Anthropology
Anthropology studies humankind from a comparative perspective that emphasizes the diversity of human behavior and the importance of culture in both describing and explaining that variety. While the discipline encompasses the biological nature of our species and the material aspects of human adaptation, it takes as fundamental the idea that humans respond to nature and natural forces in large part through culture—that is, the system of practices and signs through which people interact and communicate. Anthropology, then, is the study of human beings as cultural animals. Sociocultural anthropology, the focus of the MIT program, draws its data from the direct study of contemporary peoples living in a wide variety of circumstances, from peasant villagers to tropical forest hunters and gatherers to professionals working in technological organizations to urban populations in modern societies.
Anthropology at MIT offers students a broad exposure to scholarship on human culture. The field is more generally distinguished from other humanities and social science disciplines by its insistence that understanding people's ways of life is often best accomplished by living and working among them—that is, by doing fieldwork. This immersive work—often described as ethnography—reveals the multiple positions and perspectives that constitute social worlds. Ethnographic representations in texts and films can provide excellent contextual resources for work in engineering, science, and other fields in the humanities, social sciences, and management.
Undergraduate Study
MIT’s Anthropology Program provides introductions to intensive studies in such areas as environmentalism; agriculture and food production; the organization and cultures of science, medicine, and technology; gender, sex, race, and class; and nationalism and ethnic identity.
Excluding Independent Study, Thesis, and Special Subjects, the Anthropology curriculum is divided into six topic clusters that provide depth on related topics:
- 21A.00 and 21A.01 are core subjects.
- 21A.100 to 21A.199 address general issues related to culture and identity.
- 21A.300 to 21A.399 examine health, disease, medicine, and biology in global and local settings.
- 21A.400 to 21A.499 investigate issues and conflicts related to the environment.
- 21A.500 to 21A.599 focus on science, technology, and media in various institutional, economic, and political contexts.
- 21A.800 to 21A.899 are methods and theory subjects.
For additional information, visit the anthropology website.
Students taking a concentration in anthropology should enroll in either 21A.00 Introduction to Anthropology: Comparing Human Cultures or 21A.01 How Culture Works, and two other subjects. Anthropology subjects qualify for several interdisciplinary concentrations, including those in Women's and Gender Studies, Latin American and Latino/a Studies, and Science, Technology, and Society.
Bachelor of Science in Anthropology (Course 21A)
The undergraduate program leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Anthropology (Course 21A) provides a thorough grounding in cultural anthropology.
Majors learn about the concept of culture and the processes by which humans make meaningful transactions, the nature of ethnographic fieldwork, and the connections between anthropology and the other social sciences. Majors study the theories explaining human behavior as well as the range of methods anthropologists use to analyze empirical data. Students can focus on particular geographical areas, such as Latin America, Europe, North America, Africa, or Asia, and on issues like neocolonialism, ethnic conflict, human rights, environmental movements, globalization, or expressive, medical, or scientific cultures.
The anthropology student comes to understand that the hallmark of the discipline is the comparative study of human societies. Emphasis is on understanding diversity and the importance of the concept of culture in explaining that variety, as well as on learning about the universals of behavior that may underlie diversity.
Joint Degree Programs
Joint degree programs are offered in anthropology in combination with a field in engineering or science (21E, 21S). See the joint degree programs listed under Humanities.
Either 21A.00 Introduction to Anthropology: Comparing Human Cultures or 21A.01 How Culture Works is strongly recommended as a preliminary subject for all anthropology degree programs.
Minor in Anthropology
The Minor in Anthropology consists of six subjects arranged into two tiers as shown below. Students create individual programs with the help of the minor advisor to ensure that they gain a coherent understanding of the methods, approaches, and some of the results of the discipline.
| Tier I | ||
| 21A.00 | Introduction to Anthropology: Comparing Human Cultures | 12 |
| or 21A.01 | How Culture Works | |
| Tier II | ||
| With approval of the minor advisor, select five subjects with a unifying theme (not to include 21A.00 or 21A.01) 1 | 54-60 | |
| Total Units | 66-72 | |
| 1 | Examples of five subjects with a unifying theme are: Global Health (four subjects from 21A.300[J] - 21A.311 and 21A.331[J]); Gender (21A.103[J], 21A.111[J], 21A.141[J], 21A.143[J] and 21A.504[J]); or Culture and Identity (21A.104, 21A.111[J], 21A.130[J], 21A.150 and 21A.155). |
Graduate Study
HASTS Graduate Program
The Anthropology Program, the History faculty, and the Program in Science, Technology, and Society collaborate in the graduate program History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS) leading to a PhD; see the description under the Program in Science, Technology, and Society.
