David Stoll
Office
Munroe Hall 104
Tel
(802) 443-2441
Email
dstoll@middlebury.edu
Office Hours
Spring Term: Mondays and Wednesdays 11-12pm, Tuesdays 12:40-1:40pm

I come from the Midwest, majored in anthropology at the University of Michigan, and did my Ph.D at Stanford University.  My first research was studying up rather than down in the power structure. A group called the Summer Institute of Linguistics was working in hundreds of indigenous languages in Latin America.  It had its own flight and radio service, as well as long-term contracts with governments, and for some governments it functioned as a U.S.-staffed bureau of indigenous affairs.  Who were these people?  Was SIL merely a façade for its fundraising and recruiting arm, the Wycliffe Bible Translators?  Or was it up to something more? 

As I was wrapping up my history of SIL in Latin America, the U.S. religious right joined the Reagan administration’s war against the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua.  I was appalled but learned that televangelist Pat Robertson’s pitches for the Contras were not very consequential. The really interesting question was why so many Latin Americans were joining evangelical churches. Is Latin America Turning Protestant? (1990) explained why evangelicals have appealed to many more Latin Americans than liberation theology has.

In 1987-1991 I did my dissertation research in Nebaj, a Mayan town that, not long before, had given considerable support to the guerrilla movement fighting Guatemala’s military dictatorship. Following the worst of the counterinsurgency, I was able to interview hundreds of survivors.  Based on what they told me, I decided to challenge the guerrillaphile interpretation of the war adopted by the human rights movement.  This led to two books about the conflict, its antecedents and sequel in Quiché Department: Between Two Armies in the Ixil Towns of Guatemala (1993) and Rigoberta Menchú and The Story of All Poor Guatemalans (1999).

In 2007 I was shocked to learn that Nebajenses were running up astounding debts to each other, to loan sharks, and to banks of one kind or another.  The most obvious culprit was undocumented migration to the U.S.  My research on this subject is now available in El Norte or Bust! How Migration Fever and Microcredit Produced a Financial Crash in a Latin American Town (2013).

In debates over U.S. immigration policy, we focus most of our attention on the political theater of anti-immigration forces agitating for crackdowns and pro-immigration forces agitating for amnesties. Overlooked are the millions of Latin Americans, Africans, Chinese, etc. who continue to pin their hopes on a U.S. job. What are the implications of the 2008 U.S. financial crisis, and of the high unemployment rates since then, for foreigners who see U.S. jobs as their lifeline?  Judging from my research with the Nebajenses, I believe that the U.S. labor market has the same impact on low-wage immigrants that it has on so many American workers—it pulls them deeper into debt.

Courses Taught

Course Description

Diversity and Human Nature: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
This course introduces students to the varieties of human experience in social life and to the differing approaches and levels of analysis used by anthropologists to explain it. Topics include: culture and race, rituals and symbolism, kinship and gender roles, social evolution, political economy, and sociolinguistics. Ethnographic examples are drawn chiefly from non-Western societies, from simple bands to great agrarian states. The ultimate aim is to enable students to think critically about the bases of their own culture and about practices and beliefs previously unanalyzed and unexamined. (formerly SOAN 0103) 2 hrs. lect./1 hr. disc.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024

Requirements

CMP, SOC

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Course Description

Human Ecology
Environmental issues are also cultural and political conflicts, between competing social groups, economic interests and cultural paradigms. This course introduces students to human ecology, the study of how our adaptations to the environment are mediated by cultural differences and political economy. Topics include: how ecological anthropology has evolved as a subdiscipline, with a focus on systems theory and political ecology; how ritually regulated societies manage resources; how rural communities deal with environmental deterioration; and how contradictions between environmental protection, economic development, and cultural values complicate so many ecological issues. (Any 100-level ANTH, or any 100-level ENVS,or ENVS AP credit or instructor permission) 3 hrs. lect.

Terms Taught

Spring 2022

Requirements

CMP, SOC

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Course Description

Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
This course introduces students to the indigenous peoples of North and South America, from before European conquest to the present. Following a brief look at the mound-builders of North America, we will explore the connection between social stratification, religious ideology, and imperial expansion in the political economy of the Aztecs and the Incas. Ethnographies of Quechua peasants in the Peruvian Andes, Yanomami Indians in the Amazon, and Oglala Sioux in the Dakotas will show how contemporary Native Americans are dealing with the never-ending process of colonialism. How Europeans have imagined indigenous peoples has had a profound impact on how the latter defend themselves. The resulting images of authenticity and resistance have always been double-edged. The course will conclude with the debate over the reservation paradigm in the U.S. 3 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Fall 2022

Requirements

AMR, CMP, SOC

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Course Description

The Anthropology of Warfare and Polarization
In this course we will use the anthropology of human evolution, religion and politics to identify the cognitive patterns that justify feuding, warfare, witchcraft, conspiracy theory, and ideological polarization. Beginning with animal behavior and hunting and gathering societies, we will study natural selection for accountability, moralism, and factionalism; how social groups define themselves through mimesis, othering and scapegoating; how scapegoating justifies aggression; how sacrifice and other forms of ritualizing victimhood generate sanctity, sacrilege, and outrage; and how religious and political loyalty tests enforce social boundaries (not open to students who have taken SOAN 0341 or SOAN 0344) 3 hrs. lect./disc.

