This course provides an introduction to the study of Homo Sapiens from an evolutionary, biological, behavioral, and biocultural perspective. Topics covered include: the history of evolutionary thought, basic human genetics, the anatomy and behavioral ecology of the living primates, human evolution via the study of fossil hominins, modern human variation and adaptation, and the study of the human skeleton in forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology.

The observed range of variation of ways of life around the world. The cross-cultural investigation of becoming and being human. Comparative treatment of social organization, subsistence activities, values, and religion.

This course aims to equip students with some basic facts about the world's languages, a fundamental prerequisite to understanding the nature of human language. We will be examining: (1) the diversity of languages across space and time, and (2) the fundamental similarities of languages. We will address a range of questions about language through an exploration of the following areas: language families and historical relationships, linguistic typology, language universals, sound and structure features of the world's languages, and writing systems.

Introduction to key transformations in human history and prehistory as they have been identified and discussed by anthropological archaeologists. Consideration of basic principles of archaeology, human evolution and expansion, origins of agriculture and sedentary village societies, development of archaic states and ancient civilizations. Of interest to majors and prospective majors in anthropology and related fields.

Though only 0.9% of the US population, Native Americans have played and continue to play an important part in American society. Largely invisibilized by the foregrounding of other ethnic minority groups, Native Americans in the US struggle for recognition (federal, state, and local), for survival as cultural groups (cf. Ile de Jean Charles evacuation/resettlement), and for basic rights (legal protections, religious freedom, education, health services, and subsistence). While focusing primarily on Native American groups in the US, this course will explore the histories of indigenous peoples. Vignettes of the cultures, languages, philosophies and lifeways of indigenous Americans provide the backdrop for coming to know the modern autochthonous peoples.

This course studies popular fantasies, cult theories, and hoaxes in the study of the ancient world to explore the role of archaeology in the development of popular notions versus scientific understandings about the past. Furthermore, this course will explore how archaeology can, in fact, identify unscientific research approaches, determine the validity of these notions, and counteract those modern biases and prejudices that give rise to them.

Transfer Coursework at the 1000 level. Departmental approval may be required.

A cross-cultural survey of women in society and culture among hunters and gatherers, pastoral nomads and agriculturalists of Oceania, the Near East, Africa, and the New World. Kinship and female symbolism in Africa, women and men in myths in traditional societies. Cross-cultural variability of women's roles and status and the variability of women's and men's language and behavior.

Introduction to basic principles of archaeological method and theory. Consideration of the history of archaeology, major paradigms in archaeological thought, basic techniques of fieldwork, basic techniques in analyzing archaeological finds, and intellectual frameworks for interpreting patterns in archaeological datasets. Consideration of selected case studies. Of interest to majors and prospective majors in anthropology, and potentially to majors in classical archaeology and related fields.

This class will explore how political, religious, ideological and cultural ideas among the world’s earliest urban civilizations were inscribed in the landscape in the form of monumental construction. To achieve these objectives the class will study five different regions of the ancient world with the goal of evaluating how built space (buildings, monuments, and public plazas) helped develop and maintain socio-political hierarchy, i.e., "civilization".

Introduction to the study of regional and interregional trade and exchange in ancient times based on archaeological evidence. This course considers diverse theories and methods developed to make archaeological inferences about ancient trade and exchange and examines how the study of trade and exchange informs us about sociopolitical systems and economic relations and how they vary over time and space. Of interest to majors and prospective majors in anthropology and related fields.

This course explores how anthropologists study global health as a cultural practice. It also explores how anthropologists and anthropological methods contribute to the creation and current practice of global health. Students examine the globalization of public health, the relationship between culture, health, and development, and the cultural construction of health. Of interest to majors and prospective majors in anthropology, public health, and related disciplines.

Special topics in Anthropology. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Transfer Coursework at the 2000 level. Department approval may be required.

Comparative study of selected modern and past groups of hunter-gatherers. Anthropological approaches to understanding subsistence practices, social organization, and cultural change in non-agricultural societies. Both ethnographic and archaeological cases will be considered.

In general, ethnobiology explores relationships between local societies and surrounding biota. Trajectories within the field over time have researched nomenclature, classification, use, and management of natural resources in diverse cultural contexts on several continents. This course investigates the past, present, and future of the field while presenting its applications as it relates to conservation of traditional knowledge, culture, and natural resources. Delving into branches of ethnobiology, namely ethnobotany, anthrozoology, ethnomycology and ethnoecology we will explore the vast human-nature relationships across the globe, while concomitantly interrogating our own relationship with the natural world.

Race and Migration explores how race and culture impact the settlement experiences of migrating people. We will focus primarily on Latinos, West Indians, and Asians and use New York City as a primary sight of investigation, but also examine case studies of migration within the Caribbean and Latin America. Questions the course will address include: how do people go from having diverse national and cultural identities to being people with a “race?” How does becoming a “raced” person shape identity, economic mobility, and social and cultural belonging? How are people differently affected by being placed in social categories in adoptive homes? How do migrants both preserve and create new culture? How do they remain connected to their countries of origin? Where do they find power? In pursuit of these questions, we will consider theories on race, culture, diaspora, nation, transnationalism, exclusion, and belonging.

Ethnology of the indigenous peoples of lowland South America and adjacent southern Central America. The course examines cultural developments from prehistory to the present. Models for the classification of indigenous cultures, societies, and languages are critically reviewed.

Selected Cultural Systems. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

A survey of the cultures of sub-Saharan Africa from the time of European contact to the present. A detailed study of selected African cultures, identifying, and explaining cultural diversity and unity of African cultures, and comparing African cultures with cultures of other geographic areas. Inequality, development, the family, gender roles, kinship systems, and world view are considered.

An exploration of the interrelatedness of biological, behavioral, cultural, social, and political aspects of human sex and reproduction. Current issues, such as new reproductive technologies, the biology and culture of pregnancy and childbirth, mate choice, will be examined from within an evolutionary framework and/or using a cross-cultural approach.

An introduction to the social and physical diversity of the Order Primates, emphasizing the biology, ecology, and behavior of living nonhuman primates. Social structure will be explored from an evolutionary perspective, and the ecological and social constraints on behavioral flexibility will be examined. Examples will cover both field and laboratory investigations of nonhuman primates.

Introduction to the cultures of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, and Australia from the first settlement to the emergence of modern nation-states.

The study of economic behavior in band, tribal, and peasant societies. Emphasis on the impact of culture and environment on economic decision-making in the Third World. Competing theoretical approaches, particularly evolutionary, ecological, substantivist and Marxist are critically reviewed.

This course focuses on the expansion of financial services on daily life in both U.S. and non-U.S societies. We will use ethnographic case-studies to explore different institutions and mechanisms by which people organize their debt and credit relations. The first part of the course will be an overview of anthropological concepts and frameworks for understanding debt and sociality. The second part will focus on the diverse meanings of homeownership in U.S. society, Brazil, and China.

This course is an exploration into religion and the occult. We will examine a wide range of topics, such as hauntings, spirit possession, the role of evil in the moral imagination, and the construction of symbols as well as various practices associated healing, witchcraft (or sorcery) accusations, and the experience of suffering and death. Anthropological approaches challenge the categories of "religion" and "witchcraft", which stem from Western conceptions of reality, Christianity, and ethnocentric views of the "other".

Survey of the ancient civilizations of Mexico and Central America. Overview of culture history from the first settled villages through the Spanish conquest. Special emphasis on the cultural developments of the Olmec, Zapotec, Maya, Toltec, and Aztec societies of highland Mexico, Gulf coast, and lowland Central America. Although the course stresses archaeological data, it will also include pre-Columbian aesthetic achievements, social organization, values, written records, and adaptation to varying environments.

Language as a reflection of the human mind and the role of language in defining the essence of humanity. Language and the expression of social values. Emphasis on analysis of primary linguistic data. Critical examination of theories of linguistic structure.

This course looks at the different systems of writing which have been used in various cultures through time with attention to the materials and purpose in relation to the cultures. Orientation to and practice in decipherment are included. Finally, the issues of modern script development are introduced.

