Department of Anthropology

  • Chair

    Carolyn M. Rouse

  • Departmental Representative

    Lauren Coyle-Rosen

  • Director of Graduate Studies

    Rena S. Lederman

  • Professor

    João G. Biehl

    John W. Borneman

    Carol J. Greenhouse

    Rena S. Lederman

    Serguei Oushakine also Slavic Languages and Literatures

    Laurence Ralph

    Carolyn M. Rouse

  • Visiting Professor

    Didier Fassin

    Janet M. Monge

  • Associate Professor

    Elizabeth A. Davis

    Julia Elyachar, also Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies

     

  • Assistant Professor

    Lauren Coyle-Rosen

    Andrew A. Johnson

    Ryo Morimoto

  • Lecturer

    Jeffrey D. Himpele

    Nikolaos Michailidis

     

    Justin Perez

    Naomi S. Stone

  • Associated Faculty

    Amy B. Borovoy, East Asian Studies

     

Information and Departmental Plan of Study

Prerequisites

Students who wish to concentrate in anthropology must take one anthropology course (any level) prior to junior year or have permission from the departmental representative.

Early Concentration

A sophomore may apply for early concentration through consultation with the departmental representative.

Program of Study

Anthropology concentrators must take nine departmental courses, including the core courses ANT 300 (Ethnography, Evidence and Experience) and ANT 301 (The Ethnographer's Craft). All concentrators are required to participate in a senior seminar the fall semester of their senior year. The seminar is designed to help students write their senior theses.

Students concentrating in anthropology choose one of three tracks.

The Socio-Cultural Anthropology track is for students who want to explore a number of foundational sub-fields within anthropology. For students who choose the Law, Politics, and Economics or Medical Anthropology track, the selection of required and elective courses is geared toward rigorous study in these respective sub-fields. The courses in each track ensure that students, regardless of track, have a systematic understanding of the scope, methods and theories within the discipline of anthropology by the time they graduate.

Two cognate courses may be used to satisfy an elective requirement in any track. The cognate may be an anthropology course taken during study abroad and/or a course offered by another department or program at Princeton. Proposed cognates must be approved by the department. Approval prior to enrollment is normally expected, however, retroactive approval is granted when warranted. A cognate taken at Princeton is a course that the departmental representative has reviewed and deemed to be relevant to a student's independent work or correspond to a student’s course of study (i.e. track).

Well prepared undergraduates may take graduate seminars for departmental credit. To enroll in a graduate seminar, the student must have the approval of the departmental representative and the instructor of the course. Actual course offerings every year are more extensive than what is listed in the Undergraduate Announcement, so students should always check Course Offerings.

Departmental Tracks

Concentrators are automatically placed in the Socio-Cultural Anthropology track unless they complete a form declaring that they are opting into the Medical Anthropology track or the Law, Politics, and Economics track. This track declaration form must be submitted to the department on or before the last day of the final exam period in the fall term of their junior year.

The transcript degree for all concentrators will be A.B. in Anthropology. Students who successfully complete the curriculum of their chosen track will receive a departmental attestation on Class Day and may note their concentration on their resumés.

Socio-Cultural Anthropology Track

The Socio-Cultural Anthropology Track (SCA) is for students who want to explore a number of foundational topics within the field of anthropology (e.g. religion, gender, ritual, language, medicine, politics, economics, kinship, psychology, visual anthropology, law). In addition to exploring a variety of topics, students in this track are deeply immersed in the history of the discipline.

Required Courses (3)
ANT 300 (Ethnography, Evidence and Experience)
ANT 301 (The Ethnographer's Craft)
ANT 390 (History of Anthropological Theory) 

Elective Courses by Distribution (6)
Two foundational 200-level courses (one may be a cognate approved at this level)
One 300-level course in addition to 300, 301, 390 (may be a cognate approved at this level)
One advanced 400-level topical course (may be a cognate approved at this level)
Two free electives (may be another ANT course at any level and/or a cognate)

Possible Cognates (2)
Students in SCA are allowed to take two cognates as explained under the Elective Courses by Distribution and Program of Study sections above.

