This course deals with the relationships, ones of mutual transformation, between humans and their natural environments.  Drawing from archeological studies of past societies and from sociocultural studies of contemporary ones, we will consider how humans have engaged with their natural worlds throughout history, probe non-Western environmental epistemologies, examine discourses and processes of sustainability and collapse, explore the cultural (re)creation of nature, and consider the larger political and economic projects, including capitalist markets and property rights, in which much

(Offered as RELI 205 and ANTH 212)  What does it mean to study religion from an anthropological perspective?  This course aims to answer this question through an examination of the specific theories, methodologies, sites, beliefs, and practices that anthropologists engage with as they investigate religious phenomena.  We will begin by reading some of the most prominent attempts within anthropology to theorize religion.  We will work to understand these theories both as enduring resources for understanding religion today and as the product of a specific historical moment

This course begins with a brief overview of the African societies from which people were taken and enslaved. It then focuses on the dispersal of slaves throughout the world, asking “What is the African Diaspora”? Using ethnographies, documentaries, and novels, as well as critical theory emanating from Anthropology and beyond, the course explores the racial, political, and social similarities and differences within and between the communities constituting the African Diaspora, opening the category up to a non-essentializing, sociohistorical nuance.

How can anthropology help us understand the cultural assumptions, empirical knowledge, and causal and interpretive theories underlying science fiction and help science fiction draw on more valid and plausible assumptions, knowledge, and theories? How can science fiction writers' efforts to develop hypotheses about what events, people, and processes might be like under different conditions help anthropologists develop hypotheses in the real world?

How do various kinds of people in various societies worldwide define and pursue happiness? How do they deal with aspects of everyday life that affect their physical and psychological health? How does one’s gender, age, country, sociocultural background, and socioeconomic status shape the ways in which one might pursue health and happiness?

An examination of theory and method in sociocultural anthropology as applied in the analysis of specific societies. The course will focus on case studies of societies from different ethnographic areas.

Fall semester. Professor Gewertz. 

Fall and spring semesters.

Fall and spring semesters.

This seminar focuses on two major events in nineteenth century American history: the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and the U.S.-inspired overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893. We examine attitudes and actions leading to these momentous events, their impact on the target populations and American society, as well as subsequent efforts to obtain apologies from the U.S. government. Amazingly, these efforts succeeded in 2011-12 and 1993, respectively.

(Offered as ENGL 458 and AMST 358)  [before 1800]