What does it mean to be human?

Anthropologists answer this question by studying a wide variety of topics like primate behavior, evolution, archeological remains, kinship, race, language, exchange, globalization, political systems, and religion, among many others! One guiding principle of anthropology is that humans live as part of cultures, distinct systems or worldviews that organize meaning and experience in the world.

• How have human cultures developed over time?
• What major global phenomena have radically altered our experience over time?
• How do cultures interact and change?

Anthropologists study the far reaching roots of social inequality to learn from the diversity of the human experience today.

This introductory course surveys the field's four subdisciplines (biological, archaeological, cultural, and linguistic anthropology). The principal aim of the course is to help students develop a coherent view of the essential concepts, structures, and intellectual methods that typify the discipline. It stresses unifying principles that link the subdisciplines and thereby create anthropology's comprehensive, holistic world view. It teaches students various ways of learning and thinking about the world's many designs for living in time and space. It prepares them to integrate and interpret information, to evaluate conflicting claims about human nature and diversity, and to think critically.

If you've thought about taking anthropology before, this is a great time to do it! ANTHRCUL 101 will be taught this spring academic term by an instructor who's won awards at the department, college, and university levels for excellence in teaching this very course!

Musical anthropologists are concerned with questions such as:

• why doesn't everyone have the same musical likes and dislikes?
• What are the different ways of participating in musical events?
• What are the possible answers to the questions "what is music" and "why make music"?
• How do musical events shape and reflect social structures and the environment?
• How do musical events and the bodies, minds, and practices of their participants shape each other?

Anthropologists have found, through such questions, that the comparative study of musical and cultural difference challenges dominant assumptions about both music and those who make it. Participants in this course will learn how to approach these issues through three means:

1. by reading and discussing scholarly works drawing on diverse musics; by
2. listening to and discussing recordings of diverse musics; and
3. teaching each other to make music together.

How do people communicate with God and other supernatural beings? Religious beliefs entail believing in the efficacy of certain ways of speaking to divine and supernatural beings and receiving responses. Throughout the world, religions vary in the ways they suggest that these kinds of communication are possible. Communication with supernatural beings may be mediated through earthly religious authorities or through material objects, such as religious texts, divination objects, or food. How does religious language differ from ordinary language? This course draws from Islam, Christianity, and Judaism to explore various genre of religious language, such as prayer, sermon, scripture, and religious song. We will discuss these genres in a range of geographical locations, recognizing variability within each major religious tradition related to local history and culture. Students will gain familiarity with how to analyze anthropological cases studies and draw comparisons between cases from different contexts. There will be opportunities to apply this knowledge through individual research projects on a chosen genre of religious language. By exploring various perspectives on religious language, we will see how people's beliefs about language and communication intersect with their religious beliefs and practices. Your prior ways of thinking about language may be challenged and expanded by cross-cultural data and anthropological analyses. This may influence how you think about language in subsequent courses or in relation to your own experiences.

Independent reading and research under the direction of a faculty member. Ordinarily available only to students with background in anthropology.

Advisory Prerequisite: PER. INSTR.

The course provides students with the opportunity to design and to conduct fieldwork or laboratory analysis of original anthropological data. A faculty member may undertake it as a special aspect of a research project under investigation or the student under the supervision of a faculty member may initiate it.

Advisory Prerequisite: ANTHRO,Graduate standing and permission of instructor.

This course requires a substantial research paper or an extensive exploration and critical evaluation of relevant sources on a particular topic.

Advisory Prerequisite: ANTHRO,Graduate standing and permission of instructor.

This course requires an annotated bibliography. A written statement detailing a program of readings and objectives is to be submitted to the instructor.

Advisory Prerequisite: ANTHRO,Graduate standing and permission of instructor.

Election for dissertation work by doctoral student not yet admitted as a Candidate.

Advisory Prerequisite: ANTHRO,Advanced Doctoral student. Election for dissertation work by doctoral student not yet admitted as a Candidate.

Graduate School authorization for admission as a doctoral Candidate. N.B. The defense of the dissertation (the final oral examination) must be held under a full term Candidacy enrollment period.

Enforced Prerequisites: Graduate School authorization for admission as a doctoral Candidate