Senior Thesis
Students in SCA can choose any anthropological topic for the senior thesis, provided the methodological and theoretical approach taken is approved by a student's senior thesis adviser.

Medical Anthropology Track

The Medical Anthropology Track (MedAnth) is for students interested in all aspects of medicine, from biology to therapeutic systems to cultural ideas and practices of health and wellbeing. Choosing this track allows students who are interested in the sciences, policy, the humanities and the sub-field of medical anthropology to focus their undergraduate training around these topics. The track requires nine courses total; four are required and the other five electives include departmental courses focused on the mind, body or health systems/structures (see examples from list below). Students in this track are allowed to substitute one of the five elective courses with a class taught within the Department of Anthropology but outside MedAnth. Students are also allowed to take two cognates as part of their five elective courses.

Required Courses (4)
ANT 240 (Medical Anthropology) or ANT 340 (Medicine and the Humanities)
ANT 206 (Human Evolution) or ANT 215 (Human Adaptation)
ANT 300 (Ethnography, Evidence and Experience)
ANT 301 (The Ethnographer’s Craft)

Elective Courses (5)
Examples of MedAnth electives are shown below. Elective courses are typically taught every other year, although some may be offered annually and others less frequently. A list of pre-approved MedAnth courses will be published each semester before course enrollment begins.

  • Courses pertaining to the mind: Psychological Anthropology (ANT 305); Mind, Body, and Bioethics in Japan and Beyond (EAS 312/ANT 312)
  • Courses pertaining to the body: Race and Medicine (ANT 403); Forensic Anthropology and Epigenetics (ANT 309B); Death, Aging, and Mortality: Cultural and Biosocial Perspectives (ANT 442). Note: Students can take both Human Evolution (ANT 206) and Human Adaptation (ANT 215), one as a required and one as an elective course.
  • Courses pertaining to cultural systems and structures: Critical Perspectives in Global Health (GHP350/ANT 380); Catastrophes across Cultures: The Anthropology of Disaster (ANT 219), Forensic Anthropology and Epigenetics (ANT 309A); Ethics in Context (ANT 360); Global Pharmaceuticals: Science, Political Economy, Ethics (ANT 405)


Possible Cognates (2)
MedAnth students are allowed to take two cognates (as defined under Program of Study above) as part of their five elective courses. A department cognate for a MedAnth student might include a course taught in departments or programs such as the History of Science, African American Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Sociology, Psychology, Molecular Biology, Engineering, Global Health, regional studies classes including AMS, EAS, LAS, NES, courses taken during study abroad and/or anthropology courses taught outside the Medical Anthropology Track.

Senior Thesis
Students in MedAnth must write a senior thesis in a topic related to medical anthropology, broadly defined. The methodological and theoretical approach taken must be approved by a student’s senior thesis adviser.

Law, Politics, and Economics Track

The Law, Politics, and Economics Track (LPE) is for students interested in three well-established fields within the discipline of anthropology. Students in this track are introduced to comparative studies of law, politics, development, and microeconomics (what anthropologists call exchange) across cultures. This track requires nine courses total; three are required and the other six include departmental electives focused on the law, economics and politics (see examples from list below). Students in this track are allowed to substitute one of the six elective courses with a class taught within the Department of Anthropology but outside the LPE track. Students are also allowed to take two cognates as part of their six elective courses.

Required Courses (3)
ANT 300 (Ethnography, Evidence and Experience)
ANT 301 (The Ethnographer’s Craft)
ANT 390 (History of Anthropological Theory)

Elective Courses (6)
Examples of LPE electives are shown below. Elective courses are typically taught every other year, although some may be offered annually and others less frequently. A list of pre-approved LPE courses will be published each semester before course enrollment begins.

