UVa Course Catalog (Unofficial, Lou's List)
Catalog of Courses for Anthropology    
Class Schedules Index Course Catalogs Index Class Search Page
These pages present data mined from the University of Virginia's student information system (SIS). I hope that you will find them useful. — Lou Bloomfield, Department of Physics
Anthropology
ANTH 1010Introduction to Anthropology (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
This is a broad introductory course covering race, language, and culture, both as intellectual concepts and as political realities. Topics include race and culture as explanations of human affairs, the relationship of language to thought, cultural diversity and cultural relativity, and cultural approaches to current crises.
ANTH 1050Anthropology of Globalization (3)
Anthropology of Globalization
ANTH 1559New Course in Anthropology (3)
New course in the subject of anthropology.
ANTH 2040Tell Me Who You Are: Ethnographic Interviewing and Participatory Research (3)
How can we deepen our understanding of other people and their experience? This course introduces the research method of ethnographic interviewing and participatory field research, which is valued in public health, development, marketing, user experience design, activism, education, and scholarship. Students gain practical experience conducting independent ethnographic research about student life and presenting the results in a public blog.
Course was offered Fall 2019, Fall 2018
ANTH 2060Comparing World Racisms (3)
What can we learn about racism by comparing the forms it takes in different parts of the world? In this course we will compare anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, and other racisms in a selection of the following places and times: Brazil, Japan, Germany, South Africa, Rwanda, Israel/Palestine, China, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Canada, and the U.S.
ANTH 2120The Concept of Culture (3)
Culture is the central concept that anthropologists use to understand the striking differences among human societies and how people organize the meaningful parts of their lives. In this course we explore this diversity, examine its basis in neuroplasticity and human development, and consider its implications for human nature, cognition, creativity, and identity. By learning about other cultures, we gain new understanding of ourselves.
ANTH 2153North American Indians (3)
Ethnological treatment of the aboriginal populations of the New World based on the findings of archaeology, ethnography, linguistics, biological anthropology, and social anthropology.
ANTH 2160Culture and the Environment (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
This course explores anthropological understandings of culture and the environment, particularly with respect to the ecology of human perception, histories of colonialism and related inequalities, food production, consumerism, nature conservation, the Anthropocene concept, and pervasive environmental logics of globalizing capitalism.
ANTH 2190Desire and World Economics (3)
This course offers an insight into the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services practiced by peoples ignored or unknown to classic Western economics. Its principle focus will open upon the obvious differences between cultural concepts of the self and the very notion of its desire. Such arguments as those which theorize on the "rationality" of the market and the "naturalness" of competition will be debunked.
ANTH 2210Marriage and the Family (3)
Compares domestic groups in Western and non-Western societies. Considers the kinds of sexual unions legitimized in different cultures, patterns of childrearing, causes and effects of divorce, and the changing relations between the family and society.
Course was offered Fall 2011, Spring 2010
ANTH 2230Fantasy and Social Values (3)
Examines imaginary societies, in particular those in science fiction novels, to see how they reflect the problems and tensions of real social life. Focuses on 'alternate cultures' and fictional societal models.
ANTH 2250Nationalism, Racism, Multiculturalism (3)
Introductory course in which the concepts of culture, multiculturalism, race, racism, and nationalism are critically examined in terms of how they are used and structure social relations in American society and, by comparison, how they are defined in other cultures throughout the world.
ANTH 2260Water Worlds: the Anthropology of Water (3)
This course examines the many ways that people have managed, shared and made claim to water¿the construction of water worlds. It also looks at waterscapes, dam projects, water in cities, and wastewater and sewage systems globally. Importantly, the course addresses conflicting notions of how to value water, including contemporary debates about the sale of water and water rights, and examines the notion that water will be the locus of future wars.
Course was offered Fall 2023
ANTH 2262Community Science: From Participation to Environmental Justice (3)
Community Science (aka Citizen Science, Street Science, People's Science) encourages people without extensive formal scientific training to participate in scientific research. Lectures and weekly practicums focus on sociocultural aspects of different types of CS projects: crowdsourced, co-created, grassroots, and fugitive. Other topics include Indigenous science, CS as social justice, citizen archaeology, and bridging the amateur/expert divide.
ANTH 2270Race, Gender, and Medical Science (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Explores the social and cultural dimensions of biomedical practice and experience in the United States. Focuses on practitioner and patient, asking about the ways in which race, gender, and socio-economic status contour professional identity and socialization, how such factors influence the experience, and course of, illness, and how they have shaped the structures and institutions of biomedicine over time.
Course was offered Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2017
ANTH 2280Medical Anthropology (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
The course introduces medical anthropology, and contextualizes bodies, suffering, healing and health. It is organized thematically around a critical humanist approach, along with perspectives from political economy and social constructionism. The aim of the course is to provide a broad understanding of the relationship between culture, healing (including and especially the Western form of healing known as biomedicine), health and political power.
ANTH 2285Anthropology of Development and Humanitarianism (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
This course explores anthropological writings on development and humanitarianism to better understand the historical context and contemporary practice of these distinct modes of world saving. We will attend to critiques of development and humanitarianism, and will also consider writings by anthropologists who champion the humanitarian project
ANTH 2310Symbol and Ritual (3)
Studies the foundations of symbolism from the perspective of anthropology. Topics include signs and symbols, and the symbolism of categorical orders as expressed in cosmology, totemism, and myth.
ANTH 2320Anthropology of Religion (3)
Explores anthropological approaches to religion, in the context of this discipline's century-old project to understand peoples' conceptions of the world in which they live.
ANTH 2325Anthropology of God (3)
How does the study of society and culture create an intellectual space for any explanation and experience of the Divine? How does anthropology deal specifically with explaining (rather than the explaining away) knowledge and understanding about divinity? Is God an American? If God has a gender and race, what are they? These and many other pertinent questions will be engaged and tackled in this cross-cultural study of the divine.
ANTH 2340Anthropology of Birth and Death (3)
Comparative examination of beliefs, rites, and symbolism concerning birth and death in selected civilizations.
ANTH 2345Anthropology of Reproduction: Fertility and the Future (3)
In this course, we will study human reproduction as a cultural process. Questions include how gender, class, race, and religion shape reproductive ideals and practices around the world. Ethnographic examples will come from around the world, but will emphasize South Asia and the United States. This course examines the perspectives of both men and women and situates local examples within national and global struggles to (re)produce the future.
Course was offered Summer 2013, Summer 2011
ANTH 2360Don Juan and Castaneda (3)
Analyzes the conceptual content in Castaneda's writings as an exploration of an exotic world view. Focuses on the concepts of power, transformation, and figure-ground reversal.
