Anthropology (ANTH)
Sociology and Anthropology
114 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (3:3:0) For non-Western credit. Overview of major ideas and approaches in the study of cultures around the world. Surveys kinship, social organization, political economy, religious beliefs, and other aspects of non-Western cultures.
120 Introduction to Archaeology (3:3:0) Introduction to survey of anthropological archaeology. Includes development and use of contemporary theory, and field and lab methods.
135 Human Evolution, Biology, and Culture (3:3:0) Exploration of human origins and nature, primate social groups and behavior, fossil evidence for human evolution, and the evolution of culture and human society.
299 Independent Study (1-3:0:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 114, or permission of instructor. Individual study in anthropology on topic organized in advance by student and instructor.
300 Civilizations (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. For non-Western credit. Cross-cultural and transtemporal examination of complex societies and civilizations. Explores developmental schema for rise, articulation, spread, and decline of historic and contemporary civilizations.
301 Native North Americans (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. For non-Western credit. Exploration of native North American cultures and selected aspects of Indian-white historical relations. Emphasizes cultural persistence as well as change.
302 Peoples and Cultures of Latin America (3:3:0)Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. For non-Western credit. Examines Latin American cultures and selected aspects of historical record.
303 Peoples and Cultures of Selected Regions (3:3:0)Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Examines cultures of a specific region such as Middle East, Amazonia.
304 Peoples and Cultures of the Pacific (3:3:0)Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. For non-Western credit. Survey of 20th century Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian cultures. Case studies of interplay between cultural systems and island ecology.
305 Foraging Societies (3:3:0) Prerequisite: 60 credits, 6 credits of anthropology including ANTH 120, or permission of instructor. For non-Western credit. Examines early human societies with emphasis on environmental, technological, and cultural aspects of hunting and gathering as a successful means of adaptation.
306 Peoples and Cultures of Island Asia (3:3:0)Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. For non-Western credit. Examines cultures of the Island Asia culture region, focusing on native cultures of Indonesia, Borneo, and the Philippines.
309 Peoples and Cultures of India (3:3:0) Prerequisites: ANTH 114 and 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Examination of South Asia, with emphasis on India. Includes general overview of prehistory and history; impact of colonialism; contemporary Indian culture, including the changing relations of caste and class, family organization, and the roles of women, religion, and ideology; and current trends in economic development and socioeconomic differences in different parts of the country.
310 Social Organization and Kinship (3:3:0)Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Examines social organization, kinship, descent, and kinship terminologies in mainly non-Western cultures, emphasizing the meaning of specific cultural systems and cross-cultural similarities and differences.
311 Peoples and Cultures of Mainland Southeast Asia (3:3:0)Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. For non-Western credit. Survey of societies of mainland Southeast Asia, with emphasis on successive waves of outside cultural influences and relations between contrasting ethnic groups in modern states. Focuses on Thailand and Malaysia.
312 Political Anthropology (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Examines cultural and ecological contexts of political structures and competition for power in selected societies; and cross- cultural and comparative approaches to study of political conflict, leadership, values, and symbolism.
313 Myth, Magic, and Mind (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. For non-Western credit. Examines religion as a cultural system. Topics include mythology, ritual, symbolism, and dogma. Emphasizes cross-cultural and predominantly non-Western material.
315 Socialization Processes: Family, Childhood, Personality in Cross-Cultural Perspective (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Examines aspects of the cultural transmission process in specific local cultures selected from various world culture regions, with emphasis on transmission of cultures.
322 Historical Archaeology (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 120, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Examines materials, theories, and methods of archaeology derived from and applied to historical sites, as they complement archival records.
324 Warfare, Violence, and Sacrifice in Antiquity (3:3:0)Prerequisites: ANTH 120, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Examines origin and nature of conflict in human society with an emphasis on the ancient past. Major topics include the possible role of violence in human evolution, cross-cultural studies of conflict in indigenous society, warfare in early states, and sacrifice as a ritual practice.
325 Field Techniques in Archaeology (3-6:0:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 120, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Intensive study of archaeological field techniques by directed group projects in site survey, site testing, recording techniques, and stratigraphy through discussions, demonstrations, and hands-on experience. May be repeated for maximum 6 credits.
