Courses
The following undergraduate courses are offered by the department. Click on the link for additional information, including prerequisites and/or fees (if any), from the university catalog.
Geog 101: Introduction to Geography
An examination of geographic factors that influence cultural and economic diversity.
Anth 101: Introduction to Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of all things human, from our biological beginnings to the modern world. This course offers a four-field introduction to anthropology,covering cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, archaeology,and anthropological linguistics.
Anth 103: Topics in Anthropology
Selected topics in anthropology. Content varies. (May be repeated for credit).
Anth 302: Anthropological Films
This course examines the use of films in anthropology.
Anth 303: Cultural Anthropology
In this course, students will examine the fundamental principles, concepts, and methods used in cultural anthropology and ethnographic work.
Anth 304: Biological Anthropology
This course explores the ways in which bioarchaeology, primatology, and the study of ancient fossils help anthropologists understand human origins and the nature of biological variation in modern populations.
Anth 305: Archaeology
Archaeology is the subfield of anthropology that studies people through the recovery and analysis of their material and physical remains. This course outlines the history of archaeology, its methods, and contributions to understanding humankind.
Anth 306: Archaeology of the Ancient Celts
This course introduces students to the archaeological and anthropological study of ancient Celtic populations living in Central and Western Europe from 1000 B.C. to A.D. 500 and examines their cultural impact on the western world.
Anth 308: Archaeology of Death and Burial
Using both ethnographic and archaelogical sources, this course focuses on the way in which archaelogical data from mortuary practices can be used to answer questions about ancient social organizations.
Anth 309: Indians of Mississippi and the South
Review of the archaeological and ethnographical prehistory of such groups as the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez.
Anth 310: Peoples of the Pacific
In this course, students will engage in a comparative study of the island cultures of Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Australia at the time of European contact.
Anth 311: Topics in Anthropology
Selected topics in anthropology. The content will vary. May be repeated for credit.
Anth 312: Muslims in the West
This course explores the diversity of Muslims and Islam in Europe and the United States from the holistic and comparative perspective of cultural anthropology. Students will integrate the religious, socio-economic, political, as well as the cultural and daily aspects of life to understand different ways of being Muslim in multicultural Western societies.
Anth 313: Introduction to Linguistic Science
The study of human language. Cross-listed as Ling 313.
Anth 314: Islam and Global Politics
This course is an anthropological exploration oh how Muslims and Muslim societies respond to democracy, civil society, and globalization.
Anth 315: The African Diaspora
This course is an introduction to several of the most important methods to the study of African Diaspora experiences, including cultural, archaeological, biological, and linguistic approaches. Topics include slavery and colonialism, black revolt in the modern world, black nationalism, religious and ritual forms, foodways, music, genetics and genealogies, speech genres, and material culture. Cross-listed as AAS 316.
Anth 316: Rise and Fall of the Mississippian World
This course reconstructs the rise and fall of the pre-Columbian Mississippian world of the Southeastern Indians (900 CE-1700 CE) through an examination of the variety of polities that existed, the structures of daily life, the political and ideological system, the connections that tied the various polities into a single, interactive world, and the fall of this world with European contact.
Anth 317: Indians on the Southern Frontier
Examines the place of Native Americans in the South during the frontier era (A.D. 1500-1840), focusing on the changes in Native American life once they became incorporated into the larger world as a result of European colonization.
Anth 318: Archaeology of Mississippi and the South
This course will introduce students to the archaeological study of prehistoric and historic Native American societies in Mississippi and the Southeastern United States. It includes an overview of archaeological research in the region and focuses on theoretical issues, archaeological sites, and data from the major cultural periods.
Anth 319: Environmental History of the South
Explores the changes in the Southern environment from the prehistoric era to the modern era, focusing on issues of human/environment interaction, changing patterns of land use, and the subsequent changes in the environment.
Anth 320: Archaeozoology: Animal Use in History
This course uses analysis of animal bones from archaeological sites to explore how people used animals for food, in religion, and as work animals and companions in the past. An equal emphasis is placed on laboratory methods and anthropological theory.
Anth 323: Indians of North America
Representative cultures and culture areas of North America; their relationships and differences.
Anth 324: North American Archaeology
This course will provide students with an overview of prehistoric cultures of North America as understood through anthropological archaeology.
Anth 325: Indians of Middle America
This course will survey historic and modern Native American groups from Mexico to Panama, focusing on archaeological and historic studies of populations in the region.
