Anthropology

This course introduces students to the history, archaeology, art, and texts of Ancient Egypt, from the Paleolithic age to the end of the New Kingdom. It covers the development of low-level food producing communities living in the eastern Sahara, to the emergence and growth of the complex society responsible for the construction of some of the world’s most spectacular and (now) famous monuments such as the pyramids of Giza, and the temples of Karnak and Abu Simbel. The course includes studies of many diverse sources for the history and culture of Egypt, including art and sculpture, administrative, monumental, personal, and religious texts, settlements, temples, and tombs, and material culture such as ceramics, stone tools, wooden artefacts, plants, and animal remains. Additionally, the course introduces students to the history of Egyptology, and archaeology in Egypt. 
 

The course introduces foreign students to Icelandic folk culture past and present: from the folk beliefs implied by the Icelandic sagas to the famous collection of folk tales concerning "hidden people", elves, magicians, seal-folk, ghosts and more which was published by Jón Árnason in 1862-64; the ballads and music enjoyed by the people in the countryside; and the beliefs, behavior, and lifestyles encountered by the somewhat dumbfounded and awe-inspired early foreign travelers to Iceland during the last century. Students are introduced to modern Icelandic traditions and beliefs, from the Christmas men to the "elf stones" that road builders avoid, to the eating of sheep heads, and the continual interest in the supernatural. 

This course examines ecological anthropology, focusing on social and cultural adaptations to different environments, human impact on the environment, cultural constructions of the environment, management of common resources, and conflict over the use of resources.

This course examines anthropological approaches to foodways and agricultural sustainability. It considers how small-scale producers and their communities fulfill their basic needs, and how they relate to the living world, including the plants and animals that are the sources of valued foods. It also undertakes the critical analysis of food movements, food systems and the socio-economic contexts of food provisioning and food production, particularly through ethnography.

The course offers a study of the conceptual framework of cultural heritage, from the theoretical point of view and the application of national and international legislation, to the reality of the expressions present in Chile today. It uses case studies, bibliographic reviews, and practical work in the field, to discuss the problems related to initiatives to safeguard and protect the intangible, material, and natural areas of cultural heritage.

This course focuses on the basic elements of the history of anthropological research in the Americas. It provides a general overview of indigenous America and the tools to begin to undertake an ethnographic analysis of the indigenous Americas. The course is divided into two parts. In the first part, the topic of colonization is discussed, the category of “indigenous” is defined, and the issue of indigenous rights is exposed. In the second part of the course, some contemporary ethnographies are presented to understand the ethnographic analysis of the indigenous Americas.

The human body offers historians a gateway onto understanding the cultures of the past. On this course students examine several groups of objects from the visual culture of medieval Europe and the Middle East through this contemporary theoretical lens, examining how the techniques and society of the medieval craftsman at once idolized and distorted the medieval body's forms. In previous years this course has also featured a study trip to museums and galleries in London to meet with curators and handle objects.

This course provides a study on the social structure of Spain taking into account trends of social inequality, social stratification and mobility, family life, labor markets and new forms of cultural diversity. 

This course examines people and cultures. Women and men, merchants and monks, Christians and Jews all formed the cultures, classes and statuses which constituted late medieval European society. The study themes of this course focus on the means by which ideas, cultures and expectations were constructed and transmitted, and include topics such as healthcare, civic life, the body, gender and sexuality, religious beliefs and practices, otherness, death, political theory, art and architecture, travel.

American sports culture frequently serves as an example of an alleged American exceptionalism; a fact that a relative indifference towards soccer, the exceptional “big four” pro sports leagues, and collegiate sports culture (NCAA) seemingly underline. This course sets out to make sense of and (maybe) trouble the narrative of American exceptionalism by examining the history of modern sports in the United States. We will consider the aesthetic, social, cultural, and political factors that contributed to the development and practice of sports from roughly the middle of the 19th century into our current age. The class will approach sports history with a focus on the relationship between sports and society, i.e. the role that sports has played in shaping ideology and informing popular thought, for example in the context of nationhood and globalization, but also with regard to modern discourses of health and fitness. The ultimate goal of this course is to encourage critically looking at, thinking, and writing about sports as everyday practice and as a professional field, as connected to discourses of health and (the pursuit of) happiness, as media event and content, and as a prominent repository of liberal narratives of meritocracy.