Anthropology Course Offerings (CAS Bulletin)

PRINCIPLES

Human Society and Culture
V14.0001  Abercrombie, Beidelman, Dávila, Ganti, Grant, Khan, Myers, Rapp, Rogers, Siu. 4 points.
General aims, methods, and findings of modern cultural anthropology and its ties with the humanities and social sciences. Economic, political, and family organizations and systems of thought, including religion, are covered with equal attention to “primitive,” traditional, and modern complex societies, particularly non-Western societies.

Human Evolution
V14.0002  Laboratories. Antón, Bailey, Di Fiore, Disotell, Harrison, Jolly. 4 points.
Investigates the evolutionary origins of humans. The study of human evolution is a multidisciplinary endeavor involving a synthesis of concepts, techniques, and research findings from a variety of different scientific fields, including evolutionary biology, paleontology, primatology, comparative anatomy, genetics, molecular biology, geology, and archaeology. Explores the different contributions that scientists have made toward understanding human origins and provides a detailed survey of the evidence used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of our own species.

Archaeology: Early Societies and Cultures
V14.0003  Laboratories. Crabtree, White, Wright. 4 points.
Introduces contemporary archaeology, its theories, practices, and early societies and cultures. Examines current methodological and theoretical viewpoints of archaeological scholarship within the discipline of anthropology. Focuses on key transformations in cultural evolution, such as the origins of modern humans, the emergence of food production, and the development of complex societies, urbanism, and early states. Explores gender roles, landscapes and settlements, technologies, art, cognitive systems, urbanism, and state formation.

Anthropology of Language
V14.0017  Identical to V18.0703. Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors only. Kulick, Schieffelin. 4 points.
Explores the role of language in culture and society by focusing on gender, ethnicity, social class, verbal genres, literacy, and worldview.

INTEGRATING PERSPECTIVES

History of Anthropology
V14.0045  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Abercrombie, Beidelman, Dávila, Martin, Myers, Rapp, Rogers, Siu. 4 points.
The discipline’s history illustrates problems common to many aspects of humanistic and social thought: the philosophical problem of the “other” or the “exotic,” as well as evolution and the nature of human nature.

SPECIAL COURSES

Special Seminar in Anthropology I, II
V14.0800,0801  Open only to honors majors and other senior majors in cultural or linguistic anthropology who have the permission of the director of undergraduate studies. 4 points per term.

Honors Research I, II
V14.0950,0951  Open only to honors majors who have the permission of the director of undergraduate studies and the instructor. May be taken in either order. 4 points per term.

Internship
V14.0980,0981  Open only to majors and outstanding students who have the permission of the director of undergraduate studies and the instructor, who will act as supervisor. 2 to 4 points per term.

Opportunities for students to gain practical work experience sponsored by selected institutions, agencies, and research laboratories are negotiated with the internship sponsor, a departmental supervisor, and the student. Requirements may vary but include 8 to 12 hours of fieldwork per week, regular meetings with the departmental supervisor, and assignments relevant to the internship experience. Student initiation of internship placement is encouraged.

Independent Study
V14.0997,0998  Prerequisite: permission of the instructor and the director of undergraduate studies. 2 or 4 points per term; 6 or 8 points in exceptional cases.

CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology and Classical Studies
V14.0016  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Beidelman. 4 points.
Examines the ways in which anthropology has been employed by classical scholars to understand the society, beliefs, literature, and arts of ancient Greece. Reviews relevant works by anthropologists, sociologists, historians, philosophers, and literary critics, indicating both the advantages and the dangers of interdisciplinary research.

Slavery in Anthropological Perspective: Africa and the Ancient World
V14.0018  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Beidelman. 4 points.
Surveys basic anthropological and sociological issues posed by the institution of slavery in Africa and ancient Greece and Rome, including problems of the change from simpler to more complex societies and economies; definitions of person, gender, race, work, and ethnicity; and the relations of ideology and cultural boundaries.

African Literature
V14.0020  Identical to V18.0775. Prerequisite: V14.0001. Beidelman. 4 points.
Compares traditional oral literature and the writings of the colonial and postcolonial periods. Discussion of problems of translation, cultural relativity, and the search for identity as revealed through novels, poetry, and theatre.

