Department of Anthropology
Undergraduate Units in Anthropology 2010
Unit Offerings
Please note that not all 300-level units are offered every year. To check Unit availability in 2010 please click here.
ANTH106 Drugs Across Cultures
Using anthropological and ethnographic studies, this unit focuses mainly on the social and cultural contexts of drug use, both legal and illegal. The unit is also concerned with economic and political factors influencing the production and distribution of drugs and the way in which these processes are enmeshed in a global economy. Topics include: the international traffic in opium/heroin and cocaine in the Golden Triangle of mainland South-East Asia and in South America and the way this traffic intermeshes with regional politics and local tribal, peasant and commercial systems of production and exchange; the social history of drugs in the US, UK and Australia; youth culture and drugs in the West; AIDS and intravenous drug use; addiction and treatment; drugs and the law; the global political economy of pharmaceuticals, particularly contraceptives, erectile dysfunction drugs, and antiretrovirals in the age of AIDS; and the placebo effect.
Dr Lisa Wynn
Credit Points: 3
ANTH150 Identity and Difference: Introduction to Anthropology
This course conveys the excitement of the challenge posed by Anthropology to our 'common sense' understanding of the world. It is divided into two parts, each dealing with a particular contribution of anthropology to our understanding of human beings. In the first half of this course we examine many of those elements of identity that we regard as 'natural' or as objectively given: space, food, childhood, language, and even the body itself. In each of these we gain insights into the profound role of culture in shaping us, and therefore, the way it can vary and differ from one culture to another. The second half of the course introduces you to the more complex set of power relations in the contemporary world: relations of class, of colonialism, of nationalism, 'race', and, of course, gender. More broadly, the senses are a fundamental theme of the course, ranging from illness and healing, world music, religious imagery, to the sensory experience of place itself.
Dr Chris Houston
Credit Points: 3
ANTH151 Human Evolution and Diversity
Human Evolution and Diversity' explores the development of our species, what makes humans distinct, and how we have developed the biological, cultural and technological diversity we now see around us. The unit explores new research, highlighting the most recent discoveries and theoretical breakthroughs, encouraging students to learn more about the major debates and important theories in the study of human evolution.
Specifically, the unit provides students with a background in evolutionary theory, genetics, anthropology, paleoarchaeology, and comparative primatology in order to address a number of topics: the development of the human brain, bipedalism, language, families, social life, sexuality, reproduction, hunting, diet, clothing, art, stone tools and technology, domesticated plants and animals, cities, and the first complex states. The unit also explores how an evolutionary perspective offers new insights into modern human diversity, including both cultural and biological differences among us.
The unit does not require a background in the biological or evolutionary sciences, and it provides an excellent foundation for understanding and evaluating such important contemporary issues as whether sexuality is 'hardwired,' how technology affects human development, if genetic racial differences are significant issues, what makes our species distinct, and how humans might look like in the future.
Dr Greg Downey
ANTH201 Culture, Myth and Symbolism
All societies have a cultural dimension and the imperatives of culture may be quite as compelling as those of livelihood and material well-being. Individually and collectively people make their lives meaningful through practices of symbolic representation. In the twentieth century anthropologists concerned with the study of culture came to focus on systems of symbols and meaning. Psychoanalysis and linguistics were important early influences on symbolic anthropology because they identified the capacity of the human mind to operate according to symbolic processes, but these theories also proved too universalist in their claims for anthropology's cross-cultural evidence This course will examine a range of ethnographic studies that highlight the symbolic dimension of social life and ritual practices presented in the works of Victor Turner, Claude Levi-Strauss, Clifford Geertz and other key figures. The study of culture shows that human consciousness includes a non-rational or affective aspect sometimes described as 'mythic'. Mythic consciousness will also be explored in this course as a distinct form of consciousness that should not be seen as false, inferior or irrational. We will therefore consider the way phenomena such as dreams, spirits, magic, and emotions figure importantly in anthropological analysis.
