This course explores how anthropologists study and compare human culture. Cultural anthropologists seek to understand the broad arc of human experience focusing on a set of central issues: how people around the world make their living (subsistence patterns); how they organize themselves socially, politically and economically; how they communicate; how they relate to each other through family and kinship ties; what they believe about the world (belief systems); how they express themselves creatively (expressive culture); how they make distinctions among themselves such as through applying gender, racial and ethnic identity labels; how they have shaped and been shaped by social inequalities such as colonialism; and how they navigate culture change and processes of globalization that affect us all. Ethnographic case studies highlight these similarities and differences, and introduce students to how anthropologists do their work, employ professional anthropological research ethics and apply their perspectives and skills to understand humans around the globe. (C-ID ANTH120)

Want to learn about your origins, primates, and forensic anthropology in one class? Students will encounter the concepts, methods of inquiry, and scientific explanations of the evolution of humans and non-human primates. Course topics include: genetics, evolutionary theory, human variation and adaptation, comparative anatomy and behavior of non-human primates, as well as fossil ancestry. The philosophy of science and the scientific method are the foundations of this course.

Can you dig it? Students will explore the study of concepts, theories, and scientific method in archaeology, as well as a review of data and models that contribute to our knowledge of the human past. The course includes the history and interdisciplinary nature of archaeological research; dating techniques and methods of survey, excavation, and analysis; cultural resource management; and selected cultural sequences.

This course explores the cross-cultural context of religion and the relationships of individuals and societies to the supernatural. We examine religious practices around the world and throughout history using concepts from the discipline of anthropology.