ANTH 2365Art and Anthropology (3)
The course emphasizes art in small-scale (contemporary) societies (sometimes called ethnic art or "primitive art"). It includes a survey of aesthetic productions of major areas throughout the world (Australia, Africa, Oceania, Native America, Meso-America). Included are such issues as art and cultural identity, tourist arts, anonymity, authenticity, the question of universal aesthetic cannons, exhibiting cultures,and the impact of globalization.
ANTH 2370Japanese Culture (3)
This course offers an introductory survey of Japan from an anthropological perspective. It is open without prerequisite to anyone with a curiosity about what is arguably the most important non-Western society of the last 100 years, and to anyone concerned about the diverse conditions of modern life. We will range over many aspects of contemporary Japan, and draw on scholarship in history, literature, religion, and the various social sciences.
Course was offered Fall 2014
ANTH 2375Disaster (3)
Sociocultural perspectives on disaster, including analysis of the manufacture of disaster, debates on societal collapse, apocalyptic thought, disaster management discourse, how disasters mobilize affect, disaster movies, and disasters as political allegory. Students work through a series of case studies from different societies that cover "natural," industrial, and chronic disasters, as well as doomsday scenarios.
Course was offered Spring 2020, Spring 2017, Fall 2015
ANTH 2400Language and Culture (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Introduces the interrelationships of linguistic, cultural, and social phenomena with emphasis on the importance of these interrelationships in interpreting human behavior. No prior knowledge of linguistics is required.
ANTH 2405Your Heritage Language (3)
This course explores the languages spoken with varying degrees of fluency within students' own families and home communities, either at present or in recent generations. The course prepares students to draw upon linguistic diversity as a positive resource in developing their own identities and interacting with others in our multicultural society.
ANTH 2410Sociolinguistics (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Reviews key findings in the study of language variation. Explores the use of language to express identity and social difference.
ANTH 2415Language in Human Evolution (3)
Examines the evolution of our capacity for language along with the development of human ways of cooperating in engaged social interaction. Course integrates cognitive, cultural, social, and biological aspects of language in comparative perspective. How is the familiar shape of language today the result of evolutionary and developmental processes involving the form, function, meaning and use of signs and symbols in social ecologies?
ANTH 2420Language and Gender (3)
Studies how differences in pronunciation, vocabulary choice, non-verbal communication, and/or communicative style serve as social markers of gender identity and differentiation in Western and non-Western cultures. Includes critical analysis of theory and methodology of social science research on gender and language.
ANTH 2440Language and Cinema (3)
Looks historically at speech and language in Hollywood movies, including the technological challenges and artistic theories and controversies attending the transition from silent to sound films. Focuses on the ways that gender, racial, ethnic, and national identities are constructed through the representation of speech, dialect, and accent. Introduces semiotics but requires no knowledge of linguistics, or film studies.
ANTH 2450Language & Environment (3)
In this course, students rethink assumptions about what "language" and "environment" are. Both depend on living systems to be rendered meaningful, and together we will wrestle with how these two ideas can be brought into relation and the implications associated with different frames of understanding. There are many perspectives on the issues raised in this course, and you will receive a broad introduction to that diversity.
Course was offered Spring 2024
ANTH 2470Reflections of Exile: Jewish Languages and their Communities (3)
Covers Jewish languages Yiddish, Judeo-Arabic, Ladino, and Hebrew from historical, linguistic, and literary perspectives. Explores the relations between communities and languages, the nature of diaspora, and the death and revival of languages. No prior knowledge of these languages is required. This course is cross-listed with MEST 2470.
ANTH 2500Cultures, Regions, and Civilizations (3)
Intensive studies of particular world regions, societies, cultures, and civilizations.
ANTH 2541Topics in Linguistics (3)
Topics to be announced prior to each semester, dealing with linguistics.
ANTH 2557Culture Through Film (3)
Topics to be announced prior to each semester covering the diversity of human cultural worlds and the field of anthropology as presented through film. A variety of ethnographic and commercial films will be viewed and discussed in conjunction with readings.
ANTH 2559New Course in Anthropology (1 - 4)
Offered
Fall 2024
New course in the subject of anthropology.
ANTH 2560Hierarchy and Equality (3)
Provides an anthropological perspective on relations of inequality, subordination, and class in diverse societies, along with consideration of American ideas of egalitarianism, meritocracy, and individualism. Specific topics will be announced prior to each semester.
Course was offered Fall 2017, Fall 2016
ANTH 2575Migrants and Minorities (3)
Topics to be announced prior to each semester, dealing with migration and migrants, and the experience of ethnic and racial minorities.
Course was offered Fall 2013
ANTH 2589Topics in Archaeology (3)
Topics to be announced prior to each semester, dealing with archaeology.
ANTH 2590Social and Cultural Anthropology (3)
Topics to be announced prior to each semester, dealing with social and cultural anthropology.
ANTH 2620Sex, Gender, and Culture (3)
Examines the manner in which ideas about sexuality and gender are constructed differently cross-culturally and how these ideas give shape to other social phenomena, relationships, and practices.
ANTH 2621Culture, Gender and Violence (3)
Beginning with a discussion of the cultural patterning of social action, this course examines sex, gender, and sexuality as culturally constructed and socially experienced, with special attention to non-Western examples that contrast with sex and gender norms in the U.S. The course then focuses on gender violence at U.S. universities, asking whether structural violence can be effectively countered by programs that focus on individual responses.
Course was offered Fall 2016
ANTH 2625Imagining Africa (3)
Africa is commonly imagined in the West as an unproblematically bounded and undifferentiated entity. This course engages and moves beyond western traditions of story telling about Africa to explore diverse systems of imagining Africa's multi-diasporic realities. Imagining Africa is never a matter of pure abstraction, but entangled in material struggles and collective memory, and taking place at diverse and interconnected scales and locales. Prerequisite: ANTH 1010
ANTH 2660The Internet Is Another Country: Community, Power, and Social Media (3)
The peoples of Polynesia and Indonesia, sharing a cultural and linguistic heritage, have spread from Madagascar to Easter Island. Examines their maritime migrations, the societies and empires that they built, and recent changes affecting their cultural traditions.
Course was offered Spring 2015, Fall 2009
ANTH 2800Introduction to Archaeology (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Topics include alternative theories of prehistoric culture change, dating methods, excavation and survey techniques, and the reconstruction of the economy, social organization, and religion of prehistoric societies.
ANTH 2810Human Origins (3)
Studies the physical and cultural evolution of humans from the initial appearance of hominids to the development of animal and plant domestication in different areas of the world. Topics include the development of biological capabilities such as bipedal walking and speech, the evolution of characteristics of human cultural systems such as economic organization and technology, and explanations for the development of domestication.
ANTH 2820The Emergence of States and Cities (3)
Surveys patterns in the development of prehistoric civilizations in different areas of the world including the Inca of Peru, the Maya, the Aztec of Mexico, and the ancient Middle East.