Survey of the field of paleopathology, the study of health and disease in ancient populations. Topics include methods for identifying evidence of injury and disease in bones, teeth, and mummified tissue; ancient medicine and surgery; chemical approaches to reconstructing diet; and human health trends through time.

Gender refers to the cultural norms, ideals, expectations, and rules that shape the relationships and activities of men, women, and children. People in the present and recent past have conceptualized gender in many different ways, and there is great diversity in the range of gender roles and gender relations seen in different cultures. With ethnographic and historic evidence as interpretive guides, archaeologists can offer insights into the nature of gender roles and gender relations in past societies, and into the ways that gender norms have contributed to major trends in the history and prehistory of humankind. This course is an introduction to the archaeological study of the roles of men, women, and children in past societies; the relationships among women, men, and children in past communities; and the ideologies that have legitimized and naturalized those gender roles and gender relations. Case studies covered in the course are drawn from the archaeology of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

A theoretical and ethnographical examination of how gender is constructed across cultures. Topics include sex and gender, gender identity, bodily experiences, masculinity and femininity, gender roles, kinship and gender, gender stratification, and gender equality, as well as gender, ethnicity, and class.

Religions, ideas, ritual, and organization of primitive peoples; nativistic and messianic movements; function of religion in social systems.

This course focuses on anthropological approaches to cities and urban life. Topics include the cultural meanings of public space and the built environment, processes of social differentiation and class formation, the role of capital, and the emergence of social movements. The second half of the course is organized around a comparison of four ethnographic case-studies of cities outside the United States and Europe. Throughout the semester, studies will also discuss how anthropological approaches may be applied to New Orleans.

This course examines sex work as a form of labor in different sites around the world. More specifically it explores what compels people to become involved in the industry, who its participants are, who seeks sex workers and why. It also considers the factors that impact the differing ways sex work is practiced and how it affects families. Tourism and its implications for sex work is an important focus of the course as well. The class proceeds as a survey of literature that will introduce students to relevant theories regarding sex work and ethnographic information that will help understand debates on its regulation and legalization. The latter part of the course will focus on these debates and moral, health, and human rights concerns. The case studies examined in the course take place primarily in the Caribbean and Latin America. As such, the course will ask important questions regarding the intersections of race, class, and sexual orientation with sex work and consider how these intersecting dynamics shape the experiences and decision making processes of both sex workers and their clientele.

This course examines contemporary Southeast Asia. As one of the most diverse regions in the world, the region confounds easy characterization. The first part of the course provides students with a broad overview of the social, cultural, and political institutions of the region with a focus on Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The second part turns to contemporary issues including political and economic development, religious change, and cultural constructions of identity. Readings include academic essays, short stories, and full-length ethnographies.

Europe’s history is widely studied, but in terms of years, the continent’s written record represents far less than 1% of the total time humans have lived there. In this course we explore the bulk of that vast (pre)history via the investigation of the Paleolithic (“Old Stone Age”) Mesolithic (“Middle Stone Age”) and Neolithic (“New Stone Age”). We begin with the first Homo erectus-like hominins who expanded into Europe as early as 1.7 million years ago, and examine the lifeways of European Neandertals and their presumed ancestors ca. 600,000 to 40,000 years ago. We then cover the arrival of our own species, Homo sapiens, around 54,000 years ago and explore interactions between them and the Neandertals. Around 20,000 years ago, the icy cold of the Last Glacial Maximum leads to the abandonment of northern Europe, while the end of the Last Ice Age ca. 11,700 BCE reforests the continent (bringing new challenges to the continent’s Mesolithic inhabitants). The rapid spread of domestication from the Near East (the Neolithic) follows shortly thereafter, and in the Middle Neolithic megalithic monuments are built across the continent.

Overview of theory and ethnography of current and historic processes of sociocultural contact and comingling primarily in the New World African-European-Indigenous societies that result in emergent shared group identifications. The course examines how creolization allows for cultural continuity and creativity in such new social orders where a Creole language and/or identity may be formed. Admission: anthropology and linguistics majors at level of Jr. or above; graduate students; others by permission of instructor

This course focuses on symbolic meaning in the vernacular expressive culture or folkloric forms of community groups in New Orleans, French Louisiana, the Gulf South region and selected out migrant locations. It addresses differential identities of tribal, ethnic, regional, religious, linguistic, occupational, class and gender affiliations--and examines aesthetic forms as a primary means to do so. Some of these are largely intangible such as music and dance, ritual and festival, narrative and jokes; others are tangible or material culture to varying degrees such as the built environment (houses, boats, landscape use), crafts, costumes and cuisine. All are examined via ethnographic and historical writing, oral histories and documentary media as to how shared cultural knowledge is performed in an array of contexts. These include dancehalls, Carnival parades, second lines, work settings, festivals, neighborhood museums, sacred spaces and so on.

Language is created by people and is constantly changing as the people who speak it change and adapt to new ways of being. Culture likewise is a creation of the interaction of people. Language indexes the values, beliefs, practices, power relationships and social identities of its speakers. This course will examine these facets of language use across a variety of cultures.

Semantics is the study of meaning in language. As humans use language they produce meaning in any number of ways: through intonation, through body language, through contextual (in)congruities, and through the linguistic structures used. Semanticians try to limit their study to the last of these, while always aware of other meaning-creating tools. In this course, we begin with the study of logic-based theories of meaning, examining propositional meanings. At each stage in this initial investigation, we will keep in mind how this carefully restricted corpus compares with situated language use. In the second part of the course, we will systematically build in context to approach an understanding of natural semantics, the way human beings mean.

Landscapes are outcomes of natural and cultural activity.  Natural landscapes are formed by geological processes and climatic patterns.  Cultural landscapes are shaped by the intentional and unintentional effects of human activity on the environment.  The archaeological study of cultural landscapes, therefore, concerns both the social and symbolic dimensions of local and regional environments as well as anthropogenic effects on environments at local, regional, and global scales.  Archaeologists interested in cultural landscapes study features such as earthen mounds, embankments, monumental architecture, ritual places and cemeteries, the built environment of human settlements, canals, ditches, fields, and signs of human impacts on natural environments.  Archaeologists typically study specific sites, but the archaeological study of landscapes emphasizes the significance of specific sites within broader regional contexts.  An archaeological perspective benefits the study of landscapes because archaeologists are inherently interested in the effects of both long-term trends and short-term changes on the ways that groups of people interact with each other and with their environment.  In this course, emphasis is placed on selected case studies from Europe, the North Atlantic, the South Pacific, and the Americas, although selected comparative cases and examples shall also be drawn from Africa and Asia.

Consideration of case studies in how past societies have prepared for or responded to disasters, critical reflection on "natural" and "cultural" forces that contribute to catastrophic events and that shape the aftermath of disasters, comparative assessment of relationships between culture and environment, and application of resilience theory and models of cultural collapse towards understanding the effects of disasters on past societies.

Introduction to language variation both geographically and socially. The course looks at the development of dialects, the methods for studying language variation, and the ways language may be a tool for both personal expression and reinforcing social structures.

Lexicography is the making of dictionaries. Dictionaries take many forms and fulfill many functions. Dictionaries have evolved new formats; professional lexicographers share word gleaning with internet users. Dictionaries may be monolingual, di-, tri-, or multi-lingual, etymological or encyclopedic, synchronic or diachronic, prescriptive or descriptive, terminological or generic. Dictionary construction requires a number of skills which co-vary with the type of dictionary to be produced. This course provides an overview of dictionaries, their forms, formats and histories, while fostering a basic skill set for harvesting words and compiling lexicons. Dictionaries provide a cognitive map to communities of speakers, both past and present.

This course focuses on the development, design, analysis, and presentation of research on behavior using observational methods. While these methods can be used on captive populations (zoo, research center) they are also appropriate for studies of free-ranging animals, including human beings. The student will be exposed to the specific challenges of observational research, and learn appropriate levels of analysis.

