100 - Introduction to Anthropology An introduction to the anthropological concept of culture, its uses in the explanation of human behaviour, and its impact on our understanding of human nature, language, and society. The course will explore cultural diversity through the comparative perspective that makes anthropology unique within the humanities and social sciences. It will also show how anthropologists analyse the connections between politics, economics, gender, kinship, and religion within particular cultures.
202 - Anthropology of Language An introduction to the anthropological study of language. This course examines a variety of theories and methods for the study of the variable relations between language use and aspects of social life and of personhood, among them social organization, hierarchy, power, gender, sexuality, and subjectivity. *** Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or a linguistics course ***
203 - Social Organization An analysis of the political, economic, and ideological aspects of social organization, with particular emphasis on kinship, gender, and social stratification in non-industrialized societies. *** Prerequisite: Any 100-level course in the social sciences. ***
230 - Ethnography of Southeast Asia This course surveys the rich cultural diversity of Southeast Asia, ranging from the head-hunting and opium-growing tribal hill peoples to Hindu/Buddhist and Islamic civilizations. The course will provide some historical background to the area, and cover such topics as social and political organization, gender, religion, and aesthetics. *** Prerequisite: One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100-level HIST course, INDG 100, PSCI 100 or SOC 100. ***
233 - Ethnography of the Himalayas This course surveys the Himalayas as a culture area, investigates the economic, social, and religious strategies of various Himalayan peoples, and traces the influences of Tibetan culture and Buddhism in the region. The course will provide historical and geographical overviews of the area. *** Prerequisite: One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100-Level HIST course, INDG 100, PSCI 100, or SOC 100. ***
237 - Ethnography of Europe This introductory course offers an overview of the ethnographic study of Europe since the 1950s. Different regions of the continent are examined through close reading of ethnographic writings concerned with gender, morality, social class, ethnic affiliation, and nationalist ideology. *** Prerequisite: One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100-level HIST course, INDG 100, PSCI 100 or SOC 100.***
238 - Ethnography of India This course is an ethnographic survey of rural and urban India. It will explore connections between hierarchical social organizations (such as caste) and "popular Hinduism". The processes of urbanization and industrialization, and the establishment of India as a nation state, will be related to the emergence of new social identities and organizations such as class. Other topics to be covered include jajmani exchange relationships, festivals, pilgrimage, sects and cults, ascetics, household and kinship systems. *** Prerequisite: One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100-level HIST course, INDG 100, PSCI 100 or SOC 100. ***
239 - Ethnography of Amazonia This course explores ethnographic and theoretical issues in the social anthropological study of indigenous Amazonian peoples. Privileged topics include the exploration of native understanding of sociality, cosmology, selfhood, morality and emotions. The course also addresses issues in regional history, social organization, and political and economic anthropology. *** Prerequisite: One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100-level HIST course, INDG 100, PSCI 100 or SOC 100. ***
240 - Popular Culture Taking an ethnographic approach, this introductory course examines representations of popular culture in mass media, music, film, advertising, consumer goods, and leisure. The course is particularly concerned with ways in which popular discourses and practices are implicated in the reproduction of, and resistance to, dominant values, norms and ideologies. *** Prerequisite: One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100-level HIST course, INDG 100, PSCI 100 or SOC 100. ***
241 - Culture Area Studies - an AA-ZZ series. Ethnology of the peoples of a selected culture area. Area to be announced. *** Prerequisite: One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100-level HIST course, INDG 100, PSCI 100 or SOC 100. ***
241AG - Ethnography of New Guinea This course explores the diverse cultures of Papua New Guinea and other parts of Melanesia. It will explore such topics as social organization, gender roles, and exchange, and reveal anthropological insights into the practices of cannibalism, headhunting, and sorcery. *** Prerequisite: One of ANTH 100, GEOG 100, PSCI 100, SOC 100 or a 100 level HIST course ***
241AH - Ethnography of China From classical studies of ritual to innovative work on minority politics, this course addresses anthropological research on the People's Republic of China, a diverse and complex nation undergoing rapid cultural change. Privileged topics include nationalism, power, (post-)socialism, kinship, memory, and ethnographic writing. ***Prerequisite: One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100-level HIST course, INDG 101, PSCI 100, SOC 100, or CHIN 100.*** .