ANTH 2823The Materiality of Death and Dying (3)
This course will focus on the materiality of death, and the human experience of death and dying. By using archaeological, ethnographic and ethnohistoric investigations, this course will review different theoretical perspectives on the treatment of the deceased in ancient societies, the kinds of data generated from such studies, and their relationship to status, gender, agency and power.
ANTH 2890Unearthing the Past (3)
An introduction to prehistory covering 4 million years of human physical evolution and 2.5 million years of human cultural evolution. Provides students with an understanding of how archaeologists reconstruct the rise and fall of ancient civilizations. Covers some major developments in prehistory such as origins of modern humans, the rise of the first complex societies & agriculture, and the emergence of ancient civilizations in North America.
ANTH 3010Theory and History of Anthropology (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Overview of the major theoretical positions which have structured anthropological thought over the past century.
ANTH 3020Using Anthropology (3)
The theoretical, methodological and ethical practice of an engaged anthropology is the subject of this course, We begin with a history of applied anthropology. We then examine case studies that demonstrate the unique practices of contemporary sociocultural, linguistic, archaeological and bioanthropological anthropology in the areas of policy and civic engagement.
ANTH 3070Introduction to Musical Ethnography (3)
Explores music and sound as a social practice, using genres and traditions from throughout the world.
Course was offered Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
ANTH 3100Indigenous Landscapes (3)
This course engages with ways that historical process are inscribed in landscapes, which are the traditional territories of indigenous communities and have also been shaped by colonialism, extractive enterprise, and nature conservation. It challenges students to examine their assumptions to examine ways in which dominant values and stories are inscribed in landscapes and made to appear natural, and how indigenous people contest these processes.
Course was offered Spring 2024, Spring 2022, Fall 2019
ANTH 3105Love and Romantic Intimacies (3)
This course offers an introduction to recent anthropological scholarship on romance to examine how intimate relationships shape human experiences. Through readings and films, we investigate the increasingly popular idealization of "companionate marriages," in which spouses are ideally linked by affection. Our examples include queer and straight experiences, and a diversity of racial, cultural, classed, and gendered representations.
ANTH 3129Marriage, Mortality, Fertility (3)
Explores the ways that culturally formed systems of values and family organization affect population processes in a variety of cultures.
ANTH 3130Disease, Epidemics and Society (3)
Topics covered in this course will include emerging diseases and leading killers in the twenty-first century, disease ecology, disease history and mortality transitions, the sociology of epidemics, the role of epidemiology in the mobilization of public health resources to confront epidemics, and the social processes by which the groups become stigmatized during disease outbreaks. Prerequisite: introductory anth or soc course
ANTH 3152Rainforests of Flesh / Peoples of Spirit (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Ethnographies of Amazonian Peoples and the new anthropological theories about their way of life.
ANTH 3155Anthropology of Everyday American Life (3)
Provides an anthropological perspective of modern American society. Traces the development of individualism through American historical and institutional development, using as primary sources of data religious movements, mythology as conveyed in historical writings, novels, and the cinema, and the creation of modern American urban life. Prerequisite: ANTH 1010 or instructor permission.
ANTH 3170Anthropology of Media (3)
Explores the cultural life of media and the mediation of cultural life through photography, radio, television, advertising, the Internet, and other technologies.
Course was offered Spring 2013
ANTH 3171Culture of Cyberspace: Digital Fluency for an Internet-Enabled Society (3)
Today's personal, social, political, and economic worlds are all affected by digital media and networked publics. Together we will explore both the literature about and direct experience of these new literacies: research foundations and best practices of individual digital participation and collective participatory culture, the use of collaborative media and methodologies, and the application of network know-how to life online.
Course was offered Fall 2015
ANTH 3175Native American Art: The Astor Collection (3)
This is an upper-level anthropology course which is intended to engage students in the study of Native American art as well as the history and current debate over the representation of Native American culture and history in American museums. After a thorough review of the literature on those topics, the class focuses specifically on the Astor collection owned by the University of Virginia.
Course was offered Spring 2014, Spring 2012, Spring 2010
ANTH 3205Modern Families, Global Worlds (3)
This course examines the importance of kinship for the structure and dynamics of transnational economic relations and for the meaning and constitution of nation and citizenship in the contemporary global political economy.
Course was offered Fall 2016
ANTH 3220Economic Anthropology (3)
Comparative analysis of different forms of production, circulation, and consumption in primitive and modern societies. Exploration of the applicability of modern economic theory developed for modern societies to primitive societies and to those societies being forced into the modern world system.
ANTH 3240The Anthropology of Food (3)
This course approaches food from various social science perspectives, focusing on historically and culturally variable forms of food production, exchange, preparation and consumption as the means through which both individual and social bodies are constructed and reproduced. We examine food and the environment; food and colonialism; the globalization of food and food production; food and identities; and food and bodies.
ANTH 3255Anthropology of Time and Space (3)
All societies position themselves in space and time. This course samples the discussion of the ways social systems have configured spatial/temporal orders. It considers both internalized conceptions of time and space and the ways an analyst might view space and time as external factors orientating a society's existence. And it samples classic discussions of spatial-temporal orientations in small and large, "pre-modern" and "modern" societies.
Course was offered Fall 2017
ANTH 3260Globalization and Development (3)
Explores how globalization and development affect the lives of people in different parts of the world. Topics include poverty, inequality, and the role of governments and international agencies.
Course was offered Spring 2012, Fall 2010
ANTH 3265Cultures, Spaces, and Worldviews of International Aid (3)
The main focus of this class is the culture and values of development practitioners, and how these shape ideas of development itself. It explores the interconnected processes, relationships, and spaces through which development practitioners and planners learn, live , work, and encounter (or not) people who are the targets of development plans and interventions.
ANTH 3270Anthropology of Politics (3)
Reviews the variety of political systems found outside the Western world. Examines the major approaches and results of anthropological theory in trying to understand how radically different politics work. Prerequisite: ANTH 1010 or instructor permission.
Course was offered Fall 2016, Fall 2014
ANTH 3275The Corporation: History, Culture, Capital (3)
What is a corporation? Contrary to wide belief, the corporation is a very ancient social form that arose in diverse world regions and is the heritage of many civilizations. In this course, we explore its history and relation to culture, economics, and law. How has financialization shaped today's major business corporations and theories of corporate social responsibility? How might we improve the corporations of the future?
Course was offered Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2020
ANTH 3280Introduction to Native American Studies: (Mis)Representations (3)
An intro to the broad field of Native Studies, this class focuses on themes of representation and erasure. We read Indigenous scholars and draw from current events, pop culture, and historical narrative to explore complex relationships between historical and contemporary issues that Indigenous peoples face in the US. We examine the foundations of Native representations and their connections to critical issues in Native communities.
