Anthropology

The roots of the modern world can be found in ancient Greece and Rome. This course addresses some of the defining and formative aspects of the cultures of modernity (from c.1800 to the present) by comparing them with their ancient origins and equivalents. This comparative model provides the essential structure throughout the module; in each week, a major theme of modern culture/s is considered in relation to its classical equivalent/s, through a combination of lectures, case-studies, screenings and debates, involving teaching staff from a range of Schools. A variety of themes are addressed, such as racism, gender, political discourse, religion, Empires, sexism, high art, war and peace, expertise and education, and popular cultures. No particular previous experience is required for the module which is designed to appeal to students on any degree program.

In 1000 BCE, the Mediterranean and Near East were barely urbanized; in the centuries that followed, a dense network of interconnected cities spanning the region developed. This course explores this transformation by examining changing physical as well as social relations between people, as well as between people and their environments. Students study the rise and fall of the ancient city, including its ecology and domestic politics, and modern debates over ancient urbanism. What existed before cities? Why do cities appear and why do they decline? How do cities relate to the natural world? Is urbanism necessarily linked to inequality? How do cities change when they are integrated into imperial systems? Students explore these questions through a variety of case studies, from tiny trading outposts to megacities like Rome and Alexandria, and a range of types of evidence, such as written histories, inscribed law codes, and the physical remains of the cities themselves.

This course examines assumptions about witchcraft, magic and the dead, as well as introducing students to key anthropological concerns such as ritual, symbolism and religion.

This course introduces definitions, concepts, and debates relating to museums and heritage, and associated cultural organizations and industries. It draws on both theory and contemporary practice to encourage students to think critically and reflexively, and to interrogate the roles of museum and heritage institutions in the past, present and future. It poses questions, such as: What are the different roles played by museums and heritage, and the people who work in these sectors? Who and what are these institutions for? Who do they reach and speak to, and who is excluded or marginalized in the spaces and discourses of museums and heritage? Scholarly texts are combined with policy and industry materials, and lectures and seminars are augmented by visits to museums and heritage sites.

This course examines the way people know, interact with, and care about their environment. This includes interactions with, and the meanings of, (urban) wildlife, climate change studies, biodiversity conservation, and the challenges of natural resource management. In addition, students will develop skills in ethnographic fieldwork.

The course focuses on human skeletal morphology, and the study of physical evidence as a means to resolving issues involving criminal investigations, environment analyses, and assessment. How to identify skeletal remains, both whole and fragmentary, and how to estimate the age, sex, ancestry, and stature of an individual using laboratory and imaging techniques are learned.

This course examines the social and ecological impacts of human activity in the context of a global fossil fuel civilization. Investigating problems of climate change, declining biodiversity, and environmental degradation, it provides an anthropologically
informed perspective on crucial issues at the intersection of ecology, sustainable development, and social activism.

This course examines Pacific Studies and the worlds of Te Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa (The Pacific). Through the study of taonga or cultural treasures drawn from specific cultures and societies, insights into Indigenous Pacific knowledges and practices are developed. Spanning deep history and the contemporary moment, this course provides a critical understanding of change in the Pacific over time and space.

This course introduces students to world history through material culture. The main objects and configurations of material culture, from the body as commodity to cowries as money, are analyzed in this course. Food, drinks, drugs, fabrics, dress, houses, furniture, interior decoration, urban planning, and gardens structure a diversified program. The circulation of objects around the world, in some cases under different materials and forms, opens the way to consider cultural exchange between different civilizations, meaning forms of transfer, contamination, adaptation, and refusal.

This course offers a study of the major themes, theoretical approaches, and authors of Latin American anthropology, societies, and cultures.