Inquiries
Further information on subjects and programs may be obtained from the Anthropology Office, Room E53-335, 617-452-2837.
Faculty and Teaching Staff
Heather Anne Paxson, PhD
William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor
Professor of Anthropology
Interim Head, Anthropology Program
Professors
Ian Condry, PhD
Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies
Professor of Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Professor of Anthropology
Michael M. J. Fischer, PhD
Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities
Professor of Science and Technology Studies
Professor of Anthropology
Stefan Helmreich, PhD
Elting E. Morison Professor in Humanities
Professor of Anthropology
(On leave)
Susan S. Silbey, PhD
Leon and Anne Goldberg Professor of Humanities
Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
Professor of Behavioral and Policy Studies
Member, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
Christine Walley, PhD
Professor of Anthropology
Associate Professors
Manduhai Buyandelger, PhD
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Erica C. James, PhD
Associate Professor of Medical Anthropology and Urban Studies
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Graham M. Jones, PhD
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Assistant Professors
Amy Moran-Thomas, PhD
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Professors Emeriti
James Howe, PhD
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology
Jean E. Jackson, PhD
Professor Emerita of Anthropology
Arthur Steinberg, PhD
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology
The anthropology subjects described below are grouped within seven areas: Core Subjects; Culture and Identity; Global Health; Environment, Development, and Conflict; Science, Technology, and Media; Cross-cultural Dialog and Investigations; and Independent Study, Special Subjects, and Thesis.
Core Subjects
21A.00 Introduction to Anthropology: Comparing Human Cultures
Prereq: None
U (Spring)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Through the comparative study of different cultures, anthropology explores fundamental questions about what it means to be human. Seeks to understand how culture shapes societies, from the smallest island in the South Pacific to the largest Asian metropolis, and affects the way institutions work, from scientific laboratories to Christian mega-churches. Provides a framework for analyzing diverse facets of human experience, such as gender, ethnicity, language, politics, economics, and art.
G. Jones
21A.01 How Culture Works
Prereq: None
U (Fall)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Introduces diverse meanings and uses of the concept of culture with historical and contemporary examples from scholarship and popular media around the globe. Includes first-hand observations, synthesized histories and ethnographies, quantitative representations, and visual and fictionalized accounts of human experiences. Students conduct empirical research on cultural differences through the systematic observation of human interaction, employ methods of interpretative analysis, and practice convincing others of the accuracy of their findings.
M. Buyandelger
Culture and Identity
21A.103[J] The Science of Race, Sex, and Gender
Same subject as STS.046[J], WGS.225[J]
Prereq: None
U (Fall)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
See description under subject WGS.225[J].
A. Sur
21A.104 Memory, Culture, and Forgetting
Subject meets with 21A.119
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Spring)
2-0-7 units. HASS-S
Introduces scholarly debates about the sociocultural practices through which individuals and societies create, sustain, recall, and erase memories. Emphasis is given to the history of knowledge, construction of memory, the role of authorities in shaping memory, and how societies decide on whose versions of memory are more "truthful" and "real." Other topics include how memory works in the human brain, memory and trauma, amnesia, memory practices in the sciences, false memory, sites of memory, and the commodification of memory. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
M. Buyandelger
21A.111[J] For Love and Money: Rethinking the Family
Same subject as WGS.172[J]
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Fall)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Cross-cultural case studies introduce students to the anthropological study of the social institutions and symbolic meanings of family, gender, and sexuality. Investigates the different forms families and households take and considers their social, emotional, and economic dynamics. Analyzes how various expectations for, and experiences of, family life are rooted in or challenged by particular conceptions of gender and sexuality. Addresses questions surrounding what it means to be a "man" or a "woman," as well as a family member, in different social contexts.