Course was offered Fall 2022, Fall 2021
ANTH 3290Biopolitics and the Contemporary Condition (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Biopolitical analysis has become one of the prominent critical approaches across the social sciences and humanities. This course will consider various biopolitical theories and the ways in which they help us understand diverse phenomena of our contemporary condition, which will be examined through various case studies.
ANTH 3295Moral Experience (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
This course introduces students to one of the key frameworks in anthropology's "ethical turn": moral experience. The investigation of moral experience explores questions of ethics from a phenomenological-hermeneutic perspective and attends closely to subjectivity, affect, and embodiment. We will explore moral experiences such as ethical self-cultivation, empathy, love, hope, breakdown, mood, and moral transformation.
Course was offered Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2022
ANTH 3300Tournaments and Athletes (3)
A cross-cultural study of sport and competitive games. Prerequisite: ANTH 101 or instructor permission.
ANTH 3310Controversies of Care in Contemporary Africa (3)
In this course we will draw on a series of classic and contemporary works in history and anthropology to come to a better understanding of current debates concerning corruption and patronage, marriage and sexuality, and medicine in Sub-Sahararn Africa.
Course was offered Spring 2019, Fall 2018, Spring 2016
ANTH 3320Shamanism, Healing, and Ritual (3)
Examines the characteristics of these nonmedical practices as they occur in different culture areas, relating them to the consciousness of spirits and powers and to concepts of energy. Prerequisite: At least a 2000-level ANTH course, or instructor permission.
ANTH 3325Capitalism: Cultural Perspectives (3)
Examines capitalist relations around the world in a variety of cultural and historical settings. Readings cover field studies of work, industrialization, "informal" economies, advertising, securities trading, "consumer culture," corporations; anthropology of money and debt; global spread of capitalist markets; multiple capitalisms thesis; commodification; slavery and capital formation; capitalism and environmental sustainability.
Course was offered Spring 2016
ANTH 3340Ecology and Society: An Introduction to the New Ecological Anthropology (3)
Forges a synthesis between culture theory and historical ecology to provide new insights on how human cultures fashion, and are fashioned by, their environment. Although cultures from all over the world are considered, special attention is given to the region defined by South and East Asia, and Australia. Prerequisite: At least one Anthropology course, and/or relevant exposure to courses in EVSC, BIOL, CHEM, or HIST or instructor permission
ANTH 3360The Museum in Modern Culture (3)
Topics include the politics of cultural representation in history, anthropology, and fine arts museums; and the museum as a bureaucratic organization, as an educational institution, and as a nonprofit corporation.
Course was offered Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2019
ANTH 3370Power and the Body (3)
Studying the cultural representations and interpretations of the body in society. Prerequisite: ANTH 1010 or permission of the instructor.
ANTH 3380The Nature of Nature (3)
This course explores the evolution of Nature as a concept and a human-created realm of reality, particularly in relation to colonialism and globalization. It focuses on environmental politics of diverse people who do not relate to reality as a separate object called Nature. It also addresses the idea that we are living in the Anthropocene, a moment in which humans have become a force of Nature, and Nature perhaps no longer exists.
ANTH 3390Pregnancy, Birthing and the Post-Partum (3)
There's no debate that human reproduction is a biological universal, but it's also an intensely cultural phenomenon with widely disparate, & often contested, specific cultural routines, symbolic systems, ideas & practices whether focused on mothers, fathers, infants or communities or who is recognized as a birthing expert. Course examines variations in physiological & cultural processes globally & explores both the individual experiences & and systemic patterns associated with the phases of reproduction from pregnancy through to post-partum.
ANTH 3392African American Women and the Cultural Politics of Body Size (3)
This course will examine the cultural politics of body size norms drawing on a range of perspectives within anthropology and related fields and from the lived experiences of diverse African American women.
ANTH 3395Mythodology (3)
A hands-on seminar in myth interpretation designed to acquaint the student with the concept and techniques of obviation.
ANTH 3440Language and Emotion (3)
This course explores emotion from the perspectives of cultural anthropology and sociolinguistics. Topics include: emotion in the natural vs. social sciences; cross-cultural conceptions of emotion; historical change in emotion discourses; emotion as a theory of the self; the grammatical encoding of emotion in language; (mis-) communication of emotion; and emotion in the construction of racialized and gendered identities.
ANTH 3450Native American Languages (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Introduces the native languages of North America and the methods that linguists and anthropologists use to record and analyze them. Examines the use of grammars, texts and dictionaries of individual languages and affords insight into the diversity among the languages.
ANTH 3455African Languages (3)
An introduction to the linguistic diversity of the African continent, with focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Topics include linguistic structures (sound systems, word-formation, and syntax); the classification of African languages; the use of linguistic data to reconstruct prehistory; language and social identity; verbal art; language policy debates; the rise of "mixed" languages among urban youth.
Course was offered Spring 2019, Fall 2017, Spring 2017
ANTH 3470Language and Culture in the Middle East (3)
Introduction to peoples, languages, cultures and histories of the Middle East. Focuses on Israel/Palestine as a microcosm of important social processes-such as colonialism, nationalism, religious fundamentalism, and modernization-that affect the region as a whole. This course is cross-listed with MEST 3470. Prerequisite: Previous course in anthropology, linguistics, Middle East Studies or permission of instructor.
ANTH 3480Language and Prehistory (3)
This course covers the basic principles of diachronic linguistics and discusses the uses of linguistic data in the reconstruction of prehistory.
ANTH 3490Language and Thought (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Language and Thought
ANTH 3541Topics in Linguistics (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Topics to be announced prior to each semester, dealing with linguistics.
ANTH 3550Ethnography (3)
Close reading of several ethnographies, primarily concerned with non-Western cultures.
ANTH 3559New Course in Anthropology (1 - 4)
Offered
Fall 2024
New course in the subject of Anthropology.
ANTH 3589Topics in Archaeology (3)
Topics to be announced prior to each semester, dealing with archaeology.
ANTH 3590Social and Cultural Anthropology (3)
Topics to be announced prior to each semester, dealing with social and cultural anthropology.
ANTH 3603Archaeological Approaches to Atlantic Slavery (3)
This course explores how archaeological and architectural evidence can be used to enhance our understanding of the slave societies that evolved in the early-modern Atlantic world. The primary focus is the Chesapeake and the British Caribbean, the later exemplified by Jamaica and Nevis. The course is structured around a series of data-analysis projects that draw on the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (http://www.daacs.org).
Course was offered Fall 2017, Fall 2013, Fall 2010
ANTH 3630Chinese Family and Religion (3)
Analyzes various features of traditional Chinese social organization as it existed in the late imperial period. Includes the late imperial state; Chinese family and marriage; lineages; ancestor worship; popular religion; village social structure; regional systems; and rebellion.
ANTH 3675Museums and Cultural Representation in Quebec (3)
In this J-term course, we visit museums in Montreal and Quebec City to examine the politics of cultural representation, asking how various kinds of group identity are exhibited in art, history, and anthropology museums. Daily museum visits are accompanied by readings and lectures.
