Anthropology
Anthropology offers the opportunity to study human existence in the present and the past and to explore how and why humans vary in their behaviors, cultures, and biology. Students choose to study anthropology because they want to understand some of the most intriguing and troubling issues faced by modern society: the origin and meaning of ethnic and gender differences; the role of institutions in social, political, and economic life; learned vs. innate behavior; the similarities and differences among human societies; and the meaning of religion, community, and family.
The Department of Anthropology offers courses in three subdisciplines of anthropology: archaeology, biological anthropology, and sociocultural anthropology.
The faculty in the anthropology department are active in research around the world and bring a diversity of experiences to their teaching.
- Faculty research expertise in archaeology includes the origins of food production; the cultures of prehistoric North, Central, and South America; African and Central Asian prehistory; environmental archaeology; and geographic information systems (GIS).
- Biological anthropology faculty focus on the evolution of humans; on the normal biological variation in living human populations; and on the ecology, behavior, and evolution of nonhuman primates.
- Sociocultural faculty conduct research on a wide range of topics, including states, societies, and beliefs; political ecology, demography, fertility, and population; sociolinguistics; medical anthropology and public health; bodies, gender, and sexuality; science and technology; mind and cognition; and religion and politics.
Contact Info
Contact: | Erin Coleman |
Phone: | 314-935-5309 |
Email: | colemane@wustl.edu |
Website: | http://anthropology.wustl.edu |
Chair
Rebecca J. Lester
Professor
PhD, University of California, San Diego
Associate Chair
Xinyi Liu
Associate Professor
PhD, University of Cambridge
Director of Graduate Studies
Emily Wroblewski
Assistant Professor
PhD, University of Minnesota
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Anna Jacobsen
Senior Lecturer
PhD, Washington University in St. Louis
Department Faculty
Felix Ampadu
Lecturer
PhD, University of Arizona
Sarah Baitzel
Assistant Professor
PhD, University of California, San Diego
John Baugh
Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Arts & Sciences
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Pascal R. Boyer
Henry Luce Professor of Collective and Individual Memory
PhD, University of Paris–Nanterre
Maddalena Canna
Assistant Professor
PhD, School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences of Paris (EHESS), PSL University
Geoff Childs
Professor
PhD, Indiana University
Talia Dan-Cohen
Associate Professor
PhD, Princeton University
Michael Frachetti
Professor
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Theresa Gildner
Assistant Professor
PhD, University of Oregon
Bret D. Gustafson
Professor
PhD, Harvard University
Rose Hores
Lecturer
PhD, Southern Illinois University
A.J. Jones
Assistant Professor
PhD, Emory University
T.R. Kidder
Edward S. and Tedi Macias Professor in Arts & Sciences
PhD, Harvard University
Krista Milich
Assistant Professor
PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Natalie Mueller
Assistant Professor
PhD, Washington University
Kyle Olson
Lecturer
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Shanti A. Parikh
Professor
PhD, Yale University
Ilaria Pitania
Assistant Professor
PhD, Boston University
Thomas Cody Prang
Assistant Professor
PhD, New York University
Elizabeth A. Quinn
Associate Professor
PhD, Northwestern University
Jill Richardson
Lecturer
PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Scott Ross
Lecturer
PhD, The George Washington University
Crickette Sanz
James W. and Jean L. Davis Professor in Arts & Sciences
PhD, Washington University
David Strait
Professor
PhD, State University of New York–Stony Brook
Helina Woldekiros
Associate Professor
PhD, Washington University
Affiliated Faculty
Kari Allen
PhD, Duke University
(Neuroscience and Biological Anthropology)
Amy Bauernfeind
PhD, The George Washington University
(Neuroscience and Anthropology)
Visit online course listings to view semester offerings for L48 Anthro.
L48 Anthro 1130 Introduction to Race
This course serves as an introduction to the analytic category race. Students will be exposed to major theories concepts, processes, frameworks, and scholars of race. They will develop the skills and language to critically examine and discuss race, with emphasis on how conceptions of race and collective identity have deep historical roots and have changed over time. This course takes the position that race-like gender, class and sexuality-is socially constructed. That said, while race is socially constructed, this course also emphasizes that racialization and racial categories have social, political, and economic consequences in people's everyday lives. Meaning the socially and historically constructed category of race has real implications for people and communities. Ultimately, the purpose of the course is to teach students to read, think and write critically about one of today's most contentious topics-race-by exposing them to readings and other course materials that consider race and the process of racialization in specific contexts and time periods throughout the world.
Same as L90 AFAS 1130
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L48 Anthro 130 First-Year Seminar: The Ritual Landscape of Cahokia: Perspectives on the Politics of Religion & Chiefly Power
The purpose of this class is to engage and challenge freshman students in an open discussion about the prehistoric Mississippian community of Cahokia. The focus of this course is two-fold. The first is to study the way in which the archaeological evidence has been interpreted. The second is to examine other perspectives on Cahokia, especially from the Native American descendants who consecrated this landscape nearly a millennium ago. An underlying tenet of this seminar in understanding Cahokia can also be achieved through the traditions and literature of Native Americans. In the end we want to understand the basis for Cahokia's organization as a prehistoric Native American community, and the role that ritual and religion played in the rather dramatic and dynamic history of this community and the surrounding region.
Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: HUM EN: S
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L48 Anthro 132 First-Year Seminar: Past Tense, Future Imperfect: The Rise & Fall of Societies & Global Civilization
The past history of humanity is littered with the stories of societies whose peoples experienced prosperity and fluorescence followed by decline and catastrophe. In the present, an age of information and rapid change, public intellectuals offer broad and detailed visions of what took place in the past, what is happening now, and what the trends suggest for the future. This course looks at the efforts of two prominent public intellectuals, economist Lester Brown and geographer Jared Diamond. In this course we look at Brown's work in its latest incarnation, Plan B 4.0. We discuss this in light of current events. We then look at Jared Diamond's book "Collapse, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" and critical response to that book by experts. I include a personal perspective as an archaeologist working with the ancient Maya civilization. The Maya are famous for the ninth century AD collapse of their Classic civilization. The readings provide the basis for discussion of the challenges we face in understanding the life histories of societies and discerning what we can conclude about the future from their experiences. This course is available to first year non-transfer students only.
Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 136 First-Year Seminar: 20,000 Years on Turtle Island: A Deep History of North America
The twin premises of this course are that humans are the subject of history and that history should begin at the beginning. American history courses normally begin with the colonization of the New World by Europeans beginning in the 15th century, sometimes with a cursory chapter dedicated to the 20,000 years of history that came before. This course will invert this structure and place what we normally think of as American history in the context of a much longer story by drawing on sources from many disciplines, including archaeology, ethnography, ecology, geology, linguistics, and oral history. We will focus on contested events or issues, where our sources tell different stories, and we will consider what is at stake for defenders of different narratives. Throughout the course, we will ask how the lack of written records limits our understanding of North American history, but we will also consider how other sources of evidence about the past can be used to include populations and themes normally underrepresented by textual histories. The goals of this course are as follows: (1) to put recent American history in its proper context; (2) to show how historical narratives are constructed and contested; and (3) to give students tools other than written records with which to construct history. Course is for first-year, non-transfer students only.
Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 138 First-Year Seminar: Anthropological Perspectives on COVID-19
This class explores the evolving relationships between humans, animals, and the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. In examining COVID-19 and other zoonotic outbreaks, this course emphasizes that a complex mix of ecological, political, economic, and social factors shape infectious disease emergence and epidemiology. Drawing on popular media, medico-scientific scholarship, and ethnographic case studies, we will explore topics including zoonotic "jumping" and bioinsecurity, environmental degradation and animal agriculture, unequal burdens of risk and disease, politics and public health policy debates, and the lived experience of front-line healthcare, illness, and quarantine. In so doing, we consider the role anthropological research and perspectives might play in understanding and ameliorating global health problems in diverse contexts around the world.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 140 Proseminar
This course is designed to introduce the student to current issues in anthropology and to research being carried out by faculty. Topics vary each year. Each departmental member addresses issues in their particular specialty. The course is required of all majors; it may also be taken before declaring the major, and it may be taken by non-majors.
Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 141 Ampersand: Medicine and Society
This course provides the basic foundation in medical anthropology and cultural anthropology for students enrolled in the Medicine and Society Program. The purpose of the course is to introduce students to the central themes and theoretical approaches employed by medical anthropologists to study health and illness in cross-cultural perspective. Topical areas include analyses of disease, illness and sickness at micro and macro levels; impact of personal and interpersonal factors on health; health effects of social, political, and economic factors; relationship of anthropology to biological and social science approaches; ecology of health and development; and cross-cultural health studies of language, gender, and race/ethnicity. Note: Content for this course overlaps with and replaces Anth 160 for students enrolled in the Medicine and Society Program. Open only to students enrolled in the Medicine and Society Program.
Credit 3 units. A&S: AMP A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 142 Ampersand: Medicine and Society
This course is the required second-semester sequence of the introduction to medical anthropology and cultural anthropology for students enrolled in the Medicine and Society program. The course builds upon material introduced in Anthro 141, and it provides greater ethnographic context for the cross-cultural study of health and illness. Topical areas include analyses of disease, illness and sickness at micro and macro levels; the impact of personal and interpersonal factors on health; the health effects of social, political, and economic factors; the relationship of anthropology to biological and social sciences approaches; the ecology of health and development; and cross-cultural health studies of language, gender, and race/ethnicity.
Credit 3 units. A&S: AMP A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 150A Introduction to Human Evolution
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. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 160B Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
This 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.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, HUM EN: S UColl: CD
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L48 Anthro 170D Introduction to Linguistics
Language is one of the fundamental capacities of the human species, and there are many interesting and meaningful ways in which it can be studied. This course explores the core components of linguistic theory: speech sounds (phonetics and phonology), word formation (morphology), sentence structure (syntax), and meaning (semantics). It also provides an overview of interdisciplinary ideas and research on how language is acquired and processed, its relation to the mind-brain and to society, and the question of whether the essential properties of language can be replicated outside the human mind (specifically, in chimpanzees or computer programs).
Same as L44 Ling 170D
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, HUM EN: S
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L48 Anthro 174 Medicine East and West: Comparing Healthcare in the U.S. and China
This course provides a foundational introduction to comparative health studies by examining the health care systems of the United States and China. Using the tools and interpretive frameworks of the field of medical anthropology, students in this course will be exposed to a broad range of topics dealing with health and healthcare in Eastern and Western contexts. These include the study of medical pluralism, meaning of illness, health care financing, preventive care, political-economic perspectives, and sociobehavioral perspectives on health and wellness. Students taking this class will be better prepared to understand and address on-going health care concerns affecting U.S. and Chinese society.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 180 First Year Seminar: Our Cultures in 3D
Today's digital technologies provide rapidly evolving ways to interact with people, material culture, social landscapes, architecture, and the environment. Virtual reality and 3-D modeling from both terrestrial and drone-based remote sensing, photogrammetry, LiDAR and other applications provide us with unprecedented tools to reconstruct, test, and experience these many aspects of culture and the environment. In some cases,virtual tools also allow us to experience places far away and learn about cultures which are different from our own. In this course we will learn the basics of 3-D modeling and virtual reconstruction, and explore a range of ways 3D modeling is used in Anthropological and environmental applications. In this class you will learn how cutting-edge technologies are used in a variety of sectors related to Anthropology and Archaeology, such as heritage management, environmental assessment, digital museum exhibits, and more. Methodologically you will be given the opportunity - through your own project - to explore how to acquire data using tools such as terrestrial and drone-based photography, how to produce 3-D models with the latest software tools, and how to package these assets for productive and ethical dissemination. In the end, you will work with a teammate to produce 3D models related to a project of your choice, and your learning will be focused via the development of your project. This course is available to first year non-transfer students only.
Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: LCD, SSC BU: HUM EN: S
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L48 Anthro 190B Introduction to 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 2009 World Archaeology
If we carefully peer beneath the earth's surface, we will discover a hidden world that is being rediscovered by archaeologists. A considerable amount of excitement is generated by the discovery of lost civilizations and societies. Archaeologists from every corner of the earth come to Washington University to share their experiences as they use the most sophisticated technology to rediscover those forgotten and sometimes embarrassing aspects of our human past.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
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L48 Anthro 209C World Archaeology: Global Perspectives on the Past
If we carefully peer beneath the earth's surface, we will discover a hidden world that is being rediscovered by archaeologists. A considerable amount of excitement is generated by the discovery of lost civilizations and societies. Archaeologists from every corner of the earth come to Washington University to share their experiences as they use the most sophisticated technology to rediscover those forgotten and sometimes embarrassing aspects of our human past.
Same as L52 ARC 200C
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM, SSC Art: HUM, SSC BU: IS EN: H
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L48 Anthro 212 Archaeological Fantasies and Hoaxes
American popular culture is saturated with pseudoscientific and fictionalized accounts of archaeological discoveries and interpretations. How can students of the past distinguish between fraud, fantasy, hype, and valid archaeological research? What potential merit do films, TV-oriented documentaries, and historical fiction offer? What role has racism played in attempts to deny indigenous peoples credit for their past achievements? This course looks at the popular culture of archaeology, providing tolls for critical evaluation as well as lifetime enjoyment of the field as it is frequently sold to both the informed and the unwary public. Anthropology majors and non-majors are all welcome as are sophomores and motivated first-year students who have not yet declared majors.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 2151 Language, Culture, and Society
This course explores the relationships between linguistic practice and other social and cultural processes. Among the topics to be discussed are language and social identity, language and thought, language and gender, multilingualism and language shift as well as the connections between language and the identity of ethnically or nationally defined communities. The course format will alternate between "classic" theoretical readings and ethnographic case studies on the interplay between linguistic practice and ideology as well as cultural and social processes.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 227 Topics in Native-American Culture: The Native-American Experience
The topic of this course varies from semester to semester. Please see Course Listings for a description of the current offering.
Same as L98 AMCS 227
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 260 Topics in Health and Community
A survey of current topics in community health and medicine, with an emphasis upon social science approaches to issues affecting medicine and medical care in contemporary U.S. society. Issues include ethical debates in health care delivery, social stratification and health, access to health services, and factors affecting community wellness at local, national, and global levels. Presented as a weekly series of topical presentations by community health experts from the St. Louis area. Required for students enrolled in the Medicine and Society Program, and also open to other interested students.
Credit 1 unit. EN: S
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L48 Anthro 2653 Healthcare Challenges in Modern China
As the most populous country in the world, China has many challenges regarding medicine, health and healthcare delivery. In this course several major healthcare challenges facing China will be explored. Students will have the opportunity to learn not just from published research and class discussion but also from the perspectives of those who spend their lives studying the social, political, and cultural dynamics of these issues as well as those who devote their careers to the practice of healthcare in China. Must be enrolled in the study abroad program at Fudan University in Shanghai, China.
Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 290 Independent Study
Designed to give undergraduates research experience in the various subdisciplines of Anthropology. May be taken more than once for credit. Prerequisite: consent of the faculty member under whom the research will be done.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
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L48 Anthro 300 Internships in Anthropology
Anthropology majors may acquire professional experience outside the classroom by participating in a faculty-sponsored internship. Before work begins, the student and faculty sponsor must agree on a final written project, which is then approved by the Anthropology Academic Coordinator. Students will be evaluated by the faculty sponsor on the basis of the written project and input from the internship supervisor. Course may only be taken one time. Prerequisite: 9 hours of anthropology and permission of department.
Credit 3 units.
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L48 Anthro 3006 Global Health and Language
Long before COVID-19, scholars across the globe postulated that language in health care is one of the most significant, and yet underexplored, social determinants of health in underserved linguistic diverse communities. This new course attempts to harmonize work across the disciplines of Global Public Health and Applied Linguistics by analyzing studies that examine language acquisition and language use across contexts with populations that experience serious health disparities- immigrants, refugees, indigenous peoples, racial and ethnic minority groups- and the course offers corresponding implications for health equity. Broadly speaking, this course addresses global health literacy issues, in both spoken and written communications, and its relationship to public health. As part of the seminar, students will apply the theory and research they learn to help meet the local language health needs of a changing population of refugees and immigrants in St. Louis community.