241AI - Ethnographie des Francophones de la Saskatchewan Ce cours explore la question de la francophonie en Saskatchewan, comme espace culturel et identitaire, a l'appui des collectes et des travaux ethnographiques realises en Saskatchewan francaise. Il questionne les limites d'une ethnologie canadienne-francaise, essentiellement quebecoise, dont les fondements renvoient a l'ideologie de la survivance francaise en Amerique du Nord. L'accent est mis sur la diversite d'origine de la population francophone en Saskatchewan : Metis, Europeens, Canadiens francais, au fondement d'une francophonie originale. * Note: This course will be given in French *
242 - Culture Area Studies - an AA-ZZ series. Ethnology of the peoples of a selected culture area. Area to be announced. *** Prerequisite: One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100-level HIST course, INDG 201, PSCI 100 or SOC 100 ***
242AA - Anthropology of Cyberspace This course looks at cyberspace as a human society and utilizes anthropological perspectives to achieve a critical, analytical, and reflexive understanding of the internet and its relations to the real world. It introduces students to anthropological methods and ethical considerations in understanding the virtual life of the inhabitants of cyberspace. *** Prerequisite: One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100-level HIST course, INDG 101, PSCI 100 or SOC 100. ***
242AB - The Anthropology of Violence and Conflict This course will apply anthropological theories to explore violence and conflict as social processes rather than as isolated events. We will utilize various cross-cultural examples to explore how violence and conflict maintain social stability while disrupting social norms. *** Prerequisite: One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100-level HIST course, INDG 101, PSCI 100 or SOC 100. ***
242AC - Anthropology of Death The main focus of this course will be a cross-cultural study of death and mortuary rituals. The dynamic relationships that exist between living and deceased members of communities and nations will be explored through attentive review of early and contemporary ethnographic research. This course will demonstrate that ethnographic engagement with death and mortuary rituals can help reveal and further understandings of fundamental aspects of our social lives. *** Prerequisite: One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100-level HIST course, INDG 101, PSCI 100 or SOC 100. ***
247 - Ethnography of Polynesia This course surveys the cultures and societies of the islands of Polynesia. It investigates the region in historical perspective, including its place in the popular imagination of the West. Topics covered include social organization, cosmology, gender, art, tourism, globalization, and ethnicity. *** One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100-level HIST course, INDG 100, PSCI 100, or SOC 100 *** * Note: Formerly numbered ANTH 241AF. Students may count only one of ANTH 241AF or 247 for credit.*
248 - Ethnography of Papua New Guinea This course explores the diverse cultures of Papua New Guinea and other parts of Melanesia. It will investigate such topics as social organization, gender roles, and exchange, and reveal anthropological insights into the practice of cannibalism, love magic, and sorcery. *** One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100-level HIST course, INDG 100, PSCI 100, or SOC 100 *** * Note: Formerly numbered ANTH 241AG. Students may count only one of ANTH 241AG or 248 for credit. *
261 - Andean Ethnohistory This course focuses on the history of indigenous Andean peoples from the rise of the Inca Empire to the end of Spanish colonialism. It will examine the transformation of Andean culture and society under Inca and then under Spanish rule, and the role of boundaries between the hispanic and indigenous. *** Prerequisite: One course from ANTH 100, GEOG 100, any 100 Level HIST course, INDG 101, PSCI 100, or SOC 100. ***
301 - Economic Anthropology The study of human livelihood from various theoretical perspectives including substantivism, formalism, Marxism, and symbolic anthropology: cross-cultural approaches to production, circulation, and property; folk economic models and their relation to western economic theories. *** Prerequisite: ANTH 100 and any 200-level course in the social sciences. ***
302 - Political Anthropology Political power and process in cross-cultural perspective, including societies without specialized political institutions: analysis of the social organization of factionalism, dispute and violence, class and ethnic conflict, state formation, the colonial experience and political problems of emerging nations, legitimation, hegemony and ideology. *** Prerequisite: ANTH 100 and any 200-level course in the social sciences. ***
304 - Anthropology of Gender How different cultures make distinctions between female, male and other gender categories; cross-cultural variation in gender definitions and roles; how gender shapes and is shaped by other aspects of culture and society. *** Prerequisite: ANTH 100 and any 200-level course in the social sciences. ***
305 - Anthropology of Religion Religion will be examined in its functional relations to other aspects of culture, especially in relation to the contrast between "primitive society" and "civilization". Anthropological approaches to the study of magic, witchcraft, myth, ritual, ethics, religious movements and cults will be reviewed. *** Prerequisite: ANTH 100 and any 200-level course in the social sciences. ***
306 - Anthropology of Art A cross-cultural and inter-cultural exploration of aesthetics. This course compares the role of art in our own society to aesthetic expressions in other societies. It will also explore connections between anthropology and modern art movements. Various aesthetic forms may be addressed, including visual and performing arts as well as architecture. *** Prerequisite: Any 200-level course in the social sciences or art history. ***
