DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY

Winter 2021 Class Schedule

*Starred courses required of all majors 

Winter quarter 2021 course descriptions 

ANTHRO 213-0 - Human Origins

Anthropology is a holistic analysis of the human condition. The study of human origins, or paleoanthropology, is a sub-field of physical anthropology that focuses on the biological history of the human species including their evolution, emergence and radiation. We will explore the scientific method and how theories like evolution have come about and expanded over time. We will learn about our closest living relatives - primates - and how an appreciation of their life history and behavior reflect the modern human condition. Many of the principles and concepts that comprise our understanding of how humans have evolved and adapted over time involve an appreciation of ecology, genetics, physiology, adaptation and cultural development that will also be explored. Lastly, we will look at modern human diversity and discuss how we are continuing to evolve today.

ANTHRO 215-0 - The Study of Culture through Language

 This course offers an introduction to the foundational relationship between language and culture by examining anthropological approaches to how language reflects and transforms our ideas about the world and the people living in it. Language enables us to establish relationships with institutions, ideologies, and other human beings. We will discuss general processes of linguistic interaction in first few weeks, then turn to topics in linguistic anthropology to see if we can detect the operation of these processes in action. Case studies will illustrate how language is put to work in specific contexts students might experience on a daily basis, including listening to music, tweeting, and attending class.

 ANTHRO 240-0 - Anthropology of Money

 What is money? How do people use money in the real world? How are technological innovations changing people's perceptions of money? This course introduces anthropological perspectives on economy and society through a variety of ethnographic studies of money and finance. Topics of discussion include "primitive money," the uses of money in religious and ritual practices, social and cultural meanings of numbers, mobile money, crypto-currency and other alternative currency systems, and the politics of central banking.

 ANTHRO 332-0 - The Anthropology of Reproduction

 The goal of sociocultural anthropology, the largest subfield of anthropology and the core of the discipline, is to understand the dynamics of human variation in social action and cultural thought. A key question is how these variations are produced and reproduced, whether we speak of society (subsistence, ideas) or individuals (biology, psychology, social identity). Conversely, what happens when reproduction fails to occur, or does so when and how it should not. Because reproduction is so strongly associated with biology in our society, viewing it through a cultural lens poses significant challenges to some of our most basic tenets. Tensions arise in questions of agency vs. control, nature vs. culture, identity construction, reproducing under varying conditions, and so on. The study of reproduction, therefore, offers a window into the heart of anthropology itself. The goals of this course are (1) to expose students to just a few of the many sociocultural approaches to reproduction by ranging broadly across topics, time, and place; and (2) to identify and evaluate concepts and theories embedded in writings on the dynamics of reproduction. While the concept of "reproduction" can refer to societal reproduction, emphasis will be on the reproduction of children. To this end, possible topics may include fostering/adoption, AIDS orphans, fatherhood, technologies of fertility control, assisted reproduction, obstetrics, gender imbalances in Asia, debates over abortion, etc.

 ANTHRO 355-0 – Sexualities

 What do people do when they're having sex?  This first part of this class surveys ethnographies about sex, including female sexualities, BDSM communities, sex work, sex and disabilities, online sex and sex in college.  In the second part, we become the ethnographers: everyone will research some aspect of sexual cultures and practices, and report back to the class.  For the first part of class, there will be a midterm essay exam; for the second part of the class, research will be conducted virtually, and results will be presented as an informal class presentation via Zoom, and then as a final report that is either a written paper or a video recording.

 ANTHRO 359-0 - The Human Microbiome and Health

 Did you know that all the microbes on and in your body weigh as much as your brain? And they can influence your body almost as much as your brain? They can determine how much weight you gain on a certain diet or whether you develop the symptoms of an autoimmune disease, and they can even affect your mood and behavior. Although we have long known the importance of microbes in the context of disease, recent advances in technology have opened up an entirely new field of research that is transforming perspectives on human health. In this course, we will explore the human microbiome beginning with an overview of different types of microbes and the methods we use to study them. Following that, the majority of the course will be dedicated to exploring new research on the microbes of the skin, mouth, gut, and uro-genital tract and their impacts on human health. We will also consider the influence of geography, politics, social structures, and culture on global patterns in the human microbiome and health.