Same as L97 GS 3006
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, ETH, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 302B Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East
This course will introduce the cultural diversity and unity of the peoples of the Middle East. The emphasis is on historical and ethnological relationships, social and political structure, religious pluralism and contemporary youth issues. We will explore the lived experiences of the peoples in the modern nation-states of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, and Iran. We will access this material through short stories, poetry, biographies, essays, videos, blogs, and political and anthropological reports.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS
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L48 Anthro 3037 Anthropology of Refugees, Asylum, and Forced Migration
What does it mean to be a refugee? Where do refugees reside, and from where do they originate? How are they distinguished, legally and in the public imagination, from other migrants? What challenges do they face? This course will address these questions and many more, giving students a detailed and nuanced understanding of asylum and international protection in the contemporary world. After a brief overview of the history of refugee status and asylum, the course will focus on modern-day populations of refugees and asylum seekers and the primary challenges they face. Topics to be covered include: refugee camps, refugee resettlement, asylum seekers, Palestinian refugees, women refugees, LGBTQIA+ refugees, climate refugees, mental health, refugee integration and adaptation, and public response to refugees. Additionally, we will discuss different career paths for working with refugees and asylum seekers, and we will welcome several guest speakers with experience in this field, including a psychologist, a documentary filmmaker, a journalist, and a social worker. Students will have the opportunity to complete a migrant interview project, in which they will interview a friend, family member, or other close acquaintance who is a migrant with the guidance of the instructor, culminating in a final paper. Alternatively, they may choose to complete a traditional term paper. Class materials will include articles and book chapters from the fields of anthropology, history, psychology, and political science as well as newspaper articles, documentary films, and short videos. This course will be useful for students hoping to work in migration, humanitarian aid, or global health in the future. Prerequisites: None. Introduction to Cultural Anthropology is recommended, but not required. The course can be successfully completed without having taken other anthropology courses. Please consult the instructor if you have any concerns.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC
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L48 Anthro 305 Anthropology of India
An introduction to the societies and cultures of India through its social margins. Our approach will leverage scholarship from many fields, highlighting the strengths and limitations of singular-discipline analyses and universalized histories. Ethnographic narratives will be woven into historical accounts of major cultural shifts. Students will learn to evaluate and apply multi-vocal perspectives on larger global issues that have transformed India since the end of colonization, including demographic, economic, social, cultural, political, and religious change. Topics will include population and life expectancy, civil society, social-moral relationships, caste and communalism, youth and consumerism, the new urban middle class, environment and health, tourism, public and religious cultures, social activism, politics and law
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3051 Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalayas
This course is an anthropological and historical examination of Tibetan societies inhabiting the Tibetan Plateau and the highlands of Nepal. In addition to providing basic ethnographic descriptions of Tibetan societies, the course will explore the changing nature of relations between Tibet and China, and between Tibet and the West. Guiding concepts include adaptation (both social and ecological), the politics of ethnicity and identity, and processes of culture change.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3053 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3055 Contemporary Chinese Culture and Society
This course provides an introduction to emerging trends in Chinese culture and society. We will explore processes of change and continuity in the People's Republic, examining the complexity of social issues and the dynamics of cultural unity and diversity. While we will focus on the post-Mao reform era (1978 to the present), we will consider how contemporary developments draw upon the legacies of the Maoist revolution as well as the pre-socialist past. The course provides an overview of anthropological approaches to the study of contemporary China, introducing students to key concepts, theories, and frameworks integral to the analysis of Chinese culture and society. Readings, lectures, and discussions will highlight not only macro-level processes of social change and continuity but also the everyday experiences of individuals involved in these processes. We will pay particular attention to issues of family life, institutional culture, migration, religion, ethnicity, gender, consumption, and globalization.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3056 Material Culture in Modern China
In this course, we will explore change and continuity from late imperial to postsocialist China through an analysis of everyday material culture. Drawing upon material objects, historical texts, ethnographic studies, and films, we will investigate values, beliefs and attitudes towards the material world in modern Chinese life. Readings, lectures, and discussions will focus on how political, ethnic, regional, religious, and gender identities have been constructed and shaped by the use and production of material artifacts ranging from household goods and tomb objects to built forms and bodily dispositions. Case studies include foot-binding, opium use, fashion, tea culture, fast food consumption, sports and nation building, contemporary art markets, the privatization of housing, and worker discipline in transnational factories.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3059 New Departures in the Study of Culture, Health, and Medical Practices in Contemporary China
Drawing upon an interdisciplinary approach, this course addresses several major themes with a focus on the dynamics of China's unprecedented healthcare transformations. Topical issues covered will include: Biocultural Contexts of Disease; the Challenge of Aging in a Gray China; Health Inequalities and Social Stratification; and Values and the Medical Humanities in Public Health.**Students are encouraged to conduct ethnographic field research in a variety of settings including: community health centers, drug stores, city and district hospitals, clinics, public parks, clubs, temples and shrines, tea houses, cafes, restaurants, and school playgrounds and other places of interest. MUST BE ENROLLED IN THE STUDY ABROAD PROGRAM AT FUDAN UNIVERSITY IN SHANGHAI, CHINA.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 306B Africa: Peoples and Cultures
An anthropological survey of Africa from the classic ethnographies to contemporary studies of development. Emphasis on the numerous social and economic changes African peoples have experienced from pre-colonial times to the present.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: HUM, IS
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L48 Anthro 307A Human Variation
A survey of human biological diversity, considering its adaptive and taxonomic significance from the perspective of origins and distribution of traits and adaptation. Prerequisite: Anthro 150A or introductory biology.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM, AN, SD Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 3090 Cultures of Health in Latin America
This course is a survey of the cultural and political-economic aspects of health, illness, and embodied difference in Latin America. We will approach these themes from an interdisciplinary perspective with an emphasis on anthropology and history, exploring how local, national, regional, and global factors affect health and healthcare and how people experience and respond to them. Topics will include interactions between traditional healing practices and biomedicine; the lasting impacts of eugenic sciences on contemporary ideas about race and disability; the unequal impacts of epidemic disease; Indigenous cosmologies and healing systems; the politics of access to healthcare; the cultural and political specificities of reproductive health; and the intersections of race, gender, ethnicity, class, and bodily capacities in the pursuit of well-being. This course is designed for students of all levels interested in health and/or Latin American cultures. It will be taught in English.
Same as L45 LatAm 325
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, ETH, IS EN: H
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L48 Anthro 3092 Indigenous Peoples and Movements in Latin America
This course focuses on the contemporary lives and political struggles of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America, with specific focus on Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Through course lectures, ethnographic texts, and four in-depth case studies, we explore how the politics of Indigeneity articulate with political and economic processes including (neo)colonialism, global capitalism, state transformation and social movement struggle. Themes include: demands for territory and autonomy; environmentalism and natural resource exploitation; gender and economic inequality; race, racism and political violence; language and education; and the complexities of building multicultural or "plurinational" democracies.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS
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L48 Anthro 3093 Anthropology of Modern Latin America
A survey of current issues in the anthropological study of culture, politics, and change across contemporary Latin American and the Caribbean. Topics include machismo and feminismo, the drug war, race and mestizaje, yuppies and revolutionaries, ethnic movements, pop culture, violence, multinational business, and the cultural politics of U.S.-Latin American relations. Attention will be given to the ways that anthropology is used to understand complex cultural and social processes in a region thoroughly shaped by globalization.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3095 The Incas and Their Ancestors: The Archaeology of the Ancient Andes
From the hyper-arid desert of the Pacific Coast to the high-mountain plateaus of the Andes more than 12,000 feet above sea level to the lush forested Amazonian lowlands, Western South America presents one of the most diverse natural and cultural environments in the world and one of the few places where social complexity first developed. Beginning with the earliest human occupations in the region more than 12,000 years ago, this course examines how domestication, urbanization, the rise of early states, and major technological inventions changed life in the Andes from small village societies to the largest territorial polity of the Americas - the Inca Empire. Students will become familiar with the major debates in the field of Andean archaeology. Together, we will examine archaeological evidence (architecture, art, ceramics, metals, textiles, plant and animal remains, etc.) from context of everyday life (households, food production, craft production) to the rituals and ceremonies (offerings, tombs) that took place in domestic and public spaces. We will also touch on the role of Andean archaeology in the context of national politics and heritage sustainability.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3100 Defense Against the Dark Arts: An Anthropological Approach to the Study of Religion and Health
This class is a comparative survey of religion, magic, and witchcraft as they are related to concepts of the body, health, healing and death across cultures. As such, students in this class will be expected to simultaneously learn details from particular magical and healing traditions studied in class, as well as to relate these details to theories about within the discipline of Anthropology (medical, cultural, psychological) and the field of Religious Studies. Special themes addressed in the class are the reasonableness of belief in magic, religion and religious practice as "magical," the body and definitions of health, healing, and illness and disease as symbolically, culturally, even magically constructed and experienced.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3101 Topics in Anthropology
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3102 Topics in Anthropology: Sustainability in Extractive Communities
This course offers an in-depth exploration of the meaning and practice of sustainability in extractive communities, with a particular focus on understanding the anthropological perspective on; (1) the complexity and shifting concepts of sustainability and (2) the social ties of extraction, all of which significantly influence sustainability practices in extractive communities. Our discussions will focus on extractive communities - the people living in frontline and surrounding towns where mineral resources are extracted. These communities' environmental, economic, and social well-being is inextricably linked to mineral extraction and utilization, despite the adverse effects of such exploitative endeavors. By thoroughly examining elements of identity, power, and the unspoken promises of extraction, students will gain a nuanced understanding of the challenges and opportunities involved in extractive communities' pursuit of sustainability.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH, HUM EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3103 Topics in Anthropology: Film and Anthropology
Cinema is inherently anthropological. Its subject matter almost always focuses on some aspect of the human condition- inner struggles, collective triumphs, social dramas. Even those with nonhuman subjects are still themselves human products, indices of cultural and social meaning. As this revolutionary art form turns (more or less) 100, this class will reflect on the multifaceted relationship between cinema and anthropology. Course materials will include several narrative and documentary films, as well as a wide set of scholarly readings on visual anthropology, the depiction of anthropology in film, and how to view films as texts. There are no prerequisites, but the course is heavily reading- and discussion-based.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3105 Topics in Anthopology: Anthropology of Drugs
The two meanings of the English word 'drug' capture our ambivalent relationship with certain compounds- are they anti-social, addictive, and recreational? Or tightly regulated, life-saving medical technologies? In this course, we will consider and complicate this distinction as we take a broad look at the significance of a handful of chemicals to human society. Reading from a range of ethnographies, literary works, philosophical texts, and historical articles, students will learn to articulate the complex role drugs play in everyday life, business, governance, and popular culture. Topics will include antidepressants, statins, psychedelics and cannabis, alcohol, opiates and other analgesics, antibiotics, and stimulants.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 310C Ancient Civilizations of the New World
An examination of the Inca empire in Peru, and the Maya and Aztec empires in Mexico through the inquiry into the roots, development, form, and evolutionary history of pre-Colombian civilization in each region from its earliest times to the rise of the classic kingdoms. Examples of respective artistic accomplishments will be presented and discussed.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: SSC BU: HUM
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L48 Anthro 3110 The Anthropology of Magic
Mankind has long attempted to master magic: action(s) intended to invoke and influence suprasensible forces. Many of us still practice magic today, knowingly or unknowingly. Cultural anthropologists and ethnologists provide accounts about the histories of magicians into the present, but ancient material evidence of magic is also supplied to archaeologists. This course draws from these kinds of sources to appreciate the roles magic plays in past and present cultures. Guided by Anthony Aveni's textbook Behind the Crystal Ball, this course highlights how magic inspired innovative concepts and practices, including those that propel modern science today. Using globally diverse case studies, this course provides a conceptual framework for understanding the social roles of magic at different scales and expose magic in political, religious, and scientific contexts. What cultural values arepreserved by magical practices? In what ways doesmagic fulfill societal needs? What legacies doesmagic leave for our benefit or deficit today? Following a midterm covering essential concepts, students will pursue independent projects that examine the material and ethnohistorical evidence for magic in specific cultural contexts. Fulfilling these requirements, students will learn how to analytically approach "othered" (or exoticized) behaviors as attempts to better understand the social and physical world.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC BU: BA, HUM
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L48 Anthro 3122 From Country to Heavy Metal: Ancient Civilizations of the Old World
This course will explore the archaeology of Europe, the Near East, and Central Asia from approximately 10,000 years ago to classical times (ending before Ancient Greece). This prehistoric epoch saw major developments among various civilizations of the Old World, such as the introduction of agriculture, animal domestication, the growth of cities, and technological developments such as pottery, metallurgy, and horse-riding. A major focus will be the trajectory of cultural innovations of regional populations through time, and the complexity of their social, political, and ritual practices. We will also investigate the variation in human adaptive strategies to various environmental and social contexts, from hunter/gatherers to early Neolithic farmers, to the interactions between nomadic populations and larger scale, urban societies in the Bronze and Iron Ages.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 313 Hello, Hello Brazil! Popular Culture, Media, and the Making of a Nation
Our image of Brazil has been deeply shaped by its cultural production, from Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes' ever-popular "Girl from Ipanema" to the spectacular mega-production of Carnival in Rio and from the Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira to the international stardom of pop artists like Anitta. This course is an introduction to popular culture in contemporary Brazil. Students will approach the theme through theoretical works that seek to define popular culture, understanding it as a hybrid form of expression that troubles the line between the "traditional" and the mass-produced. This course will examine how the circulation of sounds and images manifests and shapes Brazilian culture historically and in the present. We will also interrogate the different ways in which culture is produced and received, how it circulates in symbolic markets, and how it comes to be both consumed by diverse audiences and utilized in often unexpected ways. The course will cover topics such as the Tropicalia movement, Afro-centric Carnival blocos, street art such as graffiti, baile funk, forro, favela protest theater, telenovelas (soap operas), the popularization of samba, soccer and the World Cup, and Carnival. Students will use an interdisciplinary lens to approach popular culture in Brazil through music lyrics, TV and film, cultural performances, and graphic novels. These materials will form the basis of our class discussions and written assignments. The course will be taught in English. Prerequisite: L45 165D, L45 304, or another course on Latin America suggested.
Same as L45 LatAm 313
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, IS EN: H
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L48 Anthro 3136 The Second Wave of The Pandemic: Science and Society
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted life around the world and particularly in the United States. New information is released daily to a public that is often unable to interpret its meaning or significance. How are individuals, groups, businesses, and/or governments interpreting this information? What impact does it all have on our lives? This course will be an immersion into the many intersecting aspects of life in a pandemic. Early in the course, we will review safety information and some basics about the virus, including information covered in Anthro 3135 The Pandemic: Science and Society. Please note that students do not need to take Anthro 3135 to enroll in this course. At the same time, students who did take Anthro 3135 are encouraged to enroll, as we will cover new information and different topics. Students will hear experts in these areas talk to us about how COVID-19 has changed virtually every aspect of life as we know it, how we can mitigate these effects, and what the future looks like. Throughout the course, students will have the opportunity to hone their skills at communicating the information they learn in the class by discussing with each other and sharing with the public.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3137 Diseases at the Human-Wildlife Interface
Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) threaten humans and endangered species. EID outbreaks in humans are increasing in frequency and are often the result of zoonotic transmission, particularly as we continue to modify the landscape and closely interact with wildlife. This course will explore the recent trend in increasing rates of EIDs, the factors associated with zoonotic disease transmission, the particular types of pathogens and species of animals of most concern for future outbreaks, and ways we can try to predict the next pandemic. We will discuss the human-wildlife interface, participatory methods for advancing work in disease prevention, the science of emerging infectious diseases, and the societal impacts of such diseases.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Art: NSM
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L48 Anthro 3149 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, ETH, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 314B Before Columbus: Indigenous Histories of North America before 1492
An archaeological perspective on the deep histories of Indigenous peoples in North America. From the initial colonization of the continent 13,000 years ago to European contact in the 16th Century, we illuminate the ancestral peoples and places of contemporary Indigenous Tribes and Nations.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3150 Securing Food: (Pre)Historic Perspectives, Present Challenges, and the Future of Human Subsistence
For the first time in decades, the number of people suffering from hunger worldwide is on the rise. In 2017, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warned that mounting pressures on natural resources and climate change have put global food security in jeopardy, calling for necessary "transformative change in agriculture and food systems." Securing access to food resources has always been critical to the survival of our species. From hunting and gathering to the factory farm, past and present human societies have employed a diverse spectrum of strategies to keep themselves fed. Some have provided sustenance for millennia, proving their resilience and adapting to climatic and social challenges. Others have emerged more recently, rapidly transforming and interconnecting food systems in unprecedented ways. However, all are the result of long-term and deep-time trajectories shaped by environmental, economic, social, cultural, and political opportunities and needs. Today, we face the legacy of these trajectories in our present struggle to attain and maintain food security for our species. How might an understanding of this legacy and of the context, origins, and effects of food systems in our deep and more recent past inform our understanding and action in the present?
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3151 Evolution of the Human Diet
Many researchers and health enthusiasts believe that the abandonment of our "Paleolithic" diet and lifestyle with the onset of agriculture some 10,000 years ago has lead to a rapid decline in health and perpetuated countless "diseases of civilization." While diet fads come and go, it seems this new enthusiasm for "Paleo diets" is here to stay. But what is a "Paleo diet" anyway? Through a comparative evolutionary and anthropological approach we will examine the diets of extinct hominins, our extant primate relatives, ethnohistoric and contemporary foraging peoples, and even our own dietary habits. We will strive to answer key questions about diets in prehistory and their implications for living people today: How do we know what our ancestors ate? How have dietary hypotheses been used to explain processes in human evolution? How bad is agriculture for global health? What role did certain foods play in shaping our modern physiology? Are we maladapted to our contemporary diets? What does it mean to eat "Paleo"? A mix of discussion and lecture will encourage students to develop their own interests in human evolutionary nutrition.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: SCI EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3152 Archaeology of Ancient Egypt
This course will cover major topics in the archaeology of ancient Egypt, incorporating the latest debates and archaeological discoveries. The course will emphasize Egyptian material culture, including settlements, landscapes, cities, tombs, pyramids, and temples, in order to model the wider cultural and social development over the past five millennia as well as the place of Egypt, globally. Students will learn to critically approach and assess Egyptian material culture in order to understand the social, historical, and geographical context of ancient Egypt - one of the most intriguing cultures in human history.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3156 Topics in Chinese Social Development at Fudan:
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3158 South Asian Religious Traditions
In this course we will learn the basic vocabulary (conceptual, ritual, visual) needed to become conversant with the various religious traditions that are important to personal, social, and political life on the Indian subcontinent and beyond. We will first encounter each tradition through narrative, with the support of visual media. We will then explore how contemporary adherents make these traditions meaningful for themselves -- in their everyday lives, in their struggles for social change, and in their political statements and contestations. Students will also become familiar with the analytical categories and methodologies that make up the basic toolkit of the religion scholar. Prior knowledge of India or Pakistan is not required. FIrst year students are welcome to enroll in this course.
Same as L23 Re St 312
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H UColl: CD
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L48 Anthro 3163 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 318 Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Brazil
This course examines the nexus of gender, sexuality, and power in Brazil through an interdisciplinary lens. We will aim to understand how varying understandings of gender and sexuality have impacted the development of Brazilian society in history and continue to shape contemporary society and politics. We will pay special attention to the ways in which the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity, and so on impact people's lived experiences and how heteronormativity and homophobia shape current politics. We will take an intersectional feminist approach to analyze topics such as slavery in colonial Brazil, national aspirations to modernity, authoritarian repression and "moral panics," domestic labor, motherhood, sex tourism, Brazilian feminisms, and LGBTQ+ activism. Scholarly work from various fields of study -- with an emphasis on gender studies, history, and anthropology -- will be supplemented by documentaries, film, podcasts, and other media. This is a Writing Intensive and a Social Contrasts class in the IQ curriculum. Prerequisite: L45 165D, or two courses on Latin American or Women and Gender Studies, or permission of instructor.
Same as L45 LatAm 318
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, IS
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L48 Anthro 3180 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3181 Humans and Animals
This course uses anthropological and evolutionary data to tell the story of how changing human-animal relations influenced humans over the long term. In this course we explore the history of western conceptual divisions between humans and animals, which contrast with more fluid boundaries in other regions. Subsequent lectures focus on hunting and symbolic relations with wild animals through time, relying on ancient animal bones, ancient art and texts. Current and future human-animal relationships will also be discussed. The goal of this course is to provide an overview of ways that animals have influenced human life in the 21st century. Changing environments and animal behavior form the backdrop to cultural discussions.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3182 Ancient Africa: Social Mosaics and Environmental Challenges
This class introduces students to the basics of the archaeological record of humans in Africa from 3.6 M.Y. to 1000 years ago. The first third of the course focuses on early humans, the origins of meat eating, expansion of diet and cuisine, technical and cultural responses to changing environments. The second section of the course emphasizes African rock art, socio-economic variability among hunter-gatherers, the origins of African pastoralism, mobile responses to climate change and African contributions to world food supply including domestication of sorghum, also coffee. The last third of the course is devoted to the complex urban societies of ancient Africa, Egypt, Axum, Great Zimbabwe, and Jenne Jeno. Course format is lecture and discussion. There are two mid-terms and students are expected to participate in interactive stone tool use, rock art creation, and discussion of ethnographic and archaeological data on pastoral decision-making in times of drought and war and of issues surrounding the purchase of African antiquities and conservation of cultural heritage.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3184 The East African Coast from the 1st Century CE to 1800 CE
This course is designed to provide students a broad and critical understanding of the history and archaeology of the East African coast and its global interconnections. Beginning with an introduction to the methodological and theoretical approaches of African history and archaeology, the course surveys archaeological and historical research focusing on the East coast of Africa (Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and offshore Islands). Temporally, this course will range from the Early Iron age to 1800 CE. Topics include geography and environmental history, periodization, foodways, urbanism, craftsmanship, architecture, cross-cultural exchange and materiality, belief systems and current conservation and heritage preservation efforts. This course combines lectures and class discussions for a critical use of contemporary sources, oral histories, and archaeological discoveries.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3185 A Rainbow Thread: A History of Queer Identities in Judaism and Islam
The notion that gender and sexuality minorities are forbidden or simply do not exist within traditional judaism and islamic traditions is an assumption that has been questioned in recent years. For these scholars and activists, it is not up for debate whether someone can be queer and Jewish or queer and Muslim. Therefore, what follows is an exploration of how to resurrect gender non-conforming interpretations of religious texts and rediscover the spectrum of gender and sexual identities that have always existed within Judaism and Islam. The course is divided into three parts. First, we will examine the religious textual traditions of both faiths to establish the space for queer identities in both the Qur'an and Torah as well as the traditions of Hadith and Talmud. Second, we will study key communities such as medieval Iberia, the Ottoman Mediterranean, Hasidic communities in Eastern Europe, Qajar Iran, and the colonial empires of the Middle East. This survey will show the influence European christian dominance had (or did not have) on the evolution of jewish and islamic gender and sexual norms from pre-modern times through the 20th century. Finally, we will examine the 21st century by reading the memoirs of trans muslims and trans Jews in order to analyze the ways in which contemporary queer jewish and islamic individuals frame their experiences and tell their stories of faith with agency, in their own words.
