[Social Analysis 28. Culture, Illness, and Healing: An Introduction to Medical Anthropology]
Catalog Number: 4247
Arthur Kleinman
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 12
An inquiry into the role of health and medicine in society that demonstrates how anthropological analysis can be applied to the study of illness and care. Compares medical systems across societies to understand the experience and treatment of sickness. Analyzes how practitioners and patients construe sickness and suffering as distinctive social realities, and how those realities are organized in local cultural systems. Assesses varieties of suffering as social phenomena in order to appreciate the social sources of global social problems, the cross-cultural variety of illness experiences, the reform of services, and the global moral and political-economic crisis in health care.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Social Analysis 34. Knowledge of Language
Catalog Number: 2069
Maria Polinsky
Half course (spring term). M., W., at 1, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 6
What does our ability to acquire and use a language tell us about our essential human nature? This course examines the view of modern linguistics that knowledge of language is best characterized as an unconsciously internalized set of abstract rules and principles. Evidence is drawn from a variety of signed and spoken languages, language universals, child language acquisition, language change, language disorders, and language games. The course also addresses central issues in psychology, animal communication, computer science, and biology.
Social Analysis 43. Psychological Trauma
Catalog Number: 9983
Richard J. McNally
Half course (spring term). M., W., at 1, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 6
Few topics in contemporary American culture have sparked as much controversy as has psychological trauma. Although clinical interest in trauma waxed and waned since the 1890s when Freud proposed that people repress memories of childhood sexual assault, interest has markedly increased since 1980 when the American Psychiatric Association ratified the diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to describe the problems of troubled combat veterans of the Vietnam War. The purpose of this course is to survey the clinical, historical, cultural, and political aspects of psychological trauma.
Social Analysis 46. Thinking about Politics: A Rational Choice Approach
Catalog Number: 3544
Kenneth A. Shepsle
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13
A commonsensical survey of rational theories of politics, comprised of four segments: (1) individual choice, (2) group choice, (3) collective action, and (4) institutions. The underlying theme is that politics may be described and understood in terms of rational, goal-seeking behavior by citizens, politicians, bureaucrats, and interest groups in various institutional settings. Students are encouraged to think deeply and with sophistication about current events, history, and public life generally, as well as to analyze the politics of private life—in families, clubs, firms, churches, universities, even Harvard Houses—since private politics, like public politics, may be understood in terms of rational behavior.
Note: This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the General Education requirement for Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning.
Social Analysis 50. Urban Revolutions: Archaeology and the Investigation of Early States
Catalog Number: 4409
C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 10, and a 90-minute weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 12
Examines the development and structure of the earliest state-level societies in the ancient world. Archaeological approaches are used to analyze the major factors behind the processes of urbanization and state formation in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Central Asia, the Indus Valley, and Mesoamerica. The environmental background as well as the social, political, and economic characteristics of each civilization are compared to understand the varied forces that were involved in the transitions from village to urbanized life. Discussion sections utilize archaeological materials from the Peabody Museum and Semitic Museum collections to study the archaeological methods used in the class.
Note: No previous knowledge of archaeology is necessary.
[Social Analysis 52. The Political Economy of Development]
Catalog Number: 1879
Robert H. Bates
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
Growth and development imply a transformation in the politics and economics of nations. How does this transformation take place? What economic forces and political struggles propel it? Drawing on anthropology, political science, and economics, the course explores the process of urbanization, state formation, war-making, and development.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Social Analysis 54. American Society and Public Policy
Catalog Number: 6661
Theda Skocpol and Mary C. Waters
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13
How do social problems get redefined over time; why do they appear differently to various groups; and how are public policies about problematic social conditions debated, devised, and changed? Looking over modern US history, this course combines demographic data on societal trends, ethnographic data on people’s everyday lives and outlooks, and evidence about changing institutional structures. This combination of approaches often pursued separately in the social sciences is used to explore recurrent yet shifting controversies about the well-being of families and children, about immigration and citizenship, and about access to health care in the US.
