSCI

(PIE Core Course) Since the eighteenth century, childhood and youth have often been understood as times of happiness, innocence, and closeness to nature distinct from adulthood. At the same time, many writers, activists, and policymakers have witnessed young people in conditions of violence, toil, and poverty, and they have spoken of “children at risk” or even “children without childhood.” How can we make sense of these portrayals of young people’s lives? Do the worries about “children without childhood” offer a picture contrary to the romantic view of youth, or do they instead subscribe to it? How did ideas about a separate and happy childhood become so prevalent in the first place, and how do they compare with young people’s actual experiences? Finally, how are recent changes in young people’s lives related to larger cultural transformations and persistent structures of inequality? This course will address these and other questions through an examination of young people’s experiences in a variety of historical and geographic contexts, although we will focus to some degree on the contemporary U.S. and the Middle East. In addition, the class will include a small-scale ethnographic project that will allow students to conduct fieldwork on some aspect of youth cultural production on or near the Bard campus. Throughout the course, a key point of emphasis will be that young people are not merely the passive recipients of tradition, but resourceful social actors who help to re-create ways of acting, thinking, and feeling. At the same time, they are not merely the targets of policy, but actively contribute, sometimes in unexpected ways, to social and political change.

19604

ANTH 268 War, Culture, Politics and Religion in Sudan

John Ryle

M. W . .

4:30 pm –5:50 pm

OLIN 202

SSCI

Cross-listed: Africana Studies, Human Rights Africa's largest and most diverse country embodies many of the challenges that confront the continent as a whole. These include civil war, mass killing, recurrent famine, radical Islam, oil politics and indigenous cultural destruction. This course examines the current political and humanitarian crisis in Sudan from the perspectives of history, geography, anthropology and political economy. It looks at the natural environment of the region, at its wealth of indigenous languages and ways of life and at the history of Sudanese state formation from ancient times to the present day. How did this vast and culturally diverse country come to be? What was Sudan's experience of Egyptian, Turkish and British imperialism?  In the post-colonial period what has been the role of Sudan’s neighbours and of the western powers?  And what has been the effect of the rise of political Islam?  What enduring patterns can we see in Sudanese history? What is the role of ethnic identity in Sudanese life?  And what does it mean to be Sudanese today?  Particular attention will be given to Sudan's civil wars in Darfur and in Southern Sudan. Are these most usefully understood as resource conflicts, as the consequence of unequal economic development, or as the result of cultural and religious difference? Is oil exploitation a help or hindrance?  Do Sudan's recurrent conflicts mean that the country is destined to break up into more than one political entity, as other countries in the region have already done (Somalia and Ethiopia)?  The course will use historical texts, contemporary reportage, ethnographic monographs, documentary video, and music and literature from Sudan to develop an understanding of the complexities of the country and its borderlands. This course is open to sophomores and upper-college students only.

19222

ANTH 283 Anthropologies of Diaspora

Laura Kunreuther

. T . Th .

1:00 pm -2:20 pm

OLIN 203

HUM

Cross-listed: Asian Studies With the increased dispersion of peoples around the globe, ‘the diaspora’ has become an important concept to think through changing ideas about nationalism and global citizenship. People have been traveling around the world for centuries, so what distinguishes a ‘diaspora’ from any other immigrant or migrant group? How are the modes of belonging within diaspora communities similar to or different from other forms of identity? This course begins with the premise that the perception of being part of a diaspora is currently enabled by new communication technologies (telephone, internet, radio, email, newspapers) that purport to connect national/ethnic communities dispersed around the globe. In the first part of the course, we will examine some of the prevailing theories of diaspora, with the aim of relating them to theories of nationalism and identity. In the second part of the course, we will move beyond the question of identity and discuss the various media that create affective and political relations across borders. In the final portion of the course, we will read several ethnographies of diaspora communities, as we seek to reveal the links between diaspora, culture, and media. Ethnographies will focus on South Asian diasporas, including Sikhs in North America, Pakistanis in London, Indians in Fiji, Tibetans in India and Nepal.

19223

ANTH 332 Cultural Technologies of Memory

Laura Kunreuther

M . . . .

4:00 pm -6:20 pm

OLIN 308

SSCI

Cross-listed: Human Rights This course is organized around several practices and technologies that produce collective and personal memory. The class will explore a distinction commonly made between 'memory' and 'history', asking on what basis this distinction is made and how it maps on to our ideas about foreign places and people. The techniques and technologies of public memory we will examine may include ancient "memory palaces," historical writing, oral narrative, ritual, myth, monuments, museums and archives. We will also explore how radio and photography are used to produce national and familial representations of the past. The focus in each section will be on how the particular medium of remembering shapes the content of what is remembered. We will address who has access to memory practices, stressing the link between the production of particular memories and their political uses. The class will give students a theoretical base to write a final research paper that situates a contemporary memory practice in its specific cultural and historical context: the recent proliferation of family genealogies, Holocaust testimonies and/or museums, the truth commissions, local histories are among a few possible examples.

19218

ANTH 370 Anthropology of Time and Space

Megan Callaghan

. . . . F

9:30 -11:50 am

OLIN 305

SSCI

This course begins by considering the extent to which time and space are cultural constructions that vary within and across social groups. As we challenge understandings of these concepts as natural or inevitable, we will also explore different possibilities for measuring, representing, and creating meaning in relation to them. Time and space are so fundamental that we are often unaware of the ways they are embedded in our lives. Yet on a daily basis they reflect and reinforce interpersonal and institutional relations of power. This course therefore also investigates spatio-temporal dynamics and strategies as elements of social hierarchy. In addition, it examines time and space as organizing concepts with which to understand the world. For example, why is it problematic to study a contemporary society as if it represented another society’s past? What are the implications of dividing the world spatially into categories such as East and West or core and periphery? Finally, we will consider how political economy structures experiences of time and space. This includes temporal disciplines of commodity production, state seizure of “private” time under socialism, and descriptions of time-space compression in late capitalism. This course is open to Upper College students. Students moderating during the semester will also be considered.