 ANTHRO 386-0 - Methods in Human Biology Research

 Biological anthropologists endeavor to understand the global range of human biological variation, and human biologists in particular are interested in investigating the effects of culture and ecology on human adaptation, development and health.  The course will provide an overview of the logic and method underlying empirical research in human biology.  The course will introduce students to the scientific method, as well as the process of research design, data analysis and interpretation.  The course will examine a range of methods, including those for assessing human nutritional status, physical activity, growth, cardiovascular health, endocrine activity, and immune function.  In contrast to clinical or biomedical approaches to human biology, biological anthropologists tend to study normal individuals in everyday settings.  Therefore, an emphasis will be placed on minimally invasive research methods that can be applied across a range of cultural and ecological contexts.

ANTHRO 389-0 - Ethnographic Methods and Analysis

 This course is designed to familiarize students with methods used in ethnographic research. We will study and discuss the importance of qualitative data collection tools such as participant-observation, oral histories, and interviewing. In addition to discussing the methods as technique, we will examine numerous issues that arise when we engage in ethnographic research; these include but are not limited to ethics, issues of gender, race, class, age, etc. The discussion of these (and other) issues will be based on the assigned readings and on students' experiences in their own "field" experience. Due to public health concerns in AY '20-'21, all "fieldwork" will take place remotely. The course will enable you to understand why certain methods are chosen for different kinds of research and which methods you might use as you develop your own ethnographic project.                                                                                   

Anthro 390-0-21: Topics in Anthropology:  Traveling While Muslim: Islam, Mobility, Security After 9/11

 Particularly after the 9/11 attacks and during the war on terror that has ensued shortly thereafter, Muslim on the move—ranging from international students, pilgrims as well as scientists and artists—have continued to face increasingly scrutiny and surveillance in both global travel economies and national immigration regimes. These regimes gained even more important under the rule of authoritarian leaders in power across the globe from the US to India. What often unites Modi's India and Trump's United States is Islamophobia—albeit in different guises—as racialization of Islam and Muslims continues to punctuate our current era. What are the stakes of traveling while Muslim in that post 9/11 era of racing Islam? How do we come to understand such mobility? What assumptions underpin the attendant construction of Islam in such understandings, as various state and non-state actors enlist themselves to manage the movements of Muslims, specifically and exceptionally? In probing these questions, amongst others, in this seminar we aim to examine the interlocked relationship between Islam, mobility and security. We have three aims in front us: (1) becoming well-versed in studies of Islam and Islamophobia in the US and across the globe,  (2) gaining a better understanding of Islam as a center tenet in a deeply uneven and racialized regime of ‘global' mobility, and lastly, (3) critically analyzing global and local designs of security that underpin and manage those differential regimes of mobility.

 Anthro 390-0-22: Topics in Anthropology:  Detection, Investigation, Diagnosis 

 In this course, we examine the relationship between science and society, via close study of three socio-cultural practices: detection; investigation; and diagnosis. Specifically, we will be posing questions about: how various forms of scientific knowledge are produced and legitimated; the regimes of evidence guiding these practices; how expertise and experts emerge; and how "facts" and "truth" are adjudicated. In so doing, we will learn about how scientific knowledge shapes and reflects our social relations, material conditions, and subjectivities. Throughout the course, we will reflect upon the value of anthropological methods and theories for studying scientific practice.

 Anthro 390-0-23: Topics in Anthropology: Queer Criminality and Political Transgression

 This course addresses the political potentials of criminality within queer life by considering historical and contemporary acts of queer transgression as "criminal." We will draw from literature that underscores the criminalization of queer life, particularly the hyper-criminalization of queer communities of color, but this course will also move beyond mechanisms of criminalization by asking critical questions about queer illegalism and its capacity to destabilize an existing political world. Reading within historical studies of criminality in the social sciences, specifically anthropology and political science, we will consider queer criminality as a departure from other interpretations of crime as - for instance - pathological, symptomatic, opportunistic, reactionary, constructed, or in collusion with "legitimate" political and economic orders. While still attending to these themes through keys texts in the study of crime, this course reflects on how conceptualizations of political transgression and crime have been historically transformed and renewed through queer thought and approaches, particularly through figures such as the deviant, the outlaw, or the rebel. We will discuss these figures within theorizations of broader political transgression, such as social movements, uprisings, and revolutions.

