37th ANNUAL VISITING LECTURE SERIES
“Identity, Ancestry & Heritage: Multidisciplinary Perspectives”
Current Trends in Anthropology
Anthropology 357/450
Tues • Thurs 3:40 pm – 4:55 pm
Contemporary Issues in Anthropology
Anthropology 550
Mon • Wed 10:10 am – 12:05 pm
Coordinator: Dr. Graciela S. Cabana
This series explores how “identity” is constructed through understandings of heritage and ancestry. “Identity,” as it is commonly used today, has a dual, linked sense, as both social and personal identity. As a social category, identity is defined by membership rules and (alleged) characteristic attributes or expected behaviors. Personal identity is some distinguishing characteristic (or characteristics) that a person takes a special pride in or views as socially consequential but more-or-less unchangeable.
A key part of identity is heritage and ancestry. Though we typically think of these two concepts as given, or fixed, parts of who we are, we are actually constantly engaged in “heritage-making.” That is, we adopt and mobilize conceptualizations of heritage, including ethnicity, gender status, class, and even “race,” in personal and social identity formation. Beyond individual identity, heritage is also about regional or national identities (or religious identities) and the construction/maintenance/remembering of narratives revolving around individuals or events that are seen as foundational or embodying group values.
The broad purpose of this speaker series is to showcase anthropological approaches to identity, heritage, and ancestry. How have anthropologists incorporated identity studies into their work, and how have they explored the relationships between identity, heritage, and ancestry? While cultural anthropologists (and sociologists) have been addressing identity issues for decades, archaeologists (including bioarchaeologists) have only relatively recently done so. In contrast, biological anthropologists only occasionally touch on the topic directly.
Interestingly, it may be from biological anthropology – particularly in the field of genetics – that some of the most controversial work relating to identity has sprung, to the point that some have accused Anthropological Geneticists of bringing “race” back to the table. Therefore, a main question explored in this series is: how have any of these conceptualizations (of identity/heritage/ancestry) derived from scientific domains, and to what extent would this matter?
In sum, the speaker series aims to:
- Explore the importance of heritage and ancestry in identity formation.
- Understand how science, in all its manifestations and applications, shape both the present and past social world in terms of identity and identity formation.
Anthropology is an ideal discipline through which to explore this question, since anthropological practitioners have been engaged in all facets of identity politics as producers, consumers, observers, and critics. Because this topic crosscuts other scholarly disciplines, however, the series will also welcome and include speakers outside of Anthropology.
1 Fearon (1999): “What is Identity (As We Now Use the Word)?” http://www.stanford.edu/~jfearon
Schedule
| Week 1 | ||||
| Aug 18 (W) |
LIB 253 |
ANTH 550: Intro & organizational meeting |
ANTH 550 |
|
| Aug 19 (Th) |
MM 63 |
ANTH 357/450: Intro & organizational meeting |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Week 2 | ||||
| Aug 24 (Tu) |
MM 63 |
DNA Identification, Human Rights, & Transitional Justice |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Aug 25 (W) |
LIB 253 |
Subversive Identities: |
ANTH 550 |
|
| Aug 26 (Th) |
MM 63 |
To Cry or Not to Cry: Heritage, Genetic Identity, & the Ambivalence of Belonging in Argentina |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Week 3 | ||||
| Aug 30 (M) |
LIB Auditorium |
The Sociocultural & Biological Correlates of Ethnic Substructure among New Mexican Hispanics |
ANTH 550 |
|
| Aug 31 (Tu) |
MM 63 |
Using a Biohistorical Approach to Trace Population Change in the US |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Sept 2 (Th) |
MM 63 |
Identifying Victims from Mass Fatality Events: the World Trade Center Experience |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Week 4 | ||||
| Sept 7 (Tu) |
MM 63 |