Anth 326: Archaeology of Maya Civilization
The origins and prehistory of Maya society; classic Maya civilization, its art, writing, and social organization.
Anth 327: Indians of South America
Representative cultures and culture areas of South America; their relationships and differences; the Inca and other ancient civilizations of the Andes.
Anth 328: Culture & Society in Latin America
The pursuit of neoliberal policies in Latin America has resulted in major restructurings of the state, civil society, the market economy, human rights initiatives, and public welfare programs. This course tracks the struggle for dignity and recognition by indigenous peoples, rural peasantries, and urban lower classes.
Anth 330: Environmental Anthropology
The course introduces students to the relationship between humans and the natural world. Students will look at the range of human production strategies such as hunting and gathering or engagement in capitalist economics and how these strategies function in the face of contemporary environmental and economic challenges. The course also pays special attention to some of the varied meanings of the natural world.
Anth 331: American Indians and the Natural World
This course examines the relationship between American Indians and the natural world, including how this relationship changed over time as Native peoples responded to environmental changes and other historical forces.
Anth 332: Early Medieval Art and Archaeology
Art and architecture of the fourth through early 12th centuries in Eastern and Western Europe. Art of so-called barbarian groups from Hungary to England and Scandinavia, and Christian art of the Carolingian and Ottoman Empires. Cross-listed as AH 334.
Anth 333: The Mississippian Shatterzone
This course examines the consequences of European contact on the indigenous societies of the American South ca. 1540 to 1730.
Anth 334: Introduction to Field Work Techniques
Examination of the theory, practice, and tradition of documentary field research, including the use of photography, film and video, and tape recorders. Special emphasis on documentary study of the American South. Cross listed as AAS 334, SSt 334, Soc 334.
Anth 335: Archaeological Field Session
Intensive training in archaeological survey and excavation techniques and analysis of archaeological materials.
Anth 336: Viking Art and Archaeology
Art and archaeology of Vikings in Scandinavia and in distant lands from Russia to England and Iceland. Covers pre-Viking styles of the fifth century through late 11th century. Cross-listed as AH 336.
Anth 337: Anthropology of Blues Culture
This course examines the blues in all its myriad social and cultural roles and contexts, using the anthropological models and approaches of the oral and musical arts, linguistics, ethnohistory, ethnography, religion and ritual analysis among others. Cross-listed as AAS 337.
Anth 338: Food, Place, and Power
This course is intended to inform students about the relationship among food, place, and power. We will explore how people, places, governments, and economies are connected through food systems, and how those connections are made possible. In addition to considering the modern (industrial) food system, we’ll consider alternatives to it and how those alternatives are also made to account for social, political, and ecological concerns.
Anth 341: Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries
Did Atlantis exist? Did ancient astronauts visit the Earth and introduce advanced technology? Topics such as these are investigated, comparing explanations offered by the pseudoscientific approach to those advanced by the scientific methods employed by archaeologists.
Anth 342: Osteology Directed Study
This course gives students the opportunity to learn lab techniques and work with real archaeological collections. Students will develop the skills needed to identify and curate archaeological assemblages of faunal and human skeletal material. Students will have the opportunity to develop independent projects. May be repeated once for credit.
Anth 349: Medical Anthropology
How health and healing practices are understood in diverse sociocultural contexts, and how they relate to global processes and power structures. The self, body, illness, healing, and biomedicine.
Anth 353: Language and Culture
Interrelations between language, thought, and culture; role of language in cognition; practical studies. Cross-listed as Ling 353.
Anth 360: Political Ecology
This course examines the cultural politics of nature through a critical engagement with the most pressing environmental issues of the 21st century, such as environmental security and territorial conflict, energy production and toxicity, land management and protected-area conservation, climate change and the green economy.
Anth 365: Economic Anthropology
This course seeks a critical engagement with the cultural dynamics of late capitalism. Studying economic production from a comparative perspective, this course centrally examines the topics of gifts, debt, credit, money, and value.
Anth 370: Archaeology of Political Systems
This course is designed to examine the archaeology of ancient political systems. The theoretical concepts and perspectives of sociopolitical complexity and some archaeological examples will be discussed.
Anth 390: Bioarchaeology Abroad
Students learn bioarchaeological methodology and practice application in a field setting. Instruction focuses on excavation and forensic analysis of human remains from archaeological contexts.
Anth 391: Archaeological Field Session Abroad
Students learn archaeological methodology and practice application in a field setting. Instruction focuses on excavation techniques, mapping, data recording, and laboratory analysis of artifacts.