Social Analysis 66. Race, Ethnicity, and Politics in the United States
Catalog Number: 0916
Jennifer L. Hochschild
Half course (fall term). M., W., at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 3
How are racial divisions and American political structures related? Is racial/ethnic hierarchy built into American politics so deeply that the nation must change dramatically to eradicate it? Or is racial/ethnic hierarchy a flaw in an essentially fair society that we can eradicate without major dislocation? Half of the course addresses this set of questions. How do African Americans, Anglos, Latinos, and Asian Americans relate to one another? The second half of the course considers interracial coalitions, racialization and assimilation, multiracialism, and policy issues relevant to various groups. We conclude with several visions of racial and ethnic politics in America’s future, and address how to get there.
Note: This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the General Education requirement for United States in the World.
Social Analysis 70. Food and Culture
Catalog Number: 3940
Theodore C. Bestor
Half course (spring term). M., W., at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 3
Food is examined for its social and cultural implications; nutritional or dietetic concerns are of secondary interest. Topics include food taboos and restrictions, gift giving and reciprocity, food symbolism and social boundaries, food panics, globalization of food industries, food security and agroterrorism, and the world standardization of food preferences. Examples are drawn from China, Japan, Korea, India, Latin America, Africa, Europe, the Pacific, and the US.
Social Analysis 72. Economics: A Critical Approach
Catalog Number: 1885
Stephen A. Marglin
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), 2–3:30, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
This course critically examines the assumptions of modern economics and how these assumptions mold the ideas and conclusions of the discipline. A principal question is the appropriate scope of the market. This question will be examined both theoretically and through examples drawn from both microeconomics and macroeconomics; possible examples include health care, the environment, international trade, social security, and macroeconomic stabilization.
Note: Primarily taught in lectures, with section meetings offering a chance both to clarify concepts and to discuss applications. Calculus is not used, and there is no mathematics prerequisite. Unlike Social Analysis 10, this course does not fulfill the introductory course requirement for the Economics Department. Moreover, most upper level courses in Economics normally require Social Analysis 10 as a prerequisite; without this prerequisite, enrollment is at the discretion of the instructor.
Social Analysis 74. Visible Language: Writing Systems, Scripts, and Literacy
Catalog Number: 3835
John Huehnergard
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13
Cn u rd ths? Why? How is it possible to record speech and thoughts in visible form, and to understand what others have recorded? Writing may be the most important human invention, yet it has been invented only a handful of times. We will investigate how writing represents speech and thought in visual form, origins of writing five millennia ago, types of writing (pictographic, syllabic, alphabetic), decipherment, the cultural impact of literacy. We will consider scripts such as Mesopotamian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Chinese, Mayan glyphs, Japanese, Korean, recently-invented scripts, and alphabets, including our own, that arose from Semitic consonant systems.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2009–10.
[Social Analysis 76. Global Health Challenges]
Catalog Number: 2178
Sue J. Goldie (Public Health, Medical School)
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 3
This course introduces the principal health problems of the world’s populations. It is an inter-disciplinary exploration of the factors that account for health patterns, ranging from their physiological basis to their epidemiological, economic, social and political context. Topics include: infectious and chronic diseases, childhood and reproductive health, aging, health systems, priority setting, and real world policy. Emphasis is placed on methods for measuring population health, the evidence base for the costs and consequences of interventions, and analytic tools for decision making. Students are encouraged to think creatively about the major challenges to improving health at a global level.
Note: Expected to be given in 2009–10.
Social Analysis 80. World Poverty and Human Rights
Catalog Number: 0442
Stephen P. Marks (Public Health) and Ajay Mahal (Public Health)
Half course (spring term). M., W., F., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
This course will familiarize students with the application of the social sciences (political science, law, economics, anthropology, sociology, and philosophy) to issues of human rights as they arise in the context of economic development and the international political economy. Focus on concepts of development; means and methods of human rights promotion and protection; issues of gender, corruption; access to health, food, and housing; lending, trade liberalization, foreign direct investment, technical cooperation, and poverty reduction strategies. Examination of empirical data and the behavior of individuals and institutions, (international organizations, government officials, civil society organizations, financial institutions, etc.) in the development process.