Courses in Anthropology

Biological anthropology studies the biological diversity of our species and the evolutionary history that has led us to our present condition. The course includes: (1) examination of the genetics underlying evolution and the mechanisms by which change occurs; (2) variation and adaptation among living humans; (3) living primate populations as keys to understanding our evolutionary past; and (4) human evolution. This course is designed to expose students to the breadth of biological anthropology and to prepare them for upper-level classes in anthropology and related disciplines. Enrollment is limited to first-year students and sophomores. This foundation course is required for upper-level work in biological anthropology courses. Offered every semester.

Today people increasingly live in highly industrialized and urban civilizations. But how long have humans had "civilization"? What is "civilization" and how can it be recognized? This course will address these questions, first, by looking at the basic elements of archaeology and its place in anthropology. Some of the topics we will cover include the history of archaeology, fundamental aspects of fieldwork and analysis and the prehistoric record from the first humans to the origins of civilization. This foundation course is required for upper-level work in archaeology courses. Offered every semester.

This course introduces students to the discipline that studies and compares other cultures. Students learn about the main concepts used in anthropology and how anthropologists conduct research, while also discovering how people live in other times and places. Students will learn about theories that provide frameworks for understanding and comparing cultures. Ethnographies descriptions of life in particular places give students factual materials with which to apply and critique such theories. Through this introduction to the study of culture in general, and an exposure to specific cultures, students inevitably come to re-examine some of the premises of their own culture. This foundation course is required for upper-level work in cultural anthropology courses. Offered every semester.

Our television "science" and "history" channels, as well as our bookstore shelves, are riddled with works claiming the discovery of lost Atlantis, attributing monuments to the lost tribe of Israel, explaining cultural developments as the result of contact with aliens, and loosely documenting routine sightings of Yetis, Bigfoots, Skinwalkers and Swamp Apes. Indeed, these have now become common entertainment themes in popular culture. But when entertainment themes become sources of knowledge they can be dangerous because they provide explanations of the world around us that pose as seemingly scientific knowledge. We live in a country where some 40 percent of the population does not accept the theory of human evolution. Concurrently, the state of Ohio has seen a rise in Bigfoot sightings that makes us the fifth "squatchiest" state in the nation. This course will examine how we know about the world around us and what passes for knowledge of a particular type. In the process, we will explore scientific literacy, pseudoscientific belief, anthropology's response to such pseudoscience, and its effects on our culture. This course is intended for non-majors. Enrollment limited to first-year students and sophomores. Offered every other year.

This course is an investigation of the issues, methods and history of the discipline of ethnomusicology. This course will focus on case studies drawn from different music genres and areas of the world that illustrate the complexities of considering music in its cultural contexts. Student work will involve close listening, engagement with cultural theory and practical fieldwork exercises, and will culminate in an individual field research project on a topic related to the course. This course must be taken as ANTH 206D to count towards the social science requirement. This counts towards the ethnomusicology requirement for the music major or elective for the minor and also as an elective for the anthropology major. Prerequisite: MUSC 102, 105 or 107 or ANTH 113. Offered three out of four years.

Never before in any period of history have so many people had access to so many mass-mediated images. Yet in spite of this proliferation, anthropology has been a recent newcomer to the study of mass media production, distribution and consumption as situated human activities. Uniquely suited to enter this discourse, an anthropological approach to mass media transcends the limitations of traditional media scholarship by paying closer attention to the broader social and political contexts in which they are embedded. This course endeavors to develop an anthropological understanding of contemporary forms of cultural communication and reception by analyzing the flow of media images across national borders; particular emphasis is given to the local impact of media culture in different parts of the world. Students will examine the role of mass media in forging national and ethnic identities, body images, sexuality and gender and experiences of war and violence. This counts as an elective for the major. ANTH 113 is strongly recommended. No prerequisite. Offered every two years.

This course will examine the ways in which Asians have been constituted in popular culture and have constituted themselves through popular culture. As such, it will be divided into two halves: the former will focus on "Asians in Popular Culture" while the latter will focus on "Popular Culture in Asia." Thus, we will juxtapose the racial representations of Asians and Asian Americans produced from the dominant mainstream with how Asian peoples have chosen to represent themselves to the rest of the world. We will begin with the "model minority myth" and then explore examples of anti-Asian sentiment, the ignominious legacy of Yellowface, the contrasting gendered depictions of Asian women vis-à-vis Asian men and cross-racial intersections. Case studies in the second half of the semester will include: South Korean films, television dramas and popular music, Japanese manga and anime Indonesian dangdut and Asian American independent media projects. The primary objective will be to challenge students to rethink the very notion of the popular and view popular culture not as something trivial but as a critical mode of production with racial, ethnic, political and economic ramifications. This counts as an elective for the major. Prerequisite: ANTH 113 is recommended. Offered every two years.

