Sociocultural Anthropology
Please refer to the online directory of courses for times and classroom locations. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/
Registration for fall term 2011: Tuesday, August 30-Thursday, September1
ANTH V1002x The Interpretation of Culture (sec 001) 3 pts. Catherine Fennell. The anthropological approach to the study of culture and human society. Case studies from ethnography are used in exploring the universality of cultural categories (social organization, economy, law, belief system, art, etc.) and the range of variation among human societies.
ANTH V1002x The Interpretation of Culture (sec 002) 3 pts. Stephen Scott. The anthropological approach to the study of culture and human society. Case studies from ethnography are used in exploring the universality of cultural categories (social organization, economy, law, belief system, art, etc.) and the range of variation among human societies.
ANTH V1009x Introduction to Language and Culture 3 pts. Paul Kockelman. This is an introduction to the study of the production, interpretation, and reproduction of social meanings as expressed through language. In exploring language in relation to culture and society, it focuses on how communication informs and transforms the sociocultural environment.
ANTH V2004x Introduction to Social and Cultural Theory 3 pts. Marilyn Ivy. Introduces students to crucial theories of society, paying particular attention to classic social theory of the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Traces a trajectory through writings essential for an understanding of the social: from Saussure, Durkheim, Mauss, Marx, Freud, and Weber, on to the structuralis ethnographic elaboration of Claude Levi-Strauss, the historiographic reflections on modernity of Michel Foucault, and contemporary modes of socio-cultural analysis. Explored are questions of signification at the heart of anthropological inquiry, and to the historical contexts informing these questions. Discussion Section Required.
ANTH V2008x Film and Culture 3 pts. Pegi Vail. How have cultures been represented through film? This course offers a selective introduction to the past and present of ethnographic and documentary filmmaking. It also considers Hollywood depictions of "other" cultures and the growing number of films by directors working within their own communities. Film & Culture joins scholarly and filmmaking sensibilities to examine the relation of cultural identity to portrayal in film.
ANTH V2015x Chinese Society and Culture 3 pts. Myron Cohen. Social organization and social change in China from late imperial times to the present. Major topics include family, kinship, community, stratification, and the relationships between the state and local society.
ANTH V3040x Anthropological Theory I. 4 pts. Brian Larkin. Prerequisite: an introductory course in anthropology. Institutions of social life. Kinship and locality in the structuring of society. Monographs dealing with both literate and nonliterate societies will be discussed in the context of anthropological fieldwork methods. (This course is open to anthropology majors; others require advanced permission of the instructor)
ANTH V3090x Native America (formerly called: Introduction to Native American Studies: Indigenous N. America from 1871to Present) 3 pts. Audra Simpson. This course engages the ways in which the late period of “settlement” in North America relies upon particular forms of knowledge, history-making, law-making and symbolic representation. What are the contemporary implications of this period for Native peoples today? And how do the logics that made settlement “make sense” live within the present? Central to understanding these efforts at history-making is the mastery of concepts that govern the interpretation of the past. Among these critical concepts are the notions of “savagery”, of “civilization”, “property” and “ownership.” These concepts are embedded within the practices of militarism, policy, law and representation-making that work in concert to make Indigeneity in North America known, managed, resisted and expressed in certain ways. Fulfills Global Core requrirements. Enrollment limit is 35.
ANTH V3465x Women and Gender Politics in the Muslim World 3 pts. Lila Abu-Lughod. Practices like veiling that are central to Western images of women and Islam are also contested issues throughout the Muslim world. Examines debates about Islam and gender and explores the interplay of cultural, political, and economic factors in shaping women's lives in the Muslim world, from the Middle East to Southeast Asia.
ANTH V3525x Introduction to South Asian History and Culture. 3 pts. Christina Davis. This course will look at five major aspects of contemporary South Asian society: nationalism, caste, religion, gender, language, and migration and mobility. In addition to providing a criticalhistory of the region, this course will explore debates that have been crucial to society, politics,and nationhood in colonial and post-colonial South Asia. These debates will pertain to suchtopics such as widow burning (sati), caste conversion, gender reform, and the relationshipbetween language and political demarcations. The readings will consist of both primary andsecondary literature.
ANTH V3853x Moving Truths: The Anthropology of Transnational Advocacy Networks. 4 pts. Stephen Scott. Transnational advocacy is an increasingly important dimension of contemporary globalizations, reconfiguring relations of knowledge, power, and possibility across cultures and societies. As sites of enacting expertise, activism, and legality, transnational advocacy networks are crucial for not only making claims and causes mobile across locales, but for making them moving within locales – affective and effective. While transnational advocacy networks are often studied by political scientists, this course focuses on a growing body of anthropological ethnographic research.
ANTH BC3871x Senior Seminar: Problems In Anthropological Research. 4 pts. Instructor's Permission Required. Please note: this course is intended for--and required of-- Barnard seniors. Discussion of research methods and planning and writing of a senior essay accompanies research on problems of interest to students, culminating in the writing of individual senior essays. The advisory system requires periodic consultation and discussion between the student and the adviser as well as the meeting of specific deadlines set by the department.
ANTH V3884x Capitalism and Authoritarianism. 4 pts. Zhanara Nauruzbayeva. This course investigates capitalism developed outside liberal democratic societies. Namely, we will study market capitalism in the societies that are most commonly characterized as authoritarian. In the recent decades, there have been an increasing number of successful market economies such as Singapore or China that flourished within political regimes marked by state intervention, cronyism, and lack of transparency. Authoritarian capitalism appears to provide an ideological alternative to the Western model of capitalism based on liberal democratic governance, as evidenced by the recent embarking of post-Soviet Central Asian countries on this path of development. In this light, our objective is to understand how authoritarian governments enable and promote capitalist economy. At the same time, we keep in sight how capitalist relations promote authoritarian practices. Altogether, this course aims to complicate the expectation that liberal democracy is capitalism’s ideal companion and to develop a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of capitalism in authoritarian societies.
ANTH V3893x The Bomb 4 pts. Karen Seeley. The first part of the course focuses on the history of the creation of the atomic bomb and the aftermath of its use during World War II. We look at the socialization of the scientists involved in the birth of the bomb; at the devastation it wrought in Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and at the physical and psychological injuries that afflicted its survivors, especially the immediate and long-term effects of radiation poisoning and trauma. The course then considers the Cold War period, examining civil defense campaigns, the cultural features of weapons laboratories, and the devastating physical and environmental contamination suffered by communities--disproportionately composed of indigenous populations-where such weapons repeatedly have been tested. The second part of the course explores the transformative cultural and psychological consequences of living with the bomb. Readings consider the evidence of spontaneous psychic adaptations to life in the nuclear age. They also examine governments' deliberate attempts to shape citizens' cognitive and emotional lives. How do states produce political subjects who comply with military imperatives? What role does the continual manufacture of foreign threats and enemies play in this process? While acknowledging the powerful forces that seek to control public perceptions of nuclear arms by minimizing their destructive potential, the course concludes by considering organized resistances to increasing nuclear proliferation and to militarism. Instructor’s permission required. Enrollment limit is 20.
ANTH V3923x Colonialism and the Intellectual 4 pts. Hlonipha Mokoena. This course is a consideration of the choices and dilemmas faced by the category of intellectuals who have been labeled ‘colonial intellectuals’. Enrollment limit is 20.
ANTH V3933x Arabia Imagined 4 pts. Brinkley Messick. Arabia, of Quranic revelation and the sacred precincts of Islam, the site of pilgrimage and the direction of daily prayer for Muslims world-wide. Arabia, of the Queen of Sheba, the Thousand and One Nights, Bedouin poets, and the peninsular novel. Arabia, of Wahhabism and Aljazeera. Organized around primary Arabic texts read in English translations, the course explores the phenomenon of Arabia. Seminar with research paper.
ANTH V3947x Text, Magic, Performance 4 pts. John Pemberton. Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. This course pursues interconnections linking text and performance in light of magic, ritual, possession, narration, and related articulations of power. Readings are drawn from classic theoretical writings, colonial fiction, and ethnographic accounts. Domains of inquiry include: spirit possession, trance states, s�ance, witchcraft, ritual performance, and related realms of cinematic projection, musical form, shadow theater, performative objects, and (other) things that move on their own, compellingly. Key theoretical concerns are subjectivity--particularly, the conjuring up and displacement of self in the form of the first-person singular "I"--and the haunting power of repetition. Retraced throughout the course are the uncanny shadows of a fully possessed subject.
ANTH V3949x Sorcery and Magic 4 pts. Michael Taussig. In considering philosophical, aesthetic, and political aspects of sorcery in contemporary and historical settings, also considers the implications of postmodernism for anthropological theorizing as itself a form of sorcery. Instructor’s permission required. Enrollment limit is 20.
ANTH V3950x Anthropology of Consumption 4 pts. Paige West. Examines theories and ethnographies of consumption as well as the political economy of production and consumption. Compares historic and current consumptive practices, compares exchange based economies with post-Fordist economies. Engages the work of Mauss, Marx, Godelier, Baudrillard, Appadurai, and Douglas among others. Instructor’s permission required. Enrollment limit is 20.
ANTH V3978x Dialogic Imagination in Opera 4 pts. Elaine Combs-Schilling. Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor via email at: mec3. Must state year and major and why you with to join the class. Priority given to upper class anthropology and music majors. Submit e-mail "Request for Admittance Form" obtained from mec3@columbia.edu. Students must attend operas outside class time. Drawing on theories of Bakhtin and Eco, analyzes the production logic of three opera performances in terms of communication media utilized; the class, status and gendered perspectives mobilized; and the devices used to engage or distance the audience. Performance rather then musicological angles stressed. Instructor’s permission required. Enrollment limit is 14.
ANTH V3980x Nationalism: History and Theory 4 pts. Partha Chatterjee. This course will cover the basic readings in the contemporary debate over nationalism. It will cover different disciplinary approaches and especially look at recent studies of nationalism in the formerly colonial world as well as in the industrial West. The readings will offer a mix of both theoretical and empirical studies. The readings include the following: 1) Eric Hobsbawn: Nationalism since 1700; 2) Ernest Gillner: Nations ans Nationalism; 3) Benedict Anderson: Imagined Communities; 4) Antony Smith: The Ethnic Origins of Nations; 5) Linda Coley: Britons; 6) Peter Sahlins: Boundaries and 7) Partha Chatterjee; The Nation and Its Fragments. Prerequisite: intended for seniors but not necessarily anthropology majors. Instructor’s permission required.
ANTH V3989x introduction to Urban Anthropology 4 pts. John Pemberton. This seminar is an introduction to the theory and methods that have been developed by anthropologists to study contemporary cities and urban cultures. Although anthropology has historically focused on the study of non-Western and largely rural societies, since the 1960s anthropologists have increasingly directed attention to cities and urban cultures. During the course of the semester, we will examine such topics as: the politics of urban planning, development and land use; race, class, gender and urban inequality; urban migration and transnational communities; the symbolic economies of urban space; and, street life. Reading will include the work of Jane Jacobs, Sharon Zukin, and Henri Lefebvre. Enrollment limit is 25.
ANTH W3997x Supervised Individual Research Course In Anthropology 2-6 pts. Prerequisite: the written permission of the staff member under whose supervision the research will be conducted.
ANTH V3999x and y Honors Seminar in Anthropology 4 pts. Elaine Combs-Schilling. This is a seminar at which senior anthropology majors will develop a research project and write a thesis in consultation with a professor. Students must have at least a 3.6 GPA in the major and a preliminary project concept. This is a year-long course: A mark given at the end of the first term of a course in which the full year of work must be completed before a qualitative grade is assigned. The grade given at the end of the second term is the grade for the entire course. Instructor’s permission required. Enrollment limit is 17. Before registering, student must sign-up in the anthropology department.