Islam is a fundamental human experience in diverse socio-historic and cultural milieux. Ethnographies of Muslim communities highlight the heterogenity of Islamic perspectives and traditions. Focus on culturally situated Islamic practices and belief systems fosters a critical understanding of the emergent Islamic identities and their historico-cultural underpinnings.

This course focuses on the problem of conceptualizing modernity in Africa. Examining cases from throughout the continent, we will consider cultural developments such as romantic love, fashion, and consumption as well as new forms of religiosity and novel developments in established religions, economic change, state corruption, and violence.

This class explores the “history before history” of Ireland as revealed through the field of archaeology. Archaeologists reconstruct prehistoric “lifeways” via the examination of artifacts (tools as well as food remains [both animal and plant]), humanly-created features on the landscape such as dwellings, burials and tombs, and even entire settlements. For this course, we will cover the original peopling of Ireland by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers at the end of the last Ice Age ca. 11,700 years ago, through the introduction of agriculture to the island (the Neolithic), and the Bronze Age through the Iron Age. We finish by discussing Medieval Ireland, including Viking settlements.

This class provides a bioanthropological perspective on health in Ireland from prehistory to today. We begin by introducing key concepts in medical anthropology. We then discuss epidemics, followed by an examination of infectious and metabolic diseases associated with urbanization and industrialization, the Great Famine, and health of marginalized people in nineteenth century to present-day Ireland. We next use paleopathology, the study of ancient disease, to look at specific cases of morbidity from Irish prehistory, including so-called “bog people.”

Familiarizes students with the fundamentals of Yoruba language and culture; shows students how Diaspora dynamics have changed Yoruba language and culture; uses Diaspora Yoruba to teach students the principles of language death and innovation involving tones, vowels, nasalization, word formation, and sentence structure.

This course will explore the richness of the linguistic diversity still preserved in the Native American languages of this hemisphere. Two thirds of the Native American languages spoken at time of European immigration have perished. Today even languages with large communities of fluent speakers face heavy assimilatory pressures. Language loss and simplification are rapidly changing the wordscape of the Americas.

Urban Music: Race, Class, and Sexuality will examine how hip-hop and dancehall reggae music cultures are informed by racial and class identities, are used as tools to express these identities, and are mediums through which people address marginalization. The course will also consider how these music cultures are tied to representations of gender and sexuality, and the meaning that can be made from their connections. Through this exploration, students will analyze how music and performance can impact listeners in contradicting ways. For example: providing a sense of esteem and empowerment, but perhaps also perpetuating racial and gender stereotypes, and violence. As an overarching theme, the course will consider the ways in which popular cultural forms are political, and are reflections of society at large, therefore serving as important microcosms through which to interpret it.

The St. Martin Program is an intensive, immersive service-learning program that combines a 3-credit class (ANTH 3550: Social Change, Sustainability, and Postcolonial Identity in the Caribbean) with community engagement. The course is based in the small binational island of St. Martin (Lesser Antilles). It includes a mandatory, zero-credit service-learning component, which will satisfy one tier of the public service graduation requirement. The primary purpose of the program is for students to meaningfully engage with locals, work and meet with community members committed to cultural, food, and economic sustainability, as well as gain an in-depth understanding of anthropological concepts and research methodology, especially as they relate to postcolonial contexts and the shaping of cultural/linguistic identities and socio- economic/political systems.

This course examines the fundamentally important relationship between human behavior and environmental change in the past. It looks at both the ways in which humans have responded to their environmental circumstances and the ways in which human activities have influenced environmental conditions at various scales. The course explores methods for learning about environmental conditions in the past and the nature of human interaction with the environment. The course also presents basic information on some particularly important topics concerning past human/environment interactions, including (1) causes of global climate change, (2) human roles in Pleistocene megafauna, (3) post-Pleistocene adaptation, (4) the origins of agriculture and animal domestication, (5) agricultural landscape modification and environmental over-exploitation, and (6) Holocene changes in human health, including the origins of modern disease epidemics.

This course will give an overview of indigenous movements in Latin America and reflect on the advantages and shortcomings of these movements’ recent approaches to rights discourses in the face of legal and extrajudicial forms of state violence. By comparing cases from Mexico, Guatemala, and Bolivia, we will analyze the connections between colonialism, the implementation of neoliberal policies, institutional racism, and states’ recognition and application of indigenous rights.

This course will give an overview of some of the main discussions in anthropology around the theories, methods, and politics of ethnographic fieldwork. Students will engage with critical perspectives on issues of positionality, reflexivity, representation, and embodiment, which are essential aspects in designing a research project, engaging in fieldwork, interpreting and analyzing data, and disseminating the research products. Throughout the course, we will analyze how each one of these issues and phases is enmeshed in interlocking power dynamics involving race, gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and nationality. We will interrogate the objectivity paradigm, learn about activist, collaborative, decolonizing, and Indigenous methodologies, their multiple challenges and critiques, and discuss anthropologists’ reflections on their own fieldwork experiences. The main goal of the course is to guide students in the process of developing a creative, ethical approach to fieldwork.

Introduction of transformational generative syntax, with examples from selected areas of English grammar. Formal models in grammatical description. Emphasis on the logic of linguistic argumentation.

The course offers an overview of articulatory and acoustic phonetics with emphasis on matching acoustic cues closely with the articulatory gestures. The first part of the course will study the articulatory and acoustic cues to range of English and non-English speech sounds with information about the normal range of variation. The second part will focus on collecting and interpreting acoustic data, and using such data as evidence to solve phonological problems in normal and pathological speech.

This course provides an introduction to phonological analysis and theory, with strong emphasis on description and analysis of data from a wide variety of languages. Major issues to be addressed include universal principles of human phonological systems, language-specific variation, constraints on representation of rules, the relationship of phonology to morphological and syntactic components of the grammar, and the historical underpinnings of current theoretical models.

This course provides an introduction to prosodic and non-prosodic morphology with emphasis on data analysis and argumentation. With data from a variety of languages, the first part of the course will examine non-prosodic morphological processes to highlight the typology of word structure across languages. The second part will examine morphological processes conditioned by prosody, and consider the various frameworks for analyzing the data; eventually, the course will work toward a dormal model like that of McCarth and Prince's Theory of Prosodic Morphology". The main objectives of the course are: (1) to learn to analyze morphological data; (2) to learn to compare alternative analysis for a given set of data and to find evidence to choose between the alternative, and (3) to learn to present linguistic analysis and argumentation in a coherent essay.

Study of written and spoken texts from a variety of languages and language use contexts. Focus on structural aspects of language (noun phrase construction and anaphora, topicalization, focus constructions, word order, deictics, and definite reference) as they relate to the situated use of language.

This course provides an introduction to issues such as the genetic basis of language ability and acquisition; neurological aspects of linguistic knowledge; first language acquisition. Emphasis will be laid on child language data collection, description and analysis. Other issues covered are: (1) language acquisition in special populations (deaf children, blind children, children with mental retardation, children with autism and children with specific language impairment); (2) childhood bilingualism.

Exploration of the ways that language indexes, reflects, and constructs power. Cross-cultural study of the interrelationship of social ascriptions, attitudes toward groups and their members, and the speech patterns of in-group/out-group members. Examination of the manipulation of power and its linguistic correlates in the domains of medicine, the media, education, and the law. Effects of language policy, especially officialization and standardization, on speakers of minority languages or codes.

An exploration of the structures of language, phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic, as they index, inter-relate with, and construct gender identities cross-culturally.

Critically reviews case studies of ecosystemic and energetic relations between human populations, cultures, and the environment in diverse ethnographic settings of the world, such as Amazonia, the Great Basin, New Guinea, and Southeast Asia. Examines the historical emergence of ecological paradigms in anthropology. Compares the modern contributions of cultural ecology, evolutionary ecology, ethnoecology, and historical ecology. Evaluates potential contributions of ecological anthropology to general ecology.

Interactions between local peoples and Amazonian landscapes from prehistory to the present. Amazonian landscapes as an analytic unit will be examined from the interdisciplinary perspective of historical ecology. Changes and development of forests and savannas since the arrival of human beings. Historical, ecological, cultural forces involved in biological and edaphic diversity in modern forests. Long-term effects of prehistoric and historic human occupations and manipulation of landscapes. Implications for conservation and development.

