This course explores the creation of the “Atlantic World” formed through ongoing contacts between Europeans, Africans and Native Americans from the late 15th century through the early 19th century. This period was characterized by exploration, contact, discovery, trade, conquest, colonization, slavery and the rise of capitalism.
The Cultured Body
This course explores historical and cultural variations of the body and embodiment used to construct and contest identities that reflect ideas about the self, family, gender, nation, nature and the supernatural documented from a sample of cultures around the world.
African Atlantic Archaeology
The course begins with an overview of the idea of the Atlantic World and its formation beginning with European oceanic exploration. This is followed by an examination of West African trade networks, settlements and politics at the time of European contact. Students examine the realignment of different trade networks in West Africa following the establishment of Europeans at various points on the coast, and colonial settlements and the emergence of the plantation economy involving enslaved communities in the Americas. The course addresses specific questions tied to contact, identity formation and socio-economic interactions from the perspective of Africa and Africans in the Diaspora, drawing on historical archaeological sources. Students who previously took this as a topics course, ANTH 352, may not take again for credit.
Anthropology of Tourism
This course explores the history, experience of, and creation of tourist sites and landscapes through an anthropological lens. Multiple perspectives are considered in various venues including typical vacation spots such as hotels and beaches as well as those sites ‘off the beaten path’. As a broad survey course, it will begin with the ‘grand tours’ of the 18th and 19th century and continue through the present day. The various roles and experiences of the tourist, tour guide, and other stakeholders within cultural, ecological, heritage, sex and leisure tourism will be examined. Students who previously took this as a topics course, ANTH 352, may not take again for credit.
Introduction to Historic Preservation
Historic preservation in the US is an exciting, growing and interdisciplinary field. This course provides a general overview of historic preservation as an applied practice, including historical and cultural resources sustainability and management. We will explore the history, method, theory, ethics and law of historic preservation as currently practiced in the United States. Students who previously took this as a topics course, ANTH 352, may not take again for credit.
Native American Culture and History
This course provides an interdisciplinary anthropological and ethnohistorical analysis of Native American societies and cultures in the Americas from the first peopling of the New World through interactions with Euro-Americans from the 17th to the early 20th century. Archaeological, ethnographic and ethnohistorical approaches are employed. Cross-listed as HIST 311. Students may receive credit for either course but not both.
Principles of Applied Anthropology
This course provides an overview of applied anthropology and the work of practitioners from a historical perspective. The course examines the contexts in which practitioners work, the types of problems they face and the political and ethical challenges associated with their work. Students become familiar with and begin to develop requisite skills to undertake applied work by carrying out a service-learning project in the local community.
Archaeology and Prehistory
This course provides an overview of the methods and theories employed by archaeologists to study prehistoric populations. Students learn the methods used by anthropologists to collect, analyze and interpret archaeological data. Students survey the development and composition of past human cultures.
Language and Culture
This course provides a broad introduction to linguistic anthropology. Students learn how anthropologists study the relationships between language, culture and society and how language both reflects and shapes human behavior. Topics addressed include historical and comparative linguistics, descriptive linguistics and sociolinguistics. This course satisfies the Core Exploration Cultural Literacy requirement.
Biological Anthropology
This course addresses the relationships between culture and human biology. Topics include primate classification and behavior, human origins and evolution and human variation and genetics. Students work with fossils, as well as geological and other data, to understand the biological dimensions of human populations.