Same as L75 JIMES 3184
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L48 Anthro 319 The Body in Brazil: Race, Representation, Ontologies
This course is an introduction to various ways of understanding, representing, and performing the body in Brazil. Course materials will draw on insights from anthropology, the medical humanities, and science and technology studies in order to approach the body not just as biological material but also in its social, cultural, and spiritual dimensions. We will cover topics such as the importance of race and ethnicity since the time of colonization, sexualized media representations of gendered bodies, how some bodies are cast as disposable or "out of place" in contexts of social inequality, indigenous ways of viewing the body in relation to the natural and spiritual world, the politics of disability and access, and constructions of the "body politic" in the formation of national identity through ideas such as "antropofagia" (cultural cannabalism). Throughout, we will pay particular attention to how race, gender, sexuality, and disability shape the lived experiences of Brazilians. Topics will include the impact of slavery in the construction of the body in Brazil, the role played by race in the construction of discourses of corporality, and the development of beauty stereotypes and practices such as the medical industry of plastic surgery, among others. Students will analyze visual materials, ethnographies, historical texts, and internet sources in dialogue with critical theories from the social sciences and humanities, assessing how the body "matters" in a variety of ways that reflect Brazil's cultural diversity while also starkly highlighting its persistent racialized and gendered social inequities. These materials will form the basis of our class discussions and written assignments. The course will be taught in English. Prerequisite: L45 165D, L45 304, or another course on Latin America suggested.
Same as L45 LatAm 319
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
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L48 Anthro 3201 Gender, Culture, and Madness
This course will explore the relationships among gender constructs, cultural values, and definitions of mental health and illness. Understandings of the proper roles, sensibilities, emotions, and dispositions of women and men are often culturally and morally loaded as indicators of the "proper" selves permitted in a given context. Across cultures, then, gender often becomes an expressive idiom for the relative health of the self. Gender identities or presentations that run counter to these conventions are frequently identified as disordered and in need of fixing. In this course, we will take up these issues through three fundamental themes: the social and cultural (re)production of gendered bodies and dispositions; the normalization of these productions and the subsequent location of "madness" in divergent or dissonant experiences of embodiment; and the situation of discourses of "madness" within debates of resistance and conformity, selfhood and agency.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, SC, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3202 Anthropological Perspectives on Women's Health
The principle goal of this course is to explore the health issues/risks women face around the world. In order to achieve this goal, we will take a life cycle approach beginning with the birth of female babies through adolescence, adulthood, and finally through the aging process. Our perspective will be biocultural, defined as the synergistic interaction between biology and culture. By comparing a diversity of health experiences across cultures, we can carefully examine the ways in which culture constructs perceptions of health and effective delivery of health care. Students will finish the term with a clearer understanding of the biology of life cycle changes, how health inequalities are generated and perpetuated, and how to make more informed decisions about their own health choices. Prerequisite: Anthro 160 or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SD Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3206 Global Gender Issues
This course compares the life experiences of women and men in societies throughout the world. We discuss the evidence regarding the universal subordination of women, and examine explanations that propose to situate women's and men's personality attributes, roles and responsibilities in the biological or cultural domains. In general, through readings, films and lectures, the class will provide a cross-cultural perspective on ideas regarding gender and how gendered meanings, practices, performances serve as structuring principles in society.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3215 Food, Culture, and Power
What should I eat today? This seemingly simple question transects the fields of health, environmental studies, economics, history, anthropology, religion, and many others. The foods we eat, the way we get them, the way we produce them, and the way in which we eat them speak volumes about our beliefs, our technology, our understanding of how the world works, and our ability to function within it. That is, food is an excellent way to explore culture. No actions are more deserving of critical attention than those that we do regularly, without much critical thought, and most of eat at least two or three times a day. In this class we'll explore how this food came to be here, why we like it, and what that says about us. This class will be reading and discussion heavy, with a midterm paper based on the readings and a final paper based on a topic of the students' choosing.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3255 Urban Anthropology
This course examines the many ways that people around the world make urban life meaningful. We will focus on the intersections among anthropology, urban studies, social theory and human geography to explore the theoretical, social, and methodological approaches to understanding the culture(s) created in cities. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from cities around the world, we will explore issues pertaining to race and ethnicity, gender, youth, poverty, diversity and "super-diversity," gentrification, urbanization, and illusions and realities of modernity
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, SC, SD BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3261 Inequality, Hierarchy and Difference: Reading "The Dawn of Everything" in Context
In October 2021, anthropologist David Graeber and archaeologist David Wengrow published "The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity," arguably one of the most consequential pieces of anthropological scholarship of recent years. The book quickly shot to the top of best-seller lists and generated a wide-ranging discussion in newspapers, magazines, and journals that do not typically pay attention to recent publications in the field of anthropology. Graeber and Wengrow were able to attract such a broad audience due to the book's central argument, which uses anthropological, archaeological, and historical evidence to critique current popular views on the so-called "progress of western civilization" and the Hobbesian and Rousseauian theories of the origin of the social contract, as well as to propose a new genealogy for Enlightenment thinking on the origins of inequality. In this course, we will read The Dawn of Everything as our central text, alongside the sources it draws upon and the responses to the book. Collectively, we will work together to remedy one of the major lacunae in the public discourse around the book, i.e., a lack of an archaeological response. Indeed, the critical reception of the book has largely focused on only the first third of the book. The course therefore will involve a practical component, in which we as a class write an archaeological critique of the book and work to publish it in a suitable magazine, journal, or newspaper. Students can expect to gain from this class not only knowledge, but also key scholarly skills and hands-on experience.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3263 Bioprospecting
What do the opium poppy, the white willow tree, the spoiled sweet clover, the Madagascar periwinkle, and the fungus Penicillium have in common? Each of these species contains biochemicals that have been tapped to "advance" medicine. Biodiversity prospecting ("bioprospecting") is often understood as the systematic search for biochemical and genetic information in nature in order to develop commercially valuable products for pharmaceutical, agricultural, cosmetic, and other applications. Contemporary medical innovation depends on bioprospecting to remain "cutting edge," but what are the human and ecological costs of this rapidly changing industry? This course explores the social, political, and environmental impacts and ethical implications of the global search for new biological resources. We will study the role of indigenous knowledge, the problem of biopiracy, the politics of intellectual rights, and patenting culture in our quest to understand what is at stake in the regulation, reform, and growth of this problematic indicator of public health, biotechnology, and historical and "modern" medicine in the global economy.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3264 Anthropological Perspectives on Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) refers to health and healing practices that fall outside the realm of conventional Western medicine. CAM encompasses a wide range of modalities including homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, energy healing, and more. Many of these practices are not clearly compatible with biomedical explanatory models for health and sickness; they are often viewed with skepticism by mainstream medical practitioners. Though the popular media often depicts many CAM practices components of a "wellness culture" that is associated with the wealthy and privileged, many CAM practitioners do not fit this stereotype and primarily work with the poor, people of color, and other minoritized groups. In this class, we will focus on CAM in the Global North with a primary focus on the United States. We will critically assess characterizations of CAM as pseudoscience and explore the epistemological, ethical, and legal tensions between mainstream and non-mainstream medical practices. We will pay particular attention to how these tensions intersect with race, class, and gender. The aim of this class is not to make a value judgement about the validity of CAM, but rather to understand the perspective of those who use CAM in a context that emphasizes Western biomedicine.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC BU: BA
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L48 Anthro 3265 Social Determinants of Health and Migration
The social determinants of health refer to the conditions where people live and work that shape health risks and outcomes. This class will examine how categories, such as refugee or undocumented immigrant, may predispose individuals to live and work in unstable and harmful environments. Our course will examine the following questions: How do restrictive immigration policies and policing shape access to primary care? How does documentation status intersect with other experiences of marginalization and other forms of social identification, such as gender and race, to produce unique health risks and outcomes? In this course, we will explore how people who migrate-due to force or of their own volition, and in a documented or undocumented manner-may encounter obstacles due to differences in language spoken, insurance coverage, and documentation status, when seeking out primary and mental health services, as well as healthcare for chronic illnesses. We will draw on ethnographic research, public health reports, long form journalism, podcasts, and documentaries developed in a variety of geographic settings, including the United States, Germany, Israel, Malawi, and Bangladesh.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC BU: BA, ETH EN: H
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L48 Anthro 327 Humans and Others in Latin America: Natures, Cultures, Environments
What does it mean to inhabit the world with other beings? How are we to cultivate life -- both human and nonhuman -- in toxic environments? What does it mean to be human, and what would it mean to decenter humanity? This course addresses these questions through an exploration of "more-than-human" worlds in Latin America. Students will examine a variety of Latin American thought and practices through the interdisciplinary lens of environmental humanities and social sciences, unsettling presumed boundaries between human and nonhuman, real and imaginary, native and culture. We will engage primarily with ethnographic and other scholarly texts, which will be supplemented by short works of fiction, documentary film, podcasts, and works of art. In the first part of this course, students will be challenged to think about what defines the limits of the human and engage with the concept of "more-than-human" worlds. We will then examine the dark side of such worlds, namely, the ways in which extractive capitalism and environmental destruction demonstrate the permeability of bodies and comprise a kind of "slow violence" against the most vulnerable communities. In the next unit, students will consider Black and Indigenous ecological knowledge and these communities' struggles to care for their lifeways and the environments that sustain them. In our final section, we will explore multispecies entanglements through Indigenous cosmologies and the nexus of science, history, and art. Students will complete several assignments throughout the semester that have been designed to make them think imaginatively and critically about the course themes, including weekly reading responses and in-class discussion facilitation. The final assignment for this course is a creative independent research project where students will synthesize what they learned over the course of the semester and extend it through independent research. Prerequisite: L45 165D or permission of instructor.
Same as L45 LatAm 327
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, ETH, IS
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L48 Anthro 3271 Becoming Human: Archaeology of Human Origins
Humanity, before the advent of agriculture and cities, evolved a series of behaviors that enabled them to survive as hunter-gatherers in diverse environments with complex cultural systems. These behaviors included hunting, control of fire, shelters and clothing, elaborate tools of diverse materials, burials, jewelry, and representational art. These characteristics emerged over more than 2 millions years of the Pleistocene across several species of humans, to coalesce into what we would recognize as modern human foragers 30,000 years ago. This course traces that emergence of what it means to be human, through the Paleolithic archeological record in its context of past environments and past human forms.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3272 Becoming Human: A Biocultural Exploration of the Human Experience
Humanity, before the advent of agriculture and industrialization, evolved a wide range of behavioral adaptations and patterns that enabled them to survive as hunter-gatherers in diverse environments with complex cultural systems. Using a broad evolutionary framework, this course will explore these behaviors (e.g., hunting, control of fire, toolmaking, representational art, altruism, gender roles, language, religion) to examine what it means to be human through a biocultural lens. We will take a comparative approach to address these topics by examining our earliest ancestors (both nonhuman primates and early hominins) as well as modern human societies to better understand how we got where we are today.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3280 Anthropology of Infectious Diseases
This course explores the evolving relationship between humans and non-human microbiota. Beginning with the modern era, we will study infectious diseases and the critical contexts (e.g., ecological, political, social, cultural) in which they occur. Case studies will include antibiotic-resistant "superbugs," H1N1 influenza, SARS coronavirus, HIV/AIDS, and global cholera epidemics. Through the study of global infectious disease outbreaks and threats, we will address larger anthropological questions about knowledge, the power of metaphor, the role of institutions, and the health of populations.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3283 Introduction to Global Health
This course provides a general introduction to the field of public health. It examines the philosophy, history, organization, functions, activities, and results of public health research and practice. Case studies include infectious and chronic diseases, mental health, maternal and reproductive health, food safety and nutrition, environmental health, and global public health. Students are encouraged to look at health issues from a systemic and population level perspective, and to think critically about health systems and problems, especially health disparities and health care delivery to diverse populations. No background in anthropology or public health is required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3284 Public Health Research and Practice
In-depth exploration of current theory and methods involved in public health research and practical applications. Emphasis on fundamentals of epidemiology, which forms the scientific rationale for public health assessment, assurance, and policy development. Survey of current public health practice and research areas including biological foundations of public health, social and behavioral interventions, maternal-child health, and environmental health. Relationships among public health, medicine, nursing, social work, and related disciplines.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3293 Religion and Society
We will take a broad and practice-oriented view of 'religion', including uttering spells, sacrificing to a god, healing through spirit possession, as well as praying and reciting scripture. We will consider religious practices in small-scale societies as well as those characteristic of forms of Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and other broadly-based religions. We give special attention to the ways religions shape politics, law, war, as well as everyday life in modern societies.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3295 Secular and Religious: A Global History
Recent years have seen a dramatic rethinking of the past in nearly every corner of the world as scholars revisit fundamental questions about the importance of religion for individuals, societies and politics. Is religion as a personal orientation in decline? Is Europe becoming more secular? Is secularism a European invention? Many scholars now argue that "religion" is a European term that doesn't apply in Asian societies. This course brings together cutting-edge historical scholarship on Europe and Asia in pursuit of a truly global understanding. Countries covered will vary, but may include Britain, France, Turkey, China, Japan, India and Pakistan.
Same as L22 History 3921
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SD BU: HUM, IS EN: H
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L48 Anthro 330 Experimental Archaeology
Experiments are an extremely important part of the scientific process. Although archaeology is often treated as an historical science, the nature of the material record does provide an opportunity to use experimentation as an important way of interpreting what we excavate. The class will be working with the most tangible materials recovered from archaeological contexts, that is stone and pottery. After reviewing the history of experimentation in archaeological investigations we will turn to the material record. This will be followed in our initial weeks of setting up the experiments and how they will be used to compare with available data sets derived from archaeological contexts. As part of the class we will take several field trips to areas where materials exist in a natural setting. Each class member will select a specific material for the focus of their experiments. In the end students will produce several experiments using different materials, document their experiments in written reports, and finally present their results to the class for discussion and evaluation.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 3300 Topics in AMCS: TBD
This course topic changes; see semester listing for current course offering.
Same as L98 AMCS 330C
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SD Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: BA EN: H
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L48 Anthro 3304 Bones to Behavior: Undergraduate Research in the Lab and at the Zoo
We will undertake zooarchaeological study of equid skeletons in the zooarchaeology laboratory at Washington University, and in collaboration with the St. Louis Zoo, participate in a behavioral study of the courtship and breeding behavior of the ancestor of the domestic donkey, the African wild ass. The research questions that we focus on are how the biology and behavior of the African wild ass influenced the domestication of the donkey by prehistoric African herders or ancient Egyptians and how the behavior of the African wild ass continues to affect prospects for conservation of this highly endangered animal. During the first half of the semester, we will meet once a week for 2.5 hours in the zooarchaeology laboratory on Mondays from 9 - 11:30 a.m. After spring break, or earlier if weather is above 40F, we will no longer meet in the lab, and each student willspend 9-11 a.m. on two mornings of their choice per week at the St. Louis Zoo conducting observations of the wild ass. Students may choose two days that fit their schedule. Saturdays or Sundays are included as a possible choice of days. Permission of instructor is required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Art: NSM BU: BA
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L48 Anthro 3305 Bones to Behavior II
In this class, students will undertake zooarchaeological research on skeletal material in the zooarchaeology laboratory at Washington University and/or preparation of animal skeletons for comparative study and in collaboration with the St. Louis Zoo participate in behavioral studies of the ancestor of the donkey - the African wild ass. Collections housed in the zooarchaeological laboratory for study include ancient food-remains from African sites. These collections bear on questions regarding cultural and climate change in the Horn of Africa 12,000-2,000 years ago and include animals ranging from African antelopes to domestic camels. During the first half of the semester students will meet once a week for 2.5 hours in the zooarchaeological laboratory. Once the weather is above 40F after Spring Break, we will meet 9-11 twice a week, Mondays and Wednesday/Friday in the laboratory or at the zoo. Location will depend on projects selected for study. Permission of instructor is required. May be repeated for credit.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3309 Anthropological Perspectives on Care
This course aims to provide an introductory survey of topics and approaches to the anthropology of care. It does so by drawing on a range of ethnographic, theoretical, and cross-disciplinary materials. This will allow us to think through and engage with care in its myriad forms, its presence and absence, its bureaucratization and management, its relation to kinship, relatedness, labor, and government. In the first part of the course, we will explore theories of care as moral practice with a feminist lens. In the second part, we will engage this lens with ethnographic materials about care in diverse settings that also shed light on the political, economic, and lived realities of care. These ethnographic and sociological works include explorations of the circulation of care in moral economies and its monetization as paid labor, the politics and "antipolitics" of healthcare in institutional settings, and the role of care in kinship, household formations, and life course regimes across cultures.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3310 Health, Healing and Ethics: Introduction to Medical Anthropology
A cross-cultural exploration of cultures and social organizations of medical systems, the global exportation of biomedicine, and ethical dilemmas associated with medical technologies and global disparities in health.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3312 Topics in Islam: Modern Islam
Selected themes in the study of Islam and Islamic culture in social, historical, and political context. The specific area of emphasis will be determined by the instructor. Please note: L75 5622 is intended for graduate students only.