Anthropology staff
ANTH202 Illness and Healing
This unit offers an introduction to medical anthropology and cross-cultural beliefs relating to illness and healing. We will consider different notions of disease causality and examine the proposition that good health, and conversely ill health, is never just about the body. Throughout the course, we look at conditions of dis-ease as having social as well as biological origins and take the point of view that ideas of health and methods of treating illness are deeply lodged in cultural frameworks. Thus we treat healing practices, including Western biomedicine, as inevitably predicated on cultural systems of understanding. How people understand illness and where it comes from, and what they do about it when it does occur, tells us a lot about how different societies understand people and their place in the world. Specific topics we will cover include cross cultural approaches to bodily and mental disorders, the social construction of illness, somatisation and the role of symbolism in healing, shamanistic practices, emotions and embodiment, science and biomedicine, gender and health, alternative medicine, health promotion and regulation, and new infectious diseases.
Dr Chris Lyttleton
ANTH203 Food Across Cultures
Food mediates and shapes core social relations to place, time, gender, sexuality and social rank. The study of food and eating has long held a particular fascination for anthropologists. From subsistence strategies to nutritional intake, from food taboos to the social rules that structure how people eat together, the everyday activities of cooking and eating are packed with economic, medical, and particularly political and cultural meaning. Indeed, for most (if not all) cultures, what people will and won't eat determines their status as civilized beings. Food is also a lens onto some of the cutting edge concerns of contemporary social anthropology, including globalisation, consumption practices, and identity. This course celebrates practices of everyday life and explores the extraordinary variety of food likes and dislikes in a range of ethnographic contexts. Not only will we talk about food, we will also come together to share food, in the hopes that this will provide insight!
Anthropology staff
ANTH204 Art and Culture
This unit explores the role of art, film, and photography in cross-cultural interpretation and analysis. What role does the visual play in shaping how we see ourselves and others? Are visual technologies and artefacts themselves historically, culturally, aesthetically specific? Why has representing other cultures visually been such an important part of popular culture? Do ethnographic and documentary films accurately portray other cultures? Does art tell the truth? What are the effects of film and photography on our appreciation of other cultures? How are indigenous and other minorities using visual technologies to represent their own identities and interests contemporarily? These and other questions will be explored through two-hour weekly film screenings, in addition to lecture and tutorial program. This course develops themes explored in ANTH201 Culture, Myth and Symbolism and will be of special interest to students of media, cultural studies and creative arts.
Anthropology staff
ANTH221 Development Studies: The Anthropology of International Aid
When we think of different societies around the world, why are the categories Third World and First World such enduring forms of distinction? Why after 50 years of development assistance do some countries remain racked by poverty? This unit considers different dominant approaches to 'development' over the past five decades to answer the question: why is 'helping' other countries to develop so difficult to do? We look briefly at the normative ideas underlying rival development theories, including the link between power and knowledge and the difficulties in resolving a universal definition of what constitutes development and who should give what to whom. We then focus on the various development players, such as the World Bank, NGOs, commercial consulting firms and donor agencies and consider their respective roles within development programs. In the second half of semester we concentrate on specific themes in the practice of 'doing development'. Issues such as sustainable development, Australian foreign aid policies, gender, resettlement, human rights and disaster relief are examined to show that development is far from a straightforward process.
Dr Chris Lyttleton
ANTH222 Wealth, Poverty and Consumption
We are surrounded by economic activity and yet often oblivious to it, like fish in water. Is greed universal? Is a free market inevitable? If our society is so wealthy, why do we feel stretched so thin? This unit explores wealth and poverty across cultures, examining the diverse ways people organize their economic life, decide who gets what, and determine what is valuable. From classical studies in anthropology to contemporary events like consumer fads, stock fraud, real estate bubbles, and corporate bailouts, we explore how economic phenomena cut across cultures, uniting what may appear to be different sorts of societies.
