Anthropology

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.  

This course consists of further reading of Egyptian texts with an introduction to the new Egyptian language of the later periods of Pharaonic history. In order to introduce students to epigraphy, they are required to copy and study texts from the Cairo Museum. This is the fourth installment of the two-year sequence spent learning the signs, vocabulary, and grammar of Ancient Egyptian. Regular class attendance, active participation, and weekly assignments are crucial for grasping the material. Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the material before coming to class.

This course focuses on addressing events and challenges that arise when living in a foreign cultural environment. By examining the differences between living in one's home country and living a foreign culture, the course explores effective strategies to adapt to intercultural settings. The class will provide an opportunity for students to introduce their culture; analyze the differences between their culture and Japanese culture, and present their findings. The course aims to provide the skills to live respectfully in any intercultural context, while valuing and respecting the cultures of others.

This course conveys insight into the cognitive mechanisms and representations underpinning human meaning-making. The course presents an overview of the cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in human meaning-making, including conceptual metaphor theory, image schemas, framing, and blending. The theories employed stem from cognitive science, cognitive psychology, cognitive linguistics, and semiotics. The course also provides insight into the relationship between meaning-making and perception, as well as sensory-motor experience. Additionally, it seeks to give students a general understanding of what meaning is, regardless of whether it is expressed in language, images, or speech, or manifests itself through perception. Finally, this course provides the general theoretical tools required to analyze specific cognitive and cultural phenomena. The course is adapted to accommodate the diverse backgrounds of the students.

This course examines the human being as a philosophical problem. It analyzes the most important anthropological models of Western thought in the 19th and 20th centuries, from the distinction between philosophy and science. This course explores the debate on the present and future of the human creature in the thinking and trends of the 21st century.

This course provides an in-depth exploration of Jordan’s culinary traditions and their connections to culture, history, and identity. The course combines a historical/anthropological approach with an overview of contemporary practices around food in Jordan to understand evolving notions of cuisine within its national culture (lifestyles, techniques, media, and representations). While Jordan’s cuisine once aggregated local and imported traditions as national in nature, it has seemingly undergone a reverse process since the start of the twenty-first century, diversifying into multiple contexts (and recipes) under the pressure of factors such as affordability, politics, and social media. This course fosters a comparative approach around the preparation of food and related rituals, offering direct experiences of Jordan cuisine as it is thought about, prepared, served, and received.

This course offers an in-depth exploration of cultural diversity in Oceania by analyzing the complex interplay among colonial encounters, postcolonial impacts, Indigenous epistemologies, and identity formation. It approaches these themes through the lens of the ocean, which has historically shaped connections, migration, trade, and cultural exchange across the region. Through theoretical discussions, case studies, ethnographic readings, and multimedia materials, the course examines how various colonial histories have influenced Indigenous societies and their ways of knowing, being, and relating.

The United Kingdom is not known for its great cuisines, despite this there is a rich and varied tradition of regional food, food that has been 'adopted' and adapted to the British palate. Food in the UK mirrors the history of colonialism, global trade, and immigration. There has been a rediscovery of local and regional foods with a renewed interest in the production of food, slow food, and a move against over processing. Preparation and consumption of food gives valuable insight into the local culture, history, and society.  
 

This course provides an examination of the cultural frameworks and social aspects of kinship systems, gender roles, personhood and human sexuality, analyzed through ethnographic examples from a diverse range of settings. It aims to equip students with the analytical tools to engage in theoretical debates concerning core concepts such as kinship, marriage, gender, sex, the person, and the relationship between nature and culture, as well as exploring how the experiences of kinship, sex and gender vary according to the regimes of politics, law and materiality in which they are embedded. The course charts the history of anthropological debates on kinship, relatedness, sex and gender, and familiarizes students with a range of contemporary approaches to these themes, placing ethnographic materials into a critical dialogue with recent developments in feminist theory, queer theory, the anthropology of colonialism, cognitive science, and psychoanalysis.