Same as L75 JIMES 3622
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H UColl: CD
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L48 Anthro 3313 Women and Islam
This course is an anthropological study of the position of women in the contemporary Muslim world, with examples drawn primarily from the Middle East but also from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States. Students will examine ethnographic, historical, and literary works, including those written by Muslim women. Topics having a major impact on the construction of gender include Islamic belief and ritual, modest dress (veiling), notions of marriage and the family, modernization, nationalism and the nation-state, politics and protest, legal reform, formal education, work, and Westernization. The course includes a visit to a St. Louis mosque, discussions with Muslim women, and films.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3316 Introduction to Forensic Anthropology
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Art: NSM
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L48 Anthro 3322 Brave New Crops
This course introduces students to the major issues surrounding the development and use in genetically modified (GM) crops. Its focus is international, but with particular focus on the developing world. A variety of experts, available locally or through the internet, will contribute perspectives. The course also includes field trips. For further information, see artsci.wustl.edu/~anthro/courses/3322.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH
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L48 Anthro 333 Culture and Health
This course will explore culture and health, with a focus on global health. Assigned readings explore cross-cultural perspectives on health, healing, and the body, as well as important concepts in medical anthropology. Through class discussions and close examination of ethnographies of health and illness, students will develop an understanding of how cultural and political-economic forces articulate with the emerging field of global health.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: BA
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L48 Anthro 3331 Anthropology of Clothing and Fashion
This course takes clothing as a starting point for examining broad themes in anthropology, including gender and sexuality, race and the body, history and colonialism. We look at the ritual significance of clothing and other practices of bodily adornment in traditional societies and the role of style in constituting contemporary social movements and identity categories. We investigate the globalization of the apparel industry, from production and circulation to marketing and branding, in order to understand the relationship between citizenship and consumption, labor and power in the global economy. The course encourages students to reflect on their relationship to the wider society and economy as producers and consumers of material culture through the lens of clothing and fashion.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: CPSC, SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 333B Anthropology of Design: Artifacts, Expertise, and Insurgency
In this course we will explore the deep-seated politics and cultures of design. We will examine a number of case studies from hydraulic engineering in South Africa, gambling programs in Las Vegas, to DIY punk style in Indonesia. In the process we will explore the ways that design offers insight into other domains of social life such as addiction, inequality, statecraft, and urban citizenship.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: GAMUD, GAUI, SSC Art: CPSC, SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3351 The Ancient Maya: Archaeology and History
This course focuses on the ancient Maya civilization because there are many exciting new breakthroughs in the study of the Maya. The Olmec civilization and the civilization of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico will be considered as they related to the rise and development of the Maya civilization. The ancient Maya were the only Pre-Columbian civilization to leave us a written record that we can use to understand their politics, religion, and history. This course is about Maya ancient history and Maya glyphic texts, combined with the images of Maya life from their many forms of art. The combination of glyphic texts, art, and archaeology now can provide a uniquely detailed reconstruction of ancient history in a New World civilization.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3354 Ancient Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica encompasses the Pre-Columbian complex societies of Mexico and upper Central America, including Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. It was an agrarian world of great and enduring cities, far-flung trade networks, transcendent religions, kingdoms and empires. This survey lecture course begins with the pioneering hunters and gatherers, reviews the establishment of farming communities and the first Olmec Formative states, the flowering of highland Mexican Classic Period Teotihuacan and other great cities like Tajin in Veracruz, the dynasties of the lowland Maya and summarizes with the Aztec Empire and the period of the Spanish Conquest. The course touches on the many and diverse other cultures that contributed to this vibrant world.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3360 Topics in AMCS: American Bodies
The topic of this course varies from semester to semester. Please refer to the Course Listings for a description of the current offering.
Same as L98 AMCS 3360
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 336B Culture and Identity
Culture and diversity; cultural relativism and its contradictions; custom and habits; the construction and maintenance of norms; communication, symbol, sign, and intersubjectivity; symbolic interaction; rhetoric and the definition of social situations; societal means of fabricating distinctions (e.g., race, tribe, ethnic group, nationality, sect group).
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC, SD Art: SSC BU: BA, ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3373 Law and Culture
We live in an age when social policy is increasingly displaced into the realm of law, when justice and equality are matters of courtroom debate rather than public discussion. Legal language has become a key resource in all kinds of struggles over livelihood and ways of life. In this course, we study the cultural dimensions of law and law's changing relationship to state power, the global economy, social movements, and everyday life. We approach law as a system of rules, obligations, and procedures, but also a cultural practice, moral regime, and disciplinary technique. How are relationships between legal, political, and economic realms structured and with what consequences? How does law provide tools for both social struggle and social control? What does anthropology contribute to research on these issues? In exploring these questions, we combine readings from classical legal anthropology with recent ethnographic work from around the globe.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3383 Cognition and Culture
This course examines the influence of evolved cognitive dispositions (the way natural selection engineered the human mind) on the transmission of cultural knowledge. Dispositions present from early childhood make certain kinds of cultural knowledge particularly easy to acquire, and therefore, culturally stable. We also consider the evidence for differences in cognitive processes triggered by different social environments. Emphasis is on empirical studies and experimental methods in the study of cultural similarity and differences. Prerequisite: Psych 100B, Anthro 160B or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3386 Language, Culture and Society
Although this is an introductory course, students who have taken Linguistics 170D, namely, "Introduction to Linguistics", will benefit from knowledge of phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. The primary content of this course explores the relationship between linguistic practice and other social and cultural processes. Anthropological linguistics, including alternative approaches to fieldwork and data collection are introduced, along with various studies of language usage in social and cultural contexts that consider language and thought, language and identity, language and gender, as well as multilingualism and other forms of language contact. The ethnography of speaking and communication are central to this course, as is conversation analyses, which will introduce a combination of qualitative and quantitative linguistic research methods.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3390 Culture Goes Online: Introduction to Digital Anthropology
How do online phenomena like QAnon and "cancel culture" become salient cultural forces "in real life"? Can new apps, intelligent algorithms, and cryptocurrencies solve longstanding social and economic problems? What happens to the data produced by "smart" homes and appliances? Did memes decide the 2016 presidential election? Has the pace of technological development outstripped our collective ability to make sense of digital technologies and the social worlds they bring into being? Over the past three decades, digital technologies have become powerfully present in social and political life. They offer dazzling possibilities: connecting people and communities across distance and time, expanding our abilities to perceive the world and record our experiences, and producing and processing astonishingly huge quantities of data. They also raise important questions about privacy, ethics, and governance. Proponents of digital technologies celebrate them as great equalizers that create more opportunities for democratic engagement, while critics express concern that they open the door for new forms of inequality and exploitation. This course will examine these and other problems through an anthropological lens, asking how we can think analytically about culture and politics in the digital age. We'll engage with scholarship, journalism, and artistic productions, from the first digital ethnographies to recent, interdisciplinary and methodologically innovative multimedia works. Topics will include social media, the political uses (and abuses) of digital technology, "big data" and digital surveillance, digital technology and sustainability, and internet infrastructure, access, and inequality.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3391 Economies as Cultural Systems
Many contemporary approaches to economics downplay or bracket the importance of culture in the workings of economic systems. In this class we will focus on approaches to distribution and exchange in which culture and social institutions figure prominently, if not pre-eminently. We will sample a diverse array of economies, from gift exchange to the ceremonial destruction of wealth, from Melanesia to Wall Street, in order to evaluate some of the assumptions that undergird market capitalism. These assumptions include the perception of market actors exclusively as calculative, maximizing individuals. Topics to be covered include the Industrial Revolution; utilitarianism; economic anthropology; the formal vs. substantivist debates; ethnography of finance, and Marxist sociology.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 341 Health and Wellness in the Community: A Service Learning Seminar
This 4-credit course is designed to be an interactive course whereby students will volunteer with a local/community-based health or health affiliated organization under the supervision of an anthropology faculty member and explore the anthropological theories and methods of analyzing applied service and research. Students will be expected be in class with the instructor twice a week for 1.5 hours each time AND volunteer a minimum of 4-5 hours each week at an approved social service organization, which must be confirmed during first 2 weeks of the semester. In class readings and assignments will be topical and relevant to current events, local issues, and the relationships among community and health. Students must have taken L48 141 AND L48 142.
Credit 4 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: HUM EN: S
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L48 Anthro 342 Advanced Seminar in Medicine and Society: Patients, Politics and Policy
This course is designed to build on foundations provided in the First-Year Medicine and Society Seminar. It will interrogate current health-related issues, including gender, sexuality, politics, policy, and economics. We will also explore how these and many other issues, demographics, and so on impact current health- and healing-related decisions and policies. We will read about and unpack contemporary issues in health care (insurance, big pharma, gender and sexuality, race) and have local experts visit to talk about their practical experience with and in health care. Students will be expected to engage with ethnographic, medical, economic, political and sociological material as well as current journalism to interrogate the topic. Prerequisites: Anthro 141 and Anthro 142.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3461 Native Americans at Westward Expansion
Issues precipitated by Euro-American contact, colonization, and expansion between 1492 and 1810 across Eastern North America, the Plains, and the Rocky Mountains. Impacts of exploration and settlement and responses by native peoples: epidemics; population loss; breakdown of Southeastern chiefdoms; resistance; relocation; and shifts in economic strategies. Perspectives and policies of Native Americans as well as Europeans and non-Indian Americans, including Lewis and Clark.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: HUM
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L48 Anthro 3462 Contested Histories and Landscapes: Western and Indigenous Perceptions of Time and Place
How we conceive of time and place influences the stories we tell about the past, how we form identities in the present, and how we plan for the future in the face of environmental threats like global climate change. The archaeological study of North American Indigenous history has been dominated by Western philosophical thought that takes for granted a particular view of the world, and of being, espoused by the likes of Socrates, Hobbes, Descartes, and Rousseau. Indigenous scholars have critiqued these biases and asked that we recognize ways of perceiving the world that are often fundamentally different than the Euro-American frame of reference.Using archaeological case studies in addition to reading Native American philosophers and intellectuals, we will explore how different ways of understanding the world, and your place in it, influence how we explain the past. We will also consider how these differences play out today regarding issues such as environmental justice, land treaties, tribal sovereignty, and climate change.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, SC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3472 Global Energy and the American Dream
This lecture course explores the historical, cultural, and political relationship between America and global energy, focusing on oil, coal, natural gas, biofuels, and alternatives. Through case studies at home and abroad, we examine how cultural, environmental, economic, and geopolitical processes are entangled with changing patterns of energy-related resource extraction, production, distribution, and use. America's changing position as global consumer and dreamer is linked to increasingly violent contests over energy abroad while our fuel-dependent dreams of boundless (oil) power give way to uncertainties and new possibilities of nation, nature, and the future. Assuming that technology and markets alone will not save us, what might a culturally, politically, and socially-minded inquiry contribute to understanding the past and future of global energy and the American dream?
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: CPSC, SSC BU: ETH, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3476 Archaeologies of Graffiti from Antiquity to the Present
The modern story of graffiti-revolving around social, economic, and political contexts such as bathroom stalls, subways and alleys steeped with urine and trash, decrepit buildings and train cars situated in less reputable areas of cities and towns-lead people to associate it with antisocial behaviors, dissent, and the vandalism of public and private property. However, some people consider graffiti as a legitimate form of art, communication, and a somewhat anonymous expression of current social climates. The disparity between these two perspectives has provided a great deal to study for social scientists. However, a consideration of graffiti's simple definition-words or drawings etched or painted on some surface in a public place-lead us to recognize that feats of graffiti originate way before the inner-city movements of the 1970s. In this class we will draw upon a range of studies from archaeology, anthropology, sociology, art, and history to broadly explore the creation and meaning of graffiti from antiquity to the present. Our goal is to learn how to examine the form, function, and context of graffiti across cultures and through time, with regard to the circumstances of its creation. In doing so, we aspire to better understand what lies behind the human urge to leave a mark. PREREQUISTE: Introduction to Archaeology.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 347B Ancient Mound Builders of the Mississippi Valley
Study of the peoples in North America who built mounds and other earthen structures beginning more than 4000 years ago; why they erected earthworks; what the structures were used for; how they varied through time and across space; and what significance they had to members of society.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA
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L48 Anthro 3481 Writing (Material) Culture
How do we use things to tell stories? How do the things we use shape who we are? The field of material culture studies approaches these questions by examining the role of objects in social life: their importance as material representations of culture and also as agents in its production and reproduction. In this course, we will explore ways to write about material culture, asking how those of us interested in culture (whether as anthropologists, educators, designers, journalists, curators or poets) can most effectively represent and analyze the social role of things through writing. Throughout the semester, students will read different genres of thing-based storytelling: social theory, fiction, archaeological site reports, ethnographies, museum catalogs, and long-form journalism. We will discuss how the authors of these works use things to describe and analyze the relationship between materials and ideas, reality and metaphor, positivism and multivocality, spatiality and temporality, and the politics of curation, commodity chains, ownership, and heritage. Each student will write short pieces in different genres and review the work of peers, and this will culminate in a final portfolio demonstrating the student's ability to practice and assess effective writing about material culture.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3521 Anthropology of Human Rights
This course draws on anthropological scholarship to examine doctrines, practices, and institutions associated with international human rights law. Topics to be covered include: (1) colonialism and the history of international human rights low; (2) the complex theoretical issues raised by attempts to define and apply human rights concepts in different cultural contexts; (3) the role of governments, NGOs, and other international institutions in promoting human rights and humanitarianism; (4) key human rights issues such as freedom of religion, cultural rights, women's rights, and economic rights in different cultural contexts.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3541 Anthropological and Sociological Study of Muslim Societies
This course introduces students to anthropological and sociological scholarship on Muslim societies. Attention will be given to the broad theoretical and methodological issues which orient such scholarship. These issues include the nature of Muslim religious and cultural traditions, the nature of modernization and rationalization in Muslim societies, and the nature of sociopolitical relations between "Islam" and the "West." The course explores the preceding issues through a series of ethnographic and historical case studies, with a special focus on Muslim communities in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Case studies address a range of specific topics, including religious knowledge and authority, capitalism and economic modernization, religion and politics, gender and sexuality, as well as migration and globalization. Please note: L75 554 is intended for graduate students only.
