Courses Descriptions

Spring 2008

Click HERE for the downloadable pdf version.

(Rev. 11/1/07)

151 - Emerging Humanity

This course fulfills the Global and Multicultural Perspectives requirement of the General Education Core. Anthropology provides a uniquely long-term perspective on the emergence and global development of humanity over the last 5 million years. This course introduces students to the fossil record of human biological evolution and the archaeology of culture in the world prior to ca. AD 1500. Topics we examine include (but are not limited to): the development of technology, language, and sociopolitical institutions. We will also consider the origins of plant and animal domestication, the genesis of cities and urbanism, and the political and ecological consequences of human impact on the natural environment.

Anthropology offers cross-cultural perspectives on human behavior, and is exceptionally valuable to students in a variety of majors.

152 - Culture and Humanity
Sec. 01, MWF, 08:30-09:20
Instructor: Regina Luna

Anthropology is the study of the human experience and all of the historical, biological and cultural diversity that this encompasses. As a holistic discipline, or science, anthropology covers all aspects of humanity—from birth to death, economic systems, politics, religion, language, gender, and everything else that is part of the human experience.

Cultural anthropology is more narrowly focused upon the varying behaviors of living peoples and how we give meaning to our actions and the world around us. We will study not only a diversity of places and cultures, but also the diverse ways in which anthropologists have tried to analyze and interpret both cultural difference and sameness across the world.

These subjects are explored within the context of meaningful questions, such as: How can people begin to understand beliefs and behaviors that are different from their own? How do societies give meaning to and justify collective violence? Why are some societies more industrially advanced than others? What can anthropology tell us about attempts to link intelligence and class? and more. Cultural anthropology requires that we put aside our preconceived notions of ourselves and other people.
In this class, you will not only be exposed to a variety of new cultures and ways of thinking, but will also gain valuable insight into your own way of seeing the world and acting in it; your culture(s). Welcome to the course!

Goals of this course
• To provide an analysis of the range of variation and degree of uniformity in human behavior as revealed through comparative ethnographic study.
• To present a general introduction to cultural anthropology
• To attain insights into why other cultures are as they are and why we are culturally as we are -- to better understand the cultural problems of contemporary human existence.
• Our activities will also emphasize specific learning skills, including communication skills, writing skills, and skills of critical judgment. You will be expected to form and express opinions, communicate these opinions to others in the class, and help others develop their ideas.

Required Text
Robbins, Richard H. 2006. Cultural Anthropology - A Problem-Based Approach, 4th Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. ISBN 0534640745
- This text provides a fresh look at cultural anthropology using active learning and critical thinking. Students are taught to recognize their own cultures as a basis for understanding the cultures of others. The text is organized around problems rather than topics, creating a natural and integrated discussion of such traditional concerns as kinship, caste, gender roles, and religion.

152(2) - Culture and Humanity
MWF, 09:30-10:20
Instructor: Nancy Cooper

The study of cultural aspects of human existence, including differences and commonalities the world over, is relevant to all students. This course introduces Cultural Anthropology to non-specialists and potential specialists alike. In contemporary life as populations expand, resources shrink, and technologies develop, all humans must adjust socially and individually, in order to continue to survive and lead satisfying lives. Students will explore a number of ways in which people in different parts of the world, including the students’ own, conceptualize, organize, participate in, and change their life worlds.

The course will also cover theories and methods used by anthropologists to document contemporary human life ways (ethnography) while living among and participating with people of various groups or societies (participant-observation fieldwork). A published ethnography, The Balinese, by J. Stephen Lansing, will provide both an example of ethnographic encounter as well as a fascinating glimpse into a remarkable people whose lifestyles include a profusion of expressive arts and performances. The book highlights the responses of Balinese people throughout history to outside influences that have both stimulated their imaginations and caused devastating changes in the landscape and society. Basic concepts and ethnographic coverage of other societies will be provided by the textbook, Seeing Anthropology: Cultural Anthropology through Film, by Karl Heider, an innovative presentation including individually accessible film clips. Either the entire films or a short clip may be viewed in class, depending on time constraints.

Grading consists of 15% attendance and participation in group exercises; 15% book report; 10% written responses to video clips; and 60% objective-style exams.

152(3) - Culture and Humanity
MWF, 11:30-12:20
Instructor: Jack Bilmes

This course fulfills the Global and Multicultural Perspectives requirement of the General Education Core. Cultural anthropology deals with the nature of human life in the social and material world. It examines the great variety of ways in which human groups have come to terms with, modified, and even created their physical and social, natural and supernatural environments, and the ways in which people endow their lives and their world with meaning and order.

If the object of a liberal arts education is to open the mind to new ways of seeing and thinking, there is no more central course in the liberal arts curriculum than cultural anthropology. On every subject and issue, it enables one to consider the possibility of other perspectives and frees one from cultural constraints on thought and valuation. The basic objectives of the introductory course are:

1. Convey the major interests, issues, methods, theories, and findings of the field of cultural anthropology, i.e., introduce students to the discipline.

