Anthropology

Fall, Spring. Credit, three hours. Survey of the study of the human species: bicultural evolution, prehistory, language, and comparative social and cultural systems.

Spring. Credit, three hours. First-year students will be added after sophomores register. This course presents an introduction to evolutionary processes and biological bases of behavior. Examples drawn especially from humans and nonhuman primates will be used to place human behavior in the context of other species and to illustrate the dual inheritance of biology and culture in our species.

Fall. Credit, four hours. Evolution of the human species, fossil populations, human variation, and primate behavior. Weekly lab.

Fall, Spring. Credit, three hours. Basic concepts and theories of cultural anthropology. Comparative economic and political systems, social organization and the family, belief systems, and modes of communication. Diverse levels of sociocultural complexity from tribal to industrial societies.

Spring. Credit, three hours. Through comprehensive methods of survey and mapping, excavation, and analysis, archaeology studies constructed human environments, including those in which we live, and the ruined traces of those from the past.

Fall. Credit, three hours. An introduction to the overall field of global health and its history, methods, and key principles, with case studies illustrating the burden of disease in nations with strikingly different political-economic context. (Cross-listed with Health 250)

Fall. Credit, three hours. The cross-cultural study of gender and sexuality. We pay special attention to the way genders are performed and the important role of language in the construction of genders. While all cultures identify and mark differences in gender, there is an incredible diversity in the ways that they do so. In this course, we will explore the ways the people from different times and different communities imagine, practice, experience, challenge, and impose ideas of gender and sexuality.

Spring (alternate years). Credit, three hours. Anthropological perspectives on the people and cultures of different regions of the world. May be repeated for credit when topics varies.

Spring (alternate years). Credit, three hours. The history of race – as a scientific concept and as a dominant factor of social identity – from its eighteenth-century origins to the falsification of the biological race hypothesis by modern genetics.

TBA. Credit, three hours. Prerequisite: Anthropology 101 or Anthropology 205 or Human Health 250 or equivalent transfer credit. This course is an anthropological exploration of the causes and consequences of malnutrition. To understand the burden of overnutrition and undernutrition, we will examine the role of the political economy in shaping food access as well as explore how different cultures organize ideas about a proper diet. (Cross-listed with Human Health 340).

Spring (alternate years). Credit, three hours. The course explores the changing shape of the global economy and its relationship to culture. As an upper-division writing course, students should have some familiarity with reading and writing ethnographic text.

Spring, Credit, three hours. The cross-cultural study of traditional markets and exchange patterns, social relations surrounding production, and urban diverse patterns of consumption. Western economic theory contrasted with other approaches to the study of economic customs.

On demand. Credit, one to four hours. Seminar or lecture series on topics of special anthropological concern. May be repeated for credit when topic varies.

On demand. Credit, one to four hours. Independent reading and research under the direction of a faculty member. Students must submit for instructor approval a one-page written proposal of the work to be done. This course does not satisfy distribution requirements in history and social sciences.