* ANTH 061b, Understanding Human Origins  Jessica Thompson

This course deals with scientific questions of what we know about human origins and human evolution. It presents evidence from evolutionary and life history theory, geochronology, paleontology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, phylogenetic analysis, genetics, archaeology, and functional morphology. It also tackles the issue of how we know what we think we know of our own ancestry over the past 6 million years. In other words, what constitutes evidence for human evolution and how is that evidence interpreted? Students are introduced to basic milestones in human evolution and learn how they have shaped us into the species we are today, using diverse lines of evidence from evolutionary and life history theory, geochronology, paleontology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, phylogenetic analysis, genetics, archaeology, and functional morphology. We critically examine key debates that have taken place over the last century of exploration in human evolutionary research, learning how unconventional thinking and spectacular discoveries have shaped current knowledge of our origins. Students meet strange and fascinating historical characters, and then meet our fossil ancestors via the cast collection. Students also receive hands-on and interactive learning about the morphology, life history patterns, locomotion, social behavior, and diet of our nearest fossil relatives; observe living primates to assess what they can tell us about our own deep past; dive into data collection by locating real archaeological and fossil sites; and learn how molecular techniques such as ancient DNA have transformed understanding of the origins of our own species. By formally debating controversial issues with classmates, students learn what a surprising amount of information scientists can discern from fragmentary fossils, and are brought up to date with the most current discoveries in human evolution. Enrollment limited to first-year students. Preregistration required; see under First-Year Seminar Program.  SO
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

* ANTH 075a, Observing the World  Jane Lynch

How do we learn about the worlds of others? How do we represent our own? This seminar focuses on the poetics and politics of social observation and engagement. We examine the qualitative research methods (e.g., asking, listening, and observing) used by scholars—as well as other professionals, including journalists and government officials—to produce texts (e.g., academic books, magazine articles, and case files) based on empirical observation. Thinking critically about observation and observational writing as modes of knowledge production, we discuss and develop tools of reading, thinking, and writing to address questions of injustice and power. Texts are juxtaposed with documentary film, photography, and other forms of artistic and visual representation, to help bring both the conventions and possibilities of observational writing more clearly into view. Students complete a range of writing projects, including: descriptive and analytical “field notes,” interviews, and essays based on their own observations of the world(s) around them. In addition to developing their writing skills, students also learn basic concepts in the practice and politics of social research and analysis. Enrollment limited to first-year students. Preregistration required; see under First-Year Seminar Program.  WR, HU, SO
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

ANTH 110b, An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology  Erik Harms

Anthropological study of cosmology, tacit knowledge, and ways of knowing the world in specific social settings. Ways in which sociocultural specificity helps to explain human solutions to problems of cooperation and conflict, production and reproduction, expression, and belief. Introduction to anthropological ways of understanding cultural difference in approaches to sickness and healing, gender and sexuality, economics, religion, and communication.  SO  0 Course cr
TTh 1pm-2:15pm

* ANTH 112b, Agent, Person, Subject, Self  Paul Kockelman

Introduction to the interconnections between language and personality development and to the social construction of person and self. Focus on the capacities of agency, subjectivity, selfhood, and personhood as analyzed in classic works from anthropology, psychology, and philosophy. Ways in which these seemingly human-specific and individual-centric capacities are essential for understanding social processes.  SO
W 9:25am-11:15am

ANTH 116a, Introduction to Biological Anthropology  Jessica Thompson

Introduction to human and primate evolution, primate behavior, and human biology. Topics include a review of principles of evolutionary biology and basic molecular and population genetics; the behavior, ecology, and evolution of nonhuman primates; the fossil and archaeological record for human evolution; the origin of modern humans; biological variation in living humans; and the evolution of human behavior.  SC, SO  0 Course cr
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

ANTH 172b / ARCG 172b, Great Hoaxes and Fantasies in Archaeology  William Honeychurch

Examination of selected archaeological hoaxes, cult theories, and fantasies; demonstration of how archaeology can be manipulated to authenticate nationalistic ideologies, religious causes, and modern stereotypes. Examples of hoaxes and fantasies include the lost continent of Atlantis, Piltdown man, ancient giants roaming the earth, and alien encounters. Evaluation of how, as a social science, archaeology is capable of rejecting such interpretations about the past.  SO
HTBA

