ANTH 145A: Anthropology of the BodyInstructor: Kalie Jamieson Prerequisites: None Course Description: To be human is to have a body. Over the past several decades, the body has emerged as a key site for social scientists to understand the workings and experiences of society, culture, gender, and power. In this course, we will explore foundational theoretical concepts related to the body in anthropology– including the work of Marcel Mauss, Pierre Bourdieu, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Foucault, Margaret Lock, and many others– and look at different cross-cultural notions of the body, analyzing how the body is imagined, expressed, experienced, and controlled in societies as diverse at the United States, Native North America, Ecuador, Brazil, Europe, India, China, and Thailand. While we will discuss the body in a variety of contexts, dance and sports– as primarily embodied practices– will be of particular focus. </br></br>This course will encourage students to grapple with what it means to study and record bodies in interaction (with other bodies, spaces, institutions, etc.), as well as what it means to use one’s own body as a research tool. Students will examine how anthropologists contend with the embodied aspects of life through ethnographic assignments centered around bodily practices, identities and abilities, and bodies in particular spaces and contexts. Readings and projects will include both textual and nontextual/multimodal elements, opening the door for creative exploration of these topics and encouraging students to engage through their own bodies, movements, techniques, etc. This will allow students to explore all the tools ethnographers have at their disposal when documenting and analyzing the corporeal and embodied. For example, readings will be in the form of articles and chapters, as well as podcast episodes and short videos; assignments can be completed in the form of a paper, or as a multimodal project like visual art, film, performance, etc. based on a conversation between the student and instructor. </br></br> Some questions the course will address include: How is the body fashioned and experienced over the life course? How are bodies known, regulated, and controlled by states, societies, and institutions, and how do persons and bodies resist such mechanisms of power? How are gendered, racial, and sexual identities– in a variety of socio-cultural contexts– controlled and expressed in terms of bodies? How does the body figure in ideologies about the “normal” in such spaces as health, beauty, and dis/ability? </br></br> Learning Goals:</br> - Learn about the various ways the human body both shapes and is shaped by sociocultural, historical, political processes across societies and history</br> - Learn how ideas and experiences of the body intersect with gender, sexuality, race, class, caste, nationality, religion, ability, age, and other forms of identity and power</br> - Identify and critically evaluate key questions and theoretical approaches in the anthropological study of the body</br> - Develop and enhance analytical thinking, reading, and writing skills, as well as multimodal skills such as photography, film, art, performance, etc., and class discussion skills </br> </br> Course Requirements: </br> Class Participation = 15%</br> Weekly SHORT Blog Post = 15%</br> Four Mini Essays (or multimodal equivalent) @ 10% each = 40%</br> Final Project = 30%</br> Session: Session II Day: M, T, W, Th Time: 9:00am - 11:00am Credit Hours: 4 Credits Course Format: Remote Learning Course for Summer 2026 Brandeis Graduation Requirement Fulfilled: DL, SS Enrollment Limit: Course Classification: Undergraduate Level Course Course Tuition: $3,825 Course Fees: None Open to High School Students: Yes |
