Courses: Summer 2003

 

SESSION C

FIELD STUDIES

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Session C June 23-August 15

Anthro 1: Introduction to Physical Anthropology
Ray,E
This course provides students with an overview of the major research topics in the field of Physical Anthropology, one of the major sub-disciplines within the science of Anthropology.  The primary purpose of Physical Anthropology is to understand how humans relate to the natural world, how we came to be.  As such, in this course, we will examine the evolution of our species.  The course examines the biological bases of life, the processes and patterns of evolution, and evolutionary theory.  It addresses the status of our species within the Primate order, both the living and extinct species, to provide an overview of our evolutionary heritage and an understanding of the evolutionary dynamics which have produced modern human biodiversity. The lectures are the primary source of information for the course: make sure you attend each class!  There will be two mid-term exams and a final exam.  You should plan on attending all lectures, and you will need to do the readings as assigned. Required Text:  Introduction to Physical Anthropology, 8th Edition.  Robert Jurmain, Harry Nelson, Lynn Kilgore, and Wenda Trevathan.  Wadsworth Publishing, Co. USA, 2000.

Anthro 2: Introduction to Archaeology
Atalay,S
Archaeology is an enormously complex and wide ranging field, encompassing the entire range of human experience, from the emergence of the first humans up to contemporary urban life. Its mission includes 3 components: (1) to increase knowledge about the lifeways of past peoples through the study of material culture, including written records, (2) to preserve that material culture and our knowledge about it for future generations, and (3) to educate the public about the knowledge gained through archaeological endeavors.  We cannot possibly complete a comprehensive study of the ways archaeologists address these components in eight weeks, however this course will provide an overview of the techniques, methods, and theories of anthropological archaeology, including a brief history of past theoretical approaches within the discipline.    Through interactive lectures and in-class discussions we will learn how archaeologists use material culture to investigate the lives and practices of past peoples.  Some of the topics to be addressed include archaeological approaches to the study of social and political relations, such as gender, power and kinship; economic practices, including food, crafts, and trade; and other important aspects of daily life such as music, art, spiritual practices and ideology.  We will examine the role archaeology plays in contemporary sociopolitical issues including nationalism, identity, local and global development, multiculturalism, and (de-)colonization processes.  Particular attention will  be placed on effective approaches for making archaeological work accessible to diverse public audiences.  The course will be oriented as much toward students with a general curiosity and interest in the human past and the ways archaeologists attempt to gain knowledge of that past, as toward students who will become eventual anthropology/archaeology majors. Requirements:  There will be one in-class midterm exam and a final exam, and 3 take-home exercises.  Participation in discussion section is mandatory. This course is specifically designed with a concern for effective pedagogical methods in mind.  In an effort to improve lifelong learning skills, students must also complete 3 (ungraded) knowledge assessments and a short self-reflective paragraph related to learning style. Required Texts: Discovering Our Past:  A Brief Introduction to Archaeology (Wendy Ashmore and Robert Sharer) Exploring the Past:  Readings in Archaeology (James M. Bayman and Miriam T. Stark)

Anthro 3: Introduction to Social Cultural Anthropology
Kliger
How does culture impact and shape what is understood as the natural or normative behaviors of "the human"? How for example, is culture written on or expressed through individual bodies and practices as well larger collective arrangements? In order to understand the relation between culture and the individual and collective, one can analyze social and cultural institutions throughout the world, with an eye towards examining both cross-cultural and intra-cultural differences.  This examination of "difference" through cross-cultural comparison is what renders anthropology invaluable in understanding human societies.  In general, sociocultural anthropology deals with such questions as "what is culture?" "what is the individual?" by looking at ritual, symbols, institutions, kinship systems, ethnicity, race, nationalism and processes of globalization and transnationalism.  Specifically in this course, we will examine the changing conceptions of ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, kinship; the practices of law and science; and finally, notions of governmentality and modernity.  In our exploration, we will read ethnographies from around the world, including some works that are US based.

Anthro 106: Primate Social Behavior
Ray,E
This course will present and discuss major issues surrounding the social lives of the members of the Primate order.  We will begin with an overview of primate taxonomy, ecology, life history theory, and models of primate social systems.  Thereafter, we examine specific topics of interest within Primatology, such as: kinship, social cognition, sexual selection, cooperation, social conflict, and communication.  Finally, we will discuss the question of culture in nonhuman primates.  Throughout the course, we will examine specific primate taxa.  We will examine each species presented in light of theoretical concerns, life history parameters, and the social world each species constructs for itself.

Anthro 145: Urban Anthropology
Naqvi,T	Day, Time, and Enrollment Info Available Soon
This upper division seminar will provide an introduction to modern cities from a variety of ethnographic and theoretical perspectives.  Emphasis will be given on how inequality, power relations, violence, citizenship, and structural forces of globalization relate to constitute urban space and subjects.  Using a range of contemporary ethnographies on western and non-western cities, its broader aim is to employ the city as a 'method', whereby traditional anthropological questions of cross-cultural comparison can be approached through a critical framework of global modernity.

