Fall 2008 Undergraduate Courses
UNDERGRADUATE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
SPRING 2009
106 INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (3)
#261812 * M, W, F * 11:00 a.m.-11:50 a.m.. * 121 COOKE * DR. PHILLIPS STEVENS
Survey of important ideas about culture and society that have shaped anthropology. The principal institutions of culture: language, social organization, religion, spirituality, gender, economics, politics, artistic expression, etc., in their traditional ethnographic context and as they change through cultural contact. LEC
168 MYTH AND RELIGION IN THE ANCIENT WORLD (3)
#121584 * M, W, F * 10:00-10:50 p.m. * 20 KNOX * DR. ROGER D. WOODARD
In this course, we will investigate mythic and religious traditions of ancient Greece and Rome. Our study of myth and religion will, however, be comparative in emphasis. We will thus have a twofold goal: (1) to encounter the Greco-Roman traditions themselves and (2) through our comparative investigations, to attempt to identify the mythic and religious traditions which the Greeks and especially the more conservative Romans inherited from their Indo-European ancestors. About mid-semester, will begin to turn our full gaze upon comparative materials, but even as we are engaged in discovering the mythic and religious traditions of the ancient Indic, Iranian Celtic, Germanic and Hittite cultures, we will continue to encounter new materials and motifs from Greece and Rome. LEC
(APY 168 is cross-listed with CL 113 and RSP 113. If you register through either of these departments, complete an APY departmental petition form and submit it to the APY Undergraduate Office to insure APY major credit.)
203 ANTHROPOLOGY AND FILM (3)
#047970 * M, W, F * 10:00-10:50 am * 355 FILLMORE * DR. DAVID BANKS
This course will use the recent outpouring of documentaries about culture and cultural topics to help us study cultural patterns and processes. The media world of television reflects the growing interest in America for detailed, and often controversial, knowledge about modern cultures. These documentaries concern a host of topics including food production techniques, electoral politics, environmental challenges and even the cultures of science and the computer. Each is placed in broader cultural, national and regional contexts. We will compare the documentaries to some excellent entertainment films that have approached similar issues. Texts will help us understand how films are made. LEC
238 NEAR EAST AND MIDDLE EAST PREHISTORY (3)
#154436 * M, W * 2:00-3:20 p.m. * 170 FILLMORE * DR. PETER BIEHL
(This course can be used to satisfy an Area Studies requirement.)
This course offers an overview of the archaeology of the prehistoric Near and Middle East from the peopling of the region in the Palaeolithic through the emergence of the first villages and the domestication of plants and animals to the emergence of city-states in the 3rd millennium BC. LEC
248 HUMAN GENETICS (3)
#076124 * M, W, F * 12:00-12:50 p.m. * 170 FILLMORE * DR. CHRISTINE DUGGLEBY
Contemporary human genetics relevant to families and society as a whole. Topics include genetic diseases, genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis, genetic engineering, and genetics and the law. LEC
250 ISLAM AND THE WEST (3)
#363199 * T & Thu * 3:30-4:50 p.m. * 322 FILLMORE * DR. TILMAN LANZ
(This course can be used to satisfy an Area Studies requirement.) Relations between the Islamic and the Western world are ambiguous, strained or even hostile today. But is there a clash of civilizations? This course investigates this question from an anthropological perspective; it aims at providing students with a fundamental knowledge about the Islamic world and its relationship to the West. We will focus on individual and group interactions between the Islamic and the Western world; we will look into historical and contemporary processes within the Islamic world; in this context, we will consider work by anthropologists in the Islamic world and others. The course will be largely guided by one of the most pressing political, social and cultural questions of our time: How can we improve relations between Islam and the West? LEC
275 INTRODUCTION TO MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY (3)
#110901 * T & Th * 2:00-3:20 p.m. * 355 FILLMORE * DR. ANN MCELROY
This course uses ecological, evolutionary, and cultural perspectives to study human health. Topics covered include the ecology and epidemiology of disease; genetic, physiological, and cultural adaptation; nutrition; pregnancy and childbirth; stress; culture change; and health disparities in both developing and developed countries. Health issues associated with globalization and increased military conflict will also be covered. Supplementary readings deal with maternal health, midwifery, and children’s health and nutrition in Africa and illustrate the biocultural approach to health. LEC
276 INTRODUCTION TO ETHNOMEDICINE (3)
#258102 * T, Thu * 9:30-10:50 a.m. * 355 FILLMORE * DR. DONALD POLLOCK
A survey of beliefs and practices relating to health, illness and its treatment cross-culturally. Emphasis on understanding the cultural and social foundations of ethnomedical systems, including ethnomedical systems in the United States. Examination of contemporary biomedicine as a cultural system. LEC
321 SPECIAL TOPICS: LEGAL ANTHROPOLOGY (3)
#335899 * T * 5:00-7:40 p.m. * 354 Fillmore * MARK FRANKEL
