Undergraduate Courses
Graduate Courses
MWF 11:45-12:35 MAX: 100 Lacy
Content: In this introduction to Anthropology we will survey the four fields which comprise this diverse, multi-disciplinary science. Anthropologists employ a wide-range of methods to explore what it means to be human. Biological Anthropologists study human evolution and biological adaptation; Archaeologists study prehistoric societies and sociocultural evolution; Sociocultural Anthropologists bring a comparative approach to the study of society and culture; Linguistic Anthropologists study the evolution of human language systems. Over the course of the semester, we will explore how anthropology helps us understand ourselves, our histories, and our world. This course presents students with the opportunity to learn how each of the sub-fields of anthropology contribute to our understanding of the human condition.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: TBA.
TTH 4:00-5:15 MAX: 35 Baykal
Content: This course is designed as an advanced introduction to the Middle East. It covers the anthropological research that has been conducted in the Middle East to provide students with the cultural knowledge necessary to understand and interpret contemporary social, political and economic dynamics of the region. Some discussion will be devoted to nearby Muslim societies of Central Asia. We will begin by outlining the underlying principles and tensions of Middle Eastern history and social organization, then move to a discussion of the ways in which these principles and tensions are expressed in religious, communal, gender and political relationships. We also will consider the effects of the media and global market on authority and power relations within these settings.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: Grades will be based on attendance and participation, two book reviews (2 pp), a midterm exam, and a term paper.
TTH 2:30-3:45 MAX: 20 [ANT 150-001]/5 [LAS 270] Nugent
Content:In the popular imagination, Latin America is regarded as a region of grinding poverty, revolutionary extremists and military dictators, of debt-ridden economies, degraded environments and indigenous uprisings, of exuberant, hybrid cultures and religious conservatism. In this course we look critically at these stereotypical understandings. Beginning with the European Conquest, we trace the historical development of the region's economic, social and political structures, of its social movements and cultural beliefs. Special emphasis is placed on the dynamics of the contemporary period-on the increasing scope and power of the world economy and institutions of global governance (from NGOs to the World Bank to the IMF), and on the emergence of alternative forms of democracy, citizenship and nationhood, and of novel expressions of gender, race and religion.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: TBA.
MWF 3:00-3:50 MAX: 25 [ANT 150-002]/10 [AFS 150] Lacy
Content: To explore the great diversity of the numerous cultural traditions of Africa, we begin with the historiography of Africa from the dawn of humankind to creation of modern African nations. Then we will turn to regional case studies, African literature, film, and music to further explore several cultural traditions from the continent. In the final part of the course students will conduct original research on the cultural dynamics of critical issues facing contemporary Africans. The objective of this course is to introduce students to the rich diversity of African cultural traditions, and to equip students with the African Studies and Anthropology research skills necessary for further explorations into the Cultures of Africa.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: TBA.
TTH 10:00-11:15 MAX: 10 [ANT 200-000]/130 [NBB 201] Gouzoules/Rilling
Content: : This course presents an introduction to evolutionary processes and biological bases of behavior. Lectures and readings will be organized around a developmental and life history perspective and will emphasize the importance of context in biological mechanisms and the interaction of social life, behavior, and cognition. Examples drawn especially from humans and nonhuman primates will be used to place human behavior in the context of other species and to illustrate the dual inheritance of biology and culture in our species. Topics covered will include: evolutionary mechanisms, adaptation, phylogenetic constraints, neural and neuroendocrine mechanisms of behavior, life history theory, developmental programs, principles of allometry, sexual selection and alternative reproductive strategies, social bonds and socialization, and the cognitive bases of social interaction.
Texts: The Tangled Wing, 2nd edition by M.Konner
Selected Readings posted on Blackboard
Particulars: Grade will be based on two hourly exams and a final. Prerequisite: Biology 141.