ANTH 182b, Primate Behavior and Ecology  David Watts

Survey of the ecological and behavioral diversity among nonhuman primates (lemurs, lorises, monkeys, and apes). Introduces students to the study of behavioral evolution and to variation in primate habitats and ecological adaptations, mating systems, and social behavior. Among the topics are links between ecology and social organization; cooperation and competition; the complexities of social life and adaptive benefits of sociality; and case studies such as baboons, gorillas, and chimpanzees. Relevance of studying nonhuman primates to understanding human behavior is a major theme.  SO
MW 11:35am-12:50pm

ANTH 203b, Primate Conservation  David Watts

A study of nonhuman primates threatened by deforestation, habitat disturbance, hunting, and other human activities; the future of primate habitats, especially tropical rainforests, as they are affected by local and global economic and political forces. Examination of issues in primate conservation, from the principles of conservation biology and rainforest ecology to the emergence of diseases such as AIDS and Ebola and the extraction of tropical resources by local people and by transnational corporations.  SO
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

* ANTH 204a, Molecular Anthropology  Serena Tucci

This course is a perfect introduction for anyone interested in understanding how genetics can help us answer fundamental questions in human evolution and population history. The course studies the basic principles of population genetics, molecular evolution, and genetic data analysis. Topics include DNA and human origins, human migrations, genetic adaptation, ancient DNA, and Neandertals. By the end of this course, students learn about the processes that generate and shape genetic variation, as well as the molecular and statistical tools used to reconstruct human evolutionary history.  SC
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 213a / EAST 313a, Contemporary Japan and the Ghosts of Modernity  Yukiko Koga

This course introduces students to contemporary Japan, examining how its defeat in the Second World War and loss of empire in 1945 continue to shape Japanese culture and society. Looking especially at the sphere of cultural production, it focuses on the question of what it means to be modern as expressed through the tension between resurgent neonationalism and the aspiration to internationalize. The course charts how the legacy of Japan’s imperial failure plays a significant role in its search for renewal and identity since 1945. How, it asks, does the experience of catastrophic failure—and failure to account for that failure—play into continued aspirations for modernity today? How does Japanese society wrestle with modernity’s two faces: its promise for progress and its history of catastrophic violence? The course follows the trajectory of Japan’s postwar nation-state development after the dissolution of empire, from its resurrection out of the ashes after defeat, to its identity as a US ally and economic superpower during the Cold War, to decades of recession since the 1990s and the search for new relations with its neighbors and new reckonings with its own imperial violence and postwar inactions against the background of rising neonationalism.  HU, SO
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

ANTH 229a / HSHM 254, The Anthropology of Outer Space  Lisa Messeri

Examination of the extraterrestrial through consideration of ideas in anthropology and aligned disciplines. Students discuss, write, and think about outer space as anthropologists and find the value of exploring this topic scientifically, socially, and philosophically. Previously ANTH 399.  SO
TTh 2:30pm-3:20pm

ANTH 230a / WGSS 230a, Evolutionary Biology of Women's Reproductive Lives  Claudia Valeggia

Evolutionary and biosocial perspectives on female reproductive lives. Physiological, ecological, and social aspects of women's development from puberty through menopause and aging, with special attention to reproductive processes such as pregnancy, birth, and lactation. Variation in female life histories in a variety of cultural and ecological settings. Examples from both traditional and modern societies.  SC  0 Course cr
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

* ANTH 235a / AFST 277a / ER&M 277a, Introduction to Critical Border Studies  Leslie Gross-Wyrtzen

This course serves as an introduction into the major themes and approaches to the study of border enforcement and the management of human mobility. We draw upon a diverse range of scholarship across the social sciences as well as history, architecture, and philosophy to better understand how we find ourselves in this present “age of walls” (Tim Marshall 2019). In addition, we take a comparative approach to the study of borders—examining specific contemporary and historical cases across the world in order to gain a comprehensive view of what borders are and how their meaning and function has changed over time. And because there is “critical” in the title, we explicitly evaluate the political consequences of borders, examine the sorts of resistances mobilized against them, and ask what alternative social and political worlds might be possible.  SO
Th 9:25am-11:15am