H. Paxson
21A.119 Memory, Culture, and Forgetting
Subject meets with 21A.104
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: G (Spring)
3-0-9 units
Introduces scholarly debates about the sociocultural practices through which individuals and societies create, sustain, recall, and erase memories. Emphasis is given to the history of knowledge, construction of memory, the role of authorities in shaping memory, and how societies decide on whose versions of memory are more "truthful" and "real." Other topics include how memory works in the human brain, memory and trauma, amnesia, memory practices in the sciences, false memory, sites of memory, and the commodification of memory. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
M. Buyandelger
21A.120 American Dream: Exploring Class in the US
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Spring)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Explores the experiences and understandings of class among Americans positioned at different points along the US social spectrum. Considers a variety of classic frameworks for analyzing social class and uses memoirs, novels and ethnographies to gain a sense of how class is experienced in daily life and how it intersects with other forms of social difference such as race and gender.
C. Walley
21A.130[J] Introduction to Latin American Studies
Same subject as 17.55[J], 21G.084[J], 21H.170[J]
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Fall)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S; CI-H
See description under subject 17.55[J].
T. Padilla, P. Duong
21A.140[J] Cultures of East Asia
Same subject as 21G.047[J]
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Fall)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Explores diverse cultures, everyday experiences, and political economies in East Asian countries, such as China, Japan, Korea, and Singapore, with additional examples from the surrounding regions. Examines the different ways people in these regions experience and understand globalization, as well as the changing structures of kinship and family, work and organizational culture, media, consumption, and the role of government. Readings cover ethnographic studies of the world's largest seafood market in Tokyo, the effect of the Asian financial crisis on South Korea, the role of science in formulating China's one child policy and its economic and social implications, and the state and ethnic diversity in Singapore.
M. Buyandelger
21A.141[J] Images of Asian Women: Dragon Ladies and Lotus Blossoms
Same subject as 21G.048[J], WGS.274[J]
Prereq: None
U (Spring)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Explores some of the forces and mechanisms through which stereotypes are built and perpetuated. In particular, examines stereotypes associated with Asian women in colonial, nationalist, state-authoritarian, and global/diasporic narratives about gender and power. Students read ethnography, fiction, and history, and view films to examine the politics and circumstances that create and perpetuate the representation of Asian women as dragon ladies, lotus blossoms, despotic tyrants, desexualized servants, and docile subordinates. Students are introduced to debates about Orientalism, gender, and power.
M. Buyandelger
21A.143[J] Gender and Japanese Popular Culture
Same subject as 21G.039[J], WGS.154[J]
Subject meets with 21G.591
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Fall)
3-0-9 units. HASS-H
See description under subject 21G.039[J].
I. Condry
21A.150 Teaching and Learning: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Spring)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Explores the diverse ways that people teach and learn in different countries, disciplines, and subcultures (computer gamers, magicians, jazz musicians, etc.). Compares schooling to other forms of knowledge transmission, from initiation and apprenticeship to recent innovations in online education. Students discuss various learning theories and apply them to a variety of in-class activities using qualitative methods to conduct original research on topics of their choice. Limited to 15.
G. Jones
21A.155 Food, Culture, and Politics
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Spring)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Explores connections between what we eat and who we are through cross-cultural study of how personal identities and social groups are formed via food production, preparation, and consumption. Organized around critical discussion of what makes "good" food good (healthy, authentic, ethical, etc.). Uses anthropological and literary classics as well as recent writing and films on the politics of food and agriculture. Instruction and practice in written and oral communication provided.
H. Paxson
21A.157 The Meaning of Life
Prereq: None
U (Spring)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Examines how a variety of cultural traditions propose answers to the question of how to live a meaningful life. Considers the meaning of life, not as a philosophical abstraction, but as a question that individuals grapple with in their daily lives, facing difficult decisions between meeting and defying cultural expectations. Provides tools for thinking about moral decisions as social and historical practices, and permits students to compare and contextualize the ways people in different times and places approach fundamental ethical concerns.
