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Keywords: anthropology
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- Abstract: Australian aborigines visit Franklin ParkProgram focuses of the culture of Australian aborigines. Host David Crippens introduces Dighton Spooner's interview with Gulpilil (and other aborigines visiting Boston) on music, ceremonies, instruments, costuming, and the requirements for the cultural survival of Australia's aboriginal people. Interviews touch upon offers from European companies to purchase tribal lands, Australia's attempts to restore native culture, Australian rules governing 'mixed blood,' the impact of African American leaders on Australia, the creative forces behind aboriginal cultures, and the effects of European repression on native cultural tradition. Additional program segments include footage of aborigines applying body paints of clay and charcoal and performing tribal dances in Boston's Franklin Park, the 'Historical Minute' with Georgia State Representative Julian Bond, 'Bookbeat,' 'Commentary' by professor and historian A.B. Spellman on the differences between Third World and western cultures, and segment interludes with Sheryl Bibbs and Louis Wilson (of the musical group Mandrill). Produced by Marita Rivero. Directed by Conrad White.
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- Abstract: An introduction to the Rice University course "Text as Property/Property as Text" which seeks to compare ancient and modern conceptions of authorship, ownership and alternative traditions of writing, stewardship, allusion, and distribution.
- Subject:
Social Sciences
- Grade Level:
Post-secondary
- Collection:
Connexions
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- Abstract: This fun Web article is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they learn about the ancient city of Petra. The article begins with an overview of this city, which was located along the ancient trade routes between Arabia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea. Kids then have the chance to take a walk through Petra's ruins.
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- Abstract: Seminar focuses on core issues and approaches in anthropological theory and method. Studies theoretical frameworks for the analysis and integration of material from other subjects in cultural anthropology. Subject provides instruction and practice in writing and revision whereby students produce one paper that is appropriate for publication or as a proposal for funding. This course introduces students to some of the major social theories and debates that inspire and inform anthropological analysis. Over the course of the semester, we will investigate a range of theoretical propositions concerning such topics as agency, structure, subjectivity, history, social change, power, culture, and the politics of representation. Ultimately, all theories can be read as statements about human beings and the worlds they create and inhabit. We will approach each theoretical perspective or proposition on three levels: (1) in terms of its analytical or explanatory power for understanding human behavior and the social world; (2) in the context of the social and historical circumstances in which they were produced; and (3) as contributions to ongoing dialogues and debate.
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- Abstract: This course examines computers anthropologically, as meaningful tools revealing the social and cultural orders that produce them. We read classic texts in computer science along with works analyzing links between machines and culture. We explore early computation theory and capitalist manufacturing; cybernetics and WWII operations research; artificial intelligence and gendered subjectivity; the creation and commodification of the personal computer; the hacking aesthetic; non-Western histories of computing; the growth of the Internet as a military, academic, and commercial project; the politics of identity in cyberspace; and the emergence of "evolutionary" computation.
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- Abstract: This course presents a theoretical analysis of religion as a cultural phenomenon. It explores the functional relationships between religion, culture, society, and the individual.
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- Abstract: This course examines traditional performances of the Arabic-speaking populations of the Middle East and North Africa. Starting with the history of the ways in which the West has discovered, translated and written about the Orient, we will consider how power and politics play roles in the production of culture, narrative and performance. This approach assumes that performance, verbal art, and oral literature lend themselves to spontaneous adaptation and to oblique expression of ideas and opinions whose utterance would otherwise be censorable or disruptive. In particular we will be concerned with the way traditional performance practices are affected by and respond to the consequences of modernization. From the course home page: Topics include oral epic performance, sacred narrative, Koranic chant performance, the folktale, solo performance, cultural production and resistance.
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- Abstract: Issues of war and peace from an anthropological perspective. Topics include: the warlike nature of humans, if humans are by nature warlike, the evolution of war in cross-cultural perspective, the socialization of warriors and the construction of enemies, and the recent emergence of anti-war movements. Readings focus on sociobiological and other theories of war; anthropologists' claims to have studied societies that do not have war; ethnic hatred and civil war in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Northern Ireland; military culture in the U.S. and elsewhere; peace movements; and studies of military conversion.
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- Abstract: Established in 1991, the Anthropology Emeritus Lecture Series honors a designated Emeritus faculty member from the U.C. Berkeley Department of Anthropology with a lecture by a distinguished anthropologist working in an area related to the honorees' field of expertise.
Beginning in 1995, the lecture series has been enhanced by exhibits at the George and Mary Foster Anthropology Library and on the Internet illustrating the career of the honoree including biographical, bibliographical and other information.
As a collection, the Anthropology Emeritus web sites provide a perspective on anthropology at the University of California and more generally, a recent history of anthropology as a discipline.
