ANTHR 4495 - Rice and Language: Geography, Movement, and Exchange

(crosslisted)
(also ARKEO 4495, IARD 4495, LING 4495) @# (HA-AS)

Fall. 4 credits.

Prerequisite: some foundation in at least one of the disciplines involved, such as an introductory course or equivalent in either introductory genetics, linguistics, anthropology, archeology, or agricultural economics. Co-meets with ANTHR 7495/ARKEO 7495/LING 7495.

M. Fiskesjö.

In recent years numerous breakthroughs have been made in the study of early human history and the formidable role of agriculture in that story. New insights in several disciplines have cast new light on areas previously believed to lie outside of the reach of science. Taking early crop domestication and agricultural expansions and parallel socio-cultural and linguistic developments such as migration and language diversification among early peoples of Asia as a special focus, we will consider evidence from the study of geography, water, rice domestication, plant genetics, human genetics, language, and identity and social change. We will pay special attention to the conversation between disciplines, to how data and insights can be compared from different disciplines, and how the significance of new insights can be enhanced in the light of the theories and methods in different academic disciplines. The focus is Asian rice, but geographically the course has numerous, worldwide comparative dimensions.