TBA This course offers a conceptual overview of research methods used by anthropologists. We will hear from faculty members their experience of doing fieldwork—from formulating a research question, choosing a site, entering the field to ethical issues they face in the field...
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Spring, 2024
Prof. Bill Fash Wed. 9:45AM - 11:45AM The film "Clash of Titans" was a British extravaganza dedicated to exploring the ancient Greeks' concepts of the interactions between humans and their gods. In Ancient Mexico, the tale of Topiltzin Quetzalcóatl, Toltec Prince of Tula is...
Prof. Julia Fierman Weds. 3:00 PM - 5:45 PM This seminar in social anthropology presents value and the exchange of value as the foundations of economic, social, moral, and political life. The authors we read will argue that the exchange of value(s) between humans creates...
Prof. Bill Fash This course provides a broad overview of the archaeology of ancient Mexico and Central America, focusing on the Indigenous cultures of highland Mexico such as the Aztecs and Zapotecs, as well as their predecessors and contemporary descendants. Topics include...
Spring, 2025
Dr. Diana Loren W 12:00-2:45pm Harvard’s museum collections have often been used to interrogate the world outside of “us”: peoples, events, places, and things. In this course we will reverse that gaze and ask what the collections and the processes of collecting reveal about...
Prof. Salmaan Keshavjee W 12:00 PM - 2:45pm This seminar course is designed primarily for advanced undergraduates and graduate students who are interested in the relationship between neoliberalism, the global social order, and inequities in health and wellbeing. It examines...
Prof. Arthur Kleinman T 12:00-2:45pm Open to advanced undergraduates with some background in social sciences or humanities (regardless of concentration), and to graduate and professional students. Spring 2025: Future of Medical Anthropology This course will look ahead toward...
Dr. Julia Fierman W 9:00-11:45am What does it mean when we speak of “political power”? We know, from the work of many anthropologists, that power is not a question of the state. The political anthropologist Pierre Clastres wrote about non-state societies with a deep sense of...
Prof. Anya Bernstein T 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM This course is a critical reading advanced graduate seminar focusing on how defining the boundaries between life and death became a matter of profound political, cultural, and scientific debate. Guided by the concepts of bio- and...
Prof. Gabriella Coleman T 9-11:45am This required seminar offers an overview of theoretical trends in social anthropology and situates these trends within longer genealogies of social thought. Required of candidates for the PhD in Social Anthropology. Not open to...
Dr. Chengrui Zhang T Th 1:30-2:45pm Description: What are the origins of Chinese civilization? What was society like before the development of the large states that would eventually merge to form the Chinese empire over 2000 years ago, essentially forming the basis of modern...
Profs. Amy Clark and Joe Henrich Th 9-11:45am Jointly offered as HEB 181 Humans are a cultural species. Unlike other species, we are heavily reliant on learning from others to acquire many important aspects of our behavior, and this capacity for cultural transmission has...