Anthropology

The course is a survey of areas of current interest to biological anthropologists. It continues and builds upon material covered in ANTH 103. The focus is on human and primate biology with attention given to human evolution, osteology, geographic ("racial") variation, physiological adaptability, evolutionary genetics, primate and human behavioral ecology, human development and life history theory, health and disease, and nutrition. Students explore these topics in both lecture and lab, in which hands-on work with fossils and other materials provides experiential learning opportunities for deepening one's understanding of the biological and evolutionary underpinnings of human life, health, and behavior. Course format: twice weekly lecture sessions plus a lab.

Offered: fall semester annually.

Prerequisite: ANTH 103.

A special program of study planned by the student in consultation with a faculty sponsor. Written proposal and permission of a faculty member required for approval.

Signature of instructor required for registration.

May be repeated for credit.

Offered: every semester.

A study of human skeletal biology and bioarcheology. The purpose of the course is to familiarize students with the bones and anatomical landmarks of the human skeleton and how stress, disease, injury, and lifestyle affect them. The course includes some instruction in paleopathology and forensic anthropology, with laboratory exercises providing direct examination of skeletal material.

Offered: fall semester.

Prerequisite: ANTH 103 or permission of instructor.

An investigation of one or more major subject areas in biological anthropology. Topics vary in accordance with student interest and faculty expertise and may include intensive courses in primatology, human adaptability, osteology, anthropological genetics or other aspects of human biology.

May be repeated for credit as topic changes.

Offered: Offering to be determined.

Prerequisite: ANTH 103.

Forensic anthropology is a specialized field concerned with the application of the techniques of physical anthropology and human osteology to matters dealing with the law and the medico-legal professions. This course will provide students grounding in the specialist skills of a forensic anthropologist, including the identification and recovery of human remains, calculating the death interval, building a biological profile and identifying the cause and manner of death. The role of the forensic anthropologist in mass disasters, military service, and investigation of war crimes and other human rights violations will also be discussed. Labs will apply knowledge in practical scenarios such as identifying animal versus human remains, field search and recovery methods, determining age at death, sex, stature, ancestry, and identifying any antemortem conditions that may contribute towards a positive identification. Students will also learn how to identify any trauma or other pathological

Prerequisite: ANTH 312 - Human Osteology

The study of primate behavior, how it can be understood as environmental adaptation, its evolutionary significance, and how it compares to human behavior. Topics include primate ecology, social behavior, sociobiology, and cognition.

Offered: spring semester in even numbered years.

Prerequisite: ANTH 103 or permission of instructor.

A study of the basic principles of evolutionary theory as applied to the study of human social behavior. The course examines competing views on the importance of biology for understanding human behavior and considers the relationship between genes and culture.

Offered: spring semester in even-numbered years.

Prerequisite: ANTH 103 or permission of instructor.

A study of human genetics in evolutionary perspective. Topics include the structure of the human genome, human-ape comparisons, human genetic diversity, interpreting that diversity, what it tells us about human origins and migrations, effects of population admixture, health implications, and forensic DNA analysis.

Offered: spring semester in odd-numbered years.

Prerequisite: ANTH 103 or BIOL 150.

This course provides an introduction to bioarchaeology, a field of study that integrates aspects of biological anthropology and archaeology in an examination of the human component of the archaeological past. Bioarchaeology examines human skeletal remains from archaeological contexts with an aim at reconstructing human life histories, activity and disease with an ideological emphasis on anthropological problem solving and integration of archaeological data. Lectures will cover the fundamentals of bioarchaeology analysis. Topics to be explored include aspects of diet and nutrition, migration, paledemography, behavior and bones, gender and identity, disease burden, and trauma and bioarchaeology of violence among other topics.

Prerequisite: ANTH 103

This course focuses on the development and character of indigenous cultures of Latin America before the arrival of Europeans. Themes of power, economy, religion, ritual, and symbolism that uniquely characterize Latin American native societies are examined primarily through art, architecture and material culture. The course follows a topical and comparative approach drawing on data from archaeology, art history, ethnography and ethnohistory.

Offered: spring semester in even-numbered years.

Prerequisite: ANTH 103 or ANTH 104 or permission of instructor.

An intensive archaeological study of a selected region, focusing on surveys, specific sites, and ethnohistoric and experimental evidence to derive sequences of human occupation, use, and principles of culture change.

