ANTHRO 5000 Independent Studies

Prerequisite: permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5005 The Evolutionary and Health Impacts of Human Parasite Infection

Are parasites old friends or enemies we have been combatting for as long as humans have been around? Throughout our evolutionary history, humans have constantly interactedwith parasites and other organisms that make their homes in our bodies. How did these relationships evolve and how does variation in social and economic factors alter human infection risk? Why do some parasite infections cause severe illness while other are often unnoticed? How might an evolutionary understanding of human-parasite relationships help us improve health outcomes? This class will explore these questions and more as we investigate how parasites have affected human evolution and health. Pre-requisites: L48 307A or equivalent highly recommended.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5010 Seminar: Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology

This course is a graduate-level seminar, open to students across the social sciences, that provides hands-on training in a variety of methods used for collecting qualitative data in a systematic manner. Much of the course is devoted to developing interviewing skills that researchers can use in participant observation, semi-structured interviewing, person-centered interviewing, life histories, cultural domain analysis, and social network analysis. Classroom assignments are tailored to individual needs so that graduate students develop skills in practical and meaningful ways that apply directly to their research agendas. Enrollment is open to graduate students only.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5011 Methods: Proposal Writing

An introduction of issues and methods in the design of social science research, including field work, beginning with discussion of the philosophy of social science. Methods of falsification or validation of claims to knowledge in traditional anthropological contexts; readings include Kuhn and Campbell. Attention to the design of scientifically rigorous qualitative and quantitative research. Each student applies these concepts by designing an original proposal that meets both intellectual criteria and the requirements of funding agencies. Prerequisite: Graduate standing.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5033 Nomadic Strategies and Extreme Ecologies

This course will explore the archaeology and anthropology of nomadic pastoral societies in light of their ecological, political, and cultural strategies and adaptation to extreme environments (deserts, mountains, the Arctic). The aim of this course is to understand both the early development of pastoral ways of life and how nomads have had an essential role in the formation and transfer of culture, language, and power from prehistoric time to the current era.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5053 Theoretical Approaches in Archaeology

This class is an in-depth examination of archaeological theory, including the development of modern archaeological thinking, relations with other fields and disciplines, and the aims and goals of modern archaeology.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5070 Seminar: Human Biology

In this graduate seminar on human biology, we will look at major themes and big ideas in human biology and human reproductive ecology. This will include looking at human growth and development, biological variation, and adaptation to unusual and challenging ecologies (e.g., high altitude). We will read a variety of texts on human evolution, human reproductive ecology of males and females, childhood development, and the history of research in human biology. The course will also look at the ways in which human biology is a key part of biocultural anthropology and how insights into human biology and variation can contribute to our understandings of human evolution in a biocultural perspective.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5074 Seminar: Paleoanthropology

Focus upon assessing interpretations of the human fossil record. Prerequisite: Graduate standing or permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units.

ANTHRO 5080 Primate Ecomorphology

We will investigate the state of the science in primate ecomorphology, integrating current understanding of primate evolution, anatomy, and performance with that of primate ecology. Emphasis will be on synthesizing primate biomechanics and ecology toward a better understanding of form/function/evolution relationships in living and extinct species. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5083 Major Topics Seminar in Physical Anthropology

This graduate reading seminar will provide students with a review of key literature and major issues in biological anthropology. Topics will include race, primate and fossil hominin tool use, adaptationism, the origin of language, evolution of the brain, variation among primates in diet, locomotion and social organization, modern human origins, and the human-chimp split, among others.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5088 Selected Topics in Physical Anthropology

Topics will be selected from current controversies or research in the fields of human or primate biology. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5101 Topics in Anthropology: Conspiracies, Cults, and Moral Panics

This course offers a critical perspective on the field of humanitarianism-the humanitarian ethos or desire to help those in need as well as the humanitarian norms and practices that guide such interventions. What does it mean to help others, and why (and when) do people choose to do so? When is helping others a moral imperative? Why are some lives saved while others are left to suffer? The course introduces the historical, legal, and political foundations of humanitarian response and investigates into the practices, contexts, and effects of humanitarian intervention. Course content will critically examine humanitarian interventions amid medical, environmental, and conflict contexts and inquire into humanitarian temporalities, spaces, politics, ethics, and care.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC EN: S

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5104 Topics in Anthropology: Tech and Health: Minds, Bodies, Societies

A course covering topics in one of the three subdisciplines of anthropology

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5110 Seminar: Ecology and Adaption

In this course, we will discuss and explore biological adaptation. Discussions will include the history of the study of adaptation and seminal works that have shaped our understanding of this phenomenon, as well as current approaches to studying and identifying adaptation in living and extinct species. Examples will be drawn from all aspects of biology, including genetic morphological, and behavioral studies. Finally, we will apply current understanding and investigation of adaptation toward the evolution of our own species in order to better understand the evolutionary pressures shaping our lineage.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5122 Affect, Emotion, and Feeling: Anthropology of the Evocative

