11 courses with the subject ANTH GU, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
ANTH GU4078MATERIALITY AND SEMIOTICS3.00
As archaeologists we deal with the material traces left by the practices and actions of past people; we use these traces to evoke feelings, make propositions, and create narratives about the past and present. We can only know past practices through the signs we perceive inhering in the material evidence before us, and as such we need a rigorous understanding of semiotics, specifically as it plays out in relation to material culture. This extends to an understanding of the interplay of presence and absence, the relationship between linguistic and material sign, and questions of object agency. This class will consider the different ways in which people construct meaning from material remains, whether directly or indirectly experienced. We will explore how experience is mediated through objects, and the constitution of knowledge and thought in relation to the object world. In this iteration of the class we will focus especially on forensic evidence
This course examines the politics and practices of collective accusation in comparative perspective. It treats these phenomena in their relation to processes of political and economic transition, to discourses of crisis, and to the practices of rule by which the idea of exception is made the grounds for extreme claims on and for the social body-usually, but not exclusively, enacted through forms of expulsion. We will consider the various theoretical perspectives through which forms of collective accusation have been addressed, focusing on psychoanalytic, structural functional, and poststructuralist readings. In doing so, we will also investigate the difference and possible continuities between the forms and logics of accusation that operate in totalitarian as well as liberal regimes. Course readings will include both literary and critical texts
Recommended for archaeology and physical anthropology students, pre-meds, and biology majors interested in the human skeletal system. Intensive study of human skeletal materials using anatomical and anthropological landmarks to assess sex, age, and ethnicity of bones. Other primate skeletal materials and fossil casts used for comparative study
ANTH GU4170Anthropology’s Clock: Time, Tense, Temporality3.00
What tools does anthropology acquire to examine questions about time, and whose time do anthropologists often study? In this course, we will read ethnographic work spanning different moments in the history of the discipline of Anthropology in which the problem of writing about time, and particularly the time of others, is posed. By understanding key concepts through which anthropologists have captured the richness of temporal experiences, we will explore the magic and elusiveness of time in the life of people and cultures, all while telling a particular story about anthropology’s own experience with time. In our weekly readings, we will bring together ethnography and theory, complemented by materials such as short films and novel excerpts. Each week will attend to a specific temporal phenomenon, which will help us further explore the relationship between time, ethnography, and critique. Throughout the semester, we will also engage in a series of “fieldnote-taking” exercises. These short entries will serve as a way to connect the readings on the syllabus with your own attempts to write about time and will contribute to the development of your midterm paper and form the foundation of your final paper
In the face of “post-liberal” political realignments, particular varieties of Christian conservatism and reactionism have ascended as consequential forces in and beyond the United States. This seminar interrogates these realignments through practices of conversion, coalition-making, and the kinds of belongings, extensions, departures, and excisions such practices make thinkable and tangible. We will focus on inter-denominational and intra-Christian dynamics particularly within the United States to ask questions about the contradictions, costs, and potentials of such new or newly energized Christian movements. Our interdisciplinary readings draw from political theory, public theology, and anthropological and historical studies. This course emerges from ongoing discussions among two anthropologists; in the spirit of modeling collaboration, students of the in-person seminar will have the opportunity for remote engagement with counterparts elsewhere
Classical anthropological theory placed the muted sister at its core, in a theory of kinship originating in the traffic of women among men. Political theory placed the invisible sister at its core by coding democracy as fraternity. Psychoanalytic theory placed the forbidden sister at its core with the theory of incest taboo. Tragic theory placed the self-effacing sister at its core in the Sophoclean figures of Antigone and Ismene. Popular (Hollywood) cinematic production placed the absent sister at its core, with its relentless circulation of narratives in which a ‘band of brothers’ finds its moral purpose in the rescue of someone else’s sister. And yet, and within these traditions, the sister arose in the interstices as a phantasmatic figure of extraterritorial and insurrectionary possibility. If feminisms have, on occasion, attempted to both mobilize and contain this possibility in a discourse of sisterhood, much more remains to be thought. This course explores the figure of the sister in its muted, invisible, forbidden, self-effacing and absented forms—and moves to consider the radical possibilities that emerged therefrom in Social and Political Theory, Literary Fiction, Drama and Cinema
Using The Neanderthals partly as a metaphorical device, this course considers the anthropological, philosophical and ethical implications of sharing the world with another human species. Beginning from a solid grounding in the archaeological, biological and genetic evidence, we will reflect critically on why Neanderthals are rarely afforded the same reflexive capacities, qualities and attributes - agency- as anatomically modern humans, and why they are often regarded as lesser or nonhuman animals despite clear evidence for both sophisticated material and social engagement with the world and its resources. Readings/materials are drawn from anthropology, philosophy, ethics, gender studies, race and genetics studies, literature and film
This iteration of Lab Techniques in Archaeology will focus on archaeobotanical analysis. We will learn about the recovery and analysis of pollen, starch, phytolith and macrobotanical materials. Students will each work with an assemblage of macrobotanical remains from highland Madagascar and will learn about sampling for plant remains, creating a reference collection, seed and charcoal identification, and analytical techniques. The class has mandatory lab hours (to be arranged) when students will be expected to work on their projects. The course is designed primarily for students in the archaeology major or minor, but is open to other undergraduate and graduate students, with permission. Students are not expected to have prior experience in the lab
ANTH GU4535FEMINIST AND DECOLONIAL STUDIES IN LATIN AMERICA4.00
This course introduces feminist and decolonial studies as an exciting and interdisciplinary field that helps us better understand power, inequality, and social change. It offers a foundation in key feminist and decolonial ideas while inviting students to connect theory with real-world struggles and movements. In the first part of the course, we will learn concepts and explore major debates in feminist and decolonial thought. In the second half, we will look at feminism not only as a set of ideas, but also as a diverse and dynamic social movement that has shaped political struggles, cultural representation, and historical change. Together, we will ask important questions such as: Is gender shaped by colonial histories? What does intersectionality help us see about inequality? How can research and political action be guided by feminist and decolonial perspectives? What can we learn from Indigenous feminisms, community feminisms, and other transformative ways of thinking? Throughout the course, we will engage with the work of activists, scholars, and artists—especially Indigenous, Afro-descendant, LGBTQ , and land and water defenders—whose ideas are reshaping feminist studies today. We will also explore how feminist and decolonial perspectives help us understand the current planetary crisis and imagine more just and sustainable ways of relating to each other and to the environment. Class Note: Indigenous ＆ Black women, feminist ＆ queer authors
ANTH GU4653Art beyond Aesthetics: Decolonizing approaches to representation4.00
This course is a combination of lectures, seminar participation, and group practicums which probes the possibility of a decolonial art research practice. This course introduces students to western approaches to politics and art through a sustained engagement with critical Indigenous and anticolonial theories of human relations to the more-than-human world. It is a mixture of lectures, class discussion, and individual practicums which lead to final projects that combine image and text