  • Courses pertaining to economics: Economic Life in Cultural Context (ANT 203); Debt (ANT 225); Economic Experience in Cultural Context (303); Ethnography and Wicked Problems (EGR 385/ANT 385); The Resource Curse and Development in Africa (ANT 421)
  • Courses pertaining to politics: Political Anthropology (ANT 304); Rituals of Governing (ANT 453); Power and Politics in Southeast Asia (ANT 332); Revolt (319), Anthropologies of Water (ANT 416); Catastrophes across Cultures: The Anthropology of Disaster (ANT 219); Communist Modernity: The Politics and Culture of Soviet Utopia (SLA 420/ANT 420); Infrastructures of Modernity in the Middle East (ANT 404); Conspiracy Theory and Social Theory (ANT 406)
  • Courses pertaining to law: The Anthropology of Law (ANT 342); The American Family in Law and Society (ANT 207); Social Live, Social Forces (ANT 232); Labors of Consciousness: Culture, Capital, Moral Economy (ANT 417); Democracy and Ethnography in the United States (ANT 427)


Possible Cognates (2)
LPE students are allowed to take two cognates (as defined under Program of Study above) as part of their six elective courses. Appropriate cognates for LPE might include Introduction to Microeconomics (ECO 100), a course taught in the Politics Department, a regional studies course, courses taken during study abroad and/or anthropology courses taught outside the Law, Politics, and Economics track.

Senior Thesis
Students in LPE must write a senior thesis on a topic related to law, politics, and economics, broadly defined. The methodological and theoretical approach taken must be approved by a student’s senior thesis adviser.

Independent Work

Junior Independent Work. Independent work in the junior year involves an original paper, usually based on library research. Normally, field research is not appropriate for this paper. In the fall, students develop a detailed problem statement and annotated bibliography on a subject relevant to the student's interests, as a research proposal for approval by the department. In the spring, students write a paper based on the research initiated in the fall, in consultation with their adviser. Since the junior paper topic is chosen before the deadline for declaring a track, junior papers, unlike senior theses, do not have to be related to a student’s chosen track. Junior independent work, regardless of track, is meant to teach students how to do a review of the anthropological literatures related to a student’s area of interest.

Senior Independent Work. In the senior year, the independent work consists of a thesis, or a comparable project including a substantial written component, on a subject relevant to the student's interests and approved by the department. Field work is encouraged but not required. The required senior seminar is designed to support seniors' independent work during the fall term. Students enrolled in ANT 390B during their senior year are automatically enrolled in the senior seminar; students not taking ANT 390B during senior year will also enroll in the senior seminar by individual arrangement with the department.

Senior Departmental Examination

In the spring of senior year, after the thesis deadline, all concentrators must complete a departmental examination designed to test their knowledge of anthropology as it relates to their area of expertise.

Additional Information

Special University Programs. Students who choose to concentrate in the department are encouraged to take advantage of opportunities for individual study under special University programs. For example, under the Study Abroad Program, students may enrich their programs at Princeton with a term or a year of anthropological study abroad. Under the Field Study Program it is possible for concentrators to conduct intensive field study in the United States. The International Internship Program organizes internships for students abroad, usually during a summer term. The Community-Based Learning Initiative also provides opportunities for independent research. Students should consult with the departmental representative about these and other possibilities.

Interdepartmental Programs. Students concentrating in the department may participate in programs such as: African American studies, African studies, American studies, East Asian studies, environmental studies, European cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, global health and health policy, Hellenic studies, humanistic studies, Latin American studies, Near Eastern studies, South Asian studies, creative and performing arts, various languages and cultures programs, and the Program in Law and Public Affairs.

Ethnographic Studies Certificate Program. The Department of Anthropology offers students concentrating in other departments the opportunity to earn a certificate in Ethnographic Studies. Please consult the Program in Ethnographic Studies for additional information.

