The purpose of the course Culture Contact is to consider theoretical
perspectives and methodological approaches used in the study of Native
American, European, African, and Asian encounters in North America
beginning in the sixteenth century and continuing into the present.
The course will consider how indigenous peoples responded to European
contact and colonialism, and how the outcomes of these encounters
influenced cultural developments in postcolonial contexts.  In this
seminar, students will discuss long-term perspectives on culture
change and cultural pluralism using multiple data sets from
archaeology, anthropology, ethnohistory, linguistics, and biological
anthropology.  Issues and topics to be addressed include disease;
environmental impact; trade; world systems; ethnogenesis and
ethnicity; social control, resistance, and power; gender; and labor
relations.

This course is being offered as a capstone course in the Department of
Anthropology, and as such is limited to senior Anthropology majors.
As a capstone in Anthropology, this course will explicitly draw from
all four subfields of the discipline (Sociocultural, Linguistics,
Archaeology, and Biological Anthropology) and will highlight the
holistic nature of Anthropology.  Students will be asked to consider
academic papers, current research, and contemporary issues in order to
examine the goals of Anthropology and to apply the concepts they have
learned from their previous classes in innovative ways.

Prerequisites: Senior majors in Anthropology or permission of the
instructor.