AN101 – Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology

Schwartz: MWF 10:10 – 11 am

Introduction to the basic concepts, principles, and problems of sociocultural anthropology, emphasizing the study of traditional and complex societies. Special attention to the organization and meaning of religion, economic life, kinship and political order; and the problem of cultural variation in the contemporary world. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, 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.

AN102 – Human Biology, Behavior, and Evolution

Garrett: MWF 11:15 – 12:05 pm

Introduces basic principles of evolutionary biology, human origins, genetics, reproduction, socio-ecology, and the evolution of primate and human behavior and adaptations. Section activities include examination of fossil and skeletal material, and hands-on projects involving human and primate behavior and biology. Carries natural science divisional credit (with lab) in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Scientific Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.

AN206 – Ancient Technology

Runnels: TR 9:30 – 10:45 am

Introduction to the emergence of culture and the reconstruction of early lifeways from archaeological evidence. Topics include early humans in Africa, Asia, and Europe; Neanderthals; the first Americans; and the prelude to agriculture. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Teamwork/Collaboration.

AN210 – Intro to Medical Anthropology

TBA: TR 11:00 – 12:15 pm

This lecture and discussion-driven course uses ethnographic case materials and active learning strategies to introduce students to socio-cultural anthropological modes of understanding and analyzing health-related experiences and institutions, including political and ethical dimensions of illness and suffering around the globe. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Ethical Reasoning, Research and Information Literacy.

AN211 – Humans Among Animals

Shipton: TR 12:30 – 1:45 pm

Examines how humans understand (other) animals and their thought, feeling, and communication and the ways we humans in varied cultures and societies use animals for interaction and self-understanding. Interdisciplinary approach that considers language, aesthetics, ideology, practice, and regulation. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills units in the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings, Ethical Reasoning, and Critical Thinking.

AN220 – Urban Anthropology

Parla: TR 2:00 – 3:15pm

An introduction to classic and contemporary definitions of the city and ethnographic approaches to the study of urban life. Examines urban inequalities and the stratification of space by immigration, gender, racialization, and poverty. Participants conduct mini- ethnographic projects in the city of Boston. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, The Individual in Community, Research and Information Literacy.

AN234 – Evolutionary Psychology

Hodges-Simeon: TR 12:30 – 1:45 pm

Can evolutionary theory shed light on human psychology and behavior? This introductory course explores the evolution of mind: emotion and expression, learning and cognition, sex and reproduction, parenthood and family, cooperation and coalitions, aggression and warfare, mental health, and more. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Social Inquiry I.

AN252 – Ethnicity and Identity

TBA: MWF 10:10 – 11 am

Explores anthropological approaches to community, belonging, and difference using case studies from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Special attention paid to how contemporary economic and political changes impact the ways people think about and belong to communities. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings

AN280 – Eating and Drinking in the Ancient World

Robinson: TR 11 – 12:15 pm

Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) or consent of instructor – Survey of the archaeological evidence of the diets of human societies, from earliest humans to the present. Emphasis on the remains of plants, animals, and humans and what they tell us about ancient food and drink within their social contexts. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing-Intensive Course.

AN287 – Slavery and the In-Between 

Cunningham: TR 2:00 – 3:15 pm

Examines the space between freedom and enslavement known as recaptivity. Course discussions focus on conceptions of freedom and their relationship to recaptive status. Reviews recaptivity contexts in both the historical and archaeological record. Also examines the theme of return. Effective Fall 2024 fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Critical Thinking, Digital/Multimedia Expression, Historical Consciousness.

AN290 – Children and Culture

TBA: MWF 1:25 – 2:15 pm

Explores caregiving and child development from infancy to adolescence in different societies around the world. Topics include cultural concepts of childhood; the acquisition of language and culture; gender socialization and moral development; and the impact of modern schooling, nation-making, and media on childhood. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.

AN311 – Culture and Biotech: Beyond the Nature/Culture Divide

Arkin: TR 9:30 – 10:45 am

Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). – Biotechnologies–e.g., organ transplants, gene editing, life support–challenge the boundaries between what is “natural” and what is “man made,” what is “given” and what is “cultured.” We explore some of these innovations, their associated ethical dilemmas, and how they help make “culture” and “nature” in different contexts. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Ethical Reasoning, Writing-Intensive Course. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Ethical Reasoning, Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings.

AN318 – Southeast Asia: Tradition and Modernity (area)

Hefner: TR 11 – 12:15 pm

Examines the dynamics of politics, religion, class, and gender across Southeast Asia today. Using both literature and film media, pays particular attention to the forces that have made Southeast Asia one of the most dynamic regions in the world 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.

AN321 – Cognition and Culture

Glowacki: TR 11 – 12:15 pm

This class explores the relationship between culture and cognition. We place emphasis on the mechanisms of cultural change and how these affect features of human cognition. In turn, culture itself is shaped and constrained by human cognition. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.

AN327 – Islam in Africa

Ngom: TR 11 – 12:15 pm

Examines the Islamization of Africa and the processes of adaptation of Islam in the continent. It examines the religious beliefs, cultures, and histories of Muslim communities in Morocco, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Ethiopia, Senegal, and the Sudan, among others. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.

AN331 – Human Origins

Garrett: MWF 1:25 – 2:15 pm

Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAN102 OR CASAR101 OR CASBI107) or equivalent. – 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. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Scientific Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.

AN335 – The Ape Within: Great Apes and the Evolution of Human Behavior

TBA: MWF 10:10 – 11 am

Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAN102 OR CASBI107 OR CASBI119) or consent of instructor. – 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. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry II, Quantitative Reasoning I, Research and Information Literacy.

AN351 – Language, Culture and Society

STAFF: MWF 12:20 – 1:10 pm

Examines the ways that language both reflects and shapes thought, culture, and relations of power. Particular emphasis is placed on three broad topical areas: language, ethnicity and race; language and the performance of gender; and the linguistic performance of youth identities. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, The Individual in Community, Research and Information Literacy.

AN362 – Culture and Environment

Schwartz: MWF 12:20 – 1:10 pm

Examines mutually transformative relations between human societies and their environments. Shows how social constructions of environment, nature, and culture vary cross-culturally. Topics include: political ecology, environmental conservation, agriculture, climate, bioprospecting, relations with other animals, pollution. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Social Inquiry II.

AN369 – Indigenous Archaeology

Campbell: Mo 8 – 10:45 am

Introduction to Indigenous archaeology, which seeks to realize a more ethical engagement with Indigenous communities by conducting research “with, for, and by” Indigenous descendant communities. Reviews key theoretical frameworks (e.g., traditional knowledge systems, collaboration, repatriation) and explores the ways this approach is being put into action through case studies. Effective Spring 2023, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub area: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking.

AN384 – Anthropology of Religion

Hefner: TR 3:30 – 4:45 pm

Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASAN101) or consent of instructor. – 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. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I.

AN401 – Honors Research in Anthropology 1

Undergraduate Prerequisites: approval of an Honors Committee. – Directed studies for seniors doing honors thesis work.

AN461 – Ethnography and Anthropological Theory 1

Arkin: TR 2 – 3:15 pm

Undergraduate Prerequisites: junior or senior standing in the major. Required of majors. – Examines foundational social scientific and anthropological theories and methods from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century. Discussion focuses on precursors to contemporary anthropological thought, including historical materialist, evolutionist, functionalist, structuralist, symbolic, and culture-and-personality theories and approaches. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Philosophical Inquiry and Life’s Meanings.

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.