May be repeated for credit as topic changes.

Offered: Offering to be determined.

Prerequisite: ANTH 103 or ANTH 104.

A special program of study planned by the student in consultation with a faculty sponsor. Written proposal and permission of a faculty member required for approval.

Signature of instructor required for registration.

May be repeated for credit.

Offered: every semester.

Archaeology relies on a body of theories and methods for reading human prehistory from the incomplete record left by past cultures. This course offers a counterpoint to ANTH 230 - Ancient Societies in examining how questions asked by archaeologists are addressed. Topics include techniques of excavation and artifact analysis and the major theoretical approaches to archaeological inference. The course is divided between lecture and laboratory sessions in which students analyze archaeological data.

Offered: fall semester.

Prerequisite: ANTH 103.

An investigation of one or more major subject areas in archaeology. Topics vary in accordance with student interest and faculty expertise.

May be repeated for credit as topic changes.

Offered: spring semester in odd-numbered years.

Through Archaeology scholars reconstruct, examine, query and confront the record of past human-environment interactions. Placing these interactions in an historical context brings a long-term perspective to bear on contemporary issues. This course examines critically this record of human adaptations through time and across the globe with a particular focus on the ancient Americas. The view of archaeology is that the experiences of these ancient societies offer useful lessons about past choices which should affect the choices made today.

Offered: spring semester in alternate years.

Prerequisite: ANTH 103 or ANTH 104 or permission of the instructor.

This course explores the intersection of the museum and its public with a focus on the rise of the museum in the late eighteenth century and its development up to the present day. Why were museums created, and what purposes do these institutions serve? What values do they project? Such questions are addressed through selected case studies and readings of key theoretical texts in the field. Analysis of current museum and gallery exhibitions, discussion of such issues as the role of government, the interdependence of museums and the art market, and debates over repatriation, restitution and looting or theft will also be addressed.

Same as: ARTH 375

Offered: spring semester in even-numbered years.

This summer field course introduces students to archaeological field methods, including survey, excavation, and artifact recovery and processing. Instruction is through participation in an ongoing research project. Location of the field research site varies annually. Recent offerings include Ecuador and Maine.

Offered: annually in summer.

Prerequisite: ANTH 311.

An interdisciplinary course that draws on data and theory from cultural and biological perspectives in anthropology and from environmental studies to question and examine the relationship of humans and the environment. Through comparisons of human cultural and biological adaptations to physical environments of the past and present, students gain a unique perspective on our impact on, relationship with, and place within the natural world.

Offered: fall semester.

In this course students learn about the relationships between systems of production and distribution and the social and cultural contexts in which they occur. After discussing some important theoretical approaches that have influenced economic anthropologists over the years, we consider various ethnographic case studies that provide a more nuanced understanding of both the material and symbolic aspects of economic processes. Throughout the course, we pay close attention to the ways in which global economic processes are articulated, and made meaningful, at the local level. We also contemplate the relationships between global capitalism and pressing social problems, including hunger, gender inequities, poverty, war, and environmental degradation.

Offered: Spring semester in even numbered years.

Much of what we hear, read and see about Africa in literature, the media and even in academic writing emphasizes the suffering, corruption, disease, war and strife that afflict much of the continent. To be sure, Africa is plagued by many of these issues, often to a far greater extent than other parts of the world. However, the sameness of tone and pessimism in the coverage of these problems often belies the diversity of culture and experience that is the African continent-which includes 53 countries, hundreds of different ethnic groups and a vast array of traditions, practices and beliefs. This course will examine a selection of different African societies and states from across the continent with an emphasis on how perspectives and ideas about traditional culture and practice intersect with the challenges-economic, religious, ethnic and political -faced by African cultures and the modern African nation state. The goal of this course is that students will leave with an appreciation of the cultural richness and regional variation that is sometime hidden by the usual generalizations and sterotypes that are often applied to Africa.

The study of cultures of native North America immediately prior to the Columbian expansion of Europe and directions and dynamics of culture change to the present. Examines current issues, specifically points of contention with the U.S. and Canadian governments and other peoples now inhabiting Native American space.

Offered: Offering to be determined.

Prerequisite: ANTH 104 or permission of instructor.

This course engages in cultural analyses of contemporary social issues. Topics vary in accordance with student interest and faculty, such as public health crises, class inequality, environmentalism, gender politics, and ethnic conflict. May be repeated for credit as topic changes.