TTH 11:30-12:45 MAX: 100 Kingston
Students must enroll in a lab section:
201 L-A: M 2:30-5:30 Freed
201 L-B: T 2:30-5:30 Freed
201 L-C: W 2:30-5:30 Freed
201 L-D: TH 2:30-5:30 Freed
Content:Biological Anthropology offers a broad perspective for studying the adaptation and evolution of the human species. While this course acknowledges the integration of a biological and cultural approach to the study of modern Homo sapiens, the focus will be on biological perspectives. Lectures and laboratory examine the role of evolutionary theory in biological anthropology, and study such topics as primate biology and behavior, primate evolution, the fossil evidence for human evolution, origin of modern humans, genetic evidence for biological variability, physiological evidence for adaptation to climate and altitude, the role of infectious disease in human evolution, and the role of nutrition and dietary preferences in human evolution. We will discuss the evidence used to interpret human adaptation in the past. How do anthropologists interpret behavior from an artifact of fossil remains? Why do some biochemists search for our ancestral ”Eve”? What can we learn about ourselves from the study of nonhuman primates? Does evolutionary biology tell us anything about complex modern human behavior? We will then utilize evolutionary and adaptive perspectives to examine fundamental aspects of the human species, beginning with human adaptability and plasticity, the evolution of culture and continuing with population differences in heritable adaptation to food resources, climate and disease.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: TBA.
TTH 11:30-12:45 MAX: 35 Baykal
Content: This course provides an introduction to cultural anthropology that highlights the foundation of the discipline for the anthropology major and minor. The course is also suitable for non-majors. Students will be introduced to the major theoretical approaches and key research methods that inform cultural anthropology. We will consider the fundamental relationship between fieldwork, ethnographic data and contemporary anthropological theory through an in-depth reading of a number of contemporary ethnographies. We will examine the individual anthropologists' education and training, cultural perspectives and vision, fieldwork methods and experiences, and the approaches to analysis of social processes and realities found in the field. Through an exploration of the anthropologists' encounter with their subjects, methods of data collection, types of analyses and generalizations made from fieldwork data, as well as an examination of anthropologists' own reflexivity about their own cultural, gender and political sensibilities, the students will develop a deeper understanding of the connection between different elements that go into the production of ethnographic knowledge and anthropological theory.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars:Grades will be based on attendance and participation, three book reviews (2 pp), a midterm exam, and a term paper.
MWF 10:40-11:30 MAX: 18 Ozawa-de Silva
Content: This course will explore key concepts and methods in cultural anthropology. We will discuss theoretical issues related to the field, study ethnographic method, and read various ethnographies of different societies, countries and local people living in these places. Students will learn both theoretical knowledge in anthropology and practical experience in ethnographic analysis through class lectures, discussion, written papers, viewing and analyzing ethnographic films, and original ethnographic research. Students are expected to read texts thoroughly and critically before class and bring at least two questions for discussion. Class discussion and presentations will be crucial in earning skills for critical analysis. This course will provide students with a foundation for pursuing other more advanced anthropology courses and is therefore suited for those whose major or minor is anthropology.
Texts:
Particulars: This course requires intensive participation from students which includes class discussion and presentations. A mini-ethnography will be conducted as a part of the class. There will also be several papers, a mid-term exam, and a final project based upon the ethnography.
TTH 1:00-2:15 MAX: 35 Brown
Content: This course is an introduction to the field of Medical Anthropology. It examines the interaction of culture and biology as it affects health and medical systems. Medical Anthropology provides a perspective on health, medical systems, disease, and culture. That perspective emphasizes six things: 1) cross‑cultural comparisons; 2) the notion of adaptation in biocultural evolution; 3) the understanding and appreciation of "exotic" ethnomedical systems; 4) a critical cultural analysis of Biomedicine; 5) understanding issues of stigma, disability and the social process of health and illness; and 6) the application of the concept of culture to practical problems in health delivery in a multicultural society. The theoretical perspectives within Medical Anthropology that are covered include: biocultural and evolutionary approaches; political ecological approaches; ethnomedicine and complementary/alternative medicine; Stigma and Social Suffering; applied anthropology in medical and public health settings
Texts:
Particulars: TBA.
