The giants of the Italian Renaissance: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael are studied against the backdrop of shifting political tides and the emergence of Pope Julius II whose patronage caused the arts in Rome-with such projects as the Sistine Chapel and the Stanze of the Papal Apartments-to give a particular meaning to the term Renaissance.

What is "antiquity" in the Americas? This class explores this question by focusing upon pre-Hispanic visual culture. We cross both Mesoamerica and the Andes, giving particular attention to the Aztecs, Inka and Maya. Along with architecture, textiles, ceramics and sculpted works, we consider current debates in art history and archaeology. Among the themes we discuss: sacrifice and rulership, representations of human and deified beings, the symbolic and economic meanings of materials, and the ethics of excavation and museum display. Group A

This course explores how art and architecture have profoundly shaped visual experiences and shifting understandings of past and present. While featuring different case studies, each section includes work with original objects, site visits and writings about art.

Topics course. This seminar focuses on issues of demography, health, nutrition and disease on the African continent, contextualized in the social, economic and political activities of human populations. The course discusses the distribution and food production systems of human groups in particular environments; the incidence and prevalence of infectious diseases including malaria, tuberculosis, river blindness, measles and HIV/AIDS; and varying approaches to health care including traditional medicine and the availability of Western treatment.

Topics course. This course explores how and why humans across the globe began to domesticate plant and animal resources approximately 10,000 years ago. The first half of the course presents the types of archaeological data and analytical methods used to study the "agricultural revolution." The second half examines case studies from the major centers of domestication in order to investigate the biological, economic and social implications of these processes.

This course considers the shifting place of Africa in a global context from various perspectives. Our goal is to understand the global connections and exclusions that constitute the African continent in the new millennium. We explore such topics as historical connections, gender, popular culture, the global economy, development, commodities, health and medicine, global institutions, violence and the body, the postcolonial state, religion, science and knowledge, migration and the diaspora, the Internet, and communications and modernity. Enrollment limited to 30.

This course is a general introduction to the relationship between indigenous societies and the state in Mesoamerica. Taking a broad historical perspective, we explore the rise of native state-level societies, the transformations that marked the process of European colonization, and the relationship of local indigenous communities to post-colonial states and transnational social movements. Texts used in the course place special emphasis on continuities and changes in language, social organization, cosmology and identity that have marked the historical experience of native groups in the region.

Death, the "supreme and final crisis of life" (Malinowski), calls for collective understandings and communal responses. What care is due the dying? What indicates that death has occurred? How is the corpse to be handled? The course uses ethnographic and historical sources to indicate how human communities have answered these questions, and to determine just how unusual are the circumstances surrounding dying in the contemporary Western world. Enrollment limited to 30.

This course explores the similarities and differences in the cultural patterning of human experience, compares economic, political, religious and family structures in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania and analyzes the impact of the modern world on traditional societies. Several ethnographic films are viewed in coordination with descriptive case studies. Limited to first-year students and sophomores. Total enrollment of each section limited to 25. Offered both semesters each year.

By permission of the department, for junior and senior majors.