Anthropology 565
Theory in Sociocultural Anthropology
Fall Quarter Module
Evolution, Rhetoric, Ethics, and the Yanomami

Phone: 543-5344
email: stevehar@u.washington.edu
Office: 106A Burke Museum

This course begins with some of the most widely publicized anthropology ever written or filmed: Napoleon A. Chagnon's work with the Yanomami of Venezuela and Brazil. Using the Yanomami material as a starting point, we first examine a broad range of issues in evolutionary anthropology. We then take on the issue of anthropological rhetoric, and we conclude with discussions of the ethics of ethnographic fieldwork.

Throughout the class, the emphasis is on oral and written expression. The day page in the class schedule for each day consists of three sections:

• "Readings" for that day, some of which are in books to be purchased at the bookstore, some on electronic reserve, and some at various web sites

• An "assignment" for that day, which on most days consists of a series of topics on which you are to mail your comments to the class by 2:00 a.m on the morning of (or the night before, depending on how you look at it) that day's class. Before coming to class, you should read everyone's comments and be prepared to discuss them as set out in the "in class" section on that day's page

  Some days, there is a non-electronic paper due on a topic given in the "assignment" section with the ominous alert notice "Formal Paper Assignment." On those days, you will not be required to post to the class email list.

• An "In Class" section that lays out what we plan to do for the first and second hour of each class. The term "hour" is to be interpreted flexibly.