MWF 12:50-1:40 MAX: 18 Whitten
Content: This course will focus on primate mating behavior from the perspectives of sexual selection, evolution, and ecology. Mating systems and patterns of sexual activity in a variety of primate species will be reviewed and compared in light of current theories on intrasexual competition and mate choice. Genetic success will be compared to evidence for mating success and mate selection. Alternative strategies and tactics will be compared within and among species.
Texts:
Additional journal articles will be assigned as needed
Particulars:Requirements include several oral presentations on assigned readings, a 15 page term paper, and reaction papers. Attendance and participation is required.
Grades:
Prerequisites: ANT 302 or by permission of instructor.
TTH 1:00-2:15 MAX: 35 Freed
Content: Human evolution is a rapidly changing field, filled with new discoveries, debates, and questions about human behavior, biology, and origins. This course focuses on the human fossil record. We begin by reviewing evolutionary theory, paleoanthropological methods, anatomy, ecology, taxonomy, and genetics. We then investigate the fossil apes that reveal important clues as to the origins of the human lineage. After examining the earliest evidence of bipedality in primates, we investigate the development, spread, and extinction of each fossil human species. Students will gain further appreciation for human biology, ecology, and evolution, and will also achieve a better understanding as to what it means to be a modern human. Students will participate in lecture and hands-on laboratory activities.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: Class participation, two examinations, and lab activities.
MWF 10:40-12:35 MAX: 12 Armelagos
Content: Skeletal remains are a silent witness to the past. The analysis of skeletal populations has been used to determine the impact of the transition of agriculture on health (it resulted in an increase in infectious and nutritional diseases) and to measure the biological cost of slavery that has been obscured from historical records. In this class, you will receive thorough instruction in the practical and theoretical foundation of human skeletal biology. You will learn basic human skeletal anatomy, the forensic techniques for identifying fragmentary remains, methods for determining the sex and age at death of a skeleton, the diseases such as arthritis, trauma, neoplasms, nutritional deficiency and osteoporosis that affect the skeleton (paleopathology). Methods for determining population structure (paleodemography), histological and chemical techniques, morphology and human activity will also be studied. Student’s projects will involve the analysis of some aspect of the biology of a skeletal population.
Texts: Tim White and Peter A. Folken's, Human Osteology Academic Press.
Particulars: By permission only. There will be weekly practical quizzes for the first nine weeks. A short term paper in the style of a publishable article will be required. The paper must include original research on a skeletal indicator. The results will be presented to the class as a poster session or as a paper in a simulated meeting during last week of class. You will be expected to maintain a laboratory notebook. Grade will be determined by weekly quizzes (40%), term paper (45%), and poster or presentation (15%). The class hours will be used for lecture, demonstration and quizzes.
This course has been cancelled.
MWF 12:50-1:40 MAX: 25 [ANT 324-000]/10 [WS 340] Poole
Content:This course uses the Modern Girl Around the World Project and other materials to examine the politics of gender in cross-cultural settings. The Modern Girl Around the World Project, which is based at the University of Washington in Seattle, is an investigation of the emergence of a new kind of young woman in major cities around the world (from Beijing to Bombay, Tokyo to Berlin, Johannesburg to New York) during the first half of the 20th century. She is defined as a young woman who did not appear to value the roles of dutiful daughter, mother, or wife and who prioritized romantic love, provocative fashion, and personal freedom and liberation. During the course of the semester, this representation of modern women will be compared with contemporary women in other realms (e.g. at home and in the workplace). Students will also evaluate articles about key concepts and theories in gender studies and critique ethnographies about modern women in the Americas, Africa, and Asia to increase their understanding of gender in cross-cultural settings. In addition, students will consider the constructed nature of gender in various locales and learn to critically assess the interplay between gender, modernity, and other markers of difference (e.g. race/ethnicity, class, nationality and sexuality). Specifically, we will discuss: (1) the roles and positions of women in society, (2) the organization of work and family, (3) women’s participation in political and economic spheres, (4) women’s health and reproduction, and (5) women as refugees, forced migrants, and/or as citizens in war-torn societies.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: TBA.
