AN532 – Literacy and Islam in Africa

Ngom: TR 2:00 – 3:15 pm

Examines the Islamization of Africa and literary traditions. Students learn about African texts written in the Arabic script (Ajami) and the spread of Islam and its Africanization throughout the continent. Texts written by enslaved Africans in the Americas are examined. Effective Fall 2024 fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.

AN533 – Exploring Ethnographic Genres: The Poetics and Politics of Writing Culture

Davidson: TR 9:30 – 10:45 am

This course offers close readings of classic and recent ethnographic texts to ask: what distinguishes ethnography from other disciplinary traditions of writing about culture and human behavior? How do we see changes in anthropology’s theoretical interests reflected (or not) in ethnographic writing? What are the different structural conventions, rhetorical tropes, allegorical patterns, and stylistic strategies used by authors considered to be master ethnographers? Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Social Inquiry II.

AN550 – Human Osteology

Cunningham: TR 3:30 – 4:45 pm

Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAN102 OR CASAN331) or consent of instructor. – Function, development, variation, and pathologies of the human musculoskeletal system, emphasizing issues of human evolution. Basic processes of bone biology and how they are affected by use, age, sex, diet, and disease. Meetings are predominantly lab oriented. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Scientific Inquiry I. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Scientific Inquiry I.

AN559 – Evolutionary Endocrinology

Hodges-Simeon: TR 11 – 12:15 pm

Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAN102) or equivalent. – Focuses on current research in the field of evolutionary endocrinology. Examines how hormones act as mediators of a variety of fundamental evolutionary phenomena from circadian rhythms to sexuality. Explores how and why natural selection shaped the “inputs” and “outputs” of the endocrine system. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Scientific Inquiry II, Teamwork/Collaboration.

AN562 – The Origins of War

Glowacki: TR 2 – 3:15 pm

Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (WR 120 or equivalent) – Did humans evolve to have war’ Is war in human nature’ We explore the foundations of war through reviewing studies of non-human animals and hunter- gatherers. Focus is on understanding how and why war evolved. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, Scientific Inquiry II.

AN568 – Symbol, Myth, and Rite

Seligman: TR 11 – 12:15 pm

Historical overview of ritual behavior, the role of symbolism in the study of culture, and the narrative quality of worldview and belief. Emphasis on verbal performance and public display events in specific cultural contexts. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.

AN590 – Theory, Method, and Techniques in Fieldwork

Smith-Hefner: Fr 11:15 – 2 pm

Undergraduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. – Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor. – Hands-on experimentation with and theoretical implications of a variety of methods for anthropological ethnographic field research, including posing research questions, research design and ethics, data collection, analysis, and initial write-up.

AN 595 – Methods in Biological Anthropology

TBA: We 2:30 – 5:15 pm

Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAN102 OR CASBI107 OR CASBI108) or consent of instructor. – An exploration of field and laboratory methods used in biological anthropology, with students participating in hands-on exercises. Topics include health assessment, body composition, diet, energetics, morphological adaptations, reproductive status, habitat composition, spatial movements, and conservation. Professional skills are also developed. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Scientific Inquiry II, Teamwork/Collaboration.

AN 718 – Southeast Asia: Tradition and Modernity (Area)

Hefner: TR 11 – 12:15 pm

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.

AN 731 – Human Origins

Garrett: MWF 1:25 – 2:15 pm

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. 

AN 735 – The Ape Within: Great Apes and the Evolution of Human Behavior

TBA: MWF 10:10 – 11 am

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.

AN 784 – Anthropology of Religion

Hefner: TR 3:30 – 4:45 pm

Introduction to the anthropological study of 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.

AN 791 – Theory in Archaeology

West: F 11:10 am-12 pm

Seminar dealing with the intellectual history of the discipline, research methods, concepts, and problems in archaeological theory, and the formulation of research designs.