307 - Anthropology of Ritual This course investigates ritual as a social event where participants convey key cultural values and meanings through symbolic action in "sacred" space and time. Using anthropological theory and ethnographic case studies, the course inquires into how religious belief, ethnic and national affiliation, class and gender, prestige and political power are reproduced and reconfigured in ritual practiced today in differing locales of the world. *** Prerequisite: ANTH 100 and any 200-level course in the social sciences. ***
308 - Symbolic Anthropology Introduction to theories of symbolism and methods of interpretation in anthropology, including debates over rationality, language and culture, structuralism, metaphor theory, and pragmatism. *** Prerequisite: ANTH 100 and any 200-level course in the social sciences. ***
309 - The Anthropology of Personhood An exploration of diverse cultural understandings of personhood. This course will use cross-cultural ethnographies as well as a variety of Western accounts to address social practices and understandings of bodies, sex and gender, subjectivities, emotions, and self-consciousness. It will also address debates concerning agency, freedom, morality, and structure. *** Prerequisite: ANTH 100 and any 200-level course in the social sciences. ***
310 - Race, Ethnicity, and Nation How anthropologists analyze notions of race, ethnicity, and nation as constructions of social difference and identity in the modern world. This course will critically explore the social processes that both naturalize and politicize issues of culture and group membership in modern nation states. It will also discuss how social scientific theories have been involved in these developments. *** Prerequisite: ANTH 100 and any 200-level course in the social sciences. ***
312 - Anthropology of Colonialism and Post-Colonialism Cultural practices, servile labour systems, forms of rule, and indigenous responses to colonialisms and their influences in post-colonial settings. Ethnographic and historical accounts of colonialism and their relation to the academic perspective called "post-colonialism." Special emphasis is placed on understanding how colonial categories, practices, and identities have been formulated, resisted, and reconfigured in the lives of the (formerly) colonized and colonizing. *** Prerequisite: ANTH 100 and any 200-level course in the social sciences. ***
313 - Material Culture and Consumption A study of the investment of social values in the material world, including the cultural politics of "styles" in architecture, interior decoration, dress, etc. Consumption is approached ethnographically, in relation to modern personhood, kinship, and household formation. Practices such as collecting are studied in terms of the cultural politics of value in various societies. Emphasis is placed on modernity, with reference to ethnographic records of material culture in pre-industrial societies. *** Prerequisite: ANTH 100 and any 200-level course in the social sciences. ***
320 - Selected Topics in Anthropology - an AA-ZZ series. Courses designed as required for groups of senior undergraduates. *** Prerequisite: Any 200-level course in the social sciences or permission of Department Head. ***
320AF - Visual Anthropology The emphasis of this course is on the representation of society and social relations through visual media, particularly film and photography. A subsidiary issue concerns the representation of anthropological knowledge in ethnographic film. The course will have a global perspective, with an emphasis on Oceania. *** Prerequisite: Any 200-level course in the social sciences. ***
333 - Ethnographic Research This course will explore how socio-cultural anthropologists do ethnographic fieldwork, and the methodological, epistemological, and ethical issues they encounter in such research. Topics covered may range from the technical aspects of participant observation, ethnographic interviewing, and the writing of field notes, to the broader issues of how a researcher's point of view and relation to the community under study influence the creation of ethnographic knowledge. *** Prerequisite: One of ANTH 202, 203, 230-245, SOST 203, or permission of Department Head. ***
340 - Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems The contribution of anthropological methods and principles to search for practical and ethical solutions to contemporary social and administrative problems involving intercultural communication and social change. *** Prerequisite: Any 200-level course in the social sciences or permission of Department Head. *** * Note: ANTH 340 is not regularly offered. *
343 - Medical Anthropology The comparative study of medical systems and how they interact with their social and cultural context, including such issues as the healer-patient relationship, the socio-cultural construction of health and illness, and medical pluralism. *** Prerequisite: ANTH 100 and any 200-level course in the social sciences. ***
390 - Directed Reading and Research - an AA-ZZ series. Courses designed for individual students.
401 - Theory in Anthropology I An examination of the major ideas and prominent figures in the development of anthropological thought. Although other eras will be covered, emphasis will be placed on the period from 1850 to 1950. *** Prerequisite: ANTH 202 and 203 ***
402 - Theory in Anthropology II An overview of the principal schools of thought that have shaped the work of anthropologists since 1950. *** Prerequisite: ANTH 401 ***
406 - European Cultures After Socialism This course explores ongoing economic and sociocultural transformations in Eastern Europe after the demise of Communist Party rule. Using recent ethnographic accounts and documentary films, this course discusses postsocialist markets, consumption, gender, politics, popular culture, as well as changes in social identity and morality. *** Prerequisite: Any two 200-level courses from ANTH, HIST, PHIL, SOC, PSCI or WGST, at least one of which is to be selected from ANTH 203 or ANTH 230- 239, 241, 246-249, 260-269 or permission of the department head. ***
410 - Anthropology Seminar - an AA-ZZ series. A seminar devoted to the study of special topics in anthropology. Topics to be announced. *** Prerequisite: A 300-level course in anthropology. ***
490 - Directed Reading and Research - an AA-ZZ series. Courses designed for individual students.