MWF 2:00-2:50 MAX: 35 Ozawa-de Silva
Content: This course provides an opportunity to examine issues of health, illness and healing cross-culturally from anthropological perspectives, in particular with critical engagement with our notion of “mental” health. We will discuss mental health from three perspectives. First, we will explore how psychiatric anthropologists have critiqued Western notions of mental health and psychiatry. In Western societies, we "know" about our health predominantly through biomedicine. We will discuss the benefits and limitations of biomedicine in how we view, study and construct mental health. Then, using Japan as a case for comparison with the US, we will situate the biomedical model in cross-cultural perspective, examining how pathologies are culturally constructed and dealt with, and addressing such questions as what it means to be mentally ill; what are the differences between Japanese and Western approaches to health, healing, and the mind-body relationship; and the role of religion in concepts of health and healing. The third topic is the intersection of "Western" and "Eastern" concepts of mental health through the global psychosocial movement with topics such as refugee mental health, humanitarian psychosocial programs for populations affected by political violence, and the collision of cross-cultural mental health models.
Texts:
Particulars: Class discussion and presentation are important aspects of this class and students are expected to actively participate in discussion and lead discussion based on assigned readings. Students are also required to conduct an ethnography. There will also be several papers, a mid-term exam, and a final project based upon the ethnography.
TTH 1:00-2:15 MAX: 4 [ANT 340S-000]/ 10 [LING 340S]/ 4 [SPAN 410S] Tuten
Content: The field of sociolinguistics focuses on the study of language in social context. In this course, we will begin with a brief review of sociolinguistic questions, concepts and methods, and then focus on the study of bilingualism and multilingualism (including multidialectalism). The course will consider linguistic, individual, social, cultural, political, and historical aspects of these phenomena. Specific attention will be given to topics such as linguistic variation, the nature of verbal interaction, code-switching/code-mixing, language attitudes and ideologies, and the politics of language. We will explore a range of different questions/issues, including the links between social (and institutional) factors and language use, the reasons for variation within and between speech communities, the factors which affect linguistic choices in multilingual contexts, and the reasons why different speech communities experience and conceive of multilingualism in different ways.
Students will be expected to design an original research project on some aspect of language variation and use within a particular speech community. Potential research methods will be presented and discussed in the course.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: No knowledge of any specific language is
required. There is no prerequisite for this class, but students who have
not taken any coursework in Linguistics should consult with the instructor
before enrolling in the course.
[Students enrolling under SPAN410 will be required to carry out a research
project relating to Spanish and to write their final paper in Spanish. Students
may enroll in SPAN410 only with permission of instructor. ]
TTH 10:00-11:15 MAX: 18 Freed
Content: Most nonhuman primates have become severely threatened, often due to the activities of surrounding human populations. Although many groups have tried to conserve areas of biological interest, few programs have actually reversed the process of extinction in nonhuman primates. The aim of this course is to study the effects of ever-changing habitats on the evolution, behavior, and ecology of primates. In this course, students discuss the local human and biological impact of conservation programs that affect primate communities throughout the world, including: Morocco, West Africa, East Africa, Gabon, Congo, South Africa, Madagascar, India, Japan, Southeast Asia, Central America, and South America. This course will survey how conservation researchers apply methods from: primate ecology and behavior, tropical ecology, paleontology, archaeology, satellite imagery, and cultural anthropology. Among the topics to be discussed are: primate/plant interactions, forest fragmentation, historical perspectives on conservation and land use, agroforestry, ecotourism, ethnography, disease, and re-introductions of nonhuman primates.
Texts:
Assorted readings are from project reports, new texts, and the following journals: Human Ecology, Evolutionary Anthropology, Conservation Biology, Biotropica, and Development and Change.
Particulars: Class participation, two six-page take-home essays, and one written report.