S. Helmreich, H. Paxson
Global Health
21A.300[J] Research Methods in Global Health and Development (New number 11.143)
Same subject as 11.143[J]
Subject meets with 11.243[J], 21A.329[J]
Prereq: None
U (Fall)
3-3-6 units. HASS-S
See description under subject 11.143[J].
E. C. James
21A.301 Disease and Health: Culture, Society, and Ethics
Prereq: None
U (Fall)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
From a cross cultural and global perspective, examines how medicine is practiced, with particular emphasis on biomedicine. Analyzes medical practice as a cultural system, focusing on the human and social side of things. Considers how people in different societies think of disease, health, body, and mind. Enrollment limited.
A. Moran-Thomas
21A.302[J] Dilemmas in Biomedical Ethics: Playing God or Doing Good? (New number 11.133)
Same subject as 11.133[J], WGS.271[J]
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Fall)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
See description under subject 11.133[J].
E. C. James
21A.303[J] The Anthropology of Biology
Same subject as STS.060[J]
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Fall)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Applies the tools of anthropology to examine biology in the age of genomics, biotechnological enterprise, biodiversity conservation, pharmaceutical bioprospecting, and synthetic biology. Examines such social concerns such as bioterrorism, genetic modification, and cloning. Offers an anthropological inquiry into how the substances and explanations of biology — ecological, organismic, cellular, molecular, genetic, informatic — are changing. Examines such artifacts as cell lines, biodiversity databases, and artificial life models, and using primary sources in biology, social studies of the life sciences, and literary and cinematic materials, asks how we might answer Erwin Schrodinger's 1944 question, "What Is Life?", today.
S. Helmreich
21A.305[J] Drugs, Politics, and Culture
Same subject as STS.062[J]
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Fall)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Explores the relationship between drugs and society in a cross-cultural perspective, looking at intersections between drugs and phenomena such as poverty, religion, technology, colonialism, conflict, and global capitalism. Examines histories behind the use and abuse of various substances, including opium, cocaine, and prescription pharmaceuticals. Considers why different societies prohibit and sanction different drugs; the politics of markets and clinical trials; and how social conditions affect the circulation of medicines in global health. Limited to 25.
A. Moran-Thomas
21A.311 The Social Lives of Medical Objects (New)
Prereq: None
U (Spring)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Explores the theories and assumptions built into objects meant to improve health. Students read and discuss case studies that follow the often unexpected ways intended intervention objects are designed and developed, globally travel, and at times become part of people's everyday lives. Studies include a broad range of medical materials and development technologies, such as penicillin, anti-malarial drugs, water pumps, air filters, prosthetic limbs, glucose meters, scales, DDT insecticides, bednets, and micro-nutrient pills. Limited to 20.
A. Moran-Thomas
21A.319[J] History and Anthropology of Medicine and Biology
Same subject as STS.330[J]
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: G (Spring)
3-0-9 units
Explores recent historical and anthropological approaches to the study of medicine and biology. Topics might include interaction of disease and society; science, colonialism, and international health; impact of new technologies on medicine and the life sciences; neuroscience and psychiatry; race, biology and medicine. Specific emphasis varies from year to year.
S. Helmreich
21A.329[J] Research Methods in Global Health and Development (New number 11.243)
Same subject as 11.243[J]
Subject meets with 11.143[J], 21A.300[J]
Prereq: None
G (Fall)
3-3-6 units
See description under subject 11.243[J].
E. C. James
21A.331[J] Infections and Inequalities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Global Health (New number 11.134)
Same subject as 11.134[J], HST.431[J]
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Spring)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
See description under subject 11.134[J]. Limited to 25.
E. James, A. Chakraborty
Environment, Development, and Conflict
21A.400 The Stakes of International Development
Prereq: None
U (Fall)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Offers an anthropological perspective on international development. Students consider development, not in policy or technical terms, but through its social and political dynamics and its impacts on daily life. Examines the various histories of, and meanings given to, international development as well as the social organization of aid agencies and projects. Follows examples of specific projects in various parts of the world. Examples: water projects for pastorialists in Africa, factory development in Southeast Asia, and international nature parks in Indonesia.
