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Office of the University Registrar

2005-06 Undergraduate Catalog
Course Descriptions

Anthropology
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

AFS 2002 The African Experience: An Introduction to African Studies
Credits: 3.
An introductory interdisciplinary study of African society and culture that examines the richness, diversity and time-depth of African civilizations. (I, S)

ANT 2000 General Anthropology
Credits: 3.
Introduction to the four subfields of anthropology (sociocultural, biological, linguistic and archaeology) through analyses of the cultural, social and biological dimensions of human variation. Appropriate first course for students considering major or minor in anthropology as well as nonmajors fulfilling general education requirement. (S)

ANT 2149 Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents
Credits: 3.
This course examines the claims of popular writers in archaeology that "mysterious" archaeological sites, statues, etc. were influenced by outer space visitors. Problems of diffusion: discussed include Stonehenge, pyramids, Easter Island, Maya spaceships, Atlantis and Mu, Nazca Lines and other archaeological mysteries. (H)

ANT 2301 Human Sexuality and Culture
Credits: 3.
This course examines (1) aspects of sexuality from a cross-cultural viewpoint and (2) traces the development of an individual's sexuality and sexual identity. Sexual anatomy and functioning, gender roles, and the interplay of behavior and sexual ethics are discussed. (I, S) (WR)

ANT 2410 Cultural Anthropology
Credits: 3.
The nature of culture. The content of cultures; languages, subsistence, economic structures, art and religion in human societies. The integration of culture. (I, S)

ANT 2700 Introduction to Applied Anthropology
Credits: 3.
The utility and application of anthropological theories, methods and knowledge for the solution of specific human problems, including discrimination, hunger, disease and underdevelopment. (I, S)

ANT 3126 Introduction to Zoo-archaeology
Credits: 3; Prereq: one course in archaeology.
Introduction to the identification, analysis and interpretation of animal remains from archaeological sites. Methods of quantification and skeletal measurements to understand technology and human behavior are addressed. Topics include identification of subsistence patterns, coastal economies, animal domestication, taphonomy, environmental inferences from faunal remains and historical use of subsistence resources.

ANT 3140 Introduction to World Archaeology
Credits: 3.
The global study of human culture from its origins to the present through the recovery, description, and analysis of archaeological remains.

ANT 3141 Development of World Civilization
Credits: 3.
Discussion of archeological evidence for the development of civilization in its regional variants from the earliest beginning to the dawn of written history. Analyzes causes of cultural development in Old and New World Centers. (H, I)

ANT 3153 North American Archaeology
Credits: 3.
Archaeological materials relating to prehistoric North American cultures. The origins of the North American Indian, Historic Indian, and colonial materials. (H) (WR)

ANT 3162 Aztec Civilization
Credits: 3.
Detailed examination of Aztec culture and society at 1500 AD from ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence, including family life; social, political and economic organization; warfare; religion; and relationships with neighboring peoples. Not open to students who have taken ANT 3163.

ANT 3163 Maya and Aztec Civilizations
Credits: 3.
This course treats civilizations in Mesoamerica from the beginnings of agriculture to the time of the coming of Europeans. Besides Maya and Aztec Civilizations, the course treats the Olmec, Zapotec and Teotihuacan cultures. (H, I)

ANT 3164 The Inca and Their Ancestors
Credits: 3.
Evolution of the Inca Empire is traced back archaeologically through earlier Andean states and societies to the beginning of native civilization. (H, I)

ANT 3181 Anthropological Museology
Credits: 3.
The history and purpose of anthropological museums in the formation of the discipline and the modern role of the museum in both anthropological education and research.

ANT 3241 Anthropology of Religion
Credits: 3.
Cross-cultural survey of beliefs and practices dealing with the supernatural, magic and religion. Conceptualization of the supernatural. Sacred specialists, their function and social position. Theories of comparative religion in light of anthropological data. (I, S)

ANT 3302 Sex Roles: A Cross-Cultural Perspective
Credits: 3.
Anthropological perspective on division of labor by sex in different world societies. Variation in sex roles in economic, religious, political domains. Socialization and the life cycle. (I, S)

ANT 3332 Peoples of Latin America
Credits: 3.
An introduction to Latin American Peoples, native culture areas and high civilizations. Metropolitan Hispanic culture and cultural syncretism in selected and geographically varied nation-states and selected urban and peasant subcultures. (I, S)

ANT 3364 Peoples and Cultures of China
Credits: 3.
A comprehensive introduction to the diversity and change of Chinese culture and society based on ethnographic studies, theoretical analysis, and historical survey by Western as well as Chinese scholars.