This unit explores cultural diversity in a range of areas: shopping, gift-giving, money, status-seeking, trade, advertising, exploitation, and even get-rich-quick schemes. Across many cultures, we study the effects of commoditisation, global trade, colonialism, materialism, and a range of other contemporary economic forces on the way that people consume. From cargo cults to The Secret, Native American potlatches to bank-busting weddings, Fair Trade to foraging, we find that humans, including ourselves, may be stranger than we think, but not all that different from each other, even that we are connected with those that appear to live a world away.
Dr Greg Downey
ANTH223 Ethnicity, Migration and Nationalism
This unit introduces students to the anthropology of the nation, ethnicity, and identity. The fundamental questions of this field are why individuals identify with a particular group, what such identification means, and why claims about it (for example, by national governments) carry authority. The course begins by examining how ideas about nation, ethnicity, and race were historically formed both in societies and in scholarship on societies. It then proceeds to deal with forms of ethnic identification that defy the idea of equating nation with territory. These include 'diasporas' -- groups that have left an historical homeland but continue to identify with it – and transnational communities, whose belonging and social practice is defined by several nation-states rather than one. Finally, the course looks at how nation-states and non-territorial forms of belonging relate to each other, and what implications this has for citizenship in the contemporary world.
Dr Jovan Maud
ANTH360 Asian Cultures
This unit offers a detailed ethnographic study of cultural systems in Asia. Each year we choose one specific society or cultural grouping and closely examine cultural practices and knowledge systems that shape aspects of everyday life. The course involves students in considering a wide range of historical and contemporary ethnographic materials and anthropological texts. It offers a chance to build up a detailed engagement with the culture of regions that are particularly important in the contemporary global landscape - eg. the region of India, which is taught every other year.
Anthropology staff
ANTH361 The Anthropology of Politics and Power
Politics and power can be thought of as intimate aspects of all subjects of anthropological investigation, as processes of domination, resistance and social transformation are inevitably involved in the creation and representation of cultural practices and meanings. In this unit students will identify and compare the themes - explicit or otherwise - that dominate the composition of a number of classical political ethnographies, while also exploring the wider question of their colonial contexts and how this context influenced the development of anthropological knowledge. The second half of the course examines how some of these themes may still be of relevance in illuminating more contemporary manifestations of power, including forms of political practice such as nationalism and related projects of social transformation, violence and terror, gender, resistance, collaboration and reconciliation. A continuing concern of the course will be to explore how the writing of ethnography and the making of ethnographic film - textual and visual representation - are implicated in these issues.
Dr Chris Houston
ANTH365 Islam
Islam is a major world religion, and the anthropology of Islam an exciting enterprise that studies the lived experience of Islam and Muslims in a variety of contexts and different places. One unifying theme of the course will be its focus on the production of knowledge about Islam in the present, asking questions about who speaks for and about Islam. This includes a stress on the representation and performance of Islam, not just in the 'West' but also in Muslim-majority societies as well.
Students will be able to research a number of vital topics, including media coverage of Islam, the fascinating debates around the category of the Islamic City, the production of Islam in the Museums of Islamic Art from Istanbul to New York, Muslim cinema, Gender and Islam, the management of Islam by secular States such as Turkey, and Islam and Music.
Dr Chris Houston
ANTH373 Anthropology of the City
How might we think about the relationships between the built environment, culture, and individual identity? What makes a city socialist, Islamic or modern? What impact do these varied forms of urban organisation and architecture have on the inhabitants that dwell in them? This course introduces students to the anthropology of the city through focusing on the organisation of space and the politics of architectural forms and urban planning. It explores how space and its design are intimately connected to particular modernist projects such as nationalism, colonialism, socialism, apartheid etc. Students will consider a variety of anthropological perspectives that seek to explain the amazing diversity and surprising similarity of urban cultures and their spatial forms, as well as ways that the built environment might both express and generate culture, power and individual or collective identities.