Anthropology of Religion
V14.0030  Prerequisite: V14.0001. Abercrombie, Beidelman, Myers, Zito. 4 points.
Examines the cultural nature of basic beliefs and values manifested in both simple and complex societies. Discussion of time and space, causality, myth, prophecy and divination, witchcraft and magic, and mysticism.

Witchcraft: An Anthropological Approach
V14.0031  Prerequisite: V14.0001. Beidelman. 4 points.
Examines witchcraft through interdisciplinary study, including how theories of causation and reality are modified by culture and society and the way that social theorists have judged witchcraft in relation to social stability, conflict, and change. Considers both nonliterate, non-Western examples and cases from Europe and New England where historians have made extensive use of anthropological techniques.

Conversations in Everyday Life
V14.0032  Prerequisite: V14.0001. Schieffelin. 4 points.
Investigates the role conversation plays in the lives of those living in culturally and linguistically diverse urban communities, with particular focus on speech in medical, work, and school settings, where miscommunication frequently occurs.

Salvation and Revolution
V14.0034  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or one other social science course. Beidelman, Myers. 4 points.
Examines revolutionary movements in both traditional and industrial societies in terms of how violence, coercion, prophecy, and radical thought impel social change. Analyzes utopian communities, prophetic movements, cargo cults, religious sects, and terrorism from various social scientific perspectives.

Medical Anthropology
V14.0035  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Martin, Rapp. 4 points.
Analyzes medical beliefs and practices in African, Asian, and Latin American societies. Studies the coexistence of different kinds of medical specialists (for example, shamans, herbalists, bonesetters, midwives, and physicians trained in indigenous and cosmopolitan medicine), with particular reference to the structures of health resources available to laymen and problems of improving health care.

Family and Kinship
V14.0041  Identical to V18.0705. Prerequisite: V14.0001. Abercrombie, Beidelman, Ginsburg, Khan, Martin, Myers, Rapp, Rogers. 4 points.
Examines beliefs and practices involving the family, marriage, and sexuality and how these relate to varying systems of dominance and control. Discusses different cultural views of biology. Although primary emphasis is on non-Western cultures, comparisons are developed with Western ones.

Myth and Symbol
V14.0047  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. 4 points.
Traces change in themes and styles of myth interpretation during the 20th century. Anthropologists derive meaning from the narrative contents of myth, from its social and ritual functions, and from its form or structural relations among elements.

Cultural Symbols
V14.0048  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Abercrombie, Beidelman, Ginsburg, Kulick, Myers. 4 points.
Surveys the various symbolic systems employed by the world’s people, considering their use in myth, ritual, literature, and art, and the kinds of anthropological theories applied to explain their power and forms. Approaches theory through case studies, providing a diverse view of world cultures. Uses materials from all continents; emphasizes non-Western, nonliterate societies, though some material from the West is also used.

Peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa: Culture and International Studies
V14.0101  Identical to V18.0776. Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Beidelman. 4 points.
Surveys the societies and cultures of Africa. Divided between accounts of traditional ways of life, the history of colonial contact with Europe, and consideration of life in contemporary African states. Involves anthropological studies as well as historical works, novels, and autobiographies, many by African authors. African material is related to broader issues of social theory, ethnicity, social change, and the ties between culture, society, and values.

Peoples of the Caribbean: Culture and International Studies
V14.0102  Identical to V18.0777. Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Khan. 4 points.
Provides a unifying anthropological perspective for comparing Hispanic and Afro-Creole Caribbean societies, reviewing how Caribbean colonial experiences have structured differences in the race, class, and ethnic/national identities of the peoples living in these two Caribbean traditions. Examines how this resulted in different cultural forms and ideological orientations as the cultural legacies of the various peoples of the Caribbean underwent processes of creolization. Addresses issues of identity and empowerment in relation to Caribbean diaspora, tourism, and efforts to develop Pan-Caribbean institutions and a Pan-Caribbean consciousness.

Peoples of Latin America: Culture and International Studies
V14.0103  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Abercrombie, Rosaldo. 4 points.
Surveys Latin American societies and cultures, placing special emphasis on class, ethnicity, and nationhood. Examines some of the fundamental characteristics of Ibero-American civilization both in its historical development and in its transformations across a variety of regional and class contexts. Discusses the complex interrelationships between country and city and between “popular” and “elite” culture by examining ethnographic case material and a few general interpretative works.

Peoples of India
V14.0104  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Ganti. 4 points.
Examines the main ideas and contributions that make India one of the world’s enduring civilizations. Contrasts India’s contributions to civilization and the West with the impact of Islam, colonialism, and the West on India. The course considers caste and untouchability, the Vedas and modern sects, parliamentary democracy and population, and Indians in the United States.

Peoples of Southeast Asia
V14.0105  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Ganti. 4 points.
Southeast Asia has figured prominently in the concerns of Americans and Europeans from the trade in the Spice Islands (not Indonesia) to the war in Vietnam and its aftermath. This area is one of the most complicated and interesting areas of the world to study because several major world civilizations have contributed to the development of the area over a period of many centuries, yet the civilizations developed there are distinctive and syncretic. An interdisciplinary approach is taken in presenting this material in an attempt to integrate the ideas of anthropologists, historians, political scientists, economists, and linguists concerned with the area.

Peoples of Europe: Culture and International Studies
V14.0111  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Abercrombie, Rogers. 4 points.
Explores cultural systems and social structures in modern European societies. Provides an introduction to the insights to be gained from an anthropological perspective on Western complex societies. Uses ethnographic literature on Western and Mediter-ranean Europe to examine issues such as ethnic and national identity, social dimensions of economic change, gender and family organization, and ritual and religious behavior.

Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality
V14.0112  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Abercrombie, Beidelman, Ginsburg, Kulick, Martin, Rapp, Siu. 4 points.
Compares women's and men's experiences, activities, resources, powers, and symbolic significance as they vary within and between societies. Social and historical approaches in the analysis of how gender relations are affected by major social transformations. Emphasis on such changes as gender roles, current transnational migrations, social movements, international relations, and the role of the military in a variety of world societies.

Transcultural Cinema
V14.0122  Formerly Ethnography and Film. Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Ginsburg. 4 points.
Explores the impact of forms anthropologists use on our understanding of other cultures. Focuses on the use of film and its relationship to theory, method, and substance of anthropology. Moving images and text from a wide range of geographic areas are compared to evaluate their differences as modes of ethnographic description. Discusses challenges to dominant text of the 1980s and the emergence of new social/cultural subjects represented in the 1990s, including innovations in genres.

Anthropology of Media
V14.0123  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Ganti. 4 points.
Uses an anthropological approach to the study of media in the contemporary world, with a special emphasis on the representation of cultures and cultural difference in documentary and feature film. Explores the fundamental role of media in the rise of modern societies and in contemporary globalization. Introduces some of the main analytic frameworks and theoretical debates through which media have been understood over the years and reconsiders them in light of ethnographic and cross-cultural studies of media production and distribution, as well as reception and exhibition practices. Pays particular attention to indigenous media, the function media has played in the creation of new forms of political and cultural activism, and the role of media within global tourism.

Anthropology of Art
V14.0125  Prerequisite: V14.0001. To be given every two or three years. 4 points.
Introduces students to the "classic" literature within the anthropology of art, charts the development and interests of this sub-discipline of anthropology, and uses this material to develop an "anthropological" perspective on art that can be used as a key form of critical inquiry into diverse art forms even those not conventionally explored in the history of anthropology. The starting point for the anthropology of art is to ask "What is art?" in comparative cultural perspective. Analyzes, among other things, the idea of aesthetics in cross-cultural context; the notion of style; the relation between art, technology, and skill; the entanglement of primitivism and modernity; the role of class and taste in appreciating art; art and value in the marketplace; art and museum practice; tourist art and the value of authenticity; and colonial and postcolonial art.

Religion and Media
V14.0220  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Zito. 4 points.
Introduces students to the longstanding and complex connection between religious practices and various media. Analyzes how human hearing, vision, and the performing body have been used historically to express and maintain religious life through music, voice, images, words, and rituals. Spends time on more recent electronic media such as cassette, film, television, video, and the Internet. Students should note that an anthropological/historical perspective on studying religion is pursued in the course.

Current Issues in Social and Cultural Anthropology I, II
V14.0320,0321  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. 4 points per term.
Analyzes and assesses selected key current issues in the discipline theoretically, politically, and epistemologically. See the department’s current internal catalog.

Race, "Difference," and Social Inequality
V14.0323  Prerequisite: V14.0001. To be given in spring 2009 and every other year thereafter. 4 points.
Human beings have always grappled with some notion of identity, asking questions about who they are, about how "others" distinguished from themselves, and about the ways that perceived similarities and differences are meaningful and important (or not) in social relationships. This course examines how historical, social, and cultural contexts shape the forms that identities take, looking in particular at ideas about race and racial identity. We work with two premises: (1) race must be understood in relation to other identity categories: gender, class, sexuality, ethnicity, and so on; (2) race is expressed in both obvious and subtle ways, and thus racial identity is implicit as well as explicitly expressed. We also consider whether race must necessarily be understood as stigma. In addition to anthropological texts, we discuss nonfiction, fiction, and films, and the class may visit public exhibitions.

Reimagining Community: Race, Nation, and the Politics of Belonging
V14.0325  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Siu. 4 points.
Critically examines and evaluates the various approaches to studying and interpreting different community formations. Examines different notions of “community” through a variety of disciplinary lenses. Readings are drawn from anthropology, history, feminist studies, cultural studies, ethnic studies, and philosophy. Students are encouraged to examine these texts as theoretical representations of “community,” as well as historically embedded artifacts that are part of the larger machinery in the production of knowledge.

Language and Law
V14.0329  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Schieffelin. 4 points.
Arguments and conflicts are part of everyday life, and language is central to both their instigation and resolution. This course explores how speakers ranging from small children to litigants in courts attempt to settle their differences. Comparative materials are used to illustrate theories of disputes and dispute resolution and to examine the power of language and the language of power in a variety of settings (such as mediation, arbitration, and trials). Class includes fieldwork trips to small claims court. Students tape-record cases and transcribe and analyze them according to different analytic perspectives. Bilingual students are encouraged to focus on cases that use interpreters.

Gender, Violence, and the Law
V14.0330  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Merry. 4 points.
Examines the global prevalence of gender violence and the varied meanings of violence against women and changes in terminology over time. Examines ways of theorizing gender and violence, including performative ideas of gender. The creation of gender violence as a social problem is a product of social movements in the United States, Europe, India, and many other parts of the world. It is now understood globally as an important human rights violation. Also examines the forms of intervention that have been developed in the United States and globally for diminishing violence against women, including policing, prosecution, and punishment.

Human Rights and Culture
V14.0331  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or V62.0001. To be given once a year. 4 points.
This course offers an overview of the human rights system, looking at its basic elements and studying how it works. It focuses on the relationships between human rights and culture. Human rights campaigns frequently encounter resistance in the name of protecting cultural differences. This is particularly common with issues concerning women, children, and the family. This course explores several issues which raise questions of human rights and culture, such as female genital cutting, honor killing, trafficking of persons, and indigenous people's rights to culture. Using these examples, we consider how the human rights system deals with tensions between global standards and local ways of life. It examines the meanings of rights and of culture in these debates and shows the implications of adopting an anthropological analysis of these situations. The goal of the course is developing an understanding of human rights in practice.

Body, Gender, and Belief in China
V14.0350  Identical to V90.0350. Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Zito. 4 points.
Provides an extended and historical exploration of categories basic to social life, such as gender, body, and family. Examines the images of family and positions of women in the classics; factors in ritualist and Taoist notions of body; and discusses changes in the practices of filiality over time. Analyses of secondary monographs are combined with work in primary sources.

Belief and Social Life in China
V14.0351  Identical to V90.0351. Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Zito. 4 points.
The Chinese word for “religion” means “teaching.” This course explores what Chinese people “taught” themselves about the person, society, and the natural world and thus how social life was constructed and maintained. Examines in historical perspective the classic texts of the Taoist and Confucian canon and their synthesis and Buddhist, especially Ch’an (Zen), practices in China. Discusses the practices of filiality in Buddhism, Confucian orthodoxy, and folk religion.

Transnationalism and Anthropology
V14.0400  Prerequisite: V14.0001 or permission of the instructor. Ganti, Khan, Siu. 4 points.
Examines what is considered “new” in ongoing reconstruction of world order and its accompanying disorder. Also examines how this changes the ways people earn their livelihoods; how cultures are transmitted and hybridized; how migrating populations maintain connections to their homelands; how group identities are constructed and asserted; and how social movements around newly politicized issues arise. Discusses changing roles of nation-states and the growing significance of transnational, diasporic, and globalized social relations and cultural forms.