Humans often take for granted the spaces and places that frame our everyday lives. In this course we will “make the familiar strange” by asking: Why do most Americans live in square spaces? What would it be like to live in a cave? Can houses be spiritual places? In order to address these and other questions, we will explore how human habitats provide the very foundations of cultural practice and reproduction. This course takes a long-term perspective of humans and their habitats by starting our investigation in prehistory. We will explore social landscapes, dwellings and environments across different cultures, time and space. Our survey will include contemporary habitats as well as ancient dwellings and a consideration of sacred structures such as shrines and temples. This course emphasizes the form and meaning of architecture, its role in cultural formation processes, and explores long-term changes in how humans relate to their habitats and dwellings. As the material manifestations of culture and he building blocks of societies, having a place to dwell recursively makes us human while shaping us into bearers of culture. No prerequisite. Offered every fall semester.

Music is deeply embedded in many forms of individual and cultural identity. This upper-level seminar examines the relationship of music to notions of cultural rights and human rights. Using case studies from a variety of music cultures, we will explore topics such as music censorship, music and warfare, music and disability, and music and AIDS awareness, among others. Engaging with literature from ethnomusicology, anthropology and other social sciences we will explore the following questions: What roles do music and related forms of expressive culture play in notions of human rights? Who owns music? Who has the right to transform music? What are the artistic, political and economic reasons for these transformations? What are their implications? What constitutes a cultural-rights violation? What role, if any, should regulatory agencies have with regard to monitoring cultural rights? This course is the same as MUSC 310D. This course must be taken as ANTH 310D to count towards the social science requirement. This counts as an elective for the music major and minor. This counts as an upper-level course in cultural anthropology. Prerequisite: ANTH 113 or MUSC 102, 105 or 107 and permission of instructor. Offered every other year.

This seminar will explore the relationship of music and film, with a focus on ethnographic film and ethnographic filmmaking. How does our understanding of music inform our experience of film? How, in turn, does our immersion in film and its conventions inform our understanding of different music? How are such conventions localized and expanded in different cultural settings? How does ethnographic film both react against, and make use of, other stylistic conventions of filmmaking in achieving its ends? Practical exercises in ethnographic filmmaking (and their analysis) during the semester will lead towards ethnographic, historical or analytical projects. This counts as an elective for the music major and minor. This counts as an upper-level course in cultural anthropology. This course must be taken as ANTH 312D to count towards the social science requirement. Prerequisite: MUSC 102, 105 or 107 or ANTH 113. Offered every other year.

This course investigates the central role food plays in human biology and culture. We will explore food from an evolutionary perspective, examining nutritional variations in subsistence strategies ranging from foraging to industrial societies. Students will come to understand that food is a cultural construction as we look at the symbolism and utilization of food from a cross-cultural perspective. Finally, utilizing a biocultural perspective, we will combine our understanding of biology and culture to see the effects of social, political and economic issues on human nutrition. Nutritional anthropology uses a variety of methods, ranging from ethnographic techniques to methods in biological anthropology for assessing the effect of nutrition on human biology. Throughout the semester students will become familiar with nutritional anthropology's varied approaches. This counts as an upper-level course in biological and cultural anthropology. Prerequisite: ANTH 111, 112 or 113 or permission of instructor. Offered every year.

This course examines anatomical, behavioral, and genetic similarities and differences among living primates and humans, and the evidence for human evolution as reconstructed from the fossil record. Living primates will be studied as potential models for early hominin adaptation and behavior. The purpose of the course is to understand anatomical and behavioral adaptations of hominins and other primates both today and in the past, and to situate these adaptations in a larger ecological framework. This upper-level course assumes a basic knowledge of the fossil evidence for human evolution and some background in evolutionary theory. Prerequisite: ANTH 111 or permission of instructor. Offered every other year.

Africa is a vast continent with an incredibly diverse set of people and cultures. This course demonstrates the complexity and depth of sub-Saharan Africa's past through the exploration of human skeletal and archaeological evidence. Most people are aware that Africa is the birthplace of our species, and we will begin our journey by exploring human origins and technological innovations. Unfortunately, other cultural complexities such as emergence of food production, indigenous states and the development of long-distance trade are usually attributed only to Egyptian civilization. This course seeks to fill in the missing details of innovation and complexity for the rest of the continent by discussing the evidence for a vast array of societies in sub-Saharan Africa's past. This counts as an upper-level bioanth or archaeology requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ANTH 111 or 112 or permission of instructor. Offered every other year.