* ANTH 236a, Fat: Biology, Evolution, and Society  Claudia Valeggia and Katherine Daiy

The goal of this course is to provide an interdisciplinary approach to learning about obesity as a biological and social phenomenon. We use biology as a scaffolding to understand obesity, yet also discuss the social, cultural, and psychological elements that shape our relationship with food and body size. The coursework focuses on three perspectives—the biological pathways over the lifetime that lead to obesity, the evolutionary origin of obesity, and the cross-cultural and societal meanings of obesity. Briefly, topics include adipose tissue as a regulatory and endocrine organ, human body composition variation in differing ecologies, the developmental origins of obesity, efficacy of obesity interventions and political economies’ influence on obesity. This class has a “leminar” format, in which lectures are mixed with active, student-centered, in-class discussions.   SO
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

ANTH 242b, Human Evolutionary Biology and Life History  Richard Bribiescas

The range of human physiological adaptability across environments and ecologies. Effects of energetic constraints on growth, reproduction, and behavior within the context of evolution and life history theory, with special emphasis on traditional non-Western societies.  SC, SO  0 Course cr
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

ANTH 244a, Modern Southeast Asia  Erik Harms

This course offers a comprehensive introduction to the extraordinary diversity of Southeast Asian peoples, cultures, and political economy. Broadly focused on the nation-states that have emerged since the end of World War II (Brunei, Burma [Myanmar], Cambodia, Indonesia, East Timor, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam), the course explores the benefits and limits to a regional perspective. Crossing both national and disciplinary boundaries, the course introduces students to key elements of Southeast Asian geography, history, language and literature, belief systems, marriage and family, music, art, agriculture, industrialization and urbanization, politics and government, ecological challenges, and economic change. In addition to providing a broad and comparative survey of “traditional” Southeast Asia, the course places special emphasis on the intellectual and practical challenges associated with modernization and development, highlighting the ways different Southeast Asian nations contend with the forces of globalization. The principle readings include key works from a multidisciplinary range of fields covering anthropology, art, economics, geography, history, literature, music, and political science. No prior knowledge of Southeast Asia is expected.  SO  0 Course cr
TTh 9am-10:15am

* ANTH 255a / ARCG 255a / LAST 255a, Inca Culture and Society  Richard Burger

The history and organization of the Inca empire and its impact on the nations and cultures it conquered. The role of archaeology in understanding the transformation of Andean lifeways; the interplay between ethnohistoric and archaeological approaches to the subject.  SO
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

ANTH 280a, Evolution of Primate Intelligence  Staff

Discussion of the extent and evolutionary origins of cognitive abilities in primates (prosimians, monkeys, apes, and humans). Topics include the role of ecological and social factors as evolutionary forces; "ape language" studies; and whether any nonhuman primates possess a "theory of mind."  SO  0 Course cr
HTBA

ANTH 294b / ARCG 294b, The Ancient Maya  Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos

Introduction to the archaeological study of ancient Maya civilization in southern Mexico and northern Central America. Maya origins and modes of adaptation to a tropical forest environment; political history of the Classic Maya and competing theories about their collapse; overviews of Maya art, calendar, and writing.  SO
MW 1pm-2:15pm

* ANTH 301a / ARCG 301a, Foundations of Modern Archaeology  Richard Burger

Discussion of how method, theory, and social policy have influenced the development of archaeology as a set of methods, an academic discipline, and a political tool. Background in the basics of archaeology equivalent to one introductory course is assumed.  SO  0 Course cr
F 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 303b, Field Methods in Cultural Anthropology  Jane Lynch

The fundamentals of cultural anthropology methods. The foundations of fieldwork approaches, including methods, theories, and the problem of objectivity.  WR, SO
HTBA

* ANTH 307b, Reparation, Repair, Reconciliation: Reckoning with Slavery and Colonialism in Global Perspective  Yukiko Koga

