Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

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  • GRS AN 730: From Conception to Death: The Evolution of Human Life History
    Why do we grow? Why do we die? How do patterns in the lifespan inform our understanding of human evolution? This course answers these questions and more by examining human life history from an evolutionary perspective. Effective Fall 2018, this course carries a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • GRS AN 731: 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, priimate comparative anatomy, radioactive dating, modlecular and structural phylogenies, climactic analyses, and comparative behavioral ecology.
  • GRS AN 733: Human Population Biology
    Meets with AN 333. Human popultion 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.
  • GRS AN 735: The Ape Within: Chimpanzees and the Evolution of Human Behavior
    Introduction to primate social behavior, focusing on the apes. Examines how chimpanzee behavior can be used to understand human behavior. What is unique about humans, and how did we evolve? Topics include diet, social relationships, sexual behavior, aggression, culture, cognition.
  • GRS AN 739: 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.
  • GRS AN 744: Modern Japanese Society: Family, School, and Workplace (Area)
    Meets with AN 344. 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.
  • GRS AN 747: 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.
  • GRS AN 751: Seminar in Linguistic Anthropology
    An in-depth exploration of current issues in the field of linguistic anthropology. Readings focus on theories and approaches to language as a form of action through which cultural forms, political ideologies, and social identities are constructed and enacted.
  • GRS AN 772: Psychological Anthropology
    Introduces students to some key theoretical perspectives and controversies in the cross-cultural study of psychology. Readings from classic texts and cross-cultural studies of emotion, sexuality, concepts of the person, national character, consciousness, authority, and religion.
  • GRS AN 775: Culture, Society, and Religion in South Asia
    Ethnographic and historical introduction to the Indian subcontinent with a focus on the impact of religion on cultural practices and social institutions.
  • GRS AN 784: Anthropology of Religion
    Myth, ritual, and religious experience across cultures. Special attention to the problem of religious symbolism and meaning, religious conversion and revitalization, contrasts between traditional and world religions, and the relation of religious knowledge to science, magic, and ideology. Also offered as GRS RN 687. This course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry I
  • GRS AN 797: Anthropology and Film: Ways of Seeing
    Considers the history and development of anthropological, ethnographic, and transcultural filmmaking. In-depth examination of important anthropological films in terms of methodologies, techniques, and strategies of expression; story, editing, narration, themes, style, content, art, and aesthetics.
  • GRS AR 701: The Intellectual History of Archaeology
    The historical development of archaeological methods and theory from the Renaissance to the present day, including comparison of major developments in Western Europe and the Americas with developments in other regions. Basic concepts in archaeological record and society.
  • GRS AR 703: Seminar: Materials in Ancient Society
    Topic to be announced. Offered through the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology. (MIT Materials in Ancient Societies: course #3.984)
  • GRS AR 704: Seminar: Materials in Ancient Society
    Topic to be announced. Offered through the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology. (MIT Materials in Ancient Societies: course #3.989)
  • GRS AR 727: Archaeology and Colonialism
    Theoretical and methodological approaches to the comparative archaeology of colonialism in ancient and early modern worlds. Considers case studies from ancient Greece, Roman Empire, and European colonial projects in South Africa, Australia, and the Americas.
  • GRS AR 738: Mare Nostrum: Material Culture and Identity after Alexander
    This course examines the interconnected cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean from the era of Alexander the Great (4th century BCE) through the Roman emperors period (c. 2nd-3rd centuries CE), with a focus on the material correlates of the identity.
  • GRS AR 742: Archaeology in the Holy Land
    In Israel, archaeology is part of current events. We study material remains from the Israelite to the Muslim conquests (c. 1200 BCE -- 640 CE) to learn how physical evidence is created and still plays a role in a larger historical drama. Also offered as GRS RN 690.
  • GRS AR 747: Egypt and Northeast Africa: Early States in Egypt, Nubia, and Eritrea/Ethiopia
    Comparative analyses of early states in Egypt and northeast Africa, with a focus on socioeconomic institutions, kingship, burial practices, and religions, utilizing archaeological as well as textual evidence.
  • GRS AR 748: Gods, Graves, & Pyramids: Ancient Egyptian Religion & Ritual
    The beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, from their origins in Predynastic times to the development of the great temple complexes in the New Kingdom and later are studied in a broad synthesis of the data: archaeological, architectural, and textual.

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