Courses

ANT 201 Introduction to Anthropology SA An introduction to anthropology's concept of culture and its relevance to the comparative study of societies. The focus is on the ways in which cultural communities express knowledge, values and commitments through relationships. Themes include culture and cultural identity, race and ethnicity, the organization of social life, the importance of language and symbols, the cultural embeddedness of gender and sexuality, the interrelationship of institutions and value systems, cultural varieties of power and authority, and the relevance of sociocultural inquiry to contemporary issues. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Staff
ANT 206A Human Evolution (also
AFS 206A
) EC An investigation of the evidence and background of human evolution. Emphasis will be placed on the examination of the fossil and genetic evidence for human evolution and its functional and behavioral implications. Two lectures, one preceptorial. J. Monge
ANT 206B Human Evolution (also
EEB 306
/
AFS 206B
) EC An investigation of the evidence and background of human evolution. Emphasis will be placed on the examination of the fossil and genetic evidence for human evolution and its functional and behavioral implications. Two lectures, one preceptorial, one 90-minute laborabory. J. Monge
ANT 215 Human Adaptation (also
EEB 315
) STL Human adaptation focuses on human anatomy and behavior from an evolutionary perspective. Lectures and weekly laboratory sessions focus on the evolution of the human brain, dentition, and skeleton to provide students with a practical understanding of the anatomy and function of the human body and its evolution, as well as some of its biological limitations. No science background required. Two 90-minute lectures, one three-hour laboratory. J. Monge
ANT 232 Social Lives, Social Forces SA Examining "social forces" through social relationships provides a way to examine some key assumptions behind such everyday distinctions as altruism/self-interest, public/private, rules/ norms, regulation/free market, kinship/citizenship, friend/foe. This seminar untangles these binaries by exploring various settings--of family, community, law, and business--where they have been put into practice as organizing principles, and thus into contention. It also follows them beyond the United States into postcolonial and post-socialist environments, so as to further hone our comparative and interpretive questions. One three-hour seminar. C. Greenhouse
ANT 240 Medical Anthropology EM Exploration of cross-cultural constructions of sickness, disease, health, and healing interrogates our basic ethical, moral, and political positions. Our healing and disease models derive from specific cultural assumptions about society, gender, class, age, ethnicity, and race. Categories of disease from one culture can compromise ethical positions held by another. We pursue the moral implications of a critique of medical development and the political and ethical implications of treating Western medicine as ethnoscience as well as universal truth. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute class. J. Biehl
ANT 300 Ethnography, Evidence and Experience Fall SA This course relates key concepts in anthropology (e.g., culture, society, power, meaning) to everyday experience, with the aim of fostering students' ability to think analytically across diverse cultural fields. We alternate between classic theoretical texts and "dossiers" of highly current readings about issues both familiar to students (from experiences at home or abroad) and relevant to ethnographic research and writing. For example: digital media, embodied knowledge, language, ritual and symbols, textual interpretation, and modern forms of power and inequality. Staff
ANT 301 The Ethnographer's Craft Spring SA What are social and cultural facts? And how do we identify these facts using anthropological research methods? This field methods course is for students interested in learning how to work with complex and often contradictory qualitative data. Students will examine how biases and beliefs affect the questions we ask, the data we collect, and our interpretations. Key topics include objectivism, interpretation, reflexivity, participant-observation, translation, and comparison. Staff
ANT 303 Economic Experience in Cultural Context SA This course explores the social and cultural contexts of economic experience in the US and around the world. It considers how the consumption, production, and circulation of goods--today and in times past--become invested with personal and collective meanings. It pays special attention to symbolic and political dimensions of work, property (material, intellectual, and cultural), wealth, and "taste" (i.e., needs and wants). Additionally, course participants do a bit of anthropological fieldwork by learning to draw everyday experiences systematically into conversation with academic sources. R. Lederman
