This internal catalog is updated regularly. Continue to check the Department bulletin board outside 232 Kroeber for changes (in Bold highlights). For independent study courses, graduate students get CCNs from the Graduate Office; and all undergraduates should fill out and return a signed application with the Undergraduate Office (209 Kroeber) to obtain the CCN.
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This course deals with the historical and comparative bio-anthropology of humans, looking at humans as members of the animal kingdom, focusing on attributes shared with our primate relatives and the origins of uniquely human attributes. We will examine modern evolutionary theory and those specific mechanisms that produce change to help understand the processes and course of our history. We will investigate the interrelations of biology, behavior, and culture as these shape our lives.
There will be three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion section per week.
Prerequisites: None.
Requirements: There will be two midterm examinations, one five page paper, and a final. All will be weighted equally. There will be a cumulative makeup exam at the end of the semester for students who missed either exam. Be certain you do not have a conflict with either the course lecture times or the final examination period (exam group #2). Participation in the discussion section is mandatory because the material presented there is important and may not be covered in lecture or readings.
Required texts: The Human Species,Relethford, 3rd ed. and a course reader at Copy Central.
An introduction to the methods, goals, and theoretical concepts of archaeology. The course outlines how archaeologists make interpretations using the cultural materials of past human societies. Topics include the history of archaeology; developing a research design; field methods; laboratory analyses; chronology; and reconstructing past economic and social organizations. Examples of survey, excavation and analytical techniques will be presented as part of the class.
Prerequisites: None.
This course provides an introduction to major currents in social and cultural anthropology. It considers the history of anthropological research and methodology as well as a variety of approaches to the field, such as interpretive, symbolic, psychological, economic, political, and linguistic perspectives. Some of the topics singled out for special treatment in the course include ethnic and gendered identities, ritual and religion, and the cultural meaning of food and drink.
The course will include lectures based on the research areas of Professors Brandes (Mesoamerica and Europe) and Ferme (West Africa), as well as occasional visiting lecturers, and approximately six films. Students will also participate in discussion sections.
Requirements:
Grades will be based on a midterm, a final, and--tentatively--several
short exercises based on anthropological-style fieldwork.
Possible texts:
The Whiteman;
Philippe
Bourgois, In Search of Respect;
Mattthew Gutman, The Meanings of Macho;
Marvin Harris,
The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig,
as well as a collection of anthropological essays.
(Readings subject to revision).
This course will provide an opportunity for interested students to read poetry, mythology, and history written in native languages by Maya and Aztec authors in the sixteenth-century. Using the Roman alphabet introduced by the Spanish, Maya and Aztec scribes recorded their own rich oral tradition of spoken poetry, and created new compositions that integrated native texts and oral literature. While some of these texts were recorded for Spanish administrators and missionaries, much was written for indigenous audiences. We will draw on the many excellent modern translations to explore the poetics and literary imagination of the first few generations of Maya and Aztec people living under the new colonial regime.
Required texts:
Available in paperback, will be Dennis
Tedlock's edition of the Quiche Maya Popul Vuh,
Miguel
Leon-Portilla's Fifteen Aztec Poets,
and the work of
at least one sixteenth-century Aztec woman.
Zoos are not about animals but about people. They are among the oldest and most pervasive of human institutions. The ancient Egyptians had them, so did Moctezuma. In the United States, more people go to zoos every year than go to all paid sporting events. Yet their human dimensions have been very little studied.
Topics we might chose from include: Anthropocentrism, animal symbolism, zoos and history, the power and politics of zoos, studying zoos cross-culturally, zoos as urban phenomena, zoos as theater, zoos and socialization, display versus conservation, and the question of whether to have zoos. Students will be asked to do field work in the Oakland and San Francisco zoos. Flexible format, no exam, but there will be reports on your findings.
Burton Benedict (A.B. Harvard, Ph.D. London) is professor emeritus of anthropology and director emeritus of the Hearst Museum of Anthropology. He has done fieldwork in Boston, London, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Malawi. Since his retirement, he has been working as a volunteer at both the Oakland and London zoos.