This course reviews recent attempts in the social sciences to demarcate and define the scope and objects of the affective turn in cultural theory and, more broadly, to carve out a distinctly interdisciplinary space for the understanding of affect, emotions, feelings, bodies, and the dynamism of sociocultural matter. This course is open to graduate level students only. Anthropologists and other social theorists from Durkheim onward have considered the role of affect in questions of bodies, sensation, emotion, and social change. In recent years, the affective turn in the humanities and humanistic social sciences has brought renewed attention to these dynamics. For some, affect is contrasted with emotion; it is potential or capacity, not set cultural meaning. For others, affect is contrasted with structure or form; it is bodily sensation or intensity--dynamic, energetic, mobile. And for others still, affect might enable us to grasp how it feels to inhabit a life world, a particular atmosphere, texture, sensuality, or the feel of things. This course explores the genealogy and range of theories of affect, emotion, and feeling, considering anthropology's distinctive contributions to and critiques of their study. We will discuss ways that centralizing affect, emotion, and feeling might disrupt dichotomies of structure/agency, opening up modes of analysis and enabling us to explore forms of life that exceed human subjects and socialities. Readings will tack between more theoretical essays and ethnographic representations of affect, sensuality, mobility, and emotion.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5124 Argumentation Through Ethnography

Ethnography is the traditional mainstay of anthropological academic writing. Through ethnography, anthropologists do more than simply describe a culture or a group of people; rather, they organize and present their field materials in particular ways in order to make intellectual, theoretical, and sometimes even political arguments. This seminar will explore the different ways anthropologists have used ethnography to make intellectual claims and frame theoretical or practical arguments. The aim of the course is to help students develop critical reading skills for engaging ethnographic materials as well as to explore the ways in which ethnography, when done well, can be a persuasive and engaging means of academic argumentation. This course is intended as a sequel to Anthro 472. Prerequisite: Anthro 472 or permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5149 Caring for Country: Hunter Gatherer Ecologies

What makes humans special? Is it our use of tools? Language? Culture? Humanity has been defined on the basis of its uniquely well-developed capacities for using technology, language, and culturally encoded knowledge and belief systems. In this course, we will explore a new hypothesis of human exceptionalism: a fundamental tendency to cultivate and care for lands. Our genius for reshaping ecosystems and incorporating other species into our societies is intimately linked to our technological and communicative skills. We have used these skills to migrate into and reshape every Earthly environment. We will explore the ethnographies, oral and written histories, and archaeologies, of so-called hunter-gatherers around the world, learning about the ways they shaped and tended their homelands using ecological knowledge systems. In this era of human induced environmental change - from global warming, to mass extinction, to genetic engineering - it is critically important that we look to our species' true ecological history for the wisdom that will help us meet these challenges.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, ETH, IS

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5150 The Archaeology of Politics and the Politics of Archaeology

How we study, interpret, present, and preserve the past is never isolated from broader concerns in society. In the currently polarized environment, the meaning of history and cultural heritage has taken on an unavoidable salience in political discourse. What is at stake is the ability to set the terms of conversations about national identity, cultural patrimony, illicit antiquities, war, and natural resource extraction, among many others. This course therefore addresses three questions: (1) how do archaeologists study politics in the past, (2) how does archaeological knowledge figure into politics (3) how is the creation of knowledge about the past inflected by present-day politics? To answer these questions, we will engage with a range of exemplary case studies that reveal the breadth and depth of the ways that scholars have examined the political in archaeology. Central themes in this course will concern archaeological methods and theory for studying ancient polities and political action in the past, conflict within and between polities, the use and abuse of archaeological knowledge, archaeology and nationalism, colonialism, the political economy of archaeological fieldwork, labor in and as a subject of archaeological research, archaeology and public policy, as well as archaeology as a form of political action. We will confront numerous challenging topics, with the perspective that archaeology is far from a dusty esoteric pursuit, but rather a terrain of meaningful struggle between experts, funders, stakeholders, descendant communities, state bureaucracies, institutions, and a range of publics. Students will gain an in depth understanding of both how archaeologists have valuable knowledge to contribute to the study of politics as such as well as the political issues facing archaeology in the world today.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, IS

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5163 Archaeology of China: Food and People

China is a country with a large population, diverse landscapes, and unique food. This course will explore the origins of Chinese food in the context of the formation of Chinese societies. During the last two decades, the archaeology of China has become a fast moving subject with advances in methods, theories and changes of key perceptions. In this context, the beginning and spread of food production in China has become one of the key questions in current archaeology. We will focus on the process of domestication of plants and animals in various regions of China during the Holocene. We will explore how those processes relate to other sectors of the Old World, such as those of South and Southwest Asia. This course will pursue answers to the following questions: Why the Chinese ways of living and eating are different from those in the West? How production and consumption in China were shaped by food globalization in prehistory?