ANTH 3679Curating Culture: Collection, Preservation, and Display as Cultural Forms (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
This course teaches the importance of understanding cultural meanings when curating items, whether material or intangible, drawn from social worlds other than one's own. It provides a general introduction to collection, preservation, and display through study of a specific collection held by the instructor or by a local institution such as the Fralin Museum of Art.
Course was offered Spring 2023
ANTH 3680Australian Aboriginal Art and Culture (3)
This class studies the intersection of anthropology, art and material culture focusing on Australian Aboriginal art. We examine how Aboriginal art has moved from relative obscurity to global recognition over the past thirty years. Topics include the historical and cultural contexts of invention, production, marketing and appropriation of Aboriginal art. Students will conduct object-based research using the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection. Prerequisite: ANTH 1010 or instructor permission.
ANTH 3700Globalizing India: Society, Bazaars and Cultural Politics (3)
A study of selected interrelated major cultural, religious and political changes for comprehending India after independence. The course will focus on major urban centers for explicating changing family, marriage and caste relationships; middle class Indians; status of women and Dalits; and rising religious/ethnic violence, including Hindu religious politics and religious nationalism. Prerequisite: One course in Anthropology or permission of instructor.
ANTH 3705Anthropology of the Middle East (3)
Anthropological readings and films provide insight into the diversity of peoples and cultures of the modern Middle East. The focus will be on the everyday lived experiences of peoples in this part of the world. As we explore the rich diversity of cultures in the Middle East, key topics to be examined include tribalism, gender and politics, Islam, religion and secularism, colonialism, nationalism, and economic inequalities.
Course was offered Fall 2020, Fall 2016, Spring 2015
ANTH 3810Field Methods in Archaeology (3 - 6)
Provides a comprehensive training in archaeological field techniques through participation in research projects currently in progress under the direction of the archaeology faculty. The emphasis is on learning, in an actual field situation, how the collection of archaeological data is carried out in both survey and excavation. Students become familiar with field recording systems, excavation techniques, survey methods, sampling theory in archaeology, and artifact processing and analysis. (Field methods courses outside anthropology or offered at other universities may be substituted for ANTH 3810 with the prior approval of the student's advisor.) Supporting Courses. The following list includes additional courses which have been approved for the major program. Other courses can be added, depending on the student's area of concentration, with the approval of an advisor.
ANTH 3830North American Archaeology (3)
Surveys the prehistoric occupations of several areas of North America emphasizing the eastern United States, the Plains, California, and the Southwest. Topics include the date of human migration into the New World, the economy and organization of early Paleo-Indian populations, and the evolution of organization and exchange systems.
Course was offered Fall 2017, Fall 2014, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
ANTH 3840Archaeology of the Middle East (3)
This course is an introduction to the prehistory/early history of the Middle East (Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Levant and southeast Anatolia) from 10,000 to 4,000 BP.
ANTH 3850Historical Archaeology (3)
Historical archaeology is the archaeological study of the continental and transoceanic human migrations that began in the fifteenth century, their effects on native peoples, and historical trajectories of the societies that they created. This course offers an introduction to the field. It emphasizes how theoretical models, analytical methods, and archaeological data can be combined to make and evaluate credible inferences about the past.
Course was offered Fall 2015, Fall 2012, Fall 2009
ANTH 3870Archaeology of Virginia (3)
Reviews the current state of archaeological and ethnohistoric research in Virginia. Emphasizes the history and culture of Native Americans in Virginia from the earliest paleoindian cultures to the period of European colonization.
ANTH 3875Pre-Columbian South America (3)
This course will review the history of South America from its earliest population to the Spanish Conquest. Emphasis will be placed on tracing the rise of civilization in the Andes. The Inka empire was only the last of a long sequence of states and empires. Comparison of the Inka state with earlier polities such as the Moche and Tiwanaku will reveal the unique and enduring traditions of Andean political organizations.
ANTH 3880African Archaeology (3)
This course surveys transformations in the African past, from the Middle Stone Age emergence of modern humans, to the florescence of lifeways in the Late Stone Age, to the broad mosaic of small-, medium-, and large-scale Iron Age societies, to the archaeology of colonial encounters. We also consider how archaeological methods work to produce knowledge in combination with studies of genetics, climate and environment, and historical methods.
Course was offered Spring 2023, Spring 2012, Fall 2009
ANTH 3885Archaeology of Europe (3)
A survey of European archaeology beginning with the Neanderthal debate, and including interpretations of Upper Paleolithic cave painting, the spread village farming from the Near East, the role of megalithic monuments, the interaction of Rome and the `Barbarians', the growth of urban centers, the Iron Age, and the Viking expansion.
ANTH 3890Archaeology of the American Southwest (3)
The northern section of the American Southwest offers one of the best contexts for examining the evolution of local and regional organization from the prehistoric to the historic period. Readings and discussion focus on both archaeological and ethnographic studies of the desert (Hohokam), mountain (Mogollon), and plateau (Anasazi/Pueblo) cultures.
ANTH 4060People, Culture and Environment of Southern Africa (3)
Focusing on the intersection between peoples, cultures, and environments of southern Africa, this summer study abroad course details the continuities and contrasts between life in rural, marginalized and under-served regions of South Africa and Mozambique. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the community role in education and sustainable development - both developmental and anthropogenic impacts on the environment but also environmental.
ANTH 4420Theories of Language (3)
Survey of modern schools of linguistics, both American and European, discussing each approach in terms of historical and intellectual context, analytical goals, assumptions about the nature of language, and relation between theory and methodology.
ANTH 4559New Course in Anthropology (1 - 4)
New Course in the subject of Anthropology.
Course was offered Fall 2014, Spring 2013, Spring 2010
ANTH 4590Social & Cultural Anthropology (3)
Topics to be announced prior to each semester, dealing with social and cultural anthropology.
ANTH 4591Majors Seminar (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
The majors seminars in anthropology offer majors and minors an opportunity to engage deeply with a topic of anthropological concern. Through these courses anthropology students gain experience in doing an independent research project on a topic they care about and produce a significant paper or other major work. Enrollment for majors and minors is preferred.
ANTH 4840Quantitative Analysis in Anthropology I (3)
Examines the quantitative analytical techniques used in archaeology. Includes seriation, regression analysis, measures of diversity, and classification.
Course was offered Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2011
ANTH 4841Quantitative Analysis II (3)
This course offers training in statistical models and methods that will be useful for students in multiple fields, including archaeology, anthropology, and environmental science. The goal is to equip students with statistical skills useful in systematically describing and analyzing empirical variation, deciphering links to the environmental and historical contexts in which that variation occurs, and using the results to advance science. Prerequisites: ANTH 4840 Quantitative Analysis I.