Legal anthropologists analyze any social process that involves enforceable norms of a community or social group. A legal anthropologist is thus just as likely to study the operations of a street gang, or how disputes are settled amongst the Tiv in Africa, as they are formal Western legal institutions. This seminar is an introduction into the field of legal anthropology. We will examine different concepts on the nature of law and disputes, read ethnographies on the U.S. legal system and non-Western legal systems and think critically about what we mean by legality and the rule of law. We will cover both early foundational works and current issues and methods in the field of legal anthropology. SEM
345 COMPARATIVE PRIMATE ANATOMY (3) (Linked↔with APY 346)
#251854 * M * 4:00-6:40 p.m. * 170 Fillmore * DR. JOYCE SIRIANNI
Comparisons of descriptive and functional anatomy will be made among various species of living and extinct primates. Emphasis will be upon the relevance of this material to the origins and adaptations of groups within the order of primates. LEC
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346 PRIMATE DISSECTIONS (2) (Linked with APY 345)
A #166872 * F * 2:00-6:40 p.m. * 155 Spaulding * SIRIANNI
B #321871 * W * 1:00-5:40 p.m. * 155 Spaulding * SIRIANNI
C #152605 * T * 1:00-5:40 p.m. * 155 Spaulding * SIRIANNI
D #261878 * R * 1:00-5:40 p.m. * 155 Spaulding * SIRIANNI
E #463883 * M * 10:00 a.m.-2:40 p.m. * 155 Spaulding * SIRIANNI
Students will have the opportunity to learn basic primate gross anatomy by dissecting and making comparative observations of various species of primates including human primates. Each student will be individually supervised. (Student registers for lab of his/her choice and is automatically registered for APY 345.) LAB
368 THEORIES IN ARCHAEOLOGY (3)
#470917 * M, W * 11:00 a.m.-12:20 p.m. * 354 FILLMORE * DR. PETER BIEHL
This course offers an introduction to archaeological theory and methods. It discusses the framework of problems and questions that guides anthropological archaeology and uses case studies from the Old World to illustrate examples of these issues in practice. It also examines the process of theory construction and discusses the proper design of archaeological research projects, data analysis and interpretation of results. LEC
402 MODERN EUROPE: THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF EUROPE (3)
#147539 * T, Thu * 9:30-10:50 a.m. * DR. VASILIKI NEOFOTISTOS
(This course can be used to satisfy an Area Studies requirement.)
This course is an introduction to the ethnographic study of contemporary Europe. The principal focus will be on the Mediterranean region (Greece, Italy, and Spain), but the course will examine other parts of Europe as well. Through lectures and ethnographic films we will explore a variety of themes that are common to anthropological studies of Europe, such as gender, ritual, marriage, and nationalism. Questions we will ask include the following: Why do shepherds, on the Greek island of Crete, steal sheep to make friends? Why don’t men care if they die in bullfights in Spain? What happens if someone gives you the evil eye in Italy? Why doesn’t the French state like headscarves? Why is the consumption of Coca-Cola important at weddings in Lithuania? Are McDonald’s French fries really Russian? LEC
410 POLISH MINORITIES: THE MULTICULTURAL EXPERIENCE PAST & PRESENT (3)
#126067 * T, Thu * 12:30-1:50 p.m. * 6 CLEMENS * DR. SLAWOMIR JOZEFOWICZ
(This course can be used to satisfy an Area Studies requirement.)
This course will look at “Polish minorities” in two different ways, reflecting the dual meaning of this concept. First, it will examine the significant role of ethnic minorities in Poland, which since at least the Jagiellonian dynasty era (1385-1572) until WWII was one of the most multi-ethnic and multi-cultural societies in Europe, with large Ukrainian, Jewish, German and other communities. In contrast, after 1945 Poland became one of the most homogenous countries in ethnic, cultural and religious terms. On the other hand, Poles belong to nations marked with significant migration experiences, particularly since the second half of the 19th century. To be a Pole and to live abroad has been one of the most noticeable motifs of Polish national identity. Identifiable Polish communities (of at least several thousand people) exist in some 50 countries. Around 20 million Poles and people of Polish origin – more than half of the population of contemporary Poland - currently live
abroad. The course will consider and compare these two different experiences of multiculturalism as seen from the Polish perspective. It will reconstruct different historical, political and economic contexts which caused Poles to emigrate. We will also discuss the case of Poles who never actually left their homeland and became minorities due to foreign aggressions, wars and shifts of borders. The course will not only explore the specific character of various experiences of the Polish diasporas in different countries and cultures (with special emphasis on the Polonia in North America), but will also attempt to draw more universal conclusions, regarding the role and status of ethnic minorities in general, especially in the context of today’s ideas and policies of multiculturalism. LEC
(APY 410 is cross-listed with POL 411 and HIS 306. If you register through either of these departments, complete an APY departmental petition form and submit it to the APY Undergraduate Office to insure APY major credit.)
