Instructor: Chris Rodning Theme: Anthropology of Culture Contact and Colonialism

Interactions within and between different groups of people have been part of the human condition for our entire evolutionary history. Some kinds of interaction are peaceful and others hostile; some are interactions among equals, and others are characterized by varying degrees of dominance and dependency; many interactions among groups of people lead to unintended outcomes, whether good or bad from the perspective of those involved. Many forms of interaction bring together people of different cultural backgrounds in situations that can be described as “contact.” Forms of culture contact that involve the movement of people and cultural practices from one setting to another—and often the movement of wealth from “colony” to “center”—can be referred to as “colonialism.” Anthropological topics related to the broader theme of culture contact and colonialism include the nature of group identity and intergroup interaction in our primate and early human ancestors; interactions and genealogical relationships among different species of ancestral humans; early human settlement in Australia some 40 to 50 thousand years ago; early human settlement in the Americas between 10 and 15 thousand years ago; the spread of ancient empires and trade networks in the Mediterranean, China, Mesoamerica, the Andes, and Europe; the European colonization of Africa and the Americas; the adoption of religious beliefs and ritual practices in different cultural settings throughout the world; the evolution and emergence of languages and other forms of communication; and the effects of colonial and postcolonial history on the lives of people in the present in places throughout Asia, Africa, and Oceania. These and other situations of culture contact and colonialism have in some cases led to the demise of cultural practices and native ways of life in many places, but people have also actively responded to these situations by creating new cultural practices, adopting aspects of other cultural traditions and making them their own.

The major objectives of this course are:

• to consider the variety of ways that anthropologists study colonialism, intergroup interaction, and culture contact in the past and present,
• to consider the many different forms of colonialism and culture contact that have taken place in human history and prehistory,
• to develop a global understanding of processes associated with intercultural interaction,
• to develop a comparative approach to the study of culture contact and colonialism.

Every section of the anthropology proseminar is devoted to a particular theme, which is then explored from the perspective of the four major subfields of anthropology, including archaeology, cultural anthropology, physical anthropology, and linguistics. Anthropology is a holistic field of study, and students in this course will learn how to evaluate many kinds of anthropological evidence that are relevant to our knowledge of culture contact and colonialism in the past and present. Students will learn how anthropologists in the different subfields frame research questions, and how they draw conclusions from the many kinds of data they collect. Students in this course will also become familiar with some of the major journals in which anthropological research is published and discussed, many of which are now available both in print and in digital format on line.

Some of the skills that students will develop through taking this course:

• critical thinking,
• making oral arguments about anthropological topics,
• making written arguments about anthropological topics,
• and the ability to pose questions and to know what kinds of data are relevant to answering them.

This class meets on Thursdays from 3:30PM until 6:00PM in Newcomb 17.

Office hours are Fridays from 10AM to 12PM, or by appointment, at 1326 Audubon.

Chris Rodning
(504)862-3067
(504)606-3788
crodning@tulane.edu

Tulane University
Department of Anthropology

Course readings will be made available on Blackboard.

They will also be available in the main office of the anthropology department at 1326 Audubon Street, which is open M-F, from 8AM-4PM.

• Syllabus
• Term Paper Assignment
• Class Presentation Assignment
• Recommended Journals
• Sample Lecture Notes
• Library Workshop

• 2/2/07
  Our class on February 8 will include a library workshop from 3:30 to 4:30 in Howard-Tilton Library Room 309 (in the Center for Library User Education, or CLUE), and a class discussion of assigned readings from 4:45 to 5:45 in our normal classroom.