ANTH W4172x Written Culture 3 pts. Brinkley Messick. In recent years, critical reflection has centered on ethnographic writing by anthropologists, but now attention is turning to what James Clifford called “the scratching of other pens.” This seminar treats forms of writing, and reading, as cultural and historical phenomena. In turn-of-the century anthropology, writing was considered the evolutionary “hallmark” of civilization, and a later, comparative approach claimed that the advent of writing “transformed human consciousness.” We will adapt approaches from literacy criticism and anthropological linguistics for the ethnographic and archival study of other textualities. We will examine varying relations with eh spoken or recited word, diverse textual communities, and transformations of written from associated with print and with cyberspace
ANTH W4277x Topics in Anthropology of the Middle East. 3 pts. Nadia Abu El-Haj. In this class, we will read historical and ethnographic studies in tandem with political theory in order to examine questions of the state and the boundaries of group membership in polity, (national-) culture and society in the Modern Middle East. .
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Archaeology
ANTH V1007x The Origins of Human Society 3 pts. Severin Fowles. An archaeological perspective on the evolution of human social life from the first bipedal step of our ape ancestors to the establishment of large sedentary villages. While traversing six million years and six continents, our explorations will lead us to consider such major issues as the development of human sexuality, the origin of language, the birth of “art” and religion, the domestication of plants and animals, and the foundations of social inequality. Designed for anyone who happens to be human. $25.00 mandatory laboratory fee.
ANTH V2014x Archaeology and Africa: Changing Perceptions of the African Past. 3 pts. Zoe Crossland. This course explores the changing perspectives on African archaeology over the last two centuries. We will trace the history of archaeological fieldwork in Africa, looking at archaeology’s relationship to colonialism and European narratives of world history. These will be compared with the ways in which archaeology has been drawn upon in the post-colonial period within nationalist, Afrocentric and postcolonial accounts. Using a variety of archaeological case studies we will look at the key issues in African archaeology today, and assess how these debates have been informed by the particular history of archaeological interpretation in Africa. Topics will include the archaeology of human origins and dispersal out of Africa, the development of farming and the use of metals, the archaeology of African kingdoms and state formation, the colonial encounter, and the archaeology of the African Diaspora. Fulfills Global Core requirement.
ANTH V3918x Sufism in Central Asia 4 pts. Emily O’Dell. This course will explore Sufism in Central Asia under czarist and Soviet rule to the present day from an anthropological perspective. The seminar will begin with a broad overview of the origins and historical development of different Sufi orders throughout Central Asia, particularly the Naqshbandiyya, Yasawiyya and Qadiriyya orders. We will cover Sufism in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Xinjiang and the Caucasus. Emphasis will be placed on the practice of Sufism, the political role of Sufism, Sufi-inspired music, and the multifarious portrayals of Sufis as miraculous healers, elite soldiers, wandering dervishes, indispensible powerbrokers and raving madmen.
ANTH V3922x The Emergence of State 4 pts. Terence D'Altroy. The creation of the earliest states out of simpler societies was a momentous change in human history. This course examines major theories proposed to account for that process, including population pressure, warfare, urbanism, class conflict, technological innovation, resource management, political conflict and cooperation, economic specialization and exchange, religion/ideology, and information processing.
ANHS W4001x The Ancient Empires 3 pts. Clarence Gifford. This course provides a comparative study of five of the world's most prominent ancient empires: Assyria, Egypt, Rome, the Aztecs, and the Inkas. The developmental histories of those polities, and their essential sociopolitical, economic, and ideological features, are examined in light of theories of the nature of early empires and methods of studying them.Global Core.
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Biological/Physical Anthropology
Courses in Biological/Physical Anthropology not offered fall term 2011.
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