ANT 304 Political Anthropology SA A cross-cultural examination of collective action, power, authority and legitimacy. Topics will include the diversity of systems of leadership and decision making, the sociocultural contexts of egalitarianism and hierarchy, contemporary contests over power-sharing and state legitimacy, forms of power outside the state, and human rights struggles. One three-hour seminar. Staff
ANT 306 Current Issues in Anthropology SA A course taught by different members of the department and visiting faculty on various subjects not normally taught in regular courses. Staff
ANT 308 Forensic Anthropology SA An introduction to the analytical techniques that biological anthropologists apply to forensic (legal) cases. Topics include human osteology, the recovery of bodies, the analysis of life history, the reconstruction of causes of death, and various case studies where anthropologists have contributed significantly to solving forensic cases. Discussions will cover the limitations of forensic anthropology and the application of DNA recovery to skeletal/mummified materials. One three-hour seminar. J. Monge
ANT 310 Fundamentals of Biological Anthropology EC A survey of current data and debates in evolutionary theory, molecular anthropology, primate biology and behavior, primate and human evolution, and modern human biology and adaptation. One three-hour seminar. Staff
ANT 311 Cultural Analysis and International Development Dilemmas SA Designed to give students the anthropological tools to analyze concrete development dilemmas. Specific instances of violent ethnic conflict, international food relief, refugee rights, the global factory, and culturally diverse regional blocs will be considered. Staff
ANT 314 The Anthropology of Development (also
ENE 314
/
AFS 314
) SA Why do development projects fail? This course examines why well-meaning development experts get it wrong. It looks closely at what anthropologists mean by culture and why most development experts fail to attend to the cultural forces that hold communities together. By examining development projects from South Asia to the United States, students learn the relevance of exchange relations, genealogies, power, religion, and indigenous law. C. Rouse
ANT 316 Cultural Diversity: Money, Sex, Nation SA This course explores the use of money, sex, and national belonging in processes of cultural diversification. Its focus is anthropological: making and understanding difference in space and time. Its method is primarily ethnographic: relating face-to-face or personal encounters to macro-political factors and to contemporary issues. Drawing from film, music, and selected readings, it examines how money, sex, and national form create value and interact to create people. Students will be asked to examine critically and reflexively their own prejudices as they influence the perception and evaluation of cultural differences. One three-hour seminar. J. Borneman
ANT 318 Understanding Muslim Social and Political Movements SA Introduces students to a number of contemporary movements claiming to restore Islam as the central norm for practice in the social, economic, and political life of Muslim communities and societies. These movements are studied from an anthropological perspective, using anthropological studies as well as writings by orientalists and others. The course is centered on the reconfiguration of religion, self, community, identity, and power. Emphasis on the Arab world and Iran. One three-hour seminar. Staff
ANT 321 Ritual, Myth, and Worldview SA An exploration of classic and modern theories of religion (belief, ritual, myth, worldview) as they pertain to a cross-cultural understanding of these phenomena. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute class. Staff
ANT 322 Cross-Cultural Texts HA This seminar closely reads descriptive and fictive works replete with cross-cultural representations and juxtaposed histories. What makes a given comparative account--whether colonialist or postcolonialist--compelling? Various genres--ethnographic essays, intense travel narratives, translated tales and myths, and novels--receive concerted attention. One three-hour seminar. Staff
ANT 323 Japanese Society and Culture (See EAS 225)
ANT 330 The Rights of Indigenous Peoples EM Using American Indian sovereignty, Australian Aborigine land claims, the Canadian Bill of Rights, the Maori Treaty of Waitangi, and various international conventions, students will consider whether there is a fundamental right to cultural integrity, and the historical, legal, and ethical implications posed by the relations between modern states and their indigenous populations. One 90-minute lecture, one 90-minute class. Staff
ANT 336 The Anthropology of Selected Regions (also
LAS 384
) SA The significant impact of peoples of particular regions on the development of anthropological theory, method, and sensibility. Special attention to the dynamic precolonial history of the region and to political and religious movements in the contemporary context of rapid socioeconomic change. Staff
