Courses

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  • CAS AN 310: Studies in North American Ethnography
    A survey including an appreciation of the traditional background and heritage of native North Americans, and analysis of the history and contact with Europeans and governmental policies, and an examination and evaluation of the contemporary situation.
  • CAS AN 312: Peoples and Cultures of Africa (area)
    Survey of the continent with attention to ethnohistory, traditional cultures, and cultural change.
  • CAS AN 314: Cultures of Latin America
    From the effects of European colonization to the causes of transnational migration, anthropologists have found Latin America a rich place to study key themes for the discipline. Contemporary ethnography is used to trace the region's contribution to anthropological debates.
  • CAS AN 317: Power and Society in the Middle East (area)
    Peoples and cultures of the Middle East from Afghanistan to Morocco and from the Caucasus to Yemen. Focuses on social organization, family structure, the relationship between the sexes, and the development and maintenance of authority.
  • CAS AN 319: Anthropology of Muslim Cultures and Politics
    Examines Muslim societies' ongoing struggle over the forms and meanings of Muslim culture and politics, as well as its implications for religious authority, gender ideals, and new notions of citizenship, civil society, and democracy.
  • CAS AN 320: Women in the Muslim World
    A cross-cultural approach to the diversity and complexity of women?s lives in the Muslim world, including the United States. Looks at issues such as gender equality, civil society and democracy, sex segregation and sexual politics, kinship and marriage, and veiling.
  • CAS AN 326: Oral Traditions as Verbal Art
    Exploration of religious and secular poetry worldwide with emphasis on the ethnography of communication. A focus on performance in oral traditions and its consequences for literary form, as well as the impact of mass media and literacy on orality.
  • CAS AN 331: Human Origins
    Introduction to human paleontology and methods for reconstructing the ancestry, structure, diet, and behavior of fossil primates and humans. Survey of primate and hominid fossils, primate comparative anatomy, radioactive dating, molecular and structural phylogenies, climactic analyses, and comparative behavioral ecology.
  • CAS AN 333: Human Population Biology
    Human population biology and ecological adaptations: human demography, life history patterns, population genetics, and physiological adaptability. Topics: population dynamics of human societies, mortality and fertility schedules, evolution and genetics of human life history traits, physiological adaptability, and ecological correlates.
  • CAS AN 334: Evolutionary Psychology
    Critical analysis of human behavior from an evolutionary perspective. Emphasis placed on viewing humans as products of biological evolution. Topics include evolution of language and intelligence, cultural evolution, sex and reproduction, kinship and family dynamics, cooperation, aggression, warfare, and status.
  • CAS AN 335: The Ape Within: Great Apes and the Evolution of Human Behavior
    Introduction to primate social behavior, focusing on the apes. Examines how great ape behavior helps understand what is unique about human behavior and how we evolved. Topics include diet, social relationships, sexual behavior, aggression, culture,and cognition.
  • CAS AN 336: Primate Evolutionary Ecology
    Introduction to the various theoretical approaches to understanding the evolutionary ecology of wild primates. Topics include functional anatomy, genetic approaches to mating systems, demography, behavioral ecology, community ecology, and conservation.
  • CAS AN 337: Creation and Evolution
    A critical survey of the creation/evolution controversy in its historical, scientific, philosophical, and theological contexts from Augustine down to the intelligent-design movement.
  • CAS AN 338: Lucy and Ardi: The Oldest Women
    This course brings to life the 3.2-4.4 million year old fossils Lucy and Ardi. What was life like for our oldest female ancestors and how do we know? How did they move? What did they eat? Could they talk?
  • CAS AN 339: Primate Biomechanics
    An introduction to the physical principles and anatomies underlying primate behavior, especially locomotion. Topics include mechanics, skeletal anatomy, primate locomotion, and the primate fossil record. Emphasis on bone biology and human bipedalism.
  • CAS AN 344: Modern Japanese Society: Family, School, and Workplace (area)
    Approaches contemporary Japanese society through a focus on family, school, and workplace. The readings and lectures treat these institutions historically and in terms of the contexts they provide for the individual.
  • CAS AN 345: Moving Experiences: Cultures of Tourism and Travel
    The movement of people across national boundaries as a cultural, economic, and political phenomenon. Examines voluntary border-crossing in its various cultural and historical meanings as well as in the representations of journals and contemporary accounts.
  • CAS AN 347: Afghanistan
    Ethnographic and historical examination of Afghanistan's traditional social and political organization, ecology and economy, and relationship among ethnic groups. Civil wars and foreign interventions over the last thirty years, the current situation in Afghanistan, and prospects for the country's future.
  • CAS AN 350: Asians in America
    A cultural history of Asian immigrants in the United States from the 1850s to the present, focusing on family structure, gender, generational differences, religion, and education. The implications of the Asian experience for understanding mainstream America.
  • CAS AN 351: Language, Culture, and Society
    Introduction to basic concepts, problems, and methods used by anthropologists in the investigation of relationships among language, culture, and society. Topics include language and conceptual systems, language and role, language and social context, and language and thought.

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