Although biological anthropology relies heavily on an evolutionary perspective, it is also concerned with understanding the interactions between human biology and culture. This biocultural perspective seeks to appreciate how humans adapt to their environment through a combination of biological, cultural and physiological adjustments. We will explore how humans adapt to a wide variety of environmental factors, including high altitudes, climates, nutrition and disease. The emphasis of the course will be on understanding our biological and cultural responses to stress and the contexts in which these can be adaptive or maladaptive. This counts as an upper-level bioanth or cultural requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ANTH 111, 112 or 113. Offered every other year.

This course focuses on the application of human skeletal and morphological data to various interpretive problems (descriptive, comparative and analytic) in biological anthropology. Topics include basic human skeletal and dental anatomy; determination of age, sex and stature; developmental and pathological anomalies; osteometric methods and techniques; various comparative statistical methods; and problems of ethics, excavation, restoration and preservation. The course also includes an examination of representative research studies that utilize the above data and methods. Thiscounts as an upper-level bioanth requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ANTH 111 or permission of instructor. Offered every other year.

Within anthropology, the life history has long been recognized as an important vehicle for learning about how culture is experienced and created by individuals. This seminar seeks to develop a better understanding of the research method known as life history, and of its attendant beliefs and limitations in diverse social and cultural contexts. The course will also address how people experience categories of difference such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, age, religion and geographic location along with their relevance to personal identity. Equally important, this is a "learning by doing" course, as it will attempt to bridge theories of self-narrative with cultural anthropological research methods. Students will experience firsthand the theoretical, methodological and ethical issues involved in collecting life histories. By undertaking individual projects, each student will learn to organize and conduct life history interviews, record them, transcribe them, edit them and present them in written form. The goal is to explore the multiple stages involved in transforming a narrative life into an inscribed text. This counts as an upper-level cultural requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ANTH 113 or permission of instructor. Course offered every other year.

The primary goal of this course is to separate the public perception and mythology of the "Indian" from the divergent experiences and everyday reality of Native Americans. A thematic approach will be applied to this study, and topics such as history, film, language, spirituality, commercialism, appropriation, subsistence and sovereignty will be explored in some detail and from a variety of perspectives. Through a survey of various tribal groups, students will analyze some of the major concepts, methods and theories used in anthropological studies of Native American cultures; assess the impact that stereotypes, biological and cultural interaction with non-Indians, and urbanization have had on Indian identity; and appreciate the richness and complexity of Native American life as it was and continues to be lived in diverse ways and in different places in North America.This counts as an upper-level cultural anthropology requirement for the major. ANTH 113 is recommended but not required. Offered every third year.

Central America is the home of some easily recognizable ethnic groups, such as the Mayas and Kunas, but there are other, less well-known peoples. After considering what ethnicity might or might not be, we will learn about a number of groups: Mayas, Garifunas, suppressed Native American groups in El Salvador and Nicaragua, Black Creoles, and immigrants from the Levant who are known as Arabes. Studying these groups will help us understand the hidden ethnic tensions sometimes cloaked by national assertions of mestizo identity. This counts as an upper-level cultural anthropology requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ANTH 113 and permission of instructor. Offered every other year.

In popular thought, sex is about "the birds and the bees" and "doing what comes naturally." Yet anthropology teaches us that for human beings, the natural is the cultural. Based on that premise, this course looks for cultural patterns in sexual belief and behavior. We begin with an examination of the evolution of sexuality. Is sexuality or sexual behavior expressed the same way by all peoples? Why do humans avoid incest? To what extent are gender roles biologically determined? Are sexually transmitted diseases primarily biological or social problems? How do sexual norms reflect sociocultural adaptations? These are just some of the questions we will confront in this course as we examine the functional and structural significance of sexual behaviors in the sociocultural milieu. This counts as an upper-level cultural anthropology requirement for the major. Permission of instructor required. No prerequisite. Offered every year.

