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For the most up to date course descriptions, check the Registrar's Office Anthropology Course Descriptions Page. The Anthropology Schedules Page has current information on what courses are available.
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Introductory
21A.100 Introduction to Anthropology Through the comparative study of different cultures, anthropology explores fundamental questions about what it means to be human. Seeks to understand how culture shapes societies, from the smallest island in the South Pacific to the largest Asian metropolis, and affects the way institutions work, from scientific laboratories to Christian mega-churches. Provides a framework for analyzing diverse facets of human experience, such as gender, ethnicity, language, politics, economics, and art.
21A.109 How Culture Works This course explores the diverse meanings, uses, and abuses of the concept of culture using historical materials and contemporary examples from around the globe. The word ‘culture' is used liberally to indicate practices, symbols and representations ranging from very specific attributions that a piece of clothing is a cultural practice to elusive claims that concern about the environment is a cultural tradition. Often, however, the word culture can stand for something like race, class, religion, and other ways in which people and groups differ. The course analyzes contemporary representations of ‘culture' in popular media and scholarly disciplines (e.g., economics, political science, history, medicine, literary studies, sociology, and anthropology). Topics include but are not limited to discussions of molecularization of race, of the human body, human rights, indigenous movements, safety cultures, cultural capital, media, and consumer culture.
21A.113J The Supernatural in Music, Literature and Culture (Freshman Experience class) Explores the relationship between music and the supernatural, focusing on the social history and context of supernatural beliefs as reflected in key literary and musical works from 1600 to the present. Provides a better understanding of the place of ambiguity and the role of interpretation in culture, science and art. Explores great works of art by Shakespeare, Verdi, Goethe (in translation), Gounod, Henry James and Benjamin Britten. Readings will also include selections from the most recent scholarship on magic and the supernatural. Writing assignments will range from web-based projects to analytic essays. No previous experience in music is necessary. Projected guest lectures, musical performances, field trips. Enrollment limited. Social Anthropology
21A.212 Myth, Ritual, and Symbolism How people make sense of their worlds symbolically through myth, ritual, metaphor, and cosmology. The structure of symbols, the natural and social elements they draw on, their social use, and the messages they convey. Students learn to record and analyze myth and ritual.
21A.215 Disease and Health: Culture, Society, and Ethics Examination of how medicine is practiced cross-culturally, with particular emphasis on western biomedicine. Analysis of medical practice as a cultural system, focusing on the human, as opposed to the biological, side of things. Also examines how we and people in other cultures think of disease, health, body, and mind. Enrollment limited. Enrollment limited. 21A.216J Dilemmas in BioMedical Ethics: Playing God or Doing Good?
21A.218J Identity and Difference Subject examines several theoretical perspectives on human identity and focuses on processes of creating categories of acceptable and deviant identities; how identities are formed, how behaviors are labeled, and how people enter deviant roles and worlds; and responses to differences and strategies for coping with these responses. Subject material describes how identity and difference are inescapably linked. Enrollment limited.
21A.219J Law and Society Law is a common and yet special feature of everyday life in modern societies. Subject studies legal reasoning, types of law and legal systems, and relationships of law to social class and social change. Emphasis on the profession and practice of law including legal education, stratification within the bar, and the politics of legal services. Investigation of emerging issues in the relationship between institutions of law and science. Enrollment limited. Enrollment limited. 21A.225J Violence, Human Rights, and Justice
21A.226 Ethnic and National Identity An introduction to the cross-cultural study of ethnic and national identity. We explore the history of nationalism, focusing on ideologies about the nation-state, and look at ways gender, religious and racial identities intersect with ethnic and national ones. Ethnic conflict is examined, along with the emergence of social movements and the ways culture can become highly politicized. Finally, we discuss the effects of globalization, migration, and transnational institutions. Enrollment limited. Enrollment limited.
21A.228 Practicum in Global Health and Development Provides training for students to critically analyze the relationship between ?health? and ?development.? Draws upon the theory and methods of medical anthropology, social medicine, public health, and development to track how culture, history, and political economy influence health and disease in global communities. Students work in teams to formulate research questions, and collect and analyze qualitative data in clinical and community settings in the greater Boston area, in order to design effective development interventions aimed at reducing health disparities in the US and abroad. 21A.229 Introduction to Disability in Local and Global Contexts Challenges common assumptions of what disability is. Considers broader questions through the lens of disability, about international development, human rights, citizenship, identity, and community formation. Students read diverse texts, such as human rights documents, ethnographies, autobiographies, and social theory. Discusses whether a universal disability experience exists, as well as issues and tensions involved in writing about and representing disability.
