ANT 393 DISCARD(-ERS)(-ING)(-ABLES)

An exploration of the structures, ideologies, and practices shaping the motivations, acts, and outcomes of discard -- the act and the things -- in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  Emphasis on investigating and theorizing discard behavior, with special attention to the ways that the combined analytic and methodological lenses of archaeology and ethnography can be applied to the illicit, invisible, fringe, and otherwise seldom-studied elements of the waste stream.  Readings, discussions, field trips, and hands-on assignments are pertinent to the social and environmental sciences.