General Education Courses
Spring 2009
102 Anthropology: Human Origins and Culture (4 hrs)
Professor John Polk
Office: 188 Davenport Hall
Phone: 333-3676
jdpolk@illinois.edu
Professor Chris Fennell
Office: 296H Davenport Hall
Phone: 244-7309
cfennell@illinois.edu
This class explores the fossil and archaeological evidence for human evolution and the evolution of culture. We examine the fossil and artifact record of the last several million years in order to develop an understanding of why we are interesting animals and a somewhat unique species. The first part of the course considers our biological heritage. We learn the biological bases of human life and carefully evaluate the human fossil record. The second part of the course introduces students to archaeology, the evolution of cultural behavior, and world prehistory.
This course fulfills the Social Perspectives Gen. Ed. Req.
103 Anthropology in a Changing World (3 hrs)
Professor Ellen Moodie
Office: 391 Davenport Hall
Phone: 244-7849
emoodie@illinois.edu
This course gives students an introduction to the perspectives, methods, and theoretical tools used by cultural anthropology. Anthropology explores the ways that culture and social organization shape human behavior. Exploring diverse social practices and beliefs in a global context, we will examine the power of symbols, norms, and categories to shape everyday lives. By helping you to see the world through other peoples’ eyes, this course encourages you to perceive and challenge the cultural assumptions constraining your own view of the world. We will critically examine basic categories such as the self, ethnicity, nationality, race, gender, and sexuality, in a context of global movements, transnational cultural flows, and world-linking technological innovations.
This course fulfills the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Western and Non-Western Gen. Ed. Req.
103 Anthropology in a Changing World, Honors (3 hrs)
Professor Alma Gottlieb
Office: 386C Davenport Hall
Phone: 244-3515
ajgottli@illinois.edu
- When did coffee become yuppified, and what does that say about class in America?
- Why do we wear watches, and what happens when we don't?
- What can an anthropological approach teach us about drug culture in inner cities?
- Why do so many girls (still) want to look like Barbie?
- How do people in the Ukraine understand contamination after Chernobyl?
This course introduces an anthropological perspective on life. As we will discover, there's nothing anthropologists can't study as long as humans have something to do with it, from environmental degradation to Mickey Mouse. Taking a series of compelling readings about places from New York to Bali, this course will teach students "how to think like an anthropologist." Along the way, we’ll see unexpected connections between the local and the remote. If most of the clothes we wear and the foods we eat are, in one way or another, produced halfway around the world, can we afford not to understand the daily practices of people whose lives inextricably link to ours? In this special honors section of ANTH 103, a small seminar format will allow an individualized and project-based approach to understanding the human condition in all its joys and complications.
This course for Chancellor's Scholars only. Others may only enroll with the consent of the instructor and the Chancellor's Honors Program.
This course fulfills the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Western and Non-Western Gen. Ed. Req.
180 The Archaeology of Death (3 hrs)
Professor Helaine Silverman
Office: 295 Davenport Hall
Phone: 333-1315
helaine@illinois.edu
Death is inevitable and usually unwelcome. Rich or poor, old or young, sooner or later we all face it. Death is the greatest of the life crises and since time immemorial all human societies have devised ways to cope with and explain it. Cultural responses to death are highly varied and tightly patterned. Anthropologists and archaeologists take a keen professional interest in mortuary customs because of the information this culture-specific behavior can provide about the living society. The course provides a broad introduction to theories, concepts and methodologies of the anthropological and archaeological study of death. Readings are on e-reserve.
Grading is based on the following:
- Memorial proposal: 10 points
- Four film essays: 10 points each (films will be shown in class)
- Prepare a "last will and testament": 10 points
- One take-home exam: 25 points
- One in-class exam: 15 points
The detailed syllabus explaining the above will be sent to enrolled students before the first class session.
This course fulfills the Social Sciences and Western Comparative Culture Gen Ed. Req.
275 The World Of Jewish Sepharad (3 hrs)
Professor Mahir Saul
Office: 309J Davenport Hall
Phone: 244-3502
m-saul@illinois.edu
This is a course on the society and culture of the Sephardim, a large sector of World Jewry who were expelled by royal decree from Spain at the end of the fifteenth century and settled in various parts of the world. They became a conduit between Christianity and Islam. Focusing on the communities the Sephardim established in the Mediterranean countries and later in America, the course will cover the flourishing cultural life they created in their new lands, their Judeo-Spanish language, literature, music, participation in the economy and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the political movements of the emerging nations.
This course fulfills the Hist & Philosophical Perspective, Non-Western Cultures and Western Compartive Culture Gen. Ed. Req.
286 Southeast Asian Civilizations (3 hrs)
Same as: Asian Studies 286, History 225
Professor F. K. Lehman
Office: 209H Davenport Hall
Phone: 244-8423
f-lehman@illinois.edu
This course provides a broad perspective on the development of civilizations in Southeast Asia over the past 2,000 years, from the earliest Indianised states to the present independent nations. Emphasis will be placed upon the role of commerce, the development of complex forms of political and social organization, the place of the great religions — Hinduism, Theravåda Buddhism, Islam and Christianity — in the growth of cultures of the region, and the impact of European colonialism and the world economy.
This course fulfills the Hist & Philosophical Perspective and Non-Western Cultures Gen. Ed. Req.
359 Advanced Topics In Latina/O Us (3 hrs)
Professor Arlene Torres
Office: 383 Davenport Hall
Phone: 244-3511
atorres2@illinois.edu
A major goal of this course is to provide students with various theoretical and methodological perspectives and insights regarding the construction of ethnic and racial difference in American society. It builds on the more traditional approach to ethnicity by offering an in-depth look at the construction of stereotypical imagery of self and other. By focusing on the ways by which Latino/Latina identities are constructed as compared to other ethnic and racial groups in American society, students explore the relationship between symbolic representations and complex social processes in historical and contemporary contexts.
The first half of the course focuses on symbolic representations and anthropological literature written about Latino/a culture. Such imagery from diverse media and disciplinary roots is contrasted with imagery (visual and verbal) chosen by Latinos and Latinas to represent themselves. The second part of the course examines how these images and anthropological studies have been embraced and or contested in various social settings by Latino and Latina scholars and literary figures. Students are provided with an opportunity to analyze visual and verbal imagery to better understand the representation of ethnicity and issues of political, social and cultural consequence, which derive there from.
The course is structured around four key areas. These include: 1) historical imagery and representation 2) anthropological theory, method and representation, 3) seeking new directions in theory, method and practice and 4) multiple ways of representing self/other as Latinos/Latinas represent themselves.
This course fulfills the Non-Western Cultures Gen Ed. Req.