This course will attempt the impossible, to survey the development of anthropological theory in a single quarter. Needless to say, it will not and cannot be exhaustive. Instead, it will focus on the careful scrutiny of a few primary sources by prominent individuals who have contributed to the development of the discipline, but who will also be taken as "representative" of various historical trends. The first part of the course will rapidly outline the prehistory of the discipline and focus more extensively on the notion of evolution central to 19th century social theory. The second part of the course will deal with the individual contributions of three "founding fathers": Marx, Durkheim and Weber. The final part of the course will cover a few of the numerous trends of 20th century cultural anthropology.
This course is concerned with the method, theory, and practice underlying spatial analysis using tools such as GIS to understand human landscapes in the past and present. We will focus on the kinds of data, methods of analysis, and frames of interpretation of landscapes in the past and present. In this course students will be exposed to underlying theories of space in the interpretation of ancient and modern landscapes and gain practical experience collecting and analyzing spatial data in the context anthropological research. While case studies will be drawn from a variety of contexts in anthropology, the course is relevant to anyone who wishes to analyze data about and within the spatial and temporal contexts of the research they are conducting.
How does our understanding of global history change when we foreground law and empire? To what extent have international legal regimes arisen out of imperial dynamics? Why have slavery and settler colonialism been so important to so many constitutional and state histories? This course takes up these and other questions in order to make sense of the interplay between laws and empires around the world over the last five centuries (circa 1500 to 2000). We will examine: 1) the origins and effects of mixed jurisdictions (or legal pluralism) in different regions; 2) the ways empires have shaped key concepts of sovereignty, personhood, and citizenship; 3) the role of transnational corporations in bolstering imperial rule; 4) the roots of empire in the history of human rights and global governance; 5) tensions between scientific and legal definitions of race and ancestry; 6) histories of Islamic law; 7) entanglements between cultural and intellectual property; and 8) shifting legal definitions of indigeneity.
