Topics in Anthropology (490-0-26)
Topic
Artifact & Text
Instructors
Mark William Hauser
847/467-1648
1812 Hinman Ave., Room #205, EV Campus
Mark W. Hauser is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology. He was trained as an Anthropological Archaeologist and specializes in the material culture of the African Diaspora and social inequality in the Caribbean. His work pays special attention to understanding the everyday life and material world of enslaved laborers. He has worked in the Caribbean since 1992 and has participated on or run research projects in numerous islands. Hauser has published numerous scholarly articles and chapters on the archaeology of informal and unexpected economies; methodological considerations for understanding colonial landscapes and identity formation; and the centering of craft industries in Caribbean political economy.
Meeting Info
ANTHRO Sem Rm 104 - 1810 Hinmn: Wed 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
This class examines how ‘things', including commodities, precious objects and ordinary goods connected worlds and shaped the everyday life of people. The course is structured between theoretical framings of global goods that consider scale, context, and materiality and the practical considerations of tracing objects through human networks of exchange, commerce, colonialism and consumption. As such methods addressed in this class include object histories, compositional analysis, and commodity chain analysis. By focusing on material exchanges through the archaeological record, this class provides a venue to explore three interrelated questions: what systems of the world objects carry within them, how do these objects shape human circuits of commerce and trade; how objects mediate between global economic forces and the fluid identities of individuals as they are drawn into global circuits.
Registration Requirements
Graduate Students Only
Class Materials (Required)
"Beckert, S. (2015). Empire of cotton: A global history. Vintage.
Hauser, M. (2021). Mapping water in Dominica: Enslavement and environment under colonialism (p. 280). University of Washington Press.
Mintz, S. W. (1986). Sweetness and power: The place of sugar in modern history. Penguin.
Patel, R., & Moore, J. W. (2017). A history of the world in seven cheap things: A guide to capitalism, nature, and the future of the planet. Univ of California Press.
Tsing, A. L. (2015). The mushroom at the end of the world: On the possibility of life in"
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Reserved for Graduate Students.