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5180 Domestication: The Evolution of Our Multispecies Family

This course explores the evolution of the plants, animals, and microbes in human-mediated ecosystems. We call these evolutionary relationships domestication and they are at the heart of humanity's successful adaptation to nearly every ecosystem on Earth. From our millennia-deep friendship with gregarious wolves, to corn's continental conquests, to 'the industrial microbiome,' this course will ask how other species have evolved in response to human societies, and how societies have been shaped by these relationships. We will primarily draw on concepts and data from anthropology and evolutionary biology to understand the process of domestication.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5188 Seminar: The Teaching of Anthropology

Teaching techniques: special problems in teaching of anthropological subject matter; guidance and training for student teachers of anthropology. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5191 Primate Cognition

This course will investigate historical and current views regarding the cognitive capacities of non-human primates, and the extent to which these abilities are shared with humans. Topics for this class will include: social cognition, problem-solving, tool use, culture, communication, theory of mind, deception, self-recognition, imitation, and numerical cognition. The classes will involve discussion and critical evaluation of theory and methods in this challenging and exciting area of primate cognitive research.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Art: NSM

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5200 Communicating Archaeology

Nothing in science has any value to society if it is not communicated (Anne Roe, 1952) Science is not finished until it is communicated (Sir Mark Walport) There have never been more ways for archaeologists to communicate our research: we can write articles and books, produce videos and podcasts, post blogs, and engage students and the public through lectures. To master clear communication and convincing argumentation, though, requires clear thinking, the cultivation of expertise, and considerable practice. An objective of the class is to improve student communication skills across different genres, media, and styles of persuasion within archaeology. Communicating Archaeology is a platform for graduate students in archaeology to expand and amplify their communication and argumentation skills. The course emphasizes communicating across different media (e.g., writing, public speaking, lecturing, posters, videos, and audio). In addition to investigating effective communication techniques, we will practice regularly by writing, presenting, peer and instructor editing, and reworking drafts.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5203 Anthropological Genetics

This course will examine the principles of evolutionary genetics as applied to complex characters such as morphology, behavior, life history, and disease. Mathematical models of quantitative inheritance and evolution will be discussed. Special topics include kin selection, sexual dimorphism and conservation genetics. Prerequisite: Anthro 150A or introductory biology.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Art: NSM

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5204 Professionalization for Anthropologists

This course is for graduate students in anthropology or extraordinary undergraduates who are planning on applying to graduate school for anthropology (with permission of instructor). The purpose of this course is to develop and practice professional skills, including but not limited to: 1. Writing peer-reviewed journal articles 2. Writing grant proposals 3. Conducting peer-reviews and editing 4. Creating a conference presentation or poster 5. Writing a popular science story or press release 6. Creating a course syllabus 7. Creating a dossier of common academic job market documents: cover letter, research statement, teaching statement, diversity statement OR a resume and cover letter for a nonacademic job Throughout the semester, we will read examples of different kinds of professional writing and discuss the process involved in developing each. Students will select particular forms to work on based on their current needs and career goals. The skills that we cover will be adjusted according to the current needs and career goals of enrolled students, which will be assessed during the first week of class.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5210 Seminar: Writing Anthropological Reports and Essays

For students planning to write doctoral theses. Three class hours a week.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5211 Ethnobotany

Interrelationships between plants and people, especially in past societies. Recovery and analysis of plant remains from archaeological sites; interpreting subsistence and vegetation changes; medicinal, ritual, and technological uses of plants; plant domestication and agricultural intensification. Modern efforts to understand and preserve threatened traditional ethnobotanical practices. Prerequisite: Anth 190BP or an introductory botany course, or permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, WI Art: SSC EN: S

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5216 Anthropology of Food

The rising interest in food research crosscuts various academic disciplines. This seminar focuses on aspects of food of particular interest in anthropology. The first 2/3 of the course is reading intensive and discussion-intensive. Each student will write short review/response papers for major readings. For the final third, we will still be reading and discussing, but the reading load will be lighter (and we will have a field trip) as students devote more time to their research paper. The research paper will be a major effort on a topic discussed with and approved by the professor. In most cases it will have to deal with cultural and historical aspects of a food, set of foods, form of consumption or aspect of food production. Papers will be critiqued, assigned a provisional grade, revised and resubmitted.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC EN: S

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5220 Writing in Anthropology

We look at forms of writing in anthropology. We examine the history of ideas and debates about what we can learn from ethnographies, and about how the particularistic report from the field relates to the development of general knowledge. We ask what makes for clear, analytical writing in anthropology, and to a great degree in other disciplines. We try out our ideas both on published texts and on students' own work in progress. Successful writing depends on knowing your audience, and that requires knowing the genre conventions for that audience. For example, we write differently for a specialist journal than we do for one that aims to attract a wide audience. Part of deciding how to write is understanding how particular kinds of gatekeepers (editors, anonymous readers, research funders, potential employers) will evaluate a text. Alongside of critically reading texts, we will discuss departmental colloquia. Depending on time, we may also invite students who are preparing a job talk to try it out in class. In each case, we will ask: how is the text structured? How do authors link their work to broader concerns in the field? Do you find this convincing? How do we decide if a text is sufficiently placed in a context? We will look for areas of strength and ways the text could have been improved. Graduate students from across the discipline of anthropology are welcome to participate, including students in archeology and physical anthropology. Most of what we will do is transportable across a range of disciplines, and therefore graduate students from other departments are also most welcome. Students must register unless they have already reached their course ceiling.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5250 Advanced Reading