Same as L75 JIMES 354
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S UColl: CD
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L48 Anthro 3542 Anthropology of Change: Practicing Applied and Public Anthropology
In this course, students will learn how to use anthropology and ethnographic methods as tools for provoking change. The legitimacy of this "fifth-field" of anthropology has been in contention amongst anthropologists throughout generations. But in the contemporary era of neoliberalism and big-data, social scientists are increasingly examining their ethical duty to their informants-specifically, concerns about maintaining neutrality versus leveraging ethnographic data to improve lives or to make a profit. We will begin with the history of this ethical debate and move into contemporary issues in anthropology for social change and in business anthropology. Topics will include multidisciplinary teamwork, practitioner capacity building, community action programming, policy development and ethical design. This course is designed for upper-level anthropology students but will be particularly useful for those considering combining anthropology as a double-major or minor in a range of applied fields (business, engineering, social work, law, health and medicine). It will prepare students for the practical use of anthropology in consulting firms, research institutes, corporations, NGOs, and federal, state, and local government agencies.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: CPSC, SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3582 Anthropology of the Human Face
A survey of the human face, including both an evolutionary perspective on why our faces changed to look the way they do today and a theoretical perspective on how we create and maintain self-image through body modification. Comparative and cross-cultural approaches are used to understand modern human craniofacial and cultural diversity. The course includes discussions of how perceptions of biological variation inform social interactions and of how sociocultural norms pattern body modification, both presently and historically. Most importantly, students will learn how information obtained with archaeological, sociocultural, and biological methods is integrated to address anthropological questions.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 360 Placemaking St. Louis
Where is home? How do you know where you're from? Our points of origin (cultural, linguistic, geographic) often shape our life trajectories by telling us who we are and where we belong. The embodied ways we move through the world and our experiential relationships to particular places (in both the built and natural environments) also influence our sense of shared history and community. At the same time, the asymmetrical acceleration of travel and communication technologies has produced a globalized world that invites us to redefine the scale and scope of our neighborhoods. With the potential to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time, how do we maintain a sense of place? Anthropologists ask how and why certain places come to hold strong and lasting meaning to people. Together, we will study localization and placemaking practices through close ethnographic readings and with site visits to marked places, non-places, and contested spaces throughout the St. Louis area. This course explores the creativity and politics of place to ask, anew, what it means to be human in the early 21st century.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: HUM Art: CPSC, HUM BU: BA
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L48 Anthro 3602 Environmental Inequality: Toxicity, Health, and Justice
How are the problems of environmental stress, pollution, and degradation unevenly borne? Adopting cross-cultural, biosocial, intersectional, and posthumanist approaches, this course explores how exposures to environmental toxicities and dangers result in and exacerbate health harms, social disparities, and structural violences. A range of historical and contemporary case studies will include plagues, weather, fire, water, waste, minerals, air, etc. Students will not only gain an understanding of these problems and burdens, but also explore the transformative potential in intertwining environmental justice, critical global health, and social justice movements to seek solutions to these vital issues.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, ETH, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3608 Caribbean Island Vulnerabilities: Puerto Rico
Tropical and subtropical islands have long been imagined as a tourist's paradise, replete with the pleasures of sun, surf, sand, and sex. At the same time, long histories of colonization, exploitation, resource extraction, and slavery have produced a very different reality for many residents of islands located in and around the Caribbean Sea. More recently, communities in the Caribbean region have been subject to extreme weather events that bring the current politics of climate change into conversation with centuries-old problems related to economic isolation, infrastructure, human poverty, and ecological vulnerability. This course explores the nature of island disasters, both sudden and slow, by examining ethnographically the global histories that today inform "Caribbeanness" and the politics of everyday island life. We will further analyze the impact of media coverage on North American understandings of the Caribbean through a close examination of Puerto Rico.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS
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L48 Anthro 361 Culture and Environment
An introduction to the ecology of human culture, especially how "traditional" cultural ecosystems are organized and how they change with population density. Topics include foragers, extensive and intensive farming, industrial agriculture, the ecology of conflict, and problems in sustainability.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3612 Population and Society
This review of population processes and their social ramifications begins with an introduction to the basic terminology, concepts, and methods of population studies, followed by a survey of human population trends through history. The course then investigates biological and social dimensions of marriage and childbearing, critically examines family planning policies, deals with the social impacts of epidemics and population ageing, and looks at connections between population movements and sociocultural changes. The overall objective of the course is to understand how population processes are not just biological in nature, but are closely related to social, cultural, political, and economic factors.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3613 Follow the Thing: Global Commodities & Environment
Who picked your strawberries? Is your produce still "local" if the hands that harvested it traveled thousands of miles to do the job? This course re-examines the root causes of the global and local environmental problems we read about every day, with an emphasis on historical and contemporary drivers of human migration. Topics include the production and consumption of "natural" resources, the politics of migration and agriculture, and the cross-border commodification of human labor and the environment. Anthropology is historically associated with the study of "remote" societies and "exotic" places often imagined as having little everyday connection with the rest of the world. This course will challenge students to reconsider the meanings of "global" and "local" by introducing new social scientific approaches to studying the key problems that have connected (and disconnected) diverse human populations throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries: growing disparities in material wealth, natural resource depletion, energy overconsumption, inequitable access to care, and beyond.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, HUM EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3615 Environmental Anthropology
This course will provide students with a working knowledge of how the study of humans across space and time has fundamentally impacted the way we understand the idea of nature, the environment and what it means to be human. The course will ground students in both historical and cutting-edge anthropological theories with units on subsistence, transformative nature, imagining wilds in the Anthropocene and pluralizing environmentalisms.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: CPSC, SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3616 Ecofeminism: Environmental Social Movements and Anthropology
This course provides a survey of environmental social movements around the world and over time, in the process challenging commonly held perceptions about environmentalism and environmental movements. Specifically, it demonstrates that environmental social movements are often as much or more about people, identity and human rights than they are about protecting the environment. In addition to juxtaposing dominant traditions of American environmentalism with environmental movements in other parts of the world, the course focuses in on new and emerging social movements that are often transnational in scope but local in scale. These new movements offer holistic reinterpretations of human-environment relationships, identities and political and economic organization in their attempts to transcend socio-environmental inequalities. Throughout, the course draws on social scientists' (especially anthropologists') descriptive interpretations and critical theoretical analyses of various environmental social movements and the differences that constitute them.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, SC, SD Art: CPSC, SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3617 Past and Present Cultural Environments
Human societies are situated within and interact with their ecological and environmental systems. Even social relationships within and between groups imply spatial relationships and geographic orientation, advantages, influence, and limitations. Beyond subsistence, environment and the "natural world" play an integral role in how humans pattern the landscape, structure society, develop their world view, and, in turn, alter and adapt the world in which they live. This course introduces students to anthropological conceptions of human-environmental relationships, past and present. Topics include environmental and landscape archaeology; historical, political, and human behavioral ecology; world view and conceptualizations of nature; human adaptation, resilience theory, and niche construction; anthropological case studies; the intersections of humans, animals, and the environment; and end with environmental politics.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3618 Urban Ecological Anthropology
Anthropology's long history of studying human-environment interactions makes it well-suited to examine the complexities of urban environmental issues. Through ethnographies and other readings, this class introduces students to the ways social structures, power and knowledge contour people's experiences and understandings of nature in an urban environment. Of particular interest are environmental justice issues involving pollution and disasters; the creation of community gardens and other public space; cars and bicycles; and conservation or commercial uses of natural resources nestled in or on the edge of cities. Class discussion includes environmental issues in the St. Louis metropolitan area. No background in anthropology or environmental studies is required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: CPSC, SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3619 Dimensions of Waste
Waste is not apolitical. Its conception, creation and management are deeply cultural practices. Students will learn how local stories integrate to larger, cutting-edge research on waste, gleaned from direct, in-person contact with leading waste scholars. Students will have direct contact with renowned experts visiting for the 2017-2018 Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar on Wastelands. Course content will draw from core texts in environmental anthropology and ecocritical theory. We will learn to analyze contemporary perspectives on waste by reading scholarly and activist "texts" (publications, author visits, blog posts, etc.) as not only disseminators of facts, but also as cultural artifacts of specific epistemologies of waste. Students' final project will be to produce a Mini-Documentary or Podcast using their own original fieldwork interviews to demonstrate the flows of waste in the local St. Louis community.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: CPSC, SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 362 The Biological Basis of Human Behavior
Infidelity, marriage customs, inner city violence, infanticide, intelligence...Are the behavioral patterns we see genetically fixed and racially variable? What is the evolutionary and biological basis of human behavior? This course offers a critical evaluation of these from an anthropological perspective.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, NSM, SD Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: BA
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L48 Anthro 3620 Anthropological Perspectives on the Fetus
Where do we come from? How do we get here? When does "life" begin? Is the fetus a "person", or something else? How could we decide? This course will integrate biological, medical, philosophical, and cross-cultural perspectives to examine how various societies (including our own) understand the nature of the human fetus. The course will examine basic human embryology, beliefs about conception and fetal development, ideas about the moral status of the fetus, controversies surrounding pre-natal care and ante-natal diagnostic testing (including sex-selection and genetic screening tests), current controversies about fetal medicine and surgery, and the problem of abortion in cross-cultural perspective.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3621 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3625 The Female Life-Cycle in Cross-Cultural Perspective
This course will examine the biology of the female reproductive cycle -- menarche, menstruation, and the menopause -- and its cultural interpretation around the world. Topics covered will include the embryology of human sexual differentiation, the biology of the menstrual cycle and how it influences or is influenced by various disease states, contraception, infertility, cultural taboos and beliefs about menstruation and menopause, etc. The course will utilize materials drawn from human biology, clinical gynecology, ethnography, social anthropology, and the history of medicine and will examine the interplay between female reproductive biology and culture around the world.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 3626 Adventures in Nosology: The Nature and Meaning of Disease
What is a "disease" and how do you diagnose one? What are "medicines" and how, when, and for what purpose should they be used? These questions reflect universal human concerns, but the answers given to these questions have varied enormously in different times and places. The course will consider the nature of health, illness, disease and its treatment, beginning with a detailed examination of the traditional ethnomedical system of the Hausa people of northern Nigeria. Using this West African medical system as a baseline for comparison, the course will then explore the nature of "nosology" (the classification of diseases) and the underlying logic of different therapeutic systems in different times and cultures, including our own. The course will draw on ethnography, the history of medicine, bioethics, and human biology to understand how these questions are asked and answered in different societies, times and places.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: SCI EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3628 The Anthropology of Health Disparities
This course approaches the subjects of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and class-related health disparity epidemiologically and anthropologically. Students in this course will explore these cultural categories both as factors that contribute to systematic differences in health status and outcomes and as dynamic frameworks through which those systematic differences can be examined and understood. The grounding assumptions of this course are 1) that race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and class are cultural constructs employed by humans in an effort to account for observed physical, dispositional and behavioral group-level diversity; 2) that disparity, and particularly health disparity, is meaningfully associated with diversity but is not caused by it; and 3) that because humans are the product of two dynamic, complex systems (biology and culture), health disparities are most usefully engaged as conditions of process and interconnectedness.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 365 Human Growth and Development
This course focuses on the life-history of humans from birth to death. Through a series of lectures we will consider how humans grow and change both biologically and psychologically over the course of our lives. Topics will include: human growth curves, sex-differences, adolescence and puberty, nutrition, environment, growth disorders, death, and the evolution of human growth.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3656 Behavioral Ecology of the Great Apes
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the behavioral ecology and observational study of non-human great apes. Lectures and readings will provide an overview of the evolution, distribution, feeding ecology, social systems, behavior, conservation, and well-being of great apes. The comparative nature of course material will gradually increase throughout the semester and students will be asked to synthesize this material on exams. Additionally, students will complete a course-based independent research project on a topic of their choosing at the Saint Louis Zoo, via live video webcams, or by using great ape video archives. Students' grades will be based on participation during in-class activities, midterm syntheses of comparative great ape behavioral ecology, and the production of an original research poster.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3660 Primate Ecology, Biology, and Behavior
This course will provide a comprehensive overview of the order Primates by investigating behavioral adaptations, life history characteristics, physiology, ecology, geographic distribution, social structure, taxonomy, and evolution. The course will cover all of the primate groups: apes, monkeys, tarsiers, and strepsirhines (e.g., lemurs). The importance of primate ecology, biology, and behavior to the discipline of anthropology -- particularly how social and environmental factors may have shaped human evolution -- will be discussed. This course will take an evolutionary approach and include the discussion of natural selection and other forces of evolution. Intended for students who have already taken Anthro 150A and recommended for students who wish to take the more advanced 400-level courses on primates. Prerequisite: Anthro 150A or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 3661 Primate Biology
This course takes a multi-faceted introductory approach to the primates, the closest relatives of human beings, by investigating anatomy, growth and development, reproduction, behavioral adaptations, ecology, geographic distribution, taxonomy and evolution. Emphasis will be placed not only on the apes and monkeys, but also on the lesser-known lemurs, lorises, bushbabies, tarsiers, and many others. The importance of primate biology to the discipline of anthropology will be discussed. Intended for students who have already taken Anthro 150A, and recommended for students who wish to take the more advanced 400-level courses on primates. Prerequisite: Anthro 150A or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 3662 Writing for Primate Conservation Biology
This class will focus on the ecological diversity of primates and how these and other traits are related to their present day abundance and distribution. In addition, the biological, abiotic and anthropogenic factors related to extinction risk will be examined. It will also review the endangered species of primates, case histories of conservation programs, and management practices in Asia, Africa, South America, and Madagascar. Prerequisites: Anthro 150 or Bio 2970, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM, WI Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 3665 Observing Animal Behavior at the St. Louis Zoo
This course is an introduction to methods for the collection of behavioral data in studies of animal behavior. Students will be trained in the design of research projects and the analysis and interpretation of behavioral data. Students will learn how different methods are used to answer specific questions in animal behavior research. Research will be conducted at the St. Louis Zoo.
Credit 3 units. Art: NSM
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L48 Anthro 3666 Comparative Primate Socioecology
This course focuses on the interface between the behavior and ecology of non-human primates and its applications to primate conservation. We will examine how the basic principles of animal ecology can help us understand primate behavior. We will look at a wide range of primates from a comparative perspective as we explore primate habitats, diets, life histories and communities, social relationships, and much more. Because most primate species are threatened, endangered, or even facing extinction, we will also focus on how various aspects of ecology are used in the conservation of primates. We will draw heavily on field studies and particular research projects of primates and emphasize their behavior in natural environmental and social settings. The objectives of the course are: 1) to gain an understanding of principles of animal behavior by using primates as a model, 2) to understand variation in behavior and how ecology influences this variation in living primates, 3) to use the comparative approach to better understand why primate societies differ, 4) To understand how we address and answer questions about primate behavior through field research
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 367 Paleoanthropology
The prehistoric Pliocene and Pleistocene evidence for human emergence and evolution. The emphasis will be on the human fossil record and its interpretation in functional and behavioral terms. This will be placed in the context of the Paleolithic archaeological record and issues regarding the biological relationships between various human groups. Prerequisite: Anthropology 150 or equivalent.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 3692 Blood Feuds and Battlefields: The Archaeology of Warfare and Conflict
In this course we will explore the origins, causes and consequences of warfare in human societies. Our overall aim will be to gain a broad understanding of the range of variation in which warfare and human societies have influenced one another. The bulk of human history falls outside the scope of written records making archaeology a critical means of understanding our past. Through an examination of diverse case studies students will gain an understanding of the various forms of violence and warfare carried out among and between human populations-from small-scale "blood feuds" among foraging and early agricultural societies to the large-scale warfare and territorial expansion undertaken by states and empires. Particular attention will be paid to the role of warfare in social and cultural change. We will also explore common themes in the archaeology of warfare including sacrifice and ritual violence, gender, and the depiction and commemoration of warfare in art, iconography and monumental architecture. Finally, we will consider how perceptions of past conflicts affect us in the present-day by examining the role that they continue to play in the present. Throughout the course we will remain respectful and mindful of our ethical responsibilities to descendant communities and the contemporary context for studying violence in the human past.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3693 Anthropology of Death, Mourning, and Burial
This course offers anthropological analysis of death, mourning and burial. It draws on data and theoretical explanations from different sub-disciplines of anthropology (archaeology, cultural anthropology, and physical anthropology). In addition to theoretical conceptualization of mortuary practices, specific case studies will be used to address a wide range of topics. The course covers cross-cultural comparison of burial among hunter-gatherers, pastoralists and complex societies. Mortuary practices will also be conceptualized based on religion and secularity, social organization and biological approaches (eg. paleodiet, paleodemography, disease). Ethical and legal issues of using human remains worldwide will also be addressed. This course will help train and stimulate academic enquiry into ancient and modern societal treatment of death around the globe. The time covered in this course ranges from the Lower Palaeolithic to the contemporary world.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 372 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 373 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 374 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S UColl: CD
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L48 Anthro 376 Warriors, Merchants, Monks, and Courtesans: Ancient Narratives of Globalization in Google Earth
This introductory seminar-style course examines the history of globalization through the narrative accounts of those who lived along some of the great trade routes of the Old World. Through a combination of in-class discussion and hands-on tutorials and projects in Google Earth, we will examine how day-to-day local interactions and the experiences of individuals contributed to broader cultural exchanges and the shaping of ancient cosmopolitan centers. We will use a bottom-up approach to understand the process of globalization, and why it is not only a phenomenon of the modern world. This course will cover a large geographic and temporal span, but it is not about memorizing lists of dates and places or putting dots on a map - it is about learning how to interpret multiple strands of knowledge and put them together into a cohesive narrative of history. The course will cover four broad anthropological themes related to Old World history and globalization in conjunction with weekly lessons in Google Earth; there are no prerequisites for either. The knowledge and skills gained in the course will lead to a final independent research project consisting of a short paper and an interactive digital map that can be shared online through the Google Earth community.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3773 Culture and Society in East Asia
This course presents an overview of cultures and contemporary social/political changes in East Asia. In Western society, East Asia has often been viewed as a place of enduring cultural identities, but it has also been a region of one of the world's most dynamic and rapid transformations. In this course, we'll examine both the continuity and change of cultural and social patterns in this region. Students will compare anthropological and ethnographic studies of the Peoples' Republic of China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, supplemented by selected research from sociology, history, and political science. The course will focus on specific areas of cultural and social change in each society, including kinship and family, gender, ethnicity, economic and political development, and health and social policy.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3775 Ancient Eurasia and the New Silk Roads
This course will explore the rise of civilization in the broad region of Eurasia, spanning from the eastern edges of Europe to the western edges of China. The focus of the course is the unique trajectory of civilization that is made evident in the region of Central Eurasia from roughly 6000 BC to the historical era (ca. AD 250). In addition to this ancient focus, the course aims to relate many of the most historically durable characteristics of the region to contemporary developments of the past two or three centuries. Fundamentally, this course asks us to reconceptualize the notion of "civilization" from the perspective of societies whose dominant forms of organization defied typical classifications such as "states" or "empires" and, instead, shaped a wholly different social order over the past 5000 years or more. This class provides a well-rounded experience of the geography, social organization, and social interconnections of one of the most essential and pivotal regions in world history and contemporary political discourse.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 379 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
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L48 Anthro 380 Applications in GIS
This introductory course in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is designed to provide you with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to be an independent user of GIS. The course will use the latest version of ESRI ArcGIS. The course is taught using a combination of lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on, interactive tutorials in the classroom. You will also explore the scientific literature to understand how GIS is being used by various disciplines to address spatial questions. The course takes a multidisciplinary approach that is focused on learning the tools of GIS versus working with data from a particular field. The goal is to establish a solid foundation you can use to address spatial questions that interest you, your mentor, or your employee. The first weeks of the course will provide a broad view of how you can display and query spatial data and produce map products. The remainder of the course will explore the power of GIS with a focus on applying spatial analytical tools to address questions and solve problems. As the semester develops, more tools will be added to your GIS toolbox so that you can complete a final independent project that integrates materials learned during the course with those spatial analyses that interest you the most. Students will have the choice of using a prepared final project, a provided data set, or designing an individualized final project using their own or other available data.
Same as L82 EnSt 380
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: ETH, NS, ETH, S, NSM Art: NSM
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L48 Anthro 3833 Performance and Healing: The Politics of Health Representation
The purpose of this course is to bridge the disciplines of medical anthropology, global public health, and medical humanities through deep consideration of how variegated knowledge about health, healing, and illness is produced and performed in a variety of public forums. Students will explore the ways in which knowledge is produced about particular global health topics through representation in text, image, sound, film/television, and live performance art. Using interdisciplinary theory and methods, this course answers the following questions: why are these representation modalities important, and how do we analyze them in practice? Drawing on the fields of medical anthropology, media studies, global public health, and performance studies, this course elucidates the relationships between knowledge production, representation, discourse, health, and power through three case studies. Case study topics include: HIV/AIDS, Heroin Injection Use, and Domestic and Sexual Violence. Although the course provides an interdisciplinary perspective for understanding and analyzing different ways of representing illness and healing, it is also deeply grounded within the political-economy of health framework of critical medical anthropology. The following topics will be central to our analyses in this class: gender, sexuality, the body, class, ethnicity, and language.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3851 History and Theory of Anthropology
This course examines the history of anthropology and the major theoretical frameworks of the field to the present. Key theorists discussed in this class include Geertz, Foucault, Marx, Mead, and Weber, as well as the deep roots of anthropology in strands of philosophy and social thought running back centuries. Ethnographic case studies from around the world are read in order to keep the theories palpable and grounded. Key themes discussed in the class include the concept of culture, how and why societies change and evolve, ways that meanings and identities are made, the role of history in the present, diverse forms of power and experience, and issues of diversity amid contemporary global life.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3860 Sports, Health, and Society
Sports is a lens onto social issues of health, fitness, and the body. Case studies in this course deal with injury and abuse, the role of medicine and pharmaceuticals, corporations and mass media, gendered aggression, doping scandals, disabled athletes, trans athletes, and video games, among other topics. A wide range of sports will be covered, including basketball, American football, college athletics, sumo wrestling, martial arts, ordinary activities like running and exercise, and mass spectacles such as the Olympics. By adopting cross-cultural and intersectional approaches, this course will consider how race, gender, and other social contrasts shape ableisms, body norms, violences, and hard-driving business interests in sports and society.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, SC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 387 Medical Anthropology
The comparative study of non-Western medical systems, including the definitions of health and disease, the kinds of treatment, and the varieties of practitioners in other cultures (e.g., Navaho, India, China).