Imperial reckoning for slavery, imperialism, and colonialism has gained new momentum in recent years, from official apologies for colonial violence to reparations lawsuits filed in Asia, Europe, and the US for slavery, genocide, and massacres, to demands for the return of bodily remains and cultural artifacts from established cultural institutions. This seminar explores how these new attempts for belated imperial reckoning are reshaping relations between former empires and their ex-colonies. It approaches imperial reckoning as a site for redressing not only the original violence but also the transitional injustice incurred in the process of the unmaking of empire, which calls for post-imperial reckoning. Drawing on examples from recent cases, this course explores what it means to belatedly reckon with imperial violence today. What does it mean to reckon with imperial violence through legal means, decades after the dissolution of empires? What is the role of law in belated redress? How is historical responsibility articulated and by whom? Who is responsible for what, then and now? What are the stakes in reckoning with distant, yet still alive, pasts? Why and how does it matter today for those of us who have no direct experience of imperial violence? This course approaches these questions through an anthropological exploration of concepts such as debt, gift, moral economy, structural violence, complicity and implication, and abandonment. Instructor permission required.  HU, SO
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 309a, Language and Culture  Paul Kockelman

The relations between language, culture, and cognition. What meaning is and why it matters. Readings in recent and classic works by anthropologists, linguists, psychologists, and philosophers.  SO  0 Course cr
M 9:25am-11:15am

* ANTH 311a, Anthropological Theory and the Post Colonial Encounter  Jane Lynch

Key texts in the theoretical development of sociocultural anthropology. Theorists include Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, Franz Boas, Zora Neale Hurston, Sidney Mintz, Bernard Cohn, Michel Foucault, Edward Said, Antonio Gramsci, Sherry Ortner, and Joan Scott.  SO  0 Course cr
Th 9:25am-11:15am

ANTH 316La / ARCG 316La, Introduction to Archaeological Laboratory Sciences  Ellery Frahm

Introduction to techniques of archaeological laboratory analysis, with quantitative data styles and statistics appropriate to each. Topics include dating of artifacts, sourcing of ancient materials, remote sensing, and microscopic and biochemical analysis. Specific techniques covered vary from year to year.  SC
W 1:30pm-4:30pm

* ANTH 321a / MMES 321a / SOCY 318a / WGSS 321a, Middle East Gender Studies  Marcia Inhorn

The lives of women and men in the contemporary Middle East explored through a series of anthropological studies and documentary films. Competing discourses surrounding gender and politics, and the relation of such discourse to actual practices of everyday life. Feminism, Islamism, activism, and human rights; fertility, family, marriage, and sexuality.  SO
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 322b / EVST 324b / SAST 306b, Environmental Justice in South Asia  Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan

Study of South Asia’s nation building and economic development in the aftermath of war and decolonization in the 20th century. How it generated unprecedented stress on natural environments; increased social disparity; and exposure of the poor and minorities to environmental risks and loss of homes, livelihoods, and cultural resources. Discussion of the rise of environmental justice movements and policies in the region as the world comes to grips with living in the Anthropocene. .  SO  0 Course cr
W 3:30pm-5:20pm

* ANTH 324a / ANTH 824a / EAST 324a, Politics of Memory  Yukiko Koga

This course explores the role of memory as a social, cultural, and political force in contemporary society. How societies remember difficult pasts has become a contested site for negotiating the present. Through the lens of memory, we examine complex roles that our relationships to difficult pasts play in navigating issues we face today. This course explores this politics of memory that takes place in the realm of popular culture and public space. The class asks such questions as: How do you represent difficult and contested pasts? What does it mean to enable long-silenced victims’ voices to be heard? What are the consequences of re-narrating the past by highlighting past injuries and trauma? Does memory work heal or open wounds of a society and a nation? Through examples drawn from the Holocaust, the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, the Vietnam War, genocide in Indonesia and massacres in Lebanon, to debates on confederacy statues, slavery, and lynching in the US, this course approaches these questions through an anthropological exploration of concepts such as memory, trauma, mourning, silence, voice, testimony, and victimhood.  HU, SO
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 336b / ARCG 336b / EPS 336b, Geoarchaeology  Ellery Frahm

