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 MyBU Student Portal 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
    Life history is the story of the human lifespan. This course uses an evolutionary and comparative framework to understand fundamental features of the human life course, such as birth, growth, sexual maturity, and death. 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, primate comparative anatomy, radioactive dating, molecular and structural phylogenies, climactic analyses, and comparative behavioral ecology.
  • GRS AN 733: Human Population Genetics
    This course uses human genomic variation as a framework for better understanding our evolutionary history. Using hands-on population genetic analyses, we will analyze real human genomic data from the 1000 Genomes Project to investigate the evolutionary patterns underlying human diversity. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Scientific Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Quantitative Reasoning II
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • GRS AN 735: 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 us understand what is unique about human behavior and how we evolved. Topics include diet, juvenile development, social relationships, sexual behavior, aggression, culture, and cognition.
  • GRS AN 736: Primate Evolutionary Ecology
    Introduction to the various theoretical approaches to understanding the diversity and evolutionary ecology of wild non-human primates. Using lemurs, marmosets, chimpanzees and more, this course delves into behavioral ecology, genetic approaches to mating systems, foraging theory, community ecology, and conservation. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning I, Scientific Inquiry I, Creativity/Innovation.
    • Scientific Inquiry II
    • Quantitative Reasoning I
    • Creativity/Innovation
  • GRS AN 739: Primate Biomech
    This course description is currently under construction.
  • GRS AN 744: Modern Japanese Society: Family, School, and Workplace (Area)
    Approaches diversity and change in contemporary Japanese society through a focus on the life course, family, school, and workplace. Also explores popular and material culture, and the social history of urban life. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • GRS AN 747: Afghanistan (area)
    Ethnographic and historical examination of Afghanistan's traditional social organization, ecology and economy, political organization, and ethnic groups. What has happened to this complex world through 50 years of domestic political turmoil and foreign interventions? Whither Afghanistan today? Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in the following Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • 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 755: Religious Fundamentalism in Anthropological Perspective
    Anthropological study of the global phenomenon of religious fundamentalism. A product of the modern world, fundamentalism is perceived as counter- cultural and anti-nationalist. Cases drawn from North America and the Islamic Middle East, with special attention to women's interpretation of religion. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: The Individual in Community.
    • The Individual in Community
  • GRS AN 771: Political Anthropology of the Modern World
    Examines the concepts of political anthropology and applies them to the analysis of the origins and development of the modern political world. Special attention to nations and nationalism, the state and modern development, comparative political culture, and urban and agrarian political change.
  • GRS AN 772: Psychological Anthropology
    A cross-cultural, discussion-driven examination of the practices and meanings of care and how it relates to cultural conceptualizations of (gendered) subjectivity, mind-bodies, medicine, ethics, justice, politics, and the psychological and social relations between individuals and their communities and institutions.
  • 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. Effective Spring 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • GRS AN 782: Wealth, Poverty, and Culture
    Explores vital cultural dimensions of production, exchange, and consumption in varied settings. Asks how social ties relate to property, wealth, and poverty. Examines how people classify, control, and allocate resources, and how resources in turn influence people.
  • 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. This course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Social Inquiry I
  • GRS AN 791: Theory in Archaeology
    Seminar dealing with the intellectual history of the discipline, research methods, concepts, and problems in archaeological theory, and the formulation of research designs.
  • GRS AN 793: World Archaeology
    This seminar takes an explicitly comparative approach to addressing questions concerning the origins of and variability in human culture viewed through a review of worldwide archaeological literature.
  • GRS AN 794: Scientific Applications in Archaeology
    Seminar exploring new ways of addressing archaeological questions through the application of scientific techniques, focusing on cutting-edge methodologies and the most recent literature in the field. Students pursue questions of individual interest through readings, discussions, presentations, and research papers. Cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title previously numbered GRS AR 707. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Social Inquiry.
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
    • Social Inquiry II
    • Writing-Intensive Course
  • 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. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness.
    • Aesthetic Exploration
    • Historical Consciousness
  • GRS AN 901: Directed Study in Anthropology

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