Courses and Syllabi
The University Catalog is the authoritative source for information on courses. The Schedule of Classes is the authoritative source for information on classes scheduled for this semester. See the Schedule for the most up-to-date information and see Patriot web to register for classes.
Anthropology Fall 2023
Undergraduate
Overview of major ideas and approaches to the study of cultures around the world. Surveys kinship, social organization, political economy, religious beliefs, language and other aspects of non-Western cultures. Limited to three attempts.
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8 Sections Currently Scheduled »
Introduction to archaeology. Explores the ways in which the archaeological record contributes to issues and debates about the human past and present, as well as the lab and field methods used for understanding archaeological remains. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Uses an evolutionary perspective to introduce students to the study of humans and non-human primates as biological organisms. The course will analyze the genetic and environmental bases for modern human biological variation, understand primate behavior and biological relationships, and reconstruct the fossil record. Discussions about prehistoric skeletal remains will emphasize biological responses to changes in subsistence and social structure. Limited to three attempts.
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2 Sections Currently Scheduled
Examines the peoples and cultures of ancient Mesoamerica, including Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, and Aztec societies. Major topics include the rise of civilization, the development of the Mesoamerican cultural tradition, the growth of cities, trade, exchange, writing systems, political organization, religion, conflict, and the archaeological study of this indigenous heritage. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Examines religion as a cultural system. Topics include mythology, ritual, symbolism, and dogma. Emphasizes cross-cultural and predominantly non-Western material. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Explores how human beings across cultures have historically expressed social anxieties through references to the one particular manifestation of the undead: zombies, figures representing a state in which human beings are animate and affective in the world around them, but lack consciousness or free will. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Explores anthropological theories and topics on death and dead bodies; cross-cultural approaches to the study of the politics of death and dead bodies, the role of the state, capitalism, social relationships, and institutions around death; and the impacts of these on managing corpses, performing rituals, and regulating emotion. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Introduction to causes and consequences of forced dislocation as a global issue. Covers formally recognized refugees, as well as people such as internally displaced persons and asylum seekers who are in refugee-like circumstances. Focuses on understanding the personal experiences of refugees and examining efforts on their behalf at national and international levels. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Explores scientific methods of classification as a reflection of social values. Explains the harms of “race” and eugenics committed under the aegis of science. While critiquing the biological concept of race, considers how the social construction of race becomes part of living bodies through racism. Details modern human variation as a product of evolutionary forces. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Considers the history and development of genomics in relation to questions of human identities and belonging, including issues of race, cultural heritage, sex, gender, sexuality, violence, and monogamy. Evaluates how genomics has become a seemingly authoritative source of knowledge about human identities and our relations to one another, and assesses the consequences of genomic truth claims in society today. Evaluates the field of genomics as a form of knowledge production and also as a culturally and politically situated process. Brings science into better relation with critical race theories, Indigenous studies, and queer and feminist science studies to disrupt and reinvent how genomic knowledge of humans is made and understood. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Surveys the discipline of medical anthropology, focusing on traditional medical beliefs and the diverse responses to modern scientific medicine in developing countries and among cultural minorities in the United States. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Introduces students to the methods of modern human skeletal analysis in bio- and forensic anthropology. Covers introductory human skeletal and dental gross anatomy and describes analytical techniques spanning including age and sex estimation, osteometry, and paleopathology. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Laboratory course associated with ANTH 388. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Overview of the major theoretical traditions and schools of thought in anthropology. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Introduces qualitative ethnographic research methods, including fieldwork, interviewing, artifact analysis, audio-visual, digital, and archival techniques, and offers practice in their application. Limited to three attempts.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
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.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Individual research on a topic to be organized in advance by student and instructor. May be repeated within the term for a maximum 12 credits.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Graduate
Examines some of the major theorists of 19th- and early 20th-century cultural theory. Marx, Freud, Durkheim, and Weber are surveyed as foundational thinkers for reading the works of such 20th-century theorists as Boas, Malinowski, Benedict, and Sapir. May not be repeated for credit.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Introduces students to the methods of modern human skeletal analysis in bioarchaeological and forensic science. Covers introductory human skeletal and dental gross anatomy and describes analytical techniques spanning including age and sex estimation, osteometry, and paleopathology. May not be repeated for credit.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Laboratory course associated with ANTH 582. May not be repeated for credit.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Explores the cutting-edge methods of bioarchaeological science and reconstructs ancient living worlds from the remarkable information encoded in bones via patterns of demography, disease, diet, trauma, violence, lifestyle, social structures, sex and gender, ethnicity, and identities on a global scale and over the last 10,000 years of history. May not be repeated for credit.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
In-depth study of peoples and cultures of a specific world region (e.g., East Asia, Latin America, South Asia) and critical scholarship on the region. Content may include cultures defined by diaspora, migration, and other global forces and processes. Notes: May be repeated when topic is different. May be repeated within the degree for a maximum 6 credits.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
Explores the wide variety of cultural interpretations of health, illness, and curing. Examines a number of different curing systems, both traditional and modern, and compares them with cosmopolitan biomedicine. Several book-length case studies cover a wide variety of cultural groups, health topics, and theoretical orientations. May not be repeated for credit.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
In-depth study of peoples and cultures of a specific world region (e.g., East Asia, Latin America, South Asia) and critical scholarship on the region. Content may include cultures defined by diaspora, migration, and other global forces and processes. Notes: May be repeated when topic is different. May be repeated within the degree for a maximum 6 credits.
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1 Section Currently Scheduled