330 Peoples and Cultures of Selected Regions: Non-Western (3:3:0) Examines cultures of a specific region such as Africa and the Middle East. Focuses primarily on non-Western cultures.
331 Refugees (3:3:0) Prerequisites: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. 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.
332 Cultures in Comparative Perspective (3:3:0)Prerequisite: ANTH 114, or permission of instructor. For non-Western credit and credit toward BA in sociology. Examines the varieties of cultural experience. Several cultures are studied in depth, with attention to local histories, global contexts, and shifting perspectives on the practice of ethnography.
333 Humanitarian Action (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Examines humanitarian action, drawing on anthropology’s holistic and comparative perspectives developed to ground understanding of humanitarian action within larger cultural contexts. Attention to cultural, biological, environmental, and political sources of humanitarian crises, and actual and potential responses to them. Focuses on large-scale response to social emergencies as culturally informed behavior.
360 Evolution, Sex, and Society (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 135, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Inquiry into the biological dimensions of humans as culture- bearing animals. Topics include altruism, aggression, primate social organization, morphology, comparative ethnology, and microevolutionary genetic differentiation.
365 Race and Racism (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 135, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Examines biological dimensions of human variation, and the beginnings of race as a concept. Discusses evolution of human biodiversity in culturally distinct human groups related to environment, physiology, genetics, nutrition, and disease. Explores use of scientific analyses of human biodiversity.
370 Environment and Culture (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Examines relationships among environment, culture, and human behavior with an emphasis on cultural ecological explanations in mainly non-Western contexts.
371 Psychological Anthropology (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Survey of issues in study of relationships between cultural and psychological variables. Major topics viewed cross-culturally include personality, mental illness, projective systems, cognition, and learning.
375 Anthropological Perspectives on History (3:3:0)Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Use of ethnographic, archaeological, linguistic, and documentary data, in light of anthropological theory, to interpret the past and processes of change among indigenous peoples throughout the world.
380 Language and Culture (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Anthropological analyses of language behavior, origins, and change, emphasizing interplay of language, culture, anthropology, and linguistics.
381 Health, Healing, and Culture (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. 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.
382 Urban Anthropology (3:3:0) Prerequisites: ANTH 114 and 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Uses tools and resources of social and cultural anthropology to study life in cities, including urban poverty, migration, urban planning, and discrimination. Case studies draw from different urban environments around the world, including Washington, D.C., and New York City.
385 Gender, Class, and Ethnicity in Latin America (3:3:0)Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Examines bases for gender differences and similarities across a variety of societies and cultures in Latin America. Examines interrelationships among constructions of gender, class, and ethnicity.
390 Theories, Methods, and Issues I (3:3:0)Prerequisites: ANTH 114 and 60 credits, or permission of instructor. First of a two-course sequence that reviews the major theoretical traditions and schools of thought in anthropology. Required for anthropology majors.
395 Work, Technology, and Society: An IT Perspective (3:3:0)Prerequisites: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Introduction to the anthropology of work, technology, and society, with emphasis on information technology. Covers general conceptual issues of information technology and also involves specific practical exercises with computers, their operating systems, the logic of automated production, databases, and web-based communication. Attention also directed to social and ethical issues raised by contemporary information technology.
396 Issues in Anthropology: Social Sciences (3:3:0)Prerequisites: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Topic of contemporary interest in anthropology, focusing on social science topics of interest.
399 Issues in Anthropology (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 114 and 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Topic of contemporary interest in anthropology, changing from semester to semester, and focusing on topics such as sex roles, anthropology and ethics, and primate social organization. May be repeated for credit.
400 Engaging the World: Anthropological Perspectives (3:3:0)Prerequisites: ANTH 114, 60 hours, completion of all general education requirements, or permission of instructor. Examines selected topics with emphasis on the integration of different kinds of knowledge and the balancing of alternative ways of assessing meaning and relevance. Topics usually drawn from issues of global economic processes, civic rights and responsibilities, the environment, and migration. Student papers and oral presentations receive formal review by multiple faculty members, to which the students must then respond. Satisfies general education synthesis requirement.