2. Develop the student's capacity to understand and appreciate other ways of living and thinking. In this, cultural anthropology is analogous to music or art appreciation. It teaches appreciation for the aesthetic qualities of human cultures, for their complexity, capacity to generate meaning for members, and ability to organize human life in specific environments.

3. Demonstrate how to use anthropology to think about topics and issues. This is arguably the most important function of the course.

4. Convey something of the anthropological experience. At the core of professional anthropological training is the transforming experience of fieldwork in another culture. Anthropology is a lived discipline, and in conveying a sense of the experience of fieldwork a unique dimension of meaning is added to the intellectual endeavor.

Texts for the course will consist of two ethnographies (an ethnography is a description of a culture)–The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea by A. Weiner and The Balinese by S. Lansing; a collection of anthropologist-in-the-field stories–Stumbling Toward Truth edited by P. DeVita; and selected articles on various topics of interest.

152 - Culture and Humanity
Sec. 4, MWF, 12:30-01:20
Sec. 5, MWF, 01:30-02:20
Instructor: Jaida Samudra

This course provides a general overview of cultural anthropology for students who are likely to pursue careers in other fields. Cultural anthropology is the study of the diversity of contemporary human societies. Anthropologists examine how human beings learn to belong to different social groups and how they deal with symbolic and material worlds in culturally meaningful ways. In this class, the fundamental concepts and methods of anthropology are shown to be relevant for understanding and working in a rapidly changing world. Students are encouraged to critically examine their own taken-for-granted cultural backgrounds while exploring some of the variation of human behavior in other societies. Issues that concern all human beings, including identity, relationship, and physical and economic survival, are addressed by examining a variety of cross-cultural responses and strategies.

Ethnographic films and readings provide comparative glimpses of a variety of traditional and contemporary societies primarily in Asia and the Pacific and the United States.

Objectives of this introductory course include:
1) Providing a vocabulary of key concepts from cultural anthropology
2) Introducing basic ethnographic methods also used in other social sciences
3) Developing holistic and culturally informed perspectives on social problems
4) Critically examining how indigenous societies are represented in public media
5) Presenting anthropological applications to other fields, particularly health and medicine, business and economics, and ecology and agriculture
6) Encouraging appreciation and respect of the rationality inherent in other ways of living, while finding commonalities amongst all human beings

152(6) - Culture and Humanity
TR, 12:00-01:15
Instructor: Guido Pigliasco

The goal of this course is to offer a comparative approach to the concept of culture and an analysis of how culture structures the worlds in which we live. This course provides a general overview of cultural anthropology for to both majors and non-majors, giving them a fundamental grasp of the distinctive interrogatives about culture and social institutions from an anthropological point of view. Cultural anthropology is the study of multicultural perspectives and cultural diversity of human societies. It examines human societies from their beginnings to the postindustrial age, and considers the development of various forms of social organization and their significance for family and kinship, economics, politics, and religion.

Our textbook, Cultural Anthropology, by Emily Schultz and Robert Lavenda, introduce students to key concepts and data of cultural anthropology introducing basic ethnographic methodologies also used in other social sciences. Its objective is to expose students to the richness and variety of human life in the past and contemporary worlds. While the textbook covers the traditional anthropological material, additional material has been selected to give more insight into contemporary life styles.

Ethnographic films provides an alternative way of perceiving culture-perception constructed through the lens. Culture is manifested through visible symbols embedded in gestures, ceremonies, ritual performances, and artifacts situated in constructed and natural environments. The use of these visual aspects conveys and shapes anthropological experience, knowledge, methods and perspectives.

152(7) - Culture and Humanity
TR, 01:30-02:45
Instructor: Charles Fred Blake

This course is designed to convey the principal ideas of cultural anthropology and to apply those ideas to questions about modern life. This means learning how "to think anthropologically." Required readings include several ethnographic books and a number of articles. The articles will be posted on the Electronic Reserve Library. There will be two or three quizzes on the lectures and readings plus a possible term paper based on original investigation of a local cultural practice. On-time class attendance is required.

210 - Archaeology
TR, 09:00-10:15
Instructor: Terry L. Hunt

Anthropology 210 is an introductory course in the principles of archaeology. It provides students with a broad introduction to the methods and theory that underlie what comtemporary archaeologists do. The course covers:

1) the origin, recent history, and goals of the discipline of archaeology;
2) the formation of the archaeological record;
3) the acquisition of archaeological data, including methods of survey, sampling, and excavations;
4) the analysis of artifacts and palaeo-environmental remains; and
5) synthesis and explanation in scientific archaeology and prehistory.

Our continuing archaeological research on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) provides multiple illustrations of how archaeologists discover and evaluate the evidence of the past.

215 - Physical Anthropology
TR, 9:00-10:15
Instructor: Michael Pietrusewsky

Physical anthropology is a biological science which focuses on adaptations, variability, and the evolution of humans and their nearest relatives, living and fossil. Because human biology is studied in the context of human culture and behavior, physical anthropology is also a social science.