Biological adaptations of living human populations to their environments, and the interaction of these adaptations with cultural patterns. Relationships of body size, form, and composition to climatic and nutritional factors in various geographical groups of modern man. Major adaptive problems facing the human species are discussed and implications for the future explored.

This is a 3-credit course designed for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students from any discipline who are interested in learning about menstruation as a biological and cultural phenomenon. As part of this course, you’ll practice talking about and writing about menstruation in ways that are inclusive and respectful of individual experience. We’ll also develop a deeper understanding of underlying physiology, past and present theoretical approaches to studying menstruation, and the role science and technology plays in our ongoing interaction with and interpretation of menstruation. Equivalent graduate course: ANTH 6725.

Introduction to forensic anthropology, a subdiscipline of physical anthropology concerned with the identification of human skeletal remains in medico-legal contexts. Surveys the history of the field and the techniques used to determine age, sex, and physical characteristics of an individual from skeletonized remains, as well as methods used for positive identification, estimating time since death, and determining cause and manner of death.

This course will examine the literary, archaeological, and skeletal evidence of human sacrifice in past societies. It will critically review written accounts and physical evidence of the offering of human lives in ritual contexts, with a focus on archaeological sites that show convincing evidence of such activities. Case studies will be used to explore the question of why human lives were offered in particular places and times, while critically evaluating the evidence used to document and interpret such practices.

Mummified human remains open a fragile window into the past. They provide unique information about the physical characteristics, health and diet of ancient peoples, as well as information on cultural modification of the body (head shaping, piercing, tattooing, hair styles), funerary practices, and cultural concepts of death and the afterlife. Mummies can be investigated from various perspectives (textual, iconographic, biomedical, ethnographical, archaeological), but are studied most effectively using a multidisciplinary approach involving archaeologists, biological anthropologists, conservators, and specialists in medical imaging, paleogenetics and geochemistry. Bioarchaeology, the application of biological anthropology to archaeological research questions, is a term commonly used today to describe this multidisciplinary approach to studying the dead. This course will examine preserved human bodies from around the world, with an emphasis on scientific studies that seek to reconstruct their life histories and postmortem treatment.

Survey of the field of paleopathology, the study of health and disease in ancient populations. Topics include methods for identifying evidence of injury and disease in bones, teeth, and mummified tissue; ancient medicine and surgery; chemical approaches to reconstructing diet; and human health trends through time.

The objective of this course is to learn the anatomy of the human skeleton and dentition and the techniques physical anthropologists use to excavate, identify, and analyze human skeletal remains. You will learn how to identify the various bones of the skeleton, how to distinguish human from non-human bone, how to determine sex and estimate age at death; and how to measure bones in order to reconstruct living stature and physical characteristics from skeletal remains. Examples from archaeological excavations and forensic cases will be used to illustrate the kinds of information human skeletons can provide about ancient and modern populations. Practical and written exams and laboratory exercises hone your skills at recognizing anatomical landmarks, identifying fragmentary osteological material. measuring bones, and conducting a detailed skeletal inventory. 

This course will focus on the anatomy, evolution and adaptive radiation of the Order Primates. Basic information on living primates and detailed investigation of the primate fossil record will be presented. The dynamic nature of the field will be the subject of class discussion and investigative essays.

In this class, we draw on a variety of resources—historical essays, short stories, ethnographic essays, memoirs, and videos—in order to gain a better understanding of how refugees, migrants, and their children are forging their sense of self in order to become Vietnamese anew in places far from their presumed geographic home. We will use global Vietnamese communities as case-studies to explore theoretical concepts around critical refugee studies, diaspora, and transnationalism.

Every fortnight a human language dies. Half the languages spoken in the Western Hemisphere at the turn of the 19th century have died. This course examines the forces that lead to language death, strategies that speakers whose linguistic heritage is endangered may deploy to revitalize their languages, and tools that linguists have used to preserve the knowledges of human speech communities.

Philosophical underpinnings of general anthropology. Epistemological ramifications of four anthropological fields (subdisciplines) as complete coverage of the subject matter. Contingency vs. rationale in the amalgamation of the four fields, as distinctive and definitive of the holistic study of Homosapiens. Initial development of the model in the British Isles; institutionalization in 20th century North America. Connections to study of natives of the New World and salvage ethnography. Growth and specialization in subdisciplines. Debates over the logic and practicality in continuing cohesion of the model. May be taken as capstone, with ANTH 5110. Students who sign up for the capstone, will have an extra class session, times listed under ANTH 7850.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Transfer Coursework at the 3000 level. Department approval may be required.

It is a four-field seminar course, covering archaeology, linguistics, physical anthropology and socio-cultural anthropology. Topics vary with the current research interests of the faculty presenting the course. Students do primary and secondary research, present their findings orally and in writing. This course draws together the four subdisciplines of anthropology, integrating them in the approach to a body of theory, an array of methods and an emerging set of data congruent with the topical theme.

Comparative and global perspectives on the archaeology of culture contact and colonialism.

A survey of the archaeology of Canada and the United States from the appearance of man in the New World to the arrival of the Europeans.

Survey of African prehistory from the earliest tool-makers (Olduvai Gorge, etc.) to protohistoric times. Emphasis on Africa south of the Sahara for later prehistory. Africa's role in human origins, development and spread of food-producing economies, the African Iron Age, early contacts with Arabic and European peoples.

The scientific and philosophical basis of the research program of historical ecology. Comparisons with cultural ecology, cultural materialism, evolutionary biology, landscape ecology. Distinctions and convergences between evolution and history. Hard-core postulates. Case studies from Amazonia, tropical Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia, East Asia (especially the Japanese archipelago and adjoining Pacific Rim).

Examines the development of highly advanced cultures and societies in one of the centers of native American civilization. Although the presentation stresses archaeological data, the course considers pre-Hispanic aesthetic achievements, social organization, values, written records, and adaptation to varying environments.

The number of proposed fossil hominid/hominin species has mushroomed in recent years yet the recognition of species in the human fossil record remains a daunting task. However, in order to reconstruct the phylogenetic (ancestor-descendent) relationships among humans, our ancestors, and close collateral relatives, we must group hominin fossils into meaningful taxonomic categories, ones that likely reflect truly monophyletic (shared common ancestor) descent patterns. This course explores different evolutionary species concepts and their applicability to human paleontology. Current approaches to the reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships are then discussed, and the taxonomic status of hominin species is assessed.

Internships in anthropology are available to qualified juniors and seniors on a limited basis for individual projects conducted in association with various private firms, public and private organizations, or governmental institutions in New Orleans. Students will work under professional supervision at these sites, and consult with a faculty sponsor. Requirements include a written report on the experience, and an evaluation by the supervisor. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Internships in anthropology are available to qualified juniors and seniors on a limited basis for individual projects conducted in association with various private firms, public and private organizations, or governmental institutions in New Orleans. Students will work under professional supervision at these sites, and consult with a faculty sponsor. Requirements include a written report on the experience, and an evaluation by the supervisor.

A laboratory course dealing with the descriptive analysis of archaeological ceramics. Introduction to aspects of ceramic technology, classification, description, and the use of ceramics in archaeological research. Emphasis will be on practical methods and techniques for analyzing, describing, reporting, and graphically representing ceramic artifacts.

A laboratory course dealing with the technological analysis of lithic artifacts. Introduction to fracture mechanics and flint napping, debitage analysis and classification. Application of principles and methods of technological classification, description, and graphical representation to archaeological specimens and modern replicates.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

By arrangement.

Examines the current and historical linguistic situation in Louisiana, from indigenous languages spoken at the time of contact with Europeans to the present. Covers basic features of the languages as well as their social settings. Students will further conduct independent field research projects, alone or in small groups, focusing on languages spoken in southern Louisiana, in particular in the city of New Orleans.

Transfer coursework at the 4000 level. Departmental approval required.

By arrangement. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

By arrangement. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Honors Thesis.

For especially qualified seniors with approval of the faculty director and the Office of Academic Enrichment. Students must have a minimum of a 3.400 overall grade-point average and a 3.500 grade-point average in the major.

Semester Abroad. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Junior Year Abroad. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Junior Year Abroad. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Transfer coursework at the 5000 level. Departmental approval required.

Anthropology is the scientific study of humankind. This course provides a broad overview of the different sub-disciplinary approaches to knowledge of humans and our close relatives. Anthropological archaeology examines artifacts and other physical remains to construct a picture of lifeways. Biological Anthropology collates evidence from primatology, paleoanthropology, bioarchaeology, forensic science and biology. Linguistics studies natural human communication, aural-oral, gestural, and written, as well as exploring constructed languages, codes and analogous animal systems. Sociocultural anthropology encompasses both the specific and comparative study of contemporary human societies and cultures.

An introduction to mathematical methods relevant to anthropology.

The Neandertals are the best-understood group of non-modern fossil hominids, having been known to science since 1856. Yet even today they inspire many provocative questions. Who were the Neandertals? How were they different from us? Did they have language? How and why did they disappear? Were they our ancestors, or did our ancestors out compete them? And if the Neandertals were not our ancestors, then who were? These are some of the questions we will explore in this class on the classic cavemen.

Ethnology of the indigenous peoples of lowland South America and adjacent southern Central America. The course examines cultural developments from prehistory to the present. Models for the classification of indigenous cultures, societies, and languages are critically reviewed.

Selected Cultural Systems. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours under separate title.

Selected Cultural Systems. Can be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems. Can be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems.

Selected Cultural Systems.

Selected Cultural Systems. Can be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems. Can be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems.

Survey of South American archaeology with primary focus on the Andean area. Overview of culture history from the Paleoindian period through the Spanish conquest.

An exploration of the interrelatedness of biological, behavioral, cultural, social, and political aspects of human sex and reproduction. Current issues, such as new reproductive technologies, the biology and culture of pregnancy and childbirth, mate choice, will be examined from within an evolutionary framework and/or using a cross-cultural approach.

Survey of the various problems of archaeology of the Southeastern United States.

This course will familiarize students with the Order Primates, with an emphasis on the rules" of and constraints on nonhuman primate social structure

Origin and development of anthropology since the Renaissance.

This course considers how objects embody social relationships and cultural meanings from a variety of perspectives. The major goal of the course is to enhance our understanding of the diversity of people's engagement with the material world to shape social relations. This course is also an attempt to re-connect sub-disciplines of anthropology (socio-cultural anthropology, archaeology, physical anthropology, and linguistics) and to build a general anthropology" of material culture. The course is also relevant to students in related disciplines such as art history

An introduction to theoretical basis of modern archaeology. The implications of theory for excavation, analysis, and interpretation.

A survey of scientific analytic techniques that have been adapted for application to common archaeological problems such as site discovery, dating, site formation processes, artifact source and function, and subsistence and diet. Examination of methodological literature and case studies.

Survey of the relationships among disease, curing, culture and environment. Topics include problems of adapting modern medicines to diverse cultures; explication of the social and cultural correlates of physical and mental health and disease (social epidemiology); cross-cultural variation in disease concepts, medical practices, role of patients, and mental health; health and nutritional implications of planned culture change; contributions of anthropology to health-policy decisions of development organizations.

Religions, ideas, ritual, and organization of primitive peoples; nativistic and messianic movements; function of religion in social systems.

As one of the most diverse regions in the world, Southeast Asia confounds easy characterization. This course introduces students to the extraordinary diversity of Southeast Asian peoples, cultures, and political economy. We will locate the region through a comparative survey as well as through interdisciplinary and ethnographic inquiries that explore key elements of the region, including livelihoods, family ties, middle class aspirations, literature and music, rapid urbanization, economic transformations, and ecological challenges.

Europe’s history is widely studied, but in terms of years, the continent’s written record represents far less than 1% of the total time humans have lived there. In this course we explore the bulk of that vast (pre)history via the investigation of the Paleolithic (“Old Stone Age”) Mesolithic (“Middle Stone Age”) andNeolithic (“New Stone Age”). We begin with the first Homo erectus-like hominins who expanded into Europe as early as1.7 million years ago, and examine the lifeways of European Neandertals and their presumed ancestors ca. 600,000 to40,000 years ago. We then cover the arrival of our own species, Homo sapiens, around 54,000 years ago and explore interactions between them and the Neandertals. Around 20,000 years ago, the icy cold of the Last Glacial Maximum leads to the abandonment of northern Europe, while the end of the Last Ice Age ca. 11,700 BCE reforests the continent(bringing new challenges to the continent’s Mesolithic inhabitants). The rapid spread of domestication from the Near East(the Neolithic) follows shortly thereafter, and in the Middle Neolithic megalithic monuments are built across the continent.

Overview of theory and ethnography of current and historic processes of sociocultural contact and comingling primarily in the New World African-European-Indigenous societies that result in emergent shared group identifications. The course examines how creolization allows for cultural continuity and creativity in such new social orders where a Creole language and/or identity may be formed. Admission: anthropology and linguistics majors at level of Jr. or above; graduate students; others by permission of instructor

This course focuses on symbolic meaning in the vernacular expressive culture or folkloric forms of community groups in New Orleans, French Louisiana, the Gulf South region and selected out migrant locations. It addresses differential identities of tribal, ethnic, regional, religious, linguistic, occupational, class and gender affiliations--and examines aesthetic forms as a primary means to do so. Some of these are largely intangible such as music and dance, ritual and festival, narrative and jokes; others are tangible or material culture to varying degrees such as the built environment (houses, boats, landscape use), crafts, costumes and cuisine. All are examined via ethnographic and historical writing, oral histories and documentary media as to how shared cultural knowledge is performed in an array of contexts. These include dancehalls, Carnival parades, second lines, work settings, festivals, neighborhood museums, sacred spaces and so on.

Language is created by people and is constantly changing as the people who speak it change and adapt to new ways of being. Culture likewise is a creation of the interaction of people. Language indexes the values, beliefs, practices, power relationships and social identities of its speakers. This course will examine these facets of language use across a variety of cultures.

An overview of the world's pidgin and creole languages and a survey of the theories of their origins. Capstone in Linguistics and Anthropology.

Acquiring and using techniques for conducting linguistic field work. Investigation of one or more languages by working with native speakers. Emphasis on defining problems, developing and testing hypotheses.

Landscapes are outcomes of natural and cultural activity.  Natural landscapes are formed by geological processes and climatic patterns.  Cultural landscapes are shaped by the intentional and unintentional effects of human activity on the environment.  The archaeological study of cultural landscapes, therefore, concerns both the social and symbolic dimensions of local and regional environments as well as anthropogenic effects on environments at local, regional, and global scales.  Archaeologists interested in cultural landscapes study features such as earthen mounds, embankments, monumental architecture, ritual places and cemeteries, the built environment of human settlements, canals, ditches, fields, and signs of human impacts on natural environments.  Archaeologists typically study specific sites, but the archaeological study of landscapes emphasizes the significance of specific sites within broader regional contexts.  An archaeological perspective benefits the study of landscapes because archaeologists are inherently interested in the effects of both long-term trends and short-term changes on the ways that groups of people interact with each other and with their environment.  In this course, emphasis is placed on selected case studies from Europe, the North Atlantic, the South Pacific, and the Americas, although selected comparative cases and examples shall also be drawn from Africa and Asia.

Consideration of case studies in how past societies have prepared for or responded to disasters, critical reflection on "natural" and "cultural" forces that contribute to catastrophic events and that shape the aftermath of disasters, comparative assessment of relationships between culture and environment, and application of resilience theory and models of cultural collapse towards understanding the effects of disasters on past societies.

This course covers the functional anatomy of the human body, with emphasis on the structure, function, evolution, and development of the musculo-skeletal and nervous systems. The principle of biological uniformitarianism is used to correlate hard tissue (i.e., teeth and bone) structure with soft tissue function, since soft tissues are only rarely recovered in archaeological or paleontological settings.