This course is Instructor Approval Only. In order to apply for admittance to the class, you must come to the first lecture. NO EXCEPTIONS. Selection will be made at that time. Cross listed as IB C142. Students taking this course for the Anthro major must enroll in Anthro.
An extraordinarily difficult, demanding, intensive, and rigorous introduction to the human skeleton. Identification of all elements of the human skeleton will be stressed. Aging, sexing, individuation, stature, reconstruction, demography from skeletal samples will be introduced. Paleopathological diagnosis, skeletal reconstruction, cleaning and curation will be taught. Metric analysis of skeletal material will be undertaken and computerization of skeletal data will be introduced.
Prerequisites: Anthropology 1 or IB 1 or consent of the instructor.
Requirements: Three hours of lecture and six hours of lab per week (better plan on 20 hours of lab per week to keep up).
Developments in human genetics are impacting fundamental ideas related to health and disease, individuality and identity, sex/reproduction/parenting among others. After briefly reviewing the science underlying modern human genetics, the Human Genome Project and the proliferation of biotechnology, this course will consider important interactions and applications of genetics with society. Potential political or policy implications of genetic discrimination, human gene patenting, human cloning and other phenomena will be highlighted.
This course introduces
students to the field of critical medical anthropology.
Central to this field is the recognition that illness and
healing are primarily social, rather than biological, events.
As such, they are best interrogated with the analytical tools of
the anthropologist. Utilizing these tools, we will examine
experiences of suffering, affliction, medicine, and healing
in relation to the social, cultural, and economic processes in which
they are embedded, and through which they are produced. The course
is comparative and wide ranging, drawing on examples from Asia,
Latin America, Africa, and North America. We will consider such
phenomena as witchcraft, the symbolic aspects of healing in
biomedical practice, and the politics of international development. Other
topics include: shamanism; madness; AIDS; childbirth (and death); old age;
gender, sexual and racial politics in medical research and treatment;
colonialism and modernization; the culture of biomedicine; organ
transplantation and the trafficking in body parts; assisted fertilization,
cloning and other reproductive technologies; globalization and the modern
careers of "traditional" medical systems; and others. Guest speakers,
films, and discussion sections will supplement lecture. Course requirements
include a midterm, a final exam, two short (2-3 pp) essays based on the
analysis of relevant current events, and a field project (10 page write-up).
A reading list is still in preparation, but in addition to a course reader,
will include selections from the following list:
This course is an introduction to anthropological
treatments of aging and in particular of old age.
It has four objectives: (1) to familiarize you with
key social science debates in the field of aging; (2)
to discuss and evaluate ethnographic approaches to the
study of aging and old age in society; (3) to utilize
interdisciplinary work in the design of ethnographic inquiry,
including historical and literary analysis; and (4) to plan,
undertake, and write-up a short ethnographic research project.
As the instructor is a medical anthropologist, one of the key
themes is the relationship between the biology and the sociology
of late life. In other words, we will want to understand the
relationship between the old body and what we might call its double:
the social (cultural, scientific, religious, and political) practices
by which old bodies are named, measured, understood, and experienced. Readings for the course are available in bookstores locally. In order of our reading them,
they are: In addition to reading and attendance at
lectures and films, there are four additional
course requirements: (1) 2 short (10 minute)
in-class pop quizzes on the week's reading; (2)
2 short (2 page) updates on your research project;
(3) a 10-15 page research paper based on this project; and
(4) a final exam consisting of 2 essay questions to be
answered out of a choice of 4. We will discuss the project
at length during the second and third week of class.
Projects must be ethnographic, involving discussions and
observation relevant to the course theme of aging and later life.
