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
325 CONTEMPORARY AFRO-CARIBBEAN RELIGION (3) *(Cross-listed
with LLS & HMN)
#406293 * T, TH * 12:30-1:50 p.m. * 215 Clemens * DR. C. G. CENTRIE
(This course can be used to satisfy an Area Studies requirement.)
The objective of this course is to familiarize students with the rich
cultural syncretisms of Afro-Caribbean culture from a Latin American perspective,
to challenge the miasma of mysticism surrounding the religions as viewed
by developed nations, and to provide students with the basic skills necessary
to conduct field research from an anthropological perspective. SEM
(APY 325 is cross-registered with LLS 305 and HMN 325. If
APY reserved seats are filled and you choose to register for it through
LLS or HMN, please notify APY Undergraduate Office so that your departmental
records and DARS Report can be adjusted to reflect APY major/minor credit.)
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.