Our Genomes, Ourselves: Towards an Anthropology of the New Genetics |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Sept 8 (W) |
LIB 253 |
Genetics & Its Publics |
ANTH 550 |
|
| Sept 9 (Th) |
MM 63 |
Interethnic Marriage & American Indian Identity |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Week 5 | ||||
| Sept 14 (Tu) |
MM 63 |
Being Native American or Mexican American & Being “At Risk” For Type 2 Diabetes: Genetics, Environmental Changes, & Racial Oppression |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Sept 16 (Th) |
LIB Auditorium |
One from Many? Mississippian Identity in the Late Prehistoric Southeast |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Week 6 | ||||
| Sept 21 (Tu) |
MM 63 |
Passing for Black in 17th Century Maryland |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Sept 22 (W) |
LIB 253 |
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss: Archaeology, Narrative, & the Construction of Historical Identity in 21st Century Maryland |
ANTH 550 |
|
| Sept 23 (Th) |
MM 63 |
Material Culture, Identity, & Enslavement in Virginia |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Week 7 | ||||
| Sept 27 (M) |
LIB Auditorium |
The Genetics of Biological Aging in Mennonite Populations of Kansas |
ANTH 550 |
|
| Sept 28 (Tu) |
MM 63 |
Russian Contact & its Sequelæ in the Aleutian Archipelago |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Sept 30 (Th) |
MM 63 |
Enslaved African Diet in the Antebellum New World |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Week 8 | ||||
| Oct 5 (Tu) |
MM 63 |
Social Memory & the Archaeological Record: How Societies Create a Collective Memory of the Past |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Oct 7 (Th) |
FALL BREAK |
|||
| Week 9 | ||||
| Oct 11 (M) |
LIB Auditorium |
DNA Testing for Ancestry: Science & Cynicism |
ANTH 550 |
|
| Oct 12 (Tu) |
MM 63 |
Genetic Ancestry, Race & Disease |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Oct 14 (Th) |
MM 63 |
Which Doctors are Witchdoctors? The Impact of Medical Pluralism in Southwest Uganda |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Week 10 | ||||
| Oct 19 (Tu) |
MM 63 |
Variegated Privileges of Whiteness: |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Oct 21 (Th) |
MM 63 |
Gendered Identity Construction in the Context of Research |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Week 11 | ||||
| Oct 26 (T) |
MM 63 |
Pharmaceutical Politics in Latin America |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Oct 27 (W) |
LIB 253 |
Expérimentalité: Pharmaceutical Insights into Anthropology’s Epistemologically Fractured Self |
ANTH 550 |
|
| Oct 28 (Th) |
MM 63 |
Ethnic Identity, Displacement & Human Rights: |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Week 12 | ||||
| Nov 2 (Tu) |
MM 63 |
Archaeology as Social Memory: Heritage Issues in Indigenous Archaeology |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Nov 3 (W) |
LIB 253 |
Archaeologies of Identity & Practice: |
ANTH 550 |
|
| Nov 4 (Th) |
MM 63 |
Flights: Black American Travelers and the Search for Africa |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Week 13 | ||||
| Nov 9 (Tu) |
MM 63 |
Bullets & Bones: Men with Custer |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Nov 10 (W) |
LIB 253 |
“The Cult of the Fallen”: Identity & Meaning of War Dead |
ANTH 550 |
|
| Nov 11 (Th) |
MM 63 |
Righting Unrightable Wrongs: Legacies of Violence and Truth and Reconciliation in Greensboro, North Carolina |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Week 14 | ||||
| Nov 15 (M) |
LIB Auditorium |
Sidestepping Race with Genetic Ancestry: Genes as Solution or Problem? |
ANTH 550 |
|
| Nov 16 (Tu) |
MM 63 |
Using Genetic Ancestry in Epidemiological Research: Key Assumptions |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Nov 18 (Th) |
MM 63 |
Excursions in Identity: Travel, Gender, and Status on the Roads of Edo Japan (1600-1868) |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Week 15 | ||||
| Nov 23 (Tu) |
MM 63 |
Pact with the Devil: Bwa Kayiman, Haitian Protestant Views of Vodou, and the Future of Post-Earthquake Haiti |
ANTH 357/450 |
|
| Week 16 | ||||
| Nov 29 (M) |
LIB 253 |
ANTH 550: Discussion & Wrap-up |
ANTH 550 |
|
| Nov 30 (Tu) |
MM 63 |
ANTH 357/450: Discussion & Wrap-Up |
ANTH 357/450 |