Examples of field sites to consider in designing your project
proposal might include not only the obvious
(senior centers or residences, nursing homes, medical facilities,
retirement communities) but the less obvious (workplaces, social
security and other government offices, homes, gyms, bars, hair
salons, restaurants, SRO hotels, churches, civic or community
associations). Grading scheme: Quizzes 10%, Updates 10%, Project 40%, Final 40%. This
course seeks to place the development of
prehispanic Maya society in context and examine historical
patterns of change as well as continuity. There are no
prerequisites for the course, but previous exposure to a general introduction
to Central American archaeology such as Anthropology 122C will be an advantage. We will consider
the general outlines of change through time from the
Early Formative roots of occupation in the Maya world to the sixteenth
century, but this is not a prehistory course; it is an archaeology course.
One of the goals of the course is to provide students with an understanding of
the kinds of questions different archaeologists have
asked about prehispanic Maya societies; the kinds of evidence appropriate for
addressing these different questions; and how we can evaluate alternative explanations.
The course takes as a beginning assumption that
changing ideas about the past result as much from changes in the kinds of
problems that are considered interesting as they do from improvements in
basic knowledge. Given this assumption, we should always expect diverse
explanations to be proposed, and we should expect that ideas once considered
satisfactory will later be challenged and new ideas proposed in their place. The second part of the course will be structured around issues that various
archaeologists have considered to be keys to understanding Maya society:
economic specialization and interaction; social organization, gender, age, and status;
the use of writing and calendars; and political centralization. Here you should give
special attention in readings to the assumptions being made, the material considered evidence
in support of proposed explanations, and the ways that Maya field archaeology practices are
different depending on the questions being asked. The third section
of the course will consider those features
which make Maya archaeology a coherent field of study.
Where the general questions considered in the second part of the
course are shared with other regional archaeologies, the features
considered in the third part of the course have generally been
seen as more specific, and their study as more particularistic.
Here you should think about the ways that what appear to be specifics
might also be considered examples of more general processes. This section
of the course will consider major transition points in prehispanic Maya history,
looking at how attempts to understand what happened in the past are guided by, and
in turn affect, archaeological research questions. One
of the most diverse environments in the world hosts
rich, intriguing continuity in its history of human life.
With occupation beginning sometime before 10,000 years B.C.,
we have evidence for social and ritual complexity in the
archaeological record dating to before 2000 B.C. (B.C.E.).
This ebbs and flows throughout the region up until today, with
opposites of rich well preserved tapestries on the coast 600 B.C.
to impoverished foragers surrounding saline lakes in recent times. This course follows the evolution of pre-Hispanic
and hispanic society in the Andean region of South America.
The lectures and readings emphasize major political,
economic, and social processes in the development of the major
Andean civilizations. Particular attention will be paid to causes of
the early states along the coast of Peru, the development of major politics
in the highlands, how the political and economic systems of the later empires
were based on earlier social structures and elaborate ritual imagery.
The traditions of Chavin, Nazca, Moche, Tiwanaku, Wari, Chimor, and
Inka will be presented. In addition we will study the archaeological
sequence to see what we can learn from this long temporal perspective
about modern political issues. In this
course, we will read at least five fictionalized
accounts of life in Ice Age Europe, many written by
anthropologists/paleontologists. We will use these
novels as a way to probe into not only what we think we
know about this topic--from archaeological, paleo-ecological
and fossil evidence, and from ethnoarchaeological
and anthropological research--but also how these data and
lines of evidence are used by the authors. We will explore
the role and place of narrative and imagination in the
constructions of the past, how these not only derive from but
simultaneously inform research, and the "success" of each
author in expanding, challenging, and constraining
our understandings. Students will read not only the novels but a
variety of other materials on the Ice Age humans of Europe.
We will study stone tools, settlement data, paleoenvironments
and the fossil evidence, as well as the ethnography of hunter-gatherers. Prerequisites: Anthropology 2 or an
equivalent course on the methods, theories and concepts of archaeology.
Requirements:
There will be three
short "position" papers and an essay final exam.
Students will each participate in one student-designed
and implemented group/panel presentation.
