In Land of the Pharaohs, we will use a combination of reading, writing, lecture, and discussion to address some of the most common questions people have about ancient Egypt and about how we are able to reconstruct parts of its history and culture, including (but not limited to): What motivated the ancient Egyptians to invest so much effort and wealth into their tombs and temples? What was life like for most ancient Egyptians? What was expected of members of society? How did this differ if one was a man or a women? How do Egyptian hieroglyphs work? Are they “picture writing”? What do we really know about ancient Egypt and how do we know it? The primary sources that we will use to answer these and other questions include: literature, letters, and administrative records; mythological stories about ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses and about creation; material culture/archaeological remains, such as artifacts found in graves; and art and architecture.

In Ancient Egyptian Religion and Magic, we will use a combination of reading, writing, lecture, and discussion to address some of the most common questions people have about ancient Egypt and about its religion, including (but not limited to): Why and how were the Great Pyramids of Giza built? What motivated the ancient Egyptians to invest so much effort and wealth into their tombs and temples? What practices in ancient Egypt should we consider part of religion? Which should we call magic? Should we even differentiate between the two? Can religion be separated from other aspects of life in ancient Egypt? Were the ancient Egyptians “religious to excess” as the historian Herodotus said? The sources that we will use to answer these and other questions include: literature, prayers, employment records, and letters; mythological stories about ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses and about creation; archaeological materials, and art and architecture.

In Pyramids, Tombs, and Mummies (Death and Burial in Ancient Egypt), we will use a combination of reading, writing, lecture, and discussion to address some of the most common questions people have about ancient Egypt and about how and why people were buried the way that they were, including (but not limited to): What motivated the ancient Egyptians to invest so much effort and wealth into their tombs? During some periods, kings were buried in pyramids, but what about everyone else? How did afterlife and other religious beliefs influence the way that people wished to be cared for after death? Why did the ancient Egyptians sometimes go to great lengths to preserve bodies through mummification? The primary sources that we will use to answer these and other questions include: literature, letters, and administrative records; material culture/archaeological remains, such as artifacts found in graves; art and architecture; and Tulane’s own Egyptian Collection.

Special topics in anthropology.

Special Topics in Anthropology.

Special Topics in Anthropology.

Special Topics in Anthropology.

Special Topics in Anthropology.

This course provides an introduction to the ways in which basic principles of ethnography, ethnohistory, and material culture studies can be used to understand the cultural landscape. Normally offered during the Summer Session, the course will usually be conducted abroad. The emphasis will be on collaborative research skills, understanding of other cultures, and appreciation of the interrelationship of anthropology and geography.

This course is an exploration of pirates from the perspective of the social sciences, with an emphasis on the study of traditions, values, and social statuses and relationships that were characteristic of a variety of pirate societies in historic times. Our objectives in this course will be to discover how historic pirate societies were formed in different areas of the world, how they were organized; and how and why their values and traditions differed from those of the larger societies from which they came.

This course engages a cross-cultural study of healing rituals, emphasizing how social relations and power shape the experiences, roles, practices, and interactions of patients and healers. How is healing—and its related concepts of suffering and illness— defined, managed, and understood in different social and cultural contexts? What is the relationship between healer and patient/client and the public? How are rituals, as social performances, transformative ? How do rituals designed to help manage suffering, enforce, reproduce or challenge cultural ideas about power, gender, and social order? Students will critically examine these questions through reading ethnographies, critical theory and historical essays in order to gain a deeper understanding of healing modalities throughout the world and over time. Readings for this course will examine a wide array of healing rituals and modalities including shamanism, curanderismo, Vodou/Voodoo, western biomedicine and others. Specific aspects of healing rituals will also be analyzed, including symbolism, the role of music and soundscapes, altered states of consciousness, as well as the socio-economic and political dimensions of healing. Because this course zeroes in on anthropological inquiry around the social performance of healing, it is an excellent complement to courses in health and medicine which focus on health systems. Lastly, students will reflect on what healing means in their own local communities, by composing their own research project on a healing ritual including an (optional) auto-ethnographic component.

This course is an exploration of the historic factors which created the cultural diversity and themes that characterize the Caribbean islands today. We will examine the cultural backgrounds of the major national and ethnic groups that came to the islands of the West Indies from pre-Columbian times through the twentieth century. This is not a traditional history course, but rather an examination of the factors that gave rise to certain cultural patterns that are distinctively Caribbean. Topics will include pre-Columbian adaptations to life on small islands; ethnicity among Native Americans in the early historic period; the demise of Native American peoples; the cultural backgrounds of enslaved Africans; Caribbean Creole languages; differences in slavery among the various European colonial powers; the emergence of Voodoo; the daily lives of buccaneers and runaways; & the role of plantations in shaping Afro-Caribbean cultural identities; immigration after the end of slavery.

This course is an exploration of the historic factors that created the cultural diversity and themes which characterize New Orleans today. The course examines the cultural backgrounds of the major national and ethnic groups that came to Louisiana in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The course also examines the ongoing attempts to secure the city from risks inherent in its natural environment.

We usually think of maps as objective depictions of the elements (streets, towns, rivers, etc.) that make up the natural and cultural terrain. However, the stories told by maps, like those told by history, are inherently selective. In addition -- again like history -- the features that are depicted on maps sometimes have no basis in reality. This is especially true of maps that attempt to describe places and people that were recently discovered, or that have not been extensively explored. When their subjects are unknown or poorly understood lands and people, maps can become playgrounds for the interaction of geographic fact, speculation, and myth. This course is an exploration of maps produced by European cartographers during the Age of Exploration, from roughly 1450-1700 A.D. (and brief consideration of the 18th and early 19th centuries), with particular attention to what maps of these periods can tell us about the evolving European understanding of the lands and cultures that lay beyond their own continent.

Special Topics in Anthropology.

Special Topics in Anthropology.

Special Topics in Anthropology.

Special Topics in Anthropology.

Special Topics in Anthropology.