Credit 3 units. Art: SSC BU: IS
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L48 Anthro 3870 Science and Society
Encounters with science are ubiquitous in daily life. We read papers hailing scientists' most recent achievements. We adjust our lifestyles to their findings, and we sometimes even allow them to change our beliefs about the world. As students, we learn about the scientific method, run labs, and memorize facts and equations. This course invites students to estrange themselves from these familiar scenes by challenging some assumptions about what science is and how it works. In the course, we launch from the premise that science is itself a cultural activity, permeated by social norms and values. Surveying a rich, cross-disciplinary literature, the course thus aims to unpack the deep imbrications between science, society, technology, economy, and politics from the perspective of the field of science and technology studies.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3874 International Public Health
This course explores current topics in international public health using a case-study-based approach, emphasizing public health issues affecting low-and middle-income countries; introduction to the tools and methods of international public health research and programs; in-depth examination and critique of the roles of local and national governments, international agencies, and third-party donors in international public health work; and the contributions of anthropology to the international public health agenda.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3875 Pharmaceutical Personhood
This course examines sociocultural dimensions of pharmaceutical production and consumption in the contemporary world. Pharmaceuticals have brought remarkable promises. Their consumption also reflects various social inequalities and substantial transformations in human experience that demand critical attention. We examine the history and global reach of the pharmaceutical industry, the content of pharmaceutical advertising, and pharmaceutical use in the treatment of various kinds of illness, including common mental disorders, post-traumatic experience, chronic illness, eating disorders, and lifestyle disorders. Case studies are drawn from diverse societies. We also explore various angles of public criticism about the pharmaceutical industry. No background in anthropology is required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3876 Darwin and Doctors: Evolutionary Medicine and Health
Back pain, diabetes, obesity, colds, even morning sickness. These are all common human health problems. But have you ever wondered why we have these and other health conditions? In this class, we will investigate this question - and others - specifically using evolutionary theory to inform current understandings of contemporary health problems.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 3880 Multispecies Worlds: Animals, Global Health, and Environment
Amid escalating global environmental and health crises that impact all forms of life, this course critically considers the diverse relationships of humans with other forms of life and varied ecological systems. Although anthropology has long studied humans' use of and impact on environments, anthropologists have begun to increase their focus on human-animal cohabitations, engagements, and shared cultures and worlds. This seminar looks at how diverse contemporary contexts -- such as zoos, farms, forests, and laboratories -- involve fascinating human-animal relationships and contentious implications for ethics, health, and ecology. In investigating how animals are central to scientific knowledge production, debates about animal welfare, environmental sustainability issues, companionship and pets, entertainment and sports, and zoonic disease, we will explore the possibility for more richly understanding the world by fully appreciating species diversity and interconnectivity.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3882 Psychological Anthropology
The objective of this course is to introduce students to the central topics and methods of psychological anthroplogy. Psychological anthropology is concerned with the interplay of psychology and culture on both the individual and group levels. We will look cross-culturally at such topics as child and adolescent development, religious experience, illness and healing, self and identity, gender and sexuality, reasoning and symbolism, and psychopathology. This class draws upon a range of sources, including ethnographies, psychoanalytic theory, contemporary critical theory, and cross-cultural materials.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3884 Regulating Reproduction: Morality, Politics and (In)justice
This course centers on the burgeoning corpus of anthropological scholarship on reproduction, with special attention to the regulation of reproductive behaviors and population management in cross-cultural perspective. Anthropologists and feminist scholars have shown how reproduction-which links individual bodies to the body politic-is a privileged site for processes of governance. Scholars have also shown how seemingly personal reproductive choices made in the micro units of families, are always bound up with broader, if obscured, economic, national, and political projects. In this course, we will cover how diverse entities, including the state, the Church, NGO's and feminist groups, seek to manage reproductive behaviors and politics across the world. We will discuss population control campaigns (such as China's notorious one-child policy) and pronatalist population policies (like those seen in Israel) in order to underscore how the management of fertility becomes a crucial site for nationalist and state-building projects. In this course we examine processes of "reproductive governance" around topics including pregnancy and birth, family planning, abortion, and adoption. We also examine how the global proliferation of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (such as in vitro, sonogram, abortifacient pills, amniocentesis) intersects with efforts to govern reproduction. Crucially, we take class and race as key axes through which reproduction is experienced and stratified in diverse contexts. At the end of this course students should have a solid grasp of key topics and themes in the anthropology of reproductive governance, as well as more in-depth knowledge of a particular controversial reproductive issue that they choose to focus on for their final research paper.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, SC, SD EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3885 Global Mental Health
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 EN: S
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L48 Anthro 3900 Intermediate Directed Research
This course level is typically taken by juniors or seniors during their first semester in the lab, or by advanced freshmen and sophomores. The expectations of a 300-level directed research project will be greater than those of a 200 level directed research. Student participation in research activities should include higher-level participation, including completing literature reviews, running complex assays, or similar work. The student is expected to be proficient in the appropriate research techniques of a lab, familiar with relevant literatures surrounding the project, and capable of working with minimal supervision. There should be some form of final evaluation or project, but an independent research project is not necessary. May be taken for 1-3 credit hours, 1-2 recommended. Students must enroll in a specific section with a faculty member and receive approval from the department.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
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L48 Anthro 3942 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
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L48 Anthro 397 Proseminar: Issues and Research in Anthropology
Designed to introduce the student to current issues in Anthropology and to research being carried out by faculty. Topics vary each year. Each departmental member addresses issues in his/her particular specialty. Required of all majors; may be taken before declaring major, and may be taken by non-majors.
Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 399 Undergraduate Teaching Assistant
Open to advanced undergraduates only. Usual duties of teaching assistant in laboratory or other selected courses. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
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L48 Anthro 3999 Class Mentor
Classroom instructional assistance through mentoring activities assigned by instructor. Limited to advanced undergraduates only. Permission of instructor required. Class mentors will contribute to the intellectual development and/or pedagogical design. This is a more rigorous commitment that requires the production of additional course material or responsibilities compared to L48 Anthro 399; Undergraduate Teaching Assistant. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
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L48 Anthro 4002 Internship in Interrogating Health, Race, and Inequalities
Internship in Interrogating Health, Race, and Inequalities is intended for advanced undergraduates who are enrolled in the course L48-4003 (Interrogating Health, Race, and Inequalities) and who have previous coursework in (medical) anthropology, public health, urban policy, or African and African-American Studies. The internship experience is designed to facilitate students' familiarity with research and evaluation strategies that **both **address structural factors shaping health outcomes and are sensitive to community needs and socio-cultural contexts. The internship experience will contribute to students' in-class understanding of the ways that race as a historically produced social interacts with other axes of diversity and social determinants to produce particular health outcomes. The course requires **permission from the instructor** and L48-4003 is the co-requisite.
Same as I50 INTER D 4002
Credit 1 unit.
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L48 Anthro 4003 Interrogating Health, Race, and Inequalities: Public Health, Medical Anthropology, and History
Interrogating Health, Race, and Inequalities is intended for graduate students in the School of Social Work and in Arts & Sciences as well as advanced undergraduates in Arts & Sciences who have previous coursework in medical anthropology, public health, or urban policy. The fundamental goal of the course is to demonstrate that health is not merely a medical or biological phenomenon but more importantly the product of social, economic, political, and environmental factors. To meet this goal the course is designed to examine the intersection of race/ethnicity and health from multiple analytic approaches and methodologies. Course readings will draw from the fields of public health, anthropology, history, and policy analysis. Teaching activities include lectures, group projects and presentations, videos, and discussions led by the course instructors. These in-class activities will be supplemented with field trips and field-based projects. By the end of the course it is expected that students will have a strong understanding of race as a historically produced social construct as well as how race interacts with other axes of diversity and social determinants to produce particular health outcomes. Students will gain an understanding of the health disparity literature and a solid understanding of multiple and intersecting causes of these disparities.
Same as I50 INTER D 4001
Credit 3 units.
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L48 Anthro 4005 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 Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 401 Evolution of Non-Human Primates
Discussion and analysis of primate evolution with emphasis on comparative and functional anatomy and primate paleontology. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Art: NSM
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L48 Anthro 4011 Popular Culture and Consumption in Modern China
This writing-intensive seminar explores transformations in popular culture and everyday life in Chinese society since 1949 through an analytical focus on political economy and material culture. Drawing upon ethnographic texts, films, and material artifacts, we will investigate how the forces of state control and global capitalism converge to shape consumer desires and everyday habits in contemporary China. Case studies include eating habits, fashion standards, housing trends, entertainment, sports, and counterfeit goods. Prerequisite: previous course in China studies (anthropology, economics, history, literature, philosophy, or political science) required. Enrollment by instructor approval only.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, WI Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4022 Transnational Reproductive Health Issues: Meanings, Technologies, Practices
This course covers recent scholarship on gender and reproductive health, including such issues as reproduction and the disciplinary power of the state, contested reproductive relations within families and communities, and the implications of global flows of biotechnology, population, and information for reproductive strategies at the local level. We will also explore how transnational migration and globalization have shaped reproductive health, the diverse meanings associated with reproductive processes, and decisions concerning reproduction. Reproduction will serve as a focus to illuminate the cultural politics of gender, power, and sexuality.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 403 Archaeology and Early Ethnography of the Southwest
This course integrates archaeological, historical, and early ethnographic dimensions of American Indian societies in the southwestern United States and northwest Mexico, a region famous for its challenging environment, cultural diversity, and the contributions made by its Native inhabitants. Emphasis is placed on the development of sophisticated desert agriculture and on the rise of regionally integrated cultures including Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. The impact of Spanish, Mexican, and American colonization are explored. Ethnographies of Tohono O'odham (Papago), Hopi, Zuni, Rio Grande Pueblo, and Navajo societies will be discussed.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4033 Culture, Illness, and Healing in Asia
This course examines the place of health, illness, and healing in Asian societies. We will explore how people experience, narrate, and respond to illness and other forms of suffering - including political violence, extreme poverty, and health inequalities. In lectures and discussions we will discuss major changes that medicine and public health are undergoing and how those changes affect the training of practitioners, health care policy, clinical practice and ethics. The course will familiarize students with key concepts and approaches in medical anthropology by considering case studies from a number of social settings including China, India, Indonesia,Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Tibet, Thailand, Vietnam and Asian immigrants in the United States. We will also investigate the sociocultural dimensions of illness and the medicalization of social problems in Asia, examining how gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability and other forms of social difference affect medical knowledge and disease outcomes. This course is intended for anthropology majors, students considering careers in medicine and public health, and others interested in learning how anthropology can help us understand human suffering and formulate more effective interventions.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4041 Islam and Politics
Blending history and ethnography, this course covers politics in the Islamic world in historical and contemporary times. Topics include history of Islam, uniformity and diversity in belief and practice (global patterns, local realities), revolution and social change, women and veiling, and the international dimensions of resurgent Islam. Geographical focus extends from Morocco to Indonesia; discussion of other Muslim communities is included (Bosnia, Chechnya, sub-Saharan Africa, U.S.)
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: IS
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L48 Anthro 4042 Islam Across Cultures
In this seminar we examine the variety of historical and contemporary ways of interpreting and practicing Islam, with special attention to issues of ritual, law and the state, and gender. Cases are drawn from Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and students engage in fieldwork or library research projects.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC
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L48 Anthro 4050 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 EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4052 Citizenship: Historical, Cross-Cultural, and Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Although some have posited that citizenship may become obsolete in an increasingly globalizing and interconnected world, citizenship has never been more relevant. Discussions of migration, statelessness, naturalization policies, borders, and so many other contemporary topics hinge on questions of citizenship. In this course, we will be taking an interdisciplinary approach to the study of citizenship, drawing on a wide range of work from historians, social scientists, journalists, and writers. This is an interdisciplinary and transnational course intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Examples will draw from around the world and from a variety of disciplines. Assigned materials include the work of historians, anthropologists, political scientists, sociologists, and journalists as well as novels, films, and audio and visual sources.
Same as L93 IPH 4052
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA EN: H
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L48 Anthro 406 Primate Ecology and Social Structure
Survey of the ecology, individual and social behavior, adaptations, and interactions of the major groups of primates. Emphasis on studies designed to examine the relationships among ecology, morphophysiology, and behavior. Methods used in collecting data on primates in the field. Prerequisite: Anth 150A or one 100-level biology course.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Art: NSM
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L48 Anthro 4082 Origin of Evolutionary Thought
This course provides and in-depth introduction to classic works in evolutionary biology and evolutionary anthropology. Students will read primary as well as some secondary sources and be expected to discuss those materials each week in class. Students should expect a very heavy reading load, and should plan on reading the assignments throughout the week.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM
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L48 Anthro 4091 Sexuality, Gender, and Change in Africa
This course considers histories and social constructions of gender and sexuality in sub-Saharan Africa during the colonial and contemporary periods. We will examine gender and sexuality both as sets of identities and practices and as part of wider questions of work, domesticity, social control, resistance, and meaning. Course materials include ethnographic and historical materials and African novels and films. PREREQUISITE: Graduate students or undergraduates with previous AFAS or upper level anthropology course.
Same as L90 AFAS 409
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, SC, SD, WI Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4100 Topics in Anthropology: Humanitarianism
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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4101 Topics in Anthropology
A course covering topics in one of the three subdisciplines of anthropology
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4102 Latin America and the Rise of the Global South
The rise of the global south - and the reordering of global geopolitics, economics and cultural imaginaries - is characterized by progressive change and intense conflict. Economic growth coincides with the impacts of global warming, the assault on natural resources, the rise of new consumers and the entrenchment of deep inequalities. We also see the emergence of cultural and political formations that range from the horrific to the inspiring. Latin America is a central node of the new global south. Here history takes unpredictable turns in the face of declining U.S. hegemony, the economic growth of Brazil, legacies of militarism and political violence, a feverish attack on nature, resurgent economic nationalism, and defiant "anti-globalization" movements. Through close reading of contemporary ethnographies of Latin America we explore emergent cultural and political-economic processes in the region, we consider south-south articulations (theoretical, cultural, political-economic) between Latin America, China, Africa, and India, and we reflect on the changing role, meaning, and relationships of the United States in the region.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4104 Topics in Anthropology
A course covering topics in one of the three subdisciplines of anthropology
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4106 Topics in Anthropology: Biomechanics
Humans, like all organisms, live and evolved in a world that is governed by the rules of physics. Such an engineered world has undoubtedly had a profound impact on the human evolutionary trajectory. Biomechanics is the science of understanding the natural world around us in a mechanistic fashion, and it has become a major pillar in investigating the human form and function. Understanding how humans and our closest relatives behave in and interact with the physical world can lead to novel insights into the evolution of complex traits; such understanding can come from investigating the mechanics of tissues and structures of the human body or understanding the principles of movement and locomotion. Through lectures, discussions, and hands-on experience, this course will explain biomechanical terms and principles to demonstrate how this discipline has contributed to biological anthropology.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 4107 Topics in Archaeology: Archaeology of the Living World
As anthropologists, archaeologists are familiar with the animate nature of reality as experienced by most people at most times in human history. Guided by such reality, people create material patterns that challenge archaeologists to identify them by attempting to elucidate what the makers might have experienced and intended, not what modern scientists might see through the lens of a clear division between animate and inanimate material. Increasingly, the default position of ignoring this challenge because it is difficult to make convincing arguments regarding the esoteric knowledge generating patterns in an animate world is no longer acceptable, morally or practically. This course explores some of the work archaeologists are undertaking to advance knowledge of past realities experienced by people generating material records we that can study from the perspective of relations between people and things of a mutually constitutive nature.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 4108 Topics in Anthropology: Representations of Disability
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4110 Pushing Daisies: The Anthropology of Death and Dying
This course examines the dying process and the ways humans around the world come to terms with their mortality. We will critically analyze controversial issues regarding brain death, suicide, euthanasia, and organ donation. We will survey funerary traditions from a variety of cultures and compare the social, spiritual, and psychological roles that these rituals play for both the living and the dying. We will examine cultural attitudes toward death and how the denial and awareness of human mortality can shape social practices and institutions. Finally, we will consider issues regarding quality of life, the opportunities and challenges of caregiving, and hospice traditions around the world. This course will include readings and films about individuals and groups, both in the United States and around the world, as well as guest speakers (hospice workers, home aides, organ donation facilitators, counselors) who will talk about issues related to end-of-life health and caretaking issues in and around St Louis.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4112 Body and Flesh: Theorizing Embodiment
This seminar explores a wide range of readings on "the body" as a site of theoretical analysis in social scientific and humanistic inquiry. Issues include: How do we think about the body as simultaneously material (flesh and bone) and constructed in and through social and political discourse? How do we think about the relationship between these contingent bodies and subjective experiences of "self" in various contexts? The course focuses upon the different ways in which these questions have been posed and engaged, and the implications of these formulations for the theorizing of human experience. Prerequisite: Anthropology 3201, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4113 Advanced Psychological Anthropology
This seminar examines the intersection of psychological and anthropological theories and methods and their utility in the study of culture and human experience. This cousre is an in-depth exploration of some of the key theorists and theoretical domains that have defined the field of psychological anthropology and beyond, including Bakhtin, Bateson, Chodorow, D'Andrade, Ewing, Freud, Goffman, Hallowell, Holland, Irigaray, Kleinman, Kohut, Lacan, Lutz, Rosaldo, Strauss, Sapir, Scheper-Hughes, and Vygotsky, among others. By the end of the course, students will have a solid grounding in linguistic, psychoanalytic, cognitive, symbolic, developmental, interactionist, and critical approaches within psychological anthropology. Prerequisites: At least one of the following -- Anthro 3201, Anthro 3882, graduate standing, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4114 Anthropology and Existentialism
This course examines what it means to be human. Drawing on existentialist philosophy and ethnography, this course is about appreciating the richness, the deep emotional tone, and also the dangers of human experience. Case studies look at profound aspects of existence, like suffering, healing, mercy, and hope, across diverse cultures. Specific themes covered include the ordinary life, how we perceive the world around us, the feeling of being at home and senses of place, how we experience pain, what makes our bodies powerful or vulnerable, why things really matter, and how communities cope with trauma and violence. This course is especially relevant for students interested in medical anthropology and social dimensions of health and illness. No background in anthropology or philosophy is required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4115 Anthropology of Deviance
This course provides an anthropological perspective on notions of "deviance" as social, psychological, moral, and medical mechanisms of control and regulation. Students will learn to critically engage and evaluate dominant etiological theories of deviance, local and global contexts of deviance, and social responses to deviance as cultural processes through which communities make (and unmake) meaningful human relationships. Through academic texts, ethnographic accounts, clinical case materials, and first-hand accounts, students will explore multiple dimensions of what it means to be "deviant" or "normal" in a given social or cultural context. Sample topics include: historical trajectories of deviance, deviance and criminology, social class and inequality, prison cultures, deviance and resistance, deviant personalities, forensic psychiatry, deviant vs. socially sanctioned violence, and stigma.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, SC, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4116 Anthropology and Experiment
In recent years, many cultural anthropologists have described their work as "experimental." On the surface, the notion of experimentation leads something of a double life. On the one hand, in its ideal form, it stands for rigidly held methodological tenets aimed at answering questions in rigorous ways. This kind of experimentations is the hallmark of "scientific" inquiry. On the other hand, experimentation implies something of open-endedness, of tentative and flexible exploration. Through an examination of works on experiments, as well as purportedly experimental ethnographies, we will pursue the question: What is an experimental mode of inquiry in cultural anthropology, and how does it square with the two idealized meanings of experimentation? We will examine the links and resonances between different notions of what experiments do, what they describe in terms of both form and method, how they begin and end, how they are assessed as successes or failures, and what sort of knowledge they produce. This course involves reading across cultural anthropology, science studies and the philosophy of science to better understand different approaches to experiments across domains of research and writing. Can we learn something about what anthropologists do in experimental works from the wealth of thoughtful scholarship on experiments in other fields? Is there something common to experimentation in cultural anthropology and experimentation elsewhere in the social sciences and beyond?