Required texts:
The course
will provide an overview of archaeology "in the public
interest." University courses tend to focus on
archaeology for pure research, as practiced largely within the
University setting. However, the vast majority of archaeologists
are employed outside of universities. These archaeologists
work for Federal, State and local agencies, museums and private
companies. In each case, the primary reason for the existence of
these archaeologists is not pure research, but to protect or promote the
public's interests in archaeology. Much of the course will cover
topics usually considered under the heading "cultural resource management" (CRM),
such as historic preservation/heritage management, environmental review,
legislative basis for CRM, ethical issues, role of government and
non-government organizations (NGOs), as well as private enterprise
(archaeology for profit). However, in addition, topics such as public outreach and
education, the role of museums and universities, employment prospects and
training opportunities in archaeology outside the university setting, will be discussed. Requirements: Students will
be evaluated on the basis of a mid-term and a
final examination, and a 10 page research paper. The South Asian Subcontinent
is a unique region because it represents a very long and uninterrupted
cultural continuum from prehistory or palaeolithic period to the rise of
highly developed and complex civilizations. In the late fourth and early
third millennia BC, a remarkable civilization called the Indus or Harappan,
emerged in the Greater Indus Valley. It remained contemporary essentially
with the Mesopotamian civilization before it declined and disappeared sometime
during the second millennium BC. It was not until about 1500 years later that
another urbanization took place in the valleys of Taxila and Ganges. The course on Archaeology of South Asia (Anthro 128)
is aimed at providing a broad perspective of archaeology
of Pakistan and India and where relevant, Sri Lanka,
Bangladesh and Nepal, beginning from the earliest known settled human
life in the Neolithic period around 7000 BC, to the first urbanization
during the Bronze Age in third millennium BC,
followed by subsequent developments leading to the early historic
era or the rise of Buddhism. It is an overview of relevant archaeological
data spread over six millennia with emphasis on how and why various cultures
evolved within distinct physical environments of South Asia and in particular,
how human groups responded while adjusting to diverse
situations. In a sense, it will be an attempt to reconstruct and understand
ancient cultural landscape of South Asia. This course will begin with a review of environmental and cultural-historical
background of South Asia. It will then focus on a transition which took place
from hunting-gathering to the beginning of agriculture and emergence of
permanent settlements during the Neolithic period which provided foundations
for evolution of the first urbanism in South Asia. A special emphasis will be
on the rise of Indus or Harappan Civilization and its unique character as compared
to the civilizations of ancient Near East and Central Asia.
Then, various cultural processes leading to its development
from origin to decline, complexities of its socio-economic
structure and political organization, technology, craft
specialization, architecture, settlement patterns and contacts with
the neighboring regions through trade or exchange will be reviewed.
Equally important issues relating to the decline and eventual disintegration
of this remarkable civilization, legacy of the Indus cultural traditions in
South Asia and arrival of Aryan-speaking people in the first millennium BC,
will be discussed in the light of archaeological evidence associated with
ethnically / linguistically different groups of people. Class Structure: The course is structured as a combination of illustrated lectures
and discussions on the past and current issues of archaeology of South Asia.
In addition, the students will share the first-hand information and personal
experiences of the visiting teacher about the sites and cultural materials in South
Asia gained during his nearly four decades of discoveries through explorations and
excavations in Pakistan, Bahrain and Bangladesh, and study of sites and archaeological
collections in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Prerequisites Introduction to archaeology,
archaeology/cultural anthropology of any region
either Old or New World, or consent of the teacher. Requirements: The students
will be assigned specific readings from
the recommended textbooks, prepare 1-2 page summaries and
make brief presentations to the class for 4-5 minutes.
There will be one mid-term written exam requiring short
answers (a few lines/paragraph or yes/no type) with exceptions
as given below. There will be no written final exam but ALL students
will be required to write a short paper, 10-15 pages exclusive of
bibliography on any topic of their choice relating to the course, OR
a review of book on South Asian archaeology / heritage consisting of 9-12 pages.