Dr Chris Houston
ANTH375 Globalisation and Culture
Mass communications, especially film, television and radio, the globalisation of the advertising industry, and the emergence of mass tourism are powerful forces for cultural change in the contemporary world. Using the framework of recent work in public culture, including debates around modernity and post-modernism, as well as an historical framework, this unit will be drawn from a variety of media sources to illustrate the complexity of the global cultural flow and to consider the implications of these developments for concepts of 'nationhood' and 'cultural identity', under the sign of technological transformation.
Anthropology staff
ANTH377 Culture, Health and Sexuality in the Developing World
This unit will explore health and development in the Third World through a largely anthropological perspective. Students will learn about the cultural dimensions of illness and health in an applied fashion, focusing on the practical, 'real-world' applications of anthropological knowledge. Through a problem based approach to global health issues such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and malnutrition, we consider the cultural context of these diseases, and the implications this has for their prevention and treatment. We will also critically interrogate the political, economic and historical underpinnings of poor health in the Third World, through a consideration of existing health and development policies and some of the agendas underlying them.
Dr Chris Lyttleton
ANTH380 Culture and Human Rights
This unit examines human rights across cultures, asking how human rights came to be, how they spring from and affect different cultural contexts, and what sorts of institutions and practices support them. How can respect for cultural difference be reconciled with campaigning for universal human rights?
The unit is divided roughly into five sections. The first provides some basic background on the history of human rights and anthropology. The second deals with so called 'first generation' human rights to be free of unjust actions by the state such as torture, genocide, or denial of civic freedoms. The third section deals with 'positive' rights, or claims made on society for health, education, and economic opportunities; in this section, we deal with the 'Asian question', the idea that in developing countries, economic opportunities take precedence over political liberties. We deal with minority groups and indigenous rights in the fourth part of the unit, talking about global Indigenous Rights movements as well as the case of Australian Aborigines and the 'right to development'. Finally, in the last section, we deal with the rights of women and sexual minorities, a long-standing area of challenge in human rights.
Dr Greg Downey
ANTH381 Body, Place and Postcolonial Experience
This course introduces students to the centrality of the body in human experience, taking 'place' and what it means to 'be in place' as its opening theme. Drawing on the resources of powerful descriptive ethnographies which create a vivid sense of what it is to be shaped by places, the course examines the ongoing effects of colonialism both on our sense of place and on the body. We will consider the range of postcolonial experiences, from the positive creative flows of 'hybrid' cultural creativity, to illness and trauma, to the increased role of memory and the urge to document the past, linked with the strong emotions of loss and nostalgia. Gender will be emphasized as a central dimension of postcolonial experience, with special attention to anthropology's documentation of the wide variety of ways in which postcolonial experience has been quite different for men and for women. The course will make special use of the convenor's research on gender, maternity, music, dance, as well as the postcolonial state. This course provides strong grounding in three intersecting areas: anthropology, postcolonial theory, and a specific theoretical way of approaching experience called phenomenology.
Dr Kalpana Ram
ANTH384 Culture, Care and Country in Aboriginal Australia
This course provides an introduction to Aboriginal cultures of the Central Desert of Australia. The focus is on contemporary cultural expression; how people are making and remaking what it means to be Aboriginal today. Language, ritual, mythology, art, dance, music, video, television, emotion: these and other aspects of experience will be explored, with special reference to Warlpiri. Students undertaking this unit should have at least one previous unit of study in Aboriginal studies field or a strong basis in other Anthropology, Cultural Studies or Media units.
Anthropology staff
ANTH385 Doing Ethnography
The Ethnographic Field Studies program provides an introduction to fieldwork in cultural anthropology. As the primary goal of the course is to teach students how to do ethnographic fieldwork, over the course of the semester students will engage in first-hand research where they regularly participate in and observe a cultural scene of their own choosing. Weekly meetings will frame the fieldwork process as students learn anthropological methodology under the guidance of an experienced staff member, and then apply this knowledge to their ethnographic study. These meetings will also provide the opportunity for students to share their fieldwork experiences with each other, and discuss the methodological issues and concerns raised by their own studies. The program will culminate in a report (or 'mini' ethnography) due at the close of the semester.
Dr Lisa Wynn
Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio.