Undergraduate Courses
ANTH 114: INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
This course is a survey of key topics in cultural anthropology—the study of the variety of human practices and beliefs that appear throughout the world. It provides a sense of the general approach that anthropologists take when studying cultures. The course focuses on how to ask intelligent questions and aims to lead you to “think like an anthropologist” as you reflect on other cultures as well as your own. Cultural anthropology endeavors to promote learning about the world’s diverse cultures in a contextual, comparative, and holistic perspective. Through lectures, readings, films, writing exercises, and discussions, this course will cover a range of intriguing topics with cross-cultural examples. We will start by considering the following questions: What is anthropology? What is culture? What research methods do cultural anthropologists use? What ethical issues do anthropologists face? Afterward, we will delve into the history and development of cultural theories and then into a range of themes that anthropologists study, such as kinship, the family, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, health, religion, and the body, looking at case studies from places around the globe. Importantly, in a rapidly changing and increasingly interconnected world, anthropology concerns issues of public policy, international development, technology, the media, and globalization. We will end by carefully considering how anthropological knowledge can apply to an understanding of these contemporary issues and discussing some of the future directions of the discipline. Several sections of ANTH 114 are offered including:
ANTH 114-001: Professor TBD, MW 10:30-11:45a
ANTH 114-002: Professor Anne Schiller, TR 10:30-11:45a
ANTH 114-003: Professor Christopher Morris, TR 1:30-2:45p
ANTH 114-004: Professor TBD, T 4:30-7:10p
Faculty Bio Link: http://soan.gmu.edu/people/schiller
Faculty Bio Link: https://soan.gmu.edu/people/cmorri2
ANTH 120-001: UNEARTHNG THE PAST: PREHISTORY, CULTURE, and EVOLUTION
How do we know what we think we know about the past? This is the guiding principal of the course, trying to link our interpretations about past civilizations and extinct societies to the concrete archaeological record. How do objects, architecture, features, ecofacts and context tell us about past populations? And can archaeology help us understand the present? The readings for the course cover the current state of archaeological studies including the guiding principles used by modern archaeologists. You will learn how archaeologists decide where to dig, how to date a site, and how to reconstruct past behaviors. Case studies from around the world highlight how the archaeological methods and theories described in the readings are applied in practice. By the end of the course, students will be able to lead their own archaeological excavation of their dorm room as you peel through the layers of old coffee mugs, overdue homework assignments, and the hamper of dirty laundry. You will be able to understand how archaeologists think and what clues you leave behind for future archaeologists.
ANTH 120-001: Professor Nawa Sugiyama, TR 12:00–1:15p
ANTH 135-001: INTO BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Anthropology 135 is an introductory survey of the field of biological anthropology. This class takes students on a journey into the story of humanity -- and at least biologically -- we come to certain understandings of what it means to be human. The subject matter actually covers nearly 14 billion years of natural history, but the focus is largely on the last 45 million years with the origins and emergence of primates, and from there, the human ancestors who first emerged on the scene about 8 million years ago. The course also equally explores modern human biology, health, disease, and adaptation along with a scientific debunking of the concept of ‘race.' Biological anthropology can achieve such a vision because it involves a powerfully holistic approach that brings together diverse kinds of information including genetics, primatology, paleontology, archaeology, health, disease, and human variation to understand the biological dimensions of the human experience. An underlying theme to this course involves the causes and consequences of ‘biocultural’ evolution – how biology and behavior interact and produced the evolution of our species and modern human biodiversity.
ANTH 135-001: Professor Haagen Klaus, MW 12:00-1:15p
Faculty Bio Link: http://soan.gmu.edu/people/hklaus
ANTH 350-001: HUMAN GROWTH/DEVELOPMENT
Anth 350/556 is an intensive, graduate lecture and seminar focusing on the evolution of human life history. This course explores the genetic basis for human development, morphological studies that help reveal variation in human development in the past, and how variation in life history provides fascinating insights into the evolutionary processes that shaped and currently shape modern human biological variation. The first component of the course introduces patterns of growth and development in humans and reviews human anatomy and physiology, concluding with a review of the methods used to assess life history in living and past human societies. The interaction of genetic and environmental processes on human phenotypic variation is then addressed. Introduction to concepts including plasticity of development, canalization, and adaptation are included in this section of the course. The second portion of the course focuses on the comparison of human and non-human primate developmental processes in an attempt to understand the fundamental differences in growth rates and durations between the two groups. This section specifically addresses variation in brain and cranial growth, dental growth, sexual maturity, and other such topics. Reviews of paleontological studies of life-history then explain the course of modern human life history over time and divergences between human and non-human primates. Finally, comparisons of life history among and between modern human groups are presented with an emphasis on developmental responses to environmental variation.
ANTH 350-001: Professor Daniel Temple, MW 1:30-2:45p
Faculty Bio Link: https://soan.gmu.edu/people/dtemple3
ANTH 370-001: ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURE
Humans have shaped their environments for thousands of years. Due to more recent and profound human transformation of the planet, however, a growing number of scientists have gone so far as to label our contemporary geologic age the “Anthropocene.” Earth is so severely dominated by human activity, in other words, that we can reasonably recognize the start of a new and unprecedented global era. With the nature and potentially catastrophic implications of the so-called “Anthropocene” serving as its backdrop, this course will explore society-environment interactions. We will draw from a variety of anthropological questions, theoretical approaches, and research techniques to explore such interactions in a variety of settings around the world. Topics will include: climate change and pollution, race and toxic exposure, nuclear energy, agriculture and GMOs, indigenous rights and biodiversity conservation, the environmental consequences of war, epigenetics and obesity, resilience and environmental justice.
ANTH 370-001: Professor Christopher Morris, TR 12:00-1:15p
Faculty Bio Link: https://soan.gmu.edu/people/cmorri2
ANTH 377-001: MORTUARY ARCHAEOLOGY
Human burials and associated materials, rituals, and ideologies underlying their formation often represent a microcosm of a broader culture, belief system, and population. Burials constitute a veritable treasure trove of information about past societies and not surprisingly have been the focus of intense anthropological investigation for many decades. Developments in mortuary analysis have been inextricably tied to the development of modern archaeology, including bioarchaeology.
This seminar aims to provide students with an in-depth appreciation of the potential, limitations, and theoretical underpinnings of diverse approaches for mortuary analysis in contemporary archaeology, as well as the range of information that can be extracted from burial patterns. Accordingly, this seminar revolves around two foci: (1) the theories and methods by which burials may be best perceived, excavated, documented, and recovered, (2) how to “decode” the potential range of emic meanings of ancient burial patterns. These elements help elucidate the physical and procedural aspects of mortuary practices (e.g., preparation and placement of the deceased, grave goods, tombs construction and organization, as well as their qualitative and quantitative aspects), but more broadly speaking, reveals death as both a cultural and biological event and process. This will be accomplished in part by an examination of the history of mortuary studies, particularly the theories and methods as well as potential and limitations of "processual" and “postprocessual" approaches. The seminar also considers ways of integrating mortuary archaeology and bioarchaeology to consider future paths of funerary archaeology for the following decades.
ANTH 377-001: Professor Haagen Klaus, MW 3:00-4:15p
Faculty Bio Link: http://soan.gmu.edu/people/hklaus
ANTH 396-002: POLICY AND CULTURE
This course will examine the integral nature of cultural processes to policy making and implementation. We will also be looking at the culture of policymaking organizations themselves. The course will examine the role of values in policy and research, the constitution of knowledge, the construction of gender within policy, and cultural and social understandings of risk. We will spend some time thinking about how policies and programs are measured or deemed as successful or not and we will consider how the human body becomes a site of politics and power. Looking at primarily anthropological accounts from around the world, we will discuss topics such as, international development, health care, immigration, war, humanitarian efforts, human rights, and the environment. This course is open to students of any major. It fulfills the CHSS Non-Western and Mason Core Social and Behavioral Science requirements.
ANTH 396-002: Professor Cortney Rinker, TR 10:30-11:45a
Faculty Bio Link: https://soan.gmu.edu/people/chughe13
ANTH 396-003: ARCHAEOLOGY OF RITUAL
What is religion and how does it differ from rituals? ANTH 396/699 is a discussion and writing intensive seminar that will attempt to answer these questions through the exploration of diverse theories and methods including practice theory, structuration and performance theory. The course delves into specific definitions of ritual and religion drawing on religious studies and anthropological theory, and will cover diverse themes including the origins of religion, animism, and ritualized production. We examine the role of specific rituals like feasting, the meanings behind burial practices, and the materiality of ritual practice. We will explore these themes through a cross-cultural perspective, examining Old World and New World case studies. Basic introduction to anthropological theory is encouraged prior to taking the course.
ANTH 396-003: Professor Nawa Sugiyama, TR 3:00-4:15p
ANTH 450-001: QUALITATIVE METHOD
Introduces ethnography, field work methods, interviewing, life histories, and other qualitative methods to generate data about cultures and sub-cultures in which various groups and classes are immersed. Students learn by applying qualitative methods to term projects, developed under guidance of instructor.
ANTH 450-001: Professor Joseph Scimecca, TR 10:30-11:43a
Faculty Bio Link: https://soan.gmu.edu/people/jscimecc
ANTH 490-001: THEORIES, METHODS, AND ISSUES II
This course will examine on major theoretical strands of anthropology from the mid-twentieth century onward. We will also consider how anthropological theory and methods intersect with other fields and disciplines. Through readings and discussions, we will look at theoretical contributions of contemporary anthropologists and how they have situated their work within various orientations. We will pair more theoretical readings with ethnographic accounts from around the globe that further elucidate main concepts. Since this course satisfies the writing-intensive requirement, we will devote time to peer review and discussing main anthropological writing conventions.
ANTH 490-001: Professor Cortney Rinker, TR 1:30-2:45p
Faculty Bio Link: https://soan.gmu.edu/people/chughe13
Graduate Courses*
ANTH 495-001: ANTHROPOLOGY INTERSHIP*
Supervised project in applying anthropology in relevant settings including public and historical archaeology, developmental anthropology, museums, non-profit organizations, advocacy, communications, or consulting organizations. Notes: Students must complete 45 hours of work at the internship site for each credit. May be repeated within the degree for a maximum 6 credits.
ANTH 495-001: Professor Daniel Temple, TBA, TBA
Faculty Bio Link: http://soan.gmu.edu/people/dtemple3
ANTH 536-001: ANTHROPOLOGY AND HUMAN CONDITION: SEMINAR II*
This course is the second part of the required pro-seminar for Masters students in Anthropology. We will cover the major trends in anthropological thought since the 1970s by reading key theoretical texts alongside ethnographic studies, all the while discussing authors’ research methods and practices, anthropological findings and arguments, and notions of craft. We will cover topics such as gender and political economy, health and the body, race and ethnicity, transnationalism and identity, the environment and globalization. In the process, we will analyze concepts such as “the human” and “the social” as we evaluate theoretical paradigms in their historical contexts. The goal of the course is to give students a foundation in anthropological theory as they begin to devise their own thesis projects. The theoretical readings will help students understand the kinds of questions anthropologists ask and how they go about finding the answers to those questions. The ethnographic readings will show students how anthropologists identify objects of study, conduct research, and interpret their findings.
ANTH 536-001: Professor Rashmi Sadana, T 4:30-7:10p
Faculty Bio Link: https://soan.gmu.edu/people/rsadana
ANTH 556-001: HUMAN GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT*
Anth 350/556 is an intensive, graduate lecture and seminar focusing on the evolution of human life history. This course explores the genetic basis for human development, morphological studies that help reveal variation in human development in the past, and how variation in life history provides fascinating insights into the evolutionary processes that shaped and currently shape modern human biological variation. The first component of the course introduces patterns of growth and development in humans and reviews human anatomy and physiology, concluding with a review of the methods used to assess life history in living and past human societies. The interaction of genetic and environmental processes on human phenotypic variation is then addressed. Introduction to concepts including plasticity of development, canalization, and adaptation are included in this section of the course. The second portion of the course focuses on the comparison of human and non-human primate developmental processes in an attempt to understand the fundamental differences in growth rates and durations between the two groups. This section specifically addresses variation in brain and cranial growth, dental growth, sexual maturity, and other such topics. Reviews of paleontological studies of life-history then explain the course of modern human life history over time and divergences between human and non-human primates. Finally, comparisons of life history among and between modern human groups are presented with an emphasis on developmental responses to environmental variation.