421 SPECIAL TOPICS: SEXUALITY: CULTURE, MEDICINE AND POLITICS (3)
#434980 * T & Thu * 11:00 a.m.-12:20 p.m. * 351 FILLMORE * DR. EVERETT ZHANG
What is sexuality? Why do we use the term “sexuality” rather than sexual behavior, sex or sexual relationship? What does “sexuality” cover? Does sexuality have a history? How does it differ from place to place? How is sexuality made central to one’s identity as well as identity politics (gender, race, ethnicity, etc.)? What do our lives—reproduction, consumption, self-improvement and enjoyment—have to do with sexuality?
This course discusses those questions both conceptually and ethnographically. It demonstrates different traditions of sexual culture from bed chamber arts in China to Kama Sutra in India, from the homoeroticism in ancient Greeks to the “savages’” sexual life in the Pacific islands. It pays special attention to how modern knowledge such as psycho-analysis, psychiatry, and biomedicine invented the field of sexuality based on the normalization of sexual behavior in the West and spread it through colonial encounters. Therefore, sexual behaviors or erotica became a crucial site of constructing gendered, racialized, normal citizens on the one hand and creating hierarchies within and across national borders on the other hand. This course enables us to understand what is at stake when having sex is no longer a matter of small implications. We will read ethnographies and studies in history around the globe.
This course also highlights how sexuality transpired in different contexts (sexual revolution, feminist movement as well as religious movements, HIV/AIDS, new technologies of reproduction, etc.), from being the target of moral vigilance to being the engine of desiring production, particularly under globalization. At the same time, we will discuss sexual regulation through various debates concerning the use of sex and its relationship with life, happiness and ethics under different traditions.
This course will also make use of the internet and movies to enrich our understanding of sexuality in the age of cyber eroticism and virtual sexuality. It will also consist in working on projects in the Buffalo area. LEC
434 THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF SACRED PLACES AND SPACES (3)
#355995 * W * 2:00-4:40 p.m. * 322 FILLMORE * DR. TINA THURSTON
(With the permission of the instructor, using the departmental petition process, this course can be used to satisfy the Senior Seminar requirement.)
In this course we will examine definitions and concepts of the sacred, the social construction of places and spaces, and explore the relationships between place, space, and the supernatural. Incorporating studies from North, Middle and South America as well as Eurasia, Australia and Africa, we will use ethnographic, historic, and archaeological cases as a key to understanding the often baffling connections between place, belief, and worldviews in ancient times. All human societies tangibly and cognitively construct physical, social, economic, political, and sacred space and place, but every society has its own unique cultural signature in terms of how it organizes and imbues meaning onto place and space. Until recently, we lacked many systematic and comprehensive studies of how various social systems, past and present, both determine and are reflected in location and locale; recent advances on these issues have come from a number of perspectives: structuralism, postmodernism and poststructuralism, using concepts such as phenomenology, embodiment, practice, and performance. To do this, we will look at the history of thought about sacred space within anthropology and archaeology but also geography, psychology, neurophysiology, art, and architecture. How do scholars in various disciplines understand these issues, and what can it tell us about the archaeological past?
We will focus on both natural features considered sacred, such as caves, mountains, water, forests, and on human modification of the natural landscape for symbolic purposes, such as with standing stones, rock art, geoglyphs, and the construction of built sacred places and spaces: temples, plazas, and sacred or ritual landscapes. Topics include: the aesthetics of sacred structures and landscapes; the conceptualizations of space; place, symbol, and sacredness; the contextual (emic) and analytical (etic) perceptions of the material world; the impact of sacred perception on other aspects of society; the role of myth, ritual, and history in sacred site location; construction methods and sacred geometry; sacred landscape as identity (kinship, ethnicity, gender); contemporary disputes over sacred sites and regions. SEM
443 ADVANCED PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY (3)
#243478 * Thu * 3:00-5:40 p.m. * 158 SPAULDING * DR. CAROL BERMAN
Prerequisite: APY 246 or APY 344 or permission of instructor (With the permission of the instructor, this course can satisfy the Practicum requirement for majors.)