An investigation into the evolution of modern Homo sapiens (italics) over the last ten million years. Emphasis will be placed on the fossil record of human and nonhuman primates, the role of changing environments, and migration patterns. Models from technologically simple cultures and modern nonhuman primates will be included in the consideration of developing social organizations.

Theory and techniques involved in collecting, analyzing, and reporting ethnographic data. Validity, reliability, and precision of participant observation: probes and free lists; sampling frames and types of samples appropriate to the unit of analysis; surveys and questionnaires; selection of key informants; interdisciplinary methods; research design. Consideration of ethical issues, potential conflicts of interest, and university review board procedures and policies. Classroom exercises and field projects.

Urban Music: Race, Class, and Sexuality will examine how hip-hop and dancehall reggae music cultures are informed by racial and class identities, are used as tools to express these identities, and are mediums through which people address marginalization. The course will also consider how these music cultures are tied to representations of gender and sexuality, and the meaning that can be made from their connections. Through this exploration, students will analyze how music and performance can impact listeners in contradicting ways. For example: providing a sense of esteem and empowerment, but perhaps also perpetuating racial and gender stereotypes, and violence. As an overarching theme, the course will consider the ways in which popular cultural forms are political, and are reflections of society at large, therefore serving as important microcosms through which to interpret it.

This course will give an overview of indigenous movements in Latin America and reflect on the advantages and shortcomings of these movements’ recent approaches to rights discourses in the face of legal and extrajudicial forms of state violence. By comparing cases from Mexico, Guatemala, and Bolivia, we will analyze the connections between colonialism, the implementation of neoliberal policies, institutional racism, and states’ recognition and application of indigenous rights.

This course will give an overview of some of the main discussions in anthropology around the theories, methods, and politics of ethnographic fieldwork. Students will engage with critical perspectives on issues of positionality, reflexivity, representation, and embodiment, which are essential aspects in designing a research project, engaging in fieldwork, interpreting and analyzing data, and disseminating the research products. Throughout the course, we will analyze how each one of these issues and phases is enmeshed in interlocking power dynamics involving race, gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and nationality. We will interrogate the objectivity paradigm, learn about activist, collaborative, decolonizing, and Indigenous methodologies, their multiple challenges and critiques, and discuss anthropologists’ reflections on their own fieldwork experiences. The main goal of the course is to guide students in the process of developing a creative, ethical approach to fieldwork.

The essentials of Nahuatl phonology, morphology, and syntax. Conversational practice and laboratory sessions along with emphasis on linguistic analysis of the language.

Interactions between local peoples and Amazonian landscapes from prehistory to the present. Amazonian landscapes as an analytic unit will be examined from the interdisciplinary perspective of historical ecology. Changes and development of forests and savannas since the arrival of human beings. Historical, ecological, cultural forces involved in biological and edaphic diversity in modern forests. Long-term effects of prehistoric and historic human occupations and manipulation of landscapes. Implications for conservation and development.

This course provides an introduction to the Yoruba language. Emphasis on grammar and vocabulary development, listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Practice in oral discussion will be enhanced by weekly dramatical presentations, poetry recitals, and story-telling.

This is a 3-credit course designed for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students from any discipline who are interested in learning about menstruation as a biological and cultural phenomenon. As part of this course, you’ll practice talking about and writing about menstruation in ways that are inclusive and respectful of individual experience. We’ll also develop a deeper understanding of underlying physiology, past and present theoretical approaches to studying menstruation, and the role science and technology plays in our ongoing interaction with and interpretation of menstruation. Equivalent undergraduate course: ANTH 3725.

Mummified human remains open a fragile window into the past. They provide unique information about the physical characteristics, health and diet of ancient peoples, as well as information on cultural modification of the body (head shaping, piercing, tattooing, hair styles), funerary practices, and cultural concepts of death and the afterlife. Mummies can be investigated from various perspectives (textual, iconographic, biomedical, ethnographical, archaeological), but are studied most effectively using a multidisciplinary approach involving archaeologists, biological anthropologists, conservators, and specialists in medical imaging, paleogenetics and geochemistry. Bioarchaeology, the application of biological anthropology to archaeological research questions, is a term commonly used today to describe this multidisciplinary approach to studying the dead. This course will examine preserved human bodies from around the world, with an emphasis on scientific studies that seek to reconstruct their life histories and postmortem treatment.

In this class, we draw on a variety of resources—historical essays, short stories, ethnographic essays, memoirs, and videos—in order to gain a better understanding of how refugees, migrants, and their children are forging their sense of self in order to become Vietnamese anew in places far from their presumed geographic home. We will use global Vietnamese communities as case-studies to explore theoretical concepts around critical refugee studies, diaspora, and transnationalism.

The essentials of Yucatecan Maya phonology, morphology, and syntax. Oral/aural exercises and conversational practice with a native speaker.

A survey of present knowledge about the nature of the pre-Columbian Maya writing system, including calendrical notation, astronomical calculations, the structure and content of phoneticism, and its relationship to other Mesoamerican writing systems.

Kaqchikel is one of the four largest Mayan groups in Guatemala, having over a million self-identified members, about half of whom speak their native mother tongue. Taught in three Kaqchikel communities in Guatemala, this six week course enables students to achieve conversational fluency and elementary reading/writing skills.

K’iche’ is the largest Mayan language spoken in Guatemala, with about 2.5 million speakers. Situated in Highland Guatemala, it is second only to Spanish in number of speakers. This six week summer course is taught primarily in Nahualá, a town of about 90,000 in the Department of Sololá. Students acquire basic oral and written proficiency in the language.

K’iche’ is the largest Mayan language spoken in Guatemala, with about 2.5 million speakers. Situated in Highland Guatemala, it is second only to Spanish in number of speakers. This six week summer course is taught primarily in Nahualá, a town of about 90,000 in the Department of Sololá. Students acquire basic oral and written proficiency in the language.

K’iche’ is the largest Mayan language spoken in Guatemala, with about 2.5 million speakers. Situated in Highland Guatemala, it is second only to Spanish in number of speakers. This six week summer course is taught primarily in Nahualá, a town of about 90,000 in the Department of Sololá. Students acquire basic oral and written proficiency in the language.

This course in an introduction to K’iche’ (Maya) culture for students participating in the Mayan Language Institute realized in Guatemala in the municipalities of Antigua and Nahualá. The course will cover basic issues in K’iche’ culture and society and present hands-on workshops dealing with specific aspects of the culture. Topics will include kinship patterns and relationships, social interactions, gender roles, religious practices, arts and crafts, and economic structures. Students will have direct experience learning about K’iche’ cuisine, milpa agriculture, weaving, religious ceremonies, calendrical practices, and ceremonial and ritual observances. In addition, students will study examples of contemporary art, music, and literature, including the work of K’iche’ poets such as Humberto Ak’abal and Pablo Garcia.

Contemporary culture practices of the Kaqchikel in four communities of Guatemala will be examined as exemplary of the processes of cultural revitalization, integration into national and local political arenas, participation in world markets, and interaction with world religions. Culture practitioners will participate as facilitators and guest speakers.

Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course. Course may be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

This special topics course in anthropology is designed to explore cutting-edge research and emerging themes across the four fields of anthropology, including cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, archaeology, and linguistic anthropology. The course is tailored to a small class size, allowing for in-depth discussions and personalized research opportunities. Students will critically engage with contemporary issues and debates within the discipline, offering a deeper understanding of the dynamic nature of anthropological research and practice.

Readings.

Race and Migration explores how race and culture impact the settlement experiences of migrating people. We will focus primarily on Latinos, West Indians, and Asians and use New York City as a primary sight of investigation, but also examine case studies of migration within the Caribbean and Latin America. Questions the course will address include: how do people go from having diverse national and cultural identities to being people with a “race?” How does becoming a “raced” person shape identity, economic mobility, and social and cultural belonging? How are people differently affected by being placed in social categories in adoptive homes? How do migrants both preserve and create new culture? How do they remain connected to their countries of origin? Where do they find power? In pursuit of these questions, we will consider theories on race, culture, diaspora, nation, transnationalism, exclusion, and belonging.