Course was offered Spring 2017
ANTH 4993Independent Study in Anthropology (1 - 6)
Offered
Fall 2024
Independent study conducted by the student under the supervision of an instructor of his or her choice.
ANTH 4998Distinguished Majors Thesis Research (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Independent research, under the supervision of the faculty DMP thesis readers, toward the DMP thesis. Prerequisite: Admission to the Distinguished Majors Program in Anthropology.
ANTH 4999Distinguished Majors Thesis Writing (3)
Writing of a thesis of approximately 50 pages, under the supervision of the faculty DMP thesis readers. Prerequisite: ANTH 4998.
ANTH 5195TechnoScience (3)
What do rocket launches, genetic testing, robot marriage, protein folding, marine biology, climate change and nuclear meltdowns have in common? Anthropologists have studied them all to understand sociocultural factors involved in technoscientific production. Spend a semester in the borderlands between anthropology and STS (science and technology studies) studying the latest research as well as classic ethnographies, with hands-on demonstrations.
ANTH 5200History of Kinship Studies (3)
Critical assessment of major theoretical approaches to the study of kinship and marriage (from the 19th century to the present) and of the central role of kinship studies in the development of anthropological theory.
Course was offered Fall 2016, Fall 2012, Spring 2010
ANTH 5210Reconfiguring Kinship Studies (3)
Examines the ways in which the forms of kinship have been reconfigured in contemporary societies, and the ways in which traditional kinship studies have been reconfigured by their intersection with culture theory, feminist theory, gender studies, postmodern theory, gay and lesbian studies, and cultural studies of science and medicine. Prerequisite: ANTH 5200 or instructor permission.
ANTH 5220Economic Anthropology (3)
Considers Western economic theories and their relevance to non-Western societies. Includes a comparative analysis of different forms of production, consumption, and circulation.
ANTH 5225NGOs, Development, and International Aid (3)
Graduate level seminar explores the scholarly literature on NGOs and development aid organizations, emphasizing results of field studies. Issues include the relationship between policy and practice, the impact of changing trends and funding priorities, the politics of representing the voices of aid clients, economic and racial hierarchies in development, assessment and audit, and the nature of motivations to help. Prerequisite: 4th year ANTH, GDS, or PST Majors; or A&S Graduate students
Course was offered Spring 2014
ANTH 5235Legal Anthropology (3)
This course is an introduction to legal anthropology for graduate students or advanced undergraduates. This course investigates law systems, legal argumentation, and people's interactions with these thoughts and forms. Rather than taking as given the hegemonic power that legal structures might hold over people's lives and thought, this course questions how people use, abuse, subvert, and leverage legal structures in which they find themselves.
Course was offered Fall 2022, Fall 2014
ANTH 5240Relational Ethics (3)
How might we begin to conceive relational ethics? In the attempt to think through this question, we will slowly read and discuss some important texts in anthropology and continental philosophy that have attempted to think and articulate relationality, being-with and ethics.
Course was offered Fall 2021, Fall 2018
ANTH 5270Care and Abandonment (3)
This seminar will explore the norms, embodied practices, material artifacts, and forms of reasoning which shape processes of care and abandonment across a range of contemporary cases. We will explore Foucault's writings on bio-power, how a focus on abandonment and abjection has altered the field of anthropology, and how care might relate to other concepts like kinship.
Course was offered Fall 2020
ANTH 5360World Mental Health (3)
This course will examine mental health issues from the perspectives of biomedicine and anthropology, emphasizing local traditions of illness and healing as well as evidence from epidemiology and neurobiology. Included topics will be psychosis, depression, PTSD, Culture Bound Syndromes, and suicide. We will also examine the role of pharmaceutical companies in the spread of western based mental health care and culturally sensitive treatment.
ANTH 5425Language Contact (3)
Considers how languages change as part of social systems and affected by historical processes. We will contrast language change through internal processes of drift and regular sound change with contact-induced language change involving multilingualism and code switching, language shift and lexical borrowing, the emergence of pidgin, creole, and intertwined languages, language endangerment, and computational tools for historical linguistics.
Course was offered Fall 2023, Spring 2020, Fall 2018
ANTH 5465Language and the Culture of Preservation (3)
Why save endangered languages? What makes this work compelling to the diverse stakeholders involved? What kinds of obstacles do language preservation projects repeatedly encounter and why? This seminar explores language preservation as a cultural phenomenon in which issues of temporality, ownership, identity, and authenticity come to the fore.
Course was offered Spring 2020
ANTH 5470Language and Identity (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
In anthropology, where identity has become a central concern, language is seen as an important site for the construction of, and negotiation over social identities. In linguistics, reference to categories of social identity helps to explain language structure and change. This seminar explores the overlap between these converging trends by focusing on the notion of discourse as a nexus of cultural and linguistic processes.
ANTH 5475Multimodal Interaction (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Students build knowledge and practice of analysis of peoples' joint-engagement in embodied interactions. How does action weave together multiple sensory modalities into semiotic webs linking interactions with more durative institutions of social life? Course includes workshops on video recording, and the transcription and coding of verbal and non-verbal actions. Prior coursework in Linguistics, Anthropology or instructor permission recommended.
ANTH 5480Literacy and Orality (3)
This course surveys ethnographic and linguistic literature on literacy, focusing on the social meanings of speaking vs. writing (and hearing vs. reading) as opposed communicative practices, looking especially at traditionally oral societies.
Course was offered Spring 2023, Spring 2019, Fall 2014
ANTH 5485Discourse Analysis (3)
Discourse analysis looks at the patterns in language and language-use above the level of sentence grammar and seeks to apply the micro-level analysis of communicative interactions to understanding the macro-level processes of social and cultural reproduction. Topics include: symbolic interactionism, conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, discourse prosody, and digital analysis techniques.
Course was offered Fall 2021, Fall 2018
ANTH 5490Speech Play and Verbal Art (3)
This graduate-level seminar seeks to understand variation in language (and its significance for social relations and social hierarchies) by focusing on forms of language that are aesthetically valued (whether as powerful or as poetic) in particular communities. The course assumes some familiarity both with technical analysis of language and anthropological perspectives on social formations.
ANTH 5495Discourse Prosody (3)
Discourse prosody looks at intonation, rhythm, meter, and voice quality in everyday speech, developing descriptive and theoretical models for the systematic study of these linguistic phenomena. The course emphasizes instrumental analysis and focuses on how prosody: varies across dialects and languages; functions in spoken interaction; and affects structures of social life (identity, hierarchy, etc.).
ANTH 5510Topics in Ethnography (3)
Seminars on topics announced prior to each semester.