This course serves as an introduction to the field. The areas to be covered include the principles of evolution, biological basis of life, Mendelian and population genetics, human diversity, human (climatic) adaptability, growth and nutrition, biological classification, the biology and behavior of non-human primates (primatology), and the study of primate and human fossils (paleoanthropology).

A separate laboratory (1 credit) is offered in conjunction with this course. All those registered for the lecture course MUST register for one of the lab sections (ANTH 215L). Separate grades will be given for each course.

Required text: R. Jurmain, L Kilgore, and W Trevathan, with R L Ciochon 2008. Introduction to Physical Anthropology 11th ed.

Extra Credit: The option of earning 5 extra points (to be added to final grade) is made available through approved projects. Please read handout and/or see course instructor.

Instructor: Prof. M. Pietrusewsky. Office: Dean 207; Tel: 956-6653; e-mail: mikep@hawaii.edu; Office hours: T 3-4, W 10-11, or by appt. Mailbox: Saunders 346.

Teaching Assistant: Adam Lauer. Office: Saunders 319; Tel. 956-8425; email: alauer@hawaii.edu; Office Hrs.: during labs or by appt.

Visit our Web Site: http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/courses/anth215/index.htm

* Quizzes are normally given in the first or last 5 minutes of each class meeting. Makeup quizzes are not given. The final average for quizzes is based on the 15 highest quiz scores received during the semester. Excuses absences require appropriate (e.g., note from physician) documentation, again no make-ups are given.

Disability Statement: If you feel you need reasonable accommodations because of the impact of a disability, please 1) contact the KOKUA Program (V/T) at 956-7511 or 956-7612 in Room 013 of the QLCSS; 2) speak with me privately to discuss your specific needs. I will be happy to work with you and the KOKUA Program to meet your access needs related to your documented disability.

Class Etiquette: Deactivate all pagers, cell phones, & other electronic devices during class. The use of electronic devices, unless specifically approved by the instructor, during class and exams is prohibited. Be punctual!

215L Physical Anthropology Lab
Sec. 01, W, 08:30-11:20
Sec. 02, W, 12:30-03:20

This lab course accompanies Anth 215. Concurrent enrollment in both courses is required. This course will meet once a week for 3 hrs. Students should sign up for one of the two sections offered. Attendance in lab is mandatory.

This course serves as the laboratory study of human and population genetics, human variability, primatology, human osteology, and human and primate paleontology. There will be assigned reading and assignments from the required textbook for this course. Eleven laboratory assignments (see accompanying outline for a detailed list of assignments) are to be completed and submitted for a grade. The laboratory assignments will augment the material covered in the lecture portion of this course and provide ample opportunity for understanding the subject matter, concepts, and principles through observation, demonstration, and problem solving. In addition to completing lab assignments, students are required to take two lab practical exams.

Lab Reports: All lab assignments are to be typed neatly.

Grading: 11 Graded lab assignments (60% of final grade) and two lab practical exams (@ 20 pts.).

Required Text: D. L. France 2007. Lab Manual and Workbook for Physical Anthropology. Sixth Edition. West/Wadsworth.

Optional Text: P.F. Whitehead, W. S. Sacco, & S. B. Hochgraf (2005) A Photographic Atlas for Physical Anthropology. Morton Publishing Company, Englewood, CO.

Web Site at: http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/courses/anth215/index.htm

313 - Visual Anthropology (Method)
TR, 10:30-11:45
Instructor: Andrew Arno

This course is about culture, visual communication, and anthropology. The term visual anthropology can be read in at least two senses: anthropology as visual communication and the anthropology of visual communication. In this course we will be concerned with the visual dimensions of anthropology as a scholarly activity—the uses made of films, photographs, drawings, and museum displays to convey anthropological knowledge—and we will also explore the concept of visual culture as an object of anthropological study.

The uses of visual media in anthropological research, publication, and teaching have a rich and complex history and an even richer and more complex present and future. The ongoing explosion of technology in the area of visual representation –including digital cameras, highly portable videocams, digital editing programs for computers, cable television, and the Internet—holds exciting potential for ethnography. At the same time, contemporary concerns about truth and ethics in anthropology make the uses of the new technologies a subject of intense debate. This course will critically examine both the history of anthropological films, in the larger context of the documentary film as a genre, and also the contemporary debates about the representation of non-Western cultures in visual modes.

The broader question of the nature of visual culture and the relation between audio and visual modes of communication forms the background of the central problems of anthropology: how does one gain an understanding of one’s own and other cultures, and how can one convey that understanding to others.

345 - Aggression, War and Peace (Theory)
TR, 10:30-11:45
Instructor: Leslie E. Sponsel

This course explores enduring and contemporary questions, problems, and issues of war and peace including their moral and ethical dimensions. These and related phenomena will be critically analyzed through the unique perspectives of the humanistic science of anthropology with its focus on holism, culture, fieldwork, comparison, evolution, and prehistory. Furthermore, the course will also critically analyze in historical perspective the role of anthropology and anthropologists in war and peace from the colonialisms of past centuries to the neocolonialisms of the present. A second focus of this course is on providing background for understanding in anthropological perspective the current wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, including information on Islam, Muslims, and the cultures and societies of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and related matters.

The above subjects will be pursued through class discussion of the required textbooks, lectures by the instructor, guest faculty lectures and panels, and videos. In addition to the textbooks listed below, students will also be required to read and report on several additional books individually and as panelists. Accordingly, this course is reading, thinking, discussion, and debate intensive. Students who are unable or unwilling to undertake a very substantial amount of reading should not take this course. The course grade will be divided evenly between student book reports (individual and panel) and take-home essay examinations (mid-term and final). The only prerequisite for this course is an open mind. Students who do not have the prerequisite listed in the catalog, ANTH 152 Culture and Humanity, may request a waiver from the instructor. This course is cross-listed as PACE 345.

Every student is required to thoroughly read and discuss these five primary textbooks listed in the order in which they will be covered in the class:

Fry, Douglas P., 2007, Beyond War: The Human Potential for Peace.
Andreas, Joel, 2004, Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can’t Kick Militarism.
Sloan, Stephen, 2006, Terrorism: The Present Threat in Context.
Eickelman, Dale F., 2002, The Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach (Fourth Edition).
Khan, Arshad, 2006, Islam 101: Principles and Practice.

384 - Skeletal Biology (Method)
TR, 12:00-01:15
Instructor: Michael Pietrusewsky

This lecture/laboratory course serves as an introduction to the study of human skeletal anatomy (human osteology) and the methods for studying human skeletal remains. Human osteology serves as the foundation for studies of human remains recovered from a variety of contexts including archaeological, medicolegal (forensic), and palaeontological.

The topics to be addressed in this course include basic anatomy of the skeleton, the excavation and treatment of human remains, bone and cartilage histology, bone growth and development, the methods for determining age-at-death, sex, stature, and ancestry from human remains, dental anthropology, metric and non-metric skeletal variation, palaeodemography, paleopathology of bones and teeth, forensic anthropology, biodistance studies, and specialized methods (e.g., isotope analysis, DNA from bone etc.) of skeletal research.

Students enrolled in this course are required to be concurrently enrolled in Anth 384L.

Skeletal Biology Research: In addition to completing the required 10 laboratory assignments, each student is required to log a total of 10 hours of lab time assisting in an on-going osteological research project to be announced later in the semester.

Exams and Grade Computation: 2 written (mid-term and final) and 2 practical (lab) exams.
Identical grades for the lecture and laboratory portions of this course will be given based on the following: Written mid-term exam = 10%; Written final exam = 15%; Research lab = 5%; First lab practical = 10%; 10 Lab assignments = 45%; Final lab practical = 15%

Reading and Required Texts: Reading will be assigned from the two required texts. Additional readings will be issued throughout the semester. A reading list will be issued on the first day of class.

White, T. and P.A. Folkens, 2005. The Human Bone Manual. Elsevier Academic Press.
Buikstra, J.E. and E Ubelaker (eds). Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains. Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series 44. 1995.

Optional Text:

P.F. Whitehead, W. K. Sacco, and S. B. Hochgraf (2005) A Photographic Atlas for Physical Anthropology. Morton Publishing Company.

384L - Skeletal Biology Lab (Method)
TR, 01:30-02:55
Instructor: Michael Pietrusewsky

Laboratory to accompany Anth 384. Students enrolled in this course must also be enrolled in Anth 384.

In this lab course, students will learn the basic anatomy of human skeleton and the methods of skeletal biology. After learning this basic anatomy of skeletons, students will complete lab assignments on the following topics:

1. Bone and cartilage
2. Sex determination
3. Age determination: adult
4. Age determination: sub-adults
5. The skull
6. Paleodemography
7. Teeth
8. Infracranial skeleton
9. Cranial variation
10. Data Analaysis
11. Paleopathology

Required Texts:

White, T. and P.A. Folkens, 2005. The Human Bone Manual. Elsevier Academic Press.
Buikstra, J.E. and E. Ubelaker (eds). Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains. Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series 44. 1995

385B - Undergraduate Proseminar: Archaeology
“The Formation of Ancient Civilizations in China”
F, 01:30-04:00
Instructor: Tianlong Jiao

This course is an introduction to the archaeology of ancient China, a regional survey of the cultural and social changes from the first appearance of humans to the formation of ancient civilizations (ca. 1 million years ago to 100 BC) in today’s China. Anthropological approaches are used to examine the following major issues: the adaptations and evolutions of early Hominids, transition from foraging to food production, emergence of regional traditions, the development of complex societies, urbanization and state formations, early writing, art and power, societies of Shang and Zhou Dynasties, political and cultural unification of Qin and Han Dynasties, politics, nationalism and the practice of archaeology in China.

Assigned Reading:

The following books will be extensively consulted throughout this course:
K.C. Chang et al. (2005), The Formation of Chinese Civilization: an archaeological perspective. Yale University and New World Press.
Li Liu (2004). The Chinese Neolithic. Cambridge University Press
Tianlong Jiao (2007). The Neolithic of Southeast China. Cambria Press.
Lothar von Falkenhausen (2006). Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000-250BC): the archaeological evidence. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA.

A complete list of assigned weekly reading, taken from the above books and other sources, will be made available the first day of class.

Grade Evaluation:

The major work requirements of this course are: Midterm exam (20%), Final Exam (30%), Term paper (30%), and In-class discussion and attendance (20%)

No pre-requisites of archaeology and Chinese language background. Students with interests in Chinese art history, regional studies and Chinese history are welcome to enroll in this course.

408 History and Memory (Theory)
TR, 09:00-10:15
Instructor: Geoffrey White

How much do you know about your past? How do you come to have that knowledge and why does it matter? These questions about ordinary memory at the personal level can also be asked of families, communities, and whole nations. How do societies remember? How do they forget? How do nation states use the past to create a sense of a common heritage and future? What are the politics of memory, whether in families, communities, or nations, that lead to systematic remembering and forgetting? Why is it that some forms of collective remembering are surrounded by intense emotions and politics?

We will also ask ‘what is the fate of memory in an era of instant retrieval, in which the present is saturated with images of the past in television programs, photographs, films, video games and internet sites?’ As television and film projects take on historical topics, and as historic sites, museums, and memorials become tourist destinations, how is memory affected by the production of the past as an object of popular consumption?

This course will introduce students to critical perspectives on collective memory today. Through course readings, films, and student projects we will examine the issues and debates that surround collective remembering and forgetting, from families to nation-states. Case studies will be used to examine memory as an active, value-laden process of reconstruction—a process in which multiple stories about the past contend for recognition, for moral judgment, and emotional impact.

Requirements
Grading will be based on a midterm exam, short essays, and a final paper based on a “field” project or library/web study of a historic site, text or activity.

FOCUS DESIGNATION: (E)thics

Readings
Morris-Suzuki, Tessa, The Past Within Us: Media, Memory, History
Nakazawa, Keiji, Barefoot Gen [Hadashi no Gen]
Rosenstone, Robert, Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to our Idea of History
Sontag, Susan, Regarding the Pain of Others
Spiegelman, Art, Maus I: My Father Bleeds History
Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Silencing the Past

417 Political Anthropology (Theory)
TR, 12:00-01:15
Instructor: Alex Golub

This is an upper-level undergraduate class designed to introduce students to topics in the anthropological subfield of political anthropology. It also is suitable for graduate students. This course is focused on the relationship between nation states and indigenous people, and pays special attention to the role that anthropologists have in mediating indigenous claims to resources and identities made to the state. We will be especially focused on the connection between debates regarding liberalism, multiculturalism, and recognition as they are expressed in political philosophy and how these debates connect with anthropological work on issues of tradition, identity, and nationalism.

420 Communications and Culture (Theory)
TR, 01:30-02:45
Instructor: Andrew Arno

Both communication and culture are extremely powerful factors in social life as we live it. As academic concepts, both have proven extremely fruitful in both social scientific and humanistic inquiry, and this course will examine the relationship between the two. While culture has been, and continues to be, the major preoccupation of cultural anthropology, it is clear that the linguistic turn in anthropology has brought language and communication more and more into the forefront of investigation. Many anthropologists have concluded that culture is communication, in the sense that culture as performed is an exchange and dialogic construction of meaning. The goal of this course is to introduce the student to fundamental ideas in language philosophy, semiotics, and communication studies that have had a significant impact in the development of social and cultural anthropology. A dominant theme of the course will be the development of an argument that places the notions of identity and category at the nexus of communication and culture. Theories of category, classification, and systematics, in and out of anthropology, will be reviewed, and the work of selected anthropologists who have contributed to the communication focus in contemporary anthropology will be examined in detail. While language will be a major concern of the course, a broader concept of communication that includes both audio and visual modes will be adopted.

427 - Food, Health, and Society (Method and Theory)
MW 11:30-12:45
Instructor: Heather McMillen

"Nutritional Anthropology" the study of food, health, and society examines the cultural constructions and physiologic implications of human diets across time, space, society, and culture. Fundamental to this inquiry is that foods have both material and nonmaterial realities. An integrated biobehavioral perspective for food and cuisine is reflected in this statement: "Food, by virtue of its pivotal place in human experience is, at once, a bundle of energy and nutrients within the biological sphere, a commodity within the economic sphere, and a symbol within the social and religious spheres" (Kandel et al. 1980. Nutritional Anthropology. p. 1). The holistic study of food and nutrition draws attention to: the identification of "edibles" and their organization into cuisines: socioeconomic structure: political ecology and resource allocation: subsistence and food production systems; individual and population differences in food metabolism: the implications of food consumption patterns on health. A specific objective of this course is to foster the comprehension of the complex interrelations among these variables.