The students may have yet another option of writing a full length research paper,
25-30 or more pages exclusive of bibliography, on a specific topic for the
whole course. Those excercising this option will not be writing a short paper or
taking mid-term exam. The students will be graded according to the following:
20%: Class presentation and discussions, plus 40%:
Mid-term written exam; 40%: Short paper or book review OR
80%: Full length research paper.
Farmer: AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame
Lindenbaum: Kuru Sorcery
Scheper-Hughes: Death Without Weeping
Bourgois: In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio
Martin: The Woman in the Body (or Flexible Bodies)
Kleinman, Das and Lock (ed): Social Suffering
Nichter: Anthropological Approaches to The Study of Ethnomedicine
Lindenbaum and Lock: Biomedicine Examined
Shakespeare, King Lear
Myerhoff, Number our Days
Kaufman, The Ageless Self
Troyansky, Old age in the Old Regime
Lock, Encounters with Aging
Cohen, No Aging in India
Bayley, Elegy for Iris
Katz, Disciplining Old Age
James, The Sacred Fount
Freud, Totem and Taboo
J. Auel, Clan of the Cave Bear.
B. Kurten, Dance of the Tiger, and
Singletusk.
W. Golding,The Inheritors.
E. M. Thomas,
Reindeer Moon, and Animal Wife.
C. Gamble,
The Paleolithic Settlement of Europe.
And a course reader.
mughal@fas.harvard.edu
This course is designed to provide an opportunity for undergraduates to work with 6th graders in exploring the world of archaeology and multimedia technology. The students of this course will be expected to mentor the children in the activities of a newly-established after-school program in Roosevelt Middle School, Oakland. This program is sponsored and funded by a collaborative venture of the Interactive University of U.C. Berkeley, the Oakland Unified School District, and the UC Links Program of UCOP. The program is directed by Professor Ruth Tringham and managed by Amy Ramsay for the Archaeological Research Facility and Dept. of Anthropology.
The after-school program is designed to bring the archaeological experience to 6th graders through the medium of multimedia technology--multimedia authoring, WWWeb browsing, Virtual Reality Interactive games, etc. This program is voluntary for the 6th graders, and is being carried out under the auspices of the newly established "Village Center" at Roosevelt School which seeks to encourage the community as well as children in the after school activities.
The activities of the after-school program are devised by the students of this class in collaboration with the children and teachers. These activities will focus on the interpretation of archaeological materials rather than the "grand picture" of the past; it will focus on giving archaeology some immediacy in the children's lives by encouraging them to think of themselves in relation to their local history and cultural heritage. The activities will take the form of devising Virtually Real experience, games and stories through multimedia authoring, as well as "real" role-playing games and scenes around archaeological themes: excavation and the partial remains of food, fire, learning, shelter, play, family etc.
Prerequisites: This course will feed into and from a number of undergraduate courses in archaeology and anthropology, including the Introduction to Archaeology, and upper division courses on method and theory. It will also introduce students to issues of pedagogy and public archaeology. Students from other fields are welcome to participate. Bilingual students are strongly encouraged to apply. A course in the Introduction to Archaeology (Anthro 2) or its equivalent and the permission of the instructor (through interview) are the only prerequisites. Access to an email and Internet account are essential prerequisites, since an important component of the course will be frequent consultation of the Course WWWebsite.
Previous participation in Multimedia Authoring for Archaeology classes will help but is not essential. Students who have not had any multimedia technology background will be assisted in catching up through self-paced tutorials held in the Multimedia Authoring Center for Teaching in Anthropology (MACTIA) in 2224 Piedmont.
Requirements: This course is essentially a practical research/service-learning course. Participation in the Roosevelt School after-school program (approx. 2-3 hrs one afternoon each week) is a required part of the course. Each student will be part of the course term project to evaluate the introduction of multimedia authoring and the archaeological experience to 6th-graders through this after-school program. You will be expected to keep a running log/diary of your observations. Instructions in making these observations and making evaluations will be given during the course. A small stipend to cover the cost of travel to the Roosevelt School will be provided.