MWF 9:35-10:25 MAX: 20 [ANT 385-000]/ 80 [GHCS 102] Hadley
Content:This introductory core course to the minor in Global Health, Culture, and Society draws on perspectives from anthropology, social epidemiology, and related social and health sciences to provide the broadest framework for understanding global health challenges and their solutions. Students will be introduced to basic concepts and methods in epidemiology and population health and will learn about past, current and future global health issues. The course will emphasize the interconnections between health problems in developed and developing countries as well as the need for an interdisciplinary approach to understand and mitigate threats to health. Topics to be covered include infectious diseases, diseases of under and over nutrition, mental health, reproductive health, refugee and immigrant health, and human rights.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: TBA.
This course has been cancelled.
TTH 2:30-3:45 MAX: 12 [ANT 385S-001]/6 [LAS 385] Krupa
Content: This course treats fear and memory as social, rather than psychological, phenomena, and explores how they give shape and meaning to experiences of life under political violence. Looking to various cases from around the world, we will ask how fear, memory, and violence (or its threat) intersect in the production of specific modes of governance, discipline, and subjectivity as well as emancipatory struggles for different futures and new pasts. This will lead us to specifying the ways political fields are reconstructed and divided through fear, how memories become collectivized, and how violence gives rise to new modes of sociality and cultural production. One of our goals will be to think through the kinds of anthropology such a focus enables and, perhaps, makes challenging. Our course readings will thus be primarily ethnographic, but will include selections from testimonial, historical, and literary genres, as well as various forms of popular media and ‘formal’ culture. Case studies will include the contemporary United States, post-Franco era Spain, Pinochet’s Chile, the civil wars of Sierra Leone and Liberia, genocide in Cambodia and and Argentina during the “Dirty War”.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: TBA.
MAX: Faculty
Content: TBA.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology.
MAX: Kingston
Content: TBA.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology.
MAX: Faculty
Content: TBA.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology.
TTH 2:30-4:00 MAX: 15 Peletz
Content: This course focuses on the history of theory in socio-cultural anthropology, beginning with the founding figures of the 19th century (such as Tylor and Morgan) and continuing through the present (Bourdieu, Foucault, Ortner, Appadurai, Ong, etc). Along the way we will examine important traditions in early and mid-20th-century American anthropology, British Social Anthropology, and French structuralism (represented by Margaret Mead, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, and Claude Levi-Strauss, respectively) as well as the emergence of paradigms that helped define the discipline in the second half of the 20th century, such as the cultural materialism of Marvin Harris and the interpretive/symbolic anthropology pioneered by Clifford Geertz and Victor Turner. In addition to critically examining the strengths and weaknesses of the dominant perspectives and paradigms in the history of the discipline, we will explore the contributions that anthropology can make to our understanding of contemporary societies and cultures and processes of modernity and globalization generally. One of the objectives of the course is thus to help students develop an understanding of anthropology’s relevance in the 21st century.
Texts: Required texts will most likely include the following books (and a half-dozen or so articles), all of which will be available in paperback versions at the Druid Hills bookstore.
Particulars: The success of the seminar depends on the commitment and contributions of all its members; therefore, your attendance at all class meetings is mandatory, as is your participation in discussions of assigned readings. Students will be asked to lead discussions of selected readings and to give other brief presentations on topics selected in consultation with the instructor. Twenty to twenty-five percent of your grade will be based on the quality of your class participation. The remainder of your grade will be based on your written work, which will consist of (a) periodic commentaries on course readings (3-4 pages each, assigned every 3-4 weeks), (b) two essays, each of approximately 10-15 pages, and (c) a take-home final exam.
By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.
TH 4:00-5:15 MAX: 20 Kingston
Content: The goal of this seminar is to give graduate students in biological anthropology increased exposure to rigorous cutting-edge research in their areas of interest. All Anthropology graduate students and faculty are encouraged to attend. Seminars will include the presentation of recent research by faculty, local scholars, and graduate students, review of recent noteworthy publications, and discussion of current debates in the field.