Culture through Food
V14.0410  Prerequisite: V14.0001. To be given every two or three semesters. 4 points.
This course explores some of the ways that people use food, cuisines, and eating to organize and engage with social worlds. This focus provides a concrete means for deepening our understanding of alternative models of social explanation. Drawing on ethnographic material from a wide range of cultures, as well as feature films and our own observations and interviews, we consider topics such as the material dimensions of food production, distribution, and consumption (e.g., how food scarcity or abundance shapes collective possibilities, expectations, values; the causes, consequences, forms and myths of globalization) and the cultural meanings and social distinctions encoded in food practices (e.g., how food is used cross-culturally as a marker of social identity - class, gender, ethnicity - and source of meaning - nostalgia, anxiety, and so on).

ARCHAEOLOGY

Prehistoric Hunters and Gatherers
V14.0210  Prerequisite: V14.0003 or permission of the instructor. Crabtree. 4 points.
Examines the origin and early development of culture in the Old and New Worlds. Utilizes archaeological materials from the Paleolithic and Mesolithic period of Africa; from Eurasia; and from the Paleo-Indian, Woodland, and Archaic periods of North America. Examines these materials against a background of related evidence from physical anthropology and ethnology.

First Cities and States
V14.0211  Formerly Rise and Fall of Civilization. Prerequisite: V14.0003 or permission of the instructor. Crabtree, Wright. 4 points.
Considers two distinct processes: (1) the origins of food production and consequent development of domesticated plants and animals, and (2) the trend toward increasing social, political, and economic complexity that culminates in early states. Several independent examples of each process from both the Old and New Worlds. Special attention to the various theories that have been advanced to account for such developments.

Prehistoric Art and Symbolic Evolution
V14.0212  Prerequisite: V14.0001, V14.0003, or permission of the instructor. White. 4 points.
Examines prehistoric art forms, their interpretation, and their evolutionary and behavioral significance. Introduces students to Stone Age art, its form, contents, and chronological evolution. Also employs more recent prehistoric case studies. Reviews and assesses competing interpretive frameworks, with emphasis on understanding the social and ideological context within which the art was produced and comprehended.

Current Issues in Archaeological Anthropology I, II
V14.0213,0214  Prerequisite: V14.0003. Open only to majors in anthropology who have permission of the director of undergraduate studies and the instructor. Crabtree, White, Wright. 4 points per term.
This seminar explores, theoretically and methodologically, selected key current issues and problems in archaeological anthropology. See the department’s internal catalog.

Archaeological Theory and Technique
V14.0215  Prerequisite: V14.0003 or permission of the instructor. Crabtree, White, Wright. 4 points.
Considers both current and past theoretical developments in archaeology, with special attention to the role of innovations in analytical technique as they relate to these developments. Theoretical approaches to the economy, technology, and organization of hunter-gatherers; early agriculturalists; gender differences; and complex societies. Examines research design, sampling problems, chronometric methods, analysis of paleoenvironments, and typology in terms of modern understanding as well as historical perspective.

Surveys of Regional Prehistory I: Egypt and the Near East
V14.0216.001  Prerequisite: V14.0003 or permission of the instructor. Wright. 4 points.
Introduces the archaeology of the Near East and Egypt. Examines the archaeological evidence for two major transformations: the origins of food production (the domestication of plants and animals) and the development of cities and states. Focuses primarily on the Tigris and Euphrates and Nile Valleys, but other contiguous regions also are considered. Emphasizes the cultural history of the two regions and how these changes influenced the development of increasingly complex social organization and our present understanding of urbanism and state-level societies.

Surveys of Regional Prehistory II: Prehistoric Europe to the End of the Ice Age
V14.0216.002  Prerequisite: V14.0003 or permission of the instructor. White. 4 points.
Prehistories of selected culture areas. Emphasizes the theoretical and methodological foundations of archaeology within a culture area as reconstructed through archaeological methods. The choice of region varies with the interests of individual instructors.