ANT 3375 Islamic Civilization
Credits: 3.
An understanding of Islam's origin and spread, its belief and ritual and its strength as a sociocultural force. (H, I) (WR)

ANT 3377 Middle East Societies
Credits: 3.
Survey of Middle Eastern peoples and societies, beginning with the rise of Islam to the present and covering the area from Egypt to Iran. Topics covered include Islam, peasant, tribal and urban society. (I, S) (WR)

ANT 3390 Visual Anthropology
Credits: 3; Prereq: basic knowledge of photography or permission of instructor.
Uses photography and film as tools and products of social science. Ways of describing, analyzing and presenting behavior and cultural ideas through visual means. Student projects and laboratory work with visual anthropology. (WR)

ANT 3428 Food and Culture
Credits: 3.
The role of food in human culture through time and in different geographical settings. Among topics considered are the biological basis of human diet and how it differs from other primates; how food habits develop and change as a result of cultural interaction; and the ritual and religious uses of food. Diets of traditional cultures and the effects of modernization on diet and health are examined.

ANT 3451 Racial and Cultural Minorities
Credits: 3.
A survey of racial and cultural minority group contacts, inter-group relations, conflicts and prejudices; the problems of minority groups in the contemporary world. Examples will be taken from North and South America, Africa, and Asia. (I, S) (WR)

ANT 3461 Folk Medicine
Credits: 3.
Introduction to and exploration of the traditional medical system of a people as it is influenced by beliefs and actions, nutrients and taboos and facilitated by specialists, folk-medicines and avoidance. Consideration of the inter-relationships of traditional systems with the germ theory of disease, clinics and medical specialists and material medicine. (S) (WR)

ANT 3514C Introduction to Biological Anthropology
Credits: 4.
Introduction to subfield of anthropology that focuses on the natural history of humankind. Through lecture and laboratory, the course surveys a range of materials that focus on the diversity of the Order Primates with emphasis on human and primate variation, adaptation and evolution. (B)

ANT 3515 Human Evolutionary Anatomy
Credits: 3; Prereq: ANT 3514C, BSC 2010/2011 or PCB 4674.
Survey of human anatomy from evolutionary and embryological perspectives. The phylogenetic and functional basis for human form. Anatomical principles underlying developmental and functional disorders are explored through clinical and comparative examples.

ANT 3522 Skeleton Keys: Forensic Identification
Credits: 3.
Survey of forensic anthropology, an applied field of biological anthropology, focusing the wider scope of skeletal biology on problems of medicolegal significance, primarily in determining personal identity and cause of death from human remains.

ANT 3620 Language and Culture
Credits: 3.
The role of speech in individual, social and cultural settings. Linguistic basis of thought and perception. Mythological studies and analysis. Bilingualism, biculturalism and minority language politics in current perspective. (I, S) (WR)

ANT 3930 Junior Topics Class in Anthropology
Credits: 3.
This course is designed for junior level students to explore special topics classes in the various sub fields of anthropology.

ANT 4006 Human Rights and Culture
Credits: 3.
Examination of the nature of human rights cross-culturally, focusing on the history of the concept, universalism vs. particularism, religion, gender, race, regionalism, and modern human rights conventions.

ANT 4034 History of Anthropological Theory
Credits: 3; Prereq: one cultural anthropology course, or permission of instructor.
The history and development of anthropological theory. Methods in anthropological research. Directed reading of major theoretical publications. (S) (WR)

ANT 4110 Archaeological Theory
Credits: 3; Prereq: one course in archeology and/or anthropology, or permission of instructor.
Survey of the theoretical and methodological tenets of anthropological archaeology; critical review of archaeological theories, past and present; relation of archaeology to anthropology. (S)

ANT 4114 Principles of Archaeology
Credits: 3; Prereq: one anthropology course.
Viewpoint and methods of archaeology, especially as applied to New World materials. The archaeological survey and methods and techniques of excavation. Systems of chronological analysis. (WR)

ANT 4145 Prehistory of Southeast Asia
Credits: 3; Prereq: ANT 3141, ANT 3514C or permission of instructor.
Prehistory of Southeast Asia reviewed from the Pleistocene (Homo erectus) to formation of the state.

