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 Undergraduate Courses Fall 2008/09General Anthropology | Bioanthropology | Ethnography and Ethnology | Linguistics | Archaeology | COLL Topics Courses Click here to see a complete listing of Undergraduate Courses in a Microsoft Word document.General Anthropology
This course will introduce you to the study of human evolution - paleoanthropology--a branch of anthropology which seeks to understand human uniqueness by studying the human past using scientific methods. The story of our past can be found in clues from a wide range of sources -- everything from details of DNA to evocative murals in Ice Age caves. This is why the scientific quest for human origins requires the curiosity of a philosopher coupled with the skills of a skeptical detective.
Meets 2nd 8 weeks onlyThis course is the same as the above class regarding course content; however, grading procedures, assignments and text may differ. This section meets twice a week and requires no additional discussion sections.
This course introduces students to the full scope of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Anthropology studies humans with a very special lens: one that includes a humanistic perspective, a social scientific perspective, and an evolutionary perspective. Such an approach uses distinct theories and methods from these areas to examine the complexity represented by our species. In the course we learn how anthropologists observe humans, study how humans communicate in verbal and non-verbal ways, how they make a living and make decisions (economic, political, religious, environmental), and how they assign meaning to every bit of their world. Students in the course will gain an appreciation of human cultural, social and biological diversity; learn in depth a few cultures, and in great breadth about many more. By gaining an appreciation of cultural, social and biological differences students will gain an appreciation for the value of these differences evolutionarily, their reasons for coming into being locally, and how to interpret the complex ways we express "being human."
E105 Cultures and Societies Above class meets 2nd eight weeks only This course is an introduction to the ethnographic and comparative study of contemporary and historical human society and culture. This section meets twice a week and requires no additional discussion sections.
A208 Topics: Anth Arts & Expressive Behavior Course Content: TBA A399 Honors Tutorial The Honors Tutorial (3 cr.) involves research and writing, culminating in an Honors Thesis. A400 Culture in Corporations: Corporations in Culture Introduction A403 Introduction to Museum Studies This course provides a general overview of the museum profession, with particular emphasis on museums in American society. The first half of the course explores the history and philosophy of museums; the second half examines museum functions. A406 Fieldwork in Anthropology Fieldwork designed and carried out by the student in consultation with faculty members. A408 Museum Practicum The Museum Practicum (1-4 cr.) provides students with the opportunity to gain hands-on work experience in museums while earning academic credit through Indiana University's Department of Anthropology. Practica require prior agreement and must be arranged with museum personnel and the course instructor, Professor Geoffrey Conrad, director of the William Hammond Mathers Museum (conrad@indiana.edu or phone 812-855-6873). Practica may be arranged at any museum. If you wish to arrange a practicum at a museum other than the Mathers Museum, you must obtain written permission from a designated supervisor at that institution. General guidelines require that you and your supervisor agree upon the number of credit hours to be awarded, the number of hours to be worked per week, and the specific work schedule. Your designated supervisor will be responsible for assessing your performance and assigning a grade. Please bring a copy of the supervisor's statement of permission to Professor Conrad when you request authorization to enroll. Students interested in arranging practica at the Mathers Museum should visit http://www.indiana.edu/~mathers/edu/A408.pdf for detailed information regarding a specific practicum. Practica may involve collections research, conservation, education/programs, the museum store, exhibits, and photography. To apply for a practicum at the Mathers Museum, please review the information on the website, then contact the appropriate departmental supervisor (noted at the top of each listing) to request an application and arrange an interview. Acceptance of students is limited. The required number of practicum hours worked per week at the Mathers Museum varies according to the number of credit hours of A408 the student is enrolled in, and the semester of enrollment. A495 Individual Readings in Anthropology These courses provide opportunities for students to work on independent projects, create their own courses, and combine fieldwork, lab work, or other kinds of research in creative ways, under faculty supervision. Bioanthropology
B200 is an introductory course in bioanthropology. It is required for the undergraduate major in anthropology, and it is a prerequisite for many advanced courses in bioanthropology. B200 carries NMNS credit toward the COAS distribution requirements. You will NOT be able to count this course toward the S & H requirement. We recommend B301, a three credit lab course that also carries NMNS credit, concurrent with or following B200 for anyone who plans a career in anthropology, and for significant hands-on experience in bioanthropology. In B200 we will survey the field of bioanthropology, emphasizing the ways in which ideas about human evolution are tested using evidence from the fossil record, from living non-human primates, and from contemporary human groups.
This course is the same as the class above regarding course content; however, grading procedures assignments and text may differ.
This course is the same as the class above regarding course content; however, grading procedures assignments and text may differ.
This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the basic research techniques used by biological anthropologists through hands-on experience and an introduction to the literature of the field. The course is divided into two main sections. The first focuses on human skeletal anatomy, and the second covers methodologies used in forensic anthropology, paleontology, primatology, human growth and development, and population genetics. This course counts for the NMNS distribution requirement.