Barbarian Europe
V14.0217  Formerly Later Prehistoric Europe: From the End of the Ice Age to the Coming of the Romans. Prerequisite: V14.0003 or permission of the instructor. Crabtree. 4 points.
Between the end of the Ice Age and the expansion of the Roman Empire, temperate Europe witnessed a series of social and economic transformations that represented a transition from a hunting and gathering way of life to urban chiefdoms. Along the way, these hunter-gatherers became agriculturalists and stockherders, learned to use metals, and developed social structures as complex as any found in Old World civilizations. This course examines changes in later prehistoric Europe from about 8000 B.C.E. to the arrival of the Romans.

African Archaeology
V14.0218  Prerequisite: V14.0003. To be given every two or three years. 4 points.
Africa plays a central role in our understanding of human evolution, the prehistory of our species, and the development of complex societies. This class explores the experiences of ancient human populations in Africa, using evidence drawn from archaeology as well as history, ethnography, linguistics, art history, geography, geology, paleontology, biology, and other disciplines. The focus is not only on the material evidence from across the continent and its interpretation but also on an understanding of the major questions, developing methods of inquiry and problem solving, and situating the African data in the broader context of the archaeological evidence for the evolution of human behavioral diversity. The scope of the course spans hominid origins, the study of Stone Age foragers of the first 2.5 million years of human prehistory, and more recent periods characterized by food production, metallurgy, sedentism, and the development of complex societies (e.g., in Egypt, Mali, Zimbabwe, and the East African coast) with influence and contacts across and outside the continent.

Fieldwork in Archaeology
V14.0830  Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Crabtree, White, Wright. Offered in the summer. 4 points.
Students live and work at the selected prehistoric or historic site, usually in eastern or midwestern North America. Students are instructed in field technique and laboratory procedures. Further background provided through staff and guest lectures.

BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Fossil Evidence for Human Evolution
V14.0050  Prerequisite: V14.0002 or permission of the instructor. Antón, Bailey, Harrison, Jolly. 4 points.
Analyzes fossil evidence for human evolution and the paleoanthropological inferences derived from such evidence. Emphasizes methods of phylogenetic reconstruction, taxonomy, functional anatomy, and paleoecology.

Human Variation
V14.0051  Prerequisite: V14.0002 or permission of the instructor. Antón, Bailey, Di Fiore, Disotell. 4 points.
Humans are the most wide-ranging of all of the species on earth. Our evolutionary history and our ability to adapt to such a broad range of environments is dependent on the results in the patterns of human variability we see today. New techniques have been developed that allow us to explore the different levels of human variation. This course focuses on new data and methodologies, including molecular genetic techniques, and the hypotheses and controversies generated by these new perspectives.

Evolution and Biology of Human Behavior
V14.0052  Prerequisite: V14.0002. Bailey, Di Fiore, Harrison, Jolly. 4 points.
Introductory survey presenting a synthetic approach to the biological, behavioral, and cultural origins of humans. Explores data and theories from paleoanthropology, archaeology, nonhuman primate behavioral studies, brain research, and sociobiology for their contributions to the study of human behavior.

Human Genetics
V14.0053  Prerequisite: V14.0002 or permission of the instructor. Di Fiore, Disotell, Jolly. 4 points.
In-depth analysis of the genetic component of human variability. Discusses mechanisms of inheritance, gene expression in individuals and populations, and alternative explanations for genetic variability. Explores the implications of modern advances in genetics, such as genetic engineering and gene therapy.

Primate Ecology
V14.0054  Prerequisite: V14.0002 or permission of the instructor. Di Fiore, Jolly. 4 points.
Why do some primates live in large social groups while others are solitary and yet others live in pairs or cooperatively breeding families? Why are strong social hierarchies seen in some primate taxa but not others? How do multiple species of primates often manage to coexist in the same habitat? Why are social relationships in some primate species characterized by strong bonds among females, while such bonds are absent in other primate societies? Why do some species of primates show marked geographic variability in behavior and social structure? The answers to these and other questions lie in understanding the relationships between each species and its ecological and social setting and in understanding each species’ phylogenetic history. This course explores the diversity of primate social systems and the evolutionary relationships among primates. It discusses general ecological laws that have been proposed by evolutionary biologists as the keys to understanding important features of primate behavior and ecology.

