What is Religion? Why does it show up everywhere? Using archaeology, religious studies and social thought, this course will study the major themes in the history of religions including 'encountering the...
Students are introduced to current issues in art, aesthetics, and anthropology, and produce collaborative experimental works of sensory ethnography.
This is also offered as AFVS 158BR. Students are strongly encouraged to enroll in ANTRO 1836AR, Sensory Ethnography 1. No previous studio experience necessary.
To take this limited-enrollment course, you must first consult the Canvas course site for information about the enrollment process and procedures.
Prof. Andrea Wright Thurs. 12:00 PM - 2:45 PM Tozzer 416
What approaches and methodologies do anthropologists use to examine and strengthen theories and practices oriented towards community? What responsibilities do anthropologists have to the people and places with which they work? Can and should anthropologists engage in research that is community driven, politically conscious, and centrally concerned with the transformation of our social conditions?... Read more about ANTHRO 1718 - Activist, Collaborative, and Engaged Interventions in Anthropology
This course examines the co-articulations of race, ethnicity, and language across various historical, societal, and institutional contexts. Furthermore, we examine...
The abrupt physical closures of 2020 continuing into the present moment have brought into sharp relief the urgency of taking the digital seriously as a mode by which sociality – however constrained – is created and maintained. Rather than posit a singular method of digital ethnography, this course is designed to expose students to different methods and theoretical entry points into ethnography in order to enable students to identify the methods which work best for their present and future research purposes.
Humans have long been fascinated with anticipating, speculating, preparing, and waiting for the unknown future. ‘The future’ has a pervasive presence in our lives, when we forecast the local weather, plan the national economy, promise in legal contracts, imagine in science fictions, aspire in political movements, trade in futures markets, and much more. More than ever, the future is both an excitement and anxiety-inducing topic of interest to scholars and experts in domains ranging from public health, national security, urban design, to environmental science.... Read more about ANTHRO 1991 - Anthropology of the Future
Prof. Matthew Liebmann Mon. and Weds. 3:00 PM - 4:15 PM Peabody 12
In 1492 Native Americans discovered Europeans, changing the world forever. The European invasion of the Americas triggered demographic, economic, and ecological changes on an unprecedented scale. The subsequent movement of people, plants, animals, and goods prompted global shifts in population, exploitation of resources, and the transformation of environments on both sides of the Atlantic.... Read more about ANTHRO 1190 - American Invasions: Archaeological Tales of Encounter, Exploration, and Colonization, 1492-1830
This class examines the changing place of medicine in the long history of modernity. Focusing on key moments the birth of the clinic, the colonial encounter, the consolidation of medicine as profession, the age of genomics and biocapital, and the empire of global health it explores the distinctive role of medical knowledge and practice in the making of modernist persons, identities, economies, and political vocabularies. Readings are drawn from anthropology and the wider social sciences, with cases from Africa,...
This course is taught in conjunction with, and as part of, the African Studies Workshop at Harvard (ASW). It consists of two components: (i) an under/graduate student seminar component, to be held every Monday at 9.45-11.30, at which the class will discuss an original research paper, and (ii) a public session, held every Monday afternoon at 2.00-4.00, at which the author of that paper will present it in person to an audience composed of faculty, students, and Africanists...
This course offers an introduction to eight major areas of archaeological science: (1) relative and absolute dating, (2) human osteology, (3) paleoethnobotany and micro remains, (4) stable isotopes, (5) organic residue analysis, (6) zooarchaeology and ZooMS, (7) proteomics, and (8) paleogenomics. Students will gain an understanding of the history of the field and its future directions, the method and theory behind how different tools and techniques work, and how archaeological science is...
Archaeology has focused traditionally on excavations of settlement sites. However, no settlement existed as an island; ancient peoples moved within a larger environment which constrained their actions while it was...
This course will cover the archaeological record of the Pleistocene. Students will gain an understanding of the biological and geological setting of the time period, with a biogeographic overview of Plio-Pleistocene hominins, including the geological setting of the African continent. The course will cover the Early, Middle, and Late Pleistocene archaeological records of Africa in detail, with comparisons to the Eurasian records and discuss the methods through which we study these time periods. The discussion sections will...
What does the food we eat tell us about ourselves—as individuals, communities, and countries—and how has humanity’s relationship with food changed over time?
We all need to eat and drink each day to nourish our bodies. Yet how often do you pause to think deeply about why you eat what you eat? Your food habits are likely influenced by family traditions, but also by a range of other factors like income, age, ethnicity, religion, politics, and the environment. What does the food we eat tell us about...
This course applies ethnographic approaches to engage with memorials and monuments. In light of the demonumenting movement, how should we think about alternative monuments and memorials such as artist Gunter Demnig’s Stolpersteine (stumbling stones)? In addition to anthropological literature, the course will draw on work from memory studies, Holocaust studies, conceptual art, etc. Students will carry out their own ethnographic research in the Boston/Cambridge area throughout the semester, producing a research...
The course is an introduction to Australian First Nations Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island art and new media. The focus is arts of the Central and Western Desert. The course maps sites of language and cultural (re)production, forms of materiality and conditions of colonialism in order to develop appreciation of relationships between art, life and survival. Against neo-liberal and market driven tendencies to commodify Aboriginal culture, the course considers not only contexts in which art is made but what art...
Historically, the Circumpolar Arctic has often figured as a scientific frontier and horizon – from exploration and discovery to the circulation and popularization of scientific knowledge. Amidst anthropogenic climate change, the region today gives rise to data and imagery of increasingly heightened urgency, foreshadowing ecological crises to come. This seminar surveys the role of the Arctic region in histories and futures of scientific research and practice. Each week, students acquaint themselves with a specific...
American Indian, First Nations, and other Indigenous communities of the USA and Canada contend with disproportionately high rates of “psychiatric” distress. Many of these communities attribute this distress to their long colonial encounters with European settlers. Concurrently, throughout the 20th century, the disciplines and professions associated with mind, brain, and behavior (e.g., psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis) consolidated their authority and influence within mainstream society. These “psy-ences” promote their...
This is a quantitative methods course geared toward archaeological data analysis. The course will focus on types of data, descriptive and analytical statistics, and mapping and spatial relationships. Students will become familiar with multiple commonly used software packages to conduct analyses.