496 - Special Topics in Anthropology - an AA-ZZ series. Courses designed as required for groups of students.
496AA - Cultures after Socialism The objective of this course is to examine ongoing economic and socio-cultural transformations in Eastern Europe after the demise of socialism. Using ethnographic accounts produced by anthropologists working in this region, the course will explore recent changes in markets, political rule, cultural production, as well as in practices pertaining to self-identification. *** Prerequisite: One 200 Level ANTH course ***
496AB - The Anthropology of Landscape This course will engage with ethnographic studies on cultural constructions of the environment in various settings. The active relationship of persons with their land, their experience of living at a place, and the gendering of their (changing) world will be the focus of this class.
498 - Honours Thesis An original exposition of a topic approved by the department. ** Permission of the Department Head required to register. **
499 - Honours Thesis An original exposition of a topic approved by the department. ** Permission of the Department Head required to register. **
800 - Anthropology Seminar A seminar devoted to the study of special topics and reports of research projects.
806 - Advanced Anthropology of Art A cross-cultural and inter-cultural exploration of aesthetics. This course compares the role of art in our own society to aesthetic expression in other societies. It will also explore connections between anthropology and modern art movements. Various aesthetic forms may be addressed, including, visual and performing arts as well as architecture.
808 - Advanced Symbolic Anthropology Advanced study in theories of symbolism and methods of interpretation in anthropology, including debates over language and culture, rationality and relativism, structuralism, metaphor theory, ideology and pragmatism.
809 - Selfhood and Morality This couse examines the history, the theories, the debates and the ethnographic sources of the anthropological study of selfhood and morality, with a strong focus on issues of agency, intentionality and sociality. Course work will involve analysis of theoretical writings, ethnographic accounts, films, and pertinent works of literature.
810 - Advanced Race,Ethnicity&Nation This course explores notions of race, ethnicity and nation as modern constructions of social difference and identity. It critically examines social processes that naturalize and politicize issues of culture and group membership in nation states and discusses how social scientific theories have been involved in these developments.
839 - Key Amazonianist Debates This course examines key debates in the anthropological study of indigenous Amazonian peoples. It focuses on fertile debates concerning human ecology, social orgaanization and historical population processes in amazonia, and native understandings of sociality, cosmology, selfhood, morality and emotions. The course also addresses issues in political and economic anthropology.
853 - Advanced Ethnographic Research This course explores teh various ways that socio-cultural anthropologists conduct ethnographic fieldwork, and the methodological, epistemological and ethical issues that they face in their research.
890 - Directed Readings Directed readings on selected topics.
890AH - Advanced Medical Anthropology This course explores advanced topics in medical anthropology including power and practice, intersecting medical paradigms, and embodiment, and charismatic healing.
890AK - Material Culture & Consumption This reading course is an enriched, graduate version of ANTH 313. It encourages exploration of new theoretical trends in material culture studies. In particular, euro-centric materiality's subject/object distinctions and practical connections through embodiment and memory will be contrasted to diverse material cultures, with emphasis on African ethnographic examples.
890AL - Advanced Anthropology of Gender This reading course is an enriched, graduate level course. The student will study the relationship between gendered forms of political and economic empowerment and textile weaving cooperatives in Latin America.
890AM - Anthropological Approaches to Popular Culture This course will examine key approaches in the anthropological study of popular culture. We will be particularly concerned with the politics of the popular in different locales of the contemporary world. In addition to Social theory texts, the readings will include recent ethnographies that explore popular culture in relation to the media, consumption, religion, and other domains of social life.
890AN - Anthropology of Performance This directed reading course will examine key theoretical approaches concerning performance as a cultural practice that both reproduces and contests social values and norms. Students will submit bi-weekly reading reports to be discussed in two-hour seminars. A substantial final paper is required in lieu of an exam at the end of the semester.
890AO - Anthropology of Religion This advanced course is designed to familiarize graduate students with classical and contemporary approaches to the anthropological study of religion. Students and the instructor will meet monthly to discuss written responses to assigned readings. A major essay will be required at the end of the course in lieu of an final exam.
901 - Research Thesis research.