Advanced Readings in Anthropology

Credit 6 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5252 Aging in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Population aging, driven by increasing longevity and decreasing fertility, is a worldwide demographic transformation that is changing societies and social relationships at all levels, from family household interactions to national debates on policies and expenditures. This course, run in a seminar format, investigates global aging through the lenses of demography and cultural anthropology. The objectives are for students to gain an empirical understanding of current population trends and an appreciation for how the aging process differs cross-culturally. The first part of the course introduces basic concepts and theories from social gerontology, demography, and anthropology that focus on aging and provide a toolkit for investigating the phenomenon from interdisciplinary perspectives. The second part introduces students to data sets and analysis techniques that are key to documenting population aging at local, national, and global levels. The third part is devoted to reading and discussing ethnographies of aging from China, India, and elsewhere. Course assessment is based on data analysis exercises and written assignments.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, IS

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5264 The Myth of Race

This course describes the history of the myth of race and racism from the Spanish Inquisition to modern times. Since race is not a biological term but a cultural term, it is important for students to understand the origins and connections of ideas of race and racism from its beginnings in western thought to its current usage. The historical and literature connections can be seen though out the writings and behavior of the Spanish Inquisition, to the Renaissance, though colonization and slavery, to the reconstruction, to the late nineteenth century, to the early twentieth century, to modern times. In fact, the early history of anthropology can be traced through racist history.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5290 Environmental Archaeology

This course intends to introduce students to lines of evidence used in the interpretation of past landscapes, to discuss how we can conceptualize changing human ecological relations, and to consider how we can identify the influence that humans have on their environment. Special emphasis is placed on human-animal-plant relations using case studies from around the world. Combining both lecture and seminar sessions, this course aims to ensure that students are aware of several of the basic methods of bioarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction as well as the application of these methods to the interpretation of past landscapes and human impacts on them.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC

ANTHRO 5305 Seminar: Selected Topics: Public Scholarship and Multidisciplinary Approaches in Archaeology

An advanced seminar open only to career archaeologists.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5310 Health, Healing and Ethics: Introduction to Medical Anthropology

This course will offer a broad examination of health, healing and ethics in cross-cultural perspective. Specific topics include the cultural construction and organization of medical systems; social class as a factor influencing health status and access to health care; health and economic development; and the exportation of biomedicine worldwide. Ethical dilemmas associated with genetic testing, new reproductive technologies, organ transplants, and with global disparities in health will receive particular attention.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH

ANTHRO 5312 Norms, Networks, and Repertoires: The Anthropology of Institutions

We live our lives in social institutions: schools, courts, offices, hospitals, churches, and so forth, each one shaped by norms or rules, in which people form networks and draw on their repertoires for social action. Anthropologists and sociologists study institutions through ethnography, the close study of everyday interactions, albeit also incorporating approaches from politics and economics, and largely shaped by the traditions of social pragmatism. We explore the theoretical and empirical dimensions of an ethnographic and pragmatist approach through readings of Goffman, Foucault, and Bourdieu, and of more recent analyses of schools, courtrooms, immigration police, science laboratories, art, and other institutions.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5313 Environmental Interactions and Human Health

Explore topics of Environmental Interactions and Human Health

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC BU: BA

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5320 Disability Anthropology

Disability is everywhere: across cultures, it is present in our enviornments, in our media, and in our personal and familial lives. This discussion-based course recognizes disability not as a biomedical impairment but as an intersectional, constructed category of difference. Disability anthropology, which seeks to understand embodied experiences of disability through ethnography and sociocultural models of disability, is a recently emergent field. Following an introduction to disability activism, theory, and representation, our class will analyze examples of disability anthropology, including autoethnography, ethnographic film, and performance ethnography. As we collectively contribute to an accessible classroom, students will develop a final project that examines a physical space, policy, or other resource at WashU that could be made more accessible. Students will present their projects to the WashU community

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5323 Life At the Extremes: A Human Biology of Adaptation to Environmental Extremes

The Arctic Circle, Mount Everest, the Sahara Desert, poverty, and obesity, and even space! These are all extremes some humans experience. Using primary literature and media resources, this course will explore how humans biologically, culturally, and technologically manage environmental extremes.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM BU: SCI

ANTHRO 5330 Seminar: Selected Topics in Archaeology

Selected topics in Anthropology

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5365 Seminar: Problems in Applied Data Analysis

A consideration of complications in the analysis of non-experimental social science data by traditional inferential and descriptive methods. Included are issues such as null hypothesis testing versus effect size, clinical significance versus statistical significance, confidence intervals, the effective use of graphical methods, the interpretation of explained variance, measurement error, sample size and power, the treatment of outliers and missing data, the use of ratios and residuals for statistical control, transformations, significant figures, repeatability, the assumption of linearity, conditional probability, accuracy and precision, sensitivity and specificity, predictive validity, regression to the mean, ecological correlation, Simpson's Paradox, Lord's Paradox. This course is open to graduate level students only.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5366 Europe's New Diversities