ANT 337 Social Change in Contemporary India (also
SAS 337
) SA This course introduces students to the debates that have defined the anthropological study of India. It explores classic and recent theories of caste and hierarchy, focusing in particular on the ethnography of change in everyday Indian life. The course also considers the emergence of identity politics in India. Communal identities and power relations in India are often expressed and challenged in popular religious practices. The course will explore everyday Indian religiosity with reference to debates about Hindu reformism and nationalism. One three-hour class. Staff
ANT 340 Medicine and the Humanities A course taught by different members of the department or visiting faculty on various subjects that connect student interests in the humanities with the sub-field of medical anthropology. Staff
ANT 341 The Anthropology of Gender SA Comparative perspectives on sexual divisions of labor, sex-based equality and inequality, and the cultural construction of "male'' and "female.'' Analysis of gender symbolism in myth and ritual, and of patterns of change in the political participation and power of the sexes. Two 90-minute lectures with discussion. Staff
ANT 342 The Anthropology of Law EM Study of the relation between formal legal institutions and the social and cultural factors influencing their development. Western and non-Western systems compared in terms of their forms of judicial reasoning, implementation through law of moral precepts, fact-finding procedures, and dispute settlement mechanisms. Two 90-minute lectures. Staff
ANT 352 Pacific Islanders: Histories, Cultures, and Change SA This course concerns histories of Pacific Islanders from the first settlements through colonial rule. It will also look at the diversity of cultures and their sociocultural transformation in more recent times. Throughout the semester, we will also use Pacific ethnography to shed light on general questions concerning cultural difference, inequality, and issues of interpretation/translation. Two 90-minute classes. R. Lederman
ANT 359 Acting, Being, Doing, and Making: Introduction to Performance Studies (See THR 300)
ANT 360 Ethics in Context: Uses and Abuses of Deception and Disclosure EM Stage magic delights us with expert illusions; biomedicine and other fields use deception as a research tool (e.g., placeboes); and everyday politeness may obscure painful truths. With deception and disclosure as springboards, this course explores the contextual complexity of personal and professional ethical judgment, with special but not exclusive attention to knowledge circulation. Topics include: social fictions in daily life across cultures; the tangled histories of science and stage magic; ethically controversial cases from popular culture ("reality" TV, journalism), the arts (fictive memoirs), academia (sharing/plagiarizing), and more. R. Lederman
ANT 366 Mesoamerican Art (See ART 267)
ANT 375 Culture and International Order (also
GSS 374
) SA This course focuses on the relation of local and global cultural processes to international orders and regimes. After colonialism and after the Cold War, there is a fundamental reorganizing of "peoples" and "cultures." Emphasis on the increased intensity and scale of interaction between local and global processes, on changes in group identifications, on the transformation of ideologies (cultural, economic, religious, political), and on alternative ways of imagining and managing life. One three-hour seminar. J. Borneman
ANT 380 Critical Perspectives in Global Health (See GHP 350)
ANT 390A History of Anthropological Theory Fall HA A review of the main currents in anthropological theory with particular emphasis on major issues in American and European anthropology and the intellectual climate within which they developed. Staff
ANT 390B History of Anthropological Theory Fall HA A review of the main currents in anthropological theory with particular emphasis on major issues in American and European anthropology and the intellectual climate within which they developed. Anthropology seniors enroll in ANT 390B; all others should enroll in ANT 390A. Staff
ANT 403 Race and Medicine (also
AAS 403
/
GHP 403
) EM This course examines culture's role in reproducing health inequalities in the United States. Different populations have very different levels of access to care, environmental exposures, and cultural beliefs about health and well-being. Institutional cultures also influence how different patients are treated, how evidence is used to determine treatments, and how healthcare priorities are articulated and funded. Additionally, this course explores how medical care is influenced at a national level by health policies. These factors ultimately impact population health and patients' experiences with life, death and chronic disease. C. Rouse