Anthro 160: Forms of Folklore
Agozzino,M
The study of Folklore is interdisciplinary and international by nature. While its scholarly roots historically parallel developments in European Romanticism and Nationalism, in the 21st-century folklorists recognize that folklore can be particularly useful to understanding issues of identities, in cross-cultural comparisons, and as a window to a folkloristic worldview. This course is intended as an introduction to the major and minor forms of folklore and to the basic methodologies and theoretical approaches of Folkloristics. We shall examine several genres, including games, jokes, customs, superstitions, folk music and songs, as well as narrative forms, with special emphasis on contemporary legends. There will be midterm and final examinations, and students will undertake a project, to be presented to the class, drawing on archived texts and empirical data. No prerequisites. Required texts: Jan H. Brunvandis The Mexican Pet: More "New" Urban Legends and Some Old Favorites (1986); also by Brunvand, The Study Of American Folklore (1997); and Alan Dundes' International Folkloristics (1999).

Anthro 162: Special Topics in Folklore: "The Fairy Tale"
Conrad,J
What is a Fairy Tale? There are many divergent answers to this, but chances are you would answer by giving an example of a "common" fairy tale, that is, one that is commonly recognized in contemporary U.S. mainstream culture as being a fairy tale,  most likely Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. And here begins one of the tasks of this class—to sort out the complicated sets of interrelationships and relays between traditional folk material, literary fairy tales, and the film and TV adaptations that have entered our purview and shaped our knowledge of these narratives. Any individual fairy tale text exists in a complicated intertextual relationship with all other texts, and the semiotic potency of fairy tales, their polysemous nature, which is part of their enduring popularity, derives from this intertextuality. Themes jump around, and mix and remix, lending themselves to different meanings in different historical and social contexts. In fact, the notion of metamorphosis, so central to any defining characteristic of the fairy tale, can also be seen to be reflected in the shape-shifting quality of the fairy tale structure itself. The semiotic potential in fairy-tale motifs is so well enculturated that we understand a fragmentary reference to a "fairy-tale romance" or to a "Cinderella team's victory." And it is the taken-for-granted nature of these allusions, their commonly-accessible meaning that makes the fairy tale a productive site for cultural analysis. While fairy tales are based on a traditional foundation of narrative themes, motifs that are arranged into tale types, the specifics of each re-telling are historically and culturally bound, and a comparison of the differences as well as the similarities across tellings and across time and space can reveal complicated discourses on gender and familial relationships, class structure, and sexuality. In fact, the abstracted "once upon a time" and the exaggerated phantasmagoric settings of the fairy tale open up these discourses, providing an optative "what if" escapist mood; a metaphorical, distanced discussion of "reality;" as well as an opportunity to reinscribe social boundaries in more blatant didactic renditions. This class attempts to locate fairy tales in their literary, social, and historical contexts, while at the same time attempting to employ the theoretical approaches to fairy tale that have emerged from folkloristics, literary theory, and the study of children's literature in order to analyze the possible range of meanings that have been assigned to different tales.

Anthro 184: Anthropology of South Asia
Sadana,R
This course will consider the cultural politics of identity in South Asia, focusing on categories such as nation, caste, class, religion, language, and gender in colonial and postcolonial contexts. By doing so, we will critically examine the creation of diverse 'modernities' in South Asia. We will ask questions such as: How has 'tradition' been formulated to counter what is deemed 'modern'? Is what is 'modern' something to be noted outside of one's self--in the street or in the marketplace--or is it about the way individuals perceive themselves? The course readings will include ethnography, social theory, and literature, and we will watch a variety of documentaries as well as a few feature films.

Anthro 188: Topics in Area Studies: "Eastern Europe--Life After Socialism"
Blank,D
This course is designed for upper-division undergraduates (in anthropology or related fields) interested in understanding the complex processes of change currently taking place in the formerly socialist Eastern Europe and the countries of the Soviet bloc, and the ways these unprecedented changes are affecting people's lives.  We will approach the field of post-socialist studies from a distinctly anthropological perspective: that is, one that emphasizes daily experience and practices, and that takes as its goal a deeper comprehension of how post-socialist lives are experienced and understood by those living them, and of how a sense of personhood takes shape in the context of these lives.  In so doing, we will look closely at emerging forms of nationalism, gender relations, language use, production and consumption, identification with place, and emigration and diaspora.  The course materials draw from recent ethnographic writing, interviews, fiction, and films, and are grounded in a broad range of post-socialist settings, including (although not limited to) Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, Mongolia, and even the United States.  We will devote our attention, as well, to places often stunningly overlooked in examinations of post-socialist life: Chechnya, Yugoslavia, and other locales left war-torn in the wake of--or as a legacy of--socialism.