410 Research Design and Methods in Bioanthropology (3:3:0)Prerequisites: 60 credits and 6 credits of anthropology, including ANTH 120 or 135; or permission of instructor. Research design in bioanthropology and archaeology. Topics include critique of case studies, framing problems, field strategies, measuring variables, sampling, analysis, and interpretation of results.
420 Interpretation in Archaeology (3:3:0) Prerequisite: 6 credits of anthropology including ANTH 120, or permission of instructor. Explores theoretical and methodological issues in archaeology. Considers patterns and contexts of archaeological remains, analytic problems, and interpretation of material culture.
425 Public Archaeology (3:3:0) Prerequisite: 6 credits of anthropology including ANTH 120, or permission of instructor. Considers public significance of archaeology and anthropological contributions to public concerns such as antiquities legislation and cultural resource management.
427 Historic Cemetery Survey (4:4:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 120, or permission of instructor. Explores demographic, stylistic, and religious aspects of historic cemeteries. Students learn to survey, record, and analyze gravestone data through field projects.
428 Patterns in Prehistory (3:3:0) Prerequisite: 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Explores diversity of prehistoric cultures in light of major cultural development: hunting-gathering, agriculture, pastoralism, and complex societies.
430 Research Methods in Archaeology (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 120, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Studies archaeological research process through discussions of current archaeological methodologies and student participation in designing and critiquing research projects.
435, 436 Special Projects: Archaeology and Biological Anthropology (1-3:0:0) Prerequisites: ANTH 120 or 135, 60 credits, and permission of instructor. Lab or field project leading to a written report of the research. Research and paper completed under instructor’s guidance.
440 Public Anthropology: Seeking Solutions in the Public and Private Sectors (3:3:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Focuses on anthropologists’ contributions to major policy issues in development agencies in the United States and abroad. Covers techniques that lead to prevention or management of social and cultural conflict.
450 Qualitative Methods: Non-Statistical Approaches in Culture and Social Research (3:3:0) Prerequisites: 60 credits and 6 credits of anthropology including ANTH 114, or permission of instructor. Explores some of the most useful nonquantitative research techniques in social sciences, and offers practice in their application.
488 Gender, Sexuality, and Culture (3:3:0)Prerequisite: ANTH 114, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Examines how gender, sexuality, race, and class come together as analytically distinct, yet practically intertwined, systems of meaning and practice. Examples highlight questions of political economy and history while focusing on specific ethnographic or historical readings.
490 Theories, Methods, and Issues II (3:3:0)Prerequisites: 60 credits and 9 credits of anthropology, or permission of instructor. Second of a two-course sequence that reviews major theoretical traditions and schools of thought in anthropology. Required for anthropology majors, and usually taken as a senior seminar.
492 Contemporary Controversies in Anthropology (3:3:0)Prerequisites: 60 credits and 9 credits of anthropology including ANTH 390, or permission of instructor. Examines recent important works, issues, and controversies in anthropology.
495 Internship (3-6:0:0) Prerequisite: ANTH 120, 60 credits, or permission of instructor. Supervised project in applying anthropology: public archaeology, development anthropology, museums. May be repeated for maximum 6 credits.
496 On Evolution (4:2:2) Prerequisites: 60 credits and 9 credits of anthropology, or permission of instructor. Considers evolution as biological as well as cultural concept. Parallels and contrasts among conceptual approaches allow a critique of the potential of evolution as a unifying biosocial theory.
499 Independent Research (1-3:0:0) Prerequisite: 60 credits, 9 credits of anthropology, or permission of instructor. Individual research on a topic to be organized in advance by student and instructor. May be repeated for credit.
535 Anthropology and the Human Condition: Seminar I (3:3:0)Prerequisite: graduate standing or permission of instructor. 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.
536 Anthropology and the Human Condition: Seminar II (3:3:0)Prerequisite: ANTH 535. Examines contemporary theorists of anthropology, covering ongoing debates over epistemology and the multiple strands that inform anthropological theory and practice.
560 Human Osteology (4:3:3) Prerequisites: course in human evolution or anatomy, and senior or graduate standing; or permission of instructor. Examines structure and function of human skeletal system. Discussions include age criteria, pathology, epigenetic traits, biomechanics, and phylogenetic relationships.
568 Human Origins (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Detailed survey of the genetic, morphological, and behavioral origins of hominids. Discusses current interpretations and debates.
576 American Cultures (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Examines U.S. cultures and explores concept of an American culture. Course readings and discussions explore underpinnings of the American experience, document broad historical shifts, and detail the experience of diverse groups of Americans, thus forming the basis for a critical, analytical, and comparative discussion of American life and life in America.
580 Evolution and Human Ecology (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Examines complex relationships among human cultures, biocultural adaptation, and the natural world from an evolutionary perspective.
610 Social Organization (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Detailed examination and re-evaluation of the basic concepts of kinship and social organization in light of contemporary anthropological concerns. Several classical and contemporary texts develop key issues of social organization. Review of traditional concepts of classical anthropology introduces discussion of the nature of the broad epistemological shift that occurred in the last quarter of the 20th century.
613 Ethnography (3:0:3) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Literally, “writing about (a) people,” ethnography is the defining practice of social-cultural anthropology. The product of participant-observation fieldwork, ethnography brings together evidence and interpretation, providing a key means for developing and testing theories of culture. Course surveys key classical and contemporary ethnographies, introducing the breadth and scope of ethnographic practice in anthropology. Discussions highlight methodological questions.
614 Ethnopsychology: Self, Subject, and Culture (3:0:3)Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. The emerging field of ethnopsychology, in Catherine Lutz’s words, is “concerned with the way in which people conceptualize, monitor, and discuss their own and other’s mental and/or behavioral processes.” Course examines roots of the ethnopsychological enterprise, reviews several recent approaches to the description and analysis of folk psychological material, and investigates the relationship between folk psychology and other aspects of social life.
615 Ritual and Power in Social Life (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Domains of religion and politics are conjoined by questions of power: its deployment, distribution, and forms of resistance it engenders. Drawing on a variety of theoretical orientations in the social sciences, including structuralism, semiotics, psychoanalysis, and performance theory, course investigates connections among religious thought, ritual practice, and political action.
617 Political Economy (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Human societies have always engaged in complex political relations and economic exchanges. The cultural meanings people create are shaped by, and in turn shape, systems of power. Political economy is the attempt to understand the relationship between politics and economics, at the juncture of local meanings and global histories. Course reviews major works and models of political economy, especially as they relate to social and cultural analysis.
620 Theory: Archaeology and Biological Anthropology (3:3:0) Prerequisite: course in archaeology, or permission of instructor. Examines theoretical approaches in archaeology, paleoanthropology, and biological anthropology.
625 Research Design and Methods in Archaeology and Biological Anthropology (3:3:0) Prerequisite: course in archaeology, or permission of instructor. Examines research strategies and methods in archaeology, paleoanthropology, and biological anthropology.
630 Anthropology and Humanitarian Action (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing. Examines humanitarian action from an anthropological perspective, with attention to the cultural, biological, environmental, and political dimensions of humanitarian crises and actual and potential responses.
631 Refugees in the Contemporary World (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing. Explores major refugee flows since the mid-20th century, emphasizing mechanisms for providing assistance, asylum, and resettlement.
632 International Migration in Comparative Perspective (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. International migration in the contemporary world, focusing on the full range of economic, political, and social reasons for migration and the effects of different national policies on that process.
635 Regional Ethnography (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. In-depth study of peoples and cultures of a specific world region (Latin America, East Asia, the Pacific, United States). Content may include cultures defined by diaspora, migration, and other global forces and processes. May be repeated for credit when content differs.
640 Applied Anthropology (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Explores the application of contemporary anthropological ideas, theories, and methods to find solutions to practical problems as defined by various organizations and institutions including business, government, nongovernmental organizations, and various institutions.
645 Ethnography and Literature (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Explores relations between ethnography and literature. Most anthropological knowledge is transmitted in written form through texts known as “ethnographies.” Ethnographic techniques can be used in novels, travel literature, biography, and autobiography. Course explores these uses, alongside anthropological ethnographies, to arrive at a better understanding of ethnography: what constitutes it, and how it is defined and practiced.
650 Ethnographic Methods and Research Design (3:3:0)Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Reviews and examines major research methods commonly employed in cultural anthropological field study, with emphasis on ethnographic research design and the use of standard ethnographic techniques. Includes practice in designing ethnographic research project, and using ethnographic methods and techniques in a field setting.
655 Nationalism, Transnationalism, and States: Local and Global Perspectives (3:3:0) Prerequisites: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Explores different approaches to understanding the interaction of nationalism, transnationalism, and states given the apparently simultaneous dissolution of demographic, economic and cultural borders, and of modernist social science paradigms.
660 Social Science and Critical Theory (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Surveys key ideas of the Frankfurt School and its legacies today, including the critique of ideology; aesthetic theory; instrumental rationality; and analyses of the state, culture, and society. Writing by members of the Frankfurt School draws on many philosophical and methodological strands: radical humanism, Marxist analysis, cultural criticism, psychoanalysis, and political sociology.
670 Regional Studies in Archaeology (3:3:0) Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Regional survey of specific culture area in archaeology to be chosen by student and instructor.
675 Laboratory Techniques (4:3:3) Prerequisite: course in archaeology, and permission of instructor. Covers techniques of data collection, analysis, and management in archaeology and biological anthropology.
677 Anthropology and History (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Considers anthropological approaches to the study of history, the ways in which people construct their histories, and social historians’ effort to incorporate anthropological and ethnographic orientations into their accounts. Attention to tensions between culture and power in the constitution of historiography, and to methodological challenges of interpreting qualitative and quantitative data.
680 Readings in Archaeology (3:3:0) Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Directed readings and research on a specific topic in archaeology to be chosen by student and instructor. May be repeated for maximum 6 credits.
682 Readings in Biological Anthropology (3:3:0)Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Directed readings and research on a specific topic in biological anthropology chosen by student and instructor. May be repeated for maximum 6 credits.
684 Readings in Cultural Anthropology (3:3:0)Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Directed reading and research on a specific topic in cultural anthropology chosen by student and instructor. May be repeated for maximum 6 credits.
685 Language and Culture (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Survey of research on the relationship between language and culture, and the many ways the study of language has enhanced understanding of the nature of culture. Course material drawn from anthropology’s four traditional subdisciplines (cultural, linguistic, prehistoric archaeology, and physical), as well as neighboring fields such as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, literary theory, and ethnology.
687 Culture and Curing (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Explores the wide variety of cultural interpretations of heath, 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.
690 Internship (1-6:0:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing in anthropology with 3 credits of methods and 12 credits in program, or with permission of primary advisor. All internships must be approved by faculty advisor to ensure suitability to the student’s course of study. Introduction to applied anthropology through approved work and study at a museum, institute, agency, or other approved site. May be repeated for maximum 6 credits.
699 Contemporary Issues in Sociocultural Anthropology (3:3:0)Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Explores current issues and debates in sociocultural anthropology. Variable topics.
710 Contemporary Issues in Archaeology and Biological Anthropology (3:3:0) Prerequisites: ANTH 620 and 625, completion of 24 graduate credits, and approval of graduate advisor. Contemporary research developments and the ways in which various scientific disciplines and theoretical approaches are integrated in the study of biocultural evolution, adaptation, and diversity.
721 Culture, Power, and Conflict (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Explores power and social conflict through the lens of cultural analysis. Special attention to the role of cultural differences in the structuring of conflict, and to the deployment of cultural theory in formulating a practice of conflict resolution.
750 Ethnographic Genres (3:3:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. “Genre” refers to kind, sort, or type. Course surveys the various modes of representation anthropologists use in elaborating participant-observation fieldwork, as well as how these styles refer to and construct ethnographic “others.” Explores a set of central philosophical and methodological issues in social-cultural anthropology such as framing, perspective, authority, reflexivity, and politics of style.
769 Gender, Sexuality, and Culture (3:3:0)Prerequisite: graduate standing, or permission of instructor. Utilizes interdisciplinary material within an overall anthropological perspective on body meanings and practices. Readings highlight questions of political economy and history, focusing on specific ethnographic or historical contexts, to develop an understanding of how gender, sexuality, race, and class become analytically distinct yet intertwined systems of meaning and practice.
797 Anthropology Colloquium (1:1:0) Prerequisite: graduate standing in anthropology, or permission of graduate coordinator. Public forum for the presentation and discussion of contemporary anthropological research.