 Anthro 390-0-24: Topics in Anthropology: Hope and Futurity

 What is hope? How is hope produced and lost? How is hope distributed in society? What is the relationship between individual and collective hopes? What role does hope play in the production of knowledge, imagination and religious belief? In this course, we will investigate these questions through a close examination of a full range of anthropological, sociological, literary, philosophical, and religious explorations into hope and futurity.

 Anthro 390-0-25: Topics in Anthropology: Archy of Sustainability and Collapse

This course is a seminar that uses archaeological case studies from the past to interrogate human-environment relationships across time and space, including the present and the future.  The emphasis here will not be on learning environmental archaeology methods.  Instead, we will be focusing on how archaeologists think about key environmental concepts, including climate change, sustainability, and resilience.  We will discuss examples of “failure” and “success” in the long history of human-environment interactions, and see if there’s room for nuance along the way.  We will also use this course as an opportunity to consider how archaeology can contribute to environmental sustainability and environmental justice efforts.  Prior coursework in archaeology is not required to appreciate this class or do well, but would be helpful. 

 Anthro 390-0-30: Topics in Anthropology: Constructing Identity in the Ancient Mediterranean World  

 How did individuals define themselves in the ancient Mediterranean world, and how did they express their affiliation with multiple and diverse ethnic, religious, linguistic, and other collective social identities? How did groups portray perceived differences between themselves and others? What do we know of the construction of gender identities, race, age, and class distinctions? What dynamic roles did dress, hairstyle, body decoration or ornament, and personal possessions play in establishing and expressing individual and collective identities?

 This course explores evidence for self- and group-fashioning in Greece, Rome, and their neighbors in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia. We examine a wide range of textual and material sources, including works of art, archaeological contexts such as burials and religious institutions, biographies, autobiographies, and legal documents, including dowries. We also consider culturally significant modes of self-representation and commemoration, such as portraits and funerary monuments, along with the collecting and transfer of objects that represented accumulated social entanglements, such as heirlooms.

 Anthro 390-0-31: Topics in Anthropology: Global Im/Mobilities: Borders, Migration, and Citizenship

 This seminar asks the following questions about borders, migration, and citizenship: (1) What are the forces—political, cultural, and environmental—that facilitate or inhibit human circulation? (2) How do governments, NGOs, scholars, and wider publics draw distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate forms of human mobility (e.g., "economic migrants" versus "refugees")? (3) How are migrants affected by efforts to regulate their movement, and what alternative forms of citizenship and belonging have they created? We will draw on a broad range of geographical examples (giving particular attention to the Iberian Peninsula and the Americas) and read widely across anthropology, history, and political theory, as well as journalism and fiction. Collectively, we will explore the ways that global im/mobilities have been lived, and how they shape our world today

 ANTHRO 398-0 - Senior Seminar

 This course is for all anthropology majors writing a senior thesis. It will provide students with a forum for writing their thesis. The course is an opportunity for you to analyze findings/data from your original research on a topic of your choice within anthropology and to draft a paper based on that research. A range of issues will be considered, including research, and writing styles characteristic of all four subfields, clarifying research and writing goals, preparing a critical literature review, data analysis and presentation and, most importantly, writing processes. Students will be expected to make brief presentations (in large and small group settings) about the development of their paper throughout the quarter. The goal for this class is to produce a ~20-page paper that outlines your research questions/issues/problems and presents an analysis using material from field research, laboratory work, data sets or library research; this will serve as the thesis you submit to the Anthropology Department in early spring quarter.

 Anthro 401-1-20: Logic of Inquiry in Anthropology (Archy)

In this course students will examine the logic of inquiry in archaeology: the theories, methods, major epistemologies, and philosophies of archaeology.  We will address two fundamental questions: Why is important to study the past?  What is the role of the past in the present?  Understanding our history and our heritage is crucial for the world today and key to understanding past ways of life.  The course frames archaeology within anthropology and the humanities and sciences more broadly and examines the role of anthropology, humanities, and science within the discipline of archaeology.  It addresses contemporary archaeological research and its promise for the future.