Since the late 1980s, three major upheavals have transformed European senses of identity. The demise of the Soviet Union has forced citizens of new post-socialist' nations to forge new senses of belonging and new strategies of survival. The rise of a new public presence of Islam and the growth of children of Muslim immigrants to adulthood have challenged notions that Europe is a secular or post-Christian space. Finally, the heightened authority of European institutions has challenged the nation-state from above, and the granting of new forms of subnational autonomy to regions and peoples has challenged it from below. The new Europe is increasingly constituted by way of regional identifications, transnational movement(s), and umbrella European legal and political organizations; these new realities occasion new rhetorics of secularism, nationalism, and ethnic loyalties. We examine these forms of diversity, movement, and debate by way of new works in anthropology, sociology and political science.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5402 Quantitative Methods in Anthropology

This course provides an introduction to quantitative methods in anthropology. Standard analytical procedures are introduced through the lens of linear modeling using the R programming language. No prior experience in R is required. The topics covered include measurement theory, data description, hypothesis testing and the multiple comparison problem, correlation and regression, analysis of variance, clustering, power, non-parametric methods, and multivariate methods such as principal component and linear discriminant analysis.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5422 Fundamentals of Archaeology

Archaeology plays a critical and unique role in understanding the human past. Through study of the methods and theories of archaeology, and a survey of important firsts in the human past, this course introduces students to the way archaeologists use material culture to reconstruct and understand human behavior. Chronologically ordered case studies from around the globe are used to look at social, ecological, and cultural issues facing humans from the earliest times to the present. Students gain practice reconstructing the past through hands-on participation in two 1-hour labs focusing on lithics and animal bones. By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to think critically about how the past is presented, and why, and the importance of the past as it relates to the present and future.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5430 Fundamentals of Physical Anthropology

A survey of the fossil evidence for human evolution. The course includes discussion of the genetics of human variation and evolution, the study of living non-human primates, and the fossil record and its interpretation. An evolutionary perspective is used in an attempt to understand modern humans from the naturalistic point of view.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer

ANTHRO 5435 Behavioral Research At the St. Louis Zoo

Students conduct research at the St. Louis Zoo. Training in designing of projects and analysis and interpretation of data. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM, WI Art: NSM BU: BA

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5440 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

This course is team-taught by Professors Childs and Thomas. Each professor gives half the lectures in each section, so Section 1 (1:00-2:00pm) and Section 2 (9:00-10:00am) are identical. The course introduces the basic concepts, theories, and methods of Cultural Anthropology - an academic discipline that studies the diversity of human cultures and societies. The purpose is to provide a broad perspective on the types of research that anthropologists undertake, and to engage in a critical dialogue on how the work of anthropologists contributes to understanding the human condition. Introduction to Cultural Anthropology is a portal into more advanced anthropology courses, and is a requirement for all anthropology majors. EXAMINATION SCHEDULE: Exams, at which attendance is required, will be given from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. on the following dates: Tuesday February 20th, Tuesday March 27th, and Tuesday April 24th. Makeup exams will be given only under exceptional circumstances that are properly documented. Therefore, do not schedule anything that conflicts with the evening exams.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, HUM EN: S UColl: CD

Typical periods offered: Spring, Summer

ANTHRO 5442 Engineering Authority: Design, Architecture, and Power in Africa

Do water meters have politics? Can architects manufacture consent for political repression or engage in activism? What happens when designed systems fail? Design is everywhere. It is in the water you drink; it is in the built material and digital spaces you hang out in; and it is in the chair you are sitting in. And yet, perhaps because of its ubiquity, design receives very little attention from scholars in the humanities and even less from African studies. In this course, we will examine a number of case studies, from minor architectures and ruins in Monrovia to hydraulic engineering in Johannesburg and iconic architecture in Casablanca to DIY market spaces in Nairobi and insurgent public space-making in Kinshasa. We will explore the ways that designers, architects, and technocrats engineer authority and how (sometimes) urban residents take it apart. One potential definition (among many other potential definitions) of design could be the following: the practices that humans employ to arrange, engineer, plan and fashion their material, digital, and social environments. But designs are also artifacts -- master plans, prototypes, and brands -- that occupy social lives independent of their assigned functions. Design is often about aspirations for a better world and finding technological and aesthetic solutions to social problems. Yet the products of design -- from zoning codes and service delivery networks to iconic built structures -- seem to always invite failures, disruptions, hackings, and ruination. A central argument in this course is that understanding design is also key to understanding power, inequality, and insurgency in Africa. We will draw our texts and case studies from places that are normally left off the map of design studies -- African cities and towns -- and explore the applicability of these theories to St. Louis.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: CPSC, SSC, VC BU: BA

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5452 In the Field: Ethnographic and Qualitative Methods