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- Abstract: This OLogy reference list has six kid-friendly books on archeology. A short description is given for each title, along with author name and publisher. The list includes: illustrated looks at the world's great civilizations hands-on activities for kids that introduce them to the methods and tools archaeologists use a visual chronology of life on Earth that stretches from the ancient world to AD 1500.
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- Abstract: Footage of Australian aborigines applying body paints of clay and charcoal and performing tribal dances in Boston's Franklin Park. Includes African American children interacting with the aborigines as they try to learn how to use the didgeridoo.
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- Abstract: This Web site, created to complement the Baseball as America exhibit, looks at how this sport has changed along with the country. It includes the following sections:Our National Spirit examines why the label "national pastime" has grown increasingly accurate over time. Ideals and Injustices considers the game's troubling legacy of segregation and why the sport is seen as "doorway to American culture" by many immigrants. Sharing a Common Culture looks at how the game and its heroes have become a form of cultural shorthand. Rooting for the Team examines the ways we share in the experience of the game, from trading cards to the seventh-inning stretch. Invention and Ingenuity Looks at how the American spirit has helped shape the game. Enterprise and Opportunity considers the business of baseball, from the Players' Association to branded candy bars. Weaving Myths looks at the nostalgia of stadiums and how we live out our fantasies through players' achievements.
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- Abstract: Subject examines the brain as a cultural object in contemporary media, science, and society. Explores cultural assumptions about neuroscience by drawing on anthropology, history, semiotics, and the cognitive sciences. Topics include historical views of the brain; digital images of the brain; psychopharmacology; mental illness; neurotransmitters; and the culture of brain science. Class assignments include three brief analytical papers and one oral presentation.
- Subject:
Science and Technology, Social Sciences
- Grade Level:
Post-secondary
- Collection:
MIT OpenCourseWare
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- Abstract: This Web site, created to complement an American Museum of Natural History exhibition, reports on The New York Times Magazine's millennium time capsule project and offers insight into the concept of time.
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- Abstract: This Web site, created to complement an AMNH exhibition, looks at a rare find from the fourth millennium BCE, which was discovered in 1993 near Jericho.
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- Abstract: Artists across cultures and throughout time have sought to incorporate the multifaceted connections between past and present in their artworks. In many ways, Catlin's lifelong quest and the eventual creation of his "Indian Gallery" can be seen as an attempt to connect what he felt to be the "past" of American Indian society to the "present" of nineteenth-century westward expansion by European Americans. As is evident today, Native American culture is very much alive and present in the fabric of America. Catlin, however, made it clear that he viewed his subjects as a "vanishing race" and sought to preserve their images for future generations. In this activity, students will create their own memory box, linking the past and the present, and in so doing examine Catlin's ideas and motives.
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- Abstract: In this course the conquest and colonization of the Americas is considered, with special attention to the struggles of native peoples in Guatemala, Canada, Brazil, Panama, and colonial New England. In two segments of the course-one devoted to the Jesuit missionization of the Huron in the 1630s, the other to struggles between the government of Panama and the Kuna between 1900 and 1925-students examine primary documents such as letters, reports, and court records, to draw their own conclusions. Attention focuses on how we know about and represent past eras and other peoples, as well as on the history of struggles between native Americans and Europeans.
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- Abstract: The role of the family in human evolution, and as a symbol in our own social and political lives. Topics include: sex, marriage, and parenting; the labor market; class, race, and ethnicity; and the family's probable future. We begin by considering briefly the evolution of the family, its cross-cultural variability, and its history in the West. We next examine how the family is currently defined in the U.S., discussing different views about what families should look like. Class and ethnic variability and the effects of changing gender roles are discussed in this section. We next look at sexuality, traditional and non-traditional marriage, parenting, divorce, family violence, family economics, poverty, and family policy. Controversial issues dealt with include day care, welfare policy, and the "Family Values" debate.
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- Abstract: Conversations with History Presents Faculty Research at the University of California, Berkeley
A Conversation with Nancy Scheper-Hughes
Professor of Anthropology
"Studying the Human Condition: Habits of an Anthropologist"
This interview took place on December 14, 1999. Complete transcript is available.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, where she also directs the Doctoral Program in Critical Studies of Medicine, Science, and the Body. Her many publications include Saints, Scholars, and Schizophrenics, which received the Margaret Meade Award, and Death Without Weeping: the Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil, which received several awards including the International Pitre Prize and the Wellcome Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. She is currently co-director of a research project on "Money, Markets and Bodies" (funded by the Open Society Institute), which is exploring the global trade in human organs for transplant surgery.
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- Abstract: Create Your Own Time Capsule is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they build a time capsule to help future generations understand how they lived. The activity begins with a brief explanation of artifacts and time capsules. Students are then given step-by-step directions for how to select significant items and build a time capsule to store them. As an example, two kids and the time capsules they built are shown.
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