Anthropology

This course examines the evolution and cultural significance of three staple foods of Italian cuisine, bread, wine, and olive oil, from their ancient roots in the Mediterranean to their role in the enogastronomic traditions of Tuscany. The course traces the origins of these products in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, and their changing symbolic and cultural meaning across time, from ancient Roman and early Christian civilizations to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Students discuss their contribution to the definition of an Italian national identity and their place in today's food culture. For the study of bread and pasta in modern Italy, students look at the industrialization of wheat growing and of bread and pasta-making techniques, countered by the recent revival of heritage grains, especially in Tuscany. The analysis of Italian wine culture addresses the industrialization of wine production in Italy and the natural wine movement, with a specific focus on wine production in Tuscany. Finally, olive oil is studied from a symbolic, agricultural, and dietary perspective. Comparative tastings of ancient and modern grain breads, of conventional and natural wine, as well as of traditional Tuscan organic olive oil and commercial oil, are part of the class. Field trips to mills, farms, and food sites complement the class contents.

This is a special studies course involving an internship with a corporate, public, governmental, or private organization, arranged with the Study Center Director of Liaison Officer. Specific internships vary each term and are described on a special study project form for each student. A substantial paper or series of reports is required. Units vary depending on the contact hours and method of assessment. Graded P/NP only.

This course focuses on cultural difference and identity in an era in which the nation seems to lose its unifying significance in matters of personal identity and group identity formation. It analyzes how globalization influences identity and culture and the ways in which these interact with social differences, gender, ethnicity, religion, and nationality. Students become familiar with theories of globalization and culture such as hybridization, McDonaldization, the clash of civilizations, and concepts such as orientalism, occidentalism, and multiculturalism. Its orientation is both practical and theoretical. 

Food is fundamental to survival and a powerful lens with which to view social realities. Social groups are reproduced by activities such as eating together whilst food practices are constrained by inequitable access to material resources and subject to intense moral scrutiny. This course provides a broad introduction to the study of food and eating in the social sciences, particularly sociology and anthropology, and why they are now high on many countries’ policy agendas. Taking an historical and international approach, students explore innovative social scientific contributions to the study of global challenges including dietary health, food poverty, and sustainability.

Clothing, tools, technologies, and architecture, the physical or material realm is central to cultural processes and cultural expression. This course examines approaches to the study of material culture and technology through discussion of theoretical approaches and the examination of case studies covering topics that may include vernacular architecture, clothing (the t-shirt), pottery, folk costume, museum display, cars, and student material culture. The course examines the study and documentation of material culture as an entry point to cultural analysis in disciplines such as folklore, ethnology, and anthropology. The course locates material culture studies within folklore and cognate disciplines, considering the physical or material realm as central to cultural processes and cultural expression. It approaches the study of material culture through discussion of theoretical approaches and the examination of case studies covering topics that include vernacular, traditional and contemporary material culture.

This course examines systems of meanings and practices that evolved around notions of love, body, and emotions across time and place, and their political significance. In particular, the cross-cultural perspective will demonstrate the intimate associations of these ‘private emotions and desires’ with social structures such as gender, class, ethnicity, and religion. It examines both the reproductive role of ideologies about love and intimacy in different societies, as well as their transformative potential. The questions that will be raised in class include: Do bodily and emotional experiences of intimacy differ across cultures? What shape the economic and social formations of intimate relationships such as love and friendship? What does it mean to say that romantic love is an ideology? What have our desires got to do with social order? Why are some emotions and desires taboo? And is our body a product of nature or culture?