Anth 392: Field Study: Culture of the Andes
Interdisciplinary study of the Andes, emphasizing the continuing encounter between European and indigenous civilizations. Topics include theories of social change and identity formation, religious and cultural syncretism, indigenous political and social movements, and the region’s socioeconomic development. Taught in Bolivia.
Anth 393: Ethnographic Field Methods Abroad
Introduction to qualitative research methods appropriate for cross-cultural field studies. Students learn ethnographic and sociocultural research techniques at an approved field site, conducting original research that culminates in a capstone project.
Anth 394: Mesoamerican Art
Interdisciplinary approach to the history of the arts of Mesoamerica, from 1500 B.C.E. to the Spanish conquest, covering Olmec, Maya, Mixtec, and Aztec civilizations. Cross-listed as AH 394.
Anth 398: Topics in Anthropology
Selected topics in anthropology. The content will vary. May be repeated once for credit.
Anth 403: Empire and Revolution
This course is an investigation of colonial and post-colonial eras and revolutionary action through attention to sociocultural theories of revolution, as well as ethnographies, histories, and case studies. Cross-listed as Soc 403.
Anth 404: Southern Folklore
History and contemporary role of folk culture in the South as shown in ballads, folk tales, religion, and folk arts and crafts.
Anth 405: Human Osteology
This laboratory-based seminar is an introduction to human skeletal anatomy. It combines forensic and archaeological methods to teach students how to identify and analyze human bone from archaeological sites.
Anth 406: Methods in Ethnohistory
Examines the cross-disciplinary concepts and methods to reconstruct the past of people who left no written record.
Anth 407: Methods in Ethnography
Qualitative research methods appropriate for field studies. Students learn ethnographic and sociocultural research techniques, including participant observation and depth interviewing. Cross-listed as Soc 407.
Anth 408: Laboratory Methods in Archaeology
An overview of the analytical techniques of archaeology, emphasizing their development, application, and literature.
Anth 409: Anthropological Theory
This course will provide a historical overview of the major theoretical trends in anthropology.
Anth 411: Anthropology of Politics & Power
This seminar in political anthropology examines how power operates in state and nonstate societies, with a focus on contemporary issues such as citizenship, sovereignty, urban segregation, and national security.
Anth 412: Ceramic Analysis
This course is designed to teach methods and techniques for the analysis of ceramic materials from prehistoric sites by combining theory and analytical procedures with hands-on experience in the laboratory. Both traditional typological concerns as well as more modern analytic methods will be used to ultimately identify issues of production, exchange, function, design, social interaction, and technological and stylistic evolution. Students will also examine quantitative methods for the manipulation and interpretation of ceramic data.
Anth 413: Public Archaeology: Theory and Method
This course provides theoretical and practical experience in public archaeology in the United States. Topics covered include the history and implementation of legislation affecting cultural resources, and a variety of field and lab methods used by current practitioners.
Anth 415: Historical Archaeology
The course will demonstrate how researchers work with not only archaeological data but also historical documents, oral histories, and ethnographies in order to interpret the recent past. Students will get a comprehensive survey of methods, theories, and discoveries in historical archaeology.
Anth 507: The Archaeology of Landscape
This course is an exploration of the economic, social, political, and ideological dimensions of natural and cultural landscapes. Students will read and discuss approaches from critical geography, social theory, anthropology, archaeology, and related disciplines.
Anth 509: Language Evolution
Exploration of the development of human language as the result of evolutionary and other processes.
Anth 511: Cross-Cultural Studies in Ethnography I
Comparative study of the cultural areas of the world, emphasizing the effects of ecology in the differential development of culture.
Anth 512: Cross-Cultural Studies in Ethnography II
Comparative study of the cultural areas of the world, emphasizing the effects of ecology in the differential development of culture.
Anth 541: Individual Study Project
Course may be repeated for credit with permission of department chair.
Anth 542: Osteology Directed Study
This course gives students the opportunity to learn lab techniques and work with real archaeological collections. Students will develop the skills needed to identify and curate archaeological assemblages of faunal and human skeletal material. Students will have the opportunity to develop independent projects. May be repeated once for credit.
Anth 572: Quantitative Anthropology
An examination of the theory and techniques of quantitative analysis in anthropology with particular emphasis on practical application.
Anth 595: Seminar in Linguistics
Cross-listed as Ling 595.
