Instructor: Chris Rodning Theme: Conflict, Violence, and Warfare

The major goals for students in this course are:

• to consider the variety of ways that anthropologists study conflict, violence, and warfare,
• to identify the different kinds of evidence relevant to anthropological knowledge about conflict, violence, and warfare,
• to speak and to write critically about conflict and warfare,
• to develop a comparative approach to the study of conflict and warfare.

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 Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30PM until 4:45PM in Newcomb ??.

Office hours are Wednesdays from 2PM to 4PM, or by appointment, at 1326 Audubon.

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

Tulane University
Department of Anthropology

Course textbooks can be purchased at the Tulane University Bookstore, at other bookstores, or through online booksellers.

Additional course readings, as well as articles on related topics, will be made available on Blackboard.

• Course Syllabus (forthcoming)
• Bibliographic Sources (forthcoming)
• Class Discussion Assignment (forthcoming)
• Class Discussion Schedule (forthcoming)
• Midterm Exam Study Guide (forthcoming)
• Term Paper Assignment (forthcoming)
• Term Paper Presentations (forthcoming)
• Final Exam Study Guide (forthcoming)