The holistic study of food and nutrition draws attention to the identification of "edibles" and their organization into cuisines; political ecology and resource allocation; subsistence and food production systems; individual and population differences in food metabolism; how demographic variables (gender, ethnicity, age) influence access to, selection, and experience with foods; medicinal foods and the implications of diet for health. A specific objective of this course is to foster the comprehension of the complex interrelations among these variables.

435 - Human Adaptation to Forests (Area or Theory)
T, 01:30-04:00
Instructor: Leslie E. Sponsel

The countries of insular and mainland Southeast Asia are the regional focus of this course this semester. The primary topical focus is the changing niches of human populations in tropical forest ecosystems in relation to the environmental, economic, and sociocultural impacts of deforestation, mining, economic development, missionization, war, climate change, and other forces. Secondary topical foci are the contributions of ecological and environmental anthropology to biodiversity studies and conservation, and the relationships among human rights, advocacy anthropology, and professional ethics. The overarching theoretical and methodological approach is political ecology, but the approaches of primate, cultural, historical, and spiritual ecology will also be considered.

This course is reading, thinking, and discussion intensive. The final grade will be based on class discussion (general, individual, and subgroup), panel discussions of book length case studies, pop quizzes, and a final examination. The prerequisites for this course are Anth 152, 415, and 482, or consent of the instructor. Enrollment is limited because of the Oral Focus designation.

Every student is expected to thoroughly read and discuss these three main textbooks:

Whitmore, T.C., 1998, An Introduction to Tropical Rain Forests.

Dove, Michael R., Percy E. Sajise, and Amity A. Doolittle, eds., 2005, Conserving Nature in Culture: Case Studies from Southeast Asia.

Sponsel, L.E., ed., 2007, Changing Dynamics of Human Ecology in the Forest Ecosystems of Southeast Asia.

Students are strongly urged to read the following book as general background prior to the first class.

King, Victor T., and William D. Wilder, 2003, The Modern Anthropology of South-East Asia: An Introduction.

462 East Asian Archaeology (Area)
TR, 12:00-01:15
Instructor: Barry V. Rolett

This course examines key cultural developments in East Asia, with a focus on the last 10,000 years. Early states rose and fell in some areas of Asia, while small-scale foragers persisted in others. The intensity of archaeological research has varied considerably from region to region across Asia. Accordingly, this course showcases regions where the most extensive archaeological work has been done.

Among the issues we explore are: the Asian Paleolithic (or “Stone Age”), the origins of settled life and the adoption of agriculture, and the development and organization of complex societies. We will also examine evidence that the origins of the Polynesians can be traced to a Neolithic homeland on the coast of southeast China. We pay particular attention to the archaeological evidence for China and Japan. The instructor has active archaeological research projects on the Neolithic cultures of southeast China and the emergence of East Asian seafaring.

This writing-intensive class is appropriate for upper-division undergraduates and graduate students. We welcome students with interests in East Asia; background in archaeology is helpful but NOT a prerequisite for this course.

464 Hawaiian Archaeology (Area)
MWF, 10:30-11:20
Instructor: James M. Bayman

This writing-intensive course will provide students an in-depth introduction to the archaeology of the Hawaiian Islands before and after European and American contact. Topics that we will consider include (but not be limited to) the geographical and historical origins of the first Hawaiians, the timing of island colonization and settlement, the development of food production and craft economies, the emergence of socio-political hierarchies, and the consequences of contact and colonialism, including population trends and historical ecology. Throughout the course we will emphasize critical topics of debate. We will also consider the relevance of archaeology to contemporary society in Hawai‘i.

471 Assemblages in Archaeology (Method)
T, 02:00-06:00
Instructor: Tom Dye

Lecture and laboratory course surveying methods for conducting analyses of archaeological assemblages, with a regional focus on Hawai`i and the Pacific. Emphasis on the logic of investigation, including classification, quantification, and exploratory data analytic techniques.

484 Japanese Popular Culture (Area)
TR, 09:00-10:15
Instructor: Christine R. Yano

This course examines various issues in contemporary life in Japan through its popular culture and consumption. This is not a survey of pop culture forms. Rather, through manga, anime, karaoke, pop music, baseball, tourism, and other sites in everyday life, we will explore the forces by which Japan shapes and gets shaped. The course takes as its assumption that popular culture is a particularly rich node of culture, power, interaction, and consumption. This process of rethinking Japan will revolve around topics of nationalism, gender, sexuality, class, and globalization.

Students will be required to think through issues in the course through reading, writing, and discussing. The class aims to be as interactive as possible, with field sites, videos, and in-class assignments. No previous knowledge of Japan is necessary.