C. Walley
21A.409[J] Ethics of Intervention
Same subject as 11.238[J]
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: G (Fall)
3-0-9 units
See description under subject 11.238[J].
E. C. James
21A.410 Environmental Struggles
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Spring)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Offers an international perspective on the environment. Using environmental conflict to consider the stakes that groups in various parts of the world have in nature, while also exploring how ecological and social dynamics interact and change over time, subject considers such controversial environmental issues as: nuclear contamination in Eastern Europe; genetic bioprospecting in Mexico; toxic run-off in the rural US; the Bhopal accident in India; and the impact of population growth in the Third World.
C. Walley
21A.411[J] People and Other Animals
Same subject as 21H.380[J]
Subject meets with 21A.419[J], 21H.980[J]
Prereq: None
U (Fall)
2-0-10 units. HASS-S
See description under subject 21H.380[J].
H. Ritvo
21A.419[J] People and Other Animals
Same subject as 21H.980[J]
Subject meets with 21A.411[J], 21H.380[J]
Prereq: None
G (Fall)
2-0-10 units
See description under subject 21H.980[J].
H. Ritvo
21A.429[J] Environmental Conflict
Same subject as STS.320[J]
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Acad Year 2018-2019: G (Spring)
Acad Year 2019-2020: Not offered
3-0-9 units
Explores the complex interrelationships among humans and natural environments, focusing on non-western parts of the world in addition to Europe and the United States. Use of environmental conflict to draw attention to competing understandings and uses of "nature" as well as the local, national and transnational power relationships in which environmental interactions are embedded. In addition to utilizing a range of theoretical perspectives, subject draws upon a series of ethnographic case studies of environmental conflicts in various parts of the world.
C. Walley
21A.461 What Is Capitalism?
Prereq: None
U (Fall)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S; CI-H
Introduces academic debates on the nature of capitalism, drawing upon the ideas of scholars as diverse as Adam Smith and Karl Marx. Examines anthropological studies of how contemporary capitalism plays out in people's daily lives in a range of geographic and social settings, and implications for how we understand capitalism today. Settings range from Wall Street investment banks to auto assembly plants, from family businesses to consumer shopping malls. Enrollment limited.
C. Walley
Science, Technology, and Media
21A.500[J] Technology and Culture
Same subject as STS.075[J]
Prereq: None
U (Fall)
2-0-7 units. HASS-S
Examines the intersections of technology, culture, and politics in a variety of social and historical settings ranging from 19th-century factories to 21st-century techno dance floors, from Victorian London to anything-goes Las Vegas. Discussions and readings organized around three questions: what cultural effects and risks follow from treating biology as technology; how computers have changed the way we think about ourselves and others; and how politics are built into our infrastructures. Explores the forces behind technological and cultural change; how technological and cultural artifacts are understood and used by different communities; and whether, in what ways, and for whom technology has produced a better world. Limited to 40.
S. Helmreich
21A.501[J] Art, Craft, Science
Same subject as STS.074[J]
Prereq: None
U (Spring)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Credit cannot also be received for 21A.509[J], STS.474[J]
Examines how people learn, practice, and evaluate traditional and contemporary craft techniques. Social science theories of design, embodiment, apprenticeship learning, skill, labor, expertise, and tacit knowledge are used to explore distinctions among art, craft, and science. Also discusses the commoditization of craft into market goods, collectible art, and tourism industries. Ethnographic and historical case studies include textiles, Shaker furniture, glassblowing, quilting, cheesemaking, industrial design, home and professional cooking, factory and laboratory work, CAD/CAM. Demonstrations, optional field trips, and/or hands-on craft projects may be included. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
H. Paxson
21A.502 Fun and Games: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Prereq: None
U (Fall)
Not offered regularly; consult department
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Considers the cultural organization of play in different communities and societies. Explores why all people play, how different cultures experience fun, and what particular games mean, if anything. Surveys major theories of play in relation to a variety of play phenomena, such as jokes, video games, children's fantasies, sports, and entertainment spectacles. As a final project, students develop their own case study.