Course was offered Fall 2019, Fall 2015, Fall 2011
ANTH 5528Topics in Race Theory (3)
This course examines theories and practices of race and otherness, in order to analyze and interpret constructions, deconstructions and reconstructions of race from the late 18th to the 21st centuries. The focus varies from year to year, and may include 'race, 'progress and the West,' 'gender, race and power,' and 'white supremacy.' The consistent theme is that race is neither a biological nor a cultural category, but a method and theory of social organization, an alibi for inequality, and a strategy for resistance. Cross listed as AAS 5528. Prerequisite: ANTH 1010, 3010, or other introductory or middle-level social science or humanities course
ANTH 5541Topics in Linguistics (3)
Topics to be announced prior to each semester, dealing with linguistics.
ANTH 5549Topics in Theoretical Linguistics and Linguistic Anthropology (3)
Seminars in topics of specific interest to faculty and advanced students will be announced prior to each semester.
ANTH 5559New Course in Anthropology (1 - 4)
Offered
Fall 2024
New course in the subject of anthropology.
ANTH 5589Selected Topics in Archaeology (1 - 6)
Seminars in topics announced prior to each semester.
ANTH 5590Topics in Social and Cultural Anthropology (3)
Topics to be announced prior to each semester, dealing with social and cultural anthropology.
ANTH 5610Critical medical anthropology: healers, patients, scholars (3)
This class focuses on critical issues in medical anthropology on topics of patienthood, healing and healers and the theoretical, methodological and ethnographic perspectives of anthropologists who integrate issues of politics, economics, power and resistance in understanding health, illness, healing as individually experienced and culturally shaped phenomena .
ANTH 5620The Middle East in Ethnographic Perspective (3)
Survey of the anthropological literature on the Middle East & N. Africa. Begins historically with traditional writing on the Middle East and proceeds to critiques of this tradition and attempts at new ways of constructing knowledge of this world region. Readings juxtapose theoretical and descriptive work toward critically appraising modern writers' success in overcoming the critiques leveled against their predecessors.
Course was offered Spring 2013
ANTH 5808Method and Theory in Archaeology (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Investigates current theory, models, and research methods in anthropological archaeology.
ANTH 5840Archaeology of Complex Societies (3)
Examines archaeological approaches to the study of complex societies using case studies from both the Old and New Worlds.
Course was offered Spring 2014, Fall 2009
ANTH 5870Archaeozoology (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Laboratory training in techniques and methods used in analyzing animal bones recovered from archaeological sites. Include field collection, data analysis, and the use of zooarchaeological materials in reconstructing economic and social systems.
ANTH 5875Spatial Analysis and GIS in Archaeology (3)
This course explores theories and techniques underlying spatial analysis and use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in archaeological research. Topics covered in this hands-on course include construction and manipulation of spatial data, basic spatial statistics and landscape studies. Students are expected to work on their own research projects, involving the construction, analysis and modeling of environmental and social variables.
ANTH 5880Gender in Archaeology (3)
Explores the range of case studies and theoretical literature associated with the emergence of gender as a framework for research in archaeology.
Course was offered Fall 2009
ANTH 5885Archaeology of Colonial Expansions (3)
Exploration of the archaeology of frontiers, expansions and colonization, focusing on European expansion into Africa and the Americas while using other archaeologically-known examples (e.g., Roman, Bantu) as comparative studies. Prerequisite: For undergraduates, ANTH 4591 senior seminar or instructor permission.
ANTH 5891Archaeology of Frontiers and Boundary Interaction (3)
The focus of this class is the nature of sociopolitical interaction across boundaries and imperial frontier regions, using multidisciplinary research and different scales of analysis. Among other disciplines, this includes archaeology, ethnohistory and history. Some of the case studies comprise the ancient frontiers of imperial formations in the ancient World, the pre-Columbian Americas, and those in the US and beyond.
ANTH 5993Independent Studies in Anthropology (3)
Independent study conducted by the student under the supervision of an instructor of his or her choice.
ANTH 7010History of Anthropological Theory (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Introduces major historical figures, approaches, and debates in anthropology (sociocultural, linguistic, archaeological), with a focus on understanding the discipline's diverse intellectual history, and its complex involvement with dominant social and intellectual currents in western society.
ANTH 7020Contemporary Anthropological Theory (3)
Explores the major recent theoretical approaches in current anthropology, with attention to their histories and to their political contexts and implications.
ANTH 7040Ethnographic Research Design and Methods (3)
Seminar on ethnographic methods and research design in the qualitative tradition. Surveys the literature on ethnographic methods and explores relations among theory, research design, and appropriate methodologies. Students participate in methodological exercises and design a summer pilot research project. Prerequisite: Second year graduate in anthropology or instructor permission.
ANTH 7050Ethnographic Writing and Representation (3)
Seminar on the craft of ethnographic writing and the ethical, political, and practical challenges of describing studied people in scholarly books and articles. What can student researchers do during fieldwork to help them write better dissertations more easily? How should they analyze and present field data? Prerequisite: ANTH 7040 or instructor permission. Suitable for pre- and post-field graduate students.
ANTH 7060Dissertation Research Proposal Workshop (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
A workshop for graduates preparing dissertation proposals and writing grant applications. Each student prepares several drafts of a proposal, revising it at each stage in response to the criticisms of classmates and the instructor.
ANTH 7100Indigenous Landscapes (3)
This course engages with ways that historical process are inscribed in landscapes, which are the traditional territories of indigenous communities and have also been shaped by colonialism, extractive enterprise, and nature conservation. It challenges students to examine their assumptions to examine ways in which dominant values and stories are inscribed in landscapes and made to appear natural and how indigenous peoples contest these processes. Prerequisite: Graduate status or instructor permission.
Course was offered Fall 2023, Spring 2022, Fall 2019
ANTH 7129Marriage, Mortality, Fertility (3)
Explores the ways that culturally formed systems of values and family organization affect population processes in a variety of cultures. Readings are drawn from comparative anthropology and historical demography. Cross-listed as ANTH 3129.
ANTH 7130Disease, Epidemics and Society (3)
Topics covered in this course will include emerging diseases and leading killers in the twenty-first century, disease ecology, disease history and mortality transitions, the sociology of epidemics, the role of epidemiology in the mobilization of public health resources to confront epidemics, and the social processes by which the groups become stigmatized during disease outbreaks. Prerequisites: previous ANTH or SOC course
ANTH 7290Nationalism and the Politics of Culture (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Analyzes the ways in which a spirit of national or ethic solidarity is mobilized and utilized.
ANTH 7344Anthropology and Anarchy (3)
Anarch--organizing society through horizontal relations of free association--has a modern European history contemporary with Anthropology and has Indigenous histories in many places where people decided together to organize society against the state and hierarchy. Readings survey anthropology of non-state societies and engages questions of how non-European anarchies of Black and Indigenous authors and organizers critique anthropological methods.