Texts: TBA
Particulars: Students specializing in biological anthropology are required to register for and attend the course during each semester prior to reaching candidacy. Seminar limited to Anthropology students. By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.
TTH 10:00-11:15 MAX: 15 Barlett
Content: This seminar will bring guest lecturers and students from diverse fields together to explore different ways of understanding the emerging sustainability “movement” that seeks to shift contemporary industrial culture toward a new balance between social, economic, and environmental health and functioning. We will explore different levels of analysis—from the community to the nation and the global—and will look at how anthropological research laid the groundwork for our present understandings of a sustainable society. Materials from many fields will help us develop a critical understanding of the societal transformations underway and the kinds of imagination emerging to accomplish them. The class will explore forms of praxis from civic regeneration, policy and procedure, to place-based engagement.
Texts:
Readings and excerpts will be chosen from diverse texts such as:
Particulars:A major research project or paper will be tailored to the students’ own interests and research needs. Two to three essays on the readings will allow students to develop their own perspectives. Observations and interviews on campus will explore hands-on methodological insights and challenges.
By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.
W 1:00-4:00 MAX: 15 Hadley
Content:This course focuses on the intersection between food, nutrition, and human health and on the ways in which culture and biology jointly determine food intake and nutrient needs. Students are introduced to basic concepts, theories and methods in nutritional anthropology. The main goal of the course then is to apply these concepts and methods to issues related to the anthropological study of food and nutrition. Topics to be covered include, but are not limited to, the evolution of infant and child feeding practices, the evolution of human nutrient requirements, food insecurity and hunger in developed and developing country settings, dietary acculturation, the impact of 'place' on dietary intake, and the future of food.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.
W 4:30pm - 7:30pm MAX: 4 [ANT 585]/ 4 [ILA 790] / 4 [AFS 790]/ 4 [HIST 585] Bay
Content: An increasing number of scholars over the past two decades have suggested that key social, economic and political tensions in Africa lie in the struggles between older men on the one hand and younger men and women on the other. Martin Chanock, for example, has shown how in the early colonial period elder males worked with colonial authorities to invent and codify "customary law" that would re-establish their control over women and younger men. John Lonsdale has eloquently described the vertical ties that link household-level struggles between generations and genders to national and global questions. Several scholars have worked to theorize such tensions, while others have augmented understandings of gender and generation through studies of African masculinities and femininities. This seminar will explore generational and gender conflict through a combination of case studies drawn from a wide range of settings, some historical and some contemporary.
Texts: Authors read will include Lynn M. Thomas, Martin Chanock, Barbara M. Cooper, Richard A. Schroeder, John Lonsdale, Belinda Bozzoli, Kenda Mutongi, and John Wood, among others.
M 5:30 - 8:30pm MAX: 10 Knauft/Mohan
Content:This 4-credit hour graduate seminar affords graduate students the chance to pursue doctoral research on issues of subaltern status, marginality, and disempowerment historically and in the present. Enrolled students pursue their own relevant research projects as already been begun in preliminary research and/or coursework grounded in critical theory. Course readings consider relevant issues of class / race / gender / sex / nationality / ethnicity / religion, and associated features of discrimination or disempowerment in relation to students' emerging or emergent doctoral research projects. Relevant readings are configured with the instructor by students and may also include students' own writings and presentations.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.
MAX: 999 Faculty
Content: TBA.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.
MAX: 999 Faculty
Content: TBA.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars:By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.
MAX: 999 Faculty
Content: TBA.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.
MAX: 999 Faculty
Content: TBA.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars:By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.
MAX: 999 Faculty
Content: TBA.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.
MAX: 999 Faculty
Content: TBA.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: By permission only. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.
MAX: 999 Faculty
Content: TBA.
Texts: TBA.
Particulars: By permission only, and for students admitted to Doctoral Candidacy. Please obtain form in Room 207 Anthropology. All enrollments are processed through Anthropology.