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4117 Nature/Culture
What do we mean by "nature" or by designating something as "natural"? How do we distinguish nature from culture and where does such a distinction break down, become political or controversial? Is the distinction between nature and culture itself universal, or does it emerge from a particular history and reflect particular preconceptions and understandings? And how do new technologies reconfigure this distinction? In this course, we will explore such questions, paying special attention to the ways anthropology, as a discipline, has relied on, reinforced, and legitimated this great divide.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4118 The Good Cause: Psychological Anthropology of Moral Crusades
Why do people join moral crusades? These are social movements based on powerful moral institutions, ranging from the abolitionist and suffragette movements to witch hunts, insurgency and ethnic riots. Such movements are extremely diverse, yet their unfolding and the dynamics of recruitment show remarkably common properties. We will examine a series of empirical cases, including recent events, and assess the relevance of models based on individual psychological dynamics, intuitive moral capacities, and human motivation for participation in collective action.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4119 Becoming Clinicians and Healers
A great deal of learning in clinical, caring, and healing professions takes place on the job and through interactions with peers and supervisors. To better understand such subtle and hidden forms of learning, we will examine how clinicians- and healers-in-training experience processes of embodiment and the training of the senses in therapeutic encounters. Pairing theoretical scholarship on apprenticeship, tacit knowledge, and the perfection of one's craft, with rich ethnographic research on training in surgery, psychotherapy, and shamanism, this course will explore the subtle and subjective experiences of learning to become a future therapeutic practitioner.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC BU: BA
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L48 Anthro 411W Anthropology and Existentialism - Writing Intensive Seminar
This course examines what it means to be human. Drawing on existentialist philosophy and ethnography, this course is about appreciating the richness, the deep emotional tone, and also the dangers of human experience. Case studies look at profound aspects of existence, like suffering, healing, mercy, and hope, across diverse cultures. Specific themes covered include the ordinary life, how we perceive the world around us, the feeling of being at home and senses of place, how we experience pain, what makes our bodies powerful or vulnerable, why things really matter, and how communities cope with trauma and violence. This course is especially relevant for students interested in medical anthropology and social dimensions of health and illness. No background in anthropology or philosophy is required. This is the Writing Intensive version of the course L48 4114.
Credit 3 units. Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4120 Conspiracies, Cults, and Moral Panics: The Affective Politics of Fear
This course takes an anthropological look at conspiracy theories, cults, and moral panics as manifestations of cultural distress and modes of everyday knowledge and practice. The thread that connects these phenomena is that they are constituted as counterhegemonic pathways to "truths" that the majority of people cannot (or refuse to) see. As such, they serve as provocative lenses on changing understandings of such issues as the relationship between the individual and the modern state, the contours of civil liberties and responsibilities, and the nature and purpose of human existence. Throughout the semesterwe will explore the evolution and social impact of conspiracies, cults, and moral panics, and examine the historical, cultural, political, and religious dynamics that inform all three using a variety of critical methods. Among other lines of inquiry, we will ask: What is the cultural and psychological work of these phenomena? And what do they suggest about our own experiences-especially of freedom, the exercise of power, and what counts as knowledge?
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4123 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4124 Language and Politics
Language is a constitutive part of political processes. While many agree that language is used to symbolize or express political action, the main focus of this course is on how linguistic practice and ideology contributes to the creation of political stances, events, and spheres. Topics addressed include political rhetoric and ritual, the emergence of public spheres, discrimination, as well as ethnic conflict, nationalism and colonialism.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, SD Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4134 The AIDS Epidemic: Inequalities, Ethnography, and Ethics
In the year 2000, HIV became the world's leading infectious cause of adult death. In the next 10 years, AIDS killed more people than all wars of the 20th century combined. As the global epidemic rages on, our greatest enemy in combating HIV/AIDS is not knowledge or resources but rather global inequalities and the conceptual frameworks with which we understand health, human interaction, and sexuality. This course emphasizes the ethnographic approach for the cultural analysis of responses to HIV/AIDS. Students will explore the relationships among local communities, wider historical and economic processes, and theoretical approaches to disease, the body, ethnicity/race, gender, sexuality, risk, addiction, power, and culture. Other topics covered include the cultural construction of AIDS and risk, government responses to HIV/AIDS, origin and transmission debates, ethics and responsibilities, drug testing and marketing, the making of the AIDS industry and "risk" categories, prevention and education strategies, interactions between biomedicine and alternative healing systems, and medical advances and hopes.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4135 Tobacco: History, Culture, Science, and Policy
Tobacco is the most important public health and medical problem of our time, the leading cause of cancer and other chronic diseases. This course examines tobacco's important role in shaping the modern world and global health over the course of the last five centuries, from indigenous uses of tobacco to plantation slavery to the cigarette boom to the politics of health and smoking in the 21st century. Through in-depth historical and anthropological case studies, tobacco provides a window onto trends in government and law, medicine and public health, business and economics, society and culture, including changing social meanings of gender, race, class, sexuality, advertising, consumerism, risk, responsibility, and health in the United States and worldwide. This course also introduces students to public health approaches to noncommunicable disease prevention, environmental health, and healthy lifestyle promotion. No background in anthropology or public health is required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 419 Primate Behavior
Discussion and analysis of recent research on the social behavior of nonhuman primates. Data from both field and laboratory study. Prerequisite: Anth 406, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Art: NSM BU: BA
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L48 Anthro 4191 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 Arch: NSM Art: NSM
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L48 Anthro 4194 Primate Ecoimmunology
The ability of an organism to defend itself against infection by viruses, bacteria, and parasites is critical to organismal survival and fitness. The response of the host immune system is vital in this defense, and like any phenotype, we observe variation in immune function between individuals, populations, and species. The field of ecoimmunology seeks to characterize and explain how the environment of the organism contributes to this observed variability in the host immune response. In this class, we will examine the evolution and function of the primate immune system, primarily in non-human primates, within the context of the extensive social and ecological variability in the primate order. We will take a broad and integrative approach, synthesizing material from diverse fields including immunology, ecology, physiology, behavior, and genetics. Prerequisites: Anthropology 150A or Biology 112
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 4195 Advanced Primate Laboratory Methods
This course provides students with firsthand experience in conducting laboratory work in primatology. This includes laboratory safety, preparing samples, running assays, and analyzing results. Students will learn best practices and the process of validating techniques. In addition to hands-on lab work, students will read peer-reviewed publications that present data generated from the types of techniques we will cover in class. Background reading on of all the methods used and learning about the field techniques used to collect the samples will also be required. Students in this course are expected to have sufficient prior experience in a laboratory setting and to already understand the basics of lab work, such as proper pipetting techniques and laboratory safety practices. With these basic skills already obtained, students will be able to focus on more interesting topics, such as hormonal, microbial, and genetic analysis of samples from wild primates. Students will need to make time to conduct laboratory work outside of class time. Each student will coordinate these times with the instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 4202 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 Arch: NSM Art: NSM
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L48 Anthro 4211 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4212 Advanced Methods in Paleoethnobotany
Advanced analytical techniques for the study of archaeological plant remains. Tools and methods for micromorphological recognition, including electron microscopy. Photomicroscopy at low magnification, management, tabulation, and reporting of data. Prerequisite: Anth 4211, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC
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L48 Anthro 4214 The Archaeology of Food and Drink
Studies of past human diets have moved beyond analyses of animal bones and seeds to encompass new theoretical goals and innovative analytical techniques. In this seminar-style course, students will explore methods of understanding food-related social interactions such as evidence including residues, ancient DNA, isotopes, and trace elements, along with more traditional artifacts and archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological remains. By examining case studies from around the world, we evaluate the current state of research attempting to integrate the biological and cultural aspects of eating and drinking.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4215 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4240 The Plundered Past: Archaeology's Challenges in the Modern World
The public imagination thrills at the fantastic adventures of Indiana Jones and Laura Croft, Tomb Raider; but the reality of modern archaeology is more complex, ethically challenging and interesting than a simple treasure hunt. In the U.S. and Canada, our science museums and museums of anthropology still display artifacts that are regarded as sacred and culturally definitive by Indian nations, although such holdings are now subject to negotiation and repatriation. Art museums in Europe and the U.S. are still stocked with looted ancient masterpieces that are revered as vital heritage by the nations from which they were stolen. We display looted art alongside a much smaller number of legitimately excavated artifacts of masterpiece quality, so it is no surprise that our popular images of archaeologists as avid and undiscerning collectors raise little concern. But modern archaeologists are not extractors of art or even of scientific information, from places as passive and inert as the museums' objects ultimately occupy. Archaeologists work with living people inhabiting societies and states that care deeply about their pasts and the relics of it. They are active agents engaged with many other people in the production of knowledge about the past. In our rapidly shrinking world, educated sensitivity to the many ancient cultural legacies that shape the values of modern global society is more than a moral imperative; it is a basic form of collaboration in the common project of survival. Archaeologists are ethically charged to advance that project through education about the complex contemporary arena of artifacts, sites, and information they occupy.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM EN: H
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L48 Anthro 4252 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 EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4253 Researching Fertility, Mortality, and Migration
Students will undertake research projects centering on the most fundamental demographic processes -- fertility, mortality, and migration. The first section covers basic demographic methodology so that students understand how population data is generated and demographic statistics analyzed. Course readings will then include seminal theoretical insights by anthropologists on demographic processes. Meanwhile, students will work toward the completion of a term paper in which they are expected to undertake some original research on a topic of their choice (e.g., new reproductive technologies; cross-cultural adoption; ethnicity and migration). Each assignment in this course will be a component of the final term paper. Prerequisite: L48-3612 (Population and Society) or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, WI Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4254 The Anthropology of Maternal Death
No other commonly-recorded health indicator shows such great disparities between rich and poor nations as does maternal mortality. Over 500,000 women die each year around the world from complications of pregnancy and childbirth, but 99% of these deaths occur in impoverished, non-industrialized countries. This course will examine the reasons for this stunning discrepancy, looking at the biological, social, political, and economic factors involved in maternal death. The course will be conducted as a seminar based on detailed readings of relevant journal articles, group discussion, case studies, and class presentations. Prerequisite: Anthro 3621.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4264 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, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 427 Social and Cultural Change
Analysis of political, economic, and social transformations among societies in the developing and developed world. Examples are drawn from many societies throughout the globe.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC, SD BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4280 Tourism & Sustainability
This course offers an introduction to the political, cultural, and environmental effects of global tourism (with an emphasis on problematic travel trends, such as ecotourism) and sustainable development discourse. Topics include the history of tourism, tourism studies, critiques of authenticity and aesthetics, virtualism, political economy, island studies, political ecology, and critical social theory. Each student prepares a research paper or podcast on a tourism case study. Readings offer anthropological perspectives on the history of tourism; cultures of consumption; problems of authenticity and aesthetics; political economy and ecology; and the challenge of achieving "sustainable" tourism development across diverse natural environments. We will explore tourism as both a cause and effect of globalization (and "localization" movements) by tracking the consumer habits of emerging tourist markets while also considering ethnographic readings of "ecotourism" and the role that nostalgia plays in influencing domestic and international travel patterns. We will further consider tourism as the production and consumption of "tradition," and we will tackle ethically problematic tourist sites.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, ETH, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4282 Political Ecology
An exploration of how the interactions between culture and environment are mediated by local, national, and global politics. Topics include "overpopulation", agricultural intensification, Green Revolution, biotechnology, corporate agriculture, green movements, and organic farming. Each student prepares an in-depth research paper that may be presented to the class. Prerequisites: Graduate standing, Anth 361, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4285 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4286 Original Research in Environmental Anthropology
In this course, we will focus our ethnographic lens on environmental issues in Saint Louis. Through readings and original research, this advanced course in anthropology closely engages discussion and debates about methods, ethics and representation in qualitative environmental studies. Students will identify and undertake qualitative, ethnographic research regarding a local environmental issue. The central goal of this class is to provide a forum for students to grapple with the practical and ethical considerations of anthropological research. The class will be segmented into the following three units: ethics in research, data gathering and analysis, and continuing conversations
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4287 Anthropology of Water
This course examines one of the world's largest risks and grandest challenges: water security. By exploring water flows between cultures and landscapes, students will think critically about the challenges faced in different regions and societies of the world which can exacerbate or ameliorate issues of social justice and equity. Topics include cultural notions and values of water, technologies of water purification and conservation, big dam controversies, water as a "right" or water as a "commodity," and how epistemologies of water can drastically impact people and ecosystems. Texts will mainly be anthropological but will also draw from history, political ecology, geography and development economics. These will underscore the importance of multiple contexts (social, religious, economic, political, cultural) to the understanding of the scale and scope of this major problem.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: HUM, SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4288 Being Human: The Food-Energy-Ecosytem-Water Nexus
This course examines a trilogy of resources that are essential to producing human life: food, water and energy. These resources are inextricably linked not only to the most common and necessary of our day-to-day activities, but impact each other in profound ways. Until recently, the study of these resources was fragmented in separate sectors, ultimately leading to lack of institutional coordination, infrastructural lock-in and incomplete modeling systems. These incomplete systems overlook the complex overlaps of natural systems and render sustainability planning more tenuous than it could be. In response, these core resources are being studied together as a "nexus" to enhance synergies and prevent trade-offs across sectors. However, this nexus further requires astute attention to the all too "human" questions of resource use, waste and justice. If water, energy and food security are to be simultaneously achieved, social scientists must be at the forefront, contributing holistic research that brings the human back into socio-natural systems.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSP Art: SSP EN: S
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L48 Anthro 428W Original Research in Environmental Anthropology
In this course, we will focus our ethnographic lens on environmental issues in Saint Louis. Through readings and original research, this advanced course in anthropology closely engages discussion and debates about methods, ethics and representation in qualitative environmental studies. Students will identify and undertake qualitative, ethnographic research regarding a local environmental issue. The central goal of this class is to provide a forum for students to grapple with the practical and ethical considerations of anthropological research. The class will be segmented into the following three units: ethics in research, data gathering and analysis, and continuing conversations
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, WI Arch: SSC Art: CPSC, SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4311 Biocultural Perspectives on Obesity and Nutrition
From pink slime to red wine, causes-and treatments-for obesity are constantly in the headlines. With more than 35% of Americans currently obese, this is a tremendous biological and social issue in the United States. Obesity rates are also increasing globally despite billions of dollars spent on diets and public health interventions. Why is this happening and what can be done to change this? Why are humans fat and prone to obesity? How do we interpret appropriate body size? These are some of the questions we will investigate in this class, specifically looking at the important physiological functions of adipose tissue and how both biological and cultural factors shape our perceptions of body image, health, and the obesity epidemic.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4312 Environmental Interactions and Human Health
This course examines key issues related to human health through the lens of human lifestyle factors and environmental modification. Students will be asked to move beyond identifying the physical manifestations of poor health to recognizing larger evolutionary, social, and ecological factors that shape disease risk across individuals and communities. Throughout the term, we will explore how interactions between humans and their surroundings (and other organisms) have shaped disease patterns over time. We will also consider how the concepts we discuss relate to contemporary health challenges and how these perspectives can be applied to better address these issues going forward. In this course, human health is viewed as the result of biocultural processes. This course therefore uses an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on the methods, theories, and bodies of knowledge from various scientific disciplines, including evolutionary biology, genetics, parasitology, physiology, ecology, and medicine.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4321 History of Biological Anthropology
The history of biological anthropology is traced from Darwin's time to the present. Factors that influenced major theories and subfields of biological anthropology are discussed along with current directions. Topics will include race, primate and fossil hominin tool use, adaptationism, evolution of the brain, and the human-chimp split, among other issues. Prerequisites: 6 units of coursework in Biological Anthropology or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 434 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 Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: BA
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L48 Anthro 4361 Culture, Power and the State
This seminar surveys anthropological theory and ethnography of the nation-state. We will discuss how culture and power are interrelated in the formation of state institutions and ideologies, governance and violence, social and spatial inequalities, and citizen identities, daily lives, and movements for change. We'll read key theoretical works (Weber, Marx, Foucault, Gramsci, liberal political theory, feminism, and post-structuralism, among others) and contemporary ethnographies of the state. Anthropology's place in public debates on "culture" and violent crises of the state -- from Iraq to the U.S. heartland -- will be addressed at the end of the semester.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4366 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4367 Culture, Power, Knowledge
We often think of knowledge as universal and objective. But anthropologists have long studied ways in which knowledge varies in different cultural settings. In this course, we will ask: What is knowledge, how does it arise, and what does it do? Is there such a thing as universal validity or is knowledge always tied to specific cultural practices? What happens when knowledge travels and how does knowledge figure in relations of power? We will approach these questions through works in anthropology, philosophy, and science studies.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4392 Capitalism and Culture
Capitalism is perhaps the most important historical and social phenomenon in the modern world. In tribal settings and major cities alike its complex impacts are evident. Through rich case studies of how capitalism touches down in diverse cultures, this course provides an introduction to anthropological perspectives on the economy and economic development. Themes covered include the history of capitalism and globalization, the cultural meanings of class and taste, the relationship between capitalism and popular culture, major artistic responses to capitalism, social movements such as environmentalism, and the field of international development. No background in anthropology or economics is required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SD Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4393 The Archaeology of Trade and Exchange
Studies of trade and exchange are fundamental to our past, as cultures in contact result in new imaginings of self, communities, and place in the world. This course engages in archaeological and anthropological discussions about the interconnectedness that results from trade. This seminar concentrates on the discourse of material trade and the mechanisms for exchange, redistribution, dependency, and resistance. It also examines the immaterial exchange of ideas, perceptions, and values that alter concepts of identity, space, and time. Globalization, political economies, and power are also addressed, along with ideas about territory, value, and social and political consequences of trade.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4394 The Connected World: Social Networks in Anthropology
This course will serve two purposes. The first is to introduce students, via a broad interdisciplinary survey, to applications of social network perspectives and methods in the social sciences, especially anthropology. We will accomplish this via case studies each week that are organized by topic. Throughout the course, students will be introduced to network research across all four subdisciplines of anthropology, including the sociocultural, biological (including primatology and medical anthropology), archaeological, and linguistic subfields as well as the emerging fifth subfield of applied anthropology. The second purpose of this course is to expose students to the tools necessary to conduct network research, including collecting relational data, visualizing and analyzing networks, and interpreting the results of network analyses. This exposure will come from weekly demonstrations of relevant software and analyses by the instructor, with each week covering the most popularly employed tools for analyzing social networks.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA, IS EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4421 Advanced Seminar in Medicine and Society: Patients, Politics, Policy
This course is designed to build on foundations provided in the First-Year Medicine and Society Seminar. It will interrogate current health-related issues, including gender, sexuality, politics, policy, and economics, and it will also explore how these and many other issues, demographics, and so on impact current health- and healing-related decisions and policies. We will read about and unpack contemporary issues in health care (insurance, big pharma, gender and sexuality, race) and have local experts visit to talk about their practical experience with and in health care. Students will be expected to engage with ethnographic, medical, economic, political and sociological material as well as current journalism to interrogate the topic. Prerequisites: Anthro L48 141 and Anthro L48 142.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4452 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 EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4453 Studying the City: Approaches to Social Research
In this course we will explore social science/social scientific research methods. The course is designed primarily for students majoring in urban studies. However, the research skills that students will acquire can be applied to any substantive topic in the social sciences. The main goal of this course is that students develop the skills to independently design and execute high quality social research, regardless of their substantive interests. To develop these skills we will read about methods, assess published research from a methodological perspective, and complete original research projects.