Archaeology is the study of the human past through its material remains.  A central focus of the course is on materiality as an archaeological method and a method that can be applied broadly within anthropology.  Archaeology is a team-based, participatory discipline, a methodology of practice that has important implications for how archaeologists can work in partnership with local communities and address contemporary issues.  Ethical, contemporary, and practice-based discussions will interweave across the course.  In this course students will develop an original research project that applies archaeological approaches to material culture in their own research.

 Anthro 490-0-21: Topics in Anthropology: Intro to Microbiome Analysis

 Imagine the scientific impact of discovering a new organ. Advances in DNA technology and big data analysis have allowed us to do just that by uncovering the complex microbial communities that live in and on our bodies. Microbiome research is transforming the natural and social sciences by revealing new mechanisms through which human physiology and health are influenced. In this course, you will learn to use two major computational tools for exploring the microbiome and its interactions with the human body. After a brief introduction to sample processing for DNA sequencing, we will use QIIME2 to describe microbiome composition and HUMANn2 to describe microbiome functional potential. Foundational microbiome research focused mainly on the gut will be discussed throughout the course, and the final product of the course will be a meta-analysis of publicly available microbiome data.

Anthro 490-0-22: Topics in Anthropology: Interpreting Iran: Revolution, Reform and Revolt

The biggest funder of international terrorism. A cradle of civilization since ancient times. Heart and Engine of the Shia crescent in the Middle East extending from Lebanon and Syria to Iraq, Bahrain and Yemen. The historical crossroads of East-West connections in broader Eurasia. The last successful anti-imperial revolution. Another revolution hijacked. The birthplace of revolutions that continue to haunt its subjects—including its scholars. Under longest lasting and ‘smartest' sanctions over decades. Under "maximum pressure." Such polarized judgements pronounced on Iran beg more questions than provide answers. So we ask: What is modern Iran and how do we understand it? Particularly in North America including in its academy, what does Iran mean to those who live in and through it and to those who study  and practice it in art, and those who between? How did multiple revolts, reforms and revolutions get refracted through the homeland/diaspora divide in studies of Iran? In probing these and other questions pertaining to interpreting Iran, our aim in the course is to explore in tandem the socio-political negotiations of revolution, reform and revolt that come to frame those interpretations. We explore these questions in and through anthropological, sociological and historical monographs. As a seminar that takes stock of the recent scholarship on modern Iran, the course also aspires to serve as a reading group on modern Iran to Northwestern intellectual community.

Anthro 490-0-24: Topics in Anthropology: Hope and Futurity

What is hope? How is hope produced and lost? How is hope distributed in society? What is the relationship between individual and collective hopes? What role does hope play in the production of knowledge, imagination, and religious belief? In this course, we will investigate these questions through a close examination of a full range of anthropological, sociological, literary, philosophical, and religious explorations into hope and futurity.

Anthro 490-0-25: Topics in Anthropology: Children on the Move:  Fluid Persons in Unstable Times

Despite social science tendencies to describe society as a series of categories, children are a notoriously slippery social group. Their physical development as well as their connections to places as well as to other generations and political entities are fluid. Whether due to adult action or their own agency, their social, geographical, and legal positions can vary dramatically in short spaces of time.  Indeed, the essence of children’s experience is often depicted as having immense potentials for adaptation and experimentation; persons starting on the grand “journey” of a self-driven life of achievement. Yet the very fluidity itself that structures human life, as most epitomized in children, is as exploitable by others as it is rich in individual potential, a realization especially applicable to social theory and political and social tumult. 

Confronting the tensions between fluidity and fixity, and between social dominance vs individual agency, that shape the lives of children and youth, this class will focus less on notions of children’s individual development, than on institutions by which society defines and manages children’s potentials for movement in time, space, and affiliation. These will be set in the context of wider understandings of social action in times of instability.

Examples will come from examples such as these:

    the politics of age and citizenship; legal codes and humanitarian policy; access to assisted reproductive technologies; orphanhood, adoption and fostering; youthful transnationalism; work and schooling; unaccompanied child migration; child marriage; child-headed households; youth on the street; children as the products (or members) of previous or multiple conjugal unions; and the remaking of history through idioms of children. Given the times in which we live, special consideration will be given to the movement of children during, after -- or in anticipation of -- epidemics and political turmoil.