The following courses are offered within the anthropology department. Please see the BU Bulletin for the most up-to-date information regarding course offerings, meeting times, and locations.
CAS AN 708 4 credits.
BU Hub Learn More Aesthetic Exploration Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy Writing-Intensive Course
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - Explores historical and cultural ecologies of foodways. Field trips focus on history, immigration and taste identity in Boston¿s neighborhoods. Main text: Wurgaft and White, Ways of Eating: Exploring Food through History and Culture. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration.
CAS AN 708S 4 credits. Summer
BU Hub Learn More Aesthetic Exploration Critical Thinking Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - Study of foodways, culinary social history, and diet and food ecology with special attention to Asian societies and Boston's food culture. Examines the use of food and cuisine as a focus for identity, national development, and social change.
CAS AN 709 4 credits. Fall and Spring
An anthropological introduction to Boston using the city as a site of recovery and discovery as students develop ethnographic skills and an understanding of the interplay between geography, history, and demography in the social mapping of urban spaces.
CAS AN 710 4 credits.
Graduate Prerequisites: Consent of instructor - A survey including an appreciation of the traditional background and heritage of native North Americans, an analysis of the history and contact with Europeans and governmental policies, and an examination and evaluation of the contemporary situation.
CAS AN 711 4 credits. Fall and Spring
Focuses on the civil society-state nexus. Features an interdisciplinary critical analysis of the civil society contruct, including its value for understanding democratization and liberalization in developing areas, as well as its role in mature democracies.
CAS AN 712 4 credits. Fall and Spring
Survey of the continent with attention to ethnohistory, traditional cultures, and cultural change.
CAS AN 715 4 credits. Fall and Spring
The Indian image in literature and historical accounts; conquerors and Latinos in Indian ritual and mythology. Indian communities and the reality of being an Indian in present-day Latin America: exploitation, discrimination, and class. Indian rebellions and pressure groups. Colonization and lowland Indians.
CAS AN 717 4 credits. Fall and Spring
Graduate Prerequisites: CAS AN 101 or consent of instructor - 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 718 4 credits. Fall and Spring
Provides an in-depth introduction to the culture, politics, religions, and gender realities of modern Southeast Asia. Using both literature and film media, pays particular attention to the forces that have made Southeast Asia the dynamic and deeply plural region it is today. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry I.
CAS AN 719 4 credits. Fall and Spring
BU Hub Learn More Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy Historical Consciousness
Undergraduate Prerequisites: graduate standing. CAS AN 101 or another anthropology course is strong ly recommended. - Explores Muslim societies' ongoing struggle over the forms and meanings of Muslim culture and politics. Examines the implications of these struggles for religious authority, gender ideals, citizenship, civil society, and democracy. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
CAS AN 720 4 credits.
BU Hub Learn More Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy Research and Information Literacy Social Inquiry I
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. Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Research and Information Literacy
CAS AN 726 4 credits. Fall and Spring
Graduate Prerequisites: CAS AN 101 or consent of instructor - Exploration of religious and secular poetry worldwide with emphasis on the ethnography of communication. A focus on performance in oral tradition and its consequences for literary form, as well as the impact of mass media and literacy on orality.
CAS AN 730 4 credits. Fall and Spring
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.
CAS AN 731 4 credits. Fall and Spring
Introduction to human paleontology and methods for reconstructing the ancestry, structure, diet and behavior of fossil primates and humans. Survey of primate and hominin fossils, primate comparative anatomy, radioactive dating, molecular and structural phylogenies, climactic analyses, and comparative behavioral ecology.
CAS AN 733 4 credits. Fall and Spring
BU Hub Learn More Quantitative Reasoning II Research and Information Literacy Scientific Inquiry II
Graduate Prerequisites: CAS AN 102; or CAS BI 107 and one of BI 119, BI 211, BI 303; or consen t of instructor. - 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.
CAS AN 734 4 credits. Fall and Spring
Analysis of human behavior from an evolutionary perspective. Focus on
CAS AN 735 4 credits. Fall and Spring
Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing. - 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.
CAS AN 736 4 credits.
BU Hub Learn More Creativity/Innovation Quantitative Reasoning I Scientific Inquiry II
Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing. - 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.
CAS AN 739 4 credits.
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 744 4 credits. Fall
BU Hub Learn More Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy Historical Consciousness Writing-Intensive Course
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.
CAS AN 745 4 credits. Fall and Spring
Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing. - Movement of people carries cultural, personal and political meaning. Ancient Chinese travelers, medieval pilgrims, colonialists, missionaries, women explorers reveal meanings of boundaries and movement through their journals and historical documents, amplified through anthropological studies of tourism and travel.
CAS AN 747 4 credits.
Ethnographic and historical examination of Afghanistan's traditional social, political and economic organization as a basis for understanding an era of political turmoil, civil wars and foreign interventions in that country over the past 50 years and the country’s future. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU HUB area: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
CAS AN 749 4 credits.
BU Hub Learn More Critical Thinking Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy Social Inquiry I
Examines imaginings and stereotypes of savagery in change, comparing and contrasting them with real humans. Treats African, Native American, and European civilizations and their interrelations of perception, prejudice, and performance. Links history and human geography; connects culture, society, and psychology. Effective Fall 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
CAS AN 750 4 credits. Fall and Spring
Meets with AN 350. A cultural history of Asian immigrants in the United States from the 1850's to the present, focusing on family structure, gender, generational differences, religion and education. The implications of the Asian experience for understanding mainstream American culture.