A survey of the numerous ways in which theories, approaches, techniques, and data from the earth and environmental sciences are used to address archaeological research questions. A range of interfaces between archaeology and the geological sciences are considered. Topics include stratigraphy, geomorphology, site formation processes, climate reconstruction, site location, and dating techniques. Prior introductory coursework in archaeology or geology (or instructor permission) suggested.  SC, SO
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

* ANTH 342a / EAST 346a, Cultures and Markets in Asia  Helen Siu

Historical and contemporary movements of people, goods, and cultural meanings that have defined Asia as a region. Reexamination of state-centered conceptualizations of Asia and of established boundaries in regional studies. The intersections of transregional institutions and local societies and their effects on trading empires, religious traditions, colonial encounters, and cultural fusion. Finance flows that connect East Asia and the Indian Ocean to the Middle East and Africa. The cultures of capital and market in the neoliberal and postsocialist world.  SO
M 9:25am-11:15am

* ANTH 358b / SAST 304b, Corporations & Communities  Jane Lynch

Can communities redefine corporations? How do corporations shape everyday life? To whom are they responsible? This course examines the relationship between commerce, society, and culture through a diverse set of case studies that are rooted in both global and local histories. Students learn about Henry Ford’s rubber plantations in the Amazon, family firms in Italy, how the East India Company shaped the modern multinational, the first company town to be established and run by an Indian firm, transnational “stakeholder” arrangements to compensate injured garment workers in Bangladesh, and the rise of “corporate social responsibility” culture. The goal of this course is not to define the relationship between corporations and communities as singular or obvious, but rather, to draw out the variety of factors—economic, historical, social, and cultural—that shape commercial interactions, institutional cultures, and claims about market ethics and social responsibility.  HU, SO
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 362b, Unity and Diversity in Chinese Culture  Helen Siu

An exploration of the Chinese identity as it has been reworked over the centuries. Major works in Chinese anthropology and their intellectual connections with general anthropology and historical studies. Topics include kinship and marriage, marketing systems, rituals and popular religion, ethnicity and state making, and the cultural nexus of power.
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 367b, Technology and Culture  Lisa Messeri

This class examines how technology matters in our daily lives. How do technologies shape understandings of ourselves, the worlds we inhabit, and each other? How do the values and assumptions of engineers and innovators shape our behaviors? How do technologies change over time and between cultures. Students learn to think about technology and culture as co-constituted. We read and discuss texts from history and anthropology of science, as well as fictional explorations relevant to course topics. .  0 Course cr
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 371a / AMST 360a, Inequality in the Anthropocene: Thinking the Unthinkable  Kathryn Dudley and Kate McNally

This course examines relationships between social inequality and anthropogenic climate change through an interdisciplinary ethnographic lens. Drawing on visual, sonic, and literary forms, we explore diverse modes of inquiry that strive to give analytical form and feeling to the unthinkable enormity of the geological epoch we're in. Final projects involve creative, artistic, multimedia field research.        SO
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 372b / ARCG 372b, The Archaeology of Urbanism  Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos

Archaeological studies of ancient cities and urbanism. Topics include the origin and growth of cities; the economic, social, and political implications of urban life; and archaeological methods and theories for the study of ancient urbanism. Case studies include ancient cities around the world.   SO
M 9:25am-11:15am

* ANTH 375b / ARCG 379b, Anthropology of Mobile Societies  William Honeychurch

The social and cultural significance of the ways that hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads, maritime traders, and members of our own society traverse space. The impact of mobility and transport technologies on subsistence, trade, interaction, and warfare from the first horse riders of five thousand years ago to jet-propulsion tourists of today.  SO
F 9:25am-11:15am

* ANTH 376b / EVST 377b, Observing and Measuring Behavior, Part I: Study Design  Eduardo Fernandez-Duque