G. Jones
21A.504[J] Cultures of Computing
Same subject as STS.086[J], WGS.276[J]
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Spring)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Examines computers anthropologically, as artifacts revealing the social orders and cultural practices that create them. Students read classic texts in computer science along with cultural analyses of computing history and contemporary configurations. Explores the history of automata, automation and capitalist manufacturing; cybernetics and WWII operations research; artificial intelligence and gendered subjectivity; robots, cyborgs, and artificial life; creation and commoditization of the personal computer; the growth of the Internet as a military, academic, and commercial project; hackers and gamers; technobodies and virtual sociality. Emphasis is placed on how ideas about gender and other social differences shape labor practices, models of cognition, hacking culture, and social media.
Staff
21A.505[J] The Anthropology of Sound
Same subject as 21G.069[J], STS.065[J]
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: U (Spring)
Acad Year 2019-2020: Not offered
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Examines the ways humans experience sound and how perceptions and technologies of sound emerge from cultural, economic, and historical worlds. Consider how the sound/noise/music boundaries have been imagined, created, and modeled across sociocultural and historical contexts. Learn how environmental, linguistic, and musical sounds are construed cross-culturally as well as the rise of telephony, architectural acoustics, sound recording, multi-channel and spatial mix performance, and the globalized travel of these technologies. Questions of sound ownership, property, authorship, remix, and copyright in the digital age are also addressed.
S. Helmreich
21A.506 The Anthropology of Politics: Persuasion and Power
Prereq: None
U (Spring)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Introduces the ethnographic study of politics, i.e., what anthropologists understand to be "political" in various social and economic systems, from small-scale societies to liberal democratic states. Examines politics across three contemporary contexts: electoral politics, public spheres, and bureaucracies and humanitarian governance. Students consider and analyze how questions of authority, coercion, and violence have been theorized to relate to the political, and how some aspects of social life are regimented in explicitly non-political ways.
Staff
21A.507[J] Resonance: Sonic Experience, Science, and Art
Same subject as 4.648[J]
Subject meets with 4.649[J], 21A.519[J]
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: U (Fall)
Acad Year 2019-2020: Not offered
3-0-9 units. HASS-A
See description under subject 4.648[J].
S. Helmreich, C. Jones
21A.508 Anthropology through Speculative Fiction
Prereq: None
U (Fall)
Not offered regularly; consult department
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Examines how anthropology and speculative fiction (SF) each explore ideas about culture and society, technology, morality, and life in "other" worlds. Investigates this convergence of interest through analysis of SF in print, film, and other media. Covers traditional and contemporary anthropological themes, including first contact; gift exchange; gender, marriage, and kinship; law, morality, and cultural relativism; religion; race and embodiment; politics, violence, and war; medicine, healing, and consciousness; technology and environment.
E. C. James, S. Helmreich
21A.509[J] Art, Craft, Science
Same subject as STS.474[J]
Prereq: None
G (Fall)
3-0-9 units
Credit cannot also be received for 21A.501[J], STS.074[J]
Examines how people learn, practice, and evaluate traditional and contemporary craft techniques. Social science theories of design, embodiment, apprenticeship learning, skill, labor, expertise, and tacit knowledge are used to explore distinctions among art, craft, and science. Also discusses the commoditization of craft into market goods, collectible art, and tourism industries. Ethnographic and historical case studies include textiles, Shaker furniture, glassblowing, quilting, cheesemaking, industrial design, home and professional cooking, factory and laboratory work, CAD/CAM. Demonstrations, optional field trips, and/or hands-on craft projects may be included. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
H. Paxson
21A.519[J] Resonance: Sonic Experience, Science, and Art
Same subject as 4.649[J]
Subject meets with 4.648[J], 21A.507[J]
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: G (Fall)
Acad Year 2019-2020: Not offered
3-0-9 units
See description under subject 4.649[J].