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2024

Requirements

SOC

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Course Description

Anthropology of Global Corporations
Multinational corporations have become pervasive in the 21st Century global economy. No other social organization matches their ability to increase productivity and multiply wealth. Nor does any other social vehicle match their power to destabilize preexisting relationships. In this course we will learn about the anthropology of exchange and capitalism through ethnographies of corporations, corporate social responsibility, factory production, and financial speculation in the U.S., China, South Africa, and Papua New Guinea. We will also evaluate social-justice critiques of corporate structures: are they meritocracies or exclusionary kin-based networks? Do they build community or merely offload costs? For the final project, students will have the option of doing ethnographic research on a for-profit or not-for-profit enterprise. 3 hours, lct/disc,

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Spring 2023

Requirements

CMP, SOC

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Course Description

Prior to registering for ANTH 0500, a student must enlist the support of a faculty advisor from the Department of Anthropology. (Open to Majors only) (Approval Required)

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

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Course Description

One-Semester Senior Project
Under the guidance of a faculty member, a student will carry out an independent, one-semester research project, often based on original data. The student must also participate in a senior seminar that begins the first week of fall semester and meets as necessary during the rest of the year. The final product must be presented in a written report of 25-40 pages, due the last day of classes.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Multi-Semester Senior Project
Under the guidance of a faculty member, a senior will carry out an independent multi-semester research project, often based on original data. The student must also participate in a senior seminar that begins the first week of fall semester and meets as necessary during the rest of the year. The final product must be presented in a written report of 60-100 pages, due either at the end of the Winter Term or the Friday after spring break.

Terms Taught

Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Refugees or Labor Migrants: The Anthropology of South-North Migration
Millions of people from low-income countries are moving to high-income countries without work visas. If they seek to escape poverty and government corruption, do they deserve to be classified as refugees with a human right to cross international borders? Heightened border enforcement has led to thousands of deaths in the American Southwest and the Mediterranean, and now anxious voters are electing politicians who promise even harsher crackdowns. Based on research with international migration streams, this course will explore debates over asylum rights, border enforcement, the deportation industry, the migration industry, low-wage labor markets and remittance economies, with a focus on Latin American and Chinese migration to the U.S., as well as African and Mideastern migration to Western Europe (Not open to students who have taken SOAN 1021 or SOAN 329)

Terms Taught

Winter 2021, Winter 2023, Winter 2024

Requirements

AAL, AMR, CMP, SOC, WTR

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Course Description

Independent Study
In this course, students (non-seniors) carry out an independent research or creative project on a topic pertinent to the relationship between humans and the environment. The project, carried out under the supervision of a faculty member with related expertise who is appointed in or affiliated with the Environmental Studies Program, must involve a significant amount of independent research and analysis. The expectations and any associated final products will be defined in consultation with the faculty advisor. Students may enroll in ENVS 0500 no more than twice for a given project. (Approval only)

Terms Taught

Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, Winter 2022, Spring 2022, Winter 2023, Spring 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2025

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Course Description

Senior Independent Study
In this course, seniors complete an independent research or creative project on a topic pertinent to the relationship between humans and the environment. During the term prior to enrolling in ENVS 0700, a student must discuss and agree upon a project topic with a faculty advisor who is appointed in or affiliated with the Environmental Studies Program and submit a brief project proposal to the Director of Environmental Studies for Approval. The expectations and any associated final products will be defined in consultation with the faculty advisor. Students may enroll in ENVS 0700 as a one-term independent study OR up to twice as part of a multi-term project, including as a lead-up to ENVS 0701 (ES Senior Thesis) or ENVS 0703 (ES Senior Integrated Thesis). (Senior standing; Approval only)

Terms Taught

Winter 2021, Winter 2022, Winter 2023, Winter 2024, Winter 2025

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Course Description

Pyramid Schemes, Bubbles, and Crashes
In this seminar we will study the anthropology of exchange, then use it to analyze ethnographies of financial speculators, labor migrants, microcredit borrowers, and other agents and victims of global capitalism. We will focus on conflicting obligations to kin and to creditors, on how people in different cultures and social classes juggle these obligations, and how the growth of financial debt can turn social relationships into commodities. Studying debt and how it is leveraged in different societies and historical eras will show why capitalism is so vulnerable to speculative booms, swindles, and collapses. 3 hrs. sem. )

Terms Taught

Fall 2020, Fall 2021

Requirements

CMP, CW, SOC

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Course Description

Terms Taught

Winter 2021

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