This course provides an introduction to ethnographic and qualitative research. Ethnography is the study of culture and social organization primarily through participant observation and interviewing. Ethnographic research provides descriptive and interpretative analyses of the routine practices of everyday life. Ethnographic accounts represent different ways people live and make sense of their experiences; they describe the types of social organization (e.g., gender relations, class systems, racial divisions, cultural contexts) that, in part, serve to structure or pattern social behavior. Students conduct a small-scale qualitative research project; in the process, they gain skills in various qualitative research methods. This course is suitable for both undergraduate and graduate students. One purpose of the course is to help students plan for subsequent thesis research, independent study projects, or dissertation research.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC

ANTHRO 5473 Social Theory and Anthropology

A seminar on social theory and its ethnographic implications. Course combines major works of modern social theory, including Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, with current work by contemporary anthropologists, such as Clifford Geertz, Eric Wolf, Marshall Sahlins, and Fredrik Barth, and ethnographers from related disciplines, such as Pierre Bourdieu and Paul Willis. Prerequisite: Previous anthropology coursework or permission of instructor.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, SC Art: SSC EN: S

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5481 Zooarchaeology

Zooarchaeology, the study of animal bones from archaeological sites, provides key information for archaeologists on human diet and subsistence practices through time and on human-animal relations. The goal of this course is to introduce students to approaches and techniques employed in zooarchaeological studies, focusing hands on identification of mammalian bones from archaeological sites.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Art: NSM

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5500 Dissertation Research

Dissertation Research

Credit 9 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5502 Decolonizing Anthropology

Through books like Linda Tuhiwai Smith's book Decolonizing Methodology, tribal IRB's, and open letters, Indigenous people and tribal governments make clear how they want scientists to conduct research with their communities. How does anthropology reckon with its past ties with colonialism? How do we responsibly use scholarship from the past while working toward decolonization and anti-racism? This class will compare work by Indigenous people and people of color calling for decolonization and anti-racism, studies done using decolonizing methodologies, and widely read works of anthropology throughout the discipline's history. For example, we will read an excerpt from an anthropology textbook assigned at WashU in 2000 about an Eskimo and compare it to Native Alaskan scholar Heather Gordon's participatory research with Native Alaskans. During the last part of the class, we will learn about the roots of global inequality to highlight the structural conditions.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC EN: S

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5518 Anthropology and Development

What is 'development'? Economic progress for all? A slow and gradual 'improvement' in the human condition? Helping people with 'projects'? Westernization? Modernization? The sorting out of bodies that are useful and can be put to work from those less useful bodies that must be contained, imprisoned, or killed? The militarized accumulation of capital? The commodification of labor? The exhaustion of nature? In this advanced seminar we will consider how anthropologists - as writers, analysts, and theorists - have engaged the theories, meanings, practices, and consequences of (sometimes externally directed) economic and political change. We focus on issues of the contemporary moment: oil; urban poverty and inequality (sex work, migration, water, debt, and cash transfer programs); and cultures of militarism. The course is designed to provide a graduate-level introduction to theory and ethnography based on intensive reading, discussion, critique, and writing, with revision. It is open to advanced undergraduates and fulfills writing-intensive (WI) requirements, as well as capstone requirements for some majors.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC, WI Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5520 Applied Anthropology

This course explores the field of applied anthropology and its approach to understanding human social problems. The focus is on the qualitative and quantitative information applied anthropologists use to study practical human social problems. We will examine the four important factors that influence the practical application of theories and methods to social problems: (1) the specific challenges faced by individuals with particular social identities; (2) the coping strategies developed by local groups and the sustainability of their efforts; (3) the interests and objectives of key actors involved; and (4) the goals, identities, and ethics of researchers. Taking a comparative perspective, the course employs an ethnographic, historical, and geographic approach to understand local problems within global contexts. Students will engage in research projects applying anthropological concepts and methods, thereby scrutinizing the contexts in which information is collected, analyzed, disseminated, and utilized by applied anthropologists.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5550 Primate Adaptation and Evolution

How is migration controlled, monitored, regulated, perceived, and experienced in the American melting pot? How does the United States' history of immigration play into the politics surrounding migration today? What is the influence of migration policies on the everyday lives of migrants residing within the U.S.? What particular opportunities and challenges are presented by being a migrant in the U.S.? Who is migrating to the U.S., and why? This course will provide a comprehensive overview of migration in the U.S., providing students with valuable knowledge not only about the laws and policies that govern migration but also about the lived experiences of migrants. Specifically, we will discuss the history of migration in the U.S., immigration law, the migration policies of recent administrations, the U.S.-Mexico border, border surveillance, health, mental health, public perception of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, sanctuary cities, politics and migration, and Latin American migrants. We will welcome guest speakers working in the field of migration throughout the semester, and students will have the opportunity to ask them about their work as well as their opinions on migration policy in the U.S. Class materials will include articles and book chapters from the fields of anthropology, political science, history, public health, sociology, and psychology as well as short videos, documentary films, and newspaper articles. Additionally, we will incorporate discussions on current events surrounding migration in the U.S. by following weekly news coverage on this topic. This course will be useful for students hoping to work with migrants in a variety of settings as well as for those hoping to pursue policy, research, or political careers related to this topic.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5565 Biomolecular Archaeology: Are You What You Eat?