21A.232J Rethinking the Family, Sex, and Gender Cross-cultural case studies introduce students to the anthropological study of the social institutions and symbolic meanings of family, gender, and sexuality. Investigates the different forms families and households take and considers their social, emotional, and economic dynamics. Analyzes how various expectations for, and experiences of, family life are rooted in or challenged by particular conceptions of gender and sexuality. Addresses questions surrounding what it means to be a "man" or a "woman," as well as a family member, in different social contexts. 21A.235 American Dream: Exploring Class in the U.S. Americans have historically preferred to think of the United States in classless terms, as a land of economic opportunity equally open to all. Yet, social class remains a central fault line in the US. Subject explores the experiences and understandings of class among Americans positioned at different points along the US social spectrum. Considers a variety of classic frameworks for analyzing social class and uses memoirs, novels and ethnographies to gain a sense of how class is experienced in daily life and how it intersects with other forms of social difference such as race and gender. 21A.236 What is Capitalism? Introduces academic debates on the nature of capitalism, drawing upon the ideas of scholars as diverse as Adam Smith and Karl Marx. Examines anthropological studies of how contemporary capitalism plays out in people's daily lives in a range of geographic and social settings, and implications for how we understand capitalism today. Settings range from Wall Street investment banks to auto assembly plants, from family businesses to consumer shopping malls. 21A.238 Urban Cultures Designed to help students develop an understanding of the ways in which urban cultures both influence and are a byproduct of everyday life. Examines contemporary urban cultures in America, starting with an exploration of historical and theoretical concepts used to define the city and its growth, with particular attention to how the ecological layout of urban space influences culture. Examines general concepts for understanding interpersonal interaction in the public spaces of the city. Concludes with a survey of how specific cultures influence the social terrain of urban contexts. 21A.242J The Science of Race, Sex, and Gender Examines the role of science and medicine in the origins and evolution of the concepts of race, sex, and gender from the seventeenth century to the present. Focus on how biological, anthropological, and medical concepts intersect with social, cultural, and political ideas about racial, sexual, and gender difference in the US and globally. Approach is historical and comparative across disciplines emphasizing the different modes of explanation and use of evidence in each field.
21A.245J Power: Interpersonal, Organizational and Global Dimensions 21A.252 Memory, Culture, and Forgetting Introduces scholarly debates about the socio-cultural practices through which individuals and societies create, sustain, recall, and erase memories. Emphasis is given to the history of knowledge, construction of memory, the role of authorities in shaping memory, and how societies decide on whose versions of memory are more "truthful" and "real." Other topics include how memory works in the human brain, memory and trauma, amnesia, memory practices in the sciences, false memory, sites of memory, and the commodification of memory. 21A.253 Religion, Violence, and Media Approaches to the socio-cultural study of religion. Provides conceptual tools for analyzing the resilience and diversity of religious experience in the face of large socio-economic and political change. Traces the connections between contemporary religious resurgence and violence, displacement, globalization, economic insecurity, and ethnic and national identity. Cases include Catholic conversion via mass media in the Philippines; a witchcraft epidemic in post-apartheid South Africa; underground Protestantism in the atheist Soviet Union; spiritual shopping in the United States. 21A.265 Food and Culture Explores connections between what we eat and who we are through cross-cultural study of how personal identities and social groups are formed via food production, preparation, and consumption. Organized around critical discussion of what makes "good" food good (healthy, authentic, ethical, etc.). Uses anthropological and literary classics as well as recent writing and films on the politics of food and agriculture. 21A.270 Anthropology through Speculative Fiction Examines how anthropology and speculative fiction (SF) each explore ideas about culture and society, technology, morality, and life in "other" worlds. Investigates this convergence of interest through analysis of SF in print, film, and other media. Covers traditional and contemporary anthropological themes, including first contact; gift exchange; gender, marriage, and kinship; law, morality, and cultural relativism; religion; race and embodiment; politics, violence, and war; medicine, healing, and consciousness; technology and environment. 21A.275 Fun and Games: Cross-Cultural Perspectives Considers the cultural organization of play in different communities and societies. Explores why all people play, how different cultures experience fun, and what particular games mean, if anything. Surveys major theories of play in relation to a variety of play phenomena, such as jokes, video games, children’s fantasies, sports, and entertainment spectacles. As a final project, students develop their own case study.