Archaeologists often grapple with how their interpretations affect contemporary communities, some of whom are descended from the ancient populations whose material remains we excavate. In recent years, archaeologists have started to reframe their practice as a means by which to benefit living people, including descendent and local non-descendent groups. How and why should archaeologists interact with local people or descendent communities? Can archaeology contribute to social justice and social change? How can archaeologists effectively communicate with students and the public? This class will address these and other questions through an examination of recent efforts by archaeologists around the world to decolonize the discipline and involve stakeholders in archaeological research. Students will put these ideas into practice by designing and implementing archaeology education activities at Science and Play Intersect (SPI), a science education nonprofit in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Satisfies the upper-level course requirement for anthropology majors and minors in either archaeology or cultural anthropology. Prerequisite: ANTH 112 or permission of instructor. Offered in the spring semester.

Medical anthropology is an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the influences of both biology and culture on the human experience of disease. This course introduces students to the anthropological study of disease ecology and medical systems in other cultures. We will explore the role of disease in humans from an evolutionary perspective, noting the influence that culture, ecology, economy, history and politics have had in the past as well as the present. In addition, we will look at the efficacy and nature of both non-Western and Western ethnomedical systems and the cultural and psychodynamic features of illness. Throughout this course we will examine the application of a medical anthropological perspective in developing sensitivity for cultural and biological variation within the United States and abroad. This course fulfills the upper-level bioanth or cultural requirement. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. Offered occasionally.

What makes a good leader? Do the powerful manipulate ritual? How did social inequality start? This course will address these and other questions through an examination of ancient civilizations in Mesoamerica. Mesoamerica refers to a geographical area--spanning present-day Southern Mexico and Northern Central America--occupied by a variety of ancient cultures that shared religious, art, architecture and technology. We will analyze the rise of complex society in this diverse and vibrant region, from the domestication of corn and other agricultural staples to the seeds of social inequality and the rise of powerful leaders. In particular, we will focus on how ideology and ritual both sanctioned and fostered political and ritual economies throughout Mesoamerica. Drawing on examples from the Olmec, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec cultural groups, we will analyze the relationship between ideology and power and how it affected the lived experience of Mesoamerican peoples. We will consider topics such as social and political organization, economy and trade, gender and everyday life. The final days of the course will examine contemporary Indigenous issues in the region, linking archaeology and heritage to language revitalization, land rights struggles and political autonomy. More than just a cultural overview of a geographic region, students will come away from this class with the ability to critically evaluate ideological strategies and a distinct appreciation for the material heritage of Mesoamerican descendant communities. This course satisfies the upper-level course requirement for archaeology. Prerequisite: ANTH 112 or permission of instructor. Offered every other year.

Neanderthals. Dull, dim-witted, hairy, beetle-browed, stooped, savage, primitive and dragging a woman by the hair. These are among the images elicited from students in introductory anthropology classes when asked to describe our closest relative on the human family tree. Is this image accurate? Did Neanderthals really have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time? This course will examine in detail the archaeological and paleontological evidence that informs us about Neanderthal behaviors and capabilities as well as the intellectual climate in which this information is interpreted. Topics covered will include the popular images of Neanderthals through time, functional morphology of the skeleton, dietary reconstruction, settlement patterns and site use. This course fulfills the upper-level bioanth or archaeology requirement. Prerequisite: ANTH 111 or 112 and permission of instructor. Offered every other year.

In this course we will look first at how the concepts of "race" and "ethnicity" have been defined within anthropology, particularly American anthropology. Does "race" exist? Why, or why not, are "race" and "ethnicity" the same? In exploring these questions, we will examine both bioanthropological and sociocultural approaches to these terms. Next, we will look at a variety of groups within the United States that are known as races or ethnic groups: Native Americans; Hispanics/Latinos; Americans of Asian descent; and those of us whose ancestors came, in colonial times or later, from Africa. Lest we forget that even white people have "race" and "ethnicity," we will look at a new trend in cultural anthropology, whiteness studies. Here we will discuss how various immigrant groups have "become white" and consider current ideas about the meaning of "whiteness." The course will use readings, films and television as materials for study and discussion; students will be responsible for presentations on various groups, as well as for choosing some of the audiovisual materials. This counts as an upper-level cultural anthropology requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ANTH 113 and junior standing. Offered occasionally.

This course will provide hands-on experience with some research methods that cultural anthropologists use. Participant observation, interviews and note taking are standard methods, and we will consider how to organize and access qualitative data through electronic database management. We will pay some attention to quantitative methods as well, including statistical inference based on methods such as unobtrusive observation or survey questionnaires. The difficulties of designing a good questionnaire and of becoming a perceptive interviewer or observer are best learned through practice. Students will be required to carry out a research project, from literature search and project design to writing and possibly publishing the results. Only by actually attempting primary research ourselves do we realize just how difficult it is to make statements about human ideas and behaviors that stand up to scientific scrutiny. It is only through such research, however, that we can contribute to knowledge. This counts as an upper-level cultural anthropology requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ANTH 113 or permission of instructor. Offered every other year.