Special Readings. Course may be repeated 3 times for credit.

Special Readings.

Special Readings.

Special Readings.

Selected Cultural Systems. Can be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems.

Selected Cultural Systems.

Selected Cultural Systems.

Selected Cultural Systems.

Selected Cultural Systems. Can be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Selected Cultural Systems.

Selected Cultural Systems.

Selected Cultural Systems.

Selected Cultural Systems.

A survey of the cultures of sub-Saharan Africa from the time of European contact to the present. A detailed study of selected African cultures, identifying, and explaining cultural diversity and unity of African cultures, and comparing African cultures with cultures of other geographic areas. Inequality, development, the family, gender roles, kinship systems, and world view are considered.

Comparative and global perspectives on the archaeology of culture contact and colonialism.

A survey of the archaeology of Canada and the United States from the appearance of man in the New World to the arrival of the Europeans.

Graduate seminar on selected topics of contemporary interest and emphasis in anthropological archaeology. Offered irregularly. Seminar topics identified by archaeology faculty members.

Graduate seminar on selected topics of contemporary interest and emphasis in Middle American archaeology. Offered irregularly. Seminar topics identified by archaeology faculty members.

The study of economic behavior in band, tribal, and peasant societies. Emphasis on the impact of culture and environment on economic decision-making in the Third World. Competing theoretical approaches, particularly evolutionary, ecological, substantivist and Marxist are critically reviewed.

The scientific and philosophical basis of the research program. Comparisons with cultural ecology, cultural materialism, evolutionary biology, landscape ecology. Distinctions and convergences between evolution and history. Hard-core postulates. Case studies from Amazonia, tropical Africa, Europe (especially France) Southeast Asia, East Asia (especially the Japanese archipelago and the adjoining Pacific Rim).

This seminar for advanced graduate students considers strategies for designing and conducting theoretically driven research in anthropology, and it considers the principal characteristics of major paradigms and theoretical perspectives that shape anthropology in its contemporary forms. Designing research plans and making linkages between theory, strategies of inquiry, specific methodologies, and empirical datasets is both challenging and rewarding, and research design can take considerable amounts of time and effort. Crafting research proposals can also be both challenging and rewarding, especially given the need to communicate research plans to specialists in particular disciplines and proposal reviewers from fields of study and practice other than our own. Each student in this course will develop theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches that form the basis for the research she or he plans to conduct as a dissertation project. Each student will write a draft a proposal for dissertation research. Some discussion throughout the course will be devoted to professional development and to specific funding programs that support doctoral and postdoctoral research in anthropology and related fields of study.

Survey of the ancient civilizations of Mexico and Central America. Overview of culture history from the first settled villages through the Spanish conquest. Special emphasis on the cultural developments of the Olmec, Zapotec, Maya, Toltec, and Aztec societies of highland Mexico, Gulf coast, and lowland Central America. Although the course stresses archaeological data, it will also include pre-Columbian aesthetic achievements, social organization, values, written records, and adaptation to varying environments.

Selected Research Topics.

Language as a reflection of the human mind and the role of language in defining the essence of humanity. Language and the expression of social values. Emphasis on analysis of primary linguistic data. Critical examination of theories of linguistic structure.

This course looks at the different systems of writing which have been used in various cultures through time with attention to the materials and purpose in relation to the cultures. Orientation to and practice in decipherment are included. Finally, the issues of modern script development are introduced.

Historical Linguistics traces language change over time. Reconstruction through comparative method and internal paradigm examination is used to retro-project earlier stages of a language or a language family, elucidating interrelationships among languages, paths of migration, spheres of influence, and varieties of contact. Reconstructed vocabulary yields inferences about ancient homelands, social organization, and culture constructs. The processes observed in language change yield insights into human cognition and the language faculty.

Gender refers to the cultural norms, ideals, expectations, and rules that shape the relationships and activities of men, women, and children. People in the present and recent past have conceptualized gender in many different ways, and there is great diversity in the range of gender roles and gender relations seen in different cultures. With ethnographic and historic evidence as interpretive guides, archaeologists can offer insights into the nature of gender roles and gender relations in past societies, and into the ways that gender norms have contributed to major trends in the history and prehistory of humankind. This course is an introduction to the archaeological study of the roles of men, women, and children in past societies; the relationships among women, men, and children in past communities; and the ideologies that have legitimized and naturalized those gender roles and gender relations. Case studies covered in the course are drawn from the archaeology of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Introduction to forensic anthropology, a subdiscipline of physical anthropology concerned with the identification of human skeletal remains in medico-legal contexts. Surveys the history of the field and the techniques used to determine age, sex, and physical characteristics of an individual from skeletonized remains, as well as methods used for positive identification, estimating time since death, and determining cause and manner of death.

Introduction to language variation both geographically and socially. The course looks at the history and methods of dialectology as well as the ways speakers demonstrate identity through speech patterns.

This course focuses on anthropological approaches to cities and urban life. Topics include the cultural meanings of public space and the built environment, processes of social differentiation and class formation, the role of capital, and the emergence of social movements. The second half of the course is organized around a comparison of four ethnographic case-studies of cities outside the United States and Europe. Throughout the semester, studies will also discuss how anthropological approaches may be applied to New Orleans.

This course examines sex work as a form of labor in different sites around the world. More specifically it explores what compels people to become involved in the industry, who its participants are, who seeks sex workers and why. It also considers the factors that impact the differing ways sex work is practiced and how it affects families. Tourism and its implications for sex work is an important focus of the course as well. The class proceeds as a survey of literature that will introduce students to relevant theories regarding sex work and ethnographic information that will help understand debates on its regulation and legalization. The latter part of the course will focus on these debates and moral, health, and human rights concerns. The case studies examined in the course take place primarily in the Caribbean and Latin America. As such, the course will ask important questions regarding the intersections of race, class, and sexual orientation with sex work and consider how these intersecting dynamics shape the experiences and decision making processes of both sex workers and their clientele.

This course examines contemporary Southeast Asia. As one of the most diverse regions in the world, the region confounds easy characterization. The first part of the course provides students with a broad overview of the social, cultural, and political institutions of the region with a focus on Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The second part turns to contemporary issues including political and economic development, religious change, and cultural constructions of identity. Readings include academic essays, short stories, and full-length ethnographies.

Language is created by people and is constantly changing as the people who speak it change and adapt to new ways of being. Culture likewise is a creation of the interaction of people. Language indexes the values, beliefs, practices, power relationships and social identities of its speakers. This course will examine these facets of language use across a variety of cultures.

Examines the development of highly advanced cultures and societies in one of the centers of native American civilization. Although the presentation stresses archaeological data, the course considers pre-Hispanic aesthetic achievements, social organization, values, written records, and adaptation to varying environments.

Semantics is the study of meaning in language. As humans use language they produce meaning in any number of ways: through intonation, through body language, through contextual (in)congruities, and through the linguistic structures used. Semanticians try to limit their study to the last of these, while always aware of other meaning-creating tools. In this course, we begin with the study of logic-based theories of meaning, examining propositional meanings. At each stage in this initial investigation, we will keep in mind how this carefully restricted corpus compares with situated language use. In the second part of the course, we will systematically build in context to approach an understanding of natural semantics, the way human beings mean.

Lexicography is the making of dictionaries. Dictionaries take many forms and fulfill many functions. Dictionaries have evolved new formats; professional lexicographers share word gleaning with internet users. Dictionaries may be monolingual, di-, tri-, or multi-lingual, etymological or encyclopedic, synchronic or diachronic, prescriptive or descriptive, terminological or generic. Dictionary construction requires a number of skills which co-vary with the type of dictionary to be produced. This course provides an overview of dictionaries, their forms, formats and histories, while fostering a basic skill set for harvesting words and compiling lexicons. Dictionaries provide a cognitive map to communities of speakers, both past and present.

This course focuses on the development, design, analysis, and presentation of research on behavior using observational methods. While these methods can be used on captive populations (zoo, research center) they are also appropriate for studies of free-ranging animals, including human beings. The student will be exposed to the specific challenges of observational research, and learn appropriate levels of analysis.