Health and Disease in Human Evolution
V14.0055  Prerequisite: V14.0002 or permission of the instructor. Antón, Disotell. 4 points.
Examines human health and disease within an ecological framework, exploring the interactions of environmental, genetic, physiological, and cultural factors in the expression and distribution of human diseases. Develops pathology profiles for nonhuman primates, prehistoric human populations, and hunting and gathering, agricultural, and industrial groups, with emphasis on the expression of infectious disease in human history and newly emerging (and reemerging) diseases.

Biology of the Living Primates
V14.0056  Prerequisite: V14.0002 or permission of the instructor. Di Fiore, Harrison. 4 points.
The study of the comparative anatomy of the primates, our closest living relatives, is fundamental to a sound understanding of primate and human evolution. This course surveys the functional anatomy of the living primates, including variation in external features, locomotor anatomy, dental and dietary specializations, sensory and nervous systems, and reproductive anatomy. The classification of living primates is reviewed, and the functional complexes most important for understanding the relationship of humans to other primates are discussed.

Primate Communication
V14.0059  Prerequisite: V14.0002 or permission of the instructor. Di Fiore. 4 points.
Examines how primates communicate and why their communication takes the forms it does. Discusses general issues associated with the study of animal communication: potential functions of communication, different modalities by which communicative signals can be transmitted, types of information that can be conveyed via each of these modalities, and ways in which researchers go about studying animal communication systems. Examines ways environmental and sociological factors influence the evolution of forms of communication.

Emerging Diseases
V14.0080  No prerequisites. To be given every two or three semesters. 4 points.
Integrates evolutionary biology, genetics, immunology, ecology and behavioral ecology, along with socio-cultural anthropology, politics, and economics in order to better understand newly emerging and re-emerging diseases as they affect human health. General evolutionary theory and an introduction to Darwinian medicine are provided before the course examines viral, bacterial, parasitic, and prion-based diseases along with their hosts, vectors, and other organisms. Particular attention is paid to how humans have purposely and inadvertently created both biological and cultural environments for the transmission of different diseases. Media representations and misrepresentations are examined throughout the course.

Human Ecology
V14.0090  Prerequisite: V14.0002 or permission of the instructor. Crabtree, Di Fiore. 4 points.
Assesses the degree to which variations in human biology and culture can be understood as adaptations to varying external conditions. Examines the relationship of human systems of action and the natural world in order to understand the various forms of human adaptation. Case studies of several living peoples, contemporary and past biological communities, and prehistoric cultures provide the material for interpretation and evaluation of theoretical positions.

Evolution of Language
V14.0240  Prerequisite: V14.0002 or permission of the instructor. 4 points.
Explores the various hypotheses offered for the evolution of language. Perspectives from different disciplines are discussed. Topics include human evolution and the study of fossil humans, animal and primate behavior and communication, anatomy of the vocal tract, neuroanatomy, language acquisition, language universals, the origins and diversification of modern languages, and the origins of writing.

Introduction to Forensic Anthropology
V14.0326  Prerequisite: V14.0002 or permission of the instructor. Antón. 4 points.
Biological anthropology examines the evolutionary history and adaptability of humans and our ancestors. Forensic anthropology is an applied subfield of biological anthropology that provides expert analysis of the skeleton in a medicolegal setting by utilizing methods developed in skeletal biology, archaeology, and the forensic sciences. Forensic anthropologists play critical roles in identifying victims of mass fatalities (such as the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings), in investigating homicides (such as identifying the Russian tsar’s family), and in distinguishing cause of death. This course examines how forensic anthropologists approach modern and historic crimes in the laboratory and the field. Students are introduced to the underlying theory and the applied techniques that forensic anthropologists use to recover and identify individuals and assess cause of death.

Current Issues in Biological Anthropology
V14.0511,0512  Only open to majors in anthropology who have the permission of the director of undergraduate studies or the instructor. Antón, Bailey, Di Fiore, Disotell, Harrison, Jolly. 4 points per term.
This seminar explores, theoretically and methodologically, selected key current issues and problems in biological anthropology. See the department’s internal catalog.

GRADUATE COURSES OPEN TO UNDERGRADUATES

Qualified anthropology majors may take graduate courses with the permission of the director of undergraduate studies in consultation with the instructor. Consult the current Graduate School of Arts and Science Bulletin.