A revolution is underway in archaeology. Working at the cutting edge of isotopic and genetic technologies, researchers have been probing the building blocks of ancient proteins, life-DNA, fats and microfossils - to rewrite our understanding of the past. Their discoveries and analyses have helped revise the human genealogical tree and answer such questions as: Are you what you eat? How different are we from the Neanderthals? Who first domesticated plants and animals? What was life like for our ancestors? In this class, we will address those fundamental issues to understanding human nature. Here is science at its most engaging.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5597 Biomarkers: Measuring Population Health, Reproductive, and Social Endocrinology

How do we study contemporary human biology and population level health? How do we investigate individual differences in health within a larger population? In this course, we will specifically address these questions by looking at how anthropologists, nutritionists, and public health workers investigate individual and population level health. This will be done through the study of biomarkers collected from individuals. In this class, we will discuss the theory behind the use of biomarkers, the underlying biology and physiology of the human body reflected in these data, and the methods used in collection and analyses of biomarkers. Finally, we will discuss how biomarkers can be integrated into studies of population and individual level health.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Art: NSM

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5600 Ethnobiology Journal Club

Students in this journal club will meet weekly with ethnobotanists, ethnozoologists, and ecologists from various St. Louis institutions (including Washington University, UM-St. Louis, St. Louis University, and the Missouri Botanical Garden) to discuss recent publications and ongoing research. Enrolled students will attend the journal club every week, and once per semester, will choose a paper and lead the discussion.

Credit 1 unit.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5621 Anthropology of Human Birth

This course will examine the interaction between human biology and culture in relation to childbirth. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the cultural challenges posed by the physiology of human reproduction, the ways various cultures have attempted to meet those challenges, and the resultant consequences that this has had for women's lives. The course will draw on material from human anatomy and embryology, paleoanthropology, clinical obstetrics, public health, social anthropology, the history of medicine, and contemporary bioethics.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5655 New Advances in Archaeology

Archaeological research is moving at an increasingly rapid pace, with advances in archaeological methods and theory propelling new interpretations and understandings of archaeological findings. This course we will focus on contemporary developments in archaeology, with an emphasis on current trends in theory, method, and discovery. The objectives of the course are to place emerging trends in archaeological research in a historical context, to understand new methods, and to explore how various theoretical approaches influence the conduct of archaeological research around the globe.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5700 Advanced Topics in Anthropology: Materiality and Material Culture

This course explores theories, concepts, and recent case studies in anthropology and related disciplines on the themes of materiality and material culture. Taking the relationship between humans and objects as a core conceptual problem in anthropology, the course draws from archaeology, cultural anthropology, literary theory, social theory and sociology to intensively examine a number of principle frameworks for thinking about and engaging the materials through which culture and social life are consitututed. Theoretical approaches including historical materialism, queer theory, new materialism, and actor network theory will be considered, as will recent work in material culture studies, commodity chain studies, the anthropology of infrastructure, and design anthropology.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5712 Seminar: Advanced Social Theory

This course covers advanced readings and topics in social theory and explores the contemporary application and development of social theory in cultural anthropology, the interpretive social sciences, and the humanities. Engaging key theories and thinkers, we examine their relevance for understanding the complexities of power, culture, and society in today's global world, as well as medicine, citizenship and inequality, the body and experience, among others. This course is designed for graduate students, with advanced undergraduate students admitted by permission of the instructor.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5720 Geoarchaeology

Geoarchaeology involves the application of analytical techniques, concepts, and field methods from the earth sciences to help solve archaeological problems. Issues explored in this course include human and environmental processes involved in archaeological site formation, the sedimentary context of archaeological remains, soils and sediments relevant to archaeology, the relationship between past settlement and landscape evolution, paleoclimatic reconstruction, human impacts on the environment, geological sourcing of artifact proveniences, and remote sensing of the physical environment. Several field trips to local archaeological/geological sites provide an opportunity to understand how geoarchaeology is applied to specific research problems.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5730 Introduction to GIS for Anthropologists

Use of GIS is rapidly becoming standard practice in anthropological research. This course will introduce students to the basic theories and techniques of GIS. Topics will include the application of GIS in archaeologial survey and ethnographic research, as well as marketing, transportation, demographics, and urban and regional planning. This course will enable students to become familiar not only with GIS software such as ArcGIS, but also the methodologies and tools used to collect and analyze spatial data. Students will gain expertise engaging with data situated across a number spatial scales, from households, communities and cities to landscapes, nation-states, and global phenomena. Students will need to work on their own laptops, but no software purchases are necessary.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 5740 Social Landscapes in Global View