Islam is a fundamental human experience in diverse socio-historic and cultural milieux. Ethnographies of Muslim communities highlight the heterogenity of Islamic perspectives and traditions. Focus on culturally situated Islamic practices and belief systems fosters a critical understanding of the emergent Islamic identities and their historico-cultural underpinnings.

The number of proposed fossil hominid/hominin species has mushroomed in recent years yet the recognition of species in the human fossil record remains a daunting task. However, in order to reconstruct the phylogenetic (ancestor-descendent) relationships among humans, our ancestors, and close collateral relatives, we must group hominin fossils into meaningful taxonomic categories, ones that likely reflect truly monophyletic (shared common ancestor) descent patterns. This course explores different evolutionary species concepts and their applicability to human paleontology. Current approaches to the reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships are then discussed, and the taxonomic status of hominin species is assessed.

This course will explore the richness of the linguistic diversity still preserved in the Native American languages of this hemisphere. Two thirds of the Native American languages spoken at time of European immigration have perished. Today even languages with large communities of fluent speakers face heavy assimilatory pressures. Language loss and simplification are rapidly changing the wordscape of the Americas.

This course examines the fundamentally important relationship between human behavior and environmental change in the past. It looks at both the ways in which humans have responded to their environmental circumstances and the ways in which human activities have influenced environmental conditions at various scales. The course explores methods for learning about environmental conditions in the past and the nature of human interaction with the environment. The course also presents basic information on some particularly important topics concerning past human/environment interactions, including (1) causes of global climate change, (2) human roles in Pleistocene megafauna, (3) post-Pleistocene adaptation, (4) the origins of agriculture and animal domestication, (5) agricultural landscape modification and environmental over-exploitation, and (6) Holocene changes in human health, including the origins of modern disease epidemics.

Kaqchikel is one of the four largest Mayan groups in Guatemala, having over a million self-identified members, about half of whom speak their native mother tongue. Taught in three Kaqchikel communities in Guatemala, this six week course enables students to achieve conversational fluency and elementary reading/writing skills.

Kaqchikel is one of the four largest Mayan groups in Guatemala, having over a million self-identified members, about half of whom speak their native mother tongue. Taught in three Kaqchikel communities in Guatemala, this six week course enables students to achieve conversational fluency and elementary reading/writing skills.

Introduction of transformational generative syntax, with examples from selected areas of English grammar. Formal models in grammatical description. Emphasis on the logic of linguistic argumentation.

A laboratory course dealing with the descriptive analysis of archaeological ceramics. Introduction to aspects of ceramic technology, classification, description, and the use of ceramics in archaeological research. Emphasis will be on practical methods and techniques for analyzing, describing, reporting, and graphically representing ceramic artifacts.

A laboratory course dealing with the technological analysis of lithic artifacts. Introduction to fracture mechanics and flint napping, debitage analysis and classification. Application of principles and methods of technological classification, description, and graphical representation to archaeological specimens and modern replicates.

The course offers an overview of articulatory and acoustic phonetics with emphasis on matching acoustic cues closely with the articulatory gestures. The first part of the course will study the articulatory and acoustic cues to range of English and non-English speech sounds with information about the normal range of variation. The second part will focus on collecting and interpreting acoustic data, and using such data as evidence to solve phonological problems in normal and pathological speech.

This course provides an introduction to phonological analysis and theory, with strong emphasis on description and analysis of data from a wide variety of languages. Major issues to be addressed include universal principles of human phonological systems, language-specific variation, constraints on representation of rules, the relationship of phonology to morphological and syntactic components of the grammar, and the historical underpinnings of current theoretical models.

This course provides an introduction to prosodic and non-prosodic morphology with emphasis on data analysis and argumentation. With data from a variety of languages, the first part of the course will examine non-prosodic morphological processes to highlight the typology of word structure across languages. The second part will examine morphological processes conditioned by prosody, and consider the various frameworks for analyzing the data; eventually, the course will work toward a dormal model like that of McCarth and Prince's "Theory of Prosodic Morphology". The main objectives of the course are: (1) to learn to analyze morphological data; (2) to learn to compare alternative analysis for a given set of data and to find evidence to choose between the alternative, and (3) to learn to present linguistic analysis and argumentation in a coherent essay.

Study of written and spoken texts from a variety of languages and language use contexts. Focus on structural aspects of language (noun phrase construction and anaphora, topicalization, focus constructions, word order, deictics, and definite reference) as they relate to the situated use of language.

This course provides an introduction to issues such as the genetic basis of language ability and acquisition; neurological aspects of linguistic knowledge; first language acquisition; childhood bilingualism; language acquisition in special populations (deaf children, blind children, children with mental retardation, children with autism and children with specific language impairment). Emphasis will be on child language data collection, description, and analysis.

Exploration of the ways that language indexes, reflects, and constructs power. Cross-cultural study of the interrelationship of social ascriptions, attitudes toward groups and their members, and the speech patterns of in-group/out-group members. Examination of the manipulation of power and its linguistic correlates in the domains of medicine, the media, education, and the law. Effects of language policy, especially officialization and standardization, on speakers of minority languages or codes.

An exploration of the structures of language, phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic, as they index, inter-relate with, and construct gender identities cross-culturally.

Critically reviews case studies of ecosystemic and energetic relations between human populations, cultures, and the environment in diverse ethnographic settings of the world, such as Amazonia, the Great Basin, New Guinea, and Southeast Asia. Examines the historical emergence of ecological paradigms in anthropology. Compares the modern contributions of cultural ecology, evolutionary ecology, ethnoecology, and historical ecology. Evaluates potential contributions of ecological anthropology to general ecology.

Biological adaptations of living human populations to their environments, and the interaction of these adaptations with cultural patterns. Relationships of body size, form, and composition to climatic and nutritional factors in various geographical groups of modern man. Major adaptive problems facing the human species are discussed and implications for the future explored.

Introduction to forensic anthropology, a subdiscipline of physical anthropology concerned with the identification of human skeletal remains in medico-legal contexts. Surveys the history of the field and the techniques used to determine age, sex, and physical characteristics of an individual from skeletonized remains, as well as methods used for positive identification, estimating time since death, and determining cause and manner of death.

This course will examine the literary, archaeological, and skeletal evidence of human sacrifice in past societies. It will critically review written accounts and physical evidence of the offering of human lives in ritual contexts, with a focus on archaeological sites that show convincing evidence of such activities. Case studies will be used to explore the question of why human lives were offered in particular places and times, while critically evaluating the evidence used to document and interpret such practices. 

Survey of the field of paleopathology, the study of health and disease in ancient populations. Topics include methods for identifying evidence of injury and disease in bones, teeth, and mummified tissue; ancient medicine and surgery; chemical approaches to reconstructing diet; and human health trends through time.

Every fortnight a human language dies. Half the languages spoken in the Western Hemisphere at the turn of the 19th century have died. This course examines the forces that lead to language death, strategies that speakers whose linguistic heritage is endangered may deploy to revitalize their languages, and tools that linguists have used to preserve the knowledges of human speech communities.

Philosophical underpinnings of general anthropology. Epistemological ramifications of four anthropological fields (subdisciplines) as complete coverage of the subject matter. Contingency vs. rationale in the amalgamation of the four fields, as distinctive and definitive of the holistic study of Homosapiens. Initial development of the model in the British Isles; institutionalization in 20th century North America. Connections to study of natives of the New World and salvage ethnography. Growth and specialization in subdisciplines. Debates over the logic and practicality in continuing cohesion of the model.

Examines the current and historical linguistic situation in Louisiana, from indigenous languages spoken at the time of contact with Europeans to the present. Covers basic features of the languages as well as their social settings. Students will further conduct independent field research projects, alone or in small groups, focusing on languages spoken in southern Louisiana, in particular in the city of New Orleans.

Special Projects. Can be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Special Projects. Can be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Special Projects.

Two semester course for students writing an MA thesis in Anthropology 4+1 program.

Masters Research. Can be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.

Dissertation Research. Can be repeated up to unlimited credit hours.