M-F Daily 10:00 - 11:20 a.m. Max: 35 Demian
Content: The
ethno-geographic region of Melanesia, comprising New Guinea and neighboring
islands in the southwestern Pacific, has long attracted anthropologists to
the diversity of its peoples and the complexity of their social lives. From
classic studies of kinship and "cargo cults" to more recent work
on the colonial encounter and gendered relations, Melanesian ethnography has
perennially challenged anthropologists' assumptions about relations between
persons, between "tradition" and "modernity," and between
the global and the local. In this class we will aim for a fine-grained exploration
of the implications of Melanesian ethnography in both written and filmed media.
The continuing magnetism of Melanesia for anthropologists in search of unique
forms of sociality, and for tourists in search of "the last primitive," will
also be a topic of investigation. Contemporary life in Melanesia, in its familiar
and not-so-familiar configurations, offers a glimpse into the endeavors of
people famed for their economic innovations to engage with a connected-up world
on their own terms.
M-F Daily 1:00-2:20 p.m. Max: 35 Singer
Content: The concept of "culture" has become overwhelmingly popular
in recent years, but in the process has become reduced to a mode of explanation
for behavior. This class represents an introduction to anthropological studies
of culture, taken here as a system of knowledge and meanings through which
the social life of a people is rendered. We will cover some of the primary
areas of anthropological inquiry, shifts in theoretical orientation during
the history of the discipline, and the practices, methodologies and ethical
concerns of anthropologists themselves. The "backbone" of the course
will be a fine-grained study of ethnographic material from three very different
societies. These will provide concretization of the theoretical issues raised,
an illustration of changing approaches to anthropological writing over the
past sixty years, and an opportunity for interrogation of the decisions made
by anthropologists, both implicit and explicit, in their representations of
culture.
Content: This course is an introduction to the field of Medical Anthropology. It examines the interaction of culture and biology as it affects health and medical systems. Medical Anthropology provides a perspective on health, medical systems, disease, and culture. That perspective emphasizes six things: 1) cross‑cultural comparisons; 2) the notion of adaptation in biocultural evolution; 3) the understanding and appreciation of "exotic" ethnomedical systems; 4) a critical cultural analysis of Biomedicine; 5) understanding issues of stigma, disability and the social process of health and illness; and 6) the application of the concept of culture to practical problems in health delivery in a multicultural society. This course fulfills both the seminar and writing intensive general education requirements.
Texts:(list may be modified or excerpted)
Particulars: Class participation, blackboard participation, midterm and final exams, reaction papers, experiential learning assignment, one major paper.