This course will examine physiological variation within and between human populations in reference to ecological and evolutionary principles such as adaptation and evolution by natural selection. The course will provide introductions to life history theory and reproductive ecology, which will allow us to critically analyze the genetic and environmental sources of physiological variation in contemporary human populations. Although the foci of this course are based on evolutionary biology, readings are selected to reflect thegeneral interests of natural and social scientists alike.
In this course we will explore the evolutionary roots of human behavior, and more broadly, seek to understand human behavior from an evolutionary perspective. We will first review Darwin’s contributions to evolutionary theory, and link them to modern understandings of heredity. Then we will consider current theoretical models that are have been developed to explain the evolution of behavior across animals. These include kin selection, group selection, sexual selection, and life history theory. We will consider evolutionary models of behavior that elucidate a biological basis for behavior (which makes it subject to natural selection); those that argue from what is predicted by evolutionary theory; and those that make use of data from primate studies and the fossil record to argue for the adaptive significance of contemporary human behavior. Throughout the course we will make use of data derived from the fossil record, genetics, studies of non-human primates, cross-cultural comparisons, and surveys of contemporary human behavior. The scope of human behavior will be inclusive, and range from morality to bipedalism. We will also maintain an open critical stance toward evolutionary hypothesizing about human behavior.
This advanced-level seminar will explore the theoretical models and empirical evidence regarding the extent and causes of variation in human reproductive functioning. The principal focus is on the physiological and behavioral mechanisms that link variation in reproductive traits with variation in the physical, biological and social conditions that an individual must accommodate and exploit for survival and reproduction. Reproductive traits include age and size at puberty, at first live birth, and at peak reproductive maturity; mating strategies; number, size, quality, spacing and sex ratio of offspring; probability of conception; probability of pregnancy loss; offspring provisioning including lactation; and age at menopause. Although the focus is on women, we will also examine what is known of reproductive variation in men and draw upon the relevant literature on non-human primate.
This course will review the demography, epidemiology, and variability that physical anthropologists and other scientists have documented in New World peoples, both prehistoric and modern. Research on Indian and Inuit-Aleut peoples has shaped physical anthropology as a discipline in the Americas, and we will spend some time looking at this historical context. Probably the most interesting and consistent scientific issue throughout this history has been the isolation of the American continents from the Old World as a force in human adaptation and variation. We will examine theories of the peopling of the New World, the effects of diverse life ways on human biology, and the massive biological and social changes that followed European colonization.
This course is designed to fulfill a requirement within the bioanthropology graduate program pertaining to research methods. As such, it will cover basic methodologies associated with research investigations that relate genetics to bioanthropology. Principle areas include the theory and practice of Mendelian genetics, human/medical genetics, forensic genetics, molecular genetics, and human population genetics. The particular field within bioanthropology referred to as anthropological genetics will be stressed. This means that there will be an emphasis on microevolutionary processes that serve to explain current and recent past gene distributions and genetic structure of human populations. This course is organized into both seminar discussions of assigned readings and exercises, some of which will be carried out in class, in addition to wet laboratory work, to be carried out in the anthropology department's genetic anthropology teaching lab. There will be no textbook for this course. Rather, the readings will be excerpted from existing textbooks and will also include published research papers, all of which will be available in PDF format. In addition, there will be a laboratory manual with directions for and explanations of the wet laboratory procedures used in this course, as well as hints for the exercises. Each student will need a scientific calculator, a lab notebook, and a 3-ring binder. We will discuss what qualifies as a ‘lab notebook’ on the first day of class. One half of the course grade will be based on in-class and take-home exercises and lab analyses, one quarter on discussion participation, and one quarter on a take-home final project.
This course deals with the identification and description of disease in ancient populations. Analysis of human skeletal remains is stressed, but we will also discuss comparative pathology, paleodemography, mummified tissues, and analysis of visual and textual representations of disease. B200, B301, and permission are required for undergraduates registered in this course. Ethnography and Ethnology
Have you heard the phrase, “you are what you eat?” The consumption and production of food is common to all peoples. Yet the ways that our food is produced and consumed, and our choices of preferred food, are distinctive indicators of who we are and our relationships with the rest of the world. By focusing on food, this introductory course on sociocultural anthropology gains a window to the great diversity of world cultures as well as the similarities that unite all humanity. We will explore broad themes, including (1) the meanings and importance of food as part of culture, identity, and social relationships, (2) how changes in food production and consumption reflect transformations in society, technology, and political economy through time, (3) how food production systems and consumer choices impact the environment and biodiversity, (4) how people deal with potential threats to food quality, such as radioactive fallout from Chernobyl, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and Mad Cow Disease, and (5) how individual lives and cultures are impacted by unequal access to food and the means to produce it. As part of the class, we will learn about variations in typical foods and diets around the world. The class will participate in exercises that explore what food means to us, and consider the implications of food choices for ourselves, our society, and the planet.