486 Peoples of Hawai`i (Area)
TR, 09:00-10:15
Instructor: Ty P. Kawika Tengan

This course critically examines the historical and contemporary experiences of various peoples of Hawai‘i. We will focus on the ways that individuals come to see, know, enact, and practice their membership in larger collectivities that are both institutionally and self-defined along the lines of race, ethnicity, culture, language, gender, sex, class, land, residence, etc. The stakes of knowing ones place in Hawai‘i continue to rise as indigenous claims for land and sovereignty, state and national political restructurings, and global flows of knowledge, capital and bodies confound older ways of understanding “local” identity/ies. We will begin with a survey of historical transformations and continuities in rural island communities on Hawai‘i Island, Maui, and Moloka‘i, and the ways that Native Hawaiians throughout the archipelago have asserted rights of indigeneity and sovereignty in the in the present. We then shift our attention to the articulations of gender, class, and race in the Japanese American community of post-WWII Hawai‘i, particularly as seen in the Cherry Blossom Festival. Finally, we will focus our attention to the cultural and environmental impacts of agribusiness, tourism, and military on Maui. In each of these studies, we will also be examining the various anthropological and ethnic studies approaches used to understand and make interventions into the processes of social change.

Required texts:
Blackford, Mansel. 2001. Fragile Paradise: The Impact of Tourism on Maui, 1959–2000. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas
McGregor, Davianna. 2007. Na Kua‘āina: Living Hawaiian Culture. Honolulu: UH Press.
Yano, Christine. 2006. Crowning the Nice Girl: Gender, Ethnicity and Culture in Hawai'i's Cherry Blossom Festival. Honolulu: UH Press

490 - History of Anthropology (Theory)
TR, 09:00-10:15
Instructor: Charles Fred Blake

This is a historical survey of watershed ideas and intellectual genealogies that form the modern discipline of anthropology. This includes an understanding of the historical contexts and conditions for the advent and spread of these theories and the personalities whose published writings received the most notoriety. Although our emphasis is on the modern discourses (e.g., theories of social evolution, structural functionalism, structuralism, and semiotics, linguistic and cognitive, cultural materialism–ecological, functionalist, and Marxist and practice theories), we also take up the postmodern challenges and intellectual currents interpretive ethnography, feminist and other critical theories that have redefined the calling of anthropology. Classes are mostly lectures (based on Powerpoint presentations). Some time is allotted to question-and-answer discussions of assigned readings. For undergraduates, three quizzes (multiple-choice questions plus essays) and class participation determine the course grade. Graduate students are held to a different standard.

602 Linguistic Anthropology
T, 03:00-05:30
Instructor: Jack Bilmes

The central concerns of linguistic anthropology are with the relationship between language and the rest of culture and with the way that language is actually used in cultural settings.

The overall objective of this course is to provide an advanced introduction to some important topics in linguistic anthropology. These include:

a) cultural grammar, emics, and ethnosemantics
b) structuralism
c) linguistic relativism
d) ethnography of communication
e) microanalytic and pragmatic approaches

We will attend to the mutual influences of linguistic theory and methodology on the one hand, and anthropological theory and methodology on the other.

Grades will be based primarily on three two-hour exams. However, performance on classroom assignments and general quality of contributions to classroom discussions will also be taken into consideration.

603 Archaeology (Theory)
W, 01:30-04:00
Instructor: Miriam T. Stark

This is a graduate core course in the Department of Anthropology, with a sub-disciplinary emphasis on archaeology. This seminar provides a critical, synthetic review of method and theory as it is applied to explanation and interpretation in archaeology. The intellectual goal of the course is to develop critical and analytic skills, while familiarizing ourselves with a range of archaeological literature. In addition, we will cover the “theoretical” literature of archaeology. The perspective used in this course draws heavily from the Americanist tradition of archaeology, with contributions from British and European archaeology as well. Our focus on explanation and interpretation will lead us to major questions, such as the origins of agriculture and social complexity, that archaeologists and anthropologists have long attempted to answer.

The course is organized in a sequence that begins with philosophical discussions of theory, explanation, and the structure of archaeological knowledge. We discuss several paradigms of archaeology, and attempts to explain culture change and diversity. As a graduate level seminar, this class combines lectures, student presentations and discussion. Course requirements include regular participation in discussions, a midterm, a final, and a term paper.

606 - Anthropology of Infectious Disease (Theory)
M, 02:30-05:00
Instructor: Nina L. Etkin

Infectious diseases remain the major cause of death worldwide. We live in a time of emerging (new) infectious diseases (e.g., HIV/AIDS, Ebola Fever, Hantavirus, Legionnaires’ Disease) and resurgent ones such as tuberculosis, malaria, and polio. The problem is compounded by infectious disease "traffic" — introducing infections to new species and previously unaffected populations. This growing disease burden can be linked to human activities such as deforestation and other environmental degradation, contact with "exotic" animals, overuse of antibiotics, limited knowledge of disease transmission, and lack of resources for vaccination and other preventions. The anthropological study of infectious disease explores the interplay of pathogenic microbes in human populations by focusing on the intersection of cultural, ecological, and political factors related to the transmission and experience of infectious disease. Given the role of human action in infectious disease traffic, anthropologists — who observe and interpret human behavior— have much to offer for understanding infectious diseases and contributing to efforts to control them.