21A.278 Cultures of Sport Provides students with analytical tools for a deeper understanding of sport and its structural and cultural relationship to society. Explores the historical development of sport in America and the ways in which it parallels the growth and development of other social institutions (e.g., schools); also addresses contemporary issues. Particular attention is given to race, gender, sexuality, economics, and politics. 21A.290 Cross-Cultural Investigations: Practical and Conceptual Issues Enhances cross-cultural understanding through discussion of practical, ethical, and epistemological issues in conducting social science and applied research in foreign countries or unfamiliar communities. Includes research practicum to help students develop interviewing, participant-observation, and other qualitative research skills, as well as critical discussion of case studies. Open to all interested students, but intended particularly for those planning to undertake exploratory research or applied work abroad.
Technology in Cultural Context 21A.330 Reproductive Politics and Technologies Examines through comparative case studies how cultural, moral, and political values give meaning to human reproductive events and inform people's uses of medical technologies. Focuses on how technological mediations of fertility, pregnancy and birth (e.g., contraception, abortion, in vitro fertilization, prenatal testing, etc.) offer opportunities for the formation of gender and kinship, the reproduction of social inequalities, and the implementation of national population and international development agendas. Considers how bioethical evaluation of reproductive technologies might take into account the motivations and experiences of actual users. 21A.335J Language and Technology Examines cultural patterns of verbal interaction with a particular focus on communication technologies such as writing, telephones, cell phones, text messaging, instant messaging, and mass media. Introduces basic theories and methods primarily used in linguistic anthropology to analyze face-to-face talk, and applies them to situations of technological mediation in which interaction is discontinuous in space and/or time. Students apply these approaches to their own research projects. 21A.337 Documenting Culture How -- and why -- do people seek to capture life on film? What can we learn from their work? We examine the motives of documentary and ethnographic filmmakers, including curiosity about exotic peoples, concern with documentary as a form of science, and an interest in capturing the truth about cultural life. Students view documentaries about people in the US and abroad, examining the relationship between film images and "reality," tensions between art and observation, and the ethical relationship between filmmakers and those they film. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.
21A.339J DV Lab: Documenting Science through Video and New Media Introductory exploration of documentary film theory and production, focusing on documentaries about science, engineering, and related fields. Students engage in digital video production as well as social and media analysis of science documentaries. Readings drawn from social studies of science as well as from documentary film theory. Uses documentary video making as a tool to explore the worlds of science and engineering, as well as a tool for thinking analytically about media itself and the social worlds in which science is embedded. Class includes a lab component devoted to digital video production in addition to class time. Enrollment limited. 21A.340J Technology and Culture 21A.341J Energy Decisions, Markets, and Policies Structured around choices and constraints regarding sources and uses of energy by households, firms, and governments. Introduces managerial, economic, political, social and cultural frameworks for describing and explaining behavior at various levels of aggregation; includes examples of cost-benefit, organizational and institutional analyses of energy generation, distribution, and consumption. Topics include the role of markets and prices; financial analysis of energy-related investments; institutional path dependence; economic and political determinants of government regulation and the impact of regulation on decisions; other forms of government action and social norms regarding desired behavior and opportunities for businesses and consumers, including feedback into the political/regulatory system. Examples drawn from a wide range of countries and settings. 21A.342 Environmental Struggles
21A.344J Drugs, Politics,
and Culture 21A.345 The Politics of International Development Offers an anthropological perspective on international development. Students consider development, not in policy or technical terms, but through its social and political dynamics and its impacts on daily life. Examines the various histories of, and meanings given to, international development as well as the social organization of aid agencies and projects. Follows examples of specific projects in various parts of the world. Examples: water projects for pastorialists in Africa, factory development in Southeast Asia, and international nature parks in Indonesia. 21A.348 Photography and Truth Photographs in anthropology serve many purposes: as primary data, illustrations of words in a book, documentation for disappearing cultures, evidence of fieldwork, material objects for museum exhibitions, and even works of art. Topics include the relationships between subject and treatment of image, between art and photography and ethnographic documentation, the role of a museum photograph and its caption, the social practice of "taking pictures" and a case study of photographing women in the Middle East and North Africa. 