This is the first course in a spring-fall sequence. The course surveys theoretical issues and practical methods relevant to studying the behavior of animals and humans, primarily in the “wild.” Topics covered include formulation of research questions, hypotheses and predictions, study design, sampling methods for studying behavior, genetics, endocrinology, ecology, climate. Students learn and practice various forms of behavioral and ecological sampling, as well as gain familiarity with some widely-used technologies that facilitate the study of behavior (e.g. radiotelemetry). Then, working around a specific research question, students design their own study. Those who choose can develop a study to be implemented during an NSF-funded Summer Program in Argentina (https://www.owlmonkeyproject.com/open-calls). Students who enrolled in ANTH 376 during spring 2021 when the summer program was cancelled due to the pandemic can apply to take part in the 2022 summer program in Argentina and may enroll in ANTH 377 during the fall 2022 term. Prerequisite: Some background (including high school) on evolutionary biology, animal behavior, biology recommended. Contact the Instructor if in doubt.  SC, SO
Th 9:25am-11:15am

* ANTH 385a / ARCG 385a, Archaeological Ceramics  Anne Underhill

Archaeological methods for analyzing and interpreting ceramics, arguably the most common type of object found in ancient sites. Focus on what different aspects of ceramic vessels reveal about the people who made them and used them.  SO
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 393a / ER&M 352a, Writing Creative Ethnographies: Exploring Movement, Poetics, and Collaboration  Jill Tan

Students in this seminar on creative ethnographic writing and experimental research design explore and represent anthropological insight beyond academic argumentation—through movement, art, poetics, and collaborative writing. Course readings and media focus on migration, colonialisms, and anti-blackness, situating anthropology’s disciplinary epistemologies, empirics, ethics in integral relation to an understanding its limits, collaborative potentialities, and multimodal methods. Students need not have a background in anthropology; they should however come with a curiosity about working with creative methods and ethnography—a set of practices to render and understand local forms of everyday life as imbricated with global forces.   WR, HU, SO
T 3:30pm-5:50pm

* ANTH 394a, Methods and Research in Molecular Anthropology I  Serena Tucci

The first part of a two-term practical introduction to molecular analysis of anthropological questions. Discussion of genetics and molecular evolution, particularly as they address issues in anthropology, combined with laboratory sessions on basic tools for genetic analysis and bioinformatics. Development of research projects to be carried out in ANTH 395.  SC  0 Course cr
HTBA

* ANTH 395b, Methods and Research in Molecular Anthropology II  Serena Tucci

The second part of a two-term practical introduction to molecular analysis of anthropological questions. Design and execution of laboratory projects developed in ANTH 394. Research involves at least ten hours per week in the laboratory. Results are presented in a formal seminar at the end of the term. Prerequisite: ANTH 394.  RP
F 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 401a, Meaning and Materiality  Paul Kockelman

The interaction of meaning and materiality. Relations among significance, selection, sieving, and serendipity explored through classic work in biosemiosis, technocognition, and sociogenesis. Sources from sociocultural and linguistic anthropology, philosophy, and cognitive sciences such as psychology.  SO
W 9:25am-11:15am

* ANTH 404a / EVST 404a, Advanced Topics in Behavioral Ecology  Eduardo Fernandez-Duque

This seminar explores advanced topics in behavioral ecology while examining the mechanisms, function, reproductive consequences, and evolution of behavior. The main goals of the course are to: (1) discuss the primary literature in behavioral ecology, (2) become familiar with current theory and approaches in behavioral ecology, (3) understand how to formulate hypotheses and evaluate predictions about animal behavior, (4) explore the links between behavior and related fields in ecology and evolution (e.g. ecology, conservation biology, genetics, physiology), (5) identify possible universities, research groups, and advisors for summer research or graduate studies. Students watch a mix of live and recorded talks by leading behavioral ecologists who present at the Frontiers in Social Evolution Seminar series, and they attend and participate in the hour-long discussions that follow the talk. The class meets to discuss the primary literature recommended by the presenter and to engage in small-group conversations with those who visit the course. Prerequisite: A Yale course on evolutionary biology (e.g. BIOL 104, ANTH 116, ANTH 376) or E&EB 242. Otherwise permission of instructor required.   SC
Th 9:25am-11:15am

* ANTH 409a / ER&M 394a / EVST 422a / F&ES 422a / GLBL 394a, Climate and Society: Perspectives from the Social Sciences and Humanities  Michael Dove

Discussion of the major currents of thought regarding climate and climate change; focusing on equity, collapse, folk knowledge, historic and contemporary visions, western and non-western perspectives, drawing on the social sciences and humanities.  WR, SO
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 414b / EAST 417b, Hubs, Mobilities, and World Cities  Helen Siu