ANT 4266 Economic Anthropology
Credits: 3; Prereq: one course in anthropology, or permission of instructor.
A consideration of economic philosophies and the behavioral bases of formal economic theories. Cross-cultural studies of production, distribution and consumption, money and the acquisition of goods. The latest materials from cultural ecology, Marxism, formalism, substantivism and discourse centered approaches are reviewed. (S) (WR)

ANT 4273 Anthropology of Law
Credits: 3.
An examination of legal systems cross-culturally with a focus on the interrelationship of law with culture, society, economics and politics.

ANT 4274 Political Anthropology
Credits: 3; Prereq: an introductory course in the social sciences, or permission of instructor.
The problem of identifying political behavior. Natural leadership in bands, tribes and small groups. Acephalous societies and republican structures. Kingship and early despotic states. Theories of bureaucracy. (S)

ANT 4323 People of Mexico and Central America
Credits: 3.
The settlement and early cultures of the area with an emphasis on the rise of the major culture centers. The impact of European civilization and surviving Indians. (S, I) (WR)

ANT 4331 Peoples of the Andes
Credits: 3.
The area-cotradition. The Spanish Conquest. The shaping and persistence of colonial culture. Twentieth-century communities and their social, land tenure, religious and value systems. Modernization, cultural pluralism, and problems of integration. (I, S) (WR)

ANT 4336 The Peoples of Brazil
Credits: 3.
Ethnology of Brazil; historical, geographic, and socioeconomic material will be covered and representative monographs from the various regions of Brazil will be read. The contribution of the Indian, Portuguese and African to modern Brazilian culture. (I, S) (WR)

ANT 4340 Anthropology of the Caribbean
Credits: 3.
Investigation into cultural contact that has taken place in the Caribbean and results of that contact in terms of peoples and sociocultural units produced and processes of cultural change involved. (I, S)

ANT 4352 Peoples of Africa
Credits: 3.
An anthropological survey of the culture, history and ethnographic background of the peoples of Africa. A basis for appreciation of current problems of acculturation, nationalism, and cultural survival and change among African peoples. (I, S) (WR)

ANT 4354 The Anthropology of Modern Africa
Credits: 3.
Study of continuity and change in contemporary African societies with special reference to cultural and ethnic factors in modern nations. (I, S) (WR)

ANT 4364 Family, Gender and Population in China
Credits: 3; Prereq: permission of instructor.
This seminar examines the processes by which the family system, gender relations, and population configuration interact with each other to become powerful forces in shaping contemporary China's political, social and economic conditions.

ANT 4403 Environment and Cultural Behavior
Credits: 3.
The interaction of people and their environment as mediated by cultural institutions. Levels of socioeconomic adaptation in hunting and gathering, pastoral, and agricultural societies. Warfare and ritual as ecological mechanisms. (S) (WR)

ANT 4426 Kinship and Social Organization
Credits: 3; Prereq: ANT 2402 or ANT 2410.
Property concepts, forms and complexes. Tribal patterns of government and social control. (I, S) (WR)

ANT 4462 Culture and Medicine
Credits: 3.
A survey of the field of medical anthropology and its interdisciplinary context. The course examines contemporary approaches and the development of an applied field concerned with human sickness and healing.

ANT 4464 Culture and Aging
Credits: 3; Prereq: two of the following: ANT 2410, SYG 2000 or an introductory psychology course.
Cross-cultural perspectives of adult development and aging in traditional and industrial society. This course includes comparative assessment of culturally mediated, life-cycle transformations into old age, and health related and human service policy issues. (S) (WR)

ANT 4468 Health and Disease in Human Evolution
Credits: 3; Prereq: ANT 3514C, or permission of instructor.
Review of pathology as evidenced in fossil and archaeological records. Interpretation of disease in a biocultural context.