21A.349J Advanced DV Lab: Documenting Science Through Video and New Media Advanced exploration of documentary film theory and production that offers a social scientific perspective on documentaries about science, engineering, and related fields. Student work focuses on final digital video projects. Discussion and readings tailored to the questions and issues raised by specific student projects; labs focus on the technical skills required to complete more advanced work. Enrollment limited. 21A.350J Cultures of Computing Examines computers anthropologically, as artifacts revealing the social orders and cultural practices that create them. Students read classic texts in computer science along with cultural analyses of computing history and contemporary configurations. Explores the history of automata, automation and capitalist manufacturing; cybernetics and WWII operations research; artificial intelligence and gendered subjectivity; robots, cyborgs, and artificial life; creation and commoditization of the personal computer; the growth of the Internet as a military, academic, and commercial project; hackers and gamers; technobodies and virtual sociality. Emphasis is placed on how ideas about gender and other social differences shape labor practices, models of cognition, hacking culture, and social media. 21A.355J The Anthropology of Biology Applies the tools of anthropology to examine biology in the age of genomics, biotechnological enterprise, biodiversity conservation, pharmaceutical bioprospecting, and synthetic biology. Examine such social concerns such as bioterrorism, genetic modification, and cloning. Offers an anthropological inquiry into how the substances and explanations of biology - ecological, organismic, cellular, molecular, genetic, informatic - are changing. Examines such artifacts as cell lines, biodiversity databases, and artificial life models, and using primary sources in biology, social studies of the life sciences, and literary and cinematic materials, asks how we might answer Erwin Schrodinger's 1944 question, "What Is Life?," today. 21A.360J The Anthropology of Sound Examines the ways humans experience sound and how perceptions and technologies of sound emerge from cultural, economic, and historical worlds. Consider how the sound/noise boundary has been imagined, created, and modeled across sociocultural and scientific contexts. Learn how environmental, linguistic, and musical sounds are construed cross-culturally as well as the rise of telephony, architectural acoustics, sound recording, and the globalized travel of these technologies. Questions of sound ownership, property, authorship, and copyright in the digital age are also addressed. 21A.370J Art, Craft, Science Examines how people learn, practice, and evaluate traditional and contemporary craft techniques. Social science theories of design, embodiment, apprenticeship learning, skill, labor, expertise, and tacit knowledge are used to explore distinctions among art, craft, and science. Also discusses the commoditization of craft into market goods, collectible art, and tourism industries. Ethnographic and historical case studies include textiles, Shaker furniture, glassblowing, quilting, cheesemaking, industrial design, home and professional cooking, factory and laboratory work, CAD/CAM. Demonstrations, optional field trips, and/or hands-on craft projects may be included. 21A.385 Becoming Experts Examines how people acquire the skills necessary to perform expert activities, using apprenticeship as a subject and method for anthropological research. Case studies cover theories of learning and their application in a wide range of domains, from medical imaging, lawyering, and navigating a warship to capoeira, dance, and jazz piano. Students conduct ethnographic and experiential activities, generating original data for analysis. 21A.390J People and Other Animals Historical exploration of the ways that people have interacted with their closest animal relatives, for example: hunting, domestication of livestock, worship of animal gods, exploitation of animal labor, scientific study of animals, display of exotic and performing animals, and pet-keeping. Themes include changing ideas about animal agency and intelligence, our moral obligations to animals, and the limits imposed on the use of animals. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.
Area and Historical Studies21A.430J Introduction to Latin American Studies Introduction to contemporary reality of multi-cultural, multi-ethnic peoples of Latin America. Organized around six topics: indigenous identity and struggle, nineteenth-century liberalism and current crisis of the liberal nation-state, Afro-Americans in Brazil and Cuba, democratization and worker's movements in contemporary Brazil, the new urbanization and women's activism (case study - Mexico City), and the Latino-Americanization of the US. Major emphasis on the period from 1970 to present but certain units explore historical antecedents as far back as late eighteenth century. Enrollment limited. Enrollment limited. 21A.470J Gender and Representation of Asian Women 21A.475 Cultures and Political Economies of East Asia Advanced Undergraduate
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