Analysis of urban life in historical and contemporary societies. Topics include capitalist and postmodern transformations; class, gender, ethnicity, and migration; and global landscapes of power and citizenship. .  SO  RP  0 Course cr
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 415a, Culture, History, Power, and Representation  Helen Siu

This seminar critically explores how anthropologists use contemporary social theories to formulate the junctures of meaning, interest, and power. It thus aims to integrate symbolic, economic, and political perspectives on culture and social process. If culture refers to the understandings and meanings by which people live, then it constitutes the conventions of social life that are themselves produced in the flux of social life, invented by human activity. Theories of culture must therefore illuminate this problematic of agency and structure. They must show how social action can both reproduce and transform the structures of meaning, the conventions of social life. Even as such a position becomes orthodox in anthropology, it raises serious questions about the possibilities for ethnographic practice and theoretical analysis. How, for example, are such conventions generated and transformed where there are wide differentials of power and unequal access to resources? What becomes of our notions of humans as active agents of culture when the possibilities for maneuver and the margin of action for many are overwhelmed by the constraints of a few? How do elites—ritual elders, Brahmanic priests, manorial lords, factory-managers—secure compliance to a normative order? How are expressions of submission and resistance woven together in a fabric of cultural understandings? How does a theory of culture enhance our analyses of the reconstitution of political authority from traditional kingship to modern nation-state, the encapsulation of pre-capitalist modes of production, and the attempts to convert “primordial sentiments” to “civic loyalties”? How do transnational fluidities and diasporic connections make instruments of nation-states contingent? These questions are some of the questions we immediately face when probing the intersections of culture, politics and representation, and they are the issues that lie behind this seminar.  SO
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 417a / ARCG 417a, Maya Hieroglyphic Writing  Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos

Introduction to the ancient Maya writing system. Contents of the extant corpus, including nametags, royal and ritual commemorations, dynastic and political subjects, and religious and augural subjects; principles and methods of decipherment; overview of the Maya calendar; comparison with related writing systems in Mesoamerica and elsewhere in the ancient world.  SO
MW 9am-10:15am

* ANTH 423b / ANTH 623b, The Anthropology of Possible Worlds  Paul Kockelman

This course focuses on the nature of possible worlds: literary worlds (Narnia), ideological worlds (the world according to a particular political stance), psychological worlds (what someone remembers to be the case, wishes to be the case, or believes to be the case), environmental worlds (possible environmental futures), virtual worlds (the World of Warcraft), and—most of all—ethnographic works in which the actual and possible worlds of others are represented (the world according to the ancient Maya). We don’t focus on the contents of such worlds per se, but rather on the range of resources people have for representing, regimenting, and residing in such worlds; and the roles such resources play in mediating social relations and cultural values.  SO
M 9:25am-11:15am

* ANTH 430a / AMST 430a / ER&M 432a / HIST 123a, Muslims in the United States  Zareena Grewal

Since 9/11, cases of what has been termed “home-grown terrorism” have cemented the fear that “bad” Islam is not just something that exists far away, in distant lands. As a result, there has been an urgent interest to understand who American Muslims are by officials, experts, journalists, and the public. Although Muslims have been part of America’s story from its founding, Muslims have alternated from an invisible minority to the source of national moral panics, capturing national attention during political crises, as a cultural threat or even a potential fifth column. Today the stakes are high to understand what kinds of meanings and attachments connect Muslims in America to the Muslim world and to the US as a nation. Over the course of the semester, students grapple with how to define and apply the slippery concept of diaspora to different dispersed Muslim populations in the US, including racial and ethnic diasporas, trading diasporas, political diasporas, and others. By focusing on a range of communities-in-motion and a diverse set of cultural texts, students explore the ways mobility, loss, and communal identity are conceptualized by immigrants, expatriates, refugees, guest-workers, religious seekers, and exiles. To this end, we read histories, ethnographies, essays, policy papers, novels, poetry, memoirs; we watch documentary and fictional films; we listen to music, speeches, spoken word performances, and prayers. Our aim is to deepen our understanding of the multiple meanings and conceptual limits of homeland and diaspora for Muslims in America, particularly in the Age of Terror.  HU
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 448a, Medical Anthropology at the Intersections: Theory and Ethnography  Marcia Inhorn