S. Helmreich, C. Jones
21A.520 Magic, Science, and Religion
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Fall)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Explores the origins of magic, science, and religion as forms of belief within and across cultures. Addresses the place of rationality and belief in competing sociocultural theories, with a focus on analyzing modern perspectives. Examines how cases of overlap between magic, science, and religion raise new questions about modernity and human nature.
G. Jones
21A.550[J] DV Lab: Documenting Science through Video and New Media
Same subject as STS.064[J]
Subject meets with 21A.559
Prereq: None
U (Spring)
3-3-6 units. HASS-A; CI-H
Uses documentary video making as a tool to explore everyday social worlds (including those of science and engineering), and for thinking analytically about media itself. Students make videos and engage in critical analysis. Provides students with instruction on how to communicate effectively and creatively in a visual medium, and how to articulate their own analyses of documentary images in writing and spoken word. Readings drawn from documentary film theory, anthropology, and social studies of science. Students view a wide variety of classic documentaries and explore different styles. Lab component devoted to digital video production. Includes a final video project. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 12.
C. Walley, C. Boebel
21A.559 DV Lab: Documenting Science through Video and New Media
Subject meets with 21A.550[J], STS.064[J]
Prereq: None
G (Spring)
3-3-6 units
Uses documentary video making as a tool to explore everyday social worlds (including those of science and engineering), and for thinking analytically about media itself. Students make videos and engage in critical analysis. Provides students with instruction on how to communicate effectively and creatively in a visual medium, and how to articulate their own analyses of documentary images in writing and spoken word. Readings drawn from documentary film theory, anthropology, and social studies of science. Students view a wide variety of classic documentaries and explore different styles. Lab component devoted to digital video production. Includes a final video project. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 12.
C. Walley, C. Boebel
Cross-cultural Dialog and Investigations
21A.801[J] Cross-Cultural Investigations: Technology and Development
Same subject as EC.702[J], STS.071[J]
Subject meets with EC.792[J], 21A.839[J], STS.481[J]
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: U (Spring)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Enhances cross-cultural understanding through discussion of practical, ethical, and epistemological issues in conducting social science and applied research in foreign countries or unfamiliar communities. Includes research practicum to help students develop interviewing, participant-observation, and other qualitative research skills, as well as critical discussion of case studies. Open to all interested students, but intended particularly for those planning to undertake exploratory research or applied work abroad. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
C. Walley
21A.802 Seminar in Ethnography and Fieldwork
Prereq: Permission of instructor
U (Fall)
3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Introduction to ethnographic practices: the study of and communicating about culture. Subject provides instruction and practice in writing, revision of fieldnotes, and a final paper. Preference to Anthropology majors and minors.
Staff
21A.809 Designing Empirical Research in the Social Sciences
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: G (Spring)
3-0-9 units
Foundations of good empirical research in the social sciences. Introduction to the basic assumptions and underlying logic of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Explores a variety of approaches to research design, evaluates the products of empirical research, and practices several common techniques. Discusses several major theoretical paradigms used as interpretive frameworks for social science research. Students develop a proposal for their own research project.
S. Silbey
21A.819 Qualitative Research Methods
Prereq: Permission of instructor
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: G (Fall)
3-6-3 units
Training in the design and practice of qualitative research. Organized around illustrative texts, class exercises, and student projects. Topics include the process of gaining access to and participating in the social worlds of others; techniques of observation, fieldnote-taking, researcher self-monitoring and reflection; methods of inductive analysis of qualitative data including conceptual coding, grounded theory, and narrative analysis. Discussion of research ethics, the politics of fieldwork, modes of validating researcher accounts, and styles of writing up qualitative field research.
S. Silbey
21A.829[J] Ethnography
Same subject as STS.360[J]
Prereq: None. Coreq: 21A.859[J]; permission of instructor
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: G (Spring)
3-0-9 units
See description under subject STS.360[J]. Preference to HASTS, CMS, HTC and Sloan graduate students.