The course is Instructor Approval Only. In order to apply for admittance to the class, you must come to the first lecture. NO EXCEPTIONS. Selection will be made at that time.
This laboratory course will explore the multimedia presentation of archaeological data and its interpretation on CD-ROM and the World Wide Web. We shall focus on what "face" of archaeology is expressed through these media. Specific emphasis will be on representations of the archaeology of sites located within the limits of modern Central America, particularly those of the Classic Maya, Aztec, Teotihuacan and Olmec traditions.
The main aim of this course is for students to gain experience in authoring multimedia presentations and interpretations of archaeological data in the form of interactive hypermedia modules. Teams will design modules from real-life archaeological contexts, using primary images and other data. Students will gain familiarity with the software and authoring techniques available for use on a Macintosh platform, including S Storyspace, Macromedia Authorware, Director, in addition to basic image manipulation, sound and graphic programs. The focus of the class will be on a consideration of the context of multimedia, and its use in representing archaeology and prehistory to different audiences. We will examine existing CD-ROMs and WWW-sites, again with an emphasis on Central American subjects, to understand what they intend to do, and what unintended effects they achieve.
Prerequisites:Permission of instructor. Completion of Anthropology 122C or 122D or the equivalent preferred. Access to email and Internet account are essential. Some experience with Macintosh computers, especially using basic graphics software is highly recommended, although self-paced tutorials held in the Multimedia Authoring Center for Teaching in Anthropology (MACTIA) in 2224 Piedmont will be required and will provide training in the use of software.
This class is a collaborative, hands-on experience in ethnographic video production. Students work together in teams to produce short video projects in the Bay Area. Projects will be chosen from proposals submitted by students of 138A. Students share equally the responsibilities of field work, directing, camera, sound recording, and editing. Please note that students will often need to meet with the instructor and/or with their teammates outside of class time.
This course will discuss key theoretical concepts related to power and control and examine indirect mechanisms and processes by which direct control becomes hidden, voluntary, and unconscious in industrialized societies. Readings will cover language, science and technology, law, politics, religion, medicine, sex, and gender. The manner of thinking about controlling processes emphasizes linkages rather than disciplinary boundaries in the anthropological perspectives.
Prerequisites:There are no prerequisites. Scientists and engineers welcome.
The history of psychological anthropology from the culture and personality school through current constructionist approaches to indigenous psychologies. Topics may include ethnopsychiatry, psychoanalysis, psychiatric approaches to possession and altered states, emotion and culture, gender, sexuality, and erotics. The focus will be on the use of psychology in cultural analysis rather than medical approaches. Is cross-cultural psychological analysis possible, and if so, how?
This course deals with systems of social inequality: power, privilege, poverty, vulnerability and oppression in human societies. Such systems will be described and analyzed both comparatively (i.e., cross culturally) and developmentally (i.e., as they have evolved through time). We will consider social inequality in egalitarian, ranked and stratified societies; in those whose livelihood is based on foraging, horticulture, pastoralism, agriculture and industry; societies inhabiting various parts of the world, in various eras. Kinds of inequality to be investigated include: age, gender, kinship and role, class, status and power, ethnicity, race, caste, estate, servitude, internal and external colonialism, and situationally negotiated status.
From Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White to Jack and the Beanstalk and Sleeping Beauty, fairy tales have long been of great interest to folklorists and other scholars-historians, psychologists, and educators, to name a few. In addition, literary and cinematic adaptations attest to the fairy tale's continued importance in Western culture. This course will examine the European magic tales (Märchen) from a variety of perspectives in an attempt to understand why and how fairy tales continue to capture the imagination.
From the first part of the course will examine the nature of the fairy tale, including its motifs and structure, the history of collecting such materials, and aspects of fairy tale-telling. A second section will consider how folklorists, psychologists, historians and others have approached and interpreted the fairy tale. We will discuss historical, psychological, feminist, political, contextual and ritual perspectives. Part three will consider the uses of fairy tales and their modern adaptations. We will discuss the appropriateness of fairy tales as children's literature and their various permutations into picture books, adult fiction, poetry, film, video, ballet, musicals, and other forms.
