Anthropology

Self-identified indigenous peoples inhabit all continents except Antarctica and struggle against oppressive inequality, ethnocidal assimilation and genocidal extermination by the settler societies, colonial/neocolonial/postcolonial developmental states and national populations that surround them.  Nevertheless, the local/global contexts of their struggles differ substantially.  What are the political consequences and effects of grouping together into a global category, for example, the Saami in Scandinavia, the Yanomami of Brazil, India’s adivasi, and Australian Aborigines?  This course will survey the global history of the discourse of indigeneity and some local political contexts of indigenous peoples.  The aim will be to try to understand relevant commonalities and also important differences among indigenous struggles across the world, though our primary focus will be on indigenous peoples in Brazil and Latin America.  Themes will include racism and ethnic discrimination, extractivism and clashes over large-scale economic development projects, human rights and international organizations, and political self-determination and the politics of state recognition.  As this semester coincides with COP30 in Belém, Brazil, we will spend some weeks on questions of eco-politics and indigenous participation in climate change negotiations. 

This course examines the central role and distinctive value of ethnographic fieldwork in the practice of anthropology and generation of new knowledge, as well as how socio-economic, cultural, historical and political contexts shape the practice of ethnographic fieldwork in different settings. It covers the role and contribution anthropologists make to public, private and non-governmental sectors. 

This course is designed to train students in the basic skills of archaeological post-excavation, processing, and results dissemination. It explains the varied methods used by archaeologists to analyze and process different types of archaeological material and provide experience in a number of necessary skills. These skills may include washing and numbering of artifacts, basic conservation, artifact illustration and cataloguing, sample washing and sorting, sample sieving, sample flotation, inking-up and digitizing of excavation drawings. This course includes standard lectures, laboratory-based talks, physical demonstrations, and hands-on experience. The course also explores how and where to publish results, and interaction with the media and the public.

This course introduces the major themes in world prehistory through a global and comparative approach, focusing on the great evolutionary, behavioral, and cultural transitions or “revolutions” in our common past, beginning with the appearance of the first material culture record (the world’s earliest stone tools, dating 3.3 million years ago).  

Considering how power and violence, socio-political stratification, economies and trade, technological innovation, and especially ideology shaped human societies, the course addresses the following periods:  

• The hominin evolution and behavior during the Lower Paleolithic period 

• The first migrations of Homo erectus out of Africa  

• The evolution of archaic humans and their behavior (Middle Paleolithic period), and the emergence of anatomically modern humans and their interactions with archaic humans (Neanderthals and Denisovans). 

• The behavioral revolution of the Upper Paleolithic and the transition from hunting-gathering to village life and farming.  

• The emergence of socio-political complexity, the development of chiefdoms, and formation of state-level societies in the New World and the Old World, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica. 

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.