The field of medical anthropology boasts a rich theoretical and empirical tradition, in which critically acclaimed ethnographies have been written on topics ranging from local biologies to structural violence. Many scholars engage across the social science and humanities disciplines, as well as with medicine and public health, offering both critiques and applied interventions. This medical anthropology seminar showcases the theoretical and ethnographic engagements of nearly a dozen leading medical anthropologists, with a focus on their canonical works and their intersections across disciplines. Prerequisite: A prior medical anthropology course or permission of instructor.  SO  0 Course cr
M 7pm-8:50pm

* ANTH 450a / ARCG 450a, Analysis of Lithic Technology  Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos

Introduction to the analysis of chipped and ground stone tools, including instruction in manufacturing chipped stone tools from obsidian. Review of the development of stone tool technology from earliest tools to those of historical periods; relevance of this technology to subsistence, craft specialization, and trade. Discussion of the recording, analysis, and drawing of artifacts, and of related studies such as sourcing and use-wear analysis.  SO
M 1:30pm-3:20pm

ANTH 464a or b / ARCG 464a or b / E&EB 464a or b, Human Osteology  Eric Sargis

A lecture and laboratory course focusing on the characteristics of the human skeleton and its use in studies of functional morphology, paleodemography, and paleopathology. Laboratories familiarize students with skeletal parts; lectures focus on the nature of bone tissue, its biomechanical modification, sexing, aging, and interpretation of lesions.  SC, SO  0 Course cr
HTBA

* ANTH 468a / AFST 465a / HSHM 413a / URBN 400 / URBN 442a, Infrastructures of Empire: Control and (In)security in the Global South  Leslie Gross-Wyrtzen

This advanced seminar examines the role that infrastructure plays in producing uneven geographies of power historically and in the “colonial present” (Gregory 2006). After defining terms and exploring the ways that infrastructure has been conceptualized and studied, we analyze how different types of infrastructure (energy, roads, people, and so on) constitute the material and social world of empire. At the same time, infrastructure is not an uncontested arena: it often serves as a key site of political struggle or even enters the fray as an unruly actor itself, thus conditioning possibilities for anti-imperial and decolonial practice. The geographic focus of this course is the African continent, but we explore comparative cases in other regions of the majority and minority world.  SO
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

* ANTH 471a or b and ANTH 472a or b, Readings in Anthropology  Staff

For students who wish to investigate an area of anthropology not covered by regular departmental offerings. The project must terminate with at least a term paper or its equivalent. No student may take more than two terms for credit. To apply for admission, a student should present a prospectus and bibliography to the director of undergraduate studies no later than the third week of the term. Written approval from the faculty member who will direct the student's reading and writing must accompany the prospectus.
HTBA

* ANTH 491a or b, The Senior Essay  Staff

Supervised investigation of some topic in depth. The course requirement is a long essay to be submitted as the student's senior essay. By the end of the third week of the term in which the essay is written, the student must present a prospectus and a preliminary bibliography to the director of undergraduate studies. Written approval from an Anthropology faculty adviser and an indication of a preferred second reader must accompany the prospectus.
HTBA

* ANTH 492b / ARCG 492b / NELC 321b, Imaging Ancient Worlds in Museum Collections  Agnete Lassen and Klaus Wagensonner

What is Digitization of Cultural Heritage? What are its merits, challenges, and best practices? The course highlighst the documentation and interpretation of archaeological artifacts, in particular artifacts from Western Asia. The primary goal of the course is the use of new technologies in computer graphics, including 3D imaging, to support current research in archaeology and anthropology. The course does put particular emphasis on the best practices of digitizing artifacts in collections. The prime study subjects are the artifacts housed in the Yale Babylonian Collection (https://babylonian-collection.yale.edu). For some background information on the Collection see here. Students engage directly with the artifacts while practicing the various imaging techniques.  HU  0 Course cr
MW 11:35am-12:50pm