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SYLLABUS
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Anthropology 244
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FALL 2002 |
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Plagues, Culture, and History
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Instructor:
Class Time & Place:
Office:
Phone:
Email:
Office Hours: |
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Dr. Charles Cobb
T & Th 11:40 - 1:05, Science Library 212
110B Science I
777-2487
ccobb@binghamton.edu
Tues. 2:30-4:00, Weds, 3-4
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| This course provides an overview of how plagues and
epidemics have shaped social processes in human prehistory and history.
It examines how large-scale social transformations such as sedentism,
animal and plant domestication, and urbanism have produced novel forms
of human/disease interactions, and, how disease has facilitated or
frustrated migration, wars, colonialism, among others in human history.
Throughout the course we will consider how infectious disease has
been conceptualized at different times and by different cultural groups
and treated as a threat to the social order. In the contemporary world
epidemics continue to happen and new highly virulent diseases are
emerging at a rapid rate. The reasons underlying this phenomenon and
its implications for the future health of humans will be explored.
Anthropology 244 counts as a Global Interdependencies course (G)
in the Undergraduate General Education program at Binghamton University,
or as a Social Science course (N).
Course requirements for the class include two exams (mid-term
and final), each worth 100 pts.; and two quizzes, each worth 50
pts. The mid-term and final exams will cover the first and second
halves of the course, respectively, and will not be comprehensive.
The quizzes will occur at about the 1/4 and 3/4 points of the course.
Your mid-term exam will encompass material covered in the first
quiz, and your final will include material covered in the second
quiz. A total of 300 pts. is possible, and your final grade will
be based on the scale below:
| Points |
Grade |
Points |
Grade |
279-300
270-279
261-269
249-260
240-248 |
A
A-
B+
B
B- |
231-239
219-230
210-218
180-209
<180 |
C+
C
C-
D
F |
Required Texts: There are two required texts for the class,
noted below. The required texts will be complemented by outside
readings from the Watts text. Copies of that book will be at the
Reserve Room at the main library. They will be on two-hour reserve.
Garrett, Laurie (1994) The Coming Plague. New York: Penguin
Books.
Wills, Christopher (1996) Yellow Fever, Black Goddess Reading,
MA: Addison Wesley.
Reserve: Watts, Sheldon (1997) Epidemics and History.
Yale University Press.
Warning: There are no take-home assignments in this class,
so plagiarism is not an issue. However, any students caught cheating
during quizzes or exams will be assigned an "F" in the
course and reported to the university's academic honors committee.
Please Note! Attendance is not taken in class, it is your
responsibility to show up and master the material from the lectures.
If you miss a class, you are responsible for getting copies of the
notes. If you have a documented absence, the TA can make an outline
of the notes for that day (or days) available. I will not
provide copies of my lecture notes. You may not miss a quiz or
exam without a documented excuse; without one you will receive a
"0" for that assignment. If you are ill, you must
contact the TA or myself before the exam, not after, or you
will not be allowed to do a makeup test. This also applies to the
Final Exam. Makeup quizzes and exams will be multiple essay tests,
rather than the original exam.
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Reading |
| I. |
What is Infectious Disease? |
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Sept 3 |
Introduction, Basics of infectious disease |
Wills, Ch. 1 |
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Sep 5 |
Essentials of infectious disease, cont'd |
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| II. |
Infectious Disease in Prehistory |
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Sept 10 |
Disease in Homo |
Wills, Ch. 2, 3 |
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Sep 12 |
Agriculture, Urbanism, and Crowd Diseases |
Garrett, Ch. 9 |
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| III. |
Disease in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds |
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Sept 17 |
Disease in the ancient world |
Wills, Ch. 4 |
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Sept 19 |
Bubonic Plague |
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FILM: Epidemics (first 1/2) |
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| IV. |
Disease in the Medieval World |
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Sept 24 |
Plague and Leprosy |
Watts, Ch. 2 |
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Sept 26 |
QUIZ |
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| V. |
Treating Disease |
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Oct 1 |
Medieval Medicine and Society |
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Oct 3 |
FILM: Invisible Armies |
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| VI. |
Plagues and Colonialism |
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Oct 8 |
Epidemics and European Expansionism |
Watts, Ch. 3 |
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Oct 10 |
Plagues Hindering Colonialism |
Watts, Ch. 6 |
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| VII. |
Aesthetics of Disease |
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Oct 15 |
Plagues in Art |
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Oct 17 |
Plagues in Literature and Language |
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| VIII. |
Cholera: Contagion, Morality and Social Control
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Oct 22 |
MID-TERM EXAM |
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Oct 24 |
Miasma, Contagion, and Medical Detectives |
Wills, Ch. 6 |
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| IX. |
Epilogues to Disaster: Plagues and Wars
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Oct 29 |
FILM: Epidemics (second 1/2) |
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Oct 31 |
Class and Cholera |
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| X. |
Epilogues to Disaster: Plagues and Wars
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Nov. 5 |
Influenza Pandemic 1918-1919 |
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Nov. 7 |
Biological Warfare: the threat of Deadly Epidemics |
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/ |
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| XI. |
Post-Colonialism: Disease and Development
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Nov. 5 |
Nov 12 Development, Mosquitoes, and Fevers |
Wills, Ch. 8 |
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Nov 14 |
Famine and Typhus; Water and Typhoid Fever
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Wills, Ch. 7 |
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| XII. |
STD's and the New Morality
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Nov 19 |
HIV/AIDS & Syphilis |
Wills, Chs. 9 & 10 |
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Nov 21 |
FILM: Antibiotics
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| XIII. |
Quiz & Thanksgiving Week
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Nov 26 |
QUIZ #2 |
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Nov 28 |
Thanksgiving Break
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| XIV. |
Emergent Diseases and the Resurgence of "Old"
Diseases
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Dec 3 |
Ebola and Hemorrhagic Fevers |
Garrett, Ch. 7 |
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Dec 5
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Tuberculosis |
Garrett, Ch. 13 |
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| XV. |
The Future Of Infectious Disease
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Dec. 10 |
Prion Diseases |
Garrett, Ch. 7 |
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Dec. 12
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Evolutionary Consequences of Disease |
Wills, Chs. 11-12 |
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