Beginning with the Age of Discovery, developing through the periods of conquest and colonization, and continuing into the present, anthropology has embodied as well as defined the Western world's experience with "other" peoples and cultures. Within this broad historical context, this course investigates the emergence and definition of anthropology as a discipline by focusing on significant theoretical issues and "schools" of thought (e.g., evolutionism, functionalism, materialism and structuralism); biographical and intellectual portraits of several major figures who were instrumental in formulating these issues; and continuing controversies in the elucidation of certain fundamental principles (e.g., "culture," "relativism," and "the primitive"). This capstone course is required for the major. Prerequisite: senior standing. Offered every year.

So few Americans (and so few academics) have actually read the works of Marx. Generally speaking, if you say Marx, you elicit the response communism. To the general population, communism means totalitarian government and the specter of the loss of personal freedoms. To many academics, it means the denial of free will and of ideological freedoms. As a result, the work of Marx is equated with evil intention, is ignored, or is tossed off as a brand of defunct functionalism. It is as if anti-Marxism has become a part of our habitus. There are two bodies of work by the 19th-century social thinker Karl Marx. Many of us have come to unreflectively equate all of his work with the most broadly known one --that part which follows in the tradition of unilineal thinkers of his time and the notion of a series of unfolding social forms along a regular and predictable pathway. Like other unilineal evolutionary imaginaries, that work (most evident in Marx and Engels' The Communist Manifesto) has been largely uninteresting to 20th and 21st century anthropologists. And, in our fear of the varieties of communism that we have witnessed, we assume that they are all true to Marx's vision of history, a questionable notion to be sure. His other body of work (and the subject of this seminar) is that of a social historian who suggested that we can understand human history as a product of social relations made real in modes of production and exchange. This course examines the renewed significance and continuing relevance of that theoretical work for anthropology in the 21st century. We will, of course, read Marx, but then follow with works by Eric Wolf, William Roseberry, Sidney Mintz, David Harvey and Michael Taussig as we explore how Marxian anthropology looks at the relationship between history and sociocultural continuity and change. Permission of instructor required.

Questions of identity, ethnicity and social boundaries are fundamental to anthropological archaeology, yet they are among the most difficult to address using archaeological data. In this course we will use new theoretical and methodological approaches to examine how groups define themselves, how group identities are formed and how we can recognize them in the archaeological record. This class will begin with a consideration of the terms "identity," "ethnicity" and "ethnic group," after which we will examine case studies of particular groups, looking at questions of identity formation and maintenance and their archaeological correlates. Although we will draw most of the case studies from the pre-Columbian Americas (North, Central and South), we will also examine identity formation in the Old World. This course should be of particular interest to majors in anthropology (especially those with a concentration in archaeology), sociology and international studies (Latin American Concentration). This counts as an upper-level archaeology or cultural anthropology requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ANTH 112. Offered occasionally.

The Anthropology Department reserves individual study for those students who are unusually motivated in an area of the field and who we believe are responsible enough to handle the challenge of working independently. Such courses might be research-oriented (e.g., students returning from off-campus study programs with data) but are more commonly reading-oriented courses allowing students to explore in greater depth topics that interest them or that overlap with their major course of study. To arrange for individual study, a student should consult with a faculty member during the semester prior to when the independent work is to be undertaken. The individual-study course may be designed exclusively by the faculty member or it may be designed in consultation with the student. For reading courses, a bibliography is created, and the student reads those works, meeting periodically (weekly or bi-weekly) with the faculty member to discuss them. Faculty directing the individual study will set the terms of course evaluation, which typically involve either a research paper or an extensive annotated bibliography with a short explanatory essay tying the entries together and situating the debates which they represent. Another option is for the student to write one- to two-page assessments of each book or reading at intervals throughout the semester. The faculty member comments on these assessments and may request periodic reassessments. The course culminates with a synthetic paper that pulls together all the readings. This course can be used toward credit for the major or minor. Because students must enroll for individual studies by the end of the seventh class day of each semester, they should begin discussion of the proposed individual study preferably the semester before, so that there is time to devise the proposal and seek the departmental approval before the registrar's deadline.

This course is for students pursuing departmental honors. Prerequisite: permission of instructor and department chair.

This course is for students pursuing departmental honors. Prerequisite: permission of instructor and department chair.