Students learn the approaches and methods of ethnography by conducting their own hands-on field
research projects in and around the community. Students complete a series of ethnographic lab
assignments on participant observation, mapping and visual technologies, interviewing, and writing
up research findings.
This class approaches the study of women ethnographically and cross culturally. It emphasizes women’s experience, images of women, and major influences on those experiences and images. Women’s experience and images of women will be viewed through documents, ethnographies, and through women’s own voices (in writing, interviews, and film). Emphasis will be placed on the social and cultural contexts in which every woman lived or lives. Influences include the 16th c. and 17th c. witch hunts, the Suffrage movement in the U.S., and popular fairy tales (in print and film). We explore works on these topics from several perspectives. In addition we will examine some anthropological works on childbirth. We will also read some ethnographic studies that feature women in specific societies in Africa. We will utilize the work of the African-American scholar/writer, Zora Neale Hurston, both her autobiographical statements and some of her short fiction. We will read some poetry of Hebrew women and some of or about Scottish women.
Indians of Indiana provides an introduction to the histories, languages, and cultures of the Native American Nations of Indiana, focusing in particular on the Miami, the Potawatomi, and the Shawnee. The course takes an ethnohistorical approach, seeking to understand the past and present of these communities in their own terms by combining information derived from Native American sources and anthropological research with the results of work with documentary material. Work for the course will include four response papers and midterm and final exams.
Ecological Anthropology (also referred to as Cultural Ecology and Environmental Anthropology) explores the interactions between human populations and the environmental systems within which they exist. It is strongly interdisciplinary, with linkages across the social and natural sciences. The course covers the development of theories of human-environment interrelationships from the mid-1900s through the present. It considers the range of human adaptations to different environmental conditions, including the arctic and high altitudes. The readings discuss the recent theoretical approaches including political ecology, and present contemporary research on major environmental issues, such as tropical deforestation, desertification, and global environmental change. Class discussions will address a range of questions: In what ways does the environment constrain or shape human adaptation? Are there patterns of human-driven environmental change through time and space? Under what circumstances may humans manage natural resources sustainably? We will also explore environmental issues of importance to Indiana University.
What is the situation of the Jews worldwide in the beginning of the 21st century? A population of about 13 million scattered in the five continents, concentrated in the dozen largest cities of the world, and 60 years after they have suffered genocide, Jews today are experiencing major political, demographic, cultural, and religious challenges. Students will reflect on these important issues by examining the diverse forms of Jewish cultural expression, community membership, and the multiple experiences of Judaism as a religion. Discussions will investigate the diversity of Jewish cultures, the ritual practices of contemporary Jews, their family structures, their collective memory, and how they have reacted to dramatic demographic changes and to secularization. Students will also carry out a fieldwork project that should give them an opportunity to have a personal experience of Jewish ethnography.
In the first decade of the 20th century, Maurice Halbwachs, a disciple of Durkheim, put forward the concept of "collective memory", a direct product of the sociological reflection on "collective consciousness". In the following decades, remembrance was to be analyzed as a learned process, and as a cultural phenomenon expressed within the individual's membership in a given social group. This course will be devoted to the review of the theoretical and ethnographic literature on collective memory, as it unfolds in diverse social and cultural contexts such as written narrative, visual and audio-visual art, architecture and monuments, in private and public ritual and religion, in genealogy, national identity, and in the social experience of the body.
A general anthropological introduction to the societies and cultures of the contemporary Muslim successor states of former Soviet Central Asia and the adjacent areas of Iran and Afghanistan --i.e., western
and southern Turkistan. Topics include ecology, ethnohistory and the structure of traditional subsistence strategies (nomadic pastoralism, sedentary farming, and urban mercantilism); social institutions
(marriage, family, kinship, gender relations, identities and organization; religious beliefs and practices); and the assessment of socio-economic change and recent political transformations experienced
by the peoples of this region under the colonial rules of tsarist and Soviet Russia, and the modern nation states of Iran and Afghanistan. The consequences of war on terrorism, volatile sociopolitical
conditions and future prospects for the peoples of this region will be also critically examined. No special knowledge of the region on the part of students is presumed. However, a background in general
anthropology would be helpful, but not essential. The course will consist of lectures, reading assignments, film and slide presentations and class discussions.
Students in this service-learning course will be introduced to basic tools of cultural documentation utilized
by applied folklorists, anthropologists and others. They will explore, document, and seek to understand the cultural expressions of residents of Crestmont on Bloomington’s west side, with the goal of helping to
define social action projects that improve the quality of life across the lifespan of residents.
LinguisticsUnder Construction ArchaeologyUnder Construction COLL Topics Courses taught by Anthropology FacultyUnder Construction Other Courses Taught by Anthorpology Faculty: Under Construction |
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