Field Studies

Anthro N133.1: Archaeological Field Methods: The Campus Conservatory
Wilkie	June 2-June 27
This field school will take place on the University of California campus.  We will be investigating the location of the campus' Conservatory, built in 1870, as well as a series of astronomical observatories and classroom buildings that were used on the campus from the late 19th to middle 20th century.  Because we will be teaching the course on campus, we will be able to utilize campus resources, thus students will be exposed to documentary research in addition to excavation and laboratory analysis. Since the site is local and there is no field camp to establish, an application is not necessary.  However, enrollment is limited and students must contact Professor Wilkie in advance providing contact information.

Anthro N133.2: Archaeological Field Methods: Formative Period Archaeology in Honduras
Joyce	June 2-June 27
This four-week program provides an intensive introduction to field practice in archaeology.  The summer session is part of a long-term research project in the Ulua River Valley of northwest Honduras, directed by Rosemary A. Joyce, Professor of Anthropology, and Professor John S. Henderson of Cornell University, under the sponsorship of the Honduran Institute for Anthropology and History. The Ulua River Valley is a 2400 square kilometer area of tropical lowlands that was located on the eastern edge of the world of the Classic Maya (ca. AD 250-1000).  The summer excavations will focus on investigation of the Formative period (dating to 1600-800 BC).  Emphasis will be on the process of excavation and data recording, but students will also be introduced to research design, mapping, and laboratory analysis of artifacts, especially pottery.  In addition to formal instruction in archaeology, the program allows time for a weekend excursion to the classic Maya city, Copan, famous for its palaces, temples, royal portraits in stone and written texts (costs for this optional side trip are not included).  Participants will also be able to use free time to explore the Caribbean coast of Honduras or the mountainous areas surrounding the Ulua River's floodplains. This is a physically demanding program involving excavation in conditions of high heat and humidity.  Participant living conditions, in a modest hotel, are simple and require an ability to adapt to more primitive facilities than are the norm in the US. Accomodations will be shared with other participants.  Honduras is a Spanish-speaking country, and knowledge of Spanish, while not required, is helpful.  Background course work in archaeology and the prehistory of Mexico and Central America is helpful but not required. Program costs Students will enroll in Anthropology N133 through the Berkeley Summer Session, paying the course registration fee.  In addition, a fee of $900 will be charged for the costs of lodging in Honduras.  You will not include this $900 on your summer sessions registration form;  instead, accepted applicants will be given instructions on how to pay this fee. The lodging cost is for shared double room; arrangements for single rooms are possible with payment of a supplement. Students considering this course will also have to budget for costs of travel to the field site in Honduras and for meals and optional weekend travel.  San Pedro Sula is the site of an international airport, served by a number of airlines, including American, Continental, and Taca. Daily meal costs can be quite modest, from $2 a day, or as much as $20 for dinner at one of the best restaurants in San Pedro Sula on the weekend. Using an estimate of $10/day, food costs should cost around $280 for the field season. The field school includes two weekends, one of which can be spent on a field trip to the Classic Maya site, Copan (costs not included; allow $100). Optional travel to the Caribbean coast or ecotourism resorts such as Lake Yojoa or the Cusuco rainforest preserve, where quetzal birds can be seen, should be estimated at $50-$100 per weekend. Application Applications for the program will be accepted through the end of April;  selection of students will begin March 15, so early application is advised as enrollment is limited.  Accepted applicants should contact the Summer session to register after notification of acceptance from Professor Joyce.

Anthro N133.3: Archaeological Field Methods:California Archaeology: Fort Ross
Lightfoot	June 16-July 11
This course is an introduction to the basic principles of archaeological field methods.  The course will be taught off campus at the Fort Ross State Historic Park, a three hour drive north of the Berkeley campus on the scenic Sonoma County coastline.  Students will participate in an on-going field research project involving the study of prehistoric and historic Native Californian sites in the nearby hinterland of Fort Ross, a mercantile colony established by the Russians in the early nineteenth century (1812-1841).   The research project is a collaborative effort involving participants from the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the Kashaya Pomo tribe, and the University of California, Berkeley.  Students will receive training in survey techniques designed to detect archaeological materials in the field; in methods for recording and mapping archaeological materials; and in strategies for recovering archaeological remains through systematic surface collection and limited subsurface testing.  The ultimate goal of the project is the development of an interpretive trail detailing the culture history of the Kashaya Pomo tribe and their encounters with the Russian colony of Fort Ross.  Lectures will also be given on the ethics of collaborative archaeological field research.  Students will work with Kashaya Pomo elders and tribal scholars in the development of an interpretative master plan for the trail. Students will stay at a field camp in the Fort Ross State Historic Park.  Each student will be charged an additional fee of $500 to cover the costs of establishing the field camp, hiring a cook, buying food and supplies, and covering field charges. Prerequisites:  Anthro 2 (Introduction to Archaeology) required and permission of instructor.  Students must first be approved by the instructor before enrolling.  All students must fill out an application form. Application Deadline: April 30, 2003.

Ph.D. in Anthropology
(Social Cultural / Archaeology)

Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology

Master of Arts in Folklore

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