M. Fischer
21A.839[J] Cross-Cultural Investigations: Technology and Development
Same subject as EC.792[J], STS.481[J]
Subject meets with EC.702[J], 21A.801[J], STS.071[J]
Prereq: None
Acad Year 2018-2019: Not offered
Acad Year 2019-2020: G (Spring)
3-0-9 units
Enhances cross-cultural understanding through discussion of practical, ethical, and epistemological issues in conducting social science and applied research in foreign countries or unfamiliar communities. Includes research practicum to help students develop interviewing, participant-observation, and other qualitative research skills, as well as critical discussion of case studies. Open to all interested students, but intended particularly for those planning to undertake exploratory research or applied work abroad. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
C. Walley
21A.859[J] Social Theory and Analysis
Same subject as STS.250[J]
Prereq: None
G (Fall)
3-0-9 units
Major theorists and theoretical schools since the late 19th century. Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Bourdieu, Levi-Strauss, Geertz, Foucault, Gramsci, and others. Key terms, concepts, and debates.
M. Fischer
Independent Study, Special Subjects, and Thesis
21A.901 Independent Study in Anthropology
Prereq: Two subjects in Anthropology
U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer)
Units arranged
Can be repeated for credit.
Opportunity for independent study, guided research, practicum, or field work under regular supervision by a faculty member. Projects require prior approval of the instructor and Head of the Anthropology Program. Normal maximum is 6 units; exceptional 9- or 12-unit projects occasionally approved.
Consult Program Head
21A.902 Independent Study in Anthropology
Prereq: Two subjects in Anthropology
U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer)
Units arranged
Can be repeated for credit.
Opportunity for independent study, guided research, practicum, or field work under regular supervision by a faculty member. Projects require prior approval of the instructor and Head of the Anthropology Program. Normal maximum is 6 units; exceptional 9- or 12-unit projects occasionally approved.
Consult Program Head
21A.929 Graduate Independent Study
Prereq: None
G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer)
Units arranged
Can be repeated for credit.
Opportunity for study or projects at an advanced level with an Anthropology faculty member.
Consult Program Head
21A.939 Graduate Independent Study
Prereq: None
G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer)
Units arranged
Can be repeated for credit.
Opportunity for study or projects at an advanced level with an Anthropology faculty member.
Consult Program Head
21A.949 Graduate Independent Study
Prereq: None
G (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer)
Units arranged
Can be repeated for credit.
Opportunity for study or projects at an advanced level with an Anthropology faculty member.
Consult Program Head
21A.950 Teaching Anthropology
Prereq: None
G (Fall, Spring)
Units arranged [P/D/F]
Can be repeated for credit.
For qualified graduate students serving as either a teaching assistant or instructor for subjects in Anthropology. Enrollment limited by availability of suitable teaching assignments.
Staff
21A.S01-21A.S02 Special Subject in Anthropology
Prereq: None
U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer)
Units arranged
Seminar or lecture on a topic in anthropology that is not covered in the regular curriculum.
Staff
21A.S10-21A.S11 Special Graduate Subject in Anthropology
Prereq: None
G (Fall, IAP, Summer)
Units arranged
Seminar or lecture on a topic in anthropology that is not covered in the regular curriculum.
Staff
21A.THT Anthropology Pre-Thesis Tutorial
Prereq: None
U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer)
Units arranged
Can be repeated for credit.
Students writing a thesis work with an advisor to develop research topics, review relevant research and scholarship, frame research questions, choose an appropriate methodology for data collection and analysis, and draft the introductory and methodology sections of their theses. Includes substantial practice in writing (with revision) and oral presentations.
Consult Program Head
21A.THU Undergraduate Thesis in Anthropology
Prereq: 21A.THT
U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer)
Units arranged
Can be repeated for credit.
Completion of work on the senior major thesis under supervision of a faculty thesis advisor. Includes oral presentation of thesis progress early in the term, assembling and revising the final text, and a final meeting with a committee of faculty evaluators to discuss the successes and limitations of the project.
Staff
21A.UR Undergraduate Research
Prereq: None
U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer)
Units arranged [P/D/F]
Can be repeated for credit.
Individual participation in an ongoing research project. For students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.
Staff
21A.URG Undergraduate Research
Prereq: None
U (Fall, IAP, Spring, Summer)
Units arranged
Can be repeated for credit.
Individual participation in an ongoing research project. For students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.
Staff