This is a 5-unit course which satisfies the method requirement for majors in social-cultural anthropology. The course is designed to accomplish two things: (a) examine theories of research methods in social/cultural anthropology, past and present; and (b) practice these methods through supervised field research projects. The first part will be done through lectures, assigned readings, class discussions, and individual consultation. The second part requires each student to carry out an approved and supervised field research project during the semester.
This class focuses on the changes in the sphere of urban life in contemporary Chinese society, i.e., to examine the complex transition taking place in the latter half of twentieth-century China, to identify the newly emerged modes of social relations and new forms of control and power. In particular, we will trace the ethic of work and the mode of life during the years of the Maoist revolution, and compare the experiences of revolution with those of the period known as economic reforms. This transition may be understood from many different perspectives, such as from that of rural development, however, "the urban question," as Manuel Castells put it in another context some time ago, remains a central question, for some sort of answer to this question helps us understand not only where this society came but where it is likely to go. Following an anthropological approach, this class will also provide students with a sense of what is going on in the field of anthropology as well as the major concerns of its current theoretical debates.
Prerequisite: none.
Required Texts: This course
focuses on the anthropology of contemporary Japan.
Topics will cover the changes in Japan since World War II,
both at the macro-level--industry, employment, economy--and
at the personal level--life-cycle, marriage, travel and morals.
History and pre-modern Japan will only be covered as they bear on
Japanese culture now, and on the anthropological interpretation of Japan. There will also be a class reader with short articles and chapters. The lectures will
be supplemented by videos such
as The Japanese Version, Tampopo,
and Overstay (about illegal workers).
We also hope to arrange for class members to visit
local Buddhist temple services and a Shinto shrine matsuri
(spring festival). The assignments will include essay-type
midterm and final exam, and one independent research project.
The landscapes--geographic and cultural--that
constitute present-day Mexico have been created and
recreated in the shifting contexts of migration, commerce,
conquest, and war. This course will critique some of the concepts
underlying the idea and the reality of the Mexican nation by examining
its history, its land, and its people through various anthropological
lenses. We will begin with an overview of key 20th century works by
Mexicans and North
Americans who formulated analytical concepts, often with instrumental goals
in mind (such as nation-building and
"development"). The problematic
role of Mexico's indigenous peoples
as subjects of anthropological inquiry and
intervention will be an important theme for discussion.
As the course proceeds, we will examine the significance of
recurrent dichotomies that have circulated in intellectual circles
and in the popular consciousness, including village/city,
North/South, Indian/mestizo-Spaniard, and woman/man.
In the second half of the course, we will review a series of
relatively recent events and social dramas--the 1968 massacre at
Tlatelolco, the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, the economic crises of 1982 and
1996, "free" trade, guerrilla uprisings in Chiapas and Oaxaca,
and accelerated migratory patterns, among others--that have partially
ruptured long-standing paradigms and have prompted intellectual and popular
reconceptualizations of contemporary Mexico. Required Texts: Roberto Gonzalez recently received his Ph.D.
from the UC Berkeley anthropology department.
His dissertation research focuses on the cultural and political
economic aspects of food and farming among the Zapotec people of
northern Oaxaca, Mexico. Other topical interests include the anthropology
of science and technology and the history of anthropology.
In recent months he has collaborated with a community-based
Zapotec organization in the preliminary planning of a four year college
in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, a predominantly indigenous region. He has also
written about adolescent health in rural northeastern California, the social history of
coffee in northern Oaxaca, and work life in a General Motors automotive assembly plant. The course
explores anthropological perspectives on African
history, culture, politics, and social relations.