ANT 404 Special Topics in Regional Studies (also
NES 404
) SA Analysis of a major world region stressing the issues of cultural diversity, history, and social change. Attention will be given to the theoretical contributions of regional study, the history of regional approaches, and the internationalization of the production of anthropological research. Staff
ANT 405 Topics in Anthropology (also
GSS 406
) SA Study of a selected topic in anthropology; the particular choice will vary from year to year. Staff
ANT 406 Theoretical Orientations in Cultural Anthropology EC Analysis of classical and contemporary sources of cultural anthropology, with particular emphasis on those writers dealing with meaning and representation. The topical focus of the course will vary with the instructor. One three-hour seminar. Staff
ANT 412 Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion (also
REL 412
) SA Classic and modern theories of religion relevant to anthropologists. Students will familiarize themselves with anthropological monographs dealing with a particular aspect of religion: shamanism, witchcraft, possession and ecstasy, healing. Prerequisite: instructor's permission. Staff
ANT 413 Cultures and Critical Translation EC Approaches to language and culture by Sapir, Saussure, and their forerunners and successors. The seminar draws on anthropology, linguistics, and other disciplines alert to critical theories of translation. Topics include fieldwork encounters, standardized nationalist and colonialist languages, philosophies of translation, ritual languages, marketplace discourse, and orality/literacy. One three-hour seminar. Staff
ANT 415 The Anthropology of Science EC This course considers how the sciences can be studied ethnographically, how they vary culturally one from another, and how scientific knowledge is generated. It develops an understanding of the values and social contexts of Western scientific practice through the comparative study of Western and non-Western systems of knowledge, and explores the implications and validity of the assumption that the sciences are culturally produced rather than objective standards transcending culture. One three-hour seminar. Staff
ANT 425 Post-War French Social Theory SA Using the works of thinkers such as Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Aron, Ricoeur, Levi-Strauss, Foucault, and Bourdieu, the course will present students with some conflicting images of Western society. It will introduce students to these authors, with emphasis on their departure from traditional schools of thought and the consequences of their ideas on the production of knowledge and societies. One three-hour seminar. Staff
ANT 427 Democracy and Ethnography in the United States SA Ethnography is a mode of research, a creative literary genre, and a democratic discourse. This seminar focuses on these different ways of reading in relation to the ethnography of the United States--to consider how ideas about personhood, gender, citizenship, community, identity, and power "work" simultaneously as theory and practice. Drawing on close readings of ethnographies, fiction, and public policy debates, the seminar gives particular attention to the (often uneasy) connections among anthropological theories of cultural identity, political struggles over rights, and literary experiments in social analysis. One three-hour seminar. C. Greenhouse
ANT 432 Memory, Trauma, Accountability SA Explores issues surrounding the relation of individual memory to collective trauma, the social forms of redress to trauma, and attempts to establish accountability for harm. Takes up three major approaches to memory: social organization (Halbwachs), psychoanalysis (Freud), and associative temporalities (Sebald). Examines various genres in which the memory of loss is retained or displaced, and the landscapes and histories in which such memories are recalled and losses repaired. A better understanding of such memories will improve our approaches to cultural observation, documentation, analysis, and interpretation. One three-hour seminar. J. Borneman
ANT 441 Gender: Contested Categories, Shifting Frames SA An exploration of the reciprocal influences of anthropology and gender studies, considering both classic and recent contributions; an evaluation of key interpretive categories (for example, "nature,'' "domestic,'' "woman'') specifically in the context of cross-cultural translation; and comparison of various approaches to questions about the universality of gendered power hierarchies. One three-hour seminar. R. Lederman
ANT 451 Visual Anthropology LA Explores the theories and methods of ethnographic filmmaking. This seminar introduces students to the pioneering work of filmmakers including Robert Flaherty, Jean Rouch, and Fred Wiseman in order to address questions of documentary authenticity, knowledge, methods, ethics, and audience. One three-hour seminar. C. Rouse