Reg. #23545
Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 12:00-12:50pm
104 Knox
Instructor: Dr. Irene Ketonen-Keating
This class is a general introduction to the field of anthropology, the study of humanity. It is designed to pique your interest in the broad diversity of human behavior and lifestyles across the world and throughout time. This course will take a look at our four major subfields - archaeology, linguistic anthropology, physical anthropology, and cultural anthropology - and include discussions on our youngest subfield, applied anthropology.
Please note two sections are offered during Spring 2023:
APY 106, Section A
Reg. #16641
Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 10:00-10:50am
170 Academic Center
Instructor: Dr. Óscar Gil-García
APY 106, Section B
Reg. #23802
Online, not real time (asynchrounous)
Instructor: Dr. Irene Ketonen-Keating
What is culture and how does it affect our understanding of the world and the ways we behave? How do cultural anthropologists approach the study of human societies and what methods do they use to do research? These are some of the questions that we will examine in this class. The course introduces students to ethnographic methods and theories of cultural anthropology. The aim is to enhance our knowledge of our own culture and of other cultures around the world. All majors are welcome.
Reg. #16598
Tuesday/Thursday 3:30-4:50pm
170 Academic Center
Instructor: Dr. Stephen Lycett
For centuries preceding modern times, our uniqueness as a species was taken as a sign of special creation; we were not seen to be a part of nature. But as knowledge of human evolution, our closeness to other primates, and our adaptations to specific environments emerged, we have taken our place in the animal kingdom. Here, we learn how those insights developed, and about current methods of understanding human origins and the natural forces that have shaped us.
Reg. #16599
Monday/Wednesday, 3:00-4:20pm
170 Academic Center
Instructor: Dr. Albert Fulton
Archaeology is the study of the human past through its material remains. So much evidence of human activity on earth exists outside the realm of written records that archaeology is of primary importance in reconstructing past human life ways. Bridging the gap between the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, archaeologists integrate many types of evidence in order to shed light on the origins of our species, Homo sapiens sapiens and development through time of so many different cultural manifestations. Introduction to Archaeology provides an overview of the methods, theories and models used by archaeologists to better understand past human societies, from the formulation of a research question, through the processes of survey and excavation, to the analysis of data, and the interpretation of the results.
Reg. #16674
Tuesday/Thursday, 12:30-1:50pm
Knox 109
Instructor: Dr. Roger Woodard
In this course, we will investigate mythic and religious traditions of ancient Greece and Rome. Our study of myth and religion will, however, be comparative in emphasis. We will thus have a twofold goal: (1) to encounter the Greco-Roman traditions themselves and (2) through our comparative investigations, to attempt to identify the mythic and religious traditions which the Greeks and especially the more conservative Romans inherited from their Indo-European ancestors. We will also turn our full gaze upon comparative materials, but even as we are engaged in discovering the mythic and religious traditions of the ancient Indic, Iranian Celtic, Germanic and Hittite cultures, we will continue to encounter new materials and motifs from Greece and Rome.
Reg. #21523
Tuesday/Thursday, 9:30-10:50am
Clemens 06
Instructor: Dr. Edith Gonzalez
Historical archaeology studies material culture, in combination with written documents and oral history, to piece together a clearer and fuller understanding of our past. Students of this course will learn how to interpret artifacts and archival materials and how these can both conflict and complement one another in research of the past. The course is ¿New World¿ focused and students will analyze multiple data types and assess their usefulness in reconstructing historical change in the Americas and the Caribbean during the colonial age. Historical archaeology can contribute to our understanding of the history of identity - be it race, class, gender, or ethnicity - and how this history affects us today. The class will also evaluate the merit of pseudo-archaeological phenomena in television, film, and other media.
This course meets the Theoretical/Problem-Oriented requirement. Note: This course does not automatically populate in HUB as theoretical/problem course. Please email the Undergraduate Coordinator to request the course be used to fulfill this requirement.
Reg. #19527
Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 9:00-9:50am
NSC 205
Instructor: Dr. Frederick Klaits
People in all societies experience illness, but their understandings of the causes of disease and approaches for restoring health differ greatly. This course examines the social and cultural dimensions of health, illness, and healing. Through a variety of case studies, we will learn about the ways medical anthropologists study explanations of disease, experiences of suffering, and the social organization of health care. Western medicine, also called “biomedicine,” will also be an object of our analysis. We will discuss how the delivery of biomedical health care involves particular understandings of the body and appropriate social relationships. Emphasis will also be placed on how the stories that individuals and institutions circulate about human agency in suffering shape people’s convictions about how to care, and for whom to care. The course aims to teach students to think about health, disease, and medicine in national, cross-cultural and global terms.
Reg. #19527
Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 1:00-1:50pm
351 Academic Center
Instructor: Dr. Óscar Gil-García
The course will provide an interdisciplinary overview of the geographies, economies and politics of human migration and transnational lives, even as we scrutinize the lenses through which immigration and migrant populations have been studied. A key intent is to understand the reasons behind the displacement and dislocation of individuals and populations as well as the processes involved in recent and contemporary population transfers across the globe. Our analysis of the present will be anchored in multi-faceted historical perspectives. The course will also touch upon the impact of migration on “host” spaces and on the places from which migrants originate.
This course meets the Theoretical/Problem-Oriented requirement. Note: This course does not automatically populate in HUB as theoretical/problem course. Please email the Undergraduate Coordinator to request the course be used to fulfill this requirement.
Reg. #23250
Tuesday/Thursday, 2:00-3:20pm
328 Academic Center
Instructor: Dr. Stephanie Poindexter
Behavior, and social organization of non-human primates: current theories, evolutionary processes, and research methods, both in the field and in the laboratories.
Reg. #19673
Monday, 5:00-7:40pm
170 Academic Center
Instructor: Dr. Nicholas Holowka
Co-requisite: APY 346: Primate Dissections
This course focuses on studying the differences and similarities in the anatomy of living primates in order to understand the biological relationships of various primate species and the selective adaptations which led to differences in their anatomy. Knowledge of how living primates are adaptive to diverse environments is useful in interpreting the evolutionary history of primate species. By establishing behavioral and morphological correlates paleontologists may better understand how fossil primates may have utilized their environment. Basic to this course is the comparison of the gross anatomy of three closely related primates, e.g. monkeys, apes and humans.
Important Class Note
All students must register for APY 345 lecture and a APY 346 lab section. There are 4 sections of APY 346 - please be sure to select "View All" in the blue box above the course listing to see all four sections of the lab.
Students are required to register for 1 lab section (see below)
Location: Labs meet in Spaulding 155 at the times listed below:
LAB A Tuesday, 1:00-4:50pm (Reg.#16615)
LAB B Wednesday, 1:00-4:50pm (Reg.#16616)
LAB C Thursday, 1:00-4:50pm (Reg.#16617)
LAB D Monday, 9:00am-12:50pm (Reg.#24188)
Reg. #18728
Wednesday, 4:30-7:10pm
319 Academic Center
Instructor: Dr. Stephen Lycett
Humans pass on and receive information, consciously and unconsciously, via social interactions. Some of this information manifests itself in the form of cultural traditions; for example, artifacts spread over time and space or the languages we speak. Using a framework of social transmission theory, many anthropologists have increasingly turned to evolutionary theory and methodology to study cultural traditions in material artifacts, language, or other products of cultural transmission processes.
This course enables students to explore the main theoretical and methodological aspects of using social transmission theory and cultural evolutionary principles to address human behavioral patterns. A large part of the class deals with evolutionary theory, and allows students to better understand evolutionary theory and its application. Case studies will be presented, which will highlight the broad range of data to which such approaches may be applied. We will consider a range of case studies from a diversity of chronological periods and geographic settings (including contemporary settings).
You will also critically consider the concept of culture, its presence (or otherwise) in animals other than humans, and what this may mean for the study of cultural phenomena. Students will come to see how contemporary applications of this approach differ from previous (and often theoretically erroneous) applications of evolutionary principles to the study of human behavior, which negatively taint evolutionary approaches to humanity to this day. The course will also help to dispel common misconceptions regarding the use of evolutionary theory to study culture, but be sensitively astute as to the reasons why these issues arise. By the end of the course, students will have an understanding of both the theoretical and practical (methodological) tools involved in this type of work, and be able to conceive of how to apply them across various aspects of anthropological research.
Reg. #23244
Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 11:00-11:50am
319 Academic Center
Instructor: Dr. Frederick Klaits
Explores cultures of hunting, pastoral, and agricultural societies, including history, social structure, political and economic systems, religion, and aesthetics. Also considers the impact of colonialism, industrialization, urbanism, and political independence upon African societies and cultures.
This course meets the Area Studies requirement.
Reg. #23234
Tuesday/Thursday, 2:00-3:20pm
351 Academic Center
Instructor: Dr. Colter Harper
Where does music happen? Who patronizes these places? How do these social scenes drive change in music and our cities? In this course, we examine contexts of American nightlife from the 1920s to through the 1980s and look to the ways they have shaped musical creativity, entertainment industries, labor movements, civil rights struggles, urban development, and notions of gender. Lectures and discussions will focus on recent scholarship of nightlife that applies methods and frameworks of cultural anthropology and ethnomusicology. Students will have the opportunity to expand their knowledge of key social science terms and apply ethnographic perspectives to music as a social process.
This course meets the Area Studies requirement. Note: This course does not automatically populate in HUB as theoretical/problem course. Please email the Undergraduate Coordinator to request the course be used to fulfill this requirement.
Reg. #23237
Tuesday/Thursday, 8:00-9:20am
355 Academic Center
Instructor: Dr. Vasiliki Neofotistos
Reviews the growth of anthropology as a scientific discipline. Analyzes in detail major anthropological approaches and theories.
Reg. #21488
Tuesday/Thursday, 9:30-10:50am
351 Academic Center
Instructor: Dr. Meghana Joshi
This course asks what it means to be a man and/or masculine in the particular context of Euro-American societies. The overall aims of this course are to a. engage with material that directs our attention to the precarity of masculinity i.e. how masculinity is not fixed in its definitions or practices; b. highlight how masculinities derive meaning in relation to (other masculinities/women); and c. how structures (policies, law, representations in scientific literature, medicine and technology) play a key role in reproducing as well as changing and shifting dominant notions of masculinities.
This course meets the Theoretical/Problem-Oriented requirement. Note: This course does not automatically populate in HUB as theoretical/problem course. Please email the Undergraduate Coordinator to request the course be used to fulfill this requirement.
This course meets the Senior Seminar requirement. This course does not automatically populate in HUB as a senior seminar course. Please email the Undergraduate Coordinator to request the course be used to fulfill this requirement.
Reg. #21511
Tuesday/Thursday, 11:00am-12:20pm
351 Academic Center
Instructor: Dr. Mariella Bacigalupo
In this seminar we will explore the interrelated social, cultural, medical, and political underpinnings of death and the way different communities have responded to it. Nineteenth-century anthropologists speculated that the origin of religion was to be found in the puzzlement of early humans about what differentiates the living from the dead. Twentieth-century anthropologists interpreted death as a potential tear in the social fabric, requiring symbolic management for societal stability. We will explore the confusion about dying and death resulting from experiences of rebirth and medical technologies that maintain people’s lives through the body parts of cadavers. We will also analyze mourning, living in the wake, compassionate cannibalism, modern-day American care for the dying, and the politics of death.
This course meets the Theoretical/Problem-Oriented requirement. Note: This course does not automatically populate in HUB as theoretical/problem course. Please email the Undergraduate Coordinator to request the course be used to fulfill this requirement.
Reg. #23232
Monday, 12:00-2:40pm
Baldy 107
Instructor: Dr. Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel
This course offers an insight into some of the “big questions” facing evolutionary anthropologists today. Some of these questions have arisen relatively recently as a result of new fossil discoveries, while others are more long-standing but have been difficult to address for a variety of ethical, methodological and empirical reasons. We will tackle topics and debates across many different aspects of evolutionary anthropology including questions in human evolution, primatology, and modern human biology.
This course meets the Theoretical/Problem-Oriented requirement. Note: This course does not automatically populate in HUB as theoretical/problem course. Please email the Undergraduate Coordinator to request the course be used to fulfill this requirement.
Reg. #21489
Wednesday, 12:00-2:40pm
Clemens 202
Instructor: Dr. Stephanie Poindexter
Behavioral Research Methods provides students with first-hand experience in all of the steps involved in observational research. They will develop a research question, select appropriate observation methods, collect data and summarize their findings in a written report and formal scientific presentation.
*Permission from instructor required for course registration