ANTH 556-001: Professor Daniel Temple, MW 1:30-2:45p
Faculty Bio Link: https://soan.gmu.edu/people/dtemple3
ANTH 577-001: MORTUARY ARCHAEOLOGY*
Human burials and associated materials, rituals, and ideologies underlying their formation often represent a microcosm of a broader culture, belief system, and population. Burials constitute a veritable treasure trove of information about past societies and not surprisingly have been the focus of intense anthropological investigation for many decades. Developments in mortuary analysis have been inextricably tied to the development of modern archaeology, including bioarchaeology.
This seminar aims to provide students with an in-depth appreciation of the potential, limitations, and theoretical underpinnings of diverse approaches for mortuary analysis in contemporary archaeology, as well as the range of information that can be extracted from burial patterns. Accordingly, this seminar revolves around two foci: (1) the theories and methods by which burials may be best perceived, excavated, documented, and recovered, (2) how to “decode” the potential range of emic meanings of ancient burial patterns. These elements help elucidate the physical and procedural aspects of mortuary practices (e.g., preparation and placement of the deceased, grave goods, tombs construction and organization, as well as their qualitative and quantitative aspects), but more broadly speaking, reveals death as both a cultural and biological event and process. This will be accomplished in part by an examination of the history of mortuary studies, particularly the theories and methods as well as potential and limitations of "processual" and “postprocessual" approaches. The seminar also considers ways of integrating mortuary archaeology and bioarchaeology to consider future paths of funerary archaeology for the following decades.
ANTH 577-001: Professor Haagen Klaus, MW 3:00-4:15p
Faculty Bio Link: http://soan.gmu.edu/people/hklaus
ANTH 635-001: REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY: LATIN AMERICA*
Though we – as anthropologists and as citizens of the modern world – often think of the globe as divided into discrete regions, in fact the world today is characterized by deep and cross-cutting ties, making the attempt to define and study bounded world areas increasingly problematic. In the case of Latin America, it has long been a fact that the region we think of as “south of the border” is and for centuries has been, deeply tied to North American political, economic, cultural and social life. This course, which focuses on the anthropology of Latin America, takes as its basic theme the idea that societies of the Western hemisphere are profoundly and inseparably interconnected as part of a single region, the Americas. The course is designed to offer you a broad knowledge and appreciation of the diverse cultures of Latin America from an anthropological perspective. It explores the cultural, economic, political, and religious aspects of life in Latin America and the ways in which different groups have participated in, and responded to processes that include, but are not limited to, discovery, conquest, colonialism, extractive economies, migration, modernization, aesthetic currents, the dynamics of the state, development, resistance, popular movements, tourism, neoliberalism, transnationalism, and globalization. The readings and seminar discussions are designed to encourage you to consider different paths of inquiry that you may use in seeking to understand the peoples and cultures of Latin America, as well as to interrogate the theoretical and methodological models that have been used in ethnographic research on and accounts of Latin America. We will be paying special attention throughout the course to indigenous practices and views as integral to the dynamics taking placing within Latin America, as well as between Latin America and other parts of the world.
ANTH 635-001: Professor Linda Seligmann, R 4:30-7:10p
Faculty Bio Link: https://soan.gmu.edu/people/lseligm2
ANTH 690-001: INTERNSHIP*
Supervised project in applying anthropology in relevant settings including public and historical archaeology, developmental anthropology, museums, non-profit organizations, advocacy, communications, or consulting organizations. Notes: Students must complete 45 hours of work at the internship site for each credit. May be repeated within the degree for a maximum 6 credits.
ANTH 690-001: Professor Daniel Temple, TBA, TBA
Faculty Bio Link: http://soan.gmu.edu/people/dtemple3
ANTH 699-001: ARCHAEOLOGY OF RITUAL*
What is religion and how does it differ from rituals? ANTH 396/699 is a discussion and writing intensive seminar that will attempt to answer these questions through the exploration of diverse theories and methods including practice theory, structuration and performance theory. The course delves into specific definitions of ritual and religion drawing on religious studies and anthropological theory, and will cover diverse themes including the origins of religion, animism, and ritualized production. We examine the role of specific rituals like feasting, the meanings behind burial practices, and the materiality of ritual practice. We will explore these themes through a cross-cultural perspective, examining Old World and New World case studies. Basic introduction to anthropological theory is encouraged prior to taking the course.
ANTH 699-001: Professor Nawa Sugiyama, TR 3:00-4:15p
November 03, 2017
