Anthropology (ANTH)
Faculty of Arts and Science
Anthropology 1000
The Anthropological Perspective
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Comparative study of society and culture. Overview of the methods and theoretical orientations used by anthropologists to understand and explain human diversity. Examination of the material, social, and cultural conditions of human behaviour and life from a local and global perspective.
Anthropology 2010
Theory I: Historical Foundations of Anthropological Thought
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Historical examination of the western foundations of anthropological thought including, but not limited to, classical histories, the Enlightenment, and modernism. Theory as historical artifact.
Prerequisite(s): One of
Anthropology 1000 or a previous course (3.0 credit hours) in Anthropology
Anthropology 2110
The Anthropology of Popular Culture
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
A critical introduction to anthropological approaches to popular culture with a focus on the way culture is produced and contested in specific ethnographic and historical contexts. Culture as the prime site of struggle; the place of mass media, music, film, religion, race, material culture, and related issues may be considered.
Equivalent: Anthropology 2850 (The Anthropology of Popular Culture) (prior to 2008/2009)
Anthropology 2200
The Ethnographic Imagination
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
A thematic course that highlights issues in anthropology related to ethnography. Ethnographic practice and writing as social science and as literature. Classic and contemporary ethnographies.
Anthropology 2320
Ancient Societies
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Examination of a diversity of ancient societies including Aztec, Maya, and Inka. Comparison of political institutions, economic structures, and religious ideologies of ancient polities. Anthropological theories on the emergence and transformation of centralized political hierarchy.
Anthropology 2410
Anthropological Archaeology
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
An introduction to anthropological perspectives in archaeology emphasizing methods of inference used to reconstruct past culture histories and interpret long-term sociopolitical change. Ethnographic analogy, anthropological interpretation of non-ethnographic data, and the politics of archaeological fieldwork and representation.
Prerequisite(s): One of
Anthropology 1000 or a previous course (3.0 credit hours) in Anthropology
Equivalent: Anthropology 2850 (Anthropological Archaeology) (prior to 2009/2010)
Anthropology 2510
Language, Culture, and Communication
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Introduction to linguistic anthropology considering theories and methods which focus on the relationship between language, culture, and social/political contexts. Universal and particular aspects of language as a defining human attribute, the nature of the ethnography of communication, and language in relation to issues such as gender, race, ethnicity, nationalism, and class.
Prerequisite(s): One of
Anthropology 1000 or a previous course (3.0 credit hours) in Anthropology
Anthropology 2600
Anthropology of Gender
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
An introduction to anthropological analyses of gender. Topics include the social and cultural construction of gender, gender inequality, sexuality, and masculinity and femininity.
Prerequisite(s): One of
Anthropology 1000 or a previous course (3.0 credit hours) in Anthropology
Anthropology 3000
Theory II: Contemporary Anthropological Theory
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Contemporary approaches to theory and to ethnographic practice that include critical, late-modernist and postmodernist, cultural studies, poststructuralist, postpositivist, feminist, multiculturalist, and globalist orientations in the discipline.
Anthropology 3010
Methods, Knowledge, and Ethics
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
The variety of methods and settings of anthropological research. The relationships between methodology and the production of anthropological knowledge. Shifting ethical concerns that relate to diverse power configurations between anthropologists and anthropological subjects.
Recommended Background: Two additional courses (6.0 credit hours) in Anthropology at or above the 2000 level
Anthropology 3100
Series on Regional Ethnography
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
This series focuses on the use of a specific cultural area as an analytic device to interpret coherence and change in particular life styles. Each course considers issues of theory, method, and data that arise from ethnography.
Prerequisite(s): One of
Anthropology 1000 or a previous course (3.0 credit hours) in Anthropology
Anthropology 3200
Power and Discourse
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Various theoretical approaches to power and language will be explored in relation to specific ethnographic contexts.
Anthropology 3210
Kinship and Marriage
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
The description and analysis of kinship systems and forms of marriage; theories of incest and exogamy; bride-wealth, dowry and inheritance; kinship terminologies and kinship roles; the influence of urbanization and industrialization.
Anthropology 3280
Urban Anthropology
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
An examination of the methods and theoretical orientations used by anthropologists to understand and explain contemporary and historical urban processes. The comparative and ethnographic study of cities as centres of social and cultural complexity where global, national, and local processes intersect.
Prerequisite(s): One of
Anthropology 1000 or a previous course (3.0 credit hours) in Anthropology
Anthropology 3300
Gifts and Commodities
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
The anthropological study of economic processes of production, consumption, distribution, and exchange in ethnographic contexts.
Anthropology 3310
Race and Ethnicity
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Recent developments in anthropological theory and ethnography. Comparative analysis of race and ethnicity as social and cultural forms of inequality both historically and in contemporary society.
Prerequisite(s): One of
Anthropology 1000 or a previous course (3.0 credit hours) in Anthropology
Anthropology 3400
Process, History, and Social Complexity
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Critical appraisal of theories proposed to interpret historical process, the origins of political inequality, variability in structures of complex social organization, and the dynamics of cultural change. Selected theories are evaluated through analyzing archaeological and ethnographic case studies.
Anthropology 3500
Ritual, Practice, and Performance
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Intensive investigation of anthropological theories of ritual, ceremony, and performance. Consideration of ethnographic and historical case studies.
Anthropology 3520
Medical Anthropology
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Anthropological approaches for understanding health and medicine in society and culture.
Prerequisite(s): One of
Anthropology 1000 or a previous course (3.0 credit hours) in Anthropology
Anthropology 3550
Anthropology of Religion
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Anthropological theories and approaches to the study of ritual, religion, and ideology in a cross-cultural framework.
Prerequisite(s): One of
Anthropology 1000 or a previous course (3.0 credit hours) in Anthropology or Religious Studies
Anthropology 3610
Material Culture
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
The role of material culture in the production, reproduction, and performance of social relations. Case studies will illustrate anthropological theories on material culture, particularly its importance in constructing and contesting gender, class, political authority, and colonialism.
Prerequisite(s): One of
Anthropology 1000 or a previous course (3.0 credit hours) in Anthropology
Anthropology 3810
Applied Anthropology
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
The historical development of applied anthropology; applied anthropology in developing and developed countries and the role of `native' anthropologists; the application of anthropology to contemporary social issues; professional ethics; applied research methodologies.
Anthropology 3900
Series on Social and Cultural Organization
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Advanced study of the social and cultural organization in societies of varying complexity.
Anthropology 4002
Series on Advanced Studies in Anthropological Theory
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Advanced study of anthropological theory with attention to, but not limited by, structure and agency, globalization and post-colonialism, and representation in anthropology.
Anthropology 4500
Series on Anthropological Methods
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Advanced study of anthropological methodology and the complex issues which arise from particular approaches and fieldwork.
Anthropology 4850
Special Topics in Social and Cultural Anthropology
Credit hours: 3.0
Contact hours per week: 3-0-0
Intensive study of current debates and/or newly developing areas of interest in anthropology.
Anthropology 4995
Undergraduate Thesis
Credit hours: 6.0
Contact hours per week: Variable
This is a research-oriented course in which students will conduct fieldwork, text or library-based research, submit a report in the form of an undergraduate thesis which will be made publicly available, and report orally on the work. In consultation with their Thesis Supervisor, students will define a research problem and formulate a research plan.
Prerequisite(s): Fourth-year standing (a minimum of 90.0 credit hours);
A cumulative GPA of 3.30 or higher;
A minimum of eight courses (24.0 credit hours) in Anthropology
Note: Contact hours will vary. Students should be aware that this course involves regular contact with the Thesis Supervisor as well as considerable independent work.