Same as L18 URST 418
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4454 Cultures of Science and Technology
This seminar explores questions of theory, method, and ethics in the anthropology of science and technology. How is biomedicine changing what it is to be human? How can technologies and scientific practices be studied ethnographically? How are the politics of difference linked to the production of scientific knowledge? Through close reading of ethnographic texts and fieldwork experience both on-and off-line, we will investigate how scientific practice and technologcal innovation reorganize various aspects of human life on both global and local scales. Topics include the social construction of knowledge, the reproduction of racial categories in genomics, the cultures of cyberspace, the commidification of bodies in medical science, and the ways in which various technoscientific projects reshape natural and political orders in diverse locales.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, WI Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4455 Ethnographic Fieldwork: The Politics of Schooling
This is a practice-based course in ethnographic fieldwork. Using a local case study (the cultural politics of schooling), we examine ethnographic fieldwork as an academic instrument and public social action. The course prepares students for independent research in academic or professional fields developing skills in critical thought, thesis and question development, background and internet research, perspective and empathy, social and political-economic analysis, observation, interviewing, oral histories, note-taking, data analysis, cultural interpretation, and writing. Student work will contribute to the ongoing "St. Louis Schools' Ethnographic Documentation Project".
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: CPSC, SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4456 Ethnographic Fieldwork: Energy Politics
This is a practice-based course in ethnographic fieldwork that will focus on the politics of fossil fuels and the renewable energy transition in St. Louis and Missouri. We will situate ourselves as anthropologists with an interest in understanding relationships between global warming, the socio-technical arrangements of energy production, circulation, and use in the city and region, public knowledge, health, and social and cultural practices, and the roles and activities of businesses, political institutions, and elected officials. Through case studies we will work to produce critical knowledge aimed at pushing institutions, the city, and the region toward the transition to renewable energy. Our efforts will produce empirical documentation, case studies, and proposals and may include field trips to resource extraction sites and government offices
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSP Art: SSP EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4480 Anthropology and Creative Writing
Creative writing has much to offer anthropology. This course explores how methods of artistic writing and expression can shape stories and studies of cultural life in the global world. We consider the uses of journalism, fiction, memoir, poetry, and cinema in anthropology's understanding of the richness, the deep emotional tone, and also the dangers of human experience. We look at such issues and themes as the ordinary life and everydayness, coming of age and fitting in, the feeling of being at home and senses of place, narratives of illness and affliction, how people cope with trauma and violence, what makes our bodies powerful or vulnerable, and why things really matter. Although students are actively involved in writing stories, this is not a writing intensive course.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: HUM EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4481 Writing Culture
Different ways of writing about people, culture, and society in past and present times. Readings include anthropological works as well as works of fiction that represent people and the times, places, and circumstances in which they live. Students conduct and write about their own ethnographical observations.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, WI Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4483 Narrating the Self
A major "chunk" of the data gathered during ethnographic research projects typically consists of stories told by our interlocutors in the field -- our "informants." In everyday usage, stories are usually taken to be extended, heavily plotted, and artfully delivered narratives. In this course, we take a broader, more inclusive approach to storytelling that encompasses everything people tell, in many different narrative formats, about themselves and the world they inhabit. Such stories are of immense value to us; through narrative, people give shape to and make sense of their lives and tell us where they position themselves in the moral order. Furthermore, in and through storytelling, people structure, comment on, and assert agency over their lived experiences and, by doing so, construct a self. The subject of much debate in philosophy, psychology, and the social sciences, the notion of the self is still upheld by many, although currently it often emphasizes the fragmented, locally constructed, and culture-specific nature of the self. One of the concerns in this course, therefore, will be to assess the theoretical value of the notion of the self in narrative analysis and in anthropology as a whole. More generally, this course explores the (micro-)politics of storytelling to understand how storytelling works as the interface between the self and society as well as between the subject and social structure. Issues of agency and structure will often take center stage, and we will see that the form and content of narratives, cultural norms and values, and power relations are mutually constitutive.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: BA EN: H
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L48 Anthro 4501 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
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L48 Anthro 4517 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, SD, WI Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4555 Digital Digging: An Introduction to Archaeological Geophysics
In this class we will be exploring the history, technology, and application of geophysics in archaeology. In doing so, students will be provided with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience collecting, processing, visualizing and interpreting data from a variety of instruments that include ground-penetrating radar (GPR), magnetometry, electromagnetic induction (conductivity), and magnetic susceptibility. Prerequisites: Anthropology 190B
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4561 Ceramic Analysis
Methods, techniques, and models for analyzing archaeological ceramics. Students will learn how ceramic artifacts are used by archaeologists to reconstruct social practices in the past, including economics, politics, religion/ritual, migration, social organization, etc. Students will be trained in both qualitative and quantitative methods of analyzing ceramics and ceramic assemblages. While these methods are applicable to the archaeology of societies across the world, students will specifically conduct hands-on analyses of archaeological collections from the St. Louis/Midwestern U.S. region. Prerequisite: at least one archaeology course, graduate standing, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4562 Artifact Analysis: Mississippian Cultures
The purpose of this course is to provide students with an introductory, hands-on experience of the methods employed in the analysis of archaeological materials common to the Mississippian culture. Students will conduct class projects based on collections from Cahokia Mounds and the St. Louis region. Prerequisite: Anthro 314 or equivalent, or graduate standing, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4564 Archaeobotanical Analysis
Advanced laboratory and analytical techniques. Prerequisite: Anthro 4211 or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4565 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4581 Principles of Human Anatomy and Development
This course will discuss the anatomy of most of the functional systems of the human body. Topics covered will include the peripheral nervous system, respiration, circulation, the skeletal system, the gastro-intestinal tract, the urogenital system, the male and female reproductive systems, locomotion, manipulation, mastication, vocalization, the visual system, the auditory system and the olfactory system. Selected topics in human embryology will also be introduced. The course provides valuable preparation for any student interested in human biology, anthropology, medicine or the health sciences.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM BU: SCI
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L48 Anthro 4582 Human Life History Theory
Life history theory postulates that organisms must allocate finite time and finite resources between growth, maintenance, and reproductive effort. This balance will necessitate trade-offs in specific traits related to body size and energy allocation between competing functions across the life of the organism. In this class, we will start from this broad theory and look at the specific application of life history theory within anthropology. Humans, in particular, present unique and unusual life history characteristics, which we will discuss in depth.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Art: NSM
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L48 Anthro 459 Human Osteology
Analysis of skeletal material recovered in human paleontological and archaeological excavations. The development of bone and major diseases that affect skeletal structure. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM
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L48 Anthro 4591 Human Functional Morphology
A detailed consideration of the functional correlates of muscle-skeletal form in recent and ancient humans and our close primate relatives, as a means for understanding the behaviors responsible for driving the evolution of human anatomy. Emphasis is placed on the structure and development of bones, joints and teeth, the soft tissues which impinge upon individual bones, and the biomechanical demands affecting bone and joint structures.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM
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L48 Anthro 4595 Developmental Plasticity and Human Health
A look at how early life - gestation plus infancy and childhood - contributes to the establishment of long-term physiology, variation, and individual health from an anthropological perspective. The course will include current disease models of developmental origins, combined with evolutionary and adaptive perspectives on developmental plasticity and the construction of human health.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM
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L48 Anthro 4596 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
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L48 Anthro 4597 The Archaeology of Life and Death
The study of human remains in archaeological contexts offers us a rich perspective on human life and society in the past. Our bodies are shaped by genetics, environmental factors, subsistence, disease, and physical activities over the life course. At the same time, social organization, inequality, and ideologies also shape the human experience; they often become reflected in the built environments of tombs and cemeteries, the grave offerings, and interment styles that surround human remains in archaeological contexts. This course offers an introduction to bioarchaeology and mortuary archaeology as complementary approaches to the study of life in the past. The goal of the course is to understand how activities, norms and beliefs, and environments shaped bodies in life and death, and the different ways in which archaeologists can gain insight into the past through the study of human remains and burials. Course lectures and discussions focus on recent advances in research and ongoing debates in the two fields with examples from prehistory and history around the world, from North and South America, to Europe, Asia and Africa. Although this course will provide a basic overview of human skeletal anatomy, it is strongly recommended that students have taken an introductory course on the subject prior to enrolling in the class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4623 Art and Science of Inferential Statistics
This course examines the historical roots, the scholarly development, and the current applications of inferential statistics in a research context. The emphasis is on how social and natural variables are distributed, framing testable research questions, and choosing appropriate statistical tests. This course will cover the testing of univariate, bivariate and multivariate hypotheses using parametric, non-parametric, and re-sampling methods. Requires students to undertake statistical analyses of their own on real data sets. Familiarity with descriptive statistics is assumed. Designed for graduate students and advanced undergraduates. Permission of instructor is required for undergraduate enrollment.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, AN Art: NSM EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4655 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4661 Historical Archaeology
This course focuses upon the methods and techniques employed in historical archaeology. We will include method of integration of written records through contextual studies, discussion of specific artifact type identification techniques, and seminar type treatments of other aspects of the field. The class will include some hands-on lab work, working primarily with materials from the first American fort west of the Mississippi (Fort Belle Fontaine) and two Civil War period mansions. Prerequisite: 3 credits of archaeology or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, WI Art: HUM
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L48 Anthro 4682 Ethnoarchaeology
Ethnoarchaeologists use studies of aspects of the present to strengthen archaeological interpretation. Since archaeologists don't usually study words, we need to understand relations between human actions and the material record. In this class we will explore ethnoarchaeological studies of a wide range of topics from how things are made, to what they mean, or how we might think differently about the past. Student presentations, class reading, and discussion will examine topics that might include whether reindeer herders think of their animals as domestic or wild, how Australian Aboriginal peoples have or have not used dingoes for hunting, the role of feasts in society or how to make and find beer, ceramics, stone tools, beads or smelt iron. Ways that decoration and construction of pots signify ethnic boundaries or what a mother-in-law teaches a new bride have seen famous ethnoarchaeological studies. We can discuss any aspect of archaeology and will pick topics that fit your interests and the questions that you would like to pursue in your papers and presentations. There are no prerequisites for this class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L48 Anthro 4700 Interdisciplinary Topics: Data Signs-A Literary History of Information
Various interdisciplinary topics are explored that may includes around the humanities, social sciences and data sciences.
Same as L93 IPH 470
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L48 Anthro 472 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, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 474 National Narratives and Collective Memory
This course examines how national narratives shape the ideas of nation-states about themselves and others. It considers cultural, psychological, and political aspects of narratives used to interpret the past and understand the present. In addition to reviewing conceptual foundations from the humanities and social sciences, particular national narratives are considered as case studies.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4761 The Pleistocene Peopling of Eurasia
The paleolithic archaeology, human paleobiology, and paleoecology of the geographical expansions and adaptations of Eurasian humans through the Pleistocene. Prerequisite: Anthro 150A or 190B.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC
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L48 Anthro 4771 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4792 The Many Paths Leading Toward the Creation of the Ancient City
The purpose of this class is to examine the emergence of the Ancient City across the globe. We want to begin with the concepts of urbanism, city, and metropolis. These are words whose derivation are to be found in the classical languages of the Mediterranean. Is there any means to reach an understanding of how other civilizations and societies characterized these special places on the landscape? In the past many scholars have argued that market economies and state level societies are essential to their existence. Such arguments reflect issues of sustainability in terms of the economy and the effective control of large populations through state level institutions. While we want to understand the role of the economy and the level(s) of political integration involved in the process of urbanism, are there other cultural institutions such as religion that play a much larger and more significant role? Do these places reflect the "citizens" perception of the cosmos?
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4803 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 Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 481 Zooarchaeology
Archaeologists use ancient objects or material culture to study all of the human past, in its length and diversity. To do this, we have to reconstruct human actions from the things people made and used and the impacts that they had on the environment. Since the 1960's archaeologists have turned in an increasingly systematic way to aspects of the way people relate to material culture in the present, as sources for analogies for interpreting aspects of the past. Ethnographic field studies designed with archaeological problems in mind have become more common, and have contributed substantially to archaeological interpretation. Questions such as how archaeological sites form, and interpretation of changing human diets, human adaptations to challenging environments, how people domesticated plants and animals, the nature of human foodways, gender roles, the spread of food production or ritual and burial practices have all been informed by ethnoarchaeological studies We will look at ethnoarcheological approaches to the interpretation of many different categories of archeological data including: lithics, ceramics, house structures, and rock art and discuss a wide variety of archaeological topics to which ethnoarchaeological approaches have been applied. The areas that we focus on will depend on the topics in which the class is most interested.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM Arch: NSM Art: NSM
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L48 Anthro 4851 Topics in Jewish Studies: Critical Issues in the Study of Popular Music
Consult Course Listings for current topic. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.
Same as L75 JIMES 485
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L48 Anthro 4881 Medicine and Anthropology
Explores the fundamental relationship of anthropology to the art and science of medicine. Emphasis on impact of anthropology on current modes of biomedical research; alternative systems of health and healing; role of anthropologist in biomedicine and public health; critical medical anthropology; anthropology and epidemiology. Prerequisite: Junior standing.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC
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L48 Anthro 4883 The Political Economy of Health
This course reviews social science contributions to understanding health as a function of political and economies influences. Considers the ways in which personal health is affected by macrosocial processes. Examines effects of globization, international development and political instability on the health of individuals. Examples drawn from the U.S. and international contexts. Prerequisite: Junior standing or above.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4885 Senior Seminar: Medicine and Society
This course provides a forum for graduating seniors in the Medicine and Society Program to reconvene for a semester of facilitated discussion about issues related to illness, healing, and culture. Prerequisites: Students must be seniors in good standing in the Medicine and Society Program.
Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 489 Seminar: Pathways to Domestication
Survey of the evidence of the domestication of plants and animals, focusing on processes leading to domestication, and on the recognition of pristine features of domestication in the archaeological record. Prerequisite: one 300- or 400-level course in archaeology.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4892 Hunter-Gatherer Socioeconomic Variation
This class will explore the nature and extent of variation in hunter-gatherer socio-economic systems as documented in the literature on recent hunter-gatherers, and in the archaeological record of the last 20,000 years. We will discuss Woodburn's concept of delayed return hunter-gatherers, Testart's writing on hunter-gatherer socio-economic organization, and archaeological concepts of simple and complex hunter-gatherers. We will examine case studies of both delayed and immediate return hunter-gatherers from the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australia, and emphasize understanding underlying reasons for differences between groups, and implications of differences for patterns of cultural change, including the adoption of food production.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 489W Seminar: Pathways to Domestication
The origins of agriculture led to one of the most important transitions in human history, continuing to fascinate anthropologists and all who depend on farmers for food. We examine evidence for the development and spread of settled and mobile farming systems in diverse regions of the world. We discuss old and new theoretical approaches and apply increasingly sophisticated methods for recovering and interpreting the evidence. Recent research puts us in a better position than ever before to understand the preconditions, processes, and possibly the causes of domestication and the spread of food production. This course is the WI version of L48 489 Seminar: Pathways to Domestication.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, WI EN: S
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L48 Anthro 490 Advanced Directed Anthropological Research I
Designed to give undergraduates research experience in various subdisciplines of Anthropology. May be taken more than once for credit. Prerequisite: Permission of faculty member under whom the research will be done.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 491 Advanced Directed Anthropological Research II
Limited to those students who have successfully completed L48-490, and have a qualifying continuing research project. Prerequisite: Anthro 490 and permission of the faculty member who will supervise the continuing research project.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC EN: S
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L48 Anthro 4911 Methods in Molecular Anthropology
We will learn techniques used in molecular genetics and their application to studying the evolution and adaptation of human and non-human primates. This course will cover DNA extraction from biological materials (e.g. buccal cells from cheek swabs, potentially also fecal samples from the primates at the zoo), primer design and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify a region of interest (student lead, with guidance) from isolated DNA. Use of gel electrophoresis to visualize and purify PCR products and sequencing reactions to view nucleic acid structure will also be conducted. Finally, will also have a lecture on introductory bioinformatics. Throughout the course, we will discuss the mechanisms underlying these techniques, why they work and how to trouble-shoot problems. Students will be expected to submit lab reports and to engage in peer review of others' lab reports. Finally we will discuss how molecular methods inform anthropological research. Students will be also expected to take on-line safety training modules through EH&S.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: NSM
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L48 Anthro 4951 Senior Honors Research
Limited to students who have qualified for the Anthropology honors program, and who are conducting research for an honors thesis. Prerequisite: permission of the Anthropology faculty member supervising the honors research, and concurrent filing of notification with the Anthropology senior honors coordinator.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
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L48 Anthro 4960 Senior Honors Research
This course is limited to students who have qualified for the Anthropology honors program and who are conducting research for an honors thesis. Prerequisites: Permission of the Anthropology faculty member supervising the honors research and concurrent filing of notification with the Anthropology senior honors coordinator.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units. A&S IQ: WI
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L48 Anthro 4961 Senior Honors Thesis
Limited to students who have qualified for the Anthropology honors program, and who are actively engaged in writing a senior honors thesis. Prerequisite: permission of the Anthropology senior honors coordinator.
Credit variable, maximum 3 units.
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L48 Anthro 4975 Collecting Cultures: Taste, Passion and the Making of Art Histories
This seminar examines the theory and the cultural history of the collecting of art objects and artifacts from a range of cultures and periods, and it considers how and why both individuals and institutions create collections. What social and psychological factors drive this passion? What are the various cultural, political, and aesthetic priorities that have driven this practice historically? How is cultural patrimony defined, and how do law, the art market, and cross-cultural ethics impact the placement, study, and display of a culture's material heritage? We will build the seminar around the history of collecting in America, with a focus on Midwestern examples and particularly important case studies in St Louis. We will consider, for example, the significant local collections built by Joseph and Emily Rauh Pulitzer (modern art) and Morton May (modern and Oceanic art), as well as the histories of both modern European and non-Western collections now owned by St. Louis-area museums. This course will be complemented by various local field trips, including to the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, and Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. Prerequisites: L01 113; L01 215; or permission of instructor. One 300-level course in Art History preferred.
Same as L01 Art-Arch 4975
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: AH EN: H
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L48 Anthro 4999 Capstone Experience
The Department of Anthropology offers serveral options for completing a capstone experience, which is recommended by the College of Arts and Sciences. One option is for students in any 400-level course in the department, to secure permission of the instructor to simultaneously enroll in Anthropology 4999. The instructor and student will develop an individualized plan for expanding the normal content of the selected 400-level course into a capstone experience. Prerequisite: junior or senior standing. Enrollment requires permission of the department and the instructor.
Credit 1 unit.
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