Anthropology

This course examines the cultural reality of being human, as well as the distinct evolutionary journey (within the Order Primates) to become human.

This course explores various theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of language as a resource for social actors and communities, and as a resource to produce anthropological knowledge. The course analyzes how language emerges in the interactions between people and how it reflects and creates society and culture.  

Understanding these dynamics, however, requires more than just an impressionistic, commonsensical understanding of how language works. For example, what is important about language is not so much the literal meaning of words, but the connotation of accents, the channels through which people choose to communicate, and the silences and elisions. This course develops skills that enable one to investigate these dynamics in a sophisticated manner, yet one that remains solidly grounded in social and cultural theory.  

This course focuses on investigating the types of societies that occupied Europe in the Bronze Age and the role they played in shaping an emergent European civilization. A range of themes are addressed including patterns of production, exchange, and interaction, the role of warfare, and the exceptional social and economic developments evident in central Europe, the Aegean, and Iberia. Following these thematic treatments, students investigate more critically the nature of Bronze Age societies in Europe by focusing on how the concept of "chiefdoms" has been developed and used by anthropologists and archaeologists. This involves a close look at some Polynesian chiefdoms that have been used as interpretive models to help understand Bronze Age European societies and then specific European case studies focused on Denmark, Wessex in England, and the Munster region in Ireland.

This course examines the way that models of inheritance have impacted upon politics and society over the last two hundred years. It covers the disturbing biopolitical history of genetics right up to the present day, unpacking the relationship between science and politics whenever the idea of breeding better humans has been mooted. 

This seminar introduces the methodological and epistemological underpinnings and contributions of ethnography. The class situates this within a critical and expansive overview of anthropology, including tackling crucial issues raised by feminist, postmodern, indigenous, and decolonial scholars on methods, representation, power, and ethics and how these have shaped the ethnographic practice. To further develop participants' understanding of ethnography, guest speakers share their ethnographies, be it in the form of monograph or film, to open a deeper conversation and reflection on ethnographic strategies, the methodological, ethical, affective, and theoretical challenges they faced, and the potentials and limits of ethnography in understanding, navigating, and addressing pressing issues such as racism, sexism, coloniality, and violence.

This course is the first semester of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, one of the oldest languages in the world. This class focuses on Middle Kingdom hieroglyphs (2055-1650 BC), when many scribes were trained and the writing was notably clear and grammatical. Students begin by learning the ancient Egyptian alphabet and how to write the letters, and go on to learning vocabulary, writing and translation. By the end of this class, students are able to understand, read, and write basic ancient Egyptian sentences; understand basic ancient Egyptian grammar; and read ancient Egyptian historical and biographical texts.

This course is an anthropological account of the culture and social organization of the people of the Middle East, with a special focus on the Arab world. Drawing on ethnographic accounts, visual representations and fieldtrips, it looks into how anthropologists have analyzed the transformation of the various structures – economic, political, social, and cultural – that are taking place in the contemporary period. The course analyzes of contemporary debates in anthropological engagements with and in the Middle East and North Africa. It explores the histories of ethnographic research in the Middle East and North Africa, colonialism and post-independence experiences, power and representation, performance and the arts, religious sensibilities, gender and kinship networks.

Food is far more than sustenance; it is a lens through which we can understand culture, identity, power, and meaning. This course introduces students to the anthropology of food by examining how what we eat, how we eat, and who we eat with shape and are shaped by broader social, political, and economic forces. Drawing on ethnographic studies and classic anthropological theory, the course explores food as a marker of identity and kinship, as a medium for healing and belief, and as a site of moral debate, political struggle, and cultural memory. Through weekly themes, including food and identity, healing, material environments, belief systems, kinship, politics, knowledge, language, science, and conflict, students engage with a range of case studies, from koshary in Egypt to bread and nationalism, from veganism to GMOs, from honey in healing practices to food wars. Readings pair theoretical texts with ethnographic accounts, encouraging students to think critically about food in both global and local contexts.

This course examines the intricate relationship between religion and revolution, exploring how religion can simultaneously serve as a radical, messianic force for social transformation and as a guardian of the existing political order. It engages with foundational anthropological and philosophical texts that examine the intricate relation between revolution, religion and ethics — including works by Evans Pritchard, Marcel Mauss, Walter Benjamin, Victor Turner, Georges Bataille and Talal Asad — as well as writings on more recent revolutionary events, particularly in the Arab world, by authors such as Sami Zubaida, Asef Bayat, Walter Armburst and Alice Wilson (among others). The course addresses the following set of questions: how can anthropology enable us to understand the social (and political) transformations that take place over the course of revolutionary
events and their aftermaths? How have ethnographies examined the effects of revolutionary events on the level of the everyday life of communities that are experiencing them? How do ethnographers as witnesses or observers of revolutionary events (and sometimes as active participants in them) consider their own positionality in their respective field sites and in relation to the communities they wish to study? What kinds of moral and political stakes are involved in such positioning? What can ethnography tell us about our moral and political commitments (and disappointments)? 

This course provides critical insights into counterculture, graffiti, street art, underground, punk, hip-hop, political art collectives, etc. Perspectives of anthropology and culture studies are explored. Seminal readings on subcultures, protests, and new social movements are used to discuss the practices of "alternative" urban lives in post-industrial society and certain trends of artistic production. The focus is on the political interpretation of youth subversion and disclosures of power mechanisms. Visuals and field trips to graffiti and other subcultural sites are a part of this course.