We examine classical as well as contemporary perspectives
within Africanist anthropology. These positions are
situated within the larger landscape of cultural
representations of 'Africa' in colonial discourse, popular
culture, and recent media depictions. We will thus historicize
the ways images of Africa and Africans have been constructed within
and beyond the African continent while attending to the complex social
realities, historical and contemporary, experienced by Africans. This
course examines the current political economy and
cultural politics of Southeast Asian societies.
First, we explore the interaction of pre-modern
cultures and orientalist constructions by European
colonizers, and the impact of colonialism on peasant
society, politics, race, and sexuality in the region.
Second, the course examines postcolonial changes in patron-clientelism,
gender and labor relations, and cultural politics in relation to the nation-state
and to development. Third, we explore how economic restructuring has led to border-crossing
networks, authoritarian
state formation, and discourses of Islam and neo-Confucianism.
Throughout, we will also explore from
different angles the relations between private sentiments
and public morality, family strategies and capitalist ideology,
state disciplinary power and economic restructuring; these are
central coordinates in the emerging cultural, social, and political arrangements in Southeast Asia.
Requirements: Texts: What every
social scientist should know about evolution.
Emphasis will be on 20th-century controversies,
especially in relation to human evolution.
Readings will subsume both primary and secondary
literature. Topics will include: systematics, phylogeny,
tempo and mode, units of selection, molecular anthropology,
morphology, human behavior, and ideology. The seminar will
cover some of the topics of anthropological interest in
minority education. The topics will include the relationship
between culture and education, language and education, "intelligence"
and education, labor market forces, minority status, equal access and
affirmative action, and minority perspectives on education. The topics
will be drawn from studies and discourse of minority education in the United
States as well as other contemporary urban industrial societies.
The course is open to upper division and graduate students.
Contact the webeditor with any questions about this site at hollyh@uclink4.berkeley.edu.
Whyte, Martin King, and William L. Parish. Urban life in contemporary China.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
Walder, Andrew George. Communist neo-traditionalism: work and authority in Chinese industry.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
Lu Xiaobo and Elizabeth Perry, eds.,
Danwei: the changing Chinese workplace in historical and comparative perspective.
Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1997.
Lee, Ching Kwan.
Gender and the south China miracle: two worlds of factory women.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
Hertz, Ellen. The trading crowd: an ethnography of the Shanghai stock market.
Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Watson, James L. ed., Golden arches east: McDonald's in East Asia. Stanford, Calif:
Stanford University Press, 1997.
Ruth Benedict: Chrysanthemum and the Sword.(1946)
Eyal Ben-Ari (ed.): Unwrapping Japan. (1990)
Norma Field: In the Realm of a Dying Emperor. (1991)
M. Hamabata: Crested Kimono. (1990)
Sepp Linhart (ed.): The Culture of Japan as Seen through Its Leisure. (1998)
E. Ohnuki-Tierney: Rice as Self. (1993)
Lise Skov (ed).: Women, Media and Consumption in Japan. (1995)
M. Weiner: Japan¹s Minorities. (1997)
Zipangu: Japan Made in USA. (1998)
Sons of the Shaking Earth; Eric Wolf
The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings; Octavio Paz
Mexico Profundo; Guillermo Bonfil Batalla
For We Are Sold, I and My People; Maria Patricia Fernandez-Kelly
The Meanings of Macho; Matthew Gutmann
Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas; George Collier
Being Indian in Hueyapan; Judith Friedlander
Shadowed Lives; Leo Chavez
Additional readings will be on reserve in the Anthropology Library; a course
reader will also be available for purchase.
This course welcomes
juniors and seniors who have taken Anthropology 3 or
its equivalent in the social sciences. Students are required
to do assigned readings before class, and are expected to attend class and
participate in class on a regular basis. There is a mid-term and a final.
N0 incompletes will be permitted in this class.
A Course Reader
J. Scott: The Moral Economy of the Peasant.
A. Ong: Spirits of Resistance & Capitalist Discipline.
A. Ong & M. Peletz, eds.: Bewitching Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics in Southeast Asia.
This page was last updated 9/14/99.