This is a methodological course in which students learn techniques for observing behavior in a scientific manner. Students carry out semester-long research projects at the Buffalo Zoo using ethological techniques. All stages of research are covered: hypothesis construction, data collection, data analysis and scientific reporting. SEM
443 ADVANCED PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY (3)
Prerequisite: APY 248 or APY 448 or permission of instructor
#120050 * W * 2:00-4:40 p.m. * 158 SPAULDING * DR. CHRISTINE DUGGLEBY
Designed for students who have a background in genetics, this seminar addresses issues in molecular evolution. It will also cover areas of immunology and embryology to explore genetic conflicts in human reproduction. SEM
477 TOPICS IN MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: ANTHROPOLOGY & DISABILITY (3)
#176716 * W * 3:30-6:10 p.m. * 354 FILLMORE * DR. ANN McELROY
(This course may be used to satisfy the Senior Seminar requirement. If the research presentation is based on actual "field work" in the community on a disability topic, the course may satisfy the Practicum requirement, but it cannot serve both the Practicum and Senior Seminar for a student.)
This course is an introduction to anthropology and disability studies, a new subfield of medical anthropology that integrates several disciplines: anthropology, sociology, psychology, occupational and physical therapy, nursing, and gerontology. What unifies these disciplinary approaches is the search for understanding of societal and cross-cultural attitudes toward impairment, illness, pain, and deviance, as well as the coping and adaptation strategies used by people whose impairments have been socially or medically labeled as “disability”.
Among the topics to be considered are the meanings of impairment and differences in the status and treatment of people in various cultures. We will look at how people experience and come to develop new identities and coping methods through disability, severe injury, and stigmatized illnesses. Finally, we will discuss the reproductive, occupational, and educational rights of people with disabilities. Course requirements include two essay exams, a journal, and a final research presentation to the class. SEM
494 SENIOR SEMINAR (3)
#361255 * M, W, F * 12:00-12:50 p.m. * 351 FILLMORE * DR. DAVID BANKS
(With the permission of the instructor, this course can satisfy the Practicum requirement for majors.)
This semester we will read three books about anthropology and the new science and use them to suggest projects of our own. We have gone a long way beyond our failed attempts to understand mankind and his aspirations using Newtonian assumptions. We are now in an age of uncertainty, randomness and reflexivity, the age of Einstein. The texts are introductions to basic discoveries about social science and its future. These books are part of a huge outpouring of work from science writers. Unfortunately, their influence is as yet rather convoluted and does not show us a clear path.
Requirements: Read the texts and move out into the anthropological literature with a new paradigm. SEM
494 SENIOR SEMINAR (3)
#321633 * T * 3:30-6:10 p.m.. * 261 FILLMORE * DR. SARUNAS MILISAUSKAS
(With the permission of the instructor, this course can satisfy the Practicum requirement for majors. To complete the Practicum, students will analyze flint artifacts.)
This course will focus on various topics in archaeology of Europe and the Near East. Examples of topics are: Upper Paleolithic cave art, Neanderthals -- dead-end or our ancestors, the transition to farming in Europe, archaeogenetics, palaeopathology, the Goddess controversy, megalithic monuments such as Stonehenge and Newgrange, prehistoric warfare, Indo-European origins, the origins of metallurgy in the Near East and Europe, the rise of social hierarchies, the rise and fall of state societies, Minoan and Mycenaean societies of the Aegean Bronze Age, the emergence of the Celts, and nationalism in archaeology. The course will be taught in seminar format; students are expected to be active participants. SEM
495 SUPERVISED TEACHING (Variable credit)
PERMISSION OF THE INSTRUCTOR AND FACULTY ADVISOR IS REQUIRED
#015847 * S * 12:00-2:40 p.m. * 158 SPAULDING * DR. JOYCE SIRIANNI
496 INTERNSHIP (Variable credit)
Required prior to registration: permission of Faculty Advisor and
submission of completed Record of Internship Data form .
Visit the Undergraduate Office (380 Fillmore) for guidance, form, and registration number.
499 INDEPENDENT STUDY (Variable credit)
Required prior to registration: permission of Faculty Advisor and
submission of completed Independent Study form.
Visit the Undergraduate Office (380 Fillmore) for guidance, form, and registration number.