ANTH 7350The Nature of Nature (3)
This course explores the evolution of Nature as a concept and a human-created realm of reality, particularly in relation to colonialism and globalization. It focuses on environmental politics of diverse people who do not relate to reality as a separate object called Nature. It also addresses the idea that we are living in the Anthropocene, a moment in which humans have become a force of Nature, and Nature perhaps no longer exists.
ANTH 7370Power and the Body (3)
Study of the cultural representations and interpretations of the body in society.
ANTH 7400Linguistic Anthropology (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
An advanced introduction to the study of language from an anthropological point of view. No prior coursework in linguistics is expected, but the course is aimed at graduate students who will use what they learn in their own anthropologically-oriented research. Topics include an introduction to such basic concepts in linguistic anthropology as language in world-view, the nature of symbolic meaning, language and nationalism, universals and particulars in language, language in history and prehistory, the ethnography of speaking, the nature of everyday conversation, and the study of poetic language. The course is required for all Anthropology graduate students. It also counts toward the Theory requirement for the M.A. in Linguistics.
ANTH 7420Theories of Language (3)
Survey of modern schools of linguistics, both American and European, discussing each approach in terms of historical and intellectual context, analytical goals, assumptions about the nature of language, and relation between theory and methodology.
ANTH 7440Language and Emotion (3)
This course explores emotion from the perspectives of cultural anthropology and sociolinguistics. Topics include: emotion in the natural vs. social sciences; cross-cultural conceptions of emotion; historical change in emotion discourses; emotion as a theory of the self; the grammatical encoding of emotion in language; (mis-) communication of emotion; and emotion in the construction of racialized and gendered identities.
ANTH 7450Native American Languages (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Surveys the classification and typological characteristics of Native American languages and the history of their study, with intensive work on one language by each student. Some linguistics background is helpful.
ANTH 7455African Languages (3)
An introduction to the linguistic diversity of the African continent, with focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Topics include linguistic structures (sound systems, word-formation, and syntax); the classification of African languages; the use of linguistic data to reconstruct prehistory; language and social identity; verbal art; language policy debates; the rise of "mixed" languages among urban youth. Taught concurrently with ANTH 3455.
Course was offered Spring 2019, Fall 2017, Spring 2017
ANTH 7470Language and Culture in the Middle East (3)
Language and Culture in the Middle East
ANTH 7480Language and Prehistory (3)
This course covers the basic principles of diachronic linguistics (the study of how languages change over time) and the uses of linguistic data in the reconstruction of prehistory. Considered is the use of linguistic evidence in tracing prehistoric population movements in demonstrating contact among prehistoric groups and in the reconstruction of daily life. To the extent that the literature permits, examples and case studies will be drawn from the Mayan language area of Central America, and will include discussion of the pre-Columbian Mayan writing system and its ongoing decipherment. Fulfills the comparative-historical requirement for Linguistics graduate students.
ANTH 7541Topics in Sociolinguistics (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Analyzes particular aspects of the social use of language. Topics vary from year to year.
ANTH 7559New Course in Anthropology (1 - 4)
New course in the subject of anthropology.
ANTH 7589Topics in Archaeology (3)
Topics to be announced prior to each semester, dealing with archaeology.
ANTH 7590Topics in Social and Cultural Anthropology (3)
Topics to be announced prior to each semester, dealing with social and cultural anthropology.
ANTH 7603Archaeological Aproaches to Atlantic Slavery (3)
This course explores how archaeological and architectural evidence can be used to enhance our understanding of the slave societies that evolved in the early-modern Atlantic world. The primary focus is the Chesapeake and the British Caribbean, the later exemplified by Jamaica and Nevis. The course is structured around a series of data-analysis projects that draw on the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (http://www.daacs.org).
Course was offered Fall 2013, Fall 2010
ANTH 7630Chinese Family and Religion (3)
Analyzes various features of traditional Chinese social organization as it existed in the late imperial period. Includes the late imperial state; Chinese family and marriage; lineages; ancestor worship; popular religion; village social structure; regional systems; and rebellion.
ANTH 7840Quantitative Analysis in Anthropology I (3)
This course examines the quantitative analytical techniques used in anthropology and archaeology. Topics include seriation, regression analysis, measures of diversity, and classification.
ANTH 7841Quantitative Analysis II (3)
This is a second course in statistical methods useful in many disciplines, including archaeology, anthropology, and environmental sciences. Coverage includes linear and generalized linear models, non-parametric regression, multivariate distances, clustering, ordination methods, and discriminant functions. The course emphasizes practical data analysis using R. Prerequisite: Quantitative Analysis I (ANTH 4840/7840) or an introductory statistics course and a basic knowledge of R.
Course was offered Spring 2017
ANTH 7855Historical Archaeology (3)
Historical archaeology is the archaeological study of the continental and transoceanic human migrations that began in the fifteenth century, their effects on native peoples, and historical trajectories of the societies that they created. This course offers an introduction to the field. It emphasizes how theoretical models, analytical methods, and archaeological data can be combined to make and evlaluate credible inferences about the past.
Course was offered Fall 2015, Fall 2012, Fall 2009
ANTH 8559New Course in Anthropology (1 - 4)
New course in the subject of anthropology.
Course was offered Spring 2022
ANTH 8998Non-Topical Research, Preparation for Research (1 - 12)
Offered
Fall 2024
For master's research, taken before a thesis director has been selected.
ANTH 8999Non-Topical Research (1 - 12)
Offered
Fall 2024
For master's thesis, taken under the supervision of a thesis director.
ANTH 9010Directed Readings (1 - 12)
Offered
Fall 2024
Directed Readings
ANTH 9020Directed Readings (1 - 12)
Offered
Fall 2024
Directed Readings
ANTH 9050Research Practicum (1)
Offered
Fall 2024
Research Practicum
ANTH 9998Non-Topical Research, Preparation for Doctoral Research (1 - 12)
Offered
Fall 2024
For doctoral research, taken before a dissertation director has been selected.
ANTH 9999Non-Topical Research (1 - 12)
Offered
Fall 2024
For doctoral dissertation, taken under the supervision of a dissertation director.
Swahili
SWAH 1010Introductory Swahili I (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Prerequisite: limited or no previous knowledge of Swahili.
SWAH 1020Introductory Swahili II (3)
Prerequisite: SWAH 1010.
SWAH 1559New Course in Swahili (1 - 4)
New course in the subject of Swahili.
SWAH 2010Intermediate Swahili I (3)
Offered
Fall 2024
Develops skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing, and awareness of the cultural diversity of the Swahili-speaking areas of East Africa. Readings drawn from a range of literary and journalistic materials. Prerequisite: SWAH 1020
SWAH 2020Intermediate Swahili II (3)
Further develops skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing, and awareness of the cultural diversity of the Swahili-speaking areas of East Africa. Readings drawn from a range of literary and journalistic materials.
SWAH 2559New Course in Swahili (1 - 4)
New course in the subject of Swahili.