Offered: Offering to be determined.

Prerequisite: ANTH 104.

An intensive cultural study of a selected region. Consideration of issues of indigenous development and contact with outsiders leading to consideration of issues of culture change. Topics vary in accordance with student need and faculty expertise.

May be repeated for credit as topic changes.

Offered: Offering to be determined.

Prerequisite: ANTH 104 or permission of instructor.

An introduction to the basic themes within the traditional religions of Africa, including the nature of God, the significance of creation myths, the role of ancestors, the importance of religious leaders, and the problem of evil, sickness, and death. Explores the problematic Christian encounter with African religions, the Semitic connection and African Islam, and the role and function of the Independent African-Christian Churches.

Offered: Offering to be determined.

A special program of study planned by the student in consultation with a faculty sponsor. Written proposal and permission of a faculty member required for approval.

Signature of instructor required for registration.

May be repeated for credit.

Offered: every semester.

The cross-cultural study of health and healing in ecological, evolutionary, and political-economic perspectives. Surveys cultural differences in health, reproduction, nutrition, disease ecology, medical systems, and mortality. Also considers the evolution of human disease and the efficacy of different medical systems.

Offered: fall semester.

Prerequisite: ANTH 104 or permission of instructor.

A study of various aspects of religious beliefs and practices among small-scale societies and folk communities within larger human systems.

Offered: fall semester in odd-numbered years.

Prerequisite: ANTH 104 or permission of instructor.

A study of the construction of gender across cultures. The course considers how culture influences and shapes gender roles in varying human domains, such as religion, creative traditions, work, scholarship and research, and popular culture.

Offered: Offering to be determined.

Prerequisite: ANTH 104 or permission of instructor.

An investigation of one or more major subject areas in cultural anthropology. Topics vary in accordance with student interest and faculty expertise and may include visual anthropology, structural theory, and post-postmodernism.

May be repeated for credit as topic changes.

Offered: Offering to be determined.

A course that serves as a rigorous exploration of the field methods and qualitative research techniques used in sociocultural anthropology. Topics to be covered include ethnographic interviews, participant observation, field notes, the role of surveys, the ethics of research with human subjects and the production of ethnographic knowledge. Course assignments will be cumulative-that is, each successive assignment will build off the previous one, culminating in a comprehensive research paper at the end of the course.

Offered: spring semester.

Prerequisite: ANTH 104 or permission of instructor.

This class is a cross-cultural exploration of the ways that people think about and interact with wild animals. Drawing on a wide range of interdisciplinary sources, we will ponder abstract philosophical questions like “What is an animal?”, “What is natural?” and “What is human?” As an ESS course, however, this class will pay special attention to the ways that different perspectives on wild animals influence larger global concerns, such as biodiversity, invasive species, animal conservation, and animal rights. Upon completion of this class, students should: 1) possess a broad knowledge of the plasticity of thought and practices relating to wild animals that exists within particular societies, between different societies, and across time; 2) understand the important role that wild animals play in helping human beings define and understand themselves; and 3) appreciate the value of cross-cultural research methodologies. Pre-requisites: ANTH 104 is recommended.

Prerequisite:  

An introduction to the role of language and its various forms of transmission in the construction of individual and cultural identity. Topics include language and gender, language and ethnicity, language and social structures.

Offered: annually.

Experiential fieldwork or other research in theoretical, applied linguistics, or language teaching, developed in consultation with a member of the linguistic studies faculty. Open only to linguistic studies minors.

Course may be repeated.

Offered: Offering to be determined.

This course explores how language shapes the ways people communicate and how language forms social identities and influences group membership. It examines the cultural beliefs and ideologies embedded in language and how they inform the organization of society. The course will explore topics such as language and power, linguistic ideologies, language socialization, language and identity, linguistic variation, and linguistic ethnography. This course puts linguist theory into practice through the exploration and application of theory from the fields of sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. Students will learn the theory and method of linguistic research and collect original data for analysis. This course is taught in English.

Offered: Offering to be determined.

Prerequisite: Undergraduate level LING 101  Minimum Grade of D- or Undergraduate level LING 220  Minimum Grade of D- or Undergraduate levelENGL 220  Minimum Grade of D-or Undergraduate levelANTH 104  Minimum Grade of D- orUndergraduate level SPAN 310  Minimum Grade of D-.