620I Theory in Social & Cultural Anthropology: Other (Theory)
“Contemporary Anthropological Theory”
W, 01:30-04:00
Instructor: Alex Golub

This course is an advanced seminar for graduate students designed to complement Anthropology 601 "Ethnology". The main focus of this course will be on the American school of sociocultural anthropology theory, its development, and its incorporation of wider trends in social theory within existing paradigms between the period of 1962-2003.

This class is designed to constitute a 'disciplinary history' of anthropology rather than a scholarly intellectual or sociological history of the discipline. As such it is designed to allow students to create a usable past for themselves in the development of their own theoretical approaches and, as result, help create the next step in the collective autobiography of the discipline.

Major topics will include structuralism, interpretive anthropology, Marxist anthropology and political economy, subaltern studies and critiques of colonialism, historical anthropology, globalization theory, and science and technology studies. Major 'social theorists' to be discussed include Weber, Marx, Levi-Strauss, Bourdieu, Foucault, Bakhtin, and (possibly) Gramsci and Latour.

645 - Historic Preservation (Method)
T, 06:30-09:00 p.m.
Instructor: Sara Collins

Historic and cultural resources are now covered by a myriad of federal, state, and local historic preservation laws. The intent of these laws is to protect and to encourage the wise management and preservation of these significant resources. In the first part of the seminar, the major historic preservation laws and associated regulations together with combined effect on historic properties will be presented and discussed. In the second half of the course we will analyze and assess historic preservation law in the larger contexts of environmental law and policy, and societal norms and expectations.

Students are expected to participate actively in each class meeting. There is a midterm exam following the first part of the course. Students will undertake a written research project pertaining to historic preservation during the latter half of the class, the topic to be chosen in consultation with the instructor. Each student will present the results of the individual research project to the class. All work must be completed in order to receive a final grade for the course.

720 - Anthropology of Japan (Area)
T, 01:30-04:00
Instructor: Christine R. Yano

This seminar is intended for the graduate student committed to engaging with Japan as a field site and subject of research. The basic questions the course addresses are:

1) in what ways has Japan been constructed as an object of study?
2) how has this construction shaped the questions which get asked and the answers given?
3) what kinds of interactions have there been between Euro-American scholarship and research or popular thought in Japan itself?

During the first two-thirds of the semester, the class will read and discuss broadly and historically on the object of Japan as created by primarily Euro-American scholars. Beginning with Ruth Benedict’s Chrysanthemum and the Sword, the class will look at ways in which this and other works were embedded within particular histories of politics and scholarship. Anthropological theory, then, will be a part of our gaze, especially as studies of Japan have been embedded within them. On the other hand, one of the critiques of anthropological studies of Japan has been the tendency not to engage with anthropological theory, creating a kind of exceptionalism. The goal of the course is to give the graduate student a firm grounding in the anthropology of Japan as a field of study, which has itself been a part of histories played out on the personal, institutional, national, and international levels.

The first two-thirds of the semester will be divided as follows:
I. Ruth Benedict
II. Village ethnographies
III. Nihonjinron and other patternings of culture
IV. Gender
V. Modernities
VI. Other Japans

Each week will revolve around one basic question addressed by the various readings. Students will read different works, provide precis, and discuss them in relation to the week’s question.

The latter third of the semester will be devoted to students’ own research interests. Students have a choice of developing either: 1) research paper, or 2) research proposal, suitable for M.A. or Ph.D. work. The students will work one-on-one with the instructor in developing these. The semester will end with student presentations of their projects.

750B - Research Seminar: Archaeology (Theory)
“Theory and Explanation in Pacific Island and Asian Archaeology”
M, 2:30-5:00 pm
Instructor: Terry L. Hunt

In this seminar we will first undertake a critical review of the background to theoretical and explanatory models in archaeology/prehistory, particularly those with current relevance to research in the Asian-Pacific region.

The next part of our seminar will pursue contemporary issues including palaeo-environmental/climatic reconstructions; palaeo-demography; foraging models and subsistence; resource impacts and resilience; mobility and social interactions; life-history models; bet-hedging and cultural elaborations; and social inequality, organization and complexity. Our emphasis will follow student research interests and engagements to some degree.

The third portion of the seminar will be devoted to student research presentations and discussions. Students will produce a research paper or proposal (e.g., such as M.A. research papers or dissertation proposals, etc.) with the support of seminar discussions and feedback from fellow participants.

Our focus will be primarily theoretical, explanatory, and methodological rather than limited by a particular geographical region. Our readings will certainly go beyond the Asian-Pacific region where inspired by examples of relevant problems and literature.

We encourage students outside an archaeology specialization to join the seminar, particularly those with interests in historical explanation, evolutionary ecology, or other aspects of long term societal change and cultural diversification.

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