ANT 4525 Human Osteology and Osteometry
Credits: 3; Prereq: ANT 3514C and permission of instructor.
Human skeletal identification for the physical anthropologist and archeologist. Techniques for estimated age at death, race and sex from human skeletal remains. The measurement of human skeleton for comparative purposes. (B)

ANT 4550 Primate Cognition
Credits: 3.
The evolution of cognition among primates and the behavioral, social and phylogenetic influences on cognitive processes. Theories of learning and imitation and their impact on analysis of ecological and social decisions.

ANT 4552 Primate Behavior
Credits: 3.
Deals with the taxonomy, distribution and ecology of primates. The range of primate behavior for each major taxonomic group is explored. (WR)

ANT 4554C Primate Evolution
Credits: 3; Prereq: ANT 3514C, or permission of instructor.
Survey of primate evolution from Paleocene through Miocene epochs. Methods of paleontological inference. Emphasis on problems of taxonomy, phylogeny, biogeography and functional morphology in the fossil record.

ANT 4586 Human Evolution
Credits: 3; Prereq: ANT 3514C, or equivalent.
This course surveys the evidence for the evolution of humankind. Emphasis is placed on the late Miocene to Pleistocene human fossil record and its interpretation. Basic principles of geology, systematics, evolutionary theory, functional morphology, and phylogenetic reconstruction are introduced and used to aid in understanding the human fossil and archaeological records. (B)

ANT 4610 Anthropological Linguistics
Credits: 3; Prereq: ANT 3620.
The methods and techniques of descriptive linguistics. Language structure and process especially related to describing, understanding and analyzing non-Western languages.

ANT 4740 Introduction to Forensic Science
Credits: 3.
Basic concepts and topics in forensic science, medicine and criminalistics. Also provides basic understanding of the fundamental concepts of scientific methodology.

ANT 4801 Ethnographic Methods
Credits: 3; Prereq: ANT 2000.
Introduction to the basic theoretical, methodological, ethical and practical concerns in the making of ethnography. In addition to readings and discussions, students will conduct a micro-project to gain hands-on experience in doing ethnography.

ANT 4823 Laboratory Training in Archaeology
Credits: 1 to 3; Prereq: an introductory level archeology course.
Processing of data recovered in field excavations; includes cleaning, identification, cataloguing, classification, drawing, analysis, responsibilities of data reporting.

ANT 4824 Field Sessions in Archaeology
Credits: 6; Prereq: 6 hours of anthropology, or permission of instructor.
Excavation of archaeological sites, recording of data, laboratory handling and analysis of specimens, and study of the theoretical principles which underlie field methods and artifact analysis.

ANT 4905 Individual Work
Credits: 1 to 5; can be repeated to a maximum of 9 hours. Prereq: permission of instructor.

ANT 4907 Research Projects in Anthropology
Credits: 1 to 5; can be repeated with change in content up to 9 credits. Prereq: permission of instructor.
For students undertaking directed research in supplementary or regular course work or on special problems.

ANT 4914 Department Honors in Anthropology
Credits: 3; Prereq: permission of undergraduate coordinator.
Open to students meeting department honors criteria and normally taken in the senior year. Students will develop special interests and write an essay based upon this research.

ANT 4930 Special Topics in Anthropology
Credits: 3 to 5; Prereq: permission of instructor, or 10 credits in anthropology. With permission, can be repeated with change in topics up to 9 credits.
Rotating topics in anthropology.

ANT 4956 Overseas Studies in Cultural Anthropology
Credits: 3 to 9.
Rotating topics in cultural anthropology abroad.

ENC 3254 Professional Writing in the Discipline: Anthropology
Credits: 3; can be repeated with change in content up to 6 credits. Prereq: junior or senior standing and one 1000-/2000-level English course.
A communication course adjusted to a specific professional discipline as determined by need. Covers major elements of organizational communication with emphasis on composition of reports, proposals, letters and memos, manuals and oral presentations. Materials and assignments are relevant to the discipline. Also listed as ANT 4930. (C) (WR)



General Education Categories

  • Composition (C)
  • Mathematical Sciences (M)
  • Humanities (H)
  • Social and Behavioral Sciences (S)
  • Physical (P) and Biological (B) Sciences
  • International and Diversity focus (I)

Symbols Used in Course Descriptions

  • (WR) indicates the course satisfies the writing requirement.
    The Schedule of Courses lists the amount of writing credit per course section.
  • (MR) indicates the course satisfies the math requirement.
  • †† indicates the course may be taken on an S-U basis.