From the beginning of the human campaign, societies have socialized the spaces and places where they live. This socialization comes in many forms, including the generation of sacred natural places (e.g., Mt. Fuji) to the construction of planned urban settings where culture is writ large in overt and subtle contexts. Over the past two decades or so, anthropologists, archaeologists, and geographers have developed a wide body of research concerning these socially constructed and perceived settings -- commonly known as landscapes. This course takes a tour through time and across the globe to trace the formation of diverse social landscapes, starting in prehistoric times and ending in modern times. We will cover various urban landscapes, rural landscapes, nomadic landscapes (and others) and the intersection of the natural environment, the built environments, and the symbolism that weaves them together. Chronologically, we will range from 3000 BCE to 2009 CE and we will cover all the continents. This course will also trace the intellectual history of the study of landscape as a social phenomenon, and will investigate the current methods used to recover and describe social landscapes around the world and through time. Join in situating your own social map alongside the most famous and the most obscure landscapes of the world and trace the global currents of your social landscape!

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S UColl: CD

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5771 Out of the Wild: Domestication and Socioeconomic Diversity in Africa

The reason for the beginnings and spread of food production during the early Holocene in so many parts of the world is one of the most interesting questions in archaeology. It now seems likely that there are many different pathways to domestication. In Africa, there is a record of up to several million years of human existence as hunter-gatherers before some human populations adopted food production. Domestication of plants and animals about 10,000 years ago resulted in fundamental changes in human societies. It provided the basis for the increase in settlement densities, specialization and social stratification, and general decrease in mobility and dietary diversity, characteristic of non-hunter-gatherer societies in the modern world. In this seminar, the class will explore the phenomenon of domestication, and the spread of food production, surveying the evidence for manipulation and domestication of plant and animal species by prehistoric peoples in Africa. We will focus on how and why domestication occurred, and factors that influenced its spread, and interactions between late hunter-gatherers and early pastoralists, and intersections with complex societies of the Nile. We will also look at the contributions of Africa to understanding pathways to food production world wide.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, WI Art: SSC

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5790 Meltdown: The Archaeology of Climate Change

This course examines the temporal, geographical, and environmental aspects of past climate changes, and by using specific examples, explores how climate changes may have affected the evolution of human culture and the course of human history. Archaeological and documentary examples from the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Near East will be used to explore if or how significant events in human history have been influenced by changes in climate.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5802 Theories and Practice of Landscape Archaeology

The study of landscapes as a particular framework for understanding the archaeological record has become increasingly widespread in the discipline today. Yet the theoretical background for defining landscapes is commonly disconnected with the actual practical application of landscape archaeology. What exactly do we mean by landscape archaeology, what is its utility, and how do contemporary methods of analysis and interpretation change the way we consider arcdhaeology through this conceptual paradigm? This course will explore the theoretical basis and current arcaheological approaches to landscape and address its distinction to, and overlap with, other prevalent concepts such as environment, ecology, place, and space. The course will also place focus on concrete methodological and practical approaches that differentiate Landscape Archaeology from other approaches -- as well as illustrate their points of convergence.

Credit 3 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5803 Advanced GIS Modeling and Landscape Analysis

The aim of this course is to learn to analyze archaeological data in terms of its spatial layout, geography, ecology, and temporal dynamics, using Geographic Information Systems and associated computer modeling techniques. A focus is placed on the relationship between natural environments, cultural geography, and the mapping of archaeological landscapes, and on the archaeologist's ability to accurately recover, reconstruct, and analyze this relationship in a virtual environment.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 5885 Global Mental Health: Medical Pluralism and Cross-Cultural Care

What does global mental health mean for different actors and stakeholders? This course will examine the history, interventions, and critiques of global mental health. We will explore how diagnosis, distress, and treatment are experienced in different cultural and geographic contexts. Moreover, we will consider how biomedical psychiatry complements and conflicts with other forms of healing expertise. We will also consider mental health disparities, and critically reflect on the successes and challenges of global mental health interventions. This course will draw on materials from different disciplines, including anthropology, public health, psychiatry, social work, long form journalism, and guest speakers to examine topics in global mental health, such gender and sexuality, migration and displacement, environmental determinants and climate change, and global crises like COVID-19. Our course materials will draw on research carried out in a variety of locations, including the United States, India, Iran, Italy, Botswana, Brazil, and Thailand.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC BU: BA, IS

Typical periods offered: Fall

ANTHRO 5942 American Indians and American Empire

This course critically explores the past and present struggles of Native Americans against white settler colonialism. We trace connections between U.S. domestic policy and imperialist ideologies, politics, and violent war from the United States to the Philippines to Latin America and the Middle East. By reading work by Native American and non-Native scholars, writers, and activists, we will consider how issues of race, class, gender and sexuality, violence, policing and militarism, nature, education, language, and sovereignty are intertwined with coloniality, forms of anti-colonial resistance, and the making of decolonized futures. Readings will be interdisciplinary, drawing on anthropology, history, politics, and literature. Students will develop research projects through case studies of their choosing.

Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S

Typical periods offered: Spring

ANTHRO 7883 Master's Continuing Student Status

Master's Continuing Student Status

